Lived and lucked into ERE

[midnightembers]

Hello Forum. I had the good fortune to stumble on a few members here initially through Jacob’s Stoa talks which led to some online connections. I subsequently read Early Retirement Extreme despite the fact that I'm a little late to the E of the R. Here’s my frame: A Gen Xer from a midwestern U.S. Catholic family that was reformulated after the early death of my mother and a quick remarry that added kids (a total of 6 at the end). I worked from a young age and still do, always saving into an IRA outside of two periods of temporary ‘retirement’ while raising my own two children (both now well-launched young adults). The first was while living abroad and the other after quitting a job and unsuccessfully trying to change careers. Years later I still haven’t figured out what next. But I did manage a recent geographic move, leaving the city and settling in the country. To round out this framing, I’m doing office work remotely (non-profits all these years) while trying to build skills and resilience and hopefully IRL community on a hilly, forested, agriculturally zoned parcel in a college town in the northeastern U.S.

We have money from the sale of the city house and from being somewhat thrifty all these years (but certainly nothing too advanced on the WL scale). Outside of buying tools and equipment initially needed for capturing rainwater, growing food, and the like, I basically only spend money on taxes, utilities, groceries, clothes when worn out, and an occasional restaurant meal or movie.

ERE things on my mind:

- Are there other people here who lived and lucked their way into ERE rather than saved their way into it?
- Navigating WLs that are out of sync with significant other
- Procuring health insurance is a serious concern
- Shaping a fairly conservative investment strategy is a secondary concern

Pointers welcome, and I'll go scroll around related threads. Meantime the ERE2 mindset matches my own - I’ll probably be over there if I can keep up with the conversation. Thanks for reading.

[mathiverse]

Welcome. Do you earn little enough to qualify for ACA subsidies or Medicaid? Depending on your state, either can be cheap/free and/or good.

What do you do with your investments now? I have no advice there, but always curious to hear what others are doing.

Here is a great thread about bringing along your SO if you're interested: viewtopic.php?t=7894

[midnightembers]

Welcome. Do you earn little enough to qualify for ACA subsidies or Medicaid? Depending on your state, either can be cheap/free and/or good.

What do you do with your investments now? I have no advice there, but always curious to hear what others are doing.

I'll be filling out an ACA application any moment to see what I can learn about subsidies. I'm still working/getting paid through 9/1, and looking for another job mainly for the health benefits. Too young for Medicaid. As for investments, I'm taking the 5% that's available and considering setting up a 5-year ladder of U.S. treasuries. I'm not overly concerned about losses to inflation, but may choose a small basket of securities in companies I find unobjectionable (a sort of workaround to SRI funds, since what defines those is too broad for my taste.) I'm curious what others are doing as well. Thanks for asking.

[mathiverse]

Very nice! I'm thinking about setting up a Treasury latter, too. I haven't pulled the trigger yet.

Too young for Medicaid.

Medicaid refers to health insurance for low income people. Medicare is health insurance for the retirement aged popultion.

[midnightembers]

Oops, I assumed one thing and you had written the other. My hunch is that we have a little time yet to dither before setting up a ladder, but what do I know...

[DutchGirl]

I have some money invested in wind and in solar energy. That might be something to look into. Also look into energy saving and energy producing options for your own house, to have lower costs for utilities.

A few caveats could be:

1. you might be a little bit too late and buying into this now is more expensive than it was when I started because now way more people see its potential. On the other hand, it might still go far, particularly in the US where you live which is behind on Europe where I live.
2. there are cowboys, criminals and klutzes in this growing industry. Make sure to spread your investments and to do your best to check whether a company or organisation is trustworthy. A big German wind energy investment company went bankrupt a few years ago and lots of good, enthusiastic, guileless people lost money there.

[midnightembers]

To start I'll choose an amount that I'm comfortable losing completely. If I miss some upside that's OK. Probably just a few targeted companies or industries along the lines of your solar/wind suggestion. And yes, we're researching options to minimize utilities plus have a large garden going to reduce food expenses (and improve health and it's fun to boot).

[frugaldoc]

I am curious what areas in the Northeast you have looked at for your "hilly, forested, agriculturally zoned parcel in a college town"?

[midnightembers]

@frugaldoc I mostly know NYS, but imagine that this generalization may hold true: it feels like a lot of colleges in the NE are in *very* small towns, and in such cases the cultural opportunities/offerings from the town itself are slim, i.e. the 'Main Street' is a few blocks long and often a fairly sleepy. We were more interested in large town/small city where there was a bit more conviviality.