Hello there on the other side

[purple]

Hi all!

I am purple and I recently had an anti-consumerism epiphany.

I’ve been in the personal finance space for almost a decade now learning about handling money, cutting expenses, investing, etc, etc. I’ve jumped on the FIRE train and was saving as much as I could (about 60% savings rate which is yes, not that impressive by ERE standard but it was good for me). I subscribed to the traditional FIRE trajectory of saving and then retiring from work. The goal was to minimize amount of “forced effort” in life, or maybe just even effort. I wanted to chill.

However, this summer I had a revelation which I cannot un-see now. I am fed up with consuming. Yes, the irony is there.

Eating too much, drinking too much, gorging on “experiences”, chasing a high of travel does not bring me joy anymore. Hedonic adaptation to all these things and making them the norm just kills the significance. The life of constant entertainment and 0 friction seems dissatisfying.

This raised a question of… what is there besides consumption?

Well, there is creation.

And here is where I got my brain unstuck. Despite my work on the personal finance front, I remained a consumer in heart. One of my main motivations for cutting expenses was.. consumption. I just wanted to RE and continue consuming (books, movies, experiences, travel).

I suddenly realized how unsatisfactory this life will be for me. Sure, I enjoy reading a lot but endless life of entertainment seems empty to me.

This epiphany prompted a soul searching process that brought me here. I lurked here occasionally but the “acquiring skills” concept never really clicked with me. It seemed like more work (which I was trying to minimize).

The switch in my head just flipped. I think the path to satisfying and fulfilling life for me leads through creation. I want to explore that. I want to build my skills. I want to build. I want to see beyond consuming. I do not want to be entertained, I want to build my world.

I’ll probably be starting a journal soon to start exploring all of this in depth. But for now I’d like to thank the community and @Jacob for creating such an incredible resource.

[guitarplayer]

Welcome and good luck! Start small to get used to the friction

[DutchGirl]

Welcome, purple! I hope you enjoy it here! And let all things you'll try be experiments: you'll learn from them, even if the end result is "this isn't working" or "this is not for me."