Post # 028, 02/28/25
End of the month numbers for February:
-88% SR (as % of salary after taxes; helped by state and federal tax returns
-67% SR, calendar year to date
-Food expenses 10% of salary after taxes; up a bit from last month but still down from last year; was sick a bit and needed to buy more expensive food more often than last month
-NW/AE = 6.7
-Made plans to leave the paid monthly group. That plus lower food costs would boost NW/AE by 12% (to 7.5) but I don’t want to “book” those savings yet. I’ll wait and see how things go with expected tariffs.
-9 days to daylight savings! (one more hour of daylight in the evening!)
I’m looking forward to spring starting up soon!
Funky Freedom's Journal
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FunkyFreedom
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Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
Post # 029, 03/02/25
Reflecting a bit more on February, a little success for March, and looking ahead for March and beyond:
-I calculated 31% of my February calories were from my low cost beans and rice meal, and I hit 10% of post-tax income for food expenses which was up from 9% in January (which had a similar 33% or so calories from B&R). The reason that 31% wasn’t higher was I was sick for a bit and often didn’t have the energy to cook for myself. Also bought prepared meals a few times. For March, I’m thinking I can get closer to 50% of my calories from B&R and maybe get down to 8% or lower for food expenses. We’ll see if I can make any progress there, but at least it seems to have become a habit.
-Today I finally hit 100 push-ups in 50 one-minute increments (sets of 2) for HIIT! Keeping at it. So now I can start building on that and work on making it a routine. Might eventually do other exercises but starting out with the exercise I know how to do.
-I think I’ll also be working on increasing income from my hobby (music), as a way to both enjoy the warmer months and add to my savings.
-I had been paying the minimum for my student loan payment and instead contributed more into investments. The loans were from a while ago and should be variable rate (though most US federal student loans are fixed now). I was going to wait to see if the rate would come down but nothing yet. After I max out my Roth I could start paying down my student loans. That decision would be in a few months. I might make that switch and would be able to pay off the loans in two years or so using all my free money after maxxing out my Roth each year. Not sure what the right call will be but that decision is a little bit away.
-Student loan payments are about 3.5% of my after-tax income. I’ve been including those in my annual expenses and not including student loans debt in my NW. The effect of reducing annual expenses by the amount of the student loan payments while at the same time reducing my net worth essentially leads to the same NW/AE number. If I have a plan to have my student loans paid off soon then I’ll reduce my AE number. Then in a couple of years my SR would go up. I might end up deciding to prioritize paying off the loans because I’m gamifying increasing SR and lowering AE. Could I hit a 65% SR next year?
-Came across the “haybox” concept and that might become a back burner project for me (both building it and building the process and habit of cooking with it).
Reflecting a bit more on February, a little success for March, and looking ahead for March and beyond:
-I calculated 31% of my February calories were from my low cost beans and rice meal, and I hit 10% of post-tax income for food expenses which was up from 9% in January (which had a similar 33% or so calories from B&R). The reason that 31% wasn’t higher was I was sick for a bit and often didn’t have the energy to cook for myself. Also bought prepared meals a few times. For March, I’m thinking I can get closer to 50% of my calories from B&R and maybe get down to 8% or lower for food expenses. We’ll see if I can make any progress there, but at least it seems to have become a habit.
-Today I finally hit 100 push-ups in 50 one-minute increments (sets of 2) for HIIT! Keeping at it. So now I can start building on that and work on making it a routine. Might eventually do other exercises but starting out with the exercise I know how to do.
-I think I’ll also be working on increasing income from my hobby (music), as a way to both enjoy the warmer months and add to my savings.
-I had been paying the minimum for my student loan payment and instead contributed more into investments. The loans were from a while ago and should be variable rate (though most US federal student loans are fixed now). I was going to wait to see if the rate would come down but nothing yet. After I max out my Roth I could start paying down my student loans. That decision would be in a few months. I might make that switch and would be able to pay off the loans in two years or so using all my free money after maxxing out my Roth each year. Not sure what the right call will be but that decision is a little bit away.
-Student loan payments are about 3.5% of my after-tax income. I’ve been including those in my annual expenses and not including student loans debt in my NW. The effect of reducing annual expenses by the amount of the student loan payments while at the same time reducing my net worth essentially leads to the same NW/AE number. If I have a plan to have my student loans paid off soon then I’ll reduce my AE number. Then in a couple of years my SR would go up. I might end up deciding to prioritize paying off the loans because I’m gamifying increasing SR and lowering AE. Could I hit a 65% SR next year?
-Came across the “haybox” concept and that might become a back burner project for me (both building it and building the process and habit of cooking with it).
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FunkyFreedom
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Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
Post # 030, 3/15/25
“Beware the Ides of March” - Shakespeare.
My first post on this forum was just about three months ago. My # 1 priority has been “wintering well”, aka minimizing or eliminating seasonal affective disorder (S.A.D.), which has been especially bad in the month of March every year. I had been doing a bunch of things differently this year and as a result winter had been going much better. Long story short, winter is still going better, as is March in particular. But it now looks like I have asthma and maybe not S.A.D. It looks like walking while breathing cold air during the winter has been triggering asthma for me but in previous years I was just thinking it was S.A.D. Now I have an inhaler to help open up my airways and hopefully my lungs will get happy soon and stay happy, as the weather gets warmer. I’m reading “Asthma for Dummies” and plan to do everything I can to be as healthy as I can. It certainly helps to be dealing with the correct problem. Doing everything I could over the past year helped winter go much better, so when the asthma happened it seemed like a distinct problem, so it got acted upon and eventually correctly diagnosed by specialist. I just requested the book “How Not To Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease” which was mentioned on this forum when I searched for “asthma” (someone said they were able to reverse asthma via the recommendations in that book), so maybe there’s some useful ideas there.
Here’s how I’m processing this: (1) my health is my # 1 asset, (2) this was happening anyways so I’m looking at the diagnosis as helping orient me more accurately to what’s happening in reality, and (3) this is a new project and a new learning curve. I’m going to prioritize it appropriately and do everything I can to do the best I can. From the “For Dummies” book (which is pretty well written), it sounds like folks who work at it are able to effectively manage their asthma and be ok. So that’s what I’ll work towards.
I’m also registering that probably a big part of my motivations for, and the appeal of early retirement (or semi-retirement) was colored by work-life being a little bit “not fun” with untreated asthma. I’m guessing that with a correct diagnosis and treatment I can climb up the scale away from “a little bit not fun”, and that will help make my wealth accumulating years be more palatable.
I’m framing this winter as a success and looking forward to building upon the increased clarity to achieve a better quality of life, while continuing to work towards semi-FI.
Otherwise, I wanted to summarize the numbers I’m tracking, month by month:
Month SR NW/AE Food Expenses
Nov. 43%. 6.4. 11.6%
Dec. - 6.4. 10.6% (didn’t calculate monthly SR)
Jan. 48%. 6.5. 9%
Feb. 88%. 6.7. 10%
Mar. To date. 6.5. 7.5%
“Beware the Ides of March” - Shakespeare.
My first post on this forum was just about three months ago. My # 1 priority has been “wintering well”, aka minimizing or eliminating seasonal affective disorder (S.A.D.), which has been especially bad in the month of March every year. I had been doing a bunch of things differently this year and as a result winter had been going much better. Long story short, winter is still going better, as is March in particular. But it now looks like I have asthma and maybe not S.A.D. It looks like walking while breathing cold air during the winter has been triggering asthma for me but in previous years I was just thinking it was S.A.D. Now I have an inhaler to help open up my airways and hopefully my lungs will get happy soon and stay happy, as the weather gets warmer. I’m reading “Asthma for Dummies” and plan to do everything I can to be as healthy as I can. It certainly helps to be dealing with the correct problem. Doing everything I could over the past year helped winter go much better, so when the asthma happened it seemed like a distinct problem, so it got acted upon and eventually correctly diagnosed by specialist. I just requested the book “How Not To Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease” which was mentioned on this forum when I searched for “asthma” (someone said they were able to reverse asthma via the recommendations in that book), so maybe there’s some useful ideas there.
Here’s how I’m processing this: (1) my health is my # 1 asset, (2) this was happening anyways so I’m looking at the diagnosis as helping orient me more accurately to what’s happening in reality, and (3) this is a new project and a new learning curve. I’m going to prioritize it appropriately and do everything I can to do the best I can. From the “For Dummies” book (which is pretty well written), it sounds like folks who work at it are able to effectively manage their asthma and be ok. So that’s what I’ll work towards.
I’m also registering that probably a big part of my motivations for, and the appeal of early retirement (or semi-retirement) was colored by work-life being a little bit “not fun” with untreated asthma. I’m guessing that with a correct diagnosis and treatment I can climb up the scale away from “a little bit not fun”, and that will help make my wealth accumulating years be more palatable.
I’m framing this winter as a success and looking forward to building upon the increased clarity to achieve a better quality of life, while continuing to work towards semi-FI.
Otherwise, I wanted to summarize the numbers I’m tracking, month by month:
Month SR NW/AE Food Expenses
Nov. 43%. 6.4. 11.6%
Dec. - 6.4. 10.6% (didn’t calculate monthly SR)
Jan. 48%. 6.5. 9%
Feb. 88%. 6.7. 10%
Mar. To date. 6.5. 7.5%
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FunkyFreedom
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Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
Post # 031, 3/23/25
Continuing from my last post, I’m shifting focus to include more of an emphasis on how to improve my health, looking at it as a major asset, given my recent asthma diagnosis. I’ll be continuing to keep an eye on how the new medications translate into feeling better. It’s going well so far and I’ll want to treat this as maybe a year long learning curve. I expect life will tend to get better as I deal with the issue.
As far as what’s in my control beyond medications, I probably have an opportunity to make improvements via diet and exercise. It looks like the recommendations out there for diet are to move away from animal-derived foods (including dairy) and increase antioxidants from fruits and vegetables. So I’ll be working on figuring how to shift my diet. The only animal product I eat daily is yogurt, so I’ll definitely need to figure out how to replace the calcium, protein, and B12. I’ll continue to try to reduce food expenses, but there will be increased antioxidant requirements and additional constraints (reducing or eliminating yogurt, etc). I have a great dietician to work with on this.
For exercise, I’d like to continue working on developing a HIIT habit but educate myself about what that looks like within the context of asthma.
Projected food expenses for March are up to 10%. But a positive side effect of working on reducing food expenses, I think, is that I’m more disciplined with spending in other expense areas.
Continuing from my last post, I’m shifting focus to include more of an emphasis on how to improve my health, looking at it as a major asset, given my recent asthma diagnosis. I’ll be continuing to keep an eye on how the new medications translate into feeling better. It’s going well so far and I’ll want to treat this as maybe a year long learning curve. I expect life will tend to get better as I deal with the issue.
As far as what’s in my control beyond medications, I probably have an opportunity to make improvements via diet and exercise. It looks like the recommendations out there for diet are to move away from animal-derived foods (including dairy) and increase antioxidants from fruits and vegetables. So I’ll be working on figuring how to shift my diet. The only animal product I eat daily is yogurt, so I’ll definitely need to figure out how to replace the calcium, protein, and B12. I’ll continue to try to reduce food expenses, but there will be increased antioxidant requirements and additional constraints (reducing or eliminating yogurt, etc). I have a great dietician to work with on this.
For exercise, I’d like to continue working on developing a HIIT habit but educate myself about what that looks like within the context of asthma.
Projected food expenses for March are up to 10%. But a positive side effect of working on reducing food expenses, I think, is that I’m more disciplined with spending in other expense areas.
Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
Air quality and climate could also be things to consider - they have an impact on asthma / lung health and maybe you can create a future where you're living somewhere that supports your health and doesn't impact it negatively. (Oh, and was there any research done on whether specific allergies, like to some types of pollen, increase your asthma activity in February/March?).
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FunkyFreedom
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Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
I’m at the start of the learning curve. My best guess is that my worst offender is walking outside while breathing cold air. The “controller” inhaler I was put on seems to be kicking in and being effective after a week of use. I’m starting to act as if I’m allergic to my cats (I spend more time indoors those months due to not wanting to walk around in the cold!), in case that’s the problem or a contributor. A friend of mine’s best friend lives with cats but is allergic. It sounds like the number one thing to do is to always wash your hands after petting the cats, so I’m doing that. I’m getting a breathing test done in a week or two but need to wait two and a half months before I see a pulmonologist again. When I see the pulmonologist again I’ll probably get some allergy testing done.
Medical costs are up, for sure, this month. But not too bad and well worth it. Will hit 50%+ SR this month.
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FunkyFreedom
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Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
Post # 032, 03/29/25
Month end post, March 2025
Stats:
NW/AE = 6.6
Monthly SR = 51%
Annual SR = 61%
Food expenses = 8.7%
Health
-Doubled kale & carrots in beans & rice recipe. Will cost a bit more, but more antioxidants (good for asthma/inflammation) and tastes better
-Received critique on beans & rice - why no spices? So I may research & experiment with adding spices
-Would like to continue / start back up HIIT (pushups)
-Bought anti-allergen spray for couch, moved air purifier we had for near cat litter to bedroom to keep the air in that room clean. Seems to be helping! Washing hands after petting cats.
Looking ahead
-Working on “Work Less, Live More” workbook (for semi-retirement). Today I scored myself on how I feel now on nine dimensions of life (Avocation, Community Service, Relationships, Spirit, Health, Fun, Achievement, Material, Financial) and listed goals and concrete things I could do for each item. Good exercise that yielded actionable ideas. I could start seeing what I could do now to make progress on each item or at least some of them.
Month end post, March 2025
Stats:
NW/AE = 6.6
Monthly SR = 51%
Annual SR = 61%
Food expenses = 8.7%
Health
-Doubled kale & carrots in beans & rice recipe. Will cost a bit more, but more antioxidants (good for asthma/inflammation) and tastes better
-Received critique on beans & rice - why no spices? So I may research & experiment with adding spices
-Would like to continue / start back up HIIT (pushups)
-Bought anti-allergen spray for couch, moved air purifier we had for near cat litter to bedroom to keep the air in that room clean. Seems to be helping! Washing hands after petting cats.
Looking ahead
-Working on “Work Less, Live More” workbook (for semi-retirement). Today I scored myself on how I feel now on nine dimensions of life (Avocation, Community Service, Relationships, Spirit, Health, Fun, Achievement, Material, Financial) and listed goals and concrete things I could do for each item. Good exercise that yielded actionable ideas. I could start seeing what I could do now to make progress on each item or at least some of them.
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FunkyFreedom
- Posts: 76
- Joined: Sun Dec 01, 2024 4:27 pm
Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
Post # 033 04/11/25
The stock market has been up and down, and I haven’t freaked out and sold anything. Have been buying Berkshire Hathaway stock in my Roth, hoping they have some expertise in riding out rocky times in the market.
I expedited the allergy testing, which I got done today. It’s all done by blood tests; doesn’t require poking of the skin. If I wasn’t advocating for myself I would’ve had to wait until June to learn what I might be allergic to. I’m definitely allergic to something. Will find out soon what. I’m thinking some sort of tree pollen and maybe pet dander. I’m hoping and expecting I’ll be able to figure out how to avoid triggers once I know what they are.
Finished the monthly group that I pay for, so monthly expenses will come down from that. Music income should be coming up soon but will probably be down from last year.
I’ve rearranged my daily to-do system to break out items by the nine categories from the semi-retirement workbook, and trying to get to items I’d otherwise not get to (because otherwise I’d just want to do what I want to do, without reference to balance and longer term values). It’s been helpful so far.
The stock market has been up and down, and I haven’t freaked out and sold anything. Have been buying Berkshire Hathaway stock in my Roth, hoping they have some expertise in riding out rocky times in the market.
I expedited the allergy testing, which I got done today. It’s all done by blood tests; doesn’t require poking of the skin. If I wasn’t advocating for myself I would’ve had to wait until June to learn what I might be allergic to. I’m definitely allergic to something. Will find out soon what. I’m thinking some sort of tree pollen and maybe pet dander. I’m hoping and expecting I’ll be able to figure out how to avoid triggers once I know what they are.
Finished the monthly group that I pay for, so monthly expenses will come down from that. Music income should be coming up soon but will probably be down from last year.
I’ve rearranged my daily to-do system to break out items by the nine categories from the semi-retirement workbook, and trying to get to items I’d otherwise not get to (because otherwise I’d just want to do what I want to do, without reference to balance and longer term values). It’s been helpful so far.
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FunkyFreedom
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- Joined: Sun Dec 01, 2024 4:27 pm
Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
Post #034, 04/17/25
Other relevant information - my lung function is normal so the asthma hasn’t caused damage. And I’m okay to use the red light therapy that had been helping me feel better in winter. I’ll have a follow up appointment in June (pretty long wait time so it was good that I could expedite the testing). For now, it’s getting warm out so I’ll be walking around outside and that will be good.
Retirement savings status - the S&P is down 13.6% from its peak but my retirement savings is only down 4.6%, due to ongoing contributions plus some diversification in bonds and international index funds.
I had gotten my allergy testing moved up and the results just came back - I’m not allergic to any of the common allergens in my geographical region. Most importantly, I am not allergic to my two cats! I don’t have to wash my hands after every time I pet them! In general it would’ve been potentially tough to manage.
Other relevant information - my lung function is normal so the asthma hasn’t caused damage. And I’m okay to use the red light therapy that had been helping me feel better in winter. I’ll have a follow up appointment in June (pretty long wait time so it was good that I could expedite the testing). For now, it’s getting warm out so I’ll be walking around outside and that will be good.
Retirement savings status - the S&P is down 13.6% from its peak but my retirement savings is only down 4.6%, due to ongoing contributions plus some diversification in bonds and international index funds.
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FunkyFreedom
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- Joined: Sun Dec 01, 2024 4:27 pm
Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
Post # 035, 04/25/25
A weeklong staycation just started for me! This will be a good way to celebrate and mark the end of winter, and being healed from the asthma hopefully for the remainder of the warm months. Here are some numbers.
NW/AE = 6.7; retirement savings only 1.2% below peak
Food expenses = 11% of after tax income, April to date
SR for April = 59%
SR for year through April = 61%
I also found the Harvard Flourishing test and am thinking I’ll take it once a week as a way to measure how well I’m flourishing over time. It measures six domains with twelve questions: Happiness & Life Satisfaction, Mental & Physical Health, Meaning & Purpose, Character & Virtue, Close Social Relationships, Financial & Material Stability. I scored a 7.35 overall out of 10 last week and am up 2% to 7.5 today. We’ll see if I can bring that up with a week of vacation!
I’ve also started a gratefulness section for my daily journal. I think I heard author and psychologist David Brooks say that humans evolved to have more negative thoughts than positive ones and give negative thoughts more weight - because that helps up stay alive and pass on our genes! So we can be happier if we spend some time reminding ourselves of the positive things, and still survive by being careful!
A weeklong staycation just started for me! This will be a good way to celebrate and mark the end of winter, and being healed from the asthma hopefully for the remainder of the warm months. Here are some numbers.
NW/AE = 6.7; retirement savings only 1.2% below peak
Food expenses = 11% of after tax income, April to date
SR for April = 59%
SR for year through April = 61%
I also found the Harvard Flourishing test and am thinking I’ll take it once a week as a way to measure how well I’m flourishing over time. It measures six domains with twelve questions: Happiness & Life Satisfaction, Mental & Physical Health, Meaning & Purpose, Character & Virtue, Close Social Relationships, Financial & Material Stability. I scored a 7.35 overall out of 10 last week and am up 2% to 7.5 today. We’ll see if I can bring that up with a week of vacation!
I’ve also started a gratefulness section for my daily journal. I think I heard author and psychologist David Brooks say that humans evolved to have more negative thoughts than positive ones and give negative thoughts more weight - because that helps up stay alive and pass on our genes! So we can be happier if we spend some time reminding ourselves of the positive things, and still survive by being careful!
Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
Not a bad idea but a week's too short a time to see any meaningful changes in broad patterns like that. I suggest you take it once a quarter or once every 6 months. Psychological processes are slow tides: a diagnostic test that measures depression scores, for example, would typically be administered after 10-20 weeks - a shorter timeframe isn't meaningful. Better incorporate the flourishing test into any quarterly, semi-annual, or annual retrospective review you do/FunkyFreedom wrote: ↑Fri Apr 25, 2025 7:24 pmI also found the Harvard Flourishing test and am thinking I’ll take it once a week as a way to measure how well I’m flourishing over time.
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FunkyFreedom
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Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
Good to know. If all I see is noise I may test less often. But it only takes a few minutes, and part of my reasoning is to create a feedback loop where if I am reminded weekly of scoring low on a particular dimension I can put more effort into that area of my life (this is already happening) and that would affect the rate of change. Or on the flip side, perhaps I can remember to be grateful of areas where I’m feeling good about life. In a way, it’s a means of refreshing an awareness of how I’m doing that might not otherwise exist. And, this may be a more productive channeling of my energies than focusing on cutting costs or increasing income since I may have made most of the changes I might make. Also, if there’s major progress I might be able to link it to specific things I’m doing or changes in seasons, etc. I’m actually happy to see the score was very similar week to week; seems replicable. My final thought is that folks on this forum are used to getting results extremely quickly and early, so maybe I can get quicker results here too! “Extreme Early Flourishing” - lol. We’ll see.
I found this response via Google (albeit AI generated) to the question of how quickly this measure can change. “The Harvard Flourishing Index score can change relatively quickly, reflecting shifts in an individual's self-reported well-being. While there's no specific timeframe for how quickly scores change, studies have shown that even in the context of a major life event like the COVID-19 pandemic, flourishing scores can adapt within months. For example, one study found that after a few months, medical students' responses to the Flourish Index questions showed some adjustments.”
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FunkyFreedom
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Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
Post # 036, 5/2/25
I retested myself on the Harvard Flourishing scale on the last day off from work on my weeklong vacation. I tested 7.5 in the evening last Friday at the very beginning of my vacation. My score went up to 8.5 (out of 10) when I retested this morning so an increase of 13% over the week (I have to admit, whether or not I had my morning coffee just before taking the test could be a confounding variable!). Perhaps a mini-experiment showing how subjective life satisfaction can improve as a result of working less and doing more of the things that make you happy? With an R-square of 0.71, dimensions I scored lower on increased by a higher percentage, with the highest score - financial & material stability - remaining unchanged. (Would add a photo of a hand drawn scatter plot but not sure how; would like to figure that out sometime)
That corresponds to feeling much better better all around from leaning into lots of restorative activities over my week of vacation, as well as continuing to make concerted efforts to have a more well-rounded to do list that gets to items I wouldn’t prioritize if I didn’t force myself to be more well-balanced. I also got lucky and picked a week off with amazing weather! I hypothesize that the score will come down a bit after vacation but stay up above 7.5 through the summer due to the weather being nice and probably not feeling ill. And I think the effects of gratefulness journaling plus incremental improvements from a more well-rounded to-do list will tend to push the trend upwards. A lot of what I’m doing differently is not as much a discovery process as getting back to doing things I know pay off that I’ve been neglecting.
Other items:
-I tried TooGood2Go and got a whole bunch of bakery items from WholeFoods this week, deeply discounted as the items had a sell by date on that day. I had to get to a store 1.4 miles from home between 9 and 10pm. This was a nice little project to try for the first time while on vacation. The items were yummy but probably less healthy, but overall a nice treat - I think we’ll do it again sometime!
-Someone at work suggested I revisit my cell phone plan, which I did. My plan has monthly data capped, which I max out sometimes. Evidently data-capped plans haven’t been a thing in a while but I just found out! So I should be able to get unlimited data for my cell plan plus price lowered by $10 or so, and also perhaps switch our internet to a new plan/provider for a per person savings of $15-$20. Haven’t made the switch yet and not in a hurry to do so, but lowering monthly expenses by $30 or so would be a nice find!
I retested myself on the Harvard Flourishing scale on the last day off from work on my weeklong vacation. I tested 7.5 in the evening last Friday at the very beginning of my vacation. My score went up to 8.5 (out of 10) when I retested this morning so an increase of 13% over the week (I have to admit, whether or not I had my morning coffee just before taking the test could be a confounding variable!). Perhaps a mini-experiment showing how subjective life satisfaction can improve as a result of working less and doing more of the things that make you happy? With an R-square of 0.71, dimensions I scored lower on increased by a higher percentage, with the highest score - financial & material stability - remaining unchanged. (Would add a photo of a hand drawn scatter plot but not sure how; would like to figure that out sometime)
That corresponds to feeling much better better all around from leaning into lots of restorative activities over my week of vacation, as well as continuing to make concerted efforts to have a more well-rounded to do list that gets to items I wouldn’t prioritize if I didn’t force myself to be more well-balanced. I also got lucky and picked a week off with amazing weather! I hypothesize that the score will come down a bit after vacation but stay up above 7.5 through the summer due to the weather being nice and probably not feeling ill. And I think the effects of gratefulness journaling plus incremental improvements from a more well-rounded to-do list will tend to push the trend upwards. A lot of what I’m doing differently is not as much a discovery process as getting back to doing things I know pay off that I’ve been neglecting.
Other items:
-I tried TooGood2Go and got a whole bunch of bakery items from WholeFoods this week, deeply discounted as the items had a sell by date on that day. I had to get to a store 1.4 miles from home between 9 and 10pm. This was a nice little project to try for the first time while on vacation. The items were yummy but probably less healthy, but overall a nice treat - I think we’ll do it again sometime!
-Someone at work suggested I revisit my cell phone plan, which I did. My plan has monthly data capped, which I max out sometimes. Evidently data-capped plans haven’t been a thing in a while but I just found out! So I should be able to get unlimited data for my cell plan plus price lowered by $10 or so, and also perhaps switch our internet to a new plan/provider for a per person savings of $15-$20. Haven’t made the switch yet and not in a hurry to do so, but lowering monthly expenses by $30 or so would be a nice find!
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FunkyFreedom
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- Joined: Sun Dec 01, 2024 4:27 pm
Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
Post # 037, 05/09/25
Quick post with a couple of numbers:
-NW/AE should come in around 6.8 by the end of the month if there’s no change in the market. That’d be the first new high in months. Looking forward to hitting the nice round number 7.0, and next up after that 7.5 (which would be half of the 15.0 target I have in mind for feeling the freedom to transition to semiretirement).
-My retirement savings are back at peak territory at a time when the S&P is still off its peak by about 8%. It feels good to be caught up due to my high savings rate, even though I’m behind where I would be if the market hadn’t dropped. Can’t help thinking about my numbers going down, but am importantly not freaking out. I’m continuing to steadily contribute and am not “selling the dip”.
-I just took the Harvard Flourishing test again. Scored an 8.3 (out of 10), which is up 11% since before my vacation but down 2% after one week back at the office. I had hypothesized that if this is a reliable and responsive metric of my subjective sense of how life’s going then it’d come down a bit but stay above the number prior to vacation, and that’s exactly what happened. I’ll keep at it and see if this might be a quick and useful weekly dependent variable to see the results of my efforts and impacts of events beyond my control.
Quick post with a couple of numbers:
-NW/AE should come in around 6.8 by the end of the month if there’s no change in the market. That’d be the first new high in months. Looking forward to hitting the nice round number 7.0, and next up after that 7.5 (which would be half of the 15.0 target I have in mind for feeling the freedom to transition to semiretirement).
-My retirement savings are back at peak territory at a time when the S&P is still off its peak by about 8%. It feels good to be caught up due to my high savings rate, even though I’m behind where I would be if the market hadn’t dropped. Can’t help thinking about my numbers going down, but am importantly not freaking out. I’m continuing to steadily contribute and am not “selling the dip”.
-I just took the Harvard Flourishing test again. Scored an 8.3 (out of 10), which is up 11% since before my vacation but down 2% after one week back at the office. I had hypothesized that if this is a reliable and responsive metric of my subjective sense of how life’s going then it’d come down a bit but stay above the number prior to vacation, and that’s exactly what happened. I’ll keep at it and see if this might be a quick and useful weekly dependent variable to see the results of my efforts and impacts of events beyond my control.
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FunkyFreedom
- Posts: 76
- Joined: Sun Dec 01, 2024 4:27 pm
Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
Post # 038, 05/16/25
Took the Harvard Flourishing test today. Average of the six categories was 8.6. Last three weeks were 8.5 (end of vacation), 8.3 last week, 8.6 this week. Two previous weeks, prior to taking a vacation, were 7.4 and 7.5. So vacation and summer seem to make a difference!
Otherwise, I bought a nice little colorful pocket-sized journal and am starting to hand write the Tao Te Ching into it. I had never read it before but had read Alan Watts talk about Taosim in his books. It feels like both ERE and Taoism are lifestyles very different and distant from mainstream Western ways of living. I feel like ERE is more analytical and Taoism is more “go with the flow” but emphasizing simplicity. It feels like the items I’m scoring low on might improve from keeping the focus on simplicity but in more of a spiritual and less analytical frame of mind, keeping spending low and savings high but not forcing that to happen and maybe enjoying life along the way a little more.
I may start including quotes I come across from the Tao Te Ching that seem to resonate with ERE. Here’s the first one I found from verse 3. The “sage”, “shows people how to be simple| and live without desires | to be content”. So reducing expenses by simple living and not wanting things.
Took the Harvard Flourishing test today. Average of the six categories was 8.6. Last three weeks were 8.5 (end of vacation), 8.3 last week, 8.6 this week. Two previous weeks, prior to taking a vacation, were 7.4 and 7.5. So vacation and summer seem to make a difference!
Otherwise, I bought a nice little colorful pocket-sized journal and am starting to hand write the Tao Te Ching into it. I had never read it before but had read Alan Watts talk about Taosim in his books. It feels like both ERE and Taoism are lifestyles very different and distant from mainstream Western ways of living. I feel like ERE is more analytical and Taoism is more “go with the flow” but emphasizing simplicity. It feels like the items I’m scoring low on might improve from keeping the focus on simplicity but in more of a spiritual and less analytical frame of mind, keeping spending low and savings high but not forcing that to happen and maybe enjoying life along the way a little more.
I may start including quotes I come across from the Tao Te Ching that seem to resonate with ERE. Here’s the first one I found from verse 3. The “sage”, “shows people how to be simple| and live without desires | to be content”. So reducing expenses by simple living and not wanting things.
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Western Red Cedar
- Posts: 1499
- Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:15 pm
Re: Funky Freedom's Journal
One of my favorites:FunkyFreedom wrote: ↑Fri May 16, 2025 2:10 pmI may start including quotes I come across from the Tao Te Ching that seem to resonate with ERE.
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
It applies to wealth, health, skills, or even literally if part of the WOG is taking a long journey
.