spoonman wrote:My wife and I have given our employers official notice that we will quit in two weeks. My own experience was fairly uneventful since I had already given previous notice, I just had to write an email to my supervisor and a few other people higher on the totem pole.
Congratulations spoonman!! I have enjoyed reading your journal and look forward to reading your post FI rants
@mxlr650: Glad you're enjoying the journal. There will definitely be rants =), especially in the first few months as we get aclimated to the new lifestyle.
#053 08/04/2014 -- The Challenge of Securing a Place to Live
And so our first big, post-FI challenge begins: to find an affordable place to live. The way I see it, our dwelling will be the “fulcrum” of our first months in FI, and much of our future adventures. The underlying character of our experiences will be largely dictated by the place where we live.
We’re starting to scope out our next apartment and so far it has proven to be a challenging task. Most of the challenge comes from the fact that we will not have a regular job. Normally, when you try to secure an apartment, you have to convince the landlord that you either make enough money or that you don’t make too much. Since this year we’ve made a good amount of money, we are immediately disqualified from places with income restrictions. In years to come we won’t have that problem. For the moment, however, we are limited to apartments that require us to have a minimum income or somehow demonstrate that we’ll be able to cover the rent over the lease term. I’ve been told by other forum members that showing a bank account with the right amount of money can suffice, but I was still a little nervous.
I’ve spent many hours looking up apartments and came up with a nice list of potential candidates. To our great relief, a good number of management companies accept a bank statement in place of a certain income level. In addition, it appears that we can submit an application online or over the mail, which will simplify our lives greatly because we won’t have to travel as much.
We do have to deal with the usual challenge of acting faster than other prospective tenants. Last year, when we were apartment hunting, we experienced some heartbreak because a person grabbed a place before we did. It almost felt like the drama of buying a house. The trick with a lot of apartment complexes is to simply start the process well before you expect to move in. A lot of places have a waiting list, so we’re starting to put ourselves on those. I’m glad that we’ve started the search now rather than later because we managed to put ourselves on top of the list at one particular apartment complex, which will act as our “safety school”.
We’ll have to take a trip out to the PNW to scope out the neighborhoods and vibe of the places on our list. In this day and age, there’s a ton of pictures and street views available, but nothing beats experiencing a place first hand.
spoonman wrote:We’ll have to take a trip out to the PNW to scope out the neighborhoods and vibe of the places on our list. In this day and age, there’s a ton of pictures and street views available, but nothing beats experiencing a place first hand.
Let me introduce you to http://portlandmaps.com. Every useful statistic about Portland is available there. Pay particular attention to the crime map and note where the violent crimes occur compared to the property crimes. Look at the flood plains and earthquake hazards.
Note where the industrial zones are. 2 miles from any rail yard is not distant enough to avoid listening to boxcars being slammed together at 5am Saturday/Sunday. Airport approaches are east-west along the Columbia River and north-south somewhat east of I-205... there's a flood of hub flights arriving at 10pm, so if you're early to bed, you won't sleep well if you're under them.
Holy cow, thanks for the info! I'll definitely be checking that website out. And thanks for the other info, that's the sort of thing that's impossible to figure out if you are not from the area.
I couldn't resist checking out the website before hitting "submit"...I love the crime map, it reminds me of Sim City!
Only one week left until we say Adios to the fast lane. Right now, the feeling that pervades our days is along the lines of “oh, come on, can we get there already?” We’re both tired of going through the motions and pretending we are interested in projects we are no longer emotionally invested in.
Earlier this week I had a nice lunch with one coworker, we took a moment to commiserate about all the crazy things we’ve had to do for the company over the last few years. Yesterday I also had a big lunch with about 12 people, it was pretty much the decisive goodbye lunch for me. I’ve thought about that goodbye lunch for years and I must say that it felt great to finally experience it and move on with my life.
But I must say, I didn’t do what I always imagined myself doing: delivering one final, triumphant speech in which I would tell everyone what I really thought about the institution and its silly bureaucracy...Instead, I just answered the same darn questions I’ve been answering these past two months =). I’ve come to realize that most people there will either follow my footsteps and leave the company soon or simply continue on with the grind, I wasn’t gonna change any minds.
Most people in attendance know that I’ve been plotting my exit from the company for years and they know how unhappy I’ve been with several aspects of our work. By and large, I am happy to finally give my official farewell to everyone.
As a side note, I took some photos of my cube as a reminder of the Bastille I escaped. I also took a couple of short videos (my smartphone is old and doesn’t have much capacity) of me sitting there doing my thing. I had a quick a look at the videos…let me just say it’s scary how much we time we spend staring a damn computer screen.
Looking forward to the post-retirement 'what Spoonman did next!' journal entries shortly. I know what you mean about finding the final winding down somewhat anticlimactic. But underneath that awkawardness it still feels very very good.
@saving-10-years: I'm looking forward to penning those entries as well and I hope others find it useful.
My wife has changed companies multiple times since I met her, so she's sort of a veteran. Right now, she's feeling nothing but excitement, which makes me happy as well.
After living a relatively frugal life for so many years and saving money aggressively, it can be easy to forget the empowerment this sort of lifestyle gives you. The journey can feel long and the progress is often slowly incremental, so it’s important to remember where we were before and where we stand now.
The fact is that a few years ago we were not in a position to say FU to anyone. We were tied to a mortgage and did not generate enough passive income to meet even our most basic needs. Although it can be argued that we can never be truly free, it is certain we are in a far better position now than we were before. There are varying degrees of freedom and I think we have a high degree of it right now. Again, I won’t go as far as saying we have total freedom because we are still very much specialists, but I think some day, when we get the urge to settle down somewhere, we will be able to broaden our skill set and approach the Renaissance Man ideal (i.e. a jack of all trades that can do a lot on his/her own and not have to pay someone to do it). I’m not ashamed to say that right now I’m too timid to swing a hammer =).
In the meantime, we look forward to using our high degree of freedom to decompress and then explore the world. Perhaps after that we’ll broaden our skill sets, or perhaps we’ll come up with something entirely different on our own.
So it’s T-minus 4 days. I’m still going through the motions: waking up in the morning, going to work, coming back, and then going to bed at a reasonable hour. Last night I “rebelled” a bit by going to bed a bit later than usual, but I didn’t go to bed too late because I knew I would want to wake up early in the morning as usual, thereby setting myself up for tiredness and crankiness the rest of the day. I know, I know, it’s lame as hell, but hey, old habits die hard. I guess I’m just trying to keep my nose clean this final week =).
At work, I am trying my best to ignore the usual political horseshit. The funny thing is that some people are still trying to play hardball with me about things that I won’t care about very soon. It’s comical, really.
Even though I submitted my official resignation over a week ago, I still haven’t heard from HR about separation procedures. I told my immediate supervisor that we need to escalate this farther up the HR chain…*sigh* another comical thing. I feel bad for my immediate supervisor because HR’s incompetence is not her responsibility.
editorial note: I noticed I had my day countdown wrong, I technically have one day less than I previously posted because I am making these journal entries at the end of the day.
Today I spent a great deal of time navigating the bureaucracy of officially terminating my employment. I had to run around and collect a dozen signatures for all kinds of stuff. Thankfully, most of it has been relatively painless.
My exit interview consisted of filling out an online form, which I actually prefer over actually talking to a person. I’ll spare you all the details, but basically I said that by and large the people are great and the work was interesting, but the bureaucracy was not. I gave my immediate supervisor a great review and made it clear that I thought the work itself was interesting. But I also mentioned that the company needs to work on creating a more modern work environment, that just having a water cooler was not going to attract new, young talent.
I just can’t say it enough times: I’m very much ready to move on and make a life for myself outside the narrow confines of the 9-5. The psychology of my current situation is very interesting, I’m only 3 days out from unplugging from the matrix but it feels like I still have a huge chasm in front of me…not at all how I imagined it a year ago =).
Grats, spoonman! I like the build up of suspense. What additions would you recommend your company include to compliment the water cooler for the younger folks? Wifi water coolers that dispense via an iPhone app?
@IwantLess: Haha! I'm sure someone is thinking of that idea somewhere in Silicon Valley. Seriously though, I would like what my friends in other companies have:
Free alcohol. I know for a fact some companies have beer on tap.
Free snacks, both healthy (bananas, etc) and nonhealthy (chips, cookies, etc.).
Free coffee and sugar.
A game room/lounge that is not within line of sight of management.
I could go on. You wouldn't be believe it, but there's some areas of the company that don't even have free water cups, or even a water cooler.
Today I had a nice lunch with some coworkers, but aside from that the day was uneventful. I spent some time getting ready for a semi-important meeting tomorrow. It will be the most pointless meeting ever, but I am required to attend it in order to present a couple of slides and answer some questions. I jokingly told one of the guys that will be on the review panel that I will happily meet all of their demands and promise them even more…because I won’t be the one to deliver!
I am glad I am leaving the company and the main project I’ve been working on because there is a huge cluster fuck in the near horizon. The company heavily underbid the project and has a mountain of promises to deliver. In addition to that, the company is going through one of its silly reorganizations. Every couple of years upper management has to assert its existence by reorganizing: I reorganize therefore I am. At the end of the day the reorganization is of little consequence to the people that do real work and it’s just a big waste of money and time. But thankfully, I will be cozily away from it all when it happens…ahhhh.
Today was my effective last day doing anything resembling actual work. The pointless meeting this morning turned out to be useful after all because it gave me the chance to shake hands with some people one last time.
Today I also learned that another project I had been supporting is having major funding issues. The sky is falling all over the place and I seem to be getting out just in time. I feel bad for colleagues that will get caught in the fray, but maybe they’ll come to their senses one day and strike out on their own.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling trace levels of sadness. There are aspects of my work that have been insanely punishing, but at the end of the day I did enjoy working with my colleagues and enjoyed the technical aspect of the work.
I have to give credit to bureaucracy as one of the main motivations for wanting to leave the 9-5. I’ve come to learn that bureaucracy is the enemy of all mankind and that it exists because some people benefit from it. Don’t get me wrong, in any large human endeavor there is bound to be some level of bureaucracy, and rules need to be followed in order to avoid disasters, but I think a lot of times it is quite stifling. I hope someday in the future the phrase agile bureaucracy is no longer an oxymoron.
But in the meantime, I am getting mentally ready to walk away tomorrow, it’ll be interesting =).
Last edited by spoonman on Thu Aug 14, 2014 9:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
