Congrats on last year!
It would be so much easier to just hang out with my girlfriend most nights, see my closest 2-3 friends once a week or so, and spend the rest of my time alone doing things that I enjoy.
That's pretty much my life and it works great for me. I can't imagine trying to balance 10 friends wanting to constantly hang out. Really it's just 2 friends I see about once a week, there's a couple classmates I'll have a beer with a few times a semester, and maybe a greater network of about 5-10 more people who I only get to see a few times a year, but who I can always call up to see if they want join me on a hike or something.
Maybe once I'm done rehabbing properties, flipping houses, working a job and simultaneously trying to pass the bar I'll get to see that bigger network of friends more often. But more likely I'll just replace the mostly solitary money making activities with mostly solitary creative/fun activities.
No harm in that.
akratic's ERE journal
@mikeBOS and LiquidSapphire, thanks for showing me I'm not alone
@bigato:
If you try too hard to find friends, they won't be really good friends. Do more of what you really like and then you'll find them.
I recognize this as standard good advice for most people, but I don't think it works for me. If I stuck to just the activities I wanted to do, I wouldn't meet a soul. Consider this list:
- reading
- programming
- watching movies
- video games
- browsing the internet
- learning
I could do those for years and never even open my mouth. I do have some semi-social hobbies, but they each have flaws right now:
- hiking/climbing (which is impossible in Chicago, there's no mountains for 100s of miles)
- going to the gym (but in a lifetime of gym going I've never met a close friend or even an okay friend)
- board/card games (but you can really only do this well with people that are already your friends -- the meetup.com board game group is a disaster)
I also have an extremely social hobby, which is traveling slowly via hostels and couchsurfing, etc., but I can't do that while I have a day job.
I understand how if you enjoy things like martial arts, you could meet good friends through it. But no amount of reading, programming, watching movies, playing video games, browsing the internet, and learning is going to make me a friend.
@bigato:
If you try too hard to find friends, they won't be really good friends. Do more of what you really like and then you'll find them.
I recognize this as standard good advice for most people, but I don't think it works for me. If I stuck to just the activities I wanted to do, I wouldn't meet a soul. Consider this list:
- reading
- programming
- watching movies
- video games
- browsing the internet
- learning
I could do those for years and never even open my mouth. I do have some semi-social hobbies, but they each have flaws right now:
- hiking/climbing (which is impossible in Chicago, there's no mountains for 100s of miles)
- going to the gym (but in a lifetime of gym going I've never met a close friend or even an okay friend)
- board/card games (but you can really only do this well with people that are already your friends -- the meetup.com board game group is a disaster)
I also have an extremely social hobby, which is traveling slowly via hostels and couchsurfing, etc., but I can't do that while I have a day job.
I understand how if you enjoy things like martial arts, you could meet good friends through it. But no amount of reading, programming, watching movies, playing video games, browsing the internet, and learning is going to make me a friend.
Since you like hiking and climbing mountains, you might consider rock climbing. It can be done in a climbing gym (plenty of these in Chicago) and it can get pretty social without too much bullshit and small talk. Climbing requires attention focused directly on the activity, but you share the rope with your climbing partner, which builds very interesting relationship between the climber and belayer. Bouldering is even more social. You get a lot of physical and mental excercise as well.
@bigato
I spent two weeks in Brazil in 2010, visiting Sao Paulo, Rio, and Lins (a small town). I agree, doubling my net worth and cutting my expenses in half by living in another country is very appealing to me.
I coerced my girlfriend into moving to Chicago last year, and have already agreed that she gets to pick the next place we live. Her top three choices currently are Ecuador, Cape Town, and Thailand. All three of those sound good to me! But really this one is up to her.
When it comes to ERE, I am in something of a race. I'm currently 28. I want to have kids eventually, which I anticipate will happen around age 33. I would like to reach FI and leave my job in order to have some adventures before worrying about kids. (I want to live in another country or three, hike the AT, live on a sailboat, bike across Europe, etc.) However, my current work situation is very good, and this is probably the best opportunity I will have to build assets quickly. (But with my skill set I can always easily find a good job.) When to walk away is going to be a tough decision. I've decided to definitely work through 2012, but after that, I just don't know.
@Aquatter
Yeah, I prefer bouldering to top roping, for a few reasons...
Wow, there is a bouldering gym 1.4 miles from my apartment! I had no idea. That is a seriously good suggestion. Too bad it's so ridiculously expensive to join a bouldering/climbing gym.
Another social thing I could do if money was no object would be to join a crossfit gym.
See, at times like this, I wonder if my expense cutting is going too far. The bouldering gym would be ~$60/mo and crossfit $100-$200/mo. I reject these activities as too expensive, but honestly, I can afford them, and the benefit of joining one of these could easily outweigh the increase in my expenses.
I spent two weeks in Brazil in 2010, visiting Sao Paulo, Rio, and Lins (a small town). I agree, doubling my net worth and cutting my expenses in half by living in another country is very appealing to me.
I coerced my girlfriend into moving to Chicago last year, and have already agreed that she gets to pick the next place we live. Her top three choices currently are Ecuador, Cape Town, and Thailand. All three of those sound good to me! But really this one is up to her.
When it comes to ERE, I am in something of a race. I'm currently 28. I want to have kids eventually, which I anticipate will happen around age 33. I would like to reach FI and leave my job in order to have some adventures before worrying about kids. (I want to live in another country or three, hike the AT, live on a sailboat, bike across Europe, etc.) However, my current work situation is very good, and this is probably the best opportunity I will have to build assets quickly. (But with my skill set I can always easily find a good job.) When to walk away is going to be a tough decision. I've decided to definitely work through 2012, but after that, I just don't know.
@Aquatter
Yeah, I prefer bouldering to top roping, for a few reasons...
Wow, there is a bouldering gym 1.4 miles from my apartment! I had no idea. That is a seriously good suggestion. Too bad it's so ridiculously expensive to join a bouldering/climbing gym.
Another social thing I could do if money was no object would be to join a crossfit gym.
See, at times like this, I wonder if my expense cutting is going too far. The bouldering gym would be ~$60/mo and crossfit $100-$200/mo. I reject these activities as too expensive, but honestly, I can afford them, and the benefit of joining one of these could easily outweigh the increase in my expenses.
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jennypenny
- Posts: 6910
- Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2011 2:20 pm
Re: the expenses
The climbing gym might be $60/month, but you get a health benefit and possibly a social one. If you tried to meet with friends outside of the gym once a week, how much would that cost? And am I remembering right that one of your goals for 2012 was to drop some weight? Seems to satisfy a couple of needs.
The climbing gym might be $60/month, but you get a health benefit and possibly a social one. If you tried to meet with friends outside of the gym once a week, how much would that cost? And am I remembering right that one of your goals for 2012 was to drop some weight? Seems to satisfy a couple of needs.
I already have a free place to stay and cool people to show me around in every city in the world: http://couchsurfing.org
January 2011
25 years! First ERE goal accomplished!
The unbalanced asset allocation screenshot is to shame me into rebalancing, although you'd think missing out on the full 3.3% PP return in January would do it.
The weight loss chart is from my badass wifi scale. You know things are bad on the weight loss front when I'm so frustrated with my lack of progress that I drop $150 on the world's coolest scale just to motivate myself.
== Unusual Expenses ==
- $140 for a 5 day road trip to Colorado (gas, motels, food). Colorado is awesome.
- $110 on gifts: girlfriend's birthday
== Next Steps ==
- rebalance investments (get physical gold, store physical gold, buy TLT, buy VTI)
- get in shape. The diet started okay, but got rocked by the road trip in the middle of the month. Things are back on track now. Here's hoping for slow, steady progress to 170lbs.
25 years! First ERE goal accomplished!
The unbalanced asset allocation screenshot is to shame me into rebalancing, although you'd think missing out on the full 3.3% PP return in January would do it.
The weight loss chart is from my badass wifi scale. You know things are bad on the weight loss front when I'm so frustrated with my lack of progress that I drop $150 on the world's coolest scale just to motivate myself.
== Unusual Expenses ==
- $140 for a 5 day road trip to Colorado (gas, motels, food). Colorado is awesome.
- $110 on gifts: girlfriend's birthday
== Next Steps ==
- rebalance investments (get physical gold, store physical gold, buy TLT, buy VTI)
- get in shape. The diet started okay, but got rocked by the road trip in the middle of the month. Things are back on track now. Here's hoping for slow, steady progress to 170lbs.
Two Year Retrospective
Three milestones were hit today:
1) exactly two years of pursing ERE and working this job
2) 25+ years of net worth using last month's expenses
3) 25+ years of net worth using the previous 12 month average expenses
That was quick. I've been lucky.
I have no dependents, no debts, no family members in trouble, no looming expenses. I have a supportive girlfriend that's even more frugal than I am. I cut my expenses to the bone and the only person this really affected was myself. I guess in some ways my friends have had to jump through some hoops, since I'm reluctant to go out to eat now, but then again I always was reluctant to go out to eat. I like extremes and dislike waste in all forms, so extreme frugality was an easy fit, and has proved to be an interesting optimization problem. It also came with many benefits, most notably cooking skills.
I'm also lucky to have a programming job, which I actually enjoy, working for one of my friends, and getting paid tons of money. I'm exceedingly lucky that this thing I enjoy doing -- programming -- also has a massive demand for people to do it, combined with a low supply of people who can do it well. I remember back when I was in undergrad, and people were terrified that all the programming jobs would be outsourced, and the industry would die. I ignored them mostly because I didn't care -- I wanted to program whether it was still a lucrative career in the future or not. And guess what, they turned out to be wrong!
Since I don't feel like quitting my job, my plan is to keep doing it and build my net worth up. My new goal is 33 years of net worth, for a 3% SWR. If I still feel like working after that, I'll try to support a higher expense level, so I could support kids or a family or whatever.
In about a year my girlfriend wants to move to another country, and that sounds like a good plan to me. I told her she could pick the next place we live, since I got to pick Chicago. I hope that I can keep my job and telecommute from wherever she picks. I think that I should be able to.
Her current top choices are: Montevido, Uruguay; Cuenca, Ecuador; Cape Town; and Hong Kong. All those sound good to me! I actually met my girlfriend traveling through Sydney three years ago, so we're no strangers to adventure, and I sure could use some adventure after being holed up in Chicago working so hard these past two years.
Three milestones were hit today:
1) exactly two years of pursing ERE and working this job
2) 25+ years of net worth using last month's expenses
3) 25+ years of net worth using the previous 12 month average expenses
That was quick. I've been lucky.
I have no dependents, no debts, no family members in trouble, no looming expenses. I have a supportive girlfriend that's even more frugal than I am. I cut my expenses to the bone and the only person this really affected was myself. I guess in some ways my friends have had to jump through some hoops, since I'm reluctant to go out to eat now, but then again I always was reluctant to go out to eat. I like extremes and dislike waste in all forms, so extreme frugality was an easy fit, and has proved to be an interesting optimization problem. It also came with many benefits, most notably cooking skills.
I'm also lucky to have a programming job, which I actually enjoy, working for one of my friends, and getting paid tons of money. I'm exceedingly lucky that this thing I enjoy doing -- programming -- also has a massive demand for people to do it, combined with a low supply of people who can do it well. I remember back when I was in undergrad, and people were terrified that all the programming jobs would be outsourced, and the industry would die. I ignored them mostly because I didn't care -- I wanted to program whether it was still a lucrative career in the future or not. And guess what, they turned out to be wrong!
Since I don't feel like quitting my job, my plan is to keep doing it and build my net worth up. My new goal is 33 years of net worth, for a 3% SWR. If I still feel like working after that, I'll try to support a higher expense level, so I could support kids or a family or whatever.
In about a year my girlfriend wants to move to another country, and that sounds like a good plan to me. I told her she could pick the next place we live, since I got to pick Chicago. I hope that I can keep my job and telecommute from wherever she picks. I think that I should be able to.
Her current top choices are: Montevido, Uruguay; Cuenca, Ecuador; Cape Town; and Hong Kong. All those sound good to me! I actually met my girlfriend traveling through Sydney three years ago, so we're no strangers to adventure, and I sure could use some adventure after being holed up in Chicago working so hard these past two years.
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LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
Twelve months ago I spent $150 on a pair of designer jeans in an experiment into having higher quality stuff. As a minimalist I can spend a lot on each item I have without it adding up to much, because I have so few items. In particular, this is my only wearable pair of jeans.
Anyway, twelve months later the jeans started to fail with a severe tear. This is the same amount of time that a normal pair of jeans from the mall lasts me when worn seven days a week. I was hoping the designer jeans would last longer than the normal jeans, but they didn't.
But...! my friend mentioned to me that this problem can be solved by a tailor, and lo and behold, for $15 my jeans are like new. We'll see how long they last now that they have been saved by the tailor.
Right now I'm looking at ~$3.75k - $5k invested to pay for the $150/yr designer jeans habit. Perhaps this tailor trick could cut this cost in half?
I know I can get cheaper jeans at the mall or in the thrift shop, but these jeans are noticeably better. Just thought I'd pass on the tailor thing to you guys.
Anyway, twelve months later the jeans started to fail with a severe tear. This is the same amount of time that a normal pair of jeans from the mall lasts me when worn seven days a week. I was hoping the designer jeans would last longer than the normal jeans, but they didn't.
But...! my friend mentioned to me that this problem can be solved by a tailor, and lo and behold, for $15 my jeans are like new. We'll see how long they last now that they have been saved by the tailor.
Right now I'm looking at ~$3.75k - $5k invested to pay for the $150/yr designer jeans habit. Perhaps this tailor trick could cut this cost in half?
I know I can get cheaper jeans at the mall or in the thrift shop, but these jeans are noticeably better. Just thought I'd pass on the tailor thing to you guys.
The other frugal trick I've learned recently is homemade granola. It tastes much better than processed granola, and is cheaper, and surely healthier as well.
The rough recipe is:
- raw oats
- honey
- oil
then whatever you want to add to mix it up. Nuts, seeds, dried fruit, brown sugar, vanilla extract, etc.
I'm also trying homemade yogurt, but so far it hasn't turned out as well as store bought yogurt.
The rough recipe for homemade yogurt is:
- 1 scoop of yogurt
- plus lots of milk
makes lots more yogurt. How cool! Too bad I can't seem to get it to come out right yet. I guess the heating and cooling needs to be done exactly right.
I got these ideas from my 70 year old aunt. I got the impression she had lots more frugal tricks up her sleeve as well!
The rough recipe is:
- raw oats
- honey
- oil
then whatever you want to add to mix it up. Nuts, seeds, dried fruit, brown sugar, vanilla extract, etc.
I'm also trying homemade yogurt, but so far it hasn't turned out as well as store bought yogurt.
The rough recipe for homemade yogurt is:
- 1 scoop of yogurt
- plus lots of milk
makes lots more yogurt. How cool! Too bad I can't seem to get it to come out right yet. I guess the heating and cooling needs to be done exactly right.
I got these ideas from my 70 year old aunt. I got the impression she had lots more frugal tricks up her sleeve as well!
What kind of jeans?
I've had a pair of Diesel jeans ($140 or so) for 6 years or so. I wore them more than any other jeans I have, but not daily. I'd expect them to last at least 2 years of wearing every single day.
I expect there are other jeans that cost half as much or less that last just as long.
I've had a pair of Diesel jeans ($140 or so) for 6 years or so. I wore them more than any other jeans I have, but not daily. I'd expect them to last at least 2 years of wearing every single day.
I expect there are other jeans that cost half as much or less that last just as long.