Early Retirement Extreme Forums

@rube: Glad you find it inspirational. We're just giving back to this community, which has given us a great deal.

Hope you enjoyed your freedom today while us poor unliberated schmoes were at work

@5to9: It's pretty darn sweet. We're trying to take it slow.

#063 08/18/2014 -- A Case of the Mondays? LOL

Today is our first post-FI Monday. We both had trouble sleeping last night, but it wasn’t the end of the world because we simply slept in. We woke up naturally without an alarm as if it was a weekend day, feeling fully rested and refreshed.

In the morning we ran into our landlord and forced him to deal with a couple of issues with our apartment. I was also able to handle a call from Covered California (more on that effort in a future post), which would have been difficult had I been at work. We also took a quick trip to the grocery store in the morning, it was a much better experience than shopping there in the evenings.

Later this morning, it was nice going to the goodwill store to drop off some donations (the alarm clock, among other things) because we got to experience the city on a weekday; it was less hectic than usual. We look forward to experiencing the city in this manner over the next couple of months.

Tonight we’ll be packing for a trip to Florida, we’ll be spending spend 5 days with some family. Like I mentioned in a previous post, this trip will add to the sense that we’re on vacation, so it’ll probably take two or three more weeks for things to sink in. In any case, I probably won’t get the chance to post as often in the next few days.

The little (and big things) that you could not otherwise do or would not otherwise spot are continuing to give me pleasure. I'm sure you will find lots of welcome surprises down the road. Enjoy Florida. Perhaps holidays (vacations) will feel different too?

@saving-10-years: this is certainly a very exciting time for us. In the next few months we will be in a daze of discovery.

Quick Update

Due to huge flight delay we missed our connecting flight to Florida, so the airline put us up in a hotel. We are tired and beleaguered, but in the end it will only add up to a few hours of lost quality time with our family. Getting to Florida will feel even sweeter.

We are starting to learn some traveling lessons already. Always beware of short layovers and make sure there's another connecting flight that day in case you miss it.

This is a great journal. Well done.

I'm truly happy for you two. It's so inspiring to see more and more people completing there FI journeys and this one is particularly well written

So you got an extra free hotel night, not so bad when you are free and have plenty of time

#064 08/24/2014 -- Back from Travel

We’re back from a week-long trip to Florida. It was great catching up with some family. We also had the chance to experience a couple of beaches along the gulf coast. It was very hot and very humid, which made the water that much more pleasant to dip into. The sand was white and very particulate, almost as fine as sugar.

In our first year of freedom we plan to take it easy and decompress, so we will not go out of our way to visit family, but in years to come we look forward to spending extended periods of time visiting family. Short term travel can be very stressful because you have to deal with flights and time zone differences, but FI will grant us the ability to get around that by spending months at a time visiting a single location.

Tomorrow will be our second post-FI Monday. I think it will feel even better than the last because we will be recovering from an arduous day of travel. I feel very exhausted as I write this, but the fatigue is purely physical; there isn’t a shred of dread in our psyche because we don’t have to report anywhere tomorrow. We’ll rest easy and wake up when we have to.

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@steveo73: Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

@frihet: We hope our story adds another valuable data point to the overall ERE picture. The more the merrier!

I am so jealous....and love your journal.

I will be living vicariously through you, especially the travel bits.

Please keep writing.

I am back to work to-day after nearly 2 weeks vacation.
Hell is....

@1taskaday: Happy to hear you're enjoying the journal. I'll keep the updates coming!

Keep posting because its really good to see someone actually get there. We have a long way to go yet but we will get there.

Interestingly yesterday at work I said to the woman who sits next to me I'd love to quit work and she said you'd be bored. I don't think most people get that you can retire.

@steve73: I think the problem that most people have is that they wouldn't know what to do with themselves outside the framework of the 9-5. They need a tight script imposed by someone else.

spoonman wrote:@steve73: I think the problem that most people have is that they wouldn't know what to do with themselves outside the framework of the 9-5. They need a tight script imposed by someone else.

Its bizarre isn't it but then again I'm happy to sit at home and amuse myself. I always have been happy to do that.

Funnily enough at the same time I'm considered an extrovert via several personality tests.

#065 08/26/2014 -- Awesome Concert

Yesterday we took care of some chores in the morning, namely taking care of three loads of laundry. It was a three hour affair because our apartment complex only has one washer and one dryer, but at least we had the laundry room to ourselves. It appears that Mondays are useful after all =).

But the highpoint of our day was going to a Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden concert. In the early afternoon we took our time going to the grocery store and getting provisions for the concert. The concert was held at the Hollywood Bowl, one of our favorite venues. We got to the concert via the Park and Ride service, which is cheaper and less stressful than actually plowing through LA rush hour traffic and paying for parking.

Normally, the Hollywood Bowl allows people to bring their own food and alcohol, so we brought along some wine as we usually do. However, when we got there we learned that they don’t allow alcohol for Lease Events (such as the NIN/SG concert). We were able to have a nice little picnic before entering the venue. We weren’t done with our bottle of wine, so we decided to see if we could sneak it through...we nearly succeeded, but ultimately failed =). We had to check our contraband with the concert operations people so we could get it back after the show. I must say that it was exciting having Spoongirl by my side as my partner in crime =).

The concert was fantastic, both bands performed tremendously well. And guess what was Soundgarden’s second song of the night? That’s right, Spoon Man! Oh my goodness, when Chris Cornell announced the song and gave it a little intro, I went totally berserk! I was the loudest son of a bitch in our entire section =D. Yes, I was that loud and obnoxious guy! I’ve been planning to go to this concert since March and all the while I fantasized about hearing Spoon Man live, so needless to say it was a dream come true. One of the last songs on Soundgarden’s set was Beyond the Wheel, which Chris Cornell sang like he was still 22 years old. Watching him sing that song and let rip all the way was freaking awesome. It was also great hearing NIN’s songs from their new album as well as their classics, such as Closer.

To top off an epic night, we went to In-and-Out burger and indulged like college students =).

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Today I’ve been nursing a bit of a hangover. We’ve spent our day running errands, which have been quite fun to do during the day. It’s been interesting to watch the city tick during the day. It’s abuzz with delivery trucks and a certain group of people out and about. I keep wondering: why are these people not at work? are they FI, rich, freelancers, or somehow independently wealthy? Who knows, but I’ll keep wondering.

It was nice going to a coffee shop around noon, we talked about near term events and had the pleasure of petting someone’s friendly dog. I told myself, hmmm, I could get used to this!

As you can see, there has been a flurry of activity right after we pulled the trigger, and because of that things still feel somewhat surreal. We still have stuff planned for the next two weeks, so it won’t be until mid-September that we might settle into a more normal rhythm.

@C40: You are probably right. That's actually what Spoongirl had pointed out to me, but I guess I supressed that option because it's the least exciting of the bunch =).

They might also be "kept" people. Is that more exciting?

@GTOO: I hadn't thought about that, it could very well be that some fall under that category. That one isn't as exciting =).