Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Many rooms cost $500, just divide by 2 and you get $250. You are trading some privacy for greater community and financial ease

How does volunteering at a food shelter lead to $0 food expenses? Isn't that food for the needy?

@Scott2 - ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE!!

I am needy~ : )

There are often leftovers and since I'm currently unemployed and dealing with medical expenses, I asked if I could have some. They were happy to help and so am I. Always been a grey jedi tbh

@C40 - it certainly feels that way in NY / :

I'm just hoping some job I can actually hold down comes along soon from all this e-mail sending. I don't really feel like a high energy person. The Planned Parenthood job requires a car and delivering sensitive presentations daily. Sounds exhausting. The Mental Health Worker job is 30 mi away and is at a psychiatric ward dealing with acute, short-term patients. Maybe I'm just not cut out for full-time work. Or maybe I'm just screwed work-wise. I don't know, but I need to figure something out.

It's almost hiring season in China. 15 hour or less work weeks for teachers

Well, that's it. I've had it! I'm getting the fuck out of NY! And I'll be taking my minimalist pile along with me. Back to the parents in Miami it is. C has flight benefits so I can fly in and out from Miami to NY until I'm done w/ orthodontia once a month, for free. I can also fly wherever in the US for free. Parents have offered free food and lodging, and I can help them out with renting part of the house and other financial planning matters. So technically I just turned FI. Wooptidoo.

I'll using home as a staging ground to find a new job and stop depleting resources unecessarily. And to get the fuck out of NY, one of the most depressing places on the planet.

And to get the fuck out of NY, one of the most depressing places on the planet.

That's comforting to hear for once. People in my circle speak of it as if it was paradise on earth. No wonder you hate it. It sounds like the Capital of Consumerism.

Since you are interested in people and ideas, may I suggest a career in diplomacy? You can join the U.S. State Department and become a Foreign Service Officer. Since you have a degree from a prestigious university that would be a plus. Additionally, you are Hispanic so that should be helpful especially if you decide to serve in Latin America. You should investigate it. I think you would like it. Diplomacy is tailor-made for NFs, like engineering/science is for NTs.

^That. You would probably like being a FSO more I would!

You've seemed a bit on edge lately. A strategic withdrawal to familiar surroundings might not be a horrible idea.

@Dream of Freedom: I can honestly say the past 6 months have been some of the most confusing, frustrating, and emotionally volatile times in my life. Even topping coming into the country as a non-English speaking migrant when I was 6, or a wholly one-sided break-up after deep investment on both sides. I was not prepared for the "real world" transition at all. Nobody prepared me for it or even told me it was a phenomenon. Even I didn't prepare myself for it, and I feel like I tend to be prepared for everything. I still feel so damn lost. It's like everything I hold dear is the opposite here. Community? There isn't any unless if you make it yourself. Wealth? You have to be super creative to keep others from taking it. Transportation? The US was designed for cars, not people. The only thing that keeps me sane is walking a trail. It's peaceful, there's exercise, there's no thought of finding a fitting job to hold for 40 hours.

The skills I've learned through ERE are what's kept me semi-Okay. I can fix things when they break, I can build a community to reduce housing costs, I can cook and know how to shop, I can analyze taxes and a portfolio to maximize the utility of money. What I lack is an opportunity in work that I can complete, and a place that is compatible with me. I am lacking stability and trying to hold down a slowly declining empire. A strategic retreat may be helpful. I'm just hoping that strategic retreat will be helpful. I'm scared that if or when I return home, I'll be able to secure a job there. And be able to reach that job without the use of a car.

Maybe no one told you or prepared you because you went to a liberal arts college?

I'm assuming so

You'll figure it out.

If you let me, I'd like to share one thought that could be useful:

I understand your deception about how occidental society is built / works (I even share most of it).

Your unfitting feeling seems to assume you must fit into a rigid and small frame instead of finding your place in a very large and not so rigid frame...

In your situation, maybe going abroad, and spend some time in very different cultures (africa, india...), may help you get a broader perspective, and help you find your way...

Like this? https://www.peacecorps.gov/

Do your parents really like their jobs? Why did you originally have such an optimistic view of work?

Even before I started working full-time, from how my parents and friends' parents felt about their work, I thought a job was just being an obedient minion while selling time and energy for money and I can stop when I'm 65.

I agree that international travel broadens your perspective and may be warranted here. Joining the Peace Corps for a stint would be a productive and worthwhile means to that end. The time in also counts towards a government pension. I also think you should give consideration to a career in diplomacy - Foreign Service Officer in the US Department of State. A tour in the Peace Corps with your prestigious education and Hispanic background would serve you well in the FSO application.

IMO the peace corps is a classic example of virtue signaling: https://bir.brandeis.edu/bitstream/hand ... sequence=1

The Old Man wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:20 pm

I agree that international travel broadens your perspective and may be warranted here. Joining the Peace Corps for a stint would be a productive and worthwhile means to that end. The time in also counts towards a government pension. I also think you should give consideration to a career in diplomacy - Foreign Service Officer in the US Department of State. A tour in the Peace Corps with your prestigious education and Hispanic background would serve you well in the FSO application.

How does one go about applying for Foreign Service Officer? I don't even know how to apply through the Peace Corps, let alone be a Foreign Service Officer. Heh...

Yes yes, virtue signaling. That's all well and good, but I need something to do that I can actually do. If it makes you feel any better, I don't use social media besides LinkedIn out of necessity.