Brainstorming

[brainstorm]

Hey @sky! Thanks for stopping by.

Mostly agreed with jacob! But I use both ebay and facebook marketplace regularly. It really helps to have the workflow planned out ahead of time so you know where to go and when. As far as minimums go it's kind of flexible - local pickups can be free, but for shipped goods I guess it's around $15-20 (excl. shipping)

ebay has great reach. I only ship stuff with it, no pickups, and I like to use it for more niche items and for clothing. I scavenge cardboard boxes from my building's recycling room and buy the shipping label directly through ebay. Then when it sells I walk it 5 min to the local post office. I never do auctions either, just set the price to what I'd like to get but accept offers as low as <some number I'm still happy with>.

I have a different experience from jacob for local pickups, but only since I've figured out my system in the last couple years. fb marketplace is great! I list items at a low-ish price so they sell quickly. In exchange, I make it clear in my description that I'm looking for someone to reply with a date/time when they could come pick up (and if they read that far then they're probably not gonna ask me a bunch of followup questions about stuff I already wrote in the description).

Anyone who's ever sold anything on facebook [in a city] knows how soulsucking it is to get 100 of the default "Hello, is this still available?" messages. so even though I have my silly tests and rules about who to respond to, it makes for a very efficient process and I think people like that. at least, I like it and I can't be bothered to respond to everybody. I seem to sell things and get good ratings this way - and the nice part about ignoring 95% of responses is that they can't leave a rating anyways, once we have a time set up I confirm the day of and I don't move a muscle until they say that they're here to avoid wasted effort on flakes - but I seem to be okay at weeding them out lately.

[delay]

I've been cutting my own hair for a couple years - my trusty Wahl clippers have saved me several grand

Thanks for updating your journal! Just writing in to cheer for Wahl clippers. Mine are now 20 years old and they're awesome.

[brainstorm]

Wahl! Wahl! Wahl!

I always enjoy hearing about people cutting their own hair for decades - it’s wholesome and I think even normies can relate. The ROI is great and you can get a cut whenever and however you like. Glad to have you in the crew, delay!

[philipreal]

I got my first set of Wahl clippers as a gift this past Christmas. Haven't used them yet but I certainly will be joining the club sometime soon!

[brainstorm]

That’s what I’m talking about!

[NewBlood]

Thanks for sharing your experience! I'd be interested to hear more about it - not sure if it's in your journal which admittedly I'm still working through

Haha, no worries, so many journals to read, much more interesting ones than mine too.
I think I started my journal a few months after my sabbatical anyway. Happy to answer any questions you have if I can help.

[brainstorm]

February

Things are going pretty well over here.

On the money side, I spent about $1400 and saved 6x that between 401k, HSA, and brokerage.

I shelled out a bit for a 2-day sewing workshop my friend is putting on, which I’m pumped about - besides basic mending, I’d like to be able to make simple alterations and maybe eventually bags for bikepacking or camping. It’s slightly intimidating (less so after actually working through a few simple youtube videos with my machine), so bootstrapping with my friend’s support and getting to meet other folks will be nice. Otherwise, unfortunately my plan to get a free gym membership did not pan out :/ I also had a few other optional/experimental purchases, which reassure me that there is some slack in the budget - still, it might be good to finally try out a buy nothing period.

“Business” picked up a little bit with my underground barbershop, and I learned to give a fade (I don’t actually earn money from this, just trade favors). I love the feeling of a fresh haircut, so it’s nice to be able to share that with others. This is a little side quest that I did not expect for myself, but I’m enjoying it. And more after-work time spent reading and journaling has been nice too. I read some sci-fi and spy books, as well as Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha (1st ed), which I found to be very enlightening and gave a lot of helpful context around the practice and path.

[brainstorm]

March

Spring is in the air! Unfortunately, so is the pollen...

Finances
Raise and bonus this month! Invested about a year of expenses (includes pruning my cash buffer that had gotten a little too large) and got in my IRA contributions for the year (via backdoor). Record low for spending this month, around $1235 (win!), though expecting April to be high as I'm due for some new street & climbing shoes. Variable spend was mostly just climbing-related and went out to eat/drink a few times

Also set up Actual Budget so that I can have a better idea of my spending habits (h/t @bos). I only track my checking account and credit card and cash right now, so it won’t help with income tracking for post-retirement healthcare (i.e. dividend and interest income), but want to get some data in the books. So far so good after following a few of the docs' recommended practices.

Hobbies
I learned to use my sewing machine! Made a couple bags. It was pretty frustrating at first - some mechanical issues to sort out (secondhand machine) - and then got fun once I worked through them and built a little confidence. I'll probably make a little chalk bucket out of a 25 lb rice bag - I need to get eating.

Climbing has been really great lately. Joined a league and been consistently stoked to be in the gym, training hard, and meeting new people. And I figured out a warmup that gets me ready to work hard. Thinking about consistently climbing 3-4x per week, like what @AH was saying (even if it's indoors) to see how strong I get. My volume has never been very high - first year was mostly 1x per week and second year mostly 2x per week.

Reading: Nuclear War was a fascinating read despite the topic (yep, I'm pretty much fucked). Currently working through LOTR (a classic) and Feeling Good for some CBT self-education (have previously done CBT with a therapist and found the strategies useful).

Work
Goes on, some days good and some bad. I've realized part of it is just boredom, so taking breaks to walk, run errands, rest, etc and doing some of those low-priority-but-satisfying tech debt cleanup items to keep morale up. This is the longest I've been at a job, so at some point I'm going to get pretty comfortable with day-to-day stuff and need to actively branch out to keep it fresh. And otherwise, just delegating and tapping in other people when I'm too busy for extra requests.

[brainstorm]

Two recent changes:

One, I've decided to go with a golden butterfly portfolio as a slightly more equity-focused version of the permanent portfolio (which was my main hesitation given length of retirement). Thanks Tyler9000 for your website <3. Anyways, it's simple, it backtests very well / has good numbers (for me), and it's easy to reason about, track, and rebalance (again, for me). I'm maintaining separate portfolios in taxable and tax-advantaged, so I'm rebalancing some of my treasury money market fund into what's underrepresented, and also opening a self-directed brokerage account at work to get a better allocation in my tax-advantaged bucket. I just have to keep ≥50% in core funds at all times, but combined with the Roth IRA's flexibility I should be able to get a lot closer to the target allocation.

Two, I'm eating meat again after ~2.5 years of a vegetarian/near-vegan diet. I've had increasingly annoying chronic muscle tightness, joint stiffness, achiness etc since joining my meal plan in December (and some before too), so I guessed it had something to do with diet and decided to try out the change during my climbing league. Now I'm feeling great, and my muscles and joints are suddenly all feeling great even with extra training. To be fair it's probably partially the extra calories and not just extra protein, but still I'd estimate I was only getting 70-90g protein on many days so it's a large step up. Not sure of any long-term plans now, just enjoying feeling good so far and continuing to eat my veggies.

[bos]

Also set up Actual Budget so that I can have a better idea of my spending habits (h/t @bos). I

Great to see I inspired you I just caught up on your journal!

[Scott 2]

I'm approaching twenty five years of a vegetarian diet. It's common for going vegan or near vegan to cause a rebound. Nailing the nutrition is extremely difficult.

I think it's best to avoid a label and seek one's happy medium. Some protein and fat from animal sources helps. Is my conventional cheese "better" than someone else's happy chicken? I kinda doubt it.

Our food choices aren't binary. Even the most militant vegan is making compromises. The diet has to work for you, or it isn't sustainable.

[NewBlood]

Climbing has been really great lately. Joined a league and been consistently stoked to be in the gym, training hard, and meeting new people. And I figured out a warmup that gets me ready to work hard. Thinking about consistently climbing 3-4x per week, like what @AH was saying (even if it's indoors) to see how strong I get. My volume has never been very high - first year was mostly 1x per week and second year mostly 2x per week.

How does the climbing league work? Is it like a club where you train together? or contests?
Good luck on the change in schedule and diet! climbing is very time-consuming, but I find it so worth it.

[brainstorm]

Great to see I inspired you I just caught up on your journal!

Thanks for dropping in, and for the rec!

One thing I like about the forum is there can be a great recommendation for a book/tool/website tucked away in a random comment lots of collective knowledge! My to-read list has gotten out of control though...

This is the first budgeting software I've liked since Mint went away. I've had my trusty spreadsheet for my theoretical spend, but it doesn't always line up with reality. And I'm not really itching to spend money on a tool that might not actually be a good match for me. I like small, open-source projects a lot (software dev at work) and the envelope method is a lot easier now that my spend has significantly lowered. 15 transactions are a lot easier to categorize than 100! And the more I use it, the better I can capture those irregular once-a-year expenses.

So, so far so good.

[brainstorm]

I'm approaching twenty five years of a vegetarian diet. It's common for going vegan or near vegan to cause a rebound. Nailing the nutrition is extremely difficult.

I think it's best to avoid a label and seek one's happy medium. Some protein and fat from animal sources helps. Is my conventional cheese "better" than someone else's happy chicken? I kinda doubt it.

Our food choices aren't binary. Even the most militant vegan is making compromises. The diet has to work for you, or it isn't sustainable.

25 years! Respect. Yeah, everything's a tradeoff (lots of my work and non-work thoughts revolve around that lately, lol) and I landed a bit too far on one side. I think I'll try again in the future - I still think it's worthwhile - but now I know it's worth putting in a bit more effort and/or money into macros and key micros, and how I feel if those needs aren't getting met. More of a factor when I'm not cooking my own meals

You've done lots of strength training too - any issues with diet besides the common focus on eating enough calories/protein, not too much sweets, etc?

[brainstorm]

How does the climbing league work? Is it like a club where you train together? or contests?
Good luck on the change in schedule and diet! climbing is very time-consuming, but I find it so worth it.

Thanks! The league is set up as a competition between teams. We get points based on how hard we climb (defined by V grade - extra points for flashes), and only the top few climbs per person are counted each week. Each location has a certain day/time for it, so everybody shows up around the same time and tries to send the new set together! It's pretty fun, a good way to meet each other and it forces me to work on a variety of styles. Fingers are getting stronger! I think 3x weekly is a good change, although it leaves me wiped out at times

[NewBlood]

That sounds like a lot of fun! We don't have something like that here. Only one-day contests once in a while.

I usually go 3 times a week too, and I'm definitely tired a lot. But good tired I really enjoy the feeling of tired but not sore, muscles.

[brainstorm]

April 2025

The weather has really started to perk up here, and I’m excited for the coming summer. The trees are blooming and the days are long. The block I live on is kinda gloomy in the winter - lots of concrete and unremarkable buildings - but now the nearby side streets and paths are quite pretty with lots of tree cover and less noise.

I helped a friend put in new flooring which was a blast. I love doing physical projects with friends, like moving. I show up and move my body and usually get some pizza. We have a little adventure, joke around, and play some music. There are some puzzles involved too, like figuring out how to fit the furniture into a truck or how to align the floorboards. If anyone here needs some help with a project, hit me up

---

Finances:

Spent a lot of money this month! About $1750. Some unusual expenses were new climbing shoes ($175), bike parts ($90), and gifts ($170). I went on some dates too ($80), and set up a pi-hole with unbound on a Zero 2W ($40).

Obviously lots of volatility in the markets mid-month, but in the end net worth bounced back and finished ahead of last month, and I maxed out my 401k for the year too. So I hit a big $ milestone and just passed 25x! Nice! This includes all my assets incl. tax-advantaged accounts, debts (none), no SS or inheritance, and is based on my theoretical budget rather than my actual average spend. I'm glad that, in the end, I was able to make some progress even with the craziness. And it was nice to learn more about different portfolios on PortfolioCharts.

---

The pi-hole was a fun little project and reminded me of some past Arduino projects I’ve done. I don’t notice too much difference day-to-day but pages do load a bit faster and intellectually I feel better about reducing the stupid high amount of ads/tracking/bloat that is the modern web.

Enjoyed reading akratic’s and m741’s journals. The journals are a great way to get other perspectives, and also selfishly a more satisfying way to spend an evening than watching television. So thanks to all who share one of their own. I also read @theanimal’s book and very much enjoyed it. The PCT or CT is on my bucket list, and it was nice to read more about the journey - and it’s the little things, but the epub was nicely formatted with beautiful illustrations.

[Scott 2]

Congrats on the financial milestones. When your runway is 10+ years, life hits different.

Have you setup the account to track Social Security earnings and expected payout? In your shoes, I'd want to hit the minimum 40 quarters, as well the first and second bends for total lifetime contributions. While the amount doesn't have much impact on early retiree's SWR, it's an easy safety net to establish. IMO it's unlikely Social Security reductions hit those first two payout bends.

You've done lots of strength training too - any issues with diet besides the common focus on eating enough calories/protein, not too much sweets, etc?

I respond pretty well to creatine. From what I understand, that's more common in non-meat eaters. I try to eat eggs most days, and keep soy to 0-1 servings per day. I don't have hard data for either of those, but suspect they help my testosterone. From a general health perspective - I supplement with a vegan DHA and ensure my multi-vitamin includes B12.

There's a less obvious answer. The values leading towards a vegetarian/vegan diet, tend to cluster. I made several attempts at joining serious strength training environments. Each time, I found the culture a near inverse of my own values. It wasn't something I aspired to emulate or enjoyed being around. Beyond absence of community, lack of those qualities, likely limited my progress. My nature is aligned with yoga or endurance sports.

There's a marked absence of high level vegetarian/vegan strength athletes. I believe that cultural intersection is why.

[jacob]

Have you setup the account to track Social Security earnings and expected payout? In your shoes, I'd want to hit the minimum 40 quarters, as well the first and second bends for total lifetime contributions. While the amount doesn't have much impact on early retiree's SWR, it's an easy safety net to establish. IMO it's unlikely Social Security reductions hit those first two payout bends.

Cumulative earnings (max for any 35 year period) needed to hit the first bend: 35*12*$1226 = $514,920
Ditto to hit the second bend: $3,103,800 (in 2025 dollars)

In order to hit the second bend w/o having a multi-million dollar NW, you have to have had earned six-figs+ for three+ decades and spent the majority of it as you went along. Like a typical lawyer or doctor, basically.

[Scott 2]

Wow, just realized max social security earnings is now almost $170k/yr. My intuition has not kept up with inflation. Betraying a bit of my tech bias here.