Alright, I will continue to post once in a while.
In this case a lot of random thoughts....
I do not follow the forum so in depth anymore, which is actually a shame as I waste too much time on other useless things and there is still so much to learn. This morning I read this post from Jacob in the journal of 2birds1stone2 about ERE vs LEANFIRE:
jacob wrote: ↑Mon Mar 11, 2024 9:36 am
ERE is more the realization that there are often more ways to get things than simply paying for them......
I realized that that with certain things I easily throw money to "solve" the issue but with other things I go a long way to find out alternatives. Mostly that means I will do things myself instead of paying others do it for me, but I do spend more than "needed".
For example, I could have bought/build a basic car charger for just a few hundred euro. But instead, I spend about 3-4 times more, so I have one with a lot of settings how to charge the car (when, how fast, load balanced, make optimal usage of our green solar panel energy, monitor usage incl. graphics etc.). On the other hand, if I would have had it installed by someone else, I would have either paid the same but for a more basic version or more for the same version. Also, I did learn quite a lot about 3 phase electricity, ARC fault circuit breakers etc. which I wouldn't have otherwise. But that's probably rationalizing my choices. On the other hand, I think we can afford it, so why not?
Another example of spending easily money to "solve" something: we took a group of 10 to a buffet restaurant. We could have spent much less if we cooked everything ourselves (or even together with them) and invited them to our house. But we wanted to give them something "special". And we'll do the same soon again with another group. We know they like it, some of them are older and we don't know how long they still with us, we like it and we have the money. But its sounds more it is (lean)fire instead of ERE. On the other hand, we never buy take out (unless we're traveling) and always cook ourselves (also when we have people over).
I guess what I am wanting to say is that in certain area's we're probably more the "fire" type, but in other areas I'm much more attracted to ERE because in many cases I want to do as much as possible myself and learn along the way.
Something else....if you ask me now, would you ever go back to a traditional job, my answer would be "No way!". But I do have some difficulty to find a productive rhythm. I am by far not doing all the things that I imagined in the past. I watch too much Netflix, waste too much time on the internet/phone, go to bed too late, sleep in, eat too much, I am not exercising enough. You can call me lazy I guess. The good thing is, I know this and I am aware, the bad thing is, I have a hard time to change it.
Now, not everything is bad, I am way more relaxed, less stress, I do walk/cycle more than before (even it is by no means as much as I think I should), I still do things like DIY, cooking, helping others, socialize with others etc. BUT BUT I can be (and should be?) so much more productive/better taking care of myself etc.
I guess I am missing a strong intrinsic motivation at the moment and my discipline is lacking. I know about some of the theories about habits, how to improve etc. but nevertheless at the moment I'm by far not as good at it as I should. Maybe it is also because I'm still in the first year I don't have anything big going on (i.e. job, traveling fulltime, own business). But like I started with, do I think it is better going back to get a job: NO. I don't say never or a part time job, but no. If I would do anything again, I would see this it as "project", which is how I see most of the things I do currently anyway.
Perhaps related a bit too above, over the last couple of years I made our house energy efficient and with that it became also comfortable, i.e. almost always the same temperature inside in the whole house, clean air, easy to keep it clean, nice kitchen etc. All in all, perhaps it became too comfortable, such that I need to push myself to go outside. Or that when I go outside, I realize how warm/cold it actually is and I am inside disconnected from the "real" outside world. And now we also bought another car, electrical. Moneywise it was probably a good decision, because the all-in price per km/mile is probably the same as with our previous car while this one is much better (i.e. more safe, luxurious, not burning fossil fuels) but it is also more comfortable.
I guess the above two paragraphs have in common that life became easy, comfortable, perhaps too? I remember Ego wrote that it's good to not have too much money because things would be too comfortable. Well, I guess he had a point.
Continue rambling but perhaps related to above: I talked already a couple of times with DW of planning a trip alone, like the one at AH later this year or the ERE Europe meetup. DW encouraged me to take the step and go ahead.
So, I planned an overseas trip to meet some (old) friends and forum members to a place I did visit frequently in the past for work. I booked a simple Airbnb and a cheap flight. I already know that this won't be as comfortable as staying at home. I hope I'm not disappointed in how I will experience this trip as previously it was always combined with work and I don't recall I ever travelled alone for more than 3-4 days or so. But I do look forward to meet up with other people and be active, experience new/different things and being away of my (comfortable) home.
Another topic: Being a landlord helped us tremendously financially to get to the point where we are today. But lots of things happened and it is not so interesting too me anymore. That is, financially but also the excitement of buying a new rental, seeing the rent coming in every month etc. is gone. It's now more "business as usual" and we have one renter who is, well how to say this, not very good in communicating things. I have to keep my breath and will never reply immediately, just to let it go and reply professionally and keep in the back of my mind as long as she's a "paying customer" I should just let ignore her tone and sometimes unreasonable requests. Luckily this doesn't happen too often.
But like I said, also financially it is no longer that interesting. this is because the house prices increased so much in the last couple of years while the rent didn't increase in the same rate. Therefore I "worked" to get one of the rentals for sale end of last year and last month the official transfer took place. It was sold extremely well, demand is high and supply is low. So that was another "project" that kept me busy for a couple of weeks. Now we are down to four rentals of the original six we had. Later this year I will be able to end the lease of another renter and I will put that one also up for sale. Another "project" that will keeps me busy for some time.
Lots of other things going I could write about, but enough rambling for now, I should get showered and start doing something more productive! Although, maybe I should write here more often (but shorter) as it might also help myself to think more about certain things (I read something similar at another topic here recently).
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