Early Retirement Extreme Forums

mooretrees wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 21, 2023 9:43 pm

I don't strain mine. I also like thick yogurt but it comes out decent the way it is (not as thick as my wife would like, but not super runny either. You can easily cut a piece off of it and it will stand up on its own in the pot).

I believe if you strain it I have heard you can use the byproduct in smoothies and stuff because it's still high protein, but I can't vouch for that actually being true.

Flying tomorrow for another interview in the town I lived in before. The job actually sounds great, and the pay is really good. Still have not received any official paperwork from the other job I mentioned last time, although I've been in contact with the hiring manager a few times. This new job, if I was offered it, would pay twice what the other one does (and probably be more interesting). Only downside is that prices in the town are crazy. Although we COULD buy a house there, it just doesn't seem worth it. Annual rents are ~1/20th of the price to buy. When you factor in the investment potential of that money, renting just seems to make more sense right now. One of our goals is to get a job somewhere where we can see settling down and buying a house (I love home ownership). In this case, we would just have to rent for a few years until the home price/stock value equation adjusts.

Well, I got the job mentioned in the post above. The pay is good, it's remote a couple of days a week, and it sounds interesting. I'm actually excited about the prospect of going back to work again. Kind of a bummer that we need to move, but it is what it is.

I still have concerns about housing prices in the town where we're moving. Rents are sky high, but housing prices are even more astronomical. We'll have to see how the job goes, whether it's something I see myself sticking with for many years, to decide whether to buy or not.

Cool, exciting stuff happening for you!

When will you move and start working? Keep us posted, it's always interesting to read of folks going back to work after a period of retirement, and what eventually pushes them back to retirement too!

mooretrees wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 05, 2023 11:58 am

I'll definitely keep everyone updated. I'm moving and will begin working mid month. A couple of weeks. Big changes!

Been in the new job for a couple of months now. It's going well, I think. Challenging and I'm learning a lot--skills that will help me get similar but better jobs if I want one, I think. So that's good!

It's not all perfect. I had this fantasy that if I went back to work I wouldn't be bored, would appreciate every day of work, etc. I'm not there, but it certainly isn't terrible.

The good parts are good--I am commuting by bike, which is fun. I'm saving a good amount of money--a bit more than $1,400 per week, all told. We've got our own space and independence again. Right now I see myself doing this for at least a few more years, hopefully into a bull market again.

Did some math. Last year, we managed to save about $30k in dividends but despite that we lost money in our portfolio. Disappointing!

Well, I'm still mulling over the idea of totally cell-phone free living that was discussed on another thread here. I've been on a flip phone for ~8 months now, and although I think I'm spending less time on my phone, I still find myself getting the occasional dopamine rush when I go to check if I have a text message or whatever. Meanwhile, I'm watching Seinfeld at home and I just love seeing this world where all of those people were functioning and happy and none of them ever checked a computer in their pocket while they were out.

I signed up for a Google Voice account and I'm going to try it for a few months, mostly while keeping my cell phone off. If I still like it, I may port my cell number over there and give up the cell entirely.

--Work Related--

Just finished a major project at work. It was stressful, but I'm proud of the work I did on it and I think we did a good job. Now we're in a bit of a quiet cycle before the next project ramps up in a week or two, so the old feeling of not knowing what to do with myself is kicking in again. I do have a couple of longer term projects that I know I'll need to start on, so I think I can put in a bit of work on those and make some headway early.

--Cell/Tech Related--

I am now cellphone free. Cancelled my cell service about two weeks ago. I still have my old flip phone which I keep powered down in my backpack as a 911-calling-device if I ever need it. It feels pretty good. I can still keep in touch with everyone via google voice, so basically the only change I've really noticed is:

a) when I wake up I have no ability to check my phone.
b) I sometimes miss having a flashlight on hand all the time.
c) I was at the pharmacy the other day and I was literally the only person looking around instead of on my phone.
d) when out on nature walks I'm sometimes tempted to check my phone to see if I have a text from my brother on any of our long-running chats. I can't do that now, and it works perfectly fine for me to just wait until I'm home.

Basically, I feel it's a very positive change, although not as BIG of a change as I had imagined. I spend so much time on the computer anyway that I've lost very little communications ability.

I don't see myself ever going back to getting a cell unless my life circumstances change in some unanticipated way.

--Hobby Related--

Getting back into history/wargaming. I'm playing Gary Grigsby's War in the West and War in the East and reading An Army At Dawn about the US's North African campaign in 1942. A very good book so far.

--Money Related--

We're saving a good amount of money for us, but my wife is just about ready to quit doing her writing job, which will definitely negatively impact the amount we save (she earns about $800/mo, which we save all of). Doesn't sound like a ton but it's a large portion of our after-tax savings now because pre-tax savings through work take up such a large portion of our income (about 40% right now due to pension, 457, etc.).

Although it isn't imminent, we are considering when we want to "pull the cord" again and retire. Right now the idea is a couple years out, probably, and after taking the time to decide on where we actually want to retire TO.

Salathor wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 31, 2023 10:50 am

b) I sometimes miss having a flashlight on hand all the time.

Photon light on keychain.

jacob wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 31, 2023 10:57 am

Photon light on keychain.

You know, just yesterday I was wondering if there was any good tiny flashlight that wasn't just imported stuff that became immediate garbage. Have you used one, and do they last?

I don't always carry keys, but something like that might be small enough to just drop in my pocket or keep by the bed.

Salathor wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 31, 2023 4:03 pm

You know, just yesterday I was wondering if there was any good tiny flashlight that wasn't just imported stuff that became immediate garbage. Have you used one, and do they last?

I've had three of them for nearly 20 years. Red, orange, and white LEDs. I prefer the photon2. The orange LED is a good compromise between brightness and battery life. They're also small enough to use as a zipper pull.

jacob wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 01, 2023 5:31 am

Well, I picked up the II (with the press activate or stay-on switch). Nice and bright, and super small. I'm excited, just so long as I don't accidentally leave it in my pants and wash it Fortunately I don't wash my pants very often.

Wrapping up my second full quarter of working again. Money wise things seem good.

Since I began working in April:

Spending for a family of four was equal to $23,376, of which $13,500 was rent.
Our next biggest category was groceries, at $2631, and then frivolous fun stuff which came in at 1,750.

Our annualized cost here comes in at about $46,700, or $11,675 per person.

This is higher than I want but rent is twice as high as it was when we first moved to this town ten years ago.

Meanwhile, we've managed to save about $44,500, not counting this quarter's worth of dividends or any reinvested funds in our retirement accounts, which would add several thousand dollars to the total. Over all, I think we're making satisfactory progress toward financial goals. I think, if we see reasonable but not spectacular markets for the next few years, I'll probably achieve all of my financial goals before I turn 40. That basically comes down to: do I have enough money to live in hawaii or Florida for 6 months or a year, if I want to? Do I have enough money to then come back and visit with family for a month or two at a time?

#

Personal life wise, I've been diving deeply into the classics texts, WW2 history, and minimalism. I'm loving our floor living. No chairs in the living room; we all just lounge on the rug. Reading Richard III right now, and I have the patrick Stewart Macbeth DVD from the library to watch this weekend. Reading "An Army At Dawn" about the US's entrance into WW2 via Operation TORCH in north Africa. All in all, things are going well.

What are you reading for minimalism?

ertyu wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 22, 2023 5:49 am

I just reread Fumio Sasaki's Goodbye, Things and have been watching a fair amount (not a crazy amount!) of youtube content--mostly a series on floor living by a guy called Movementum and this Japanese guy called Samurai Matcha.

I don't think I AM a minimalist (I really dislike a lot of the waste the movement inspires by getting rid of useful things already purchased), but certainly I've got more sympathy that way than toward mass consumerism. The things I reject are generally caused by specific reasons rather than rejecting all goods out of hand (ie, I don't have a cell phone anymore, don't have chairs in my living room, don't buy packaged food, all for reasons that are probably clear to people on this forum). I did, for example, by an adjustable wrench/channel lock last month, and I still feel good about it.

Thanks for the rec, Movementum is new to me

Salathor wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 23, 2023 9:21 am

I don't think I AM a minimalist (I really dislike a lot of the waste the movement inspires by getting rid of useful things already purchased), but certainly I've got more sympathy that way than toward mass consumerism.

I predict this will die out with inflation. It's one thing to never amass belongings in the first place, but "transitioning to minimalism" and "get rid of it, if you actually need it, you can always buy it later" only make sense when inflation is low (I don't think it's a coincidence that minimalism became an influencer trend during a period of secularly low inflation). High inflation, on the other hand, incentivizes "store/stock up cause you might need it later, and by then, the price might be 3x."

ertyu wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 23, 2023 9:26 am

That makes sense as a cause. It's still crazy wasteful, but a lot more economically viable. I still think there's room for a lot of deep purging, but getting rid of useful tools that are carefully stored away just because you haven't used it for a season seems more psychological than useful.

@Salathor I enjoy Samurai Matcha too. I first stumbled across the video where he got rid of everything and then added back in one thing each day. It was so fascinating. Now I watch one of his videos once every couple of weeks because he always inspires me to keep on with the reducing.

I hear what you are saying about the waste involved in getting rid of perfectly good things you already own. The main thing that slows my reducing is the need to find a good new home for everything. It helps to see how excited other people are to get the things I get rid of. I think on balance it is good to get rid of things I am not using as long as they go to someone else who will use them. But I am not reducing useful tools that are carefully stored away unless they are duplicates.

The amount of times that I've gotten rid of tools/things that I haven't used for 10yrs, only to need them the week after...

On a practical level though there's the consideration of capacity utilisation, which for us tends to be the trigger to deep-purge

fingeek wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 24, 2023 1:31 am

The amount of times that I've gotten rid of tools/things that I haven't used for 10yrs, only to need them the week after...

That's what I'm afraid of. We've done some deep purges, selling thousands of dollars worth of stuff, but I'm not sure I'm willing to discard useful but occasional things. Our last move was accomplished with just the contents of a single travel trailer, so we've got things pared down PRETTY well, but certainly more improvement could be made. I fantasize about being being able to pack everything into a car and just move at will, but it seems more like a single man's fantasy than a realistic expectation for an established family of four.

A more realistic goal might be to learn to travel lightly. Our goal after we "retire" again next is to spend weeks or months per year in a different travel location--Hawaii, FL, Japan, etc. I don't think we've ever had to check a bag for travel, but the most we've ever traveled was 10 days. I think carry-on traveling for a month+ at a time would be "successful" enough for me.