Early Retirement Extreme Forums

No progress on the score mentioned above. I have been attending events and building connections though. I've joined seanconn's MMG and I'm hoping that the discussion there can provide some greater motivation, but really the problem has been being super busy at work (like 50-hour taxing weeks).

Now that my current hectic project at work is dying down, I intend to start a timer at the start of each day for 8.5 hours and just leave when it goes off. Hopefully this will help me have more time and energy to approve and claw myself more of the way out of the frugal salaryman trap.

In other news, I think I'm going to cut donations down to a few percent of income for now. It would feel nice to be part of the "donate 10% of your income to effective charities" club but I think it's too at odds with my financial independence goals. That money is getting invested and can always be disbursed later if there's a particularly pressing project that needs funding.

The first session of seanconn's MMG has happened. I'm glad I signed up.

For the record, this journal has been pretty clipped and unrelated thoughts. I know that if I apply pressure to only write good/long stuff, I'll just end up not doing it, so for now I'm going to keep posting random musings and updates ~once a week in order to stay engaged.

After noticing just how much time I spend browsing the internet (ususally the result of looking up some random question and then getting lost in related links), I'm turning off internet on my devices by default. Hopefully this friction will help me stay a little more focused.

Savings rate for March: 84%

I'm arranging to volunteer at a local nonprofit bike repair shop. I think it will be a good chance to learn some practical skills and possibly even meet likeminded people This has to be one of the most on-brand ERE things I've done

An 84% SR is pretty on-brand as well, so give yourself some credit.

@grundomatic lol, fair enough!


Bike repair is going well. I've learned a fair bit so far and it's actually been really good for a sense of community.

Went to a local maker space, learned how to use a sewing machine, and patched my workshop pants.

Practical skill acquisition is going pretty well at the moment.

Bike repair volunteering is going well. I was able to fix problems on my own bike that had been troubling me for months before I knew what I was doing.

I never finished Shop Class as Soulcraft, but I think I can relate to it a bit now.

Savings rate for April: 81% (and didn't even have the benefit of a tax return this time )

Getting a promotion at work, which will also involve a raise. Not sure how much. This is pretty much all good because at my company they don't promote you until you're already performing at the next level, meaning my responsibilities shouldn't increase much from what they are now.

On the other hand, my life is starting to become boring. I'm losing some drive toward adventure and unconventionality. I worry I'm on a bad path, but I'm not sure what to do about it. My current plan is to spend a few more months at the office before going remote and travelling across Canada while working. I find it hard to bring myself to do this given the cost (it's hard to beat $30/night for temporary accommodations, and it's either that or buy a vehicle, which is a whole other set of troubles. I don't think I could manage camping while working a full-time job), so I have to aggressively remind myself that money is just a tool.

Remember intermittent work is also a strategy. I think @ego has implemented intermittent work in his lifestyle. At your savings rate, you could work a year, save ~3 years of expenses, then take a year off. If expenses during the off year are similar, you still have 2 yrs expenses saved and working for you. You could keep expenses low by house-sitting. Also, as you build your social network, loose connections can help with places to stay and even transport or finding a job when your year off is up. I know plenty of more reasonable people here will say just work and get to FI, but I'll cast my vote for "you are only young once". Go have adventures, even if it means not earning income. I know exactly how hard it can be to make personal progress while holding down an exhausting job.

Thanks @grundomatic. I'm definitely going to start weighting that option higher than I used to. If for some reason I lose this job and don't immediately get a new job I'm thrilled about, I think that's what I might end up doing.

Now that my to-do list is getting more full than I can manage, I've been finding it hard to choose what to get done each day. Started using a tool called Complice, which has been going well.

(Late) May savings rate: 75%

Finally got my hands on a couple of books I've been wanting to read: How to Survive without a Salary, and Chimpanzee Politics. Will read them after finishing Radical Simplicity.

Actually, I ended up listening to Possum Living first since I managed to get that in audiobook form. It was good, mostly for the inspiration of doing things differently (eg farming rabbits in the basement) and living in society, but breaking plenty of rules when you can get away with it.
My edition had a couple of afterwards with the stories of what happened to the author after publication of the book. I found these surprisingly moving.

What happened to the author? I read an older version.

sky wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 27, 2022 7:38 pm

What happened to the author?

She went to university, became an aerospace engineer at NASA, then switched to being an environmental educator. She married another NASA engineer and had kids. She doesn't live quite as possum as she did in her youth, but she's still frugal.

As for her father, he became more unstable and his drinking developed into a serious problem. She had to cut off all contact with him sometime after she moved out for university. He eventually lost the house, drifted around for a while and ended up dying in a car crash. It was super sad to hear about this after how cool their relationship seemed in the book.

Thanks
I liked that book but would not want rabbits and chickens in the basement.