living out of my office in pursuit of ERE
Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 12:22 am
Its been almost 100 days since I started living in my office, and I am so happy with my decision to go for it. I had the idea years ago, but it was for a friend who fell on hard times. Well a few months ago, a kind of wonderful crescendo occurred in my life where I decided to say 'fuck it, what's the worst that could happen', and gave it a shot with the goal of accelerating my path to FI. I live in a VHCOL and I hate paying rent because it feels terrible, and I can feel/see the money going into the pockets of some rich asshole. So I feel great not having to do that anymore.
I share the room with one other person, but there is a divider, and he only comes in once a week. So, I have a ton of privacy, and I don't see any risk of getting caught. If I can, I would like to stay here for about another 9-12 months, perhaps longer. I have a mini-fridge, a microwave (which I haven't used yet), and there is a kitchen down the hall with a toaster oven. My diet largely consists of: greek yogurt, maple syrup (or honey), nut butter (peanut, almond, cashew, etc), fresh fruit/vegetables, whole wheat bread, various seeds (e.g. flax, hemp, chia, etc), oats, and sardines. Sometimes I use the toaster oven to make sandwiches with some combination of the previous ingredients. I loosely follow the Mediterranean diet and I am the healthiest I have ever been.
For bathing, when I'm not lazy I go to the gym (like a 5-minute bike ride away), but lately, I've been using a bucket and two towels in my office, which I actually prefer because I don't have to get my face/hair wet. I typically wash my hair twice/week which I go to the gym for -- usually. Sometimes I go to a private bathroom on campus. I would now like to live in a home that doesn't have a 'traditional' bathroom, but instead a compost toilet and a small space to bathe with a bucket. For laundry, I still have a key to my old apartment complex's laundry room, so I just bike there and use it. I know it sounds a bit crazy, but if you saw me, you would have no idea.
I just turned 30, and my goal is to be more or less FI in the next few years, which should be easy given my trajectory. If I wasn't an emotional wreck, or a graduate student, the last 5-6 years I would have been done by now. Currently, my NW is ~60k, which given my expenses, could last me a long time. My monthly expenses are very low, almost entirely food and the occasional haircut or similar, but this won't last forever. I also:
1. got rid of my cell phone a little over a year ago (now I usee google voice, and no one can tell the difference)
2. I haven't had a car in almost 10 years, so I save a lot there. When I ditched my car, I made a promise to myself to never get one again.
I have a bike with a rack and panniers, and I'm in good pretty good shape so I can get around fairly easily. There's a lot of other things I do to get the expenses low, but I pay basically no money for transportation and housing which are the big ones. With no phone, I feel a bit more 'free' and able to have some *real* alone time. People often ask 'what if a loved one has an emergency and needs help' to which I say 'call a damn ambulance not me wtf'. I enjoy having times where I can't be reached, i.e., when I'm not around wi-fi. One of the initial benefits of moving into my office was that I started spending A LOT of time outside, obviously, because I don't want to be in a windowless room all day. Spending so much time outside, particularly hiking trails around me, I discovered an entire fucking world lmao
So yeah, that's that. Please ask me questions! There's a lot more to tell, which I am eager to do . Once I'm done with this, some ideas of the next move would be:
1. Getting a van and driving around California (I want to spend some time at slab city!)
2. buy some land in Northern California (or my homeland of Michigan), grow some weed, build a cabin/tiny house or something and just not work for a long time lol
3. Get a job in tech/finance, live in a van or the office, and save up a bunch of money for 1-3 years and 'fatFIRE'
fuck society.
I share the room with one other person, but there is a divider, and he only comes in once a week. So, I have a ton of privacy, and I don't see any risk of getting caught. If I can, I would like to stay here for about another 9-12 months, perhaps longer. I have a mini-fridge, a microwave (which I haven't used yet), and there is a kitchen down the hall with a toaster oven. My diet largely consists of: greek yogurt, maple syrup (or honey), nut butter (peanut, almond, cashew, etc), fresh fruit/vegetables, whole wheat bread, various seeds (e.g. flax, hemp, chia, etc), oats, and sardines. Sometimes I use the toaster oven to make sandwiches with some combination of the previous ingredients. I loosely follow the Mediterranean diet and I am the healthiest I have ever been.
For bathing, when I'm not lazy I go to the gym (like a 5-minute bike ride away), but lately, I've been using a bucket and two towels in my office, which I actually prefer because I don't have to get my face/hair wet. I typically wash my hair twice/week which I go to the gym for -- usually. Sometimes I go to a private bathroom on campus. I would now like to live in a home that doesn't have a 'traditional' bathroom, but instead a compost toilet and a small space to bathe with a bucket. For laundry, I still have a key to my old apartment complex's laundry room, so I just bike there and use it. I know it sounds a bit crazy, but if you saw me, you would have no idea.
I just turned 30, and my goal is to be more or less FI in the next few years, which should be easy given my trajectory. If I wasn't an emotional wreck, or a graduate student, the last 5-6 years I would have been done by now. Currently, my NW is ~60k, which given my expenses, could last me a long time. My monthly expenses are very low, almost entirely food and the occasional haircut or similar, but this won't last forever. I also:
1. got rid of my cell phone a little over a year ago (now I usee google voice, and no one can tell the difference)
2. I haven't had a car in almost 10 years, so I save a lot there. When I ditched my car, I made a promise to myself to never get one again.
I have a bike with a rack and panniers, and I'm in good pretty good shape so I can get around fairly easily. There's a lot of other things I do to get the expenses low, but I pay basically no money for transportation and housing which are the big ones. With no phone, I feel a bit more 'free' and able to have some *real* alone time. People often ask 'what if a loved one has an emergency and needs help' to which I say 'call a damn ambulance not me wtf'. I enjoy having times where I can't be reached, i.e., when I'm not around wi-fi. One of the initial benefits of moving into my office was that I started spending A LOT of time outside, obviously, because I don't want to be in a windowless room all day. Spending so much time outside, particularly hiking trails around me, I discovered an entire fucking world lmao
So yeah, that's that. Please ask me questions! There's a lot more to tell, which I am eager to do . Once I'm done with this, some ideas of the next move would be:
1. Getting a van and driving around California (I want to spend some time at slab city!)
2. buy some land in Northern California (or my homeland of Michigan), grow some weed, build a cabin/tiny house or something and just not work for a long time lol
3. Get a job in tech/finance, live in a van or the office, and save up a bunch of money for 1-3 years and 'fatFIRE'
fuck society.