KRUMPn and BUMPn

Where are you and where are you going?
KRUMPn
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Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2021 8:55 pm

KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by KRUMPn »

Background
I am currently 29 M working remotely in software development for a major insurance company. It is the only job (WILL be my last corporate job) I have had after graduating with a degree in CS (shocker!). My ERE journey originally started about 7 years ago while I was perusing personal finance and financial independence type media. During college I had an internship with the Air Force as a civilian, which gave me an early glimpse into the bloat, waste and boredom that seems almost integral to large bureaucracies. I decided in my first year that there was no way I could possibly spend 40 years doing this without blowing my brains out, so I started chunking money away into the TSP since that was the only way I knew to accomplish this. Fortunately my parents were able to provide me with assistance for college, so I graduated with no debt. As I moved into my current job, I started chunking more money away (30% into my 401(k)), but was starting down the typical route of spending more money as I earned more. Luckily my laziness and loathing of driving prevented me from living far from work (I haven't lived farther than about a mile and walked until I went remote), but I was still in an upscale 10th floor apartment across the street. Unfortunately, the on-boarding to insurance is relatively slow and no senior developer's trust new hires (rightfully so) with anything, so that boredom had me searching for anything to speed up this process. That is when I discovered ERE and then MMM and FIRE by association.
It rocked my world and within a few months I had cut my housing to a third of what it was, sold my almost new car for a reliable one that was 7 years old and started experimenting with cost cutting measures. I started playing around with various DIY and homemade goods such as mead for my weekend binges and all home cooked meals for almost every meal. I never felt like I was missing out on anything and life was great! Luckily these were the easy switches since I had made most of the cooking switch in college when I decided to clean up my diet.
This was pretty much the day in, day out for 3-4 years. I'd work at something that had become mildly enjoyable and basically free of stress and then work on frugality and skill building after. Luckily most of my friends were attending medical school at the time so I had very few spendy influences. Then my roommate graduated and his family had decided to sell the condo that I was living in. I had an offer from my sister to move in with her, her husband and my nephew. I thought it would be great so I took up the offer and moved up to SD.
This may have been a mistake as I have struggled to meet people here and I don't really like the atmosphere. There is also a distinct difference in frugality priorities between me and them. This and lack of outside socialization has caused me to spend more than I'd like on trinkets that usually end up being useless (trying to fulfill other needs by buying stuff). Unfortunately (maybe not?) I have become very emotionally bonded with my nephews (now two) making it difficult for me to make a move to a new place. On top off that COVID hit as I was planning on making a major move and put those plans right in the trash.

Current Situation
I ended up moving out of my sister's and in with my parents just before COVID as an intermediary step. Luckily I have good relationships with all of my family so there's not negativity (that I can perceive) and I think paying them all rent and cooking meals frequently has helped there. However I currently feel like I'm in limbo as I have 3 months before I receive what should be a pretty hefty bonus check and was not keen on trying to find a short term rental. This may be because of laziness, inertia, or comfort, but it hasn't happened (nor do I have plans to make it happen). Work has become a drag and almost a nightmare. We have been implementing a technology modernization plan that I think is absolute garbage, but I don't want to go into that here. I may be self medicating at this point with Kava (better than alcohol from my perspective), but it's generally only twice a week so I'm not overly concerned (although when work really pisses me off it ends up being 5 nights, which my wallet and my psyche know aren't good).Bottom line, I am ready for a change, but I feel stuck because of the wait for the bonus.

Future Plans
As I approach FI my intent is to move into the truck camper that I have been building out. This has been a relatively inexpensive build mostly meant as a test bed to verify that I enjoy this type of living before going in with a more "home" like setting (i.e. standing headroom inside). My secondary goal that has been put on the back burner so I don't lose my stoke for it is trying liveaboard sailing. I plan on visiting the areas I'm interested cruising (Florida and the Caribbean or the Puget Sound and possibly Southeast Alaska) while I'm living in my truck. I also plan on making my trips mostly by dirt roads if possible to encourage a form of slow travel, although this could frustrate me more than I think (I grew up driving on dirt roads so I've got plenty of experience luckily). I would like to learn to be able to provide some level of my own food even while mobile. Hydroponics should make this relatively easy for greens. I have heard of farming guinea pigs quite a long time ago and that intrigues me, but I would guess there are going to be some major hurdles with traveling around with them and, since they are a pet mostly in the US, the social downside of being seen as a pet butcher may not be worth it. Perhaps quail is a better option?

Financials
Currently sitting at 29.9x TTM spending in Liquid NW
Portfolio is some variation on the Golden Portfolio (Thanks @Tyler9000 for all the hard work you've put into PortfolioCharts!)
I also have some small percentage in Bitcoin, Ethereum and some other crypto projects I find interesting. This one hits hard since I was in crypto in a pretty major way (relative to NW) back in 2015, but did not HODL when BTC hit ~20k in 2018, or else I would have long since quit my job. I try not to think about that one too much.

Anyway and thoughts/questions/input are very much welcome. I got big into Stoicism and Buddhism back when I was first starting out in 2014 and it meshed pretty well with my personality, so I have a pretty thick skin (especially when the comments are coming from internet people). Be as harsh as you want!

Until then I'll just keep KRUMPn and BUMPn

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mountainFrugal
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Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by mountainFrugal »

I had a friend in college who used to breed guinea pigs for pets. He had this elaborate system of cages where the males had a collar on that would not allow them to go into certain areas and keep them contained. Then he would allow certain females access to the male cages so they could go in and breed if they wanted based on his pedigree charts. Maybe you could learn a lot from that community (although it is pet focused) for care and gene pool maintenance?

I think there is more US knowledge for breeding/maintaining rabbits for meat if you had not considered that. We have some friends in our town that do that and it seems fairly low input (but they have an outdoor pen that makes things easier from a waste perspective). You might be more likely to find a rabbit producer to teach you the basics than for Guinea Pig (Cuy). I personally think Cuy is tastier because it is fattier than rabbit, but rabbit likely has a greater range of recipes because it is less niche. I look forward to following along.

(As a side note, I imagine that you stand up from your computer and do some KRUMPn moves immediately before each post, while you hit submit as part of the routine and then have an outro routine that is consistent after each post. No amount of counter evidence will convince me otherwise.)

KRUMPn
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Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by KRUMPn »

@mountainFrugal I believe you are correct, at least at a basics level. I do have some experience with both animals as pets (although this was back when I was young, so I don't know that I remember much and I'm not sure how successful we really were at it). I'm not really sure which would be easier to maintain in a small space. I think guinea pigs, but that could be my bias for novelty (and they are smaller, at least the common US breeds). The fattier aspect you mention is appealing as I generally stick to a fattier based diet. Also I enjoy experiimenting with different meats, so I'm not afraid to try out non-recipe ideas for cuy. As long as I can get the meat tasting decent, I figure there's a plethora of options I can carry over from how I cook now. Probably my biggest concern for either species is whether or not they are actually happy with this type of setup. If they are miserable I don't think I could continue with the project.
I love your side note. I wish I could crump for real, but, as with all my dancing, I generally look like a goofball. I figure that's going to happen no matter what with my 6'5" lanky frame so I long embraced it. If I don't follow through before/after posting, you better believe I'm making up for it randomly through out the day.

KRUMPn
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Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by KRUMPn »

Work Update
Work has been a bummer lately and It's hard to get much accomplished. It's been a downer for the last year as we implement an architecture that most of my team and I find generally terrible. Oddly enough I continue to get praise from my managers, even though I've been puttting in approximately 4 hours at this point. Add onto that we have the expectation that by the end of the year we have the expectation of being on AWS (which I find doesn't fit our business needs at all and is generally horrible, but I have very limited experience so far) and migrating 95% of groups (insurance slang for company, so company and employee data). This equates to something like 6000 groups with an average of 50 employees per group. Before this expectation was imposed in October we had managed to migrate approximate like 60 groups with full employee data, so I don't see this as a reasonable expectation, especially when production support hits its high point at the end of the year. I'm usually a glutton for pain, but I'm not sure if I can manage making it through another 3 months of this garbage just for more money. It's definitely damaging to the soul and I don't think it's viable long term.

Side Note
I'm not entirely sure what I want to use this journal for at this point. I don't know if whining about work is useful, but as I noted before I feel as if I'm stuck in Limbo.

KRUMPn
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Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by KRUMPn »

Work
Well this has been a weird week. After feeling pretty burnt out and questioning leaving FTE (with the added lackluster performance in my opinion), I got a promotion and a 14.5% raise to go with it. It feels like Office Space was right! DGAF and you shall be rewarded.

Personal Life
I’ve been attempting to figure out 3ish year goals outside of truck/boat living (although maybe I should find something to get me out of the funk I’ve been in/will be in for the next three months). Mostly I’ve been thinking about this because I don’t know that those provide a new mode of living but not anything that is really a goal as far as the self/community goes. Maybe trying to put together a mobile community would be an interesting project, since I can foresee the truck life being lonely. I think leveraging something like escapees may be the easiest way to achieve that so I’m not sure this is really that interesting of a problem. For an intermediate project , I’ve been trying to get back in running shape. I used to be able to run a 10k at a decent clip, but it’s been a few years since ran much at all. The move to SD a few years back really messed with my habits and I never got fully back to them (yoga and running being the big ones). Luckily I have maintained a decent regimen of weight training (I love playing with my adjustable kettlebell!).

Today I ended up running an abysmal 0.5 miles and got more winded than I’d like to admit, although there is plenty of incline to account for that. My calves and shins are very much not used to this. I feel I could probably make more than a mile, but my calves would be obliterated for a couple days after. From what I can tell this is an issue with my for so I’m trying to be more cognizant about that. Add to this winter is probably not the best time to start up, but I’m fine with the cold exposure. I used to do 2 mile shirtless fun runs with temps in the low teens over my lunch break back when I lived in Nebraska. I’m not as cold hardy as then but I should be fine, just adds an extra layer to improve on!

ETA: Last thing, I have been looking at possibly picking up some land to have as a home base. I’m not entirely sure where I would want this to be at this point. SD makes sense from the point of view that I have family here, but I’m not in love with the area. It’s also mildly cold and as much as I have a level of cold tolerance, I much prefer the heat. Florida is of interest to me, but so is Hawaii. I had a large amount of friends from Hawaii from college, but I’m not sure how many are actually there at this point. Unfortunately, it’s definitely not cheap there (maybe a hut on volcanic Big Island land) and obviously I can’t just drive out there. Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated!

basuragomi
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Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by basuragomi »

Was the promotion really motivating? I read a good quip on someone else's journal recently, "the company can afford to waste your time forever." Getting back up to a 10k run (my winter running gear is usually focused on only insulating the extremities) is probably better for you in every dimension than getting another raise that pins you to the office.

If you want to buy land for purposes other than "I want to live here for a long time" or "I want to make a profit," you should probably start by figuring out what flavour of apocalypse you're prepping for. Peak oil? Peak civility? Spontaneous revival of the Rocky Mountain locust?

KRUMPn
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Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by KRUMPn »

No the promotion was not motivating. I hope it didn’t come off that way. It was more confusing than anything since I don’t feel I’ve put anywhere near the effort in to deserve it. Luckily I’m not in a true office since I’ve been WFH since 2018. That along with ditching an alarm clock was one of my early goals surrounding working environment.

Running more/better is definitely more important to me at this point. I might benefit from having a more structured program, but my plan is 3x a week and slowly increasing distance. I never used an actual program to get where I was before, but it also took me 2ish years to get there so maybe that would have truncated that.

As for the land, I guess it’s the part of me that doesn’t trust paper assets and thinks it would be good to own real property. I’m not sure I even really want it. It’s something I’ve been contemplating for a year or two, but I haven’t pulled the trigger because nothing has been really appealing. That and I don’t know exactly where I would want this to be. So maybe that’s my answer? If I really wanted this I’d probably be trying harder to accomplish it.

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Lemur
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Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by Lemur »

Cynical: The promotion was to make you feel good so they can give you more responsibility and work and the raise was just an inflation market adjustment.

Positive: You're doing much better work then you think you're doing (even if you're not always plugged in, perhaps you're just efficient) and the promotion was well deserved. Your managers think highly of you and trust you.

Truth is probably in the middle.

KRUMPn
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Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by KRUMPn »

I’ll add a third perspective. Many of my teammates and I have voice concerns that much of the new tech stack that we have been building out new apps on is in fact garbage. I think my manager has been very much aware (and I’ve out right said) that if things don’t improve, people are going to walk. This is evidenced by the fact we have already lost 5 developers on a team of 16. Ergo I think this may be a ploy to preemptively prevent me from leaving. Who knows. You are probably right, @Lemur it’s likely a combination of all of these things.

On the running piece, I found this post/program that seems like it fits the bill for my current capabilities and my preferred training style/frequency: https://thenerdrunner.home.blog/2019/08 ... 3-program/

KRUMPn
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Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by KRUMPn »

Year End Update
Obviously a little late on this, but the end of the year was "interesting." I ended up contracting COVID from my parents (along with what I believe to have been a bacterial infection of some sort from my nephew) around Christmas. Relatively mild symptoms, the worst being an elevated heart rate that made it difficult to sleep for two days and then the loss of taste/smell, which is partially back but very annoying. Luckily taste has almost entirely returned so food is again enjoyable. Outside of the loss of taste and smell, all symptoms have subsided at this point. Not that I wanted to catch it, but it feels like most everyone will have it at this point with Omicron so it's nice to get it over at some level (barring immunity not being useful against future strains/variants).

Finances
2021 ended with a pretty good Liquid Net Worth statement at 30.45x TTM expenses. The first week of January hit the investments pretty hard so I don't expect this to hold, but it was nice to see it over 30 again. Other than that not much to report since this is pretty much automated at this point.

Fitness
This has probably been my biggest focus/interest at this point. However, due to catching COVID I was unable to complete my Easy Strength and running schedule for 2021, so I moved the start date to the beginning of January and extended it out 4 weeks to hit a quarter's worth of workouts planned (with a rest week). Eventually I want to try moving this up in reps rather than weight since the end of this cycle will have me maxed out in weight (32kg) for my kettlebell. I'm not sure how I want to accomplish this at this point but I'm thinking I may repeat the cycle with an extra rep added onto everything. This would allow an easy adjustment as I try and scoot my way up to 10 reps on everything.

Running has been going well. i ended up purchasing a watch targeted at fitness with a built in HR monitor, mostly as a motivating tool so every time I look down at my wrist I think "I need to run again/more/better, or else this was a huge waste of money." I also picked up Your Best Stride by Jonathan Beverly, which has given some useful tips so far (i.e. release the hip flexors, run using the hips and glutes). Running this way has felt good so far so I look forward to reading the rest of this book. I am currently at the beginning of my schedule so my longest run is only 15 minutes, but I know from previous attempts at getting better at running it's more useful to go slow in my progression to avoid injury. The same goes for my strength training as I've dealt with too many injuries for too speedy of a progression (along with the what I would guess is poor form).

Year in Review
Last year seemed to be a pretty big downer. I ended up continuing FTW since my plans in Colorado fell through and the bonus coming up looked lucrative enough to convince me to continue. Work has been a significant struggle lately. I have almost zero motivation to work on tasks. As mentioned before, this lack of output has come with raises and a promotion, although I think that's more a sign of the job market more than anything. I feel like I've stagnated both in work (which doesn't bother me that much) and in my personal life (which bothers me much more). i feel aimless at this point and I'm mildly concerned leaving FTW won't help this (or make it worse). I have come to the attitude that I should do projects just because I want to and I don't feel like I need external motivators. My main problem is I don't know what projects to pursue at this point. Perhaps the nihilism has taken hold. I enjoyed the first part of the "Quit your Job" article that @AxelHeyst posted in his journal. Hopefully some off/down time will help me discover something. It may take more active pursuit than just being unemployed though. I think I'm also going to need to be more focused on controlling my Kava usage. I seem to overindulge when I consume (shoot for 45g and end up at 90g). I get basically no next day effects at 45g, but 90g gives me a stomach ache and lethargy the next day, especially if I don't get at least 8 hours of sleep. I think I'll attempt to keep my sessions at 45g with the stuff I currently have and failing that I will stop using it completely and switch back to using alcohol as a social lubricant (ironically I have no issues sticking to 2-3 alcoholic drinks in a night out).

As far as land purchase goes, I've decided to hold off until I visit and stay in these places I'm considering long enough to discover if I would enjoy staying there long term. I did find a property in Colorado near Leadville that was of interest and I have been around that area long enough to know how I feel about it. I definitely enjoyed the surrounding area, but Leadville feels the same way my home town feels (i.e. if you are from there, there's a mild to major discrimination). I could be wrong about this. This property has no road to it and the location would only lend itself to summer stays so I think I'll probably pass on this.

I also feel like I've failed to add much to the rest of the forum. Sometimes I feel like I am out of my league with some of the discussions, but I'm hoping to add in more, if even just little motivation bits for others.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by mountainFrugal »

KRUMPn wrote:
Wed Jan 12, 2022 10:18 pm
Year End Update
I also feel like I've failed to add much to the rest of the forum. Sometimes I feel like I am out of my league with some of the discussions, but I'm hoping to add in more, if even just little motivation bits for others.
I do not see many discussions of raising rabbits or Cuy on here so I think that you are already on a good path of contribution. The forum is a sprawling mass of niche people doing and thinking about interesting niche things (and not so niche). It is also a place where many people have been through cycles of work burn-out in one form or another so your journal contributions are in line. Keep it up!

(in my chair attempt at hip poppin Crumpin outtro). Submit!

KRUMPn
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Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by KRUMPn »

@mountainFrugal Thanks for the kind words! This is the type of stuff I would like to add until I figure out the WL, SD sand deeper philosophical stuff. By the way your drawing's in your journal are fascinating. I keep meaning to comment on them. I'm not sure I comprehend them completely, but they're dope. The deeper stuff is interesting at some level to me, but I'll say I'm still confused about a lot of it. Hopefully I can get mobile Rabbit/Cuy farm going in not too long of a period after I go full time in my truck, though I'm pretty sure it's going to require a trailer and I'm unsure about any issues with predator's (are the bear's going to get interested in the squeaking)? I probably have an irrational fear of bears, but they are terrifyingly fascinating animals.
mountainFrugal wrote:
Wed Jan 12, 2022 11:02 pm
(in my chair attempt at hip poppin Crumpin outtro). Submit!
I think you are starting to close in on my real reason for running haha. I have a wedding to attend here in a few months and I want to be able to dance the entire reception like I was able too back in my previous running days. Maybe I need to add in some KRUMPn practice so my username actually makes sense

KRUMPn
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Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by KRUMPn »

(Late) January Update
January was pretty uninteresting on a personal level, felt like more of the same. I'm starting to realize I need to get back into serial hobbies again. It kept life much more interesting.

Fitness
On a positive note I have maintained a consistent running schedule (three times per week, one steady pace medium length run, one speedy short length run and one slowish long length run) and that has definitely felt like a win. I'm even back to having a faster mile time than my elementary school self! Also, I like have a set schedule for running, as I feel like I've made much more steady progress compared to when I just tried the "go out and run whenever I feel like it approach". My weight training pratice has also been relatively successful as well. I started implementing some KneesOverToesGuy techniques (modified my overhead reverse lunges to overhead ATG split squats and it's felt great!). I have noticed less issues when I jam out to some music and my runs feel lighter on my knees.

Finance
Kind of a junk month. Down to 28.8x TTM expenses. Not terrible, but not the most fun thing to see. I guess the easiest way to make that number go up is decrease expenses to ~$1000/month. Which isn't too difficult, it just take a little more focus than I've given it lately.

Other
I'm still attempting to figure out what I want to persue as a bigger project. I have started some meditation/enlightenment type readings in the past, but I keep telling myself that I'll persue that when I have more time. Probably a terrible excuse, but that's where I'm at. I need to finish up the back of my truck to make it more livable, but that is on hold until I have a better place to work on it (will happen after leaving work at the end of March).

On a fix it note, I think I managed to save my car battery from replacement. It appeared to be on it's last legs (completely died from sitting not too long), but luckily I had a charger meant for the "house" batter in the back so I charged it up and run a desulfation mode and it appears to be working great so far. I also believe the lithium batter in the back is overtaxing my isolator and causing excessive drain on the starter battery due to the differences in preferred voltages. I ended up detaching the isolator from the starter battery just to be safe and plan on replacing it with a dc-to-dc charger that can handle the difference in voltages. All this to have enough power to run a small fridge. I guess it's true what all those sailing books say, they are a huge hassle and I haven't even had one take a dump on me yet. I also had an O2 sensor code come on and it's the one that's the hardest to access, I cleared the codes and it hasn't come back yet, but if it does I figure I will attempt the repair myself and take it in if I fail. Luckily it gave me a chance to learn about O2 sensors though!

KRUMPn
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Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by KRUMPn »

THE END OF AN ERA
I managed to pull the plug on full time work about a week ago. Earlier than planned, but I'm glad to call it quits. I had a couple other team members leaving around the time, so I think the timing was good. More people were seeing the writing on the wall (i.e. Leadership blows). I've had a much needed decompression week, even if my decompresson was for a bored-out rather than a burn out. Mostly lifting, running, sunbathing and cooking. Just enjoying being. At this point in time I may dig deeper into the practice of "being" as I'm relatively unambitious. This may fit well with the meditation practice I've been thinking of exploring.

Fitness
Unfortunately, I had to skip half a week of workouts due to a persistent sore throat I picked up from undersleeping and playing with my sick nephews. It cause more weakness than expected, but didn't feel like a COVID reinfection, thought I didn't re-test to verify. I ended up going on a 64 hour fast that seemed to help clear it up in short order. The week after I hit all 5 lifiting sessions and a running session as well. It felt good to get moving again, although it was still a little rough, especially being underwieight still from the fast. I also managed to put together my Q2 lifing schedule. i'm not sure how well my plan will work, but I'll at least give it a try. The basic plan is to follow a Easy Strength style workout, but with a 10 rep scheme instead of 5 and lighter weights. It looks something like this (Critiques welcome, even if this isn't BodyBuilding.com :D ..... Or maybe because it's not!):

Alternate movement every third week:
Movements:
Floor Press/Overhead Press (Press)
Bent Over Row/Pullover (Pull)
Single Leg Dead Lift/Single Arm Swing (Deadlift/Explosive)
Overhead ATG Split Squat/Cossack Squat (Squat)
Waiter Carry/Suitcase Carry (Loaded Carry)

Set/Reps
Week 1
2x10
2x10
10/8/5
2x10
2x10

Week 2
2x10
6x5 (Not so sure about this one)
1x20
2x10
10/8/5

For running I'm not sure I want to continue "longer distances." While not the extreme distances, I think I may want to focus on my mile time so I may stick with that as my top end and sparsely add longer runs. i would also like to add in more weighted walking/rucking sessions.

Finance
The bonus was worth the wait. It added a significant amount to the net worth total. Net worth moved to a comfortable ~29.5x TTM. I also have a couple more payments coming for vacation days and a partial pay check. It feels like a very comfortable place to be, especially since I feel like I have room to trim in the budget. I may have a few "setup" fees coming shortly but I don't expect anything to change drastically as I move to a mobile lifestyle.

Vehicle/Future Abode
I will have a few bits to finish out with this. I need to attach a solar panel, dc to dc charger and fuse box (all purchased already, 2/3 used!). I also need to finish up some of the mediocre wood working to get the platform completed, but there shouldn't be much left for this. Unfortunately my battery ended up dying and needing replacement, but It made it ~4 years so i'll call that pretty good. The O2 sensor has disappated for now, so hopefully that was just a glitch that cropped up from not having current for an extended issue, but I'll keep an eye out for it.
I have plans laid out for my initial excursion which includes Wyoming, Colorato, Utah and Idaho. I may add on Washington and Oregon if the mood strikes, since I have some colleagues our there and I'll be close with Idaho on the list. Everything is getting exciting. Except for the portential bear interactions, but I've got the bear spray to cover that (hopefully).


So I'll ask all you other "ERE'd" folk, anything you recommend to maximize these initial weeks of freedom? I love some of the wisdom I've gleaned from the forum even if I haven't managed to contribute a ton of it myself

ETA: One thing I've notice over this last week is that I've had some issue with "not having enough time" fro the first time. I have been able to fill it well with maintenance type activities (of the kind I like) but I seem to get to the end of the day and wonder where the time went. I may need to focus on something like GTD as a dive in to projects that require more attention. GTD has been something that I have avoided because I never had issues completing my work load at work and I had no ambitions about getting more done. This may be an interesting project to explore since it's another reason I was avoiding it is because it felt "too business oriented", but at this point I think I can see more of the value in how it could help me.

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Slevin
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Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by Slevin »

I think your total rep volume per movement is a little low and you should increase the sets to 3. 20 reps per workout is probably near the min threshold for muscle growth ( I’ve used 20 reps as the low bar for when I do sets of singles like muscle ups when I only had one), but I think you usually want a bit more stimulus for growth. Usually for strength you min out individual set reps at 5x5, which is 25 reps total volume per workout. But the set x rep ranges generally held across to me that have given me the greatest muscle growth are:

5-8 x 5-8 reps
3-4 x 10-15 reps
2 x 20-25 reps

And this is pretty consistent with the findings of most trainers these days I think. I’m personally the biggest fan of 3 x 15 reps, but I’m not a bodybuilder / power lifter anymore (hit all basic standards so moved on to training strength in end ranges of motion for full mobility, I.e splits, head to toe, etc while upkeeping strength). Side note but the ranges above are consistent with what the ATG system asks for as well.

Western Red Cedar
Posts: 1205
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:15 pm

Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by Western Red Cedar »

Congratulations on pulling the plug! I'm looking forward to hearing more about what adventures are next.
KRUMPn wrote:
Sat Mar 19, 2022 12:52 am
So I'll ask all you other "ERE'd" folk, anything you recommend to maximize these initial weeks of freedom? I love some of the wisdom I've gleaned from the forum even if I haven't managed to contribute a ton of it myself
One piece of advice @Ego mentioned somewhere is to write a letter to yourself about why you are leaving work. Include lots of details about anything you are/were dissatisfied with, and what you would like to do with your freedom. I'd do it as soon as possible while your professional experience is fresh in your mind. File that letter away and revisit it if you are thinking about returning to work at some point down the road. We have a tendency to highlight the positives and forget about the negatives at times.

Scott 2
Posts: 2824
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by Scott 2 »

Decompression might be on the order of months, or even a year, rather than a week. Give yourself time.


I personally find the GTD system overly structured. However - I found a lot of value in using a paid app called TickTick, making a couple lists:
  • Recurring Tasks - Cleaning, home care, body care, car etc. This is a simple list of recurring tasks. There's a feature that will reschedule upon completion, for a given duration. So clean toilets might be set at 3 weeks. Renew license plate at 12 months.
  • Backlog - This is a board, with several lists. Projects I am doing, projects I am waiting on something for, projects I would like to do some day. I think of these as things I get to keep. They change my life, or scratch an interest I've wanted to explore.
  • Media - Another board with several lists. Recurring subscriptions, content I'm currently consuming, books/movies I'd like to read someday or own, video games I own, video games I'd like to play someday. I use tags to help organize these. Media format, where I'd get it from, etc. I find this helpful to avoid collecting or starting to many things at once.
I generally operate off of the Today or Next 7 day views. I also integrated it with Google Calendar, for tracking appointments.


I tried to setup an objectives list, with a broader mission and set of values. While they seem accurate, I haven't found myself referring back to them. Rather, I use my retirement to go where my brain wants to take me. I have the freedom to disconnect. I earned the right not to achieve. Forcing myself back into the structured box feels dumb. Why punish myself?

I also found for the vast majority of my projects, all I really wanted was a place to capture the idea. I haven't felt compelled to pursue most of them. But my mental space feels much better having put the idea somewhere. Instead of the what-ifs from when I was working, I have concrete evidence they aren't that important to me.


As time has passed, I've gotten much more comfortable with doing less. Early on, I tried to work something from my backlog every day. Then every week. Now, if I do something that changes my life over the course of a month, I'm happy with that. If not, that's ok too.

One of the core changes, took me by surprise. I learned I subconsciously compete with everyone, using my job or savings rate to win. Removing those, my ego suffered. Now I always lose my imaginary contests. Less status, I suppose. The behavior is ridiculous. I had no idea. Letting it go took months and directly correlated with drive to work my backlog. During that transition, I found myself drawn to petty arguments that didn't matter. I've since chilled out and feel much better for it.


Congrats on taking the leap, BTW. I'm a little over a year in now. My life is permanently changed. Even if I end up back, I'll never be the same person. Instead of living to escape things that I hate, I am picking things that I want. It's great.

sky
Posts: 1726
Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2011 2:20 am

Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by sky »

KRUMPn wrote:
Sat Mar 19, 2022 12:52 am
So I'll ask all you other "ERE'd" folk, anything you recommend to maximize these initial weeks of freedom? I love some of the wisdom I've gleaned from the forum even if I haven't managed to contribute a ton of it myself
Take a nap after lunch. Walk at least a half hour every day.

MBBboy
Posts: 212
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2022 12:11 pm

Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by MBBboy »

Congrats!

KRUMPn
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2021 8:55 pm

Re: KRUMPn and BUMPn

Post by KRUMPn »

Thanks all! There's a lot of good advice here.
Slevin wrote:
Sat Mar 19, 2022 10:26 am
I agree the volume isn't huge, but that's part of why I like this. I don't have any major size/strength/endurance goals, mostly just general phisical maintainence. My concern with adding more volume is that with five days a week lifting and running at least three of those, I might over do it. I have a history of being injury prone and since I don't have any immediate goals around this, I have been taking the slow and steady route. The Even Easier Strenghth schedule has been wonderful for me, even thought I was only increasing one kilo every two wek (unilateraly). Do you think going even lighter than planned and adding another set would be of benefit? I have become a big fan of the "never go to failure" in a workout (only in testing) that Pavel recommends in some of his books.
Western Red Cedar wrote:
Sat Mar 19, 2022 11:53 am
I like this idea. It isn't necessarily why I left (found FIRE/ERE very early and was planning this for years), but the end was especially gruesome. It would be good to remind myself how bad projects can become when everything becomes a dictate rather than having leadership that takes developer opinions into account. I had plenty of people tell me if I wan to come back, they would welcome me with open arms, so maybe this is even more important than I'm giving it credit now.
Scott 2 wrote:
Sat Mar 19, 2022 8:56 pm
Your reason against GTD is one of the reason I have avoided it. I have very much just "flowed" through life up until this point with no issue, so when I first heard of GTD it sounded neat, but overly restrictive. Honestly what I'm getting from your system is that this is highly individualized and I'm going ot have to find a system that will work for me personally. I like the recommendations for sure though! I'll take what works and discard the rest :D. I really like the idea of capturing ideas, but not necessarily pursuing them. Sometimes they are just thoughts you have and there's no way they will actually come to fruition and that's perfectly okay with me. I actually had a conversation with my mom before I saw this about "acheiving" with my mom the other day. She brought up something about "you can't just do nothing the rest of your life" (true if you take nothing to the extreme/actual definition). I mentioned that it doesn't appear that many hunter-gatherers "acheived" anything for the vast majority of human history (although "just" surviving took a lot more than today). They did their thing and that was good enough. I think I feel the same way, but it will be interesting to see if I get itchy feet "just being" without much for ambitions or goals.
I'm hoping it changes me in the same way (for the better of course). I've had the concern that being completely independent with my time will make wokring a job difficult in the future if I decide it's necessary, but I always say "that guy can figure it out" because I'm sure future me and present me are not the same and don't have the same solutions.
sky wrote:
Sat Mar 19, 2022 10:16 pm
Haha you are my people. I took up the art of napping long ago. Now I can just do it at a more reasonable time instead of after work. I do need to keep on top of walking since it definitely improves my mindset. Great advice.

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