Starting from zero in Scandinavia
Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2023 3:47 pm
Hi
I figure I have to overcome my fear of doxxing myself and just get started on the forum.
I first stumbled on the ERE website back in 2015 or 2016, while I was still a student. I got quite into the idea, as I have a propensity to do with many ideas and philosophies, and even read the book. However, being a student, there was little to save, so I kind of shelved the concept mentally for a few years. Having completed my master's degree in a humanities subject and even begun a paid doctoral gig (that I ended up dropping out off relatively early on), I finally got my first regular job at the ripe young age of 29: an ordinary unskilled labor office job.
At this point, I had zero net worth and zero liabilities. The job netted me about 2.2k USD/month - relatively close to the minimum wage, and not much more than unemployment benefits. Having recently returned to the country, I ended up finding an uninspiring studio apartment, approx 400 sqft., on the outskirts of the city that cost me the market rate - $1200/month. It felt pretty bad to spend 55% of my take-home income on rent. In fact, it felt like being in a hole I couldn’t get out of - why bother if the starting conditions are as god-awful as that? The dream of a >75% savings rate seemed like that - just a dream.
As I emotionally worked through abandoning the prospect of an academic career (and perhaps even the concept of a career itself) and settled into my new reality of low-paid, low-skill labor, I remembered that I had once sublet a very cheap type of cooperative housing. It was quickly becoming obvious that I was drawing no (or even negative) satisfaction from conventional living arrangements, so I reached out to some old contacts, and some time later, an offer materialized: a 75 sqft room in a building with shared amenities, unparalleled location, and best of all: $280/month.
Small digs, sure, especially seeing as I had to fit a WFH setup in there as well, but overall, a massive improvement on my previous setup. Talk about breathing room - taking rent from 55% to 13%. However, I’ve never really had savings or debt - I’ve always just inflated or deflated my lifestyle depending on my income. So this time around, I inflated my lifestyle and enjoyed the easy life. The insanely low rent gave me the purchasing power of someone with a much higher income, so I had a blast just firing on all cylinders: fine dining, travel, clothes, being spontaneous.
Lately, though, I’ve mostly lost the appetite for mindless consumption, so I think I want to see if I can find a version of ERE philosophy that I can be at peace with. I have never been a person to track things, or even write them down, but I do want to create a forum journal. I haven’t entirely finalized what I would want it to include. At first, my desire for privacy led me to conclude that I would do a strictly numbers-only journal, but the more I think about it, the more I also want it to be a space where I can lay out some of my thinking on the subject - particularly because I think I process the world somewhat differently than most ERE people (you’ll never catch me trying to label/categorize my own personality with a personality test!)
A few topics I want to explore in my forthcoming journal:
1) FI or wealth building with no notable career advancement, i.e. just using a steady, simple job
2) Doing ERE without being a super intense ~systems thinker~
Thanks for taking the time to read this! Here’s to hoping I finally get to put some of my thoughts into writing.
I figure I have to overcome my fear of doxxing myself and just get started on the forum.
I first stumbled on the ERE website back in 2015 or 2016, while I was still a student. I got quite into the idea, as I have a propensity to do with many ideas and philosophies, and even read the book. However, being a student, there was little to save, so I kind of shelved the concept mentally for a few years. Having completed my master's degree in a humanities subject and even begun a paid doctoral gig (that I ended up dropping out off relatively early on), I finally got my first regular job at the ripe young age of 29: an ordinary unskilled labor office job.
At this point, I had zero net worth and zero liabilities. The job netted me about 2.2k USD/month - relatively close to the minimum wage, and not much more than unemployment benefits. Having recently returned to the country, I ended up finding an uninspiring studio apartment, approx 400 sqft., on the outskirts of the city that cost me the market rate - $1200/month. It felt pretty bad to spend 55% of my take-home income on rent. In fact, it felt like being in a hole I couldn’t get out of - why bother if the starting conditions are as god-awful as that? The dream of a >75% savings rate seemed like that - just a dream.
As I emotionally worked through abandoning the prospect of an academic career (and perhaps even the concept of a career itself) and settled into my new reality of low-paid, low-skill labor, I remembered that I had once sublet a very cheap type of cooperative housing. It was quickly becoming obvious that I was drawing no (or even negative) satisfaction from conventional living arrangements, so I reached out to some old contacts, and some time later, an offer materialized: a 75 sqft room in a building with shared amenities, unparalleled location, and best of all: $280/month.
Small digs, sure, especially seeing as I had to fit a WFH setup in there as well, but overall, a massive improvement on my previous setup. Talk about breathing room - taking rent from 55% to 13%. However, I’ve never really had savings or debt - I’ve always just inflated or deflated my lifestyle depending on my income. So this time around, I inflated my lifestyle and enjoyed the easy life. The insanely low rent gave me the purchasing power of someone with a much higher income, so I had a blast just firing on all cylinders: fine dining, travel, clothes, being spontaneous.
Lately, though, I’ve mostly lost the appetite for mindless consumption, so I think I want to see if I can find a version of ERE philosophy that I can be at peace with. I have never been a person to track things, or even write them down, but I do want to create a forum journal. I haven’t entirely finalized what I would want it to include. At first, my desire for privacy led me to conclude that I would do a strictly numbers-only journal, but the more I think about it, the more I also want it to be a space where I can lay out some of my thinking on the subject - particularly because I think I process the world somewhat differently than most ERE people (you’ll never catch me trying to label/categorize my own personality with a personality test!)
A few topics I want to explore in my forthcoming journal:
1) FI or wealth building with no notable career advancement, i.e. just using a steady, simple job
2) Doing ERE without being a super intense ~systems thinker~
Thanks for taking the time to read this! Here’s to hoping I finally get to put some of my thoughts into writing.