Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Hello - birding here: in my mid thirties and live on the east coast. I recently reread the ERE book & am reading the blog roll chronologically from the beginning. I've been following the forum somewhat, but have been hesitant to jump in (making time & actually having something to say). I found ERE last winter and dove into learning the philosophy because being stuck working in the office 9-5 for decades doesn't appeal to me.

With the ERE framework I see the potential where I could be FI soon. Part of me wants to change jobs or quit early now for semi-retirement, but I'm hesitant especially with the stability I've earned in the past several years. I just relocated with DW and advocated for a 1 bed apartment to try a small cheaper space before filling a larger one with stuff (though it's unfortunately farther from work than I was before).

I'm into reading, birding, and hiking. The biggest thing I'm working on now is the startup finance,investing,economics curriculum striving to start investing this year. Last, a huge part of my identity is I'm many many years clean & sober - 12 step & SMART recovery have been tremendously helpful in the past.


EDIT: changed username to 'birding'. hehe

Welcome! We will be here when you are ready to jump in more! Come on in, the water is nice!

Welcome!

hello! Sounds like you've got yourself in a good place and have interests which don't cost much. Look forward to hearing more.

Gratitude for the warm welcome.

I plan to share a summary of 2024 spending, etc., likely starting a journal. I finally updated my $$ tracker this week. Annual spend was over $50k - I have a long way to go...

Also, thank you to @jacob for the ERE homepage update recommending ‘Deep Response’ - wouldn’t have picked up otherwise. Not sure I’ve ever crushed a book as quickly as this one. Well written @AxelHeyst .