Long time lurker, so I thought I would introduce myself and participate in the forums as I have been enjoying this community so much. I am an INFJ married to a INTJ. Been 30 for about a month and married for about 3 months.
Like several others on this forum, I have an expensive advanced degree that did not translate into a high salary (or currently even a job I enjoy;) however I can’t complain as I have extremely generous parents who funded my education (and apparently passed along some frugal genes)
Until discovering the ERE math, I had simply been looking for ways for lowering my expenses in the future, just thinking that maybe I could work less one day. My husband introduced me to earthships and we flew out to New Mexico for one of the seminars and stayed in one. (They are awesome by the way and I’d still love to build/live in one, but in a less hot climate.) We have a large vegetable garden, 4 chickens and an industrialized sized worm bin.
Jacob, this website opened my eyes to a new possibility of complete financial independence, early retirement, and a structured goal to work towards and for this I am very thankful. I tried to get my husband interested by reading him your blog posts (especially the cycling ones,) but it was really your book that finally turned his mind to the ERE philosophy. As a jack-of-all trades, he relates well to the renaissance man concept.
We have several challenges to get through in the next several years. First as mentioned about, I am not super happy with my current employment situation, so I am in the process of starting my own business (which should be transportable, flexible and fun.) Second, we need to sell our home; it’s a cheap home and our mortgage is only $500/month (although the taxes are $400/month) but the house is not built well and we are realizing it will forever be a money pit. We need to wait until next June to sell (or we have to give $8000 back to the government) so next summer it is. After this the biggest challenge is where to go next (hopefully permanently.) I’ve been following the location-posts carefully and appreciate everyone’s thoughts.
I’ll post on our money situation sometime soon. I've been tracking our income/savings/expenses for about a year now.