A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Where are you and where are you going?
IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

RockyMtnLiving wrote:
Mon Dec 27, 2021 3:34 pm

... Your most excellent riff does echo Rush. Maybe The Trees in particular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnC88xBPkkc
Thanks, RML. The interlude in section The Trees is one of my all-time favorite bits of music. Have to say though that its not one that comes to mind. I like to wait a few weeks after doing one of these before I listen to it again. When I do I'll try to tune my ear to that.
mountainFrugal wrote:
Mon Dec 27, 2021 10:08 pm
Enjoyed the jam @IlliniDave. I especially liked the progression between 3:35 and 4:00.
Thanks, mFrugal. That part you mention is identical to the analogous parts of the prior verse/chorus, just run through gained up amps.

Nerdy aside, I learned a lot in this project about how adding parts or changing the tonality of something can cause a significant change in the perception of what's happening around it. It was particularly noticeable in this one because I've been kicking those chord voicings/progression around for a while. The seed of the idea came 3 years ago and I worked it into its final form up at the cabin so I was quite used to what it sounded like unaccompanied. Another lesson that perception can be a fluid thing.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

A little late for my 2021 recap/2022 look-ahead, and ill-prepared, but here goes ...

Of course the main highlight of 2021 was separating from my long-time employer as a retiree at the end of July. Financially I've basically been treading water. The first couple months were pretty spendy but things have stabilized and I averaged spending about $1,000/mo below my net monthly annuity income during Q4 '21. That's a little misleading because I'm not bearing the cost to maintain a home on my own like I will be at some point in the not too distant future. I should still be able to slip in under my net income, but with less margin than I'd hoped for, but at the same time there are some financial inefficiencies I can address to eek out a little extra breathing room.

For those who like metrics, my 2021 withdrawal rate was 0%. After retiring and stopping contributions, the stash grew by about 1.8% nominal (probably around 0% real). Based on Q4, my spending would extrapolate to a 2.3% withdrawal rate if I were pulling from the stash to fund it.

However (and it's not easy to say this because it sounds a bit asshole-ish), money and financial metrics aren't really all that important right now in terms of being subjects worth putting my energy into stewing about. All the evidence suggests I've put a check in that box and money just isn't an issue. I thought my mathy engineer brain would cling onto the bookkeeping and analysis out of habit/instinct, but for now that's not the case. All the digital music creation stuff I've been delving in seem to scratch that itch, which isn't much of an itch--guess my "left brain" is happy cede the heavy lifting to "right brain". I still haven't put together a modified iDaveSim III spreadsheet to track my financial situation post-retirement. I'll probably do that at some point. But it's not feeling very urgent.

Although it's been a relatively mild winter here so far it's been some days since it got above freeing (I think it's about -5F as I type this) so for now life is centered indoors, although one of my plans is to see if there's enough ice on a small local lake to get out and do some ice fishing, something I haven't done in over 40 years. I'm in the market for a high quality winter coat (one suitable for spending significant hours out in the cold and wind). If anyone has recommendations I'm all ears. I've got the get around town/shovel the driveway niche covered, this would be more to cover the rugged ( ;) ) outdoorsman/emergency survival niche.

Anyway, got off track there. So its indoor season and aside from day-to-day tedium and chores, about all I'm motivated to do is pick up the guitar. I'm even on the hunt for a local instructor who can maybe help and old fart like me with decades of bad habits burned in to get on the path to playing the thing right. At this time of year I tend to get guitar-focused. Maybe because I do my annual project to coincide with the holidays, then 3-4 people listen to it and say encouraging things, hahaha. Regardless, I'm deeply curious what a year of intense focus and study might do without a job to drain away a lot of my energy.

Otherwise, it will soon be time to start thinking about what will likely be an eventful and expensive season at the cabin. I've got a local guy lined up to jack up the structure and redo all the piers and footings to hopefully cut down on problems due to "frost heaving", then as soon as that's done I've got another guy lined up to put on a new roof. After giving it a lot of thought I've opted to go with a metal roof hoping it won't need any significant work/replacement in my lifetime.

I think when I look back in ten years or whatever the highlight of this time will be taking advantage of the opportunity to do boring retired salaryman stuff with my dad. I'm seeing a lot less of my siblings than I anticipated, mainly because of the vaccinated/unvaccinated family bifurcation. Happens I am staying with arguably the most vulnerable member of the family so I feel like I need to be extra careful. I haven't even made it by my old grade school chum's bar for a tequila since I got back!

I'm starting to ramble so I'll shut it down for this entry. Best to all!

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Obviously the go to solution for the coat is to dumpster dive behind any local thrift stores. :D If that doesn't work Eddie Bauer seems to have good bang for the buck outdoor gear if you shop their sales, get on their email list for coupons, etc. It's like Kohls or JCPenney, never pay full price for clothes.

Scott 2
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Scott 2 »

Glad you've found the time to decompress in retirement.
IlliniDave wrote:
Fri Jan 07, 2022 7:59 am
aside from day-to-day tedium and chores, about all I'm motivated to do is pick up the guitar
The perks of retirement! After everything you had going on to close things down and move, this sounds like the perfect period of decompression. Glad things are going well.

Dave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Dave »

Great to hear the update, IDave. Sounds like you're taking well to retirement - seems like a good thing you haven't been hyper-focused on the spreadsheets/numbers.

Hopefully we hear some more of your jams in the future :D.

shaz
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Location: Colorado, US

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by shaz »

The best (although ugly) coats I've found for doing things like waiting at the bus stop when it is -40 are at the Army Surplus store.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Gilberto de Piento wrote:
Fri Jan 07, 2022 10:37 am
Obviously the go to solution for the coat is to dumpster dive behind any local thrift stores. :D If that doesn't work Eddie Bauer seems to have good bang for the buck outdoor gear if you shop their sales, get on their email list for coupons, etc. It's like Kohls or JCPenney, never pay full price for clothes.
Thanks. Eddie Bauer is a name that's come up a couple times although their biggest promoter in my circle cautioned me that recently they've changed their zipper style away from the more robust ones they used in the past to something "more like what you'd see on a lady's dress". One of my big pet peeves these days is coat designers cutting corners on zippers. Nonetheless, I'm not familiar with the brand at all. The nearest outlet is about 70 miles away I believe, and if the search drags on long enough I might take a road trip to check them out.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Scott 2 wrote:
Fri Jan 07, 2022 1:02 pm
The perks of retirement! After everything you had going on to close things down and move, this sounds like the perfect period of decompression. Glad things are going well.
Thanks. Yeah, it got pretty disorienting there for a while. Nice to be drifting back into a slow and easy rhythm. And I'm happy that at least some of the possibilities I'd envisioned for retirement are creeping towards top billing.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Dave wrote:
Fri Jan 07, 2022 2:18 pm
Great to hear the update, IDave. Sounds like you're taking well to retirement - seems like a good thing you haven't been hyper-focused on the spreadsheets/numbers.

Hopefully we hear some more of your jams in the future :D.
One thing I never fretted about in the run up was whether I could cope with being retired. A few older colleagues csautioned, "You're too young to retire, what are you going to do with yourself?" That always amused me. My typical unspoken reaction was, "What, are you kidding?!". But they were sincere. The work world I was part of had a noticeable contingent of previously retired people who came back for one reason or another.

I expect I'll continue to have my little music projects going. Not sure how many will get shared, just depends on how well they turn out. I'm always raising the bar on myself which means more goes into the recycle bin. But I'm flattered that there are some of you out there who would be willing to give the next one a spin.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

shaz wrote:
Fri Jan 07, 2022 4:06 pm
The best (although ugly) coats I've found for doing things like waiting at the bus stop when it is -40 are at the Army Surplus store.
The warmest coat I ever owned was an old Navy (not Old Navy the brand) peacoat that weighed a ton thanks to wool about a half inch think, and it's length. IIRC it hung a little below my knees. I hadn't thought about looking for a surplus store nearby. The one I got the peacoat at is long gone. The last one I went to had a lot of military-looking stuff but it wasn't legit surplus. Still worth a try if I can find one though. Thanks.

RockyMtnLiving
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by RockyMtnLiving »

Dave:

Thanks for the update.

I live in a decently remote area of Wyoming with abundant all-weather fishing (and other outdoor activities). The local fly shop sells a lot of ice fishing gear. If I can I'll check today if they sell outer coats, and if so, I will report back with the brand(s).* I just don't remember if they sell coats.

Two quick thoughts though. First, I use Under Armour wicking undergarments -- long sleeve and long pants -- then some thin layers on top (wool or synthetics). No cotton -- I learned the hard way not to wear cotton socks or cotton underwear. Quite frankly, the wicking undergarments are so warm it doesn't matter what I put on top; not quite, but you get the idea. I don't do ice fishing so am not as stationary as that, so what works for me may not work for you. Your best line of defense is whatever is closest to your skin and wicking, however. The rest are layers of defense against wind, etc.

Second, my instinct is that outdoor gear, to include clothing, is worth the investment even if you feel pinched buying it. Technologies continue to improve, including for clothing. You want something light, yet durable and rated for super-low temperatures. (I just spent a day in negative 10 degree F temperatures here earlier this week, with +60 mph wind gusts.) Folks here wear surprisingly light clothing, even in the dead of winter, that is rated for the conditions. They generally do not, in contrast, wear the type of heavy winter clothing one might find on the East Coast or other areas of the country. My worst fishing experiences out here were when I was both wet and cold; and that can be dangerous, too, of course.

Tl;dr: I wouldn't go dumpster-diving for what amounts to survival gear. Make the investment. Buy something nice, new and appropriate for your conditions there.

I'll be back in touch.

RML

*1/9/22 update to close the loop and fulfill the commitment above. I made it to the local fly shop today (Sunday). In terms of clothing, all they sell is King's Camo XKG line. In terms of ice fishing kit, they sell two brands (including tents): (1) Eskimo; and (2) Eagle Claw. I figure that shop is only selling gear for serious outdoorsmen/women, but I don't actually know.
Last edited by RockyMtnLiving on Sun Jan 09, 2022 4:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.

theanimal
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by theanimal »

At extreme temperatures, I find that layers with a very big coat work much better than just a very, very big coat with minimal layers. I fine tuned my system working two winters as an aurora guide, usually standing outside for 4-5 hrs a night ranging from -10 to -45 F. I really like Montbell. I bought most of my jackets new 7 years ago and still wear them daily. If it wasn't for a couple areas where I've burned through the fabric from a wood stove (now covered in tape), they'd be in mint condition. This is what I use as my heaviest jacket: https://www.montbell.us/products/disp.p ... 7&gen_cd=1

Typically if I am standing around or it is sufficiently cold out, I will pair it with a lighter synthetic jacket like this (I own this one as well):https://www.montbell.us/products/disp.p ... 0&gen_cd=1 , a fleece pullover and a long thermal base layer. Assuming you have your lower half and extremities dialed in, you will not get cold. The caveat is that I rarely have to deal with wind, though some type of rain/hard shell over everything would solve the problem. In that vein, I think the biggest jacket style that I initially linked to are offered with a hard outer shell which would also solve your issue.

You can find these all online or with luck on ebay. There are a lot of good jackets for sale on ebay in top condition.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Welp, I've been pretty scarce around here the last several weeks.

I owe some responses to PMs and messages upthread here. Sorry about that. I usually try to keep up with that sort of stuff. Hopefully sometime this week I'll get all caught up. I just got caught up in outside-of-ere world earlier today.

Here's a brief update. I've passed the 6-month mark and am as happy as ever I did things the way I did. Lost a lot of money in January with shaky markets but things seem to be stumbling back a little. I only check my accounts once per month now--liberating to a degree which surprised me.

Since things with the annuity settled out, 4 consecutive months of spending below that income, so still a withdrawal rate of 0%. I want to stretch that as long as I can.

Winter has been cold (yeah, redundant). Not extreme/record-breaking, but it's been some years since I spent much time below zero F. Actually, below 20F. So mostly I've been indoors except when there's snow to shovel or errands to run.

I probably spend more time goofing w/my guitars than anything else, which is how I like it.

Married2aSwabian
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Married2aSwabian »

Glad to hear you are well and have survived the first six months of retirement! I need to adopt your method of checking investments just once a month - I check far too often. Senseless, really. I guess it’s a function of being in the home stretch (11 weeks or go, but who’s counting).:D

Yes, it’s been pretty winter-like in Michigan, too, for past 5 weeks or so. If I compare it to N. Illinois back in the day (blizzard of ‘79), it’s a piece of cake, though.

Best warm coat for me was an über lucky find at a great consignment store in Montana 20 years ago: found an LL Bean Parka in perfect condition for $60. It’s still in great shape and warm to 20 below.

Any advice for the final approach to pulling the plug?

Always good to hear your updates. Great that you have time to continue playing guitar!

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Married2aSwabian wrote:
Mon Feb 14, 2022 7:09 pm
Glad to hear you are well and have survived the first six months of retirement! I need to adopt your method of checking investments just once a month - I check far too often. Senseless, really. I guess it’s a function of being in the home stretch (11 weeks or go, but who’s counting).:D

Yes, it’s been pretty winter-like in Michigan, too, for past 5 weeks or so. If I compare it to N. Illinois back in the day (blizzard of ‘79), it’s a piece of cake, though.

Best warm coat for me was an über lucky find at a great consignment store in Montana 20 years ago: found an LL Bean Parka in perfect condition for $60. It’s still in great shape and warm to 20 below.

Any advice for the final approach to pulling the plug?

Always good to hear your updates. Great that you have time to continue playing guitar!
Haha, yeah, even back in the day '79 was a standout here. Then Jan '82 set the all-time low temp for this spot on the map, which didn't get eclipsed until 2019. We have rain coming tomorrow and they're saying temps reaching the low 50s, then Thursday morning the low is supposed to be 6F or something.

I checked in on the stash frequently during the final run up. I guess the need came from a deeply harbored "pinch me, this must be a dream" sentiment. Since with luck it should be some years before I'm leaning on the stash to put food on the table, an outgrowth of my buy/hold mindset is that it's not hard to just let it be now that I've crossed the event horizon. As passive as I've been with investments, I've still had a couple of occasions to use my "I'm a private family wealth fund manager" quip to avoid the "Man, you're so lucky you get to retire, I wish I was lucky like you," conversation. 8-)

I don't remember all your specifics but iirc your situation isn't terribly different than mine in terms of age and stuff, so I assume you've been at the career thing for 30-35 years. That's a big chunk of life. Since you are already practicing your retired lifestyle it's just a matter of crossing days off the calendar. My advice would be just look around you now and soak it all in. Although I was more than ready to jettison the ol' career, it wasn't a uniformly bad experience by any stretch, and I spent the last few weeks with gratitude for the opportunities it provided and the people I got to know. That allowed me to walk away from work with a very centered perspective when it came to that part of my former life. Plenty of chaos with the effort to get the house listed at the same time, but leaving work was a peaceful experience.

The topic of coats I'll follow up on later.

Congratulations and good luck!

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Okay, long story short is I procrastinated with upgrading winter coats and now the worst of winter is likely passed. The winter has been consistently cold, today will be the third day since Christmas the temp reached 40F or better, I think, but we never plunged very far below zero, so there wasn't a lot of urgency. It will give me an opportunity to leverage any spring sales and continue to hit the thrift stores. I appreciate all the suggestions folks took time to provide.

MBBboy
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by MBBboy »

Congrats on the first 6 months. I'm sure you're looking forward to the better weather more than most since you'll be in a position to really take advantage of it

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Thanks MBBboy!

Short update from the promised land ...

Going into retirement I had two moderate worries: sequence-of-returns-risk and inflation. Both have come crashing in. In various settings I've got some flack (mostly good-natured) for over-saving and over-accumulating. If I'd have jumped at 25X I'd probably be looking for employment about now. But as it stands the somewhat bloated stash is a big soft pillow and I'm sleeping well and still looking ahead. Make of that what you will.

February was my lowest spending month in 2 years or so. I've been running at close to 25% below annuity income (net of taxes) and was something like 38% below in February. So after almost 8 months still rocking a 0% withdrawal rate. Stash is down a good bit, a little over 8% for the year, but even if I was leaning on the stash for all expenses I'd be right around a 2% withdrawal rate. The last 2 months would be sub-2%. I spent about 3 minutes doing that analysis but I still rate my overall financial position as "good enough".

The first hints of spring are showing up in the weather. Daffodils poking up and same for hostas close to the house. No trees seem to be budding yet. Probably be "open water" fishing within a week or two. This week to the best of my knowledge is the first time since Thanksgiving temps have got above freezing up at the hideout. Still a lot of snow to melt, then the ice, so the season there is still a good way off. Hard to say if "ice out" will be as late as 2017 (after Mother's Day) but barring something extraordinary it will be latter April best case. That could delay getting started on the foundation work up at the hideout as presumably a few feet of ground will have to thaw after the snow is gone.

Main chore for the next two weeks is finishing up income taxes. There was a glitch in federal withholding when the annuity started up and some unexpectedly large cap gain distributions from one of my taxable accounts so I'll owe money this time (hence the foot dragging). Fingers crossed the underpayment comes in below the penalty threshold (back of envelope says it will).

Hope everyone here is doing well. I log in and peruse the recent topics once a week or so and lately nothing much has grabbed my attention. Probably a combination of the membership's evolution as well as my own. The only new thing for me is I found a local guitar instructor who I am meeting with on a trial basis. I like to think I've done my due diligence and am capable of maximizing what I can conjure from my native aptitude (which is decidedly lacking) on my own, but in the interest of leaving no stone unturned I thought I'd give it until hideout season starts and make a longer-term decision when I get back from hideout season in the fall.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Another month in the books and mostly all is well. The big challenge is holding off a budding case of tendonitis from guitar. Too much of a good thing, as they say.

I'm starting to get things in motion for an expensive summer of rehab for the hideout. New roof (going with metal for durability/low maintenance and fire resistance) and some substantial shoring up of the foundation (piers). Neither is a task I feel physically up to so I'm just throwing money at the problem. All along I've had a portion of the proceeds from selling my house set aside for these two jobs.

Otherwise March spending was a little higher than February, but given there's 10% more month, it wasn't too bad. Still running more than 20% below annuity income for the month and cumulatively since payments became regular. Hence withdrawal is still zero.

May through June I'll be eating the cabin upgrade costs which will sort of mess that up. Part of me wants to bookkeep that separately so as to not distort how my basic living costs are holding up relative to the annuity. I actually have a built in mechanism for that--and did it for the costs specific to selling the old house, so it would just mean changing which set of numbers the metric uses. Mainly I bring it up to point out how silly my efforts to engineer the numbers seem. That's an old habit I really should get over. But there's comfort in data. Illusory comfort, but comfort nonetheless.

Mostly though it's cabin fever season around here. Warmer weather usually means rain this time of year. Got into the 60s yesterday as the rain moved in, but this morning it is snowing. Sunshine still generally means cold. But things should start changing fairly quickly. Tomorrow I'll get a new fishing license and if lucky get to use it next week.

Things with my dad are going okay. Probably mentioned this before but overall he seems pretty stable with his memory struggles. Not good, but it's not like he's in a steep descent either. It was jarring for some the first couple years after my mom died (hard to believe, but it was 4 years ago yesterday already) because it was exposed at that time versus being disguised when she was around to remember stuff.

shaz
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by shaz »

I'm glad things are going OK with your dad and that you are able to spend time with him. I noticed that my mom's mental ability has apparently declined rapidly since her husband passed away 5 years ago but I also suspect having him around disguised a lot of the decline. It's difficult to know how to help from a distance and I am reluctant to get too drawn into various unhealthy family dynamics. Maybe it is a good thing that you haven't had as much contact with family as you had anticipated?

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