Frihet / Freedom - Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
Hazel-is-ok
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Re: Frihet / Freedom - Journal

Post by Hazel-is-ok »

Congratulations on your financial independence!

It sounds like you have also found a lot of mental freedom. I have come to a similar place of just being, and everything being ok (most of the time!) thanks to this guy. He is based near the Ramana Ashram, so I thought I would post the link in case it's of interest.

http://www.liberationis.com/

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fiby41
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Re: Frihet / Freedom - Journal

Post by fiby41 »

Some ashrams have living quarters for celibates. Ashrams which are run by households generally don't.
Some temples serve food on certain days weekly based on deity.
You may look into these when you'd like to reduce costs.

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Mister Imperceptible
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Re: Frihet / Freedom - Journal

Post by Mister Imperceptible »

frihet wrote:
Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:21 am
Now O & G is a finished chapter for me and never want to engage with it again, it was a “necessary” evil for some time though.
One must be willing to do what is necessary.

Congratulations frihet.

frihet
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Re: Frihet / Freedom - Journal

Post by frihet »

@Hazel - thanks for the link, if I see that he holds satsang I might go. Soon the season starts here and this place will be infested with teachers and gurus 😄 yes I’ve found some peace, but not doubtless realization. But it’s easy to do sadhana here in the mountains energy field, it basically happens on it own it seems, more a surrender and letting go than effort, so maybe I find myself once and for all. Happy to hear that Salvadore worked for you! Did you work personally with him?

@fiby - thanks for the tip. I know that Ramana Ashram serves 2 meal a day to the sadhus and that you can join in. But I’m ok with paying those amounts for food right now.

@Mister I - your right I’m glad I had the stamina.....

Hazel-is-ok
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Re: Frihet / Freedom - Journal

Post by Hazel-is-ok »

@frihet It sounds like a cool place to be :-)

Yes I did work with Sal online a few years ago, and I still join in the ongoing support he offers. He's unusual in that he insists that he is not a guru or a teacher, and he keeps trying to retire from the work, and just play his guitar or whatever.

He holds online free meetings and in-person retreats.

frihet
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Re: Frihet / Freedom - Journal

Post by frihet »

Hazel-is-ok wrote:
Sat Nov 16, 2019 10:10 am
@frihet It sounds like a cool place to be

he keeps trying to retire from the work, and just play his guitar or whatever
Sounds like you found a gem of a teacher Hazel and yes the place is very cool..... the best thing here is that I’m in company of other freedom seekers. As that are the kind of people who come here, if you don’t feel the place there is nothing to do here really and it’s dirty and congested, perfect! chases away the backpackers.....😄

If anyone happens to be curious follow the two links about Ramana Maharishi on this page.

https://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com ... 20Maharshi

frihet
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Re: Frihet / Freedom - Journal

Post by frihet »

Time for an update again. as I now have spending data for two full years. One of them without salaries and employment. Writing this from the Mexican Island of Holbox where I and my partner since one year is spending time together because of covid. We met last autumn in India and are from different continents so this was the best option for us to be able to met up. I like it here even though it doesn’t quite have the same soul and much higher prices than our meeting place.

A fun fact about my partner is that she was/became FI during our year together by selling her payed off condo. I take some prideq in informing her about the fact and get her slowly into investing to make her free life sustainable. FI had never been a goal but when she awakened spiritually she just had a sense that paying it off aggressively was the right thing to do. Buying superficial stuff/entertainment just didn’t hold any value for her anyway and the pressure from her work life was brutal. As she still like to work and be useful she now works for free and location independent for a spiritual NGO. ERE at its best without even trying......

What a year it has been, both deeply fulfilling and challenging on a worldly and personal scale, which I will write about below. But first the financial stuff.

2019

Spent 125136kr = $15260

living 110095kr

dharma 15041kr


2020

Spent 107374kr = $13097 with a 2.3% SWR = pension money not included

living 69351kr

dharma 38023kr

I’ve done well spending wise this year. A large percentage of that was because I did a work/housing exchange with my dad and helped him repaint the house in exchange for housing and lodging. A lodging that then extended longer than I had envisioned because of covid and a terrible tragedy in my family. Instead of taking off on adventures I had to support my parents and attend a funeral. I am very glad I didn’t work through that challenging time and could be there fully for and with them.

Net worth

I have decided to include private pension money here. Which I now manage more actively were possible with a once a month momentum strategy. I simply sort the three best funds once monthly from a diversified list of 12-14 stock and bond funds. About half of this money is available in a not to distant future. Well below the 30 years that the rest of my stash most surely will last according to SWR strategy.

Stats Recorded at the beginning of December 2020 and this amount can change quickly with the huge volatility in some of my assets.

Total. 5308313 = $647970

pension 616020kr

without pension 4692293kr


I feel that this is part 1 of this post as the beach is waiting. I’ll try to get back with some more personal stuff if the urge arises.

Be very Well Everyone
Frihet

benrickert
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Re: Frihet / Freedom - Journal

Post by benrickert »

@frihet curious about your 2021-year update? 2020 was mostly spent in Scandinavia? What is your monthly food spend if in Scandinavia?

ertyu
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Re: Frihet / Freedom - Journal

Post by ertyu »

I hope the urge to update arises soon, I've been wondering what you've been up to :)

frihet
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Re: Frihet / Freedom - Journal

Post by frihet »

@ertyu @benrickert

Ok by popular demand. here is a bit about my from the outside unassuming looking life. Made an unconventional choice when I needed an apartment last spring when my former partner was going to come and stay with me over the summer and got a subsidized rental flat in an idyllic small town in Sweden. I think the reason I could get it was that it was in the middle of covid and no people were moving. So I was the only possible tenant. Got a great 2 room apartment for under €500 a month, I actually love the apartment its so quiet and with good standard, the morning light shines in on one side and the evening sun on the other. I have spent the time since my partner and I broke up in september 2021 there doing silent home retreats for up to 2 weeks at a time. Some of them with online guidance and some by myself. Because of covid there was a lot of meditation teachers offering online course which was great for me.

I don't like living in the small town though, it's peaceful, but I catch too much attention walking around there during the daytime not working with a yogi grin on my face. I prefer the anonymity of Stockholm where I grew up highly introverted as I am. We'll see if I move back at some point. But no hurry as I have friends and family there I've been visiting for extended periods anyway.

Met another very cool woman on a meditation app this spring, but that has now ended as well. The best sex of my life, but it left me with a bit of a bitter aftertaste, wondering if a dharma elders words of wisdom are true, accumulated after a long life in the spiritual circus? "Frihet, woman is the biggest distraction on the spiritual path."

Feeling a bit lost at the moment, to be honest, with no real direction. I've been contemplating going back to school to get a new occupation. But there is no real internal movement. All the big moves in my life like moving to Norway and working the oil fields for example, as well as quitting came from a strong sense of inspiration like "this is the next step" with no hesitation. So until something like that moves me again I guess I will be where I am. I'm getting a sense though that I might be completed.

If I use my mind and sense and read the news I don't like what is going on at all. How the world is divided into a chess board. Ukraine obviously and Sweden and Finland rushed into Nato making it clear to me that the world is becoming less safe, less open and less predictable, continuing the covid trend. But what to do about it? Protéct oneself at all cost? Or try to come to terms with this life's impermanence? It feels like I'm going with the former option mostly. I can't help remembering a conspiracy video a watched many years ago though that claimed that the elite's way of handling excessive depth has often been war........Time will tell........Interesting times indeed, feel sorry for those who get killed by these stupid super big ego games though....

And yes this is the ERE forum after all. I guess I have to mention personal finances.[

I spent 118000SEK = $11150 during 2021.

With inflation, I will most probably spend more during 2022 especially if I travel or do more stuff. My portfolio has gone down some. In times like these, I'm happy to have safer allocations and quite a bit of gold. More income and money would be good but I don't feel overly stressed about it yet. There are so many years of expenses still that acting out of worry feels unnecessary. Sorry benrickert i don't track my spending in categories, I just track the monthly total.

Closing with some reminders to not take this life too seriously, soon it will be over for all of us, one way or the other.

Longchenpa ~ 𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 ~ Dzogchen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikEKABz ... i&index=51

And

"When the dung dries, the worms are finished, however much progress they may have made" Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

frihet
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Re: Frihet / FThe yearly update: I ask myself, why do I continue to update this infrequent log of my life sreedom - Jou

Post by frihet »

The yearly update:

I ask myself, why do I continue to update this infrequent log of my life story?

Well, there is something reassuring that it’s here as a testament to myself of what I’ve been through and maybe someone picks up something from it. I still lurk on the forum although I don’t feel any urge to post and I’m really missing the political discussion that once was going on here. It feels strange to me that it’s not there, at a time in history when it is probably more needed than ever…..the world is changing in front of our eyes…..I fully understand why a forum owner isn’t interested in taking the heat that human's different opinions and beliefs bring though.

I anyone has tips of sites where there is an intelligent discussion of, macroeconomics, history in relationship to the present, war, politics and how the world is changing? Please post links.

These are topics I’ve always been interested in and that I’ve been somewhat engulfed in since last autumn taking an entry-level university course in “history of ideas”. We started with Plato and Aristotle and it’s so fascinating to see how humanity's world views have changed over the centuries. Something that was an extra eye-opener was an idea about paradigm shifts in science ala Thomas S Kuhn, reality is much more fluid than we think, one worldview just survives until a new one takes its place. A good example was how we shifted from a Geocentric to a Heliocentric understanding of our place in the universe or how Newton's mechanical laws were replaced by quantum physics……

What does this have to do with being in my third year of FI and not working? Well, the decision to study came partly to get money and partly because I wanted intellectual stimulation. I think I mentioned it as a plan B somewhere in this log.
So now I get a small grant, that I put into BTC/ETH certificates. This is money for nothing anyway so using it for a kind of shot-for-the-moon approach with a high chance of success makes sense to me. If I lose all of it, no big deal.

For the study loan, I invest in some different stocks and mutual fund strategies, thinking that I can probably beat the meager interest of 0.59% when it’s time to pay back and that might not be until 10 years as that is how long I can study part-time. Because I hardly studied before most of my government subsidies to use for this purpose are left. Working first, and studying when FI, ended up as a great option, even though I didn’t plan it. The added benefit is that I can study subjects like history and religion without having to think about it leading somewhere, perfect.

I’ve also decided to spend money when I feel it will contribute to growth and happiness but not to be ashamed to ask for what I need in doing so. This was a big step in my personal development, to let go of shame around this issue. Recently I wanted to join a teacher’s training program, which is a mix of meditation, non-duality, and different therapy modalities. Suddenly the shame around asking for a discount just went away and I asked if I could have a student discount, which I got. Not even when someone peeked me about it at the course did shame arise, very freeing. Shame and fear are two of the main ways humans control each other so for someone who wants to be free it’s of uttermost importance to no let them get to you. And when they do arise learn to take them as meditation objects, merge with their pure energy and relax, in though the time they transform to openness and clarity all by themselves.

So how much did I spend last year? Well, I feel that it’s enough to say that it was a 2,3% SWR from my total net worth calculated a few weeks ago. One thing I’m considering is liquidating a part of the portfolio and buying an apartment when the high-interest rates have worked their magic a bit more. I will see what I do and how the property market unfolds? Renting a subsidized flat is very convenient. Nothing to worry about except paying the rent.

Unfoldment Continues…..But what Is there to be certain about, really?

Nothing, but it’s a great adventure Being Here!

mathiverse
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Re: Frihet / Freedom - Journal

Post by mathiverse »

Thanks for the update, Frihet! Glad to hear you're doing well. I don't have a recommendation for a forum with the political discussions you seek, but if you find one, I hope you share a link.

jacob
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Re: Frihet / FThe yearly update: I ask myself, why do I continue to update this infrequent log of my life sreedom - Jou

Post by jacob »

frihet wrote:
Sat Mar 25, 2023 8:11 am
I still lurk on the forum although I don’t feel any urge to post and I’m really missing the political discussion that once was going on here. It feels strange to me that it’s not there, at a time in history when it is probably more needed than ever…..the world is changing in front of our eyes…..I fully understand why a forum owner isn’t interested in taking the heat that human's different opinions and beliefs bring though.
Personally, I miss some of those political discussions too and I often contemplate bringing politics back. On the other hand, those same political discussions increasingly degenerated into negative partisanship with partisans living in their own bubbles serving as "useful idiots" to piss off the opposition using loaded words and arguments they heard on their particular bubble of the internet. Oftentimes these forum culture wars would reach a crisis causing some forumites to leave permanently with other forumites predictably complaining about "how the atmosphere had changed". It's just not worth it.

With me providing the scaffolding to reconcile such differences is useful, it's also a thankless and stressful job when too many other media agents benefit from "stirring up shit" and profiting from the resulting chaos. I'm basically working for free to counteract win-lose problems that other kinds of media create as part of their business model.

Given how I think that discussing politics/culture wars here was more of a kind of entertainment than it was making any kind of difference in the world at large when it comes to ERE, I decided that I'm done paying the price/providing this service free of charge for it to continue.

ertyu
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Re: Frihet / FThe yearly update: I ask myself, why do I continue to update this infrequent log of my life sreedom - Jou

Post by ertyu »

frihet wrote:
Sat Mar 25, 2023 8:11 am

I ask myself, why do I continue to update this infrequent log of my life story?

Please do, I always find your updates interesting because as opposed to most other forumites, one of your reasons for pursuing financial independence was explicitly to pursue the spiritual life. I think this makes your story quite unique and interesting. I also often find myself looking up links that you posted or checking out resources that you mentioned even if I don't always actively get back to you about it. the last one i clicked on and looked at was the octagon one, that was quite curious to me.

the tl;dr is, i guess, please keep updating. i always welcome your updates.

Would you mind sharing which teacher you're working with? Also, if you do buy an apartment, where do you think you'll buy it?
Last edited by ertyu on Sun Mar 26, 2023 2:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

ertyu
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Re: Frihet / FThe yearly update: I ask myself, why do I continue to update this infrequent log of my life sreedom - Jou

Post by ertyu »

jacob wrote:
Sat Mar 25, 2023 12:28 pm
discussing politics/culture wars here was more of a kind of entertainment than it was making any kind of difference in the world at large when it comes to ERE
to the extent that this discussion helps people distill their own predictions of how thing will shake out, then it is useful, if only to the individuals that participate. this isn't to argue with you about whether you were right to shut down politics; i see your reasons and i think they are legitimate. i also agree with you that the discussion will probably not make a difference in the world at large. still, just because it's only useful to isolated individuals doesn't make it useless in general.

frihet
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Re: Frihet / Freedom - Journal

Post by frihet »

@ mathiverse
Thank you, I will defiantly share if I find something.

@jacob
I totally respect your decision, as someone who has always been more of an observer of life, I wouldn’t want to curate that type of thing myself. Probably not take part too much either so I understand….

“With me providing the scaffolding to reconcile such differences is useful, it's also a thankless and stressful job “ agreed....

But I also agree with @ertyu that it can be of benefit for individuals to distill their view and regarding ERE I guess that to stay out of harm's way from titanic forces is very much part of the strategy, even though foreseeing the future is bound to fail and it can never be more than assessing probabilities…. But I guess this type of distilling could happen in a MMG as well, maybe it’s already happening? These types of discussions might be best to keep off the public eye anyway and with people who know each other and can behave.

@ertyu I don’t feel comfortable mentioning the teacher online as it is an intimate setup with someone who isn’t too well known.

Regarding the apartment, I guess it would be in the Stockholm area as that is where I have friends and family. But since last year an appreciation for this small quiet town I’m living in has grown. It’s a good place to retreat to and then venture out on an adventure when I feel so inclined.
Also, I mentioned in last year's post that I felt I caught too much intention in this small place, but actually, as the old saying goes “as within, so without” and as I have met the personality structure that “feels stared down” more in myself there is at least at the moment no problem in this regard, let people stare. This ties a bit into the octagon society stuff I posted as well and I can really recommend it. Even though I’ve done so much mediation there are always buried parts of suffering in the personality structure made up of memories and beliefs and accessing them in a structured way has been very fruitful. The structure of going through the laws makes it much less easy to unconsciously avoid certain aspects that are painful to deal with.

benrickert
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Re: Frihet / Freedom - Journal

Post by benrickert »

@frihet
Thanks for your updates. Haven’t followed the forum in a while. You seem to be doing great. Keep up the good life.

Apt prices in Stockholm have fallen significantly over the past year. Do you have a certain price/yield target in mind?

In Oslo, Apartments are currently being rented out at a loss after interest rate and tax increases. Does not seem sustainable ; rents have to go way up and/or prices have to fall significantly. I’m patiently waiting for something to happen.

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