Nomadic-ERE Year 5 - Wanderlust Prevails

[basuragomi]

Congratulations! Is it any sweeter for having tasted it before?

[2Birds1Stone]

Thanks folks. @basuragomi, yes! It's still early obviously, knowing what complete freedom from other adults telling you what and when to do is fantastic.....though I've been semi-ERE'd, it's a bit less climactic.

[mountainFrugal]

Congrats! Enjoy the orchard project.

[2Birds1Stone]

Congrats! Enjoy the orchard project.

Thank you! I want to get my hands on that graphic novel when I get back stateside.

[Western Red Cedar]

Congratulations! I'm sure it feels great to cut that tie. Hopefully our paths will cross in SE Asia or Europe over the next year.

[AxelHeyst]

Congrats! Looking forward to seeing what you get up to!

[2Birds1Stone]

Musings

I predict that we will be employed for another six to eleven months from this point. Eleven would be the absolute max as that's when the last golden handcuffs related to employer retirement contributions vesting take place, and six would be the soonest as that's when DW has some golden handcuffs come off. If I'm absolutely miserable at work or if we have an opportunity of a lifetime to go do something that would prohibit continued employment I don't mind walking away from more $$.

I've avoided posting exact $#'s in here for several reasons, but do want to share that we hit a significant milestone this year (second comma) which we've seen come and go several times over the past few months. If it sticks we're in a really great place financially to do just about anything we want with our remaining life energy.

Frugalchicos posting about hitting this milestone made me look back at when we crossed the threshold.....looks like it was exactly a year ago!

FC, if you're reading this, know that things snowball like crazy from here Welcome to runaway mode.

We're wrapping up our 2+ months on the Iberian peninsula this weekend and flying to the motherland.

Operation Orchard will be in full swing in the coming weeks!

@WRC, lets make it happen.......maybe start a dialogue offline?

ETA- 11 month prediction was spot on....whoooodathunk.

[jacob]

FC, if you're reading this, know that things snowball like crazy from here Welcome to runaway mode.

I suppose it depends on time perspective ... but after crossing the "threshold", NW becomes much more market performance dependent. Note how people's NW curves are straight lines insofar their monthly savings >> monthly NW volatility. This easily creates the illusion that NW's always go up, especially if the market is also going up. At some point this is no longer the case. The market may work against one's earnings. The market volatility may even drown out the apparent impact of one's earnings. Math can be done.

But yes, in general each 1M is like adding another median income to the household.

[Frugalchicos]

I am officially retired as of yesterday......let the games begin!

Yea!!! Enjoy all the travels and adventures!! You guys earned it

[Frugalchicos]

"FC, if you're reading this, know that things snowball like crazy from here Welcome to runaway mode"

I am!! that's awesome. Very excited to see that snowball growing

Hope you enjoy the Iberian Peninsula and Poland! Would love to see some pics of that orchard project

[mooretrees]

Way to go! Excited to read another journal of someone achieving their goals and crafting a bad ass life!

[2Birds1Stone]

@jacob, agreed! We were in a fortunate situation to be earning a high income during the downward pressure in the equities markets in 2021. Since then the market has recovered quite a bit and now with no active income it's done the heavy lifting in the right direction.

2020 was a real gut check, we turned off the income spigot in Sept 2019 and watched our portfolio evaporate through March of the following year. Luckily that was a quick V shaped recovery so the sting went away quickly. Had it not been for dual high incomes during 2021/2022 we would not be where we are today.

@FC, I'll get around to posting some pics here soon.

Welcome @mooretrees!

[2Birds1Stone]

July 1, 2023

NW = 46.2X TTM Spending
WR = 2.16%

Musings

TTM Spending is down 20% vs. Jan 1, 2023.
NW is up 15% during that same timeframe.
Financially we're in a great place for now, there will be much less of a focus on this going forward.

June was a mixed bag. We got started on cleaning the junk on the orchard. Lots to do, interrupted by tearing something in my shoulder/pec while weightlifting last week. Can't even ride the bicycle I purchased the week prior.

Spending 8 days/nights in the mountains at the end of the month, really looking forward to some proper hiking.

It's good to be able to spend time with family and friends without having to think about work.

Formulating some ideas for this winter......SE Asia and Mexico both look appealing.

[2Birds1Stone]

Hello ERE land.

Mid-month update here.

Project Orchard is going well. We've hauled out a ton of garbage, broken appliances from the house, trimmed, weeded and cleaned up much of the green space. We've also spent many days/nights simply enjoying the place....with bonfires and cookouts with friends. Spent 8-9 nights here and made it comfortable to live at by ERE standards. We ate our fill of black currant, cherries, sour cherries, wild strawberries and gooseberries. Right now blueberry season is starting, we're fighting the birds for what ripens. Europe is heating up and it hasn't rained much so the birds are especially attracted to the berries as their thirst drives them towards the blue and purple morsels of heaven.

My injury is healing and I've been doing PT in the gym for the pec/shoulder. We have a fantastic gym facility that's walking distance from the apartment in the city and a 25 minute bike ride from the orchard. They allow a month to month membership with no commitment. This suites us as we're intermittently traveling for a few weeks at a time in between stints in this area.

Thursday we leave for the mountains. DW and I are excited to get into the mountains. We love the beach too, but mountains have a special place in my heart.

Spending has leveled off at 1.5 JAFI/person, and should remain here until we change our location. Speaking of which, we have applied for a work-stay program in Hawaii for this winter that would have us on the big island for 3 months. It's a pretty interesting gig working at a coffee farm in exchange for food and housing. We're supposed to speak with someone from the farm today to see if it's a good fit. If this doesn't pan out, we're setting our sights right on SE Asia....with a plan to travel over directly from Europe when the season changes in mid/late fall.

[Western Red Cedar]

Project Orchard is going well. We've hauled out a ton of garbage, broken appliances from the house, trimmed, weeded and cleaned up much of the green space. We've also spent many days/nights simply enjoying the place....with bonfires and cookouts with friends. Spent 8-9 nights here and made it comfortable to live at by ERE standards. We ate our fill of black currant, cherries, sour cherries, wild strawberries and gooseberries. Right now blueberry season is starting, we're fighting the birds for what ripens.

This sounds lovely. I imagine getting all the junk out and doing some landscaping really changes the vibe of the place. Have the improvements to the orchard been well-received by your extended family? What is the long-term vision for the property?

[2Birds1Stone]

August 1, 2023

NW = 49X TTM Spending
WR = 2.04%

Musings

Feeling blessed that we're in good health and spirits. The trip to the mountains did us good mentally and physically. The sleep is superb with cool nights and fresh air, sound of the stream a hundred yards from the balcony doesn't hurt either.

Now we're cat and house sitting for a week before taking off on a week long trip tent camping and sailing on a large lake.

@WRC, we've had a few friends over for bon fires and cookouts but other than that no ones visited besides my mom, who owns it.

Long term vision is TBD, as my mother is $ hungry and doesn't always make decisions with anyone else in mind. We're looking at potentially 20-30 years before any formal inheritance would be plausible and it's worth too much at market value to purchase from her without sinking more capital in than we are comfortable with.

For now the goal was to make it as pleasant as possible to spend time there. Next year we could do some gardens of various styles (raised bed, drum, etc) and the soil is extremely fertile. There are challenges, as the property is on a slope and development of the land uphill means a lot more water funnels through during heavy rain, sometimes turning it into a river. We would need to plan on being there almost full time for 4-5 months for that type of project to make sense though. We're not quite that committed to one location yet.

[2Birds1Stone]

Sept 1, 2023

NW = 51X TTM Spending
WR = 1.95%

Musings

It's been a while!

Summer is officially over. We spent another 2 weeks in the mountains, hiking, taking in the nature, hosting some family and friends that came to visit from far away places. After a long and slow interview process, we found out that the work-stay program we applied for in Hawaii was a no-go for this coming winter. This was something that we were waiting to see how it panned out before being able to make further plans.....so now that we got the no, we have tickets to fly back to the USA next month. We're excited to spend a month with family and friends in NY after more less not seeing them for a year. After that we're shooting down south to spend a few months in FL before flying over to SE Asia (likely the first week of February).

After reading about EREfest over the past few days, DW and I are going to do our damn best to plan our travels/locations around next years event. This could mean a road trip cross country, or possibly flying in and doing a section of the PCT before/after, ala theanimal family.

[Western Red Cedar]

Sorry to hear about the work-stay program. It sounded like a great opportunity to engage in an interesting project while living on Hawaii. Although, when one door closes....

I'll message you so you have my personal info in case you want to connect in SE Asia.

[AxelHeyst]

After reading about EREfest over the past few days, DW and I are going to do our damn best to plan our travels/locations around next years event. This could mean a road trip cross country, or possibly flying in and doing a section of the PCT before/after, ala theanimal family.

Hell yes.

Note: basing out of Quail Haven for longer than whatever period of time EREfest QH 2024 is officially is an option. Come earlier, stay later, lots to explore and do. Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Yosemite, etc is all within an easy half-day's drive.

[2Birds1Stone]

I'll message you so you have my personal info in case you want to connect in SE Asia.

I hit you back

It would be great to link up in SE Asia. We have mostly the same location interests and slow travel style.

Come earlier, stay later, lots to explore and do. Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Yosemite, etc is all within an easy half-day's drive.

Very interested in this, sent you a PM/email.

It might be worth it for us to come back from Europe early (ex: late July) and shoot over to the PNW for a month before working down towards you. A road trip out west has been on the bucket list for as long as I can remember (10+ years) and DW and I are both dying to explore that part of the country. Aside from business travel, I've never been west of Ohio.