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Early-Retirement Update

livingafi.com

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Re: Early-Retirement Update

#91

Post by Sileni »

jpdaigle wrote: post #76
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #68

I had to quit reading any FIRE (financial independence, early retirement) blogs because they were full of people headed down this same path: Extreme frugality, bare minimum savings, assuming their lifestyle would never change and nothing would ever go wrong. Retiring at 30 sounds great, but no one's life goes exactly to plan for next the 30-40 years until traditional retirement age. People change, expectations evolve…

> Even worse when your romantic partner has different goals in life, as happened here. What stings (as I can't help but empathize with the author's feelings) in reading this blog is that it sounds like they were very aligned five years ago, but she discovered a gradual growing miscontent only once they tried the early-retiree life. Not sure if there's a possible fix there, other than trying to compromise (only one of…

As many people learned last year, it's easy to gloss over the parts of someone you don't like when you're both actively working towards a goal. When you start spending too much time together, it's easy to have the relationship die from a thousand cuts.

Re: Early-Retirement Update

#92

Post by neogodless »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #68

I had to quit reading any FIRE (financial independence, early retirement) blogs because they were full of people headed down this same path: Extreme frugality, bare minimum savings, assuming their lifestyle would never change and nothing would ever go wrong. Retiring at 30 sounds great, but no one's life goes exactly to plan for next the 30-40 years until traditional retirement age. People change, expectations evolve…

> Extreme frugality

Were you reading FIRE blogs or extreme frugality blogs? Or maybe I can just ask "how do you define extreme frugality?" (I think of myself as kind of frugal, and planning to have the choice to avoid compulsory paid work before I'm 50, but I also live in one of the most expensive areas of the United States outside of big cities / California, with somewhat regular trips to Disney World and other countries.) But a blog like earlyretirementextreme.com isn't focused on high earners cutting down on consumption and retiring early (that's MrMoneyMustache.com) - it's a version of extreme frugality and self-reliance (and adaptability regardless of changing life circumstances.)

> bare minimum savings

I assume by this you mean "leanFIRE" as in "just enough of a nest egg to retire with 25x your annual expenses and everything goes perfectly?!" Of course, that sounds like a recipe for disaster, and I think in some cases it's a bit of a "oh I can quit my stupid job at the exact moment I hit this magic number" mentality, but a misunderstanding of putting a real plan in place for a future that is filled with variables. Depending on the blogs you frequented, they could be "copycat" blogs that just took the juicy headlines from more in-depth blogs and throwing up quick articles so they can get some ad revenue.

Any idea, handled poorly, is going to either come off unappealing or be riddled with shortcomings. That doesn't mean the original idea can't work (and it does for some - some by luck, others by proper strategy.)

Re: Early-Retirement Update

#93

Post by mathgladiator »

The sad thing was the status grind on his partner; that's unfortunate but all too common. It seems he ended up with a more compatible partner in the end, so I'm happy for him.

I recently learned there is this term called "Sigma male" where status is not interesting. Now, I don't know if it is real or just some label, but I do know people that don't care. I personally don't care, but this is after testing the waters of spending money for happiness (remodel house, changes, etc...).

The key that I hope to leverage is that for me money nor traditional status does not translates directly into happiness. However, working on my silly programming language and products that use it: very happy.

My hope when I retire is to work almost full-time with the flexibility to stop and go. I'll be tinkering on http://www.adama-lang.org/ whilst I try to bootstrap a board game company.

I've come to the realization that most of my ideas are going to be seen harshly from many technical people, and they will not be taken seriously at first. My strategy therefor is to balance the meta-game of language building with building actual games. For instance, I'm currently designing a two player deck builder game for husband and wives to play.

I gave a demo of a product that I am building with a friend, and his mind was blown. Sadly, this is the form of status that I seek. I don't see the lifestyle or the materialism, I seek demonstrating my cleverness and being ahead of the curve.

Re: Early-Retirement Update

#94

Post by Gibbon1 »

DanBC wrote: post #36
Pandabob wrote: post #24

He mentions MRIs costing 2-3k€ a pop. That seems really expensive. I’m guessing this is US? Doesn’t competition push down the price of these operations? We’ve got private clinics in Finland offering MRIs from ~230€ without any subsidies (AFAIK).

The US has this thing in some states called "certificates of need". People who support the US market driven healthcare will say that interferences like CoN distort the market and prevent it working properly.

I'm with Kenneth Arrow[1], markets for healthcare don't work, can never be made to work.

[1] 'Uncertainty and the welfare economics of medical care - 1963'

Re: Early-Retirement Update

#95

Post by mathgladiator »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #68

I had to quit reading any FIRE (financial independence, early retirement) blogs because they were full of people headed down this same path: Extreme frugality, bare minimum savings, assuming their lifestyle would never change and nothing would ever go wrong. Retiring at 30 sounds great, but no one's life goes exactly to plan for next the 30-40 years until traditional retirement age. People change, expectations evolve…

I'm going to start blogging about FIRE from the other extreme end. I'm a principal engineer making serious dollars, and I'm writing down my playbook.

I intend to "Fat-FIRE", and the only reason I don't retire now is to see how much I can leverage my position to do crazy shit at massive scale. Paradoxically, this sets me up for larger windfalls because I can take risks that my peers do not take.

Re: Early-Retirement Update

#97

Post by rantwasp »

I like the author’s follow up. It provides good insight into what FI/RE can turn into and it also helps both people that are thinking of FI and both people that don’t know what is/hate the concept.

There is something deep in there about social bonds and being able to relate to people. As long as most people work themselves to death, people that go the FI route will always feel ostracized/left out. It’s just how social things work :(

I also like how the author recognized the issues that were cropping up and actually course-corrected. I find this highly unusual and I am really happy it worked out.

Re: Early-Retirement Update

#98

Post by dash2 »

corry wrote: post #86
samvher wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who is about to get a first child - what kind of low lows should I brace myself for?

Well, first let me say that being a parent is the best thing in my life (and there is a lot of very good stuff in my life), so don't over-index on what I'm about to say next. You'll be fine and better for it! You might have heard the quote "To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken." YMMV but the lowest of the low are the times when you feel the reality that yo…

If this deep connection is the bad stuff, what is the good stuff?

Re: Early-Retirement Update

#99

Post by Invictus0 »

I don't think there is anything really wrong with FIRE itself. What I do think is that many people working towards FIRE don't know how to be happy and think that work is the only thing between them and happiness.

The other problem is that extremely frugal people are going to have a harder time making and maintaining friendships, because people bond over activities that cost money. I would argue that being able to quickly and systematically create deep, high-quality relationships is as important if not more important to FIRE than actually having the money.

Re: Early-Retirement Update

#100

Post by eric_b »

ericd wrote: post #79
eric_b wrote: post #46

I really struggled with the author's tone. It dripped of condescension towards those who live a "normal" lifestyle. I enjoy working. I find purpose and meaning it. I do not let it dominate my life, but without it I would feel incomplete. I run my own business now, and that is very satisfying - but even when I was a corporate consultant I found a lot of enjoyment from spending time with my coworkers, solving problems,…

Eh the author was writing, not doing nothing. They just didn't have to worry about whether what they were doing could generate an income.

Umm... I didn't say he was doing nothing...

But to further clarify -

My point was that work/income generation can add meaning and validation for lots of folks. Even the author hints at this - his writing wasn't taking off, no one was reading what he wrote, and he was getting discouraged.

I dabble making music. I'm pretty good at it by hobbyist standards, but if I ever tried it "full time" no one would pay me and I'd never get huge. That's just the breaks in creative endeavors. My point is that I'd need a heck of a lot more validation and affirmation in my life than making music no one listens to. I suspect the same is true of the author and his writing.

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