Quit the world at 34 and now "broken" and refuse to go back

[COZICAN]

All I really heard was "Look, it's easy. Anybody can do it. What are you so afraid of? Everybody should drop off the grid with us. It's so easy!"

 

[kevdude]

Quit the world at 34 and now "broken" and refuse to go back

For anyone interested, he does have his blog site on his profile, which I checked out for a bit last night. They are resourceful, to say the least.

It does appear he checked out, which I certainly understand. Imo he answered people’s questions with civility and was quite clear that their route was certainly not for most, nor was he saying it should be. And he was still treated by some as if he were a troll. As I mentioned before, I don’t get it. Paraphrasing from the thread on living in Golf and Country Club communities, it’s like we have a “few retired old ladies” walking around looking for noncompliance.

 

[Cut-Throat]

I was shocked, as well. I mean, the site's symbol is a scissors, for cutting the ties to the demands and expectations of work.

A bit of History on the Scissors... Actually in the very early days of this forum, there was a thread on being frugal, and someone mentioned that they cut Dryer sheets in half before using them. Hence the scissors. That thread is also what contributed to the Posting Status of "Recycles dryer sheets".

 

[ivinsfan]

For anyone interested, he does have his blog site on his profile, which I checked out for a bit last night. They are resourceful, to say the least.

It does appear he checked out, which I certainly understand. Imo he answered people’s questions with civility and was quite clear that their route was not everyone’s cup of tea. And he was still treated by some as if he were a troll. As I mentioned before, I don’t get it. Paraphrasing from the thread on living in Golf and Country Club communities, it’s like we have a “few retired old ladies” walking around looking for noncompliance.

I dunno cruising the world in a half million dollar boat with a RE portfolio, healthcare and money could appeal to a lot of people. If you want to checkout when people ask for a few specific details as to how you did it, it's your decision. Asking for details is not attacking someone.

 

[ivinsfan]

I did ask how they made mortgage payments,paid a manager,paid RE taxes and insurance and came out with money leftover to spend.. No answer...

 

[Amethyst]

I don't doubt you heard exactly that. It's interesting (to me) that I didn't hear a condescending "look, it's easy." I heard an encouraging, "Look, if you really want, it can be done - we are doing it." And I did think of the couple Billy and Akaisha, who are ER gurus.

Also, OP did say he'd been hoping for specific "how did you do it" questions. It's unfortunate he didn't stick around to respond to those he received, such as from ivinsfan.

Oh well! Their lifestyle wouldn't have worked for us at all, but I still love reading about it.

All I really heard was "Look, it's easy. Anybody can do it. What are you so afraid of? Everybody should drop off the grid with us. It's so easy!"

 

[ivinsfan]

I don't doubt you heard exactly that. It's interesting (to me) that I didn't hear a condescending "look, it's easy." I heard an encouraging, "Look, if you really want, it can be done - we are doing it." And I did think of the couple Billy and Akaisha, who are ER gurus.

Also, OP did say he'd been hoping for specific "how did you do it" questions. It's unfortunate he didn't stick around to respond to those he received, such as from ivinsfan.

Oh well! Their lifestyle wouldn't have worked for us at all, but I still love reading about it.

He reading this thread as we speak..

 

[Amethyst]

I just had a funny thought. What if OP felt "broken" by the workplace, because his writing style was continually misunderstood and people were never sure what he meant?

 

[HI Bill]

Im quickly gathering the fact that my ideas don't fit the "normal" conversation here... and seem to be less than welcome... but maybe the confusion comes that I would hardly consider the lifestyle we are living lean. Were some of the steps we took to get here, maybe... but today Im almost embarrassed at how ridiculously opulent it feels.

Sorry, bry. Your original post made it sound much more dangerous, tenuous, and financially risky than it appears to have actually been, based on your web site. It also made it sound like you had completely abandoned work, but based on your web site, special projects, and rentals, it appears that you have simply redefined your work. You may find that many on this forum object to people calling themselves FIRE, when they're still doing 'side gigs' to support themselves. Your path rocks, and your success is evident. Your travel 'tracks' on the map on your website make me jealous. I just think you need to be more upfront with the non-linear work path and continued work that you do to support your plan. Safe travels!

 

[Rianne]

I'm not sure the OP needed to convince anyone of his philosophy. All that energy should have gone into a book. He's 7 years into his RE.

If I was 35, daydreaming everyday of freedom and the good life, I'd buy the book. I don't remember articles or books out when I was 35 talking about RE. It was all about how to get promoted or make more $$, how to write a resume or impress your boss.

 

[Bestwifeever]

This forum does get a fair amount of bloggers who have not really read many of this forum's threads but who have something to promote and they adapt their message to what they think this forum is about to get people to go to their blogs. This one has posted some gorgeous pictures within this thread and has said he and his spouse own a pricey boat, have an income stream from real estate holdings, and have ditched the 9 to 5 jobs they used to have. I could do this too if I had money to buy a pricey boat and invest in real estate. I think that is his message? Maybe he will stick around and actually contributes to some other threads on this forum, which we would all appreciate, or he will tell us we are not welcoming to newcomers and great ideas. Either way, life is short, enjoy what you can.

 

[ivinsfan]

I'm not sure the OP needed to convince anyone of his philosophy. All that energy should have gone into a book. He's 7 years into his RE.

If I was 35, daydreaming everyday of freedom and the good life, I'd buy the book. I don't remember articles or books out when I was 35 talking about RE. It was all about how to get promoted or make more $$, how to write a resume or impress your boss.

Books are so old school, he has a blog...

 

[FreeBear]

I have a buddy who lives like the OP, but SE Asia. Localized, learned the language (!), traveled super cheap, married a local. After a decade of fun, they returned stateside, had kids, and decided to get serious about w*rk. They are w*rkaholic entrepreneurs. They w*rk much harder than I ever did in my gigs in tech. They are savings like crazy with the dream of FI so that their stressful, manual labor-intensive jobs don't kill them.

They hope to go back to the perpetual travel life once the kids enter college. They plan to remain entrepreneurs, but hope to cut back the hours and intensity so that they can get back to traveling the world.

By "broken", the OP meant that they had been spoiled by the freedom, and would not go back to a 9-to-5 job.

How does one pay for living expenses, if not yet at FI level to live off his investments, or have a pension?

These young people either have a side job to generate income, or monetize their lifestyle via blogs and Youtube. That's how they do it.

Yep, like MMM, often maligned here!

Roots vs non-roots is really the discussion, some desire strong roots, some could care less.

Good point. When younger, I thought I could live as a dirtbag hiker or boater, all on my own, chasing cheap outdoor thrills. Then I met DW...

Just before retiring several years ago, I flirted with the idea of hitting the road in a used RV or travel trailer. Then I realized I was married and wanted to stay that way

I still dream though. I can't seem to part with my old backpacking gear, although I haven't slept on the ground in over a decade. Tip: I ground has gotten much harder in the last 10 years

So for DW and I, we spend tons of time with local friends, few of whom are big travelers or outdoors people. Still we enjoy their company and they are great folks. DW and I get out several times a week on a bike or boat to have our fun. During the long winter, we hit the road following the sun and warmer weather so we can stay outside.

 

[HI Bill]

I'm not sure the OP needed to convince anyone of his philosophy. All that energy should have gone into a book.

Perhaps, but he's need to hire a seriously good editor, so he's not misunderstood.

 

[jollystomper]

I did enjoy my work, and would have stayed a lot longer if the megacorp Dilbert environment did not upset me. But I stayed employed long enough to get a 7-figure net worth when I was 40. Then, I worked some more after leaving megacorp to do my own things.

Same here, except the Dilbertization of the workplace did not bother me, the pay allowed me to deal with that . I retired not to run from it, but to run to something else.

It seems to me that what I hear about from the OP and those in similar fashions, is more FISE (Financial Independence, Self-Employed) than FIRE, where the SE is through online methods of generating revenue through blogs, videos, and social media. Just my opinion which others are free to correct me on.

I am *NOT* knocking this at all. In fact, I applaud those who are comfortable doing that. It is new "frontier" of self-employment. Figuring out how to live and support oneself contentedly in that manner. I could not deal with. The security of a regular, large paycheck was my weakness. It takes a lot of effort to essentially "brand" oneself to generate revenue. That is one reason I worked long enough so that once retired, I did not need any side gigs at all.

 

[NW-Bound]

... once retired, I did not need any side gigs at all.

Plus we are too old and tired to hustle.

I read blogs of some older RV'ers who did it to share the experience and to connect with other full-time RV'ers. They made no effort to monetize their postings.

One after one, they stopped when it became too much work and they got tired of writing or had nothing exciting to tell. And that was just casual posting, while Youtube videos need some work in order to stay interesting and keep viewers.

Many stopped their blog when they got tired of being a nomad and settled down to a house again. A few have kept goin' and goin', but man, that's rare.

 

[pj.mask]

...

If you look back, i've never made any judgements on your life, your family or your commitment to it (I would never question any of those things), nor have I ever claimed to know anything at all about your life.



Im simply suggesting that you not judge these family's choices as being less than yours. They are not less, nor more... they are simply different.

I haven’t judged anything in this post. I simply saw in advance that the way your posts were written was very forceful and would generate a lot of push back. I wondered if you were focused on your own situation - as many here have said everyone has their own path. I was sharing a my perspective on some of the more typical reasons people don’t consider this option.

One thing my SO frequently says to me is when having a conversation with someone you should ‘seek to understand them, their point of view, and their intent’.

Reading a lot of these posts I feel like you are talking about a lot of extreme lifestyle choices but seem to get very defensive when the mainstream/majority of responses say ‘that isn’t my cup of tea’.

I think it’s cool that you are doing this. It is a much higher level of risk than I’m willing to take with finances for my perceived gain in lifestyle. Due to motion sickness my family would never live in an van/RV much less boat no matter how much money we have (although if we could afford something ~400’ we might consider it for short periods)

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Admittedly, I have only read the first post and the last 10 or so postings so don't have much to offer except one anecdotal observation:

Is the hot weather is getting to folks because there seems to be a lot of threads where people are getting awfully testy. Just a friendly reminder that this is NOT a city data forum.

 

[ivinsfan]

I haven’t judged anything in this post. I simply saw in advance that the way your posts were written was very forceful and would generate a lot of push back. I wondered if you were focused on your own situation - as many here have said everyone has their own path. I was sharing a my perspective on some of the more typical reasons people don’t consider this option.

One thing my SO frequently says to me is when having a conversation with someone you should ‘seek to understand them, their point of view, and their intent’.

Reading a lot of these posts I feel like you are talking about a lot of extreme lifestyle choices but seem to get very defensive when the mainstream/majority of responses say ‘that isn’t my cup of tea’.

I think it’s cool that you are doing this. It is a much higher level of risk than I’m willing to take with finances for my perceived gain in lifestyle. Due to motion sickness my family would never live in an van/RV much less boat no matter how much money we have (although if we could afford something ~400’ we might consider it for short periods)

PJ I was with you until you mentioned "extreme Lifestyle choice" What part of his lifestyle do you think is extreme? The early part where he rented out all the RE and lived in a converted van, or the part 6 years later when he lives in a 500K boat or floating house. Apparently even the choice to van live wasn't an economic necessity or permanent lifestyle choice, but simply a temporary means to an end.

Two completely different ends of the spectrum. Not having children or even a fixed home base is not really rare around here and not consider extreme IMO. If you were guessing while lifestyle do you think he will enjoy going forward.

 

[jim584672]

My 2 cents. He doesn't say what his financial situation is so it seems hard to form an opinion about him. But I would say he is not FI. How does he relax on that boat knowing he always has to find a new project, gig, or whatever to fund his life? I am FI and I still worry about finance. Also he is trying too hard to sell how great his life is which sets off my cynical alarm.

 

[COZICAN]

"trying too hard to sell how great his life is"

Exactly

 

[ivinsfan]

My 2 cents. He doesn't say what his financial situation is so it seems hard to form an opinion about him. But I would say he is not FI. How does he relax on that boat knowing he always has to find a new project, gig, or whatever to fund his life? I am FI and I still worry about finance. Also he is trying too hard to sell how great his life is which sets off my cynical alarm.

We don't know that he isn't FI, but reading between the lines he is very likely not RE....and that's not hair splitting...they are two very different things. The odd thing is he never had to mention that he sailed a 500K boat he threw it out there willingly.

 

[Amethyst]

Bwah-hah! I actually stayed away for two weeks because I felt myself getting testy. Not the heat, but constantly aching shoulder, and issues connected with our recent move. The thought of "I'm starting to get like some of those posters on C-D retirement forum" did cross my mind

Is the hot weather is getting to folks because there seems to be a lot of threads where people are getting awfully testy. Just a friendly reminder that this is NOT a city data forum.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Not having children or even a fixed home base is not really rare around here and not consider extreme IMO.

Many people in our area are self employed. Boat living is not the norm but also not all that unusual where we live. We have a friend who lives on a boat.

Techies fed up with high rents turn to boats on San Francisco Bay.
https://abc7news.com/realestate/techies-fed-up-with-high-rents-turn-to-boats-on-sf-bay/1037445/
"..many young techies are grabbing their motion sickness pills and jumping on a sailboat."

 

[ivinsfan]

Bwah-hah! I actually stayed away for two weeks because I felt myself getting testy. Not the heat, but constantly aching shoulder, and issues connected with our recent move. The thought of "I'm starting to get like some of those posters on C-D retirement forum" did cross my mind

Good to know, have you started painting yet? Better go on hiatus again when you bring out the paint roller.

Instead of testy a few of us here, myself included go through stages of being too sensitive. (it sounds better when you put it that way)