shasta
Recycles dryer sheets
How are you class of 2013 cats doing?
Things are good here. I moved cross country to a new metro area. In retrospect this was a great idea all things considered except I miss my family who are all far away. It's easy for me to fly and see them with all of my free time but more on that below.
To keep this from becoming a livejournal type thread, I thought we could do +/- lists.
My class of 2013 - > year of 2015 +/- lists:
The pluses (+)
+I am never bored. The days are always full of something even if it is just taking the long / slow route to get groceries.
+For the first time since being a teenager I have time to play and enjoy video games.
+I have been able to slow down the passing of time and the days now feel like when you were a kid and those 2 months of summer felt like a year in between spring / fall. When I was a worker, consumer, junk spender, self gratifier I was always working for the weekend so looking forward to that made weekdays zoom by.
+My health has improved by removing much corporate stress. I almost feel too disengaged sometimes and try to put those spare cycles towards others business problems. I don't do meetings tho
+Haven't really worried about a great AA / autopilot portfolio. I watch the market news daily and log into the various accounts to look from time to time but nothing has come close to keeping me up at night. I am living below my means / budgeted cash only and have room to be flexible as needed to remain within the %. I have watched my colleagues however not do so well. Most have hired % FAs and were shocked at how well I did DIY compared to their FA that cost them and took hours of their time sending over complex documents to make it look like the FA was worth the $.
The minuses (-)
-it's cramped many of my personal relationships. Trying to force myself into a schedule that fits around friends with day jobs feels like when I was working and had to schedule every little thing. My health has also improved in retirement because I find myself staying out and drinking etc much less than when I was a businessman and always had a customer or colleague wanting an after hours dinner / drinks. I find most of my day worker colleagues only want to do stuff like that and it's hard for me to get them into other things. I guess time for new friends in some areas.
-Cramped family relationships : and before this I felt like I was already down to a small group of people I still kept in touch with. Some of them don't understand what I am doing and because so young thinking I am being selfish by just enjoying what I have worked for and earned. Some convince themselves thru a sense of entitlement that I should distribute everything I earned across the small family. First time I heard of this belief in the family sadly I have had to cut one of them off and from time to time I hear comments I don't like or expect from my close family. There is nothing I can do about the behavior of others sadly and their guilt will not make me deviate from my plan.
-People(friends and family) who would once give me normal updates about their life when we talked now only lay stories of woe on me. I noticed this right away. Now everyone's life is like some kind of torture dungeon and they will sometimes comment how I have it so easy. Since I worked hard for years where I didn't do much else with my life (no spouse, no kids) I am sickened by their comments and must distance myself. It's not a good energy and it seems my life now just reduces the quality of theirs. Coming from family is especially sad for me but I must go on.
-I can't take a job to save my life. People are right now constantly seeking me out, hoping I will get back into the game in their new venture. I try to just help pro bono so nobody has any expectations of me since I am not being paid anything. This could be a plus or minus I guess, but when daily freedoms of having no schedule at all start being violated I just don't care enough. The first time I just wanna lay in bed and read a book and someone is trying to rope me in with salary / stock when I have just been trying to casually help I want to eject. The thought of returning to calendar heavy corp life actually makes me kinda freak out. I realize I overdid it there a bit over the years.
I try to live really humble and average. I'm not flashy or blingy. I actually live on 1/4 the cash income I generated as an executive. I seek to reach a point where people don't think of me any differently.
FIRE is a mix of good and bad for me so far.
Goals moving forward : find a way to reunite my family and hope to see my friends more happy and content.
I get frustrated when people act jealous over what I have worked for while they wouldn't take a piece of good saving advise no matter how much I try to help.
So how are you 2013ers?
Things are good here. I moved cross country to a new metro area. In retrospect this was a great idea all things considered except I miss my family who are all far away. It's easy for me to fly and see them with all of my free time but more on that below.
To keep this from becoming a livejournal type thread, I thought we could do +/- lists.
My class of 2013 - > year of 2015 +/- lists:
The pluses (+)
+I am never bored. The days are always full of something even if it is just taking the long / slow route to get groceries.
+For the first time since being a teenager I have time to play and enjoy video games.
+I have been able to slow down the passing of time and the days now feel like when you were a kid and those 2 months of summer felt like a year in between spring / fall. When I was a worker, consumer, junk spender, self gratifier I was always working for the weekend so looking forward to that made weekdays zoom by.
+My health has improved by removing much corporate stress. I almost feel too disengaged sometimes and try to put those spare cycles towards others business problems. I don't do meetings tho
+Haven't really worried about a great AA / autopilot portfolio. I watch the market news daily and log into the various accounts to look from time to time but nothing has come close to keeping me up at night. I am living below my means / budgeted cash only and have room to be flexible as needed to remain within the %. I have watched my colleagues however not do so well. Most have hired % FAs and were shocked at how well I did DIY compared to their FA that cost them and took hours of their time sending over complex documents to make it look like the FA was worth the $.
The minuses (-)
-it's cramped many of my personal relationships. Trying to force myself into a schedule that fits around friends with day jobs feels like when I was working and had to schedule every little thing. My health has also improved in retirement because I find myself staying out and drinking etc much less than when I was a businessman and always had a customer or colleague wanting an after hours dinner / drinks. I find most of my day worker colleagues only want to do stuff like that and it's hard for me to get them into other things. I guess time for new friends in some areas.
-Cramped family relationships : and before this I felt like I was already down to a small group of people I still kept in touch with. Some of them don't understand what I am doing and because so young thinking I am being selfish by just enjoying what I have worked for and earned. Some convince themselves thru a sense of entitlement that I should distribute everything I earned across the small family. First time I heard of this belief in the family sadly I have had to cut one of them off and from time to time I hear comments I don't like or expect from my close family. There is nothing I can do about the behavior of others sadly and their guilt will not make me deviate from my plan.
-People(friends and family) who would once give me normal updates about their life when we talked now only lay stories of woe on me. I noticed this right away. Now everyone's life is like some kind of torture dungeon and they will sometimes comment how I have it so easy. Since I worked hard for years where I didn't do much else with my life (no spouse, no kids) I am sickened by their comments and must distance myself. It's not a good energy and it seems my life now just reduces the quality of theirs. Coming from family is especially sad for me but I must go on.
-I can't take a job to save my life. People are right now constantly seeking me out, hoping I will get back into the game in their new venture. I try to just help pro bono so nobody has any expectations of me since I am not being paid anything. This could be a plus or minus I guess, but when daily freedoms of having no schedule at all start being violated I just don't care enough. The first time I just wanna lay in bed and read a book and someone is trying to rope me in with salary / stock when I have just been trying to casually help I want to eject. The thought of returning to calendar heavy corp life actually makes me kinda freak out. I realize I overdid it there a bit over the years.
I try to live really humble and average. I'm not flashy or blingy. I actually live on 1/4 the cash income I generated as an executive. I seek to reach a point where people don't think of me any differently.
FIRE is a mix of good and bad for me so far.
Goals moving forward : find a way to reunite my family and hope to see my friends more happy and content.
I get frustrated when people act jealous over what I have worked for while they wouldn't take a piece of good saving advise no matter how much I try to help.
So how are you 2013ers?
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