Retirement Board Posting Tenure

[mickeyd]

My profile says that I entered this den of iniquity on 4/8/2004 @3:31:29 PM. I can only assume that that date/time is correct.

The profile also says that I post an average of 1.038 posts/day (no doubt that that # will change as soon as I hit the Post button.) I had no idea that this critical data was available...I need to get a life I suppose.

 

[CCdaCE]

Less than a year. Reg'd April of '06.

Read M* VG Diehards prior to that for a couple years. Finally got sick of 248 thread posts of "Active vs. Passive" debates with little substance, sick of "Mr. hokey -y +s, and 'SWR is a lie'", etc.

Much prefer this format of forum, editing ease, moderators, etc.

I forget who mentioned this board on M*. Was it Nords?

I need to get around to donating here.

-CC

 

[Sheryl]

I signed up in April of 2004. Wow. I didn't read regularly at first, though. I think I became addicted around Jan. of 2005. I found the board because there was an article in Newsweek (?) or somewhere prominent about FireCALC. From there I followed the link to the board.

At the time I first came here, I was stunned to find out there were actually real, sane (?) people trying to do what we were trying to do. We thought we were just lazy or freaks. Now we know we are both.

 

[mickeyd]

How dare you call me lazy Sheryl. If I wasn't so comfortable sitting here in my comfy chair, I would get up in a huff and rant.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

some people change their identities fairly frequently

Now who the hell would do something like that?

 

[Nords]

Now who the hell would do something like that?

Grumpy bunnies who haven't posted enough updates on Vida Guerra or Sofia Vergara?

 

[Sheryl]

How dare you call me lazy Sheryl. If I wasn't so comfortable sitting here in my comfy chair, I would get up in a huff and rant.

Sorry Mickey - That wasn't aimed at you. I meant "we" my SO and I.

 

[bow-tie]

Like Sheryl.... I found the site after I read about it in Newsweek. Registered in March '04... and very glad I found this place.

Now who the hell would do something like that?

El Guapo... what an awesome name - - "Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas"

...funny little bunny.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yeah you got me. I just watched the movie with Gabe. He seemed a little intimidated by El Guapo but he liked Martin Short a lot. Made him giggle.

Anyhow, three plus years. When I found the place I was actually surprised that there were enough people interested in ER to form a little band and talk about it online. Why I was surprised is a mystery. It all seems so obvious now.

And i'm lazy and happy to admit it! Now for the other 11 steps...

 

[Mudd]

1.5 years. Registered on 9/23/05. On Springsteen's b-day no less.

Found you guys from the simple living network. I have learned a ton-Thanks

Mudd

 

[Telly]

Feb 2003.

I think it was Scott Burns --> FireCalc --> Dory board.

Newcomers shouldn't have chased Ted away. That was the beginning of the lessening in interest for me. Not that newcomers in general are bad, quite the contrary. I have learned a lot here. And rejected a lot, too.

Would be nice if we could kill the knee-jerk group-speak sometimes. It has built up here as time has gone by. Just as an example, what newcomer is going to post (and return) about his/her managed funds? Anyone who isn't an indexer is an idiot, right? Oh oh, shouldn't have said that

 

[unclemick]

Now now - how soon we forget.

Pssst - Wellesley.

heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh eh

 

[REWahoo]

Would be nice if we could kill the knee-jerk group-speak sometimes. It has built up here as time has gone by. Just as an example, what newcomer is going to post (and return) about his/her managed funds? Anyone who isn't an indexer is an idiot, right? Oh oh, shouldn't have said that

Hey Telly...

I've never put a dollar in an index fund and I've posted here for 4.5 years. Maybe I'm considered an idiot by some for using managed funds (DODBX, DODFX, VWIAX), but it obviously hasn't slowed me from posting.

And speaking of Ted, wasn't he the guy who couldn't seem to get past the thought that anyone who retired early was a drag on humankind? Any wonder the forum took him to task?

 

[samclem]

Two years, six months. Dang, the time has gone quickly. I was just at the point of deciding whether to retire (from full-time work) or not, and the folks here were a real help. And I learn something new here every day.

 

[wabmester]

Yikes, Dec 2003. Found via a link on intercst's site.

Newcomers shouldn't have chased Ted away. That was the beginning of the lessening in interest for me. Not that newcomers in general are bad, quite the contrary. I have learned a lot here. And rejected a lot, too.

Would be nice if we could kill the knee-jerk group-speak sometimes. It has built up here as time has gone by. Just as an example, what newcomer is going to post (and return) about his/her managed funds? Anyone who isn't an indexer is an idiot, right? Oh oh, shouldn't have said that

Yeah, I miss Ted. He was as dogmatic as anybody here, but his dogma was pretty solid. And anybody who worked in the sewer can't be all bad.

I don't think anybody chased him away, though. He had mentioned that he was repeating himself too often, and he was planning to work as fee-only FA. My memory is bad enough that I can't remember when I'm repeating myself, so that keeps me around here singing the same old song over and over....

 

[Nords]

And speaking of Ted, wasn't he the guy who couldn't seem to get past the thought that anyone who retired early was a drag on humankind? Any wonder the forum took him to task?

I don't think anybody chased him away, though. He had mentioned that he was repeating himself too often, and he was planning to work as fee-only FA. My memory is bad enough that I can't remember when I'm repeating myself, so that keeps me around here singing the same old song over and over....

Yeah, I can see him building up a big crowd of happy customers as a retirement planner.

"What?!? You're too young to retire-- now get the #$%^ out of my sight, get a haircut, and get a job!! Oh, wait, here's my invoice for $250. Now have a nice day."

I think he threatened to leave the board just to hear the posters beg him to return. That must've been a real surprise...

 

[Bram]

I've been here a whole 2 weeks! Register 12/22/06, but had lurked a week or 2 before.

I'm a bit daunted by the knowledge flow here, but keep plugging away. I think it's a great forum & really appreciate having found it!

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

for most of my life i pushed buttons before actually knowing what they would do. in fashion, i stumbled upon this amazingly informative forum after i quit but before i made any unrepairable blunders.

february 27th will be my 1st year anniversary. you will find me registered at your local ferrari dealership.

 

[sgeeeee]

Now who the hell would do something like that?

Only a sick mind would engage in this sort of behavior.

 

[Eagle43]

Once upon a time I was at Mega-Corp and bored. Sensing my supervisor would soon assign a task to me, I googled retirement. Voila, there was a forum with neat guys and gals discussing retirement, and investing, and travel, and food, and well, you know. I spent many happy hours lurking, whilst at work. In January 2004, I followed the forum's advice and retired. One year later, Jan 05, I joined the forum and lived happily ever after.

 

[BigMoneyJim]

I've been here since Feb 2003. Stuck my nose into the inner workings in May 2005, migrated the forum software to great effect and have been unofficial database guy / substitute admin / gratuitous-adder-of-smileys-and-avatars ever since. When dory36 delegated moderation to suckersmoderators he snuck me in as a moderator, but I lucked out and got the easy board. If something is off-topic in my board I just push it to Martha's board. And my topic is very narrow.

Link to my "hi" post here.

Link to some user statistics in late May 2005.

I was at The Motley Fool REHP board since 2000. I knew I needed to change my personal financial situation and at the time TMF had some good articles and lots of good contributors in the discussion boards. When they went for-pay I didn't get comp'ed and didn't pay. I was on a posting hiatus anyway, but I eventually found my way here after trying another board or two. This one was better in content and attitude. (Yeah, hard to believe . )

It seems like the really divisive debates here started prior to the 2004 election cycle, but things eventually calm down which is still rather better than many sites I've seen.

I'm still around but haven't posted much lately. My finances are more or less on autopilot for a while, so I haven't had a lot to say about money.

The board has grown continuously since I've been here (and probably before, too, but, you know, I wasn't here to witness it). In early 2005 the board glitches were increasing, and I think it was Cut-Throat that started asking about upgrades to fix the glitches. I went into geek mode and prototyped and demonstrated free upgrade options and we wound up with this software which looks and acts a lot like the old one but can handle a much higher load.

Somewhere later in 2005 Google started indexing the site. At first it was because we enabled the "search engine friendly" URLs, but later they were turned off because some users objected to being listed on Google. But Google now indexes the board anyway even with all the "?"s and ";"s in the URLs.

Between Google and media mentions of FireCalc the board has really exploded since then. Or maybe it's just the compound percentage growth that finally caught momentum. Either way this is a really busy place now.

Oh, an example of growth: The board was started (apparently) in June 2002. Around the start of 2006 the site had 100,000 posts. By the end of 2006 the site had 200,000 posts.

 

[DRiP Guy]

Thanks for the background, Big MoneyJim

That is very interesting and helpful for a newbie like me!

I very much like the current atmosphere & dialog here. I have seen the grousing that it is pretty quiet controvery-wise, and not super dooper technical every thread, and has a fair amount of peripheral stuff not 100% related to FI/RE.

I say there are other places to argue about which specific investment vehicle is the penultimate to the final degree, so this board needn't be that,

that there are plenty of places to point people to for highly technical matters,

that the periphral-looking stuff may not be 100% FI/RE related itself, but knowing how people approaching FI/RE are doing it/thinking about it (travel, home downsizing, tax managment, storing goods, getting mail forwarded, etc) is very useful in my eyes.

I guess my point is, it seems a lot of FI/RE interest people - those in it, those approaching it, or those curious about it, are all meeting here to discuss generalities, questions, ideas. Sometimes those are heavy tehcnical, often not.

I for one, think the mix is just right. The value to me is having those who have done it/are doing it, available for those thinking about it.

Thanks again!
DRiP Guy

 

[F M All]

I say there are other places to argue about which specific investment vehicle is the penultimate to the final degree, so this board needn't be that,

Where do you go to find the absolute second best?