[hyperpallium]

Thanks! I also was about 33. And it did become like a prison, at the end (I think because I gradually shifted focus from value, to money).

Your adventure sounds like trememdous fun too. I think you retired with much more money than me (I stopped at the absolute minimum, when it was really taking off).

Learning etc is creating value, and could well be valuable to society long-term - just lacking that immediate feedback. Your consulting gives that. (I did some consulting too, but can quit if non-tech issues make it unpleasant. That's the point of wealth, isn't it?... but it also meant I didn't have work to out how to solve/overcome/deal with it).

[madaxe_again]

> I think you retired with much more money than me (I stopped at the absolute minimum, when it was really taking off).

Maybe, maybe not - I know many, many people far wealthier than me who are still deep in the rat race, and can’t see a way out. I had enough to blow a chunk on travel (highlight was a month in Antarctica, and I’m toying with applying to do a season or two with the BAS once things are a bit more settled on the homestead), to buy two apartments (well, unused basements with scope for conversion in a world heritage city), and two rural houses (one with half a roof, one with no roof), and to renovate them, which we did on a shoestring by doing everything we could do ourselves. My wife has become an accomplished conservation mason in the process, and I learned how to roof, plaster (lime, never worked with gypsum), pour concrete, plumb, wire, and all the rest - got offered jobs by the people I asked to come inspect and sign off on my work, which was really flattering.

The remaining cash I stuck in stocks I believed in, and continue to believe in.

I’m 36 now - it took three more years of hard graft (but enjoyable graft) to turn a lump of cash (oh, screw it - £400k) into earning assets that we can comfortably live off in a country with a low cost of living. Going off grid was part of the formula, as after the capital outlay for power and water, our cost here comprises food, and diesel for the truck - although I plan to do a TEC this summer and dispense with fossil fuels entirely, and their cost, and I’m hopeful that we’ll have two decent harvests this year. Good thing I like beans and potatoes and fruit.

I’ve got mortgages on the rentals, so do have exposure on interest rates, but this is why I went for mid term furnished rentals - allows me flexibility with rents, and means my tenants are usually businesspeople deployed elsewhere, with a corporation paying their rent, so I can command a premium, and not feel like I’m exploiting workers who can’t get out of the rent trap.

I’m toying with the idea of starting a YouTube channel to share the adventure, but I’m held back by the prospect of haters - I dealt with enough venom in the business to just not want to expose myself to it again, and I don’t want to accidentally turn my “quiet” life into a business.

[hyperpallium]

Thanks! That is much more. Also, although your hard graft was enjoyable (working autonomously etc), your full amount would be far higher still.

Re youtube channel: I think you're right on both counts, people will love it, people will hate it. Ironically, charging for it would be one filter. FWIW I think you're right to not risk it! (maybe a book would be safer?)

[smaddox]

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like a dream.

[throwbigdata]

You retired on £400K?

[tasuki]

"in a country with a low cost of living"

In a country with a low cost of living, one can live like a king for £1k a month. With £400k that's yearly withdrawal rate of 3%, which seems safe enough.

[madaxe_again]

Yup, this wouldn't really work in the UK. In Portugal, however, it goes a long way. It helps that the properties are yielding about 20%, as I went for the corporate rental market, and the portfolio has grown about 450% since '17. It's all gone better than hoped for, and I am earning more screwing about in the woods than I did working 16 hour days. My net worth has increased fairly substantially since I threw it all in.

If the world doesn't go to hell, I will keep farming the excess back into working assets - most likely property, following the same formula of buying shitholes in nice areas and turning them into miniature palaces and renting them to banks and tech firms.

If the world does fall apart, we have everything we need here to be entirely self-sufficient. Land to grow food on, a river for power and water.

We're actually spending less than €500/mo on living expenses - more on hardware, tools, materials - which we do in Spain (as does everyone else in this neck of the woods), as it's a lot cheaper than Portugal for that kind of stuff, and the border is only 10km away. For the really esoteric stuff, there's Alibaba, if you don't mind waiting for the slow boat from China.