Friday updates and accomplishments and mid level milestones

 It's technically after midnight on Saturday, but it's still Friday since I haven't fallen asleep. That's how time works, right? 

I thought I would have fun staying up, but I'm already feeling sleepy. 

Accomplishments

- Even though I postponed my meeting at 11a and regretted it, I forced myself to stay on the computer until my last CE of the week was done. With that, I have done 13.5 credits of the 15 required for the year! This is my first year getting them done this early. My motivation - my subscription expires in March! I want to try to renew at the half year mark - so Jun 2024- so I can keep splitting it over 2 calendar years and get more bang for my buck. Anyway, really proud of myself. Eventhough it's easy just let it play in the background, sometimes I just don't want to. What helped was last Friday when I was locked out of my computer. I just did a bunch of home studies while I waited to get back online. 

- Freezing my credit card

- Putting my new cards in my wallet; still haven't activated them, but after the password lockout, I decided to be more emergency prepared and keep my cell phone with me and charged (where before I was letting it die, etc)

- Requesting my free week with Landing; I'm giving them until mid-Feb to respond to my request

- Reaching out to Bank to ask about my new debit cards. They came!! So now my spending can go back to normal. 

As always, right before I log on to post, I have so many things I want to get out of my brain and on paper, and now nothing.

Mostly, oh, I was clicking around and stumbled on a post about the woman who started the EconoMe conference. She referenced a book that challenged the 'passion hypothesis' and 'courage culture.' Sometimes people are so good at verbalizing what I'm feeling. It helps me feel validated and less alone in my thinking. Whether we want to admit or not, at least for me, I like the validation of a shared thought. It feels less like I'm opposing the machine. 

I guess that's how FIRE started out for me, so I should be used to it by now. 

Anyway, in this year of continuing to upend and challenge my belief systems on what life is about, it was nice to hear that someone is challenging this passion hypothesis. I don't have one, and I'm tired of beating myself up for looking for one. It started out as this trendy thing that so many people were quick to subscribe to. But happiness for me hasn't come from following any passion. So then I felt like then I had to be unhappy or that was the solution to my happiness - if I could just find my passion. 

But this is just life for me. Maybe it's mental illness that's causing the block, but I doubt it. Finding or pursuing a passion doesn't necessarily make you happy. Think of all these blogger extremes, which again are just a small subset of people (and hero's journeys at that) who are so determined to do just this one thing, then change direction. 

So yeah, trying to make travel my passion because it's the least offensive of the popular passions may not be the right path for me either. Unlike most of the bloggers, America IS my adventure! I wasn't born here. I traveled a lot in my 20s. And now I work and live in this cool new country far away from where I was born. 

I'm also thinking more about moving away from making these grand sweeping long-term life plans. I mean it's only been a month of thinking this way, but so far, I am feeling more affirmed. I think just renewing my lease on life 1 year at a time might be the way for me to go. 

I was reading about yet another early retiree who prefers a structured day. I think that's me as well. 

I think having some loose activity targets I want to hit and making that fit in with my more established financial structure is enough of a challenge with built in flexibility. Even APL and Root of Good do this without saying they're doing it. They are still limited by how far there points will go or family structure and schedules and interests. No one is really doing everything they want to do all of the time at exactly the time they want to do it. That's not the way the world works. 

Another thing the article pointed out that I wish I had spent more time on when I was dying for FIRE are mid-level milestones. I had heard of the different levels - like Coast FI or BaristaFI but for whatever reason they didn't resonate with me. My first $100k was nice and reaching some idea of CoastFI was cool in the beginning. But I lost my way.

This person talked about Half FI, where you're at 12.5% of your expenses. Then Close FI -which is either 20x your expenses or meeting your basic expenses. Well my $20k/yr number was pretty much my basic expenses but and until I hit it, it was my final destination.

But now that I've reached it and am in a less unstable place mentally, I can keep going for now. Even 1 mil seems too large of a goal to make real. But it was encouraging to think well at $30k/yr which is more reasonable and less restrictive, I could make 20x by this year or next ($600k). And that felt surprisingly good. If I recall, that was my original stretch goal! 

It's a really nice number because I don't see myself living beyond another 20 years, so I can have a cushier budget with such a low risk of running out of money and a really good chance of not spending down any of my portfolio. It's a pretty sweet spot! 

Knowing Purple is doing it on $500k makes me feel hopeful and more assured that I could definitely do it on $600k without much finagling. 

And just having some new clarity on dating and relationships has made me a little less anxious about this year. (See earlier post.)

I think for the Antigua trip, I am releasing myself of the pressure. If I want to go closer to the time, I'll look at prices and see if I can swing it. Remember, MERJ, there are no consequences!

For February, my focus is on tax stuff (and work). And I think for personal enjoyment, try to get into the Valentine's Day spirit. Watch more romance movies and eat snacks. I already have about $10 worth of junk food. Whoops! I kind of want to make some Valentine's day themed Rice Krispie Treats but the box of cereal was like upwards of $4. 

That and maybe a fancy box of vegan chocolates and take myself out to a nice steak dinner.