Author Topic: Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!  (Read 4544 times)

jtwriter

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Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!
« on: March 16, 2018, 08:47:39 AM »
Hello awesome already FIREd Mustachians!

As a long-time reader of FI blogs/communities, I noticed that we hear more from people working toward FI, and not as much from those who’ve already made it. Since we pre-FI people are in stronger numbers, much of the discussion tends to be theoretical and modeling the future the best we can, and not as much about learning from how things played for real (save a few wildly successful post-FI bloggers).

There's surely a TON of insight and wisdom the rest of us can learn from those of you successfully FIREd. This section of the forum is definitely an example of that, but I thought compiling and structuring some these insights and stories might be of interest to people, so I’m starting HowIFIREd.com to feature interviews about how you got there, and what you’ve learned since becoming FI.

To that end, I put together an interview made up of some top questions from the FI community here: http://bit.ly/HowIFIREdInterview

Please have a look, fill out the interview, share it with any other REs you know, and let me know what you think! Thanks in advance.

Monkey Uncle

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Re: Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!
« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2018, 04:33:54 AM »
Asking for my real name and location was a no-go for me.  I know you gave the option to remain anonymous, but I don't know anything about you other than the fact that you've made 6 posts on this forum in the two years that you've been registered, so I can't trust that everything is above board and secure.

Sorry.

jtwriter

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Re: Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2018, 09:46:23 AM »
Asking for my real name and location was a no-go for me.  I know you gave the option to remain anonymous, but I don't know anything about you other than the fact that you've made 6 posts on this forum in the two years that you've been registered, so I can't trust that everything is above board and secure.

Fair points, and I sincerely appreciate the feedback. I made the name optional. I left the location but added a bit of explanation: knowing at least what country people FIREd in gives context as there are a number of differences between doing so in the US/Canada/UK/etc. Totally understand not wanting to be too specific here.

And of course if any of the other "required" questions rub you or anyone else the wrong way, feel free to just input "NA".

Thanks again and if you have any other comments I'm happy to hear them.

Dicey

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Re: Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!
« Reply #3 on: March 17, 2018, 11:16:48 AM »
Sorry, Joel, no can do. This topic has been covered here extensively. A little google-fu will lead you to scores of stories.

Kyle B

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Re: Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!
« Reply #4 on: March 17, 2018, 11:29:19 AM »
It's super unfair of you to attempt to mine Pete Adeney's life's work to slap up your own content business. 

You even hide your name in your domain registration!  At least you have the sense to be ashamed of yourself.

jtwriter

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Re: Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!
« Reply #5 on: March 17, 2018, 12:42:39 PM »
It's super unfair of you to attempt to mine Pete Adeney's life's work to slap up your own content business. 

I don't expect to change your mind, and that's fine. But this is genuinely not what I'm trying to do.

The impetus was that I felt there was gap in FI content, specifically a relative dearth of real-world insight from post-FIers. (To wit, even here, the post-FIRE section is in the bottom 50% most active.) The survey is based on FAQs I received from members of the FI community, as well as my own. These are questions people evidently are interested in hearing more answers to, so this hypothesis seems validated to some extent.

And sure, this information may exist in bits and pieces throughout disparate sources, but, in general, there's value in compiling/organizing/supplementing information for easier consumption.

You even hide your name in your domain registration!  At least you have the sense to be ashamed of yourself.

WHOIS guard is pretty standard when registering domains, as a physical address etc. is required and those public records are pretty heavily targeted by bots. Has nothing to do with shame. Even MMM.com uses a domain privacy service.



All this said, if this goes nowhere so be it. My goal is to create something of value/interest to people. If a mod feels this post is inappropriate and would like to remove it, I won't be offended.

EndlessJourney

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Re: Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2018, 02:17:57 PM »
And sure, this information may exist in bits and pieces throughout disparate sources, but, in general, there's value in compiling/organizing/supplementing information for easier consumption.

I think the pushback is because you're setting up a whole new site for this information.

Why not just devote a thread on this forum and ask the questions right here, and everybody can read the responses without having to click to another site?

Unless you plan on selling ads on that site...

Which is where the complaint about "mining" comes from.

Dicey

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Re: Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!
« Reply #7 on: March 20, 2018, 08:04:13 AM »
Some of the responses seem a bit harsh... if the original post doesn't rub you the right way, why not just move along? I don't mean to offend.. Iam honestly wondering.
Maybe because we feel protective about this amazing community we contribute to? Frankly, I don't think the responses go far enough. Standing on the shoulders of giants is one thing, trolling/usurping someone else's blog/forum for personal gain without permission is crossing a line. Completely different. I'm "honestly" surprised you do not see that.

The biggest clue is in the subject line. I want to share your stories? I'm surprised he hasn't been told to fuck right off and/or been banned. But then it's not my site. Maybe Pete is more tolerant than I would be.

Highbeam

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Re: Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!
« Reply #8 on: March 20, 2018, 11:21:02 AM »
Exactly. "I want to share your stories". Whoa. Some sort of middle man scheme. Why would you want to share my story? Sharing is your goal, not learning? We're the ones doing the sharing.

jtwriter

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Re: Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!
« Reply #9 on: March 20, 2018, 03:19:59 PM »
The biggest clue is in the subject line.
Exactly. "I want to share your stories". Whoa. Some sort of middle man scheme. Why would you want to share my story?

Truly not looking for a fight here but I really feel this is reading too much in to how I happened to word the title.

And sure, this information may exist in bits and pieces throughout disparate sources, but, in general, there's value in compiling/organizing/supplementing information for easier consumption.

Why not just devote a thread on this forum and ask the questions right here, and everybody can read the responses without having to click to another site?

The answer to this is in the text you quoted. A forum thread is surely not optimal for presenting every kind of information. The intended format is interview-style profiles of a FIREd people, as opposed to just one-off answers to given questions.

Why would you want to share my story?

Why does anyone publish interviews with anyone? I laid out pretty clearly my reasons/justification for this project in my previous posts (and directly above, to an extent).

---

Look, I simply noticed a gap I thought it would be useful to fill. The desire to see this gap filled was confirmed by the long list of questions I received that FIers are evidently interested in reading more/better/different answers too. I thought I'd try to collect these answers and present them in an appealing way. I really saw this as a supplement to this and other FI communities. Was not trying to "mine" or "usurp" anything.

Again, not looking to argue or even convince anyone, just stating my case for the record. I do apologize if you feel I've wronged you. I really do/did have good intentions with this.

G-dog

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Re: Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!
« Reply #10 on: March 20, 2018, 03:31:49 PM »
This felt like a "I want to start a blog with your stories.'  (Which, of course, might make money, or not)

But mostly - if you want to start a blog - start writing. Establish the site and the connections are stories will come. This proposal feels like the others do all the work, instead of you. 

There's nothing established yet for anyone to trust you with the information you are requesting.  So I think that is the gap you need to fill if you want folks to share anything with you.


Dicey

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Re: Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!
« Reply #11 on: March 20, 2018, 05:44:18 PM »
Some of the responses seem a bit harsh... if the original post doesn't rub you the right way, why not just move along? I don't mean to offend.. Iam honestly wondering.
Maybe because we feel protective about this amazing community we contribute to? Frankly, I don't think the responses go far enough. Standing on the shoulders of giants is one thing, trolling/usurping someone else's blog/forum for personal gain without permission is crossing a line. Completely different. I'm "honestly" surprised you do not see that.

The biggest clue is in the subject line. I want to share your stories? I'm surprised he hasn't been told to fuck right off and/or been banned. But then it's not my site. Maybe Pete is more tolerant than I would be.

Aah, I see. I guess perhaps I would be "protective" of this forum as well if I shared as much personal details about my life as you have.
Is that meant to be snark? What is your point? My journal is pretty small potatoes compared to many here and surprise! Dicey is not my real name.

jtwriter

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Re: Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!
« Reply #12 on: March 20, 2018, 07:47:03 PM »
But mostly - if you want to start a blog - start writing. Establish the site and the connections are stories will come. This proposal feels like the others do all the work, instead of you. 

There's nothing established yet for anyone to trust you with the information you are requesting.  So I think that is the gap you need to fill if you want folks to share anything with you.

Fair point. My aversion to just starting to write about FI is that much has already been said from the on-the-way-to-FI perspective.

What I thought could be a novel addition would be gathering the profiles of the successfully FIREd, which I am not yet. And even if I were, the concept obviously requires more than just one person expounding on the topic. But I can appreciate the point of there being nothing established, and I recognize the catch-22.

Cassie

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Re: Already FIREd Folks: I want to share your stories!
« Reply #13 on: March 22, 2018, 11:49:41 AM »
Spartana, it is scary that someone found you and stalked you from the internet.   Glad you are fine:))

 

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