It's been roughly four months since I hugged my coworkers and turned my badge in.
I have since traveled to eight states and two provinces. I spend most of my time doing rock climbing: researching climbs, strength training with a pull-up bar and a hangboard, or climbing on real rock. My climbing level definitely improved a lot (about four letter grades for trad, one for sport) and I have done some projects that I would previously have thought impossible, such as eight ascents of the Stawamus Chief, a 550 meter granite monolith in British Columbia. When not climbing, I like to read, drink beer, cook, catch up with friends, and mindlessly refresh Reddit.
I certainly had my doubts about finances before entering this new part of my life, but I was able to quiet my fears by summarizing my budget as a daily burn rate. I set a daily target for all my discretionary spending and mentally carry over unused budget to the next day or take a mental note to go easy for the next few days if I overspend. Once a month, I look at my six-month running average to see if I am still on target. I also take a quick look at my top-5 spending categories in Mint when I do my monthly review to make sure they are things that actually bring me satisfaction. This is pretty much the only budgeting and tracking that I do.
I plan on pursuing the nomad life for the next several months. I want to use the winter to seriously improve my climbing level and to attempt El Capitan next spring. I am not sure what I will do after that, but it will most certainly be related to climbing. I have other passions that I want to express at some point, but since rock climbing is very physically demanding, I am making it my main focus while I still have a very able body that responds well to training.
Being nomad proved to be a very powerful validation of my minimalist ideals. As I go from one location to the other, packing my stuff in and out of the car helps me reflect on which physical possessions actually brings me joy and which ones I am clinging to just-in-case with no planned use in the foreseeable future. I also find that what provides me with the most joy is incredibly inexpensive. I have had a yearning for luxury items in a previous chapter of my life, but these days I find my moka pot and my solid granite mortar to be insanely more satisfying than my fragile Swiss automatic watch.
I started my adventure with a stash of roughly 35 times my target expenses, mostly invested in low cost index funds. Now that I see how smooth things are running and how much I am enjoying myself, I am thinking that I could have made the leap much sooner. At the very least, I don't feel bad at all for having left a considerable amount of unvested company stock on the table when I left. What I did was without a doubt the best thing for my sanity and for my enjoyment of life.
I am very thankful that I have found this community and I warmly encourage everyone here to keep their focus strong on their path to financial independence and early retirement. It's absolutely worth it!
