Your escape plan.

Otto Maddox wrote: You dudes need to read Mr. Money Mustache if you are serious.

Bookmarked. Thanks!

Anybody have a FU plan in place

I do. And I believe it's a very good one. So good that it's none of you guys' berkeleying business.

My pie in the sky escape plan is a good sized sailboat and the open ocean. Which is odd since I get seasick pretty easily.

Lottery - then go to Rallies - all of em

poopshovel wrote: I do. And I believe it's a very good one. So good that it's none of you guys' berkeleying business.

Pillaging is not a plan. It's a lifestyle.

wearymicrobe wrote: I have been guilty of looking at farmland on Kauai, you can get 10 acres or so with limited electrical hookups for about 4K a acre and the ability to build. I have a friend who builds modern houses out of shipping containers, so the 100+ inches or rain should not be a problem. (Designed for installation in Costa Rica and places where the bugs eat the houses faster then you can build them) Total cost is doable and I would have 25-30 years of off the grid money if I decided not to work. Bring my server and a satellite hookup and I could do enough CAD design and programming consulting on the side to make 20-30K a year to keep funding my investments. I could work less then 10 hours a week and surf 30+. Build a few more "cabins" for people/artists looking to get away for a month or so and set.

Thanks, I will steal your FU plan now. Well, a little lower budget, but same concept. Shipping container home, internet connection, cad work/consulting and a generally low-cost lifestyle.

Actually my FU plan involves building a side cad/consulting business to the point where I can make 20-30K a year, which would be more than enough to pay my living expenses if I desired. Once I reach this point, I could quit at any time.

Rent out my house (I could rent it for twice what the monthly payment is.) and use that money for food and gas while I tour the country on my KLR 650 with a tent and a sleeping bag. Like the old TV series Then Came Bronson, only with better off road capability.

ProDarwin wrote:

wearymicrobe wrote: I have been guilty of looking at farmland on Kauai, you can get 10 acres or so with limited electrical hookups for about 4K a acre and the ability to build. I have a friend who builds modern houses out of shipping containers, so the 100+ inches or rain should not be a problem. (Designed for installation in Costa Rica and places where the bugs eat the houses faster then you can build them) Total cost is doable and I would have 25-30 years of off the grid money if I decided not to work. Bring my server and a satellite hookup and I could do enough CAD design and programming consulting on the side to make 20-30K a year to keep funding my investments. I could work less then 10 hours a week and surf 30+. Build a few more "cabins" for people/artists looking to get away for a month or so and set.

Thanks, I will steal your FU plan now. Well, a little lower budget, but same concept. Shipping container home, internet connection, cad work/consulting and a generally low-cost lifestyle. Actually my FU plan involves building a side cad/consulting business to the point where I can make 20-30K a year, which would be more than enough to pay my living expenses if I desired. Once I reach this point, I could quit at any time.

If I can buy the home and role the investments that I have into 30-40K a year positive cash then yeah I think I could get the heck out of dodge.

Overseas would be fun though, there is always a need for people like me to act as a liaison between engineering and science teams.

We're somewhere in the middle. We bought worst house/best block/best zip code in 2000, DIY renovated and sold for 2.4x the purchase price last year. Now we're in a sprawling mid-century rambler (another DIY renovation) w/ double the space and room for a machine/fab/wood/hobby shops. It has a 26x32 detached garage. The country dwellers will say "so what?" but it's 1/4 mile from the DC line in Chevy Chase which is a nice place to live. Like WAY nicer than we could afford, but no one wanted this one. So, the house I leave when I'm dead? Got it.

Last summer I left the churn and turmoil of venture capital funded startups for a nice, relaxing forever contract at NIH designing and implementing lab automation. I'm working for someone I worked with years ago and he put the contract together so I make what I made in the insane stress gig but in 24 hours a week. And I have a company so my consulting stuff pays for the machine shop and some race expenses.

No, it's not Maui or an olive plantation between Firenze and Sienna. But it's pretty awesome and aside from the mortgage we've got zero debt and our retirement accounts are doing OK. We've both got elderly parents who own pricey real estate - we'd like them to live forever and use it all up, but the reality is we'll likely inherit some day.

My advice? Get your sh1t together when you're young. I'll be 53 in August and I'm not getting any younger. This would have been more fun when I was 40 probably. Or 30.

motomoron wrote: My advice? Get your sh1t together when you're young. I'll be 53 in August and I'm not getting any younger. This would have been more fun when I was 40 probably. Or 30.

Usually hard to do when you're younger. I'm 22 and trying to find a job (graduating college in May), and I really don't know my life direction yet.

I just met a guy who seems to have it figured out. As near as I can tell, he is single and about 39-42. Economics-Finance major in college, went into the finance field, made partner somewhere, and then after a few years of that, bought a boat and runs charter fishing out on Lake Michigan. I want to do that. Too bad the girlfriend probably would make it impossible.

Although, she is going into a very good profession... Hmm...

My FU plan is pretty simple. Pay off the house (year and a half away) build a shop. Make furniture in said shop. At least that's the dream. Regardless, I'm currently planning to downsize my expenses as much as possible, as soon as possible. Then I'll see how the chips fall. I've seen and been through too much to worry a lot about planning.

Unfortunately, the biggest deal-breaker when it comes to any "FU plan" is health insurance. Something that's becoming more apparent to me as I get older.

My FU plan went up in smoke. Trying to rebuild. Got enough in a 401k and equity in the new crib to pay off everything and disappear to Costa Rica etc but I can't just abandon the kid.

I'd really really like to open a shop doing race car fab, build cages, suspension, store and maintain race cars etc. This can't happen where I am (simply not a big enough racer contingent around here) but after the kid graduates HS... I been sniffing around.

motomoron wrote: Last summer I left the churn and turmoil of venture capital funded startups for a nice, relaxing forever contract at NIH designing and implementing lab automation.

Got to ask what lab automation have you built. I run a large pharma automation lab and have darn near everything on the planet for large molecule discovery on my site.

I'm on the win-the-lottery-then-disappear-on-a-100-acre-compound-in-semi-rural-SC plan.
The only notice I'll give will come in a plain brown envelope containing my cell phone and my resignation letter. It'll either say "I quit." or "berkeley you, I quit." depending on my mood at the time.

I'd love to have an off the grid place away from most everyone, with a source of good clean water, and enough acreage to raise all my own food. I want to be Amish without the religion. The reality though is a lot different.

I'll be working til I drop. Got 100k in a locked-in pension plan, hoping that keeps me in the good kind of catfood instead of the cheap stuff.

You put trebble hooks on a piece of plywood and put corn on it and catch birds to eat

1. Montana, or someplace where winter is still winter
2. One of those dome houses
3. Greenhouse and plants for food
4. Homebrew beer
5. Read lots of books and play instruments
6. Done.

Just going to leave this here.

http://freecabinporn.com/

Twin_Cam wrote: 1. Montana, or someplace where winter is still winter 2. One of those dome houses 3. Greenhouse and plants for food 4. Homebrew beer 5. Read lots of books and play instruments 6. Done.

wallfarms

Win lottery, buy 1,000 acre island, build ultimate racing resort, live on island.
Ok, so it's less a plan as much a pipe dream...

wearymicrobe wrote: Just going to leave this here. http://freecabinporn.com/

shipping container homes rock!

wearymicrobe wrote: Just going to leave this here. http://freecabinporn.com/

I always think those are cool until I remember I like running water and electricity.

In reply to poopshovel: I've also always wondered how much insulation would it take to keep a shipping container from heating up like an oven on a hot summer day?

petegossett wrote: In reply to poopshovel: I've also always wondered how much insulation would it take to keep a shipping container from heating up like an oven on a hot summer day?

'Bout the same as your house, I guess. And paint it a light color, I think it'd be fine.