It’s time to put an end to the blog for now.
Now that I have my exit plan set — i.e. I’ve filled in the gaps — I’ve found that I don’t have much left to say, and I don’t want to repeatedly post on topics that have already been covered by other writers in the community. I’ll be taking the service down at the end of November this year.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to read. The experience has been quite rewarding and I appreciate all of the encouragement and sharing across the board.
I sincerely believe that everyone who chooses to achieve financial independence can get where they want to go.
Best of luck in your own journey.
LAF
Site archived on wordpress: https://livingafi.wordpress.com
10.03.2014 update: The plan is to start blogging again in 2015 on the new site, see above.
Living a FI 
LAF,
Thanks for all the great stories and FI info. I’ll have to go back and jot down a summary from your “Drawdown Series” It is a well thought out and thorough instruction guide and I greatly appreciate the time and effort you took to compose it. They should use in high school classrooms across the country.
Best wishes in your post FI life!
MDP
I’ll continue to stop by your place to see how things are going — All the best, MDP.
That is too bad you are taking it down. As mentioned above, there is some good info in your Drawdown series that I’m sure others could continue to benefit from. Your Job Experience series is also a good read. However, I’m sure hosting all this isn’t free!
Nooooooo! This is sad, but you have to do what is best for you. Good luck with FI, you have certainly earned it. I enjoyed your take on things. Will you still be posting on MMM?
Absolutely, I really enjoy the forums and will continue to be part of the community.
Thanks for taking the time to write everything down! Also glad I got to be a part of the conversation 🙂
Is there any chance you could be convinced to find some place semi-permanent to post some or all of your drawdown/planning series?
I’ve actually referred back to it several times already and I’d love to continue to do so as I progress through my own FI journey.
Yep, check out the drawdown posts on wordpress.com (click on drawdown for link)
Thank you for creating this blog. I really enjoyed it. Hope you find all the happiness you’re looking for. Now that you’re free, what’s on your bucket list of things to do? I’d love to hear about what you’ve got planned. You’ve got nothing but time now (beautiful, unfettered time) and the world is your oyster.
I’m not entirely sure yet. I’d like to spend next summer in Portugal, and run a tough mudder in September after getting back. Other than that, future, cloudy it is.
Thank you for imparting your wisdom, and letting us be a part of your journey. Best of luck exploring!
Oh no! I do hope you copy over all of your posts to a journal over at MMM’s forum or something because there is a whole lot of good stuff that was really unique and helpful here. I would be wonderful if you could copy over the drawdown series, but your work history was super as well – honestly I really hate to see this blog disappear completely, but I do understand. 😦
But I do get that you want to move on and feel like you’ve said all you need to say here. Good luck and hope to see you around!
Hey FG,
Thanks for the support throughout – You were one of the first commentators on the blog way back in March. As it turns out, I’m going to keep it alive on wordpress and will probably even resume posting in 2015 (on the new site) when I get closer to my leave date and there’s new stuff to talk about. After all, promises are meant to be broken, no?
Waaaaat?
And here I was looking forward to post-retirement stuff.
At least consider migrating the content to a free wordpress.com site. Lots of great info that’s well worth preserving for posterity.
I’m nearly positive at this point that I’ll create a journal on the MMM forums for the post-RE stuff. I thought about keeping the blog running for a while so I could talk about the transition, and then I decided that’s not really what I wanted this blog to be about. It’s not a travel / hobby blog: It’s a work sucks, so RE blog. Can you tell I have trouble with stoicism sometimes? 😉
What? Damn!
Re: Hosting costs — it’s not really about the money. so much as the maintenance. I don’t want to worry about site stability, spammed comments, and that sort of thing. At any rate, some good suggestions here — I will look into moving the content to an accessible location where it can live on.
Moving forward, I’ll continue to see many of you in the MMM forums. Who knows? Might even start a journal.
Thanks once more for being part of this experience.
Completed at the speed of geek: https://livingafi.wordpress.com
GAAAAAH!
I’m glad I was able to witness your shooting star while it lasted. Glad you will be preserving the content at least.
This blog was brilliantly written. Thank you for your honesty and intelligence, and best of luck.
I agree with others that your Drawdown series was great. However, my favorite posts were the “work from hell” posts that were (approx.) 372 pages long. You definitely have a knack for telling a story. Thanks for inviting us all along on the journey.
Eric
Right back at you, thanks very much for reading. I still can’t believe folks (yes, you are now “folks,” Eric…) were able to hang with it and read the whole thing.
Honestly, the draw-down stuff was over my head, but the “work is hell” series was amazing; wasn’t bothered by the length at all. I would have read a $hit-ton more of that series, too – it’s just, you didn’t work that long, LOL 🙂
Hi LAF,
Thank you for the awesome blog, enjoy living your FI.
It’s great to hear that you are keeping the content alive too. I’m a little sad that there won’t be a wrap up of your last days at the grindstone and your first few days of freedom. As I said in my email, I really enjoyed the blog posts regarding your work life (or “making a dying”), they really struck a chord with me. I’m sure if one day you reconsider that there is plenty more posts you could write about your experiences without repeating what MMM and others have done.
All the best.
Shannon
Nice YMOYL reference, Joe Dominguez loved ripping that phrase out over and over again in his book. Come to think of it, he did a stint in finance himself — I wonder if his experience was anything like mine. (Answer: Probably.) I’m coming around on the idea of resuming posting in 2015 to talk about leaving the job and transitioning to RE. I don’t think enough has been done in that area by bloggers who are willing to frankly talk about the mental and financial aspects of the change.
Thoroughly enjoyed the series. The kind of pre-FI to FI voyeurism you provided, I think, shows people that under every mild mannered newspaper reporter/Photographer/IT guy/ there can be a FI superhero. Well Done.
>>there can be a FI superhero
Also under every semi-anonymous internet commentator. I bet you’ve got a cape yourself.
Just ran across your blog so sad to see it go. I’m dealing with my own one more year issues and it is amazing to read someone else’s journey on it. There is not enough blogs that talk about this part of FI
Hi Scott – thanks for stopping by.
I will be posting once more in 2015.
I’ve always enjoyed your posts here (and at MMM). You have a knack for writing in an interesting, engaging way. Hope you enjoy your early retirement!
Thanks for the comment ROG. If I like mine half as much as you’re enjoying yours, I’ll be in good shape.