Live off the land? One Hamlet, One Family is an example to think about

 One Hamlet, One Family

<https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/5001370/?fbclid=IwAR3EYlSwm1XSKBMvByyd1kA2_HsQxoeCdfwihlwU40PHYhK62wCxPe7ZhLY>

Came across this video above, describing a Japanese man who moved to an abandoned hamlet in Akita, Japan to set up a life of self sufficiency in 2012, after the 2011 tsunami in Fukushima impacted his life.  

Soon after, a woman came into his life, and they had kids, plus two dogs. 

The video captures their thoughts and their journey over the last 10 years. 

I find this really intriguing as one of my far flung pipedreams is to be able to live off the land and not have to depend on modern society or anyone at all. 

Anyway just sharing some of my takeaways from the c.50 mins video: 

1) Would you want to suffer for your ideals? 

I guess in all aspects of life, there is suffering. When you go to work for employment, there is the suffering of having to "do your job". 

Likewise, even if you choose another lifestyle, such as an early retirement, there is another type of suffering for that as you have to give up some important aspects, probably comfort, certainty of a pay cheque, and immediate commune with other beings. 

You can only choose your suffering and make the best out of it. Hard work is required in all aspects to have a life well lived. 

2) Money is still useful. 

In this world of today, even if you have self sufficiency and can grow your own food, you still need money as a medium of exchange to facilitate your desired lifestyle. 

There is no running away from that, unless you can really live off the land in absolutely all aspects for a indefinite period of time.  

So perhaps the right move especially in the Singapore context is to figure out the money problem first, being deciding what lifestyle you want to live. 

But more often than not, once the money problem is sorted, the lifestyle follows along, like a shadow. 

3) Community is important.

No man is an island. Humans are social creatures and need connection. One can only go so long without social connection. 

It is of paramount importance to find community in daily life. This can be in the form of friends, family, communities (say investment circles, telegram groups, etc) or even your workplace. 

4) Having kids certainly changes the picture

Sometimes I do think whether I am missing out. But I like my games on easy mode, and to me having kids is like playing life on hardcore mode. 

And this is quite evident where the protagonist of the video talks about his desire to give his kids more opportunities in life to find happiness and a life that they enjoy. 

Which means he needs income. 

Quick update on F.I.R.E since Sep 2020

It has been almost 3 years since I last posted and thought it might be worthwhile to update this blog on a gist of what has happened since September 2020. I'll keep this one short since I have to jet off in a couple hours. 

tl;dr - Started full time employment since late 2020 and put my nose to the grind again for more than 2.5 years. Left full time employment and back to the beach since late 2Q23.

Nothing like a pandemic to force one back to the drawing block. It became pretty crystal in 3Q20 that the pandemic wasn't like SARS. It was here to stay for the unforseeable future and like it or not, everyone was going to be grounded. 

So since we are going to be locked down for some time anyway, I thought perhaps I might as well find a full time role. Was offered a position to return back to banking, and another one with a local startup to be their guy to do finance things. 

I was not very smart - my decision was to join the hype train and embrace start-up culture. Well the thought process then was along the lines of after spending time in investment banking, how tough can a start-up get? Maybe its a reduction in pay but surely there's a some kind of intangible experience to be had? *nervous laughter* 

To surmise, it was a very very tough 2.5 years but in hindsight, I did learn a whole bunch of new skills. built a team from scratch, raised a lot of money, invested moneys for a corporate and well I got a seat to get on the pirate ship and drive certain key decisions. 

Made a decision post a round of fund-raising to get my old life back. So here I am back in the wilderness after a pretty intense 2.5 years. I would say it was more intense than banking. 

That said and work aside, the last 3 years have been pretty nice in other ways. Met my partner in life since 2018, moved out to rent together, bought a flat and got married, though no kids (at least that I know of).  

Feeling pretty grateful in life right now, and eager to explore the wilderness in my 2nd time out. 

Separately am also sharing an article that was shared with me. 

Hope you guys who are pursuing FI(RE) might find this as useful and interesting as I found it to be. 

https://knowledge.insead.edu/career/fulfilment-and-fire-movement-realities-life-after-early-retirement 

tl;dr - summaries the challenges and broadly categorises FIRE folks into three different profiles.

Let me know if there are any questions I can help address.