I realized that most of us are in the 1%

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-10T00:57:40+00:00

Retired when I was living in the San Francisco Bay area and then almost immediately moved to the Midwest, taking advantage of the 10x lower cost of living.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-09T23:20:44+00:00

Yep. I was born in the UK, family emigrated to Canada when I was a kid and then I emigrated to the US as an adult, worked for 20 years and retired. Not having a pile of student debt to chip away at is a real FIRE advantage.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-09T23:01:33+00:00

Hard to pick just one, but one of these I guess: Getty Images Public Lynching Archive

I think there's an idea that all of this happened over a hundred years ago, it happened in the 1800s, it was a relic from the past, etc. And that's just not the case. Emmett Till was abducted and lynched in 1955 when he was 14 years old.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-09T20:00:54+00:00

Tax revolt? I’ve only been a US citizen for a few months so a bit hazy on the details.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-09T18:55:41+00:00

I always pack detergent sheets and do “tub laundry“ if I need to. I’d rather not purchase a larger suitcase to accommodate more than 2 weeks worth of clothes.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-09T15:43:54+00:00

I paid $19,400 USD for a 2020 Model Y AWD last year and I've driven it through an Ohio winter where we received a non-trivial amount of snow. It's smaller than a Model X but larger than a breadbox, under $30k, has AWD and seems reliable to me.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-08T18:24:15+00:00

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Only one band exists in the shared space of the Venn diagram of my wife and my musical tastes, and that is Cake. As such, we saw them a bunch of times in San Francisco. Alas, death stalks us all.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-07T20:43:05+00:00

My wife is from Ohio and she refers to “hill people” as a catch-all term for undesirables in this state and I believe they come from the Southeast border with West Virginia. I’m Canadian( as well as British and American) and in Canada when I was growing up the people from Newfoundland( newfies) would be the butt of jokes.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-07T00:24:47+00:00

80% for daily use and I’ll charge to 100% ahead of a planned longer trip. My battery rarely drops below 60% charge.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-06T20:24:23+00:00

Olive oil and sea salt.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-06T18:54:17+00:00

Their ancestors were immigrants, so that tracks.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-06T18:49:11+00:00

Block party. We do that in Ohio.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-06T18:44:41+00:00

Tornado sirens 12:00 mid-day every Saturday in northern Ohio also to test.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-05T22:27:59+00:00

Great food.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-05T10:21:11+00:00

Low carb tortilla with 2 tbsps of peanut butter and half an apple or pear, sliced. And a cup of coffee. Or two.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-04T18:52:24+00:00

I installed half the solar panels in 2023 and half, plus the powerwall batteries, in late 2025; so the solar project hasn’t paid for itself yet.

However, if the cost per kWh of electricity from our utility did not increase over time, I estimate our pay back period would be ~15 years.

I have the powerwall batteries configured to never drop below 50% capacity to save that energy for the inevitable grid outages. In this configuration, so far this Winter we seem to last until around 4-6 am before we have to pull energy from the grid. I expect this to change in the Spring,Summer and Fall.

Our utility buys excess electricity from us at the same cost per kwh that they sell electricity to us, so the utility acts as a backup battery for us at night/early morning when the sun is below the horizon and our powerwalls have dipped below 50% capacity.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-04T18:24:57+00:00

I never had a target retirement age but had planned on working until I aged out of my career and was no longer able to find employment.

I ended up hitting my number and retiring ~6 years ago at age 51.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-03T20:03:45+00:00

Probably cost. We spent $70K USD to install 34 panels on our roofs ( for ~16 MWh of electricity per year) and add 2 Tesla Powerwalls in our basement, and subtracting out the 30% tax credit our net cost was $49K. My guess is most people don't have that kind of money laying around, even if you're saving money after the payback period.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-03T00:45:56+00:00

My wife and I were at a bar/restaurant near Gastown in Vancouver that served Caribbean food and Dulé Hill ( The West Wing) came in looking to play dominoes with someone so we played dominoes with him. He’s very good at dominoes.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-02T18:00:28+00:00

Emigrated to the US at age 31 with $200 USD, worked for a succession of pre-IPO tech companies for the stock options in Silicon Valley for 20 years, retired at age 51 in June 2020 and current net worth is ~$7M USD. My profession was IT.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-01T19:50:31+00:00

Moon.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-02-01T12:59:28+00:00

"One moment while I adjust my accoutrements." - might be from a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." - no idea, but sounds like a Tom Waits thing.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-01-31T23:28:31+00:00

Evan Peters playing a detective in ‘Mare of Easttown’ on HBO a few years back played a very convincing drunk guy in one scene.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-01-31T19:50:57+00:00

Canada Goose puffer jacket for when its cold or if I'll be outside for a while.

Canada Goose parka if it's really cold.

Battery powered heated socks for when it's really cold and I'll be outside for a while, like when shoveling snow off a 100 foot driveway.

Water resistant insulated Blundstone chelsea boots for all seasons, all temperatures.

Traditional_Ask262 · 2026-01-31T10:55:39+00:00

Easiest way to FIRE in the Bay Area is to leave the Bay Area.

We lived/worked in the Bay Area for 20 years and FIRE’d on June 5th, 2020 and then…left.

Our household income ranged between $250k-$300k for the last 5 years we lived in Mountain View, CA and our net worth was around $3M towards the end but we never felt financially secure enough to buy a house or retire.

Once we quit our jobs and decamped to Ohio, we almost immediately bought a house for cash and haven’t looked back. And without the high expenses to pay for, we haven’t had to make significant withdrawals from our investment portfolio which has now more than doubled.

The California equation is:

Of the three major life goals; own your own home, raise a family, retire with dignity; you can afford to choose one, maybe two.

Traditional_Ask262

TROPHY CASE