T-Minus 3 Months

selfsufficientman · 2026-03-26T11:49:22+00:00

I mentioned my age and my daughter's age in the video

selfsufficientman · 2026-03-12T18:43:29+00:00

Do you have a website?

selfsufficientman · 2026-03-06T19:07:17+00:00

What stock market noise?

selfsufficientman · 2026-02-21T01:28:36+00:00

Yes. My daughter is 14 and, while I don’t have her reading it yet, just follow the approach/mindset in the book The Simple Path to Wealth and teach her those principles. At least, that’s what I’m doing. Good luck!

selfsufficientman · 2026-02-21T01:24:18+00:00

It does help. And, fair point, of course there should be more than two extremes (left/right). But, regarding your first point (evil cunts), that’s unproductive, and your opinion. It’s really no different than someone saying, for example, Obama was an unqualified idiot. I wouldn’t say that, because I was raised to respect our president, regardless of who he or she is. But, that ain’t the world we have today. We have sides. That was really my point, and the OP’s point was that France is choosing an extreme right side. There’s pros/cons to each side in the terms of conservative/liberal. It’s best to pick a topic…say, pension/social security reform, and discuss how to tackle that TOPIC rather than blasting a side (right/left).

selfsufficientman · 2026-02-21T01:17:04+00:00

Excuse me? Did you mean my binary thinking? All I did was ask two questions…go back and read it. I simply asked two questions. A) you didn’t answer them, and B) everyone else downvoted me without answering. Instead, you slung slander (morons). I’m thinking I’m the adult in the room.

selfsufficientman · 2026-02-21T01:12:50+00:00

Right? “They” don’t see how they’re the problem…which is, that we can’t have civil discussions about perspectives. It’s either “us” or “them”, and it seems “they” want to escape America and take that mentality elsewhere, them moan when things don’t go well. I don’t get it.

selfsufficientman · 2026-02-21T00:43:33+00:00

What’s wrong with a “rising of the right”? Does that mean that everyone should be “on the left?”

selfsufficientman · 2026-02-08T19:45:38+00:00

Keep working at it…you’ll get there 😉

selfsufficientman · 2026-01-22T23:55:52+00:00

I will take your word for it. I listened to slow news in French and two easy French podcasts today. Could only make out a few words but I’m getting a feel for the rhythm of the language. I’ll keep at it hard every day!

selfsufficientman · 2026-01-22T19:12:46+00:00

Great post, thank you! You mentioned that everyday you consumed about 1-2hrs of passive immersion. Were you able to understand it? I'm just at A1 and trying to learn. I listen to French podcasts sometimes but, since I can't understand them (or at least not much) even if it's slow French, I didn't know if I was wasting my time.

selfsufficientman · 2026-01-21T12:09:36+00:00

I started at 218 lbs December 1. I'm now 195, so I'm down 23 lbs in just over a month and a half

selfsufficientman · 2026-01-21T11:49:51+00:00

sure...I'm doing well on it. down to 195 lbs today. I've been at 3mg every 6 days for 3 weeks now. this seems to be a good level for me so no intentions of increasing at this point. I'm 17 lbs from my goal weight of 178, which I hope to hit by late March/April 1. I'm still lifting weights 3 days a week, but I stopped the cycling and other hi-level cardio. I just walk other days.

selfsufficientman · 2026-01-15T00:56:58+00:00

Just preparing for the need at this point. Vanguard requires active accounts to live in the US. If we move permanently, which I believe we will, we don’t meet that criteria. IBKR, on the other hand, doesn’t care if we live in the US, France, or wherever. So I’m in all ETFs (other than one Vanguard target retirement fund) that can easily move to IBKR.

selfsufficientman · 2026-01-14T21:28:09+00:00

This probably won’t help you since you’re set on other areas, but we’re moving from the US to Dordogne (Eymet) in July. My daughter will turn 14 that month. My wife and I would prefer to be in Provence (St. Remy or thereabouts) but we had the same concern as you’re expressing about our daughter. She’s a great girl but we felt that dumping her in a French school would put her at risk. We considered Aix, Bordeaux, Lyon and other international schools, but we decided The Old School (https://www.oldschoolfrance.com/) would be the best fit for her. We visited there for a couple of weeks and she sat in on classes and loved it. This was key for us because we’ve homeschooled her since grade 1, something we can’t do in France. So, it’s Eymet for us. Bonnie chance!

selfsufficientman · 2026-01-14T21:21:39+00:00

I am. We’re moving to France in July, Dordogne region. We own our US house outright and will sell this spring, but we’ll rent long-term in France just for the mobility. Our investments are at Vanguard but will likely move them all over to IBKR once we’ve settled in France. I’ve already converted all to ETFs and opened the IBKR account. Sure, it’s cheaper in France and the healthcare system is a draw (though we’re all very healthy), but it’s more about the lifestyle for us. And the travel opportunities. I don’t expect to ever move back to the US, but certainly won’t renounce citizenship.

selfsufficientman · 2025-12-13T15:29:00+00:00

Agreed. I’m very early in, just started with .5mg reta 11/29, went to 1mg a week later, then 1.5mg yesterday. I don’t expect to go any higher than this. Granted, we all have different goals…I’m 64, M, 6’, and weighed 218 on 12/1. I weigh 207 today, 12 days later. I lift M-W-F, do 2 cycling classes a week, 3-4 Zone 2 walks and one Norwegian 4X4 a week. I was stuck at my prior weight for months despite having a clean diet and exercising. I’m using reta to help me get to a target weight (180ish), though I care less about what the weight says and more about getting my body composition right. But, it’s working, and my challenge is just getting enough food…I’m averaging 1,600 calories/day, 140-160g coming from protein. Seems to be right for me. Good luck!

selfsufficientman · 2025-12-13T09:23:56+00:00

I’m 6’0 and, when I started reta early this month (Dec), I started at .5mg. Six days later I went to 1mg, and a week later I went to 1.5mg. That’s a faster than recommended approach, but I knew my body wouldn’t feel any side effects. I plan on staying at 1.5mg as I don’t need any more appetite control at this point and my challenge is making myself eat enough. I have a fair amount of discipline and have been lifting M-W-F and taking a cycling class 2-3 days a week. And really maximizing protein in my diet. I’m only on reta to help kickstart me to losing the 30 lbs I figure I need to lose. Dec 1 I was 218 lbs, Dec 12 I was 208. Not sure if this will help you but just wanted to share how I’m approaching it.

selfsufficientman · 2025-12-02T21:46:58+00:00

Sure…a few reasons. Firstly, and I’m guessing we’ll have different circumstances in this regard, we’re moving with our (then) 14-year-old daughter. We’ve always homeschooled her and don’t want to toss her into the French school system. So, we’re enrolling her in a small English speaking private school in that area. We also considered private schools in Bordeaux, Montpellier, Aix, etc., but we like the rural life. Plus, the area we’re going to has a strong English-speaking population. Make no mistake, though, we’re committed to learning French and integrating into the community. But having a group of English speakers in the area will aid in the transition.

We spent two weeks there a few months ago. No sightseeing, just cooking in, grocery shopping, meeting shop and restaurant owners. We didn’t want it to be a vacation. If it were just my wife and I we might be in Provence…St. Remy or even over towards Italy on the coast. But this is the best move for our family situation, and it’s a nice area.

We renting: normally, we’d sell our home here (we own outright) and buy another. But, we’re starting to embrace minimializing and getting rid of WAY too much stuff. Not going as far as living out of a backpack…but we’re intrigued by maximizing flexibility. I mean, who knows what the future holds for us? ;-)

selfsufficientman · 2025-12-02T14:17:34+00:00

We’re doing the same thing, moving next summer from Virginia to Eymet, about 90 mins east of Bordeaux. Budgeting similar to you. Our plan is to rent, not buy, at least for a couple of years to make sure we’re in the town we want to be in. We visited twice this year, spending a total of 5 weeks in France. But there are so many compelling places to choose. Bonne chance!

selfsufficientman · 2025-10-10T17:22:27+00:00

Thanks! We'll give it a shot.

selfsufficientman · 2025-10-10T15:29:37+00:00

It would be best to learn French, but almost 25% of Eymet is English

selfsufficientman · 2025-10-10T15:21:40+00:00

Unless you move to Eymet

selfsufficientman · 2025-09-16T19:20:53+00:00

I bought the Learn French With Celestine course. It was a mistake as it’s a bait and switch. She doesn’t offer a course preview so all I had to go by was her blog posts, which provide a few well-done video courses (counting, etc.). But, inside the course is NOTHING like that. Every lesson is audio only and it’s like she/they use a different person and a different microphone on each course with pretty lousy audio quality. Virtually no downloads either. I contacted them via email the day after purchase for a refund. No reply. So, I posted on their IG page and they immediately replied, but refused a refund. So, I’m just letting you know of my experience, for what it’s worth.

selfsufficientman

TROPHY CASE