This week was about broken toes and thoughtful conversations with close friends in the woods.

About every few months I have a boys weekend where a small group of friends get together at a cabin on a lake. The cabin is in an area without internet or cell signals, so we usually grill food, play cards, swim, go on walks and drink beer/wine around the fire pit. Last weekend was a pretty perfect boys weekend, we had some great conversations about life and how we are living it.

I have not told my best friend about this website. When I was first researching and educating myself about the FIRE movement in 2018 I tried talking with him about it, but he had a criticism for everything I shared. The rebuttals were things we have all heard before, “nobody can live that austere of a lifestyle for the long-term”, or “you and I work hard and we deserve nice things now”, and the classic “eventually you’ll regret not buying all the nicest/newest stuff.” The fascinating thing about this weekend was that the group chatted a number of times about living happily and what that means. For some reason the conversation kept circling back to how happiness is dependent on our expectations, which I fully agree with.

I really needed this weekend with close friends who supported my lifestyle choices in a round about way. We didn’t talk specifically about FI or RE, but it was reassuring to have friends explaining how they are working to manage their lifestyle bloat/expectations with the goal of figuring out when they have ENOUGH! One of the guys kept explaining how he and his wife were hopeful that they were teaching their kids to appreciate the feeling of ENOUGH and gaining happiness from that. This low-key weekend filled with all the great free things in life was exactly what I needed.

Oh, and I broke two toes on the stairs ?‍♂️, so I’ll be hobbling around for the next month or so. In case you’re wondering, the broken toes happened before enjoying any of the beer/wine, so it was just my clumsiness.

Cheers 🍻