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I'd be interested to know more details as to how you were able to accomplish this. Specifically: How long did it take you save up enough? How frugally did yo

by umjames 16y ago

I'd be interested to know more details as to how you were able to accomplish this. Specifically: How long did it take you save up enough? How frugally did you have to live to stretch your savings for 9 months? Does your geographic location have a high cost-of-living? What were you able to accomplish in 9 months' time? Did you have to quit your job or were you able to convince your employer to take an unpaid leave of absence? If you quit, how hard was it to get a new job? Do you like this new job better?

Ixiaus 16y ago
I did it on the spot within a matter of three weeks. I had already saved up enough to support my lifestyle at the time for three months plus I have a consistent source of passive income. My lifestyle was extremely frugal. I never ate out, only bought the food that I needed, no TV, layered up instead of turning on the heat, didn't buy anything I didn't need, etc... At the time, I was living in Las Vegas - cost of living wasn't too bad. For a time I considered living out of a tent (urban camping) but decided that my budget was capable of supporting me without resorting to that. (it is much easier to maintain a structured self-education and side-project routine when you live in an apartment vs. a tent!) In nine months I completed a book on college level rhetoric, a college level course on philosophy and reasoning, re-taught myself how to perform arithmetic on fractions (my weakest point in math), algebra 1, geometry, and half way into algebra 2; I studied a few classics too: Aristotle, Ovid, and Emerson. I was a core committer for a popular open-source project, put a lot of time into that; I also finished two of my personal projects/ideas. The projects were academic interests and at the time I didn't really have the knowledge nor network to monetize them, so they've just gone into the personal history book as "experience". Once I was done with my nine month stint, I moved to San Diego (from Las Vegas) and began doing contract work under my own sole-proprietorship for about six months. After that I co-founded a startup (8 months ago) which is now paying my salary entirely and very close to profitability. I like this new job much better :) I got the idea to pursue nine-months of structured personal focus from the dissatisfaction I was experiencing with the "work for someone else" thang.

by umjames 16y ago

Ixiaus 16y ago

I did it on the spot within a matter of three weeks. I had already saved up enough to support my lifestyle at the time for three months plus I have a consistent source of passive income. My lifestyle was extremely frugal. I never ate out, only bought the food that I needed, no TV, layered up instead of turning on the heat, didn't buy anything I didn't need, etc... At the time, I was living in Las Vegas - cost of living wasn't too bad. For a time I considered living out of a tent (urban camping) but decided that my budget was capable of supporting me without resorting to that. (it is much easier to maintain a structured self-education and side-project routine when you live in an apartment vs. a tent!) In nine months I completed a book on college level rhetoric, a college level course on philosophy and reasoning, re-taught myself how to perform arithmetic on fractions (my weakest point in math), algebra 1, geometry, and half way into algebra 2; I studied a few classics too: Aristotle, Ovid, and Emerson. I was a core committer for a popular open-source project, put a lot of time into that; I also finished two of my personal projects/ideas. The projects were academic interests and at the time I didn't really have the knowledge nor network to monetize them, so they've just gone into the personal history book as "experience". Once I was done with my nine month stint, I moved to San Diego (from Las Vegas) and began doing contract work under my own sole-proprietorship for about six months. After that I co-founded a startup (8 months ago) which is now paying my salary entirely and very close to profitability. I like this new job much better :) I got the idea to pursue nine-months of structured personal focus from the dissatisfaction I was experiencing with the "work for someone else" thang.