Quick introduction

Financial Independence/Retire Early -- Learn How!
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arrete
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Quick introduction

Post by arrete »

Hi, I'm arrete and I've been retired about 6-7 years. I mostly learned how to retire by reading intercst's homepage where there are lots of goodies about retiring early. If you haven't looked at it, it could entertain you for weeks.

I mostly hang out at the TMF REHP. I know that's a dirty word around here (though I don't know why), but I might as well be up front about it. It has gotten more social over the years, but that's because you can't keep saying the same stuff all the time without boring the pants off everyone.

I'm pretty traditional as FIREd folk go. I got there by saving lots, not lusting after "stuff"￾, getting smart on investments, and staying employed until I had a healthy amount of assets. I initially aimed at taking out 4% of my assets, but I've never actually reached that point. I guess my "wants"￾ are lessening every year for some reason.

One weird thing about me is that I rehabilitate wild songbirds, so that keeps me pretty occupied over the spring and summer. It's something I couldn't do if I were fully employed and I really enjoy it.

I'll probably mostly hang on the FIRE board because that's my schtick.

arrete
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ElSupremo
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Post by ElSupremo »

Greetings arrete :)

Great intro BTW! I've read a lot of your stuff over the years and it will be great to have your unique point of view around here. I just posted an article this mourning and it would be cool to hear your comments when you get a chance. Beachbumz has already got the ball rolling nicely!(I think he needs a battlefield promotion! :wink:)

http://nofeeboards.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=3460
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Post by beachbumz »

An "official" welcome to you Arrete! :D I spend most of my time over at Dory36s board, but had lurked over here at NFB; there are some good posts and posters over here too, so I decided to join up too. I don't know anything about songbirds, but if that is what makes you happy and now you can do it, I think that's great. 8) I agree, Intercst's homepage (and Paul Terhorst's book) were very instrumental in providing me the motivation to continue with my FIRE plan as well.

Come to think of it, tomorrow is my 2 year FIRE anniversary!!! :D:D

Wow time flies.

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ElSupremo
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Post by ElSupremo »

beachbumz wrote: Come to think of it, tomorrow is my 2 year FIRE anniversary!!!

Now wait a darn minute! :evil: Is everybody around here FIRED but me? :cry:
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unclemick
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Post by unclemick »

Well - I wasn't fired until I discovered these forums - just a guy who didn't have to work since 1993. Now I'm high class?, er labeled, or something like that. And since I won't be eligible for full SS until 2009 - perhaps still ER after all these years.
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Post by hocus2004 »

It has gotten more social over the years, but that's because you can't keep saying the same stuff all the time without boring the pants off everyone.

During his posting career at the Motley Fool board, Wanderer was generally recognized as one of the most effective and most popular posters at that board. As is his longstanding policy with all effective on-topic posters, Intercst initiated a Smear Campaign aimed at driving Wanderer off the board in early 2002. Wanderer's last post to the board was put up on February 11, 2002.

Me and Wanderer had lunch not long after that. During our conversation, he referred to you, Arrete, as an "enabler" of Intercst. He said that he did not believe that your expressions of sympathy re his "mental illness" were sincere but were put forward solely to help intercst "win" in his efforts to smear Wanderer.

Intercst has made clear recently that he has no intention of permitting Wanderer to return to the Motley Fool board. He took advantage of a post by Wanderer describing some recent personal problems to launch new smears against him.

Did you sincerely believe that Wanderer suffered from mental illness in 2002, Arrete? Is it your assessment that he still suffers from mental illness today? If Wanderer were to put an on-topic post to the Motley Fool board today, would you join intercst in a new Smear Campaign or would you request that Intercst knock off the funny business? Do you believe that there might be a connection between the Intercst policy of smearing all effective on-topic posters and the inability of the Motley Fool board to generate any significant on-topic threads, given the ability of the Early Retirement Forum to generate numerous exciting on-topic threads on a daily basis?
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arrete
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Post by arrete »

Got anymore smear left on that brush, hocus? I'm sure you do.

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ElSupremo
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Post by ElSupremo »

Hocus you can't just leave the past alone can you. Arrete put up a nice introductory post and you take the opportunity to bring up all this old crap. I know your just responding to her statement in your own way, but I just don't see the need for the type of response you gave. This does not help us. The past is over and the future is promised to no one, so let's try a little harder ok?
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hocus2004
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Post by hocus2004 »

Got anymore smear left on that brush, hocus? I'm sure you do.

It is an insult to the 100-plus fine posters who built the Motley Fool board for you to state that the reason why there is so little on-topic posting at that board is that there is nothing more to say about the subject of early retirement. I alone have hundreds of on-topic posts that I have written but never posted that I could employ to get something started there if I were permitted by the Great and Powerful Intercst to do so.

I spent thousands of hours building that board. I wasn't the only one. There were at least 100 others who devoted considerable time to making that board the most thought-provoking place on the face of the internet. The people who built that board into a fantastic learning resource for aspiring early retirees have the right to set that board's future course, not you and not Intercst.

There is no rule that says that you can not discuss bird watching at the Motley Fool board. There is no rule that says that Intercst cannot discuss politics there. There IS a rule that says that neither you nor Intercst are permitted to disrupt on-topic threads posted there solely because Intercst is embarassed for people to know that he got a number wrong in a study.

You have done wrong in helping him destroy that board, Arrete. The past is past and there is nothing that we can do about it. But he has demonstrated a desire to destoy still more Retire Early boards in days to come. I don't want that to happen. So if you post fairy tales about why there is so little on-topic posting at the Motley Fool boards, I am going to let people know what the Post Archives have to say on the subject.

I like on-topic discussion. Intercst doesn't. That's the cause of the friction. That's what it's been from the first day and that is what it still is today. I feel zero personal animosity towards you, Arrete. If you stop helping him smear on-topic posters, you and me can be the best of friends. But I have made it my Life Project to help middle-class workers learn how to win financial freedom early in life. So if you post the sorts of fairy tales that you posted in the thread-starter above, you leave me with no choice but to file a correction to the record.

You are capable of adding to the discussions here in a positive way, and I would like to see that happen. But this ain't the Motley Fool board. You don't have a Goon Squad here to block reasoned debate. Please keep that in mind when you are preparing to hit the Submit button, and my expectation is that we will get along just fine.

Fair enough, fellow community member?
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Post by ElSupremo »

Well so much for that. :roll:
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Post by beachbumz »

ElSupremo wrote: Hocus you can't just leave the past alone can you. Arrete put up a nice introductory post and you take the opportunity to bring up all this old crap. I know your just responding to her statement in your own way, but I just don't see the need for the type of response you gave. This does not help us. The past is over and the future is promised to no one, so let's try a little harder ok?


I'll second that one!!!!

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beachbumz
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Post by beachbumz »

ElSupremo wrote: Greetings arrete :)

Beachbumz has already got the ball rolling nicely!(I think he needs a battlefield promotion! :wink:)

http://nofeeboards.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=3460


Thanks, ES, I hear the best way to build rank is on the battle field. :D

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arrete
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Post by arrete »

Ah, well. Time to teach Bookm unclemick's Kayak defense he developed on Dory36's board. For hijacked threads and posters who can't take a hint.

Towards the bottom of page 2

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Post by hocus2004 »

Arrete put up a nice introductory post and you take the opportunity to bring up all this old crap.

Parts of the Introductory Post were nice and parts were not nice at all. The part that I responded to was ugly indeed.

The hundreds of posters who have been smeared at the Motley Fool board are not here to defend their memory. Those people are my friends, just as someone like Ataloss is your friend, ES. I worked alongside those people for a long time,. I learned a lot from them, I had a lot of laughs with them. I don't appreciate Arrete showing up here and on her first day doublng up on her earlier smears of them by suggesting that the reason why the board is in ruins is because they were not able to come up with good disucssion topics. There has never been any lack of good discussion topics there. The problem is an intense hostility to on-topic posting by one particular poster and the support of that poster offered by Arrete and a number of others.

The business that Arrete brought up is not "old crap." She is engaging in smears of on-topic posters at that board on an ongoing basis. For all we know, her purpose in coming here is to spread the board management tactics developed there to this place. I think it is fair to say that she has engaged in efforts to carry them to the Early Retirement Forum. Who can say for certain that she does not have a similar intent in posting here?

There are lots and lots of topics that Arrete can post about other than to offer defenses of failed Board Generals. If she is sincere in her desire to be a positive contributor to this site, why would she choose to put forward false claims re the history of that board in one of her very first posts here?

I will help Arrete feel welcome here is she refrains from funny business. As I said before, she has the potential to be a plus rather than a minus. But I am not going to sit on my hands if she starts telling tall tales that discredit fine posters who do not share her view that Intercst is the only human being alive who ever has a thought worth repeating on the subject of early retirement.

If she shoots straight, we will quickly become the best of friends, as we were at a time when Intercst permitted on-topic debate at the Motley Fool board. If she plays games, I am going to call her on it, presuming that I have time in my schedule that day to do so. Posts that tell tall tales aimed at exonerating failed Board Generals do not help any of us get to the place we are all hoping to get to.
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Post by beachbumz »

ElSupremo wrote: beachbumz wrote:
Come to think of it, tomorrow is my 2 year FIRE anniversary!!!

Now wait a darn minute! :evil: Is everybody around here FIRED but me? :cry:


:oops: hehe, I hope you are joining the FIRE ranks soon ES! I'm sure it has been posted, but I'm not familiar with your story. Maybe you could share it with us newbies (how close are you, etc.). 8)

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Post by ElSupremo »

Greetings beachbumz :)
Thanks, ES, I hear the best way to build rank is on the battle field.

Yes it is and you deserve a promotion! So what would you like to be hmm? 8)
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Post by beachbumz »

Hocus,
None of that (whatever it was) happened here at the NFBs, so I don't see any constructive reason to rehash it unless and until a problem arises here. IMHO turning positive situations into negative one and negative ones into bigger negative ones is not at all good for the NFBs.

But what do I know, I'm just a cadet. :(

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Post by hocus2004 »

I'll second that one!!!!

What you are seconding here is a suggestion by ES that we not continually bring up "old crap." It's a constructive suggestion and one that could do a lot to help us if we could form a consensus to make it a reality across the board.

There are a number of posters who make it a regular practice to disrupt SWR threads of mine that I put to the Early Retirement Forum. Can I count on you to step in and ask that they knock off the funny business when they do so?

If we could get six or eight posters to agree to do that on a regular basis, I think that we could quickly make ES's dream of putting old crap behind us a reality. Are you game, Beachbumz?
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Post by salaryguru »

I've only kayaked once. It was down the San Juan river in Utah. I've very interested in archaeology and my DW and I commissioned a rafting trip down the San Juan to see a number of ruins and petroglyphs. I did enjoy the kayaking but haven't taken the opportunity to do it again.

:D:D:D
-SG-
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Post by ElSupremo »

Greetings arrete :)

I really like those penguins! What is the meaning? Or are they just birds. :wink:

Also, I give up on this other thing. My advice would be to ignore those you choose to, fight it out with those you want to, and the rest of us will get along fine. How's that sound? :roll:
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