This guest post was written by Robert Wringham, the editor of New Escapologist—a magazine for white-collar functionaries with escape on the brain–and the forthcoming escape guidebook Escape Everything! in 2015.

Hello! Some of you might know me already from New Escapologist or remember my previous guest posts at Early Retirement Extreme. I’d like to give you an update on my life on the lam, to let you know that everything’s still hunky-dory and that I’ve not yet been sucked back into anything like a daily grind. Retirement, I’m sure you’ll agree, is best enjoyed early and forever.

The first time I posted here, I had escaped a life of clerical servitude at the astonishingly impudent age of 26, with a modest wealth pool, a few useful skills, and a song in my heart.

I had not been not as mathematically rigorous as Jacob when plotting my escape. I was content with quitting my job on good-sized cushion of savings, not quite patient enough to reach the financial singularity of self-sustaining investment capital he wisely recommends. I sometimes wish I’d met Jacob sooner and employed the techniques he recommends, but even with my more reckless plunge into a merry low-income bohemia, I’m glad I did it. I’m still going strong.

Despite not doing very much in terms of money-making over the following half-decade, my net worth has not decreased very much. Minimalism, free hobbies, and cottage industry have been my watchwords. There’s nothing metaphorical or totemic about them: they truly are the keys to escaping the daily grind.

So how have I spent the five years since we last spoke? Thanks for asking. Well, I’ve continued to do what I love: editing my magazine, writing, walking, travelling, idling. To maximally facilitate the latter, I’ve aquired a hammock: something I’d recommend to anyone.

It hasn’t always been easy to figure out how to do things on a shoestring or to convince people to buy my literary work (I’m not the kind of writer who likes to have unpublished manuscripts sitting in a drawer), but unlike those dark and terrible days of having little choice but commute to an office each day for at the command of some overpaid doofus in a poorly-fitted toupee, I’ve at least been able to keep my integrity, to do things on my own schedule, to keep my own vision and values intact, and not to have to ask permission for time off.

Since we last spoke, my Escapologist friends and I have launched more issues of the magazine (we’re working on Issue 11 now), made a couple hundred new blog posts, threw some Escapology parties, and generally had fun with it.

I’ve met some of my heroes (Mr Money Mustache! David from Raptitude! Luke Rhinehart!) and written three books of my own (the first of which came out in 2012, the second forthcoming in November 2014 and the third, all being well, in early-2015). Not bad for a kid from industrial middle-England with wonky teeth and flat feet.

Travel costs money but my partner and I found ways to do it very cheaply. We used AirBNB to find accommodation, stayed with friends (and accommodated friends in return), used online travel agents like opodo and orbitz to find the best-value flights, and walked wherever we could. The most delicious saving was squeezing $1000 credit ($500 each) out of United Airlines when they screwed up our flight from Vermont to Scotland. A year later, that credit flew us to Hawaii.

I completed my formal emigration from Britain to Canada. When I first posted to ERE, I had begun the process and was spending a lot of time in Canada but I was still waiting for the snail’s-pace wheels of bureaucracy to grind in my favour. After three years of baffling effort, the government of Canada welcomed me in. Without renouncing my British citizenship, I’m now a resident of lovely Canada with its mountains and lakes and poutines. It’s cheaper to live here too.

What else? Oh, my partner and I tied the knot. Though we’d been committed to each other for a long time, we’d never intended to marry. But when the seven hundredth person asked “So when are you guys getting married?” something snapped and we said “You know what? October.” And we kept our word. We had a minimalist ceremony (naturally) at home, followed by a cocktail party. And you know something? It didn’t hurt a bit.

For my next trick, I’m writing a book about escape: a complete guide to escape in fact, called Escape Everything. It’s a crowd-funded project so perhaps you would consider ordering a copy (available in hardback or eBook). I am extremely grateful to everyone who does.

And how are you, my FI-minded friends?