Financial Independence Daily FI discussion thread - November 01, 2019 |
- Daily FI discussion thread - November 01, 2019
- So long and best wishes.
- FIRE ≠ Happiness. 1 year into FIRE and miserable. Spending next 30 days trying to live my 'dream' fire life
- Typical Atypical Journey: $500K [27]
- Weekly FI Frugal Friday thread - November 01, 2019
- Any pharmacists out there making it? I'm interested in hearing your stories!
- Post Fire October Report
- This FIRE devotee gets it - Financial Independence- Retirement Optional
- Canuck FI: ETA 10.75 yr
| Daily FI discussion thread - November 01, 2019 Posted: 01 Nov 2019 01:08 AM PDT Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply! Have a look at the FAQ for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked. Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2019 07:48 AM PDT Hi, folks. With the new team on board and doing great, I've--what, retired?--as a mod. Working for you has been a pleasure. I know getting to FIRE is tough and often feels impossible, but don't give up. FatFIRE, leanFIRE, baristaFIRE, van-dwelling, expatriating, whatever...there are as many ways to make it happen as there are people. Find the one that best suits you and get after it. So that's that. For those of you who are about to tell me "Go fuck yourself"...well...go fuck yourself. :) See you around. ER Edit: Extra life? Aw, man...that's awesome. Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2019 10:38 AM PDT Short version Been FIRE for 10 months and it's been extremely challenging for me. I've lost my drive to do activities, learn, etc. and I simply feel unfilled. When I was working, I felt mostly satisfied so this is a departure. To stop being complacent, I created a 30 day challenge to live my 'dream RE life' and update the community. If I can help other people prepare for a FIRE life than thats a win too. Long version The short story on how I FIRE'D While there's a decent amount of posts on the journey to FIRE, there's less posts or relevant content (at least to me) about life after FIRE. After needing to work from 16 years old and finally not having to, the adjustment has been incredibly difficult. In hindsight, it's obvious that the transition to FIRE would be hard. After all, we're trained to work our whole lives and then to suddenly not have somewhere to be is jarring. I don't think people understands what that transition means, I certainly didn't. In January, I received a windfall from a tech startup close to $2M and for the past 10 months I've been FIRE. I expected to feel free and happy as this is what I thought I wanted my whole life. However, it's been incredibly challenging. While it IS fantastic to feel 'free', my sense of purpose, my ambition, and my drive has gone to the wayside. My fuel for living my best life is nowhere to be found. The context Way back before reddit existed and before I knew about FIRE, I had always known I wanted to be free. I've had this romantic idea for years that it'd be fun to travel the states (and the world), see new places and live the ultimate life of self improvement. It's my version of, "Travel, read, take up hobby, etc" that you always read after someone congratulates you with the proper 'go fuck yourself'. But I haven't achieved any of my plans. I have all this time to travel, get in great shape, start a new business (that's fun for me), meditate, morning pages, create better habits etc etc. and be the person I want to be without my prior excuse of 'I have no time'. How come I can't make progress on the above? Between reddit, podcasts, and tv there's an infinite pool of distractions and doing meaningful 'work' takes a backseat. My motivation is gone. When all you have is time, procrastinating goals to tomorrow becomes a dirty habit. After all, you have all day! The challenge Well today, I decided for the month of November, to live out my romantic idea. For the next 30 days, I'm going to create my 'dream' life (the point of FIRE!). To create my dream life, I need to be fulfilled in all aspects which I've broken down to: Personal, Relationships, Business, Fun. Personal
Business I've spent most of my career starting companies. I think doing another one would be fun. I currently have 3 ideas that I think are compelling. My goal is to try and validate/invalidate these ideas. My goal is to validate/invalidate at least 1 of them this month. Since I'm RE, none of these will be fulltime, at least for now. Spiritual
Relationships
Fun I need to make sure I don't just watch tv or play Settlers of Catan (both of which I can do for hours no problem). I'm so lazy but once I get outside, I have fun.
Why post to reddit Probably for validation! But seriously, the point is to a) hold myself accountable b) practice vulnerability (which is scary) and c) help others who resonate with what I'm going through (or can see themselves resonate once they reach FIRE) learn from all the mistakes / wins that I'm going through. After all, to me, the point of FIRE is to be happy on your own terms. Also if you have any ideas of what YOU do and/or are currently doing, I'd love to hear. After 30 days Hopefully after the next 30 days, I'll be closer to understanding fullfilment and I'll post on if I kept at it, if it was fulfilling, and some good suggestions that worked for other people that are FIRE. Thanks for reading! I can also post my FIRE stats if interested. Happy Friday! **EDIT: I should clarify I didn't RE by choice. It was a circumstance of the tech exit. I probably would've kept working. So I guess the real issue is how to get motivation when you're FI. [link] [comments]  |
| Typical Atypical Journey: $500K [27] Posted: 31 Oct 2019 05:48 PM PDT TL;DR First month hitting $500K and reflecting on the journey as a high income, no debt, millenial. Well, I finally crossed $500K. I don't think I understand what that means still. I probably belong in the fat FIRE sub instead, but seeing the number made me feel a strong urge to reflect on my journey. Background I grew up poor in a decently well off Midwestern area as a first generation Asian American. Mom passed away early. Dad was a chef working 12 hour days. He had no concept of financial literacy (or literacy in general, actually)--didn't believe in bank accounts and stored cash in a box under his bed; thinks credit cards are bad; doesn't have a 401K; didn't have health insurance. I grew up on food stamps, but life was good and I had an amazing support system through my friends. Though I looked around one day and realized I don't want to end up like my dad. Mom always told me education was important so I focused on getting good grades in high school and walked to a nearby fast food restaurant after school to work once I was of age. Got a cheap beater car at some point and got an $11/hour job from my friend's dad doing data entry my senior year on top of the other job. I feel like I got thrown a bone when it came to college--I was one of those "let's see what happens if we give them an opportunity to succeed" cases. I was accepted into an Ivy League school with tuition fully funded given it was need-based. I remember opening my first bank account when I got on campus--I opened a tin can and handed them about $2K in cash to deposit that I saved up from high school. It was a student-run credit union and I got a weird look. Career Summer of my junior year I made real money as an intern. Did the Wall Street thing as an investment banking summer analyst and received a return offer to start full-time. Didn't really expect to end up on this career path, given I didn't even know what Wall Street was growing up. The one thing I learned was to open a Roth IRA. So in April 2013, I had $9K to my name: $4K in cash and $5K in a Roth. My journey starts here, a couple months before graduation and starting my new job. I moved to NYC after graduation for my job on Wall Street. I worked a lot, but I saved a decent bit by living behind a row of bookshelves and a curtain, paying $1.2K/month and sharing a bathroom with three other people. I maxed out my 401K every year and while I still went out and spent money, it was not to the extent I know my friends spent. After about 1.5 years of banking, I left for the world of private equity like most of my peers. More money, better lifestyle, I guess. Moved to another East Coast city that was not that much cheaper than NYC, but I managed to move into a 590 sq ft studio with my significant other. My share of rent was around $1.7K thanks to the $400/month parking fee I needed to pay. Grinded the PE thing out for two years and decided to move to the corporate world and took essentially a 50% paycut. In retrospect I wouldn't recommend that... But I personally believe the money will always catch up. And it did this year, after two years of being severely underpaid. My total comp (bonuses included) below:
Current Situation So now I live in a relatively expensive city no longer on the coast. I am paying $1.5K for a two bedroom apartment (wow I can't believe I have walls now) split with my SO. My compensation is finally back ish in line with where it was two years ago and I have a job that's challenging me and helping me to grow career wise. My savings rate is around 55%--my mentality with saving has always been to save a fixed amount every paycheck and allow myself to spend the rest. We eat out every weekend. I have a hobby that I used to spend ~$1K on every month. These things make me happy so I spend the money on it without giving myself any heartburn. I send my dad money every three months or so, given he is now retired overseas and does not have a 401K to draw on so I am his retirement fund. I don't have a budget, other than the fixed amount of dollars that I make myself save every month. If I have left over dollars, I'll save more. If I fall short, I'll make up for it in the following months. I max out my 401K and backdoor Roth IRA every year. I invest only in broad market ETFs. I'm saving, and sometimes I'm not sure what for. I will likely be in a new city after 3-5 years, and I don't know when I would want to buy a place. I just keep moving dollars into my brokerage account when I have too much cash sitting in my Ally savings account. Thought about getting a financial advisor as I'm sure I'm not optimizing my returns (maybe I should consolidate my 401Ks?) and I feel like I'm managing my dollars in a complacent manner. It feels weird to have money, but I'm scared of not having money like when I was a kid, so I keep saving. Regardless, here I am, as of 10/31/2019 the final number on my NW tracker is $516K from the $9K on 4/30/2013. [link] [comments]  |
| Weekly FI Frugal Friday thread - November 01, 2019 Posted: 01 Nov 2019 01:09 AM PDT Please use this thread to discuss how amazingly cheap you are. How do you keep your costs low? How do become frugal without taking it to the extremes of frupidity? What costs have you realized could be cut from your life without pain? Use this weekly post to discuss Frugality in general. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are more relaxed here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply! Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| Any pharmacists out there making it? I'm interested in hearing your stories! Posted: 31 Oct 2019 08:05 PM PDT |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2019 08:03 AM PDT I've made an attempt to streamline these updates to keep things more relevant to where they are being posted. To see the previous month https://www.reddit.com/r/leanfire/comments/dbdlp7/full_post_fire_september_numbers_breakdown/ to see this month's real estate specific post https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/dq4wa3/october_rental_business_numbers/ I officially FIREd somewhere between 2011 and 2013. The time is not specific because I fazed out my previous business and was still handling my real estate management myself...so if you count from the time I hired a full time property manager and was completely finished will all previous businesses it would be later date. If your definition is more lenient, then it would be the earlier date. Okay, now for the numbers. My net real estate income for the month was $10,587 Estimated real estate portfolio value $1.29M Total Acquisition Costs of real estate (including initial renovations) $396,000 My total investments/cash outside of real estate totaled $228,032 (my investments didn't grow as much as usual because I purchased and renovated another rental during the month) This is a combination of stock, Fundrise, money market, and cash. My personal spending broke down as follows The goal here is to spend less than $800 a month average. The goal for this month was $500 due to some averaged costs from previous months $465 total Breakdown:(all cost rounded up to nearest $5) Car insurance $45 Gasoline for cars $40 Cable $70 Water/sewer/trash $60 Gas (heat) $25 Electric $60 Cell phone $35 Food $70 Entertainment $40 Pet $20 Just to be clear...this was the exact spending for the specific month. These are not averages. Food was low this month because I was able to use a lot of what I had left over from previous months. Food averages about $100 a month throughout the year. Also entertainment included a few meals out, so that also saved some on shopping for other food. The averaged expenses from previous months that amounted to $300 were for one time medical and vehicle costs. [link] [comments]  |
| This FIRE devotee gets it - Financial Independence- Retirement Optional Posted: 01 Nov 2019 06:40 AM PDT Just saw this article Extreme Saver Wants To Skip Retirement I was surprised to see that it not only mentions FIRE, but seemed to understand what it means. This couple seems to grok FIRE, and also that financial independence does not force one to retire immediately. I've always seen FIRE as being able to choose, to take control over one's own destiny. For some that means RE - for others it means embracing work, philanthropy, and other ideals. Good for them. I went RE long before I heard of FIRE. After a few months I decided to consult, and I did that for 5 years. Then I stopped. Neither decision was because I needed/didn't need the money. I did it because I really enjoyed the work and did have some things to work out. I went RE because I was completely burnt out. Being FI meant that I could choose to go back to work I loved AND was good at. Once I spent some time doing that work I found that I didn't need to do that any more. And finally, A question: if you were to find yourself magically and suddenly FI, would you reset your number to pursue bigger goals? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Oct 2019 07:43 PM PDT After many poor financial decisions worthy of r/wallstreetbets, I paid of the last of my debt in June and started on my FIRE path. The numbers are modest and largely rest on the defined benefits pension I am lucky enough to have, but I thought my plan may be of interest to others here. 32 / Military / Ottawa Goal: FIRE age 43 (July 2030) with comfortable $3600/mo budget. 42k defined benefits pension (provides $2900/mo net) and about 362k in equity investments ($700/mo net @ 3.25% SWR). Winter will be spent in a warm LCOL location. Current saving goal of $2050/mo in equities (XMU & XEC ETFs) and anything additional will be split between bonds/gold/cash. Assuming a conservative 4.4% rate of return. Income: Primary job: 46k net annual Second jobs: 3500k net Roomate: 8000k net Assets 65k/325k equity in parent's house 42k/185k equity in condo Paid off 2013 car 10k savings (TFSA) No debt besides mortgages. No kids or spouse. Other considerations: My parents pay the mortgage on the house but will reverse mortgage it in retirement. Am expecting to break even, not included in my FIRE calculations. Condo still has 19 years on the mortgage, I intend to slowly raise payments as my income rises in order to have it paid off a year before I FIRE. The pension is not indexed until age 60 - to deal with inflation and possible sequence of returns risk I will probably work a few years after FI, either part time or seasonally. Alternatively I can get a roomate or move to LCOL location. When CPP (Canadian Pension Plan) kicks in my pension is reduced by a similar amount. Progress: first quarter of year one is complete and I am on track with 10k invested! I plan to post regular updates to keep myself accountable. Comments welcome! [link] [comments]  |
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