Financial Independence Weekly “Help Me FIRE!” thread. Post your detailed information for highly specific advice. - March 02, 2020 |
- Weekly “Help Me FIRE!” thread. Post your detailed information for highly specific advice. - March 02, 2020
- Daily FI discussion thread - March 02, 2020
- Just Another “Joined the Million Dollar Club” Brag Post- 2019 Year End Review (x-post r/fire and r/leanfire)
- Weekly FI Monday Milestone thread - March 02, 2020
| Posted: 01 Mar 2020 10:09 PM PST Need help applying broader FIRE principles to your own situation? We're here for you! Post your detailed personal "case study" and ask as many questions as you like, or help others who've done the same. Not sure if your questions pertain? Post them anyway…you might be surprised. It'll be helpful to use our suggested format. Simply copy/paste/fill in/etc. But since everybody's situation is different, feel free to tailor your layout to your needs. -Introduce yourself -Age / Industry / Location -General goals -Target FIRE Age / Amount / Withdrawal Rate / Location -Educational background and plans -Career situation and plans -Current and future income breakdown, including one-time events -Budget breakdown -Asset breakdown, including home, cars, etc. -Debt breakdown -Health concerns -Family: current situation / future plans / special needs / elderly parents -Other info -Questions? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Daily FI discussion thread - March 02, 2020 Posted: 02 Mar 2020 12:10 AM PST 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: 02 Mar 2020 06:56 AM PST How is this one different than the other "I just crossed $1,000,000" posts?
I did a Q3'2019 Spending update a few months ago. Based on the feedback of that post, rather than just review my Q4 2019 spending, I did a full year review: this breaks down my spending, my income, my investments, and a brief pro/con of places I lived. 2019 Highlights
UPDATE: As of February 29th, I am no longer a member of the 2 comma club. But F*ck It, I took a long time getting this information together and writing this post. I'm not shelving it because of a bad cough named after a crap beer. Besides, I think it's even more relevant. Though my Net Worth has dropped due to market volatility, I've diversified enough that my WR doesn't change. The passive income from my investments is still 1.8X my annual expenses. The changes I have made in 2019 have given me additional levers to pull and reduce my spending level even further if there is a protracted market correction. 2019 Year in Review Homebases: Q1: Medellin, Colombia PROS: Medellin has become one of my favorite cities. The weather is literally the best I have ever experienced: not humid, spring temperatures, no bugs, mountain views, lots of green. Cost of living is lower than many places I have lived in SE Asia. CONS: While SIGNIFICANTLY safer than 25 years ago (Pablo Escobar died 1993), you still have to take precautions (take cabs at night, be extra vigilant of your belongings, never take your eye off your drink, etc) that I wouldn't take in any of the other cities I lived this year. Q2: Vienna, Austria PROS: Voted the most "Livable city in the world" for the second year in a row, it's easy to fall in love with Vienna. The city is drop dead gorgeous. Public transportation is extensive. The culture and arts scene is world class. CONS: It's expensive. It's still cheaper than a MCOL city in the US (roughly equivalent to Kansas City, Mo), but about twice the price of Medellin. Also, it's a Schengen Agreement country, which means US Citizens only get 90 days out of every 180 days to live there (or any of the 26 other European Schengen countries). Schengen is a pain in the ass visa situation for me, which led me to applying for a Retirement Visa in Spain this year. Results and process to the Spain Visa to be posted in the near future. Additional cities visited: Slovenia, Croatia (Dubrovnik), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Mostar). Austria's central location in Europe allows for easy trips via bus, train, and cheap flights. I took a one week trip through the Balkans to Dubrovnik while watching the final season of Game of Thrones. Q3: Sofia, Bulgaria This was the subject of my last post, so rather than repeat, you can read up on what Sofia was like. TL;DR- Bulgaria is extremely underrated: beautiful mountains, sunny beaches, and low cost of living. Additional cities visited: Austria (Vienna), Czechia (Prague), Serbia (Belgrade), Bulgaria (Plovdiv and Rila). Q4: Limassol, Cyprus PROS: Sunshine for days. Seriously. Cyprus averages 340 sunny days a year. We lived a 15 minute walk to the beach. Cypriots are very friendly folks. Had the workings of a social circle forming, which makes any place 10 X better. CONS: It's expensive. Also not worth the cost, which makes any place 10 X worse. COL is roughly equal to Vienna, but has none of the advantages. Urban sprawl is a significant issue. Walkablility is restricted and public transportation is scarce. Food choices are limited (every meal involves meat on a stick). Our shared flat was $450 per month and I felt like I was re-living my impoverished college days. Other cities visited: Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (Kyrenia), Israel (Jerusalem), Palestine (Bethlehem), Italy (Rome), USA (Las Vegas). Income:
Dividends and Interest: Earned roughly 1.7% in dividends and interest. I have moved about 18% of my funds into VYM, a Vanguard High Yield ETF, which pays about 3.3% in dividends. This was a mid-year move, so 2020 should have a higher amount here. Rental Income: I had zero vacancies this year, which both increases my income and decreases my expenses. I like my renter, hopefully she will re-up this year with a modest 3.5% increase. Rental Expenses: Homeowners Association (HOA) Dues - $4,211 Property Taxes - $2519 My two biggest rental expenses and I have no control over either. The dues covers maintenance, insurance on the property, a movie theater, pool, hot tub, gym, billiard room, and racquetball court. Management Fees - $1077 I changed property managers last year, and it's been great. My new manager charges me 5% per month plus one month of rent if we have to find new tenants. Other than an occasional email to approve a maintenance request, this income is truly passive. Renters Insurance - $140 Cleaning and Maintenance - $1410 Misc Bonus: I received $900 as a sign up bonus for rolling over my 401K to a Merrill Edge IRA. But the bigger story here is I lost THOUSANDS because I was a lazy dumba*s and kept my previous 401K in my prior employer's plan for 5 years. This cost me $90 a month in 401K fees to T. Rowe Price. $90 a month FOR 5 YEARS. It's my own fault for not paying attention. Sometimes I wanna kick my own ass. As an added bonus, my account with Merrill boosts my cash back reward on my Bank of America card to 2.6%. Expenses:
\Note expenses above are only my costs. My girlfriend and I shared expenses. Her share is NOT included in the numbers above.* My expenses for 2019 are the lowest I have ever had. 2019 is the first full year I have had a girlfriend living with me and splitting my living expenses. Having a partner really drives my COL lower than I expected. She pays for 50% the rent and 40% of the food budget. In addition, I don't go out partying as much, so my alcohol and nightclub budget is drastically reduced. With the side benefit of watching her wake up and smile at me every morning, this was a major savings bonus. Top 4 Expenses: Food: Continues to be my biggest expense, even with the GF paying 40%. No way around the fact I'm a wanna-be fat ass. I detail why my food budget is expensive in the Q3 post. Check it out for details. TL;DR- I eat a protein heavy diet (equivalent to FIVE 4 oz (114 g) steaks a day) and I avoid simple starches (potatos, rice, pasta, etc) that could fill me up on the cheap. Housing: For four months this year, we were house sitting in Vienna. I would not choose to live in an expensive city, but my girlfriend is Austrian and she has family about a one-hour train ride away. House sitting provided me the opportunity to keep my housing costs low (I estimate our flat would have rented for around $1,000 per month), while living in a beautiful expensive city, and at the same time making my girlfriend happy. Definition of a WIN/WIN. Excluding house sitting, we spend between $320 to $500 per month TOTAL ($160 to $250 each). In LCOL cities such as Medellin, Colombia and Sofia, Bulgaria, $500 per month covers shared housing in desirable upper-middle-class neighborhoods. International Flights: Two trans-Atlantic and one trans-Pacific drive the bulk of this cost. Flights within Europe continue to be shockingly inexpensive. Deal of day for me was the $45 round trip Cyprus to Israel flight that allowed me to visit the Middle East for the first time in my life.
Healthcare and Insurance:
These numbers do not include my HSA contribution of $3,500. I count that as a long term investment, not an expense. I discussed my healthcare strategy in my prior post, but to recap, I have a three tier approach:
As part of the Spain Retirement visa I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I am required to have Spanish Private Health Insurance. I have a future post I'm writing on cost and coverage of Private Health Insurance (non-government-subsidized) in Europe vs. Worldwide Travel Insurance vs. US Health Insurance. Invested Assets: *Amounts rounded for privacy
ETFs and Index Funds: The bulk of my investments are ETFs. 78% of my retirement assets are in three funds: VTI (Vanguard Total Market ETF), VYM (Vanguard High Yield ETF), and QQQ (Invesco QQQ NASDAQ 100 ETF). I am still in the process of transferring and consolidating my positions. There is ~$160,000 in random funds from a previous account that will be moving into the funds above in 2020. Real Estate: 22% of my retirement assets are in a single unit condominium rental with no mortgage. As mentioned previously, the rental generates ~$11,000 in cash that pays for my living expenses. Real Estate Value: I update my real estate value once a year since there isn't an accurate real-time way of getting appraisal costs. Sales of identical units in my condominium complex drive the estimated home value above. 2019 Key Lessons Learned Hitting the One Million Dollar mark felt good, but it does not fundamentally change anything I'll be doing. I'm tracking well under the 4% SWR benchmark. I've lowered my sequence of returns risk with five years of Early Retirement. I don't plan to "reset" my SWR and my annual spending is unlikely to change. Compared to a MCOL city in the US, I am saving about 70% in living expenses. I don't make sacrifices in my standard of living. In some countries, my reduced monthly expenses still includes maid service and dining out once a day. Hitting One Million Dollars gives me more of a cushion. Even if the market continues to fall, I won't panic and make significant withdrawals from my retirement funds. I have set myself up for 2020 to reduce expenses further to prevent selling into a downturn. As an example:
2019 Summary It was a good year. Got a girl. Got the cash. Earned $22K in passive income. Spent $12K, while traveling to 15 countries. For 2020, I'm looking forward to getting my Spain retirement visa and for the Coronavirus to F*ck Off. Ask me any questions you may have. I'm in the Philippines ATM, so expect a time zone delay. If you want additional details and pictures of about FIRE overseas, including quality level of accommodation, affordability of restaurants, level of social life, and Cost of Living, jump on my site. Not spamming my link here, just google or check out my user name. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weekly FI Monday Milestone thread - March 02, 2020 Posted: 02 Mar 2020 12:10 AM PST Please use this thread to post your milestones, humblebrags and status updates 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! 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]  |
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