Financial Independence Daily FI discussion thread - June 06, 2020 |
- Daily FI discussion thread - June 06, 2020
- BLACK MAN ON FIRE
- FIREd today!
- How does FIRE work in a marriage?
- I want to be financially independent so I can get away from my toxic mother
| Daily FI discussion thread - June 06, 2020 Posted: 06 Jun 2020 01:07 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: 06 Jun 2020 02:12 PM PDT Before you ask, no this isn't Denzel Washington's burner account. I've lurked here long enough and with the pandemic, social unrest, and tropical storm all conspiring to keep me indoors I figured now was as good a time as any to contribute to the community. Background: Grew up disadvantaged. Mom institutionalized schizophrenic, dad had other priorities so grandparents took me in and literally saved my life at 9 months old. Neither could read or write very well but managed to own two homes(that I now own) and were small business owners(maid and landscaper). Dad lived on the other side of the state but paid for catholic school which helped me avoid some of the pitfalls associated with abject poverty: busing, overcrowded schools, overworked educators, etc. So let's just say that I started the FIRE race a bit further back than most and had to navigate a few obstacles along the way. Graduated high school with a whopping 2.38 GPA and an 1170(old scale) SAT score. I wanted to go to college but didn't have the pedigree to make it happen. Oh yeah, I was the president of my high school's computer science club. I wasn't dumb, just distracted. Long story short, I joined the Service to pursue an ROTC scholarship and with a bit of remedial work and a fair amount of institutional motivation(read threats and punishment) I received an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and started my professional life. The Plan: At this point in my life (early 90s), I had a gig and was making the most money I had ever made in my life: $18,795.60(before housing allowance). I was finally housing and food secure and at 23 I had transitioned from poverty to the middle class. The plan was to complete my service commitment and join my peers in industry. You all know about the best laid plans of mice and men. Four years became ~20 years and add a wife, two kids and a couple wars to the mix. Outwardly my life resembled the Jones'. We had a single family home in the burbs, two great kids at great schools, and a couple of almost paid for cars. But we were net worth poor. In the late 2000s I would return from my final deployment to 22K of credit card debt, a rental property that was upside down and not cash flowing, while living in a rental across the country that we couldn't afford. Side note: In the early 2000s I stumbled across a book called The Wealthy Barber, and although I knew nothing about personal finance let alone FI, I knew that my finances were a mess and that I was mentally and physically tired. Something had to give. The Plan 2.0: The gory details aren't as interesting as the outcome, but starting in the late 201Xs and over the period of about 12 months I retired from the Service, divorced my now-ex, and founded an IT consulting firm. I hasn't been easy, but over the last 10 years the firm has grown to 40 engineers with annual sales in the mid seven digits. I've heard every possible version of no and been told on several occasions, to include by my now ex-wife, that I would never make it as a small business owner. Failure only occurs after you stop trying. I've also started up a new company that is product oriented. I'm getting to learn all about manufacturing and production. For a software guy this is uncharted territory and exciting to say the least. FI: YNAB tells me that I'm well on the path to financial independence. For you YNABers out there the age of my money is over 30 with a buffer over 100. For the non-YNABers, I live below my means. In practical terms, I'm debt free with about 4 years to go on my mortgage in a medium to low cost of living area. I have liquid assets over 1MM. I can almost go tell my boss to GFY(oh wait.. that won't work). RE: Like many others here. I'm not certain what retirement looks like for me. I'm receiving my military pension now(high 5 figures), and absolutely love running my company. I work on average 3 hours a day from home with the bulk of that mentoring and leading the team. It's something that I enjoy and can do from anywhere in the world. I travel as much as I like and when I like. Life is good. I'll humbly ask that this story be added to the collection of others like it. The magic of this community lies in the ability to be more open about finances. My neighbors and all of family members see me as the youngish, lucky, retired military guy. If they ever read that Tom Stanley book they might take a second look at this black man on fire. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 05 Jun 2020 08:04 PM PDT well, today was finally the day! i don't really talk in these terms elsewhere (the topic really makes a lot of people jealous / confused / frustrated, i have found) so i am appreciate of the opportunity to share my FIRE status here. i achieved FI about a year ago and today was the realization of RE as i had my last day at work. i dropped off my work laptop and cellphone two hours ago, and now it's done: i'm jobless for the first time since i left graduate school 23 years ago. heck, i've been working at least part time since i was 13 as i imagine many of you have been. i've ben feeling a whole host of emotions to be sure, though the excitement is finally peaking vs. the anxiety associated with such an enormous change. i know i'm ready, and i'm well prepared so that the family is in good shape. so why worry, right? my wife and i are in our mid-late 40s and have $3.5M in our investment portfolio, with good positions in post-tax brokerage as well as retirement accounts. our cash cushion is in a good spot to carry us through the present wild times for several years without "needing to" sell assets. our WR will be low 3% at present, and will likely decrease further depending on whether if/when we take on some fun work ideas we have been exploring. we are also relocating to a lower COL area shortly. we can all do this! thanks to so many for great information and guidance along the way. i look forward to reading more stories of people hitting their FIRE goals! [link] [comments]  |
| How does FIRE work in a marriage? Posted: 06 Jun 2020 04:00 PM PDT I am dating a 35M guy and he recently expressed being a member of the FIRE movement and wanting to retire next year. After doing some research and reading the subreddit wiki, I am seeing that the movement is basically to free yourself from the rat race of having a standard 9-5 job and pursue your passions. I am a supporter of that but I wanted to know if any of you are married and early retirees, do you live off your wife's income? I want a traditional marriage and I don't think I want to be the breadwinner, I would also like to quit my job since I am in a male dominated industry and take a significant pay cut doing litigation. But I don't think that would be possible if he retired with the expectation that I'd have to support him because overall I am not comfortable with having to financially support him if we get married. How does your FI number include your spouse? [link] [comments]  |
| I want to be financially independent so I can get away from my toxic mother Posted: 06 Jun 2020 04:43 PM PDT My mom has always been toxic. She is elitist, racist, demeaning, always creating conflict out of nothing, and manipulative. She treats our dogs like crap and they don't deserve that. Every time I've tried to get away from her, whether it was trying to move in with my sister as a teenager or moving out on my own as an adult, she has found a way to manipulate me into living with her, always with a guilt trip. A part of it was always about how I can't live alone because of my seizures, and as a teenager she promised that she'd stopped drinking(in excess, which made her more aggressive), gambling, and smoking(cigarettes).. as an adult(living in a tiny bachelor), it was because I had a seizure and because she had a conflict with the owner of the place she was living, so I felt bad for her... she yells for no reason when I'm always trying to talk to her in a calm and civilized manner. I was paying full rent for the bachelor and for our current 2 bedrooom(on disability), she's also on disability and she pays for internet, and hydro.. we get food from food banks.. and she spends the rest on a storage she doesn't need. She is a hoarder and that makes our apartment basically a tunnel from our rooms to the door, to the bathroom, to the kitchen(the living room is non existent since moving in about 4 or 5 years ago, and she lays in bed almost all day and treats me as her waitress. I haven't had seizures for almost a year because of new medication, so I am confident in being able to do work to get off of disability because there are people who need it more, my problem is that I haven't finished high school because of my seizures and even easy jobs won't accept me because I don't have a diploma. I fully intend on getting my GED, but that is difficult in these times. I do love making people laugh or at least smile because I don't want them to feel like I do, so I have a YouTube channel for that. I hope to make money doing what I love and be able to get away from my mom's toxicity, but I don't even have enough subscribers(I need at least 1000) to monetize. Anyone who is willing, I would appreciate if you could help me out and help me grow, it is free to help, so that is all I'm asking for. I came here to ask for help because I know she doesn't use reddit and I want this quiet because I really want to avoid as much verbal abuse as possible and not get more than I already do. So if you can check it out, it's VirginiaDGLaughs on YouTube. I want to say thank you to those that are willing to help, I really do appreciate it. TL;DR I need to get away from my toxic mother and I need people to help me grow my YouTube channel so I can afford to leave. [link] [comments]  |
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