Financial Independence Daily FI discussion thread - August 22, 2020 |
- Daily FI discussion thread - August 22, 2020
- I was unemployed for two months. It affirmed my desire to FIRE.
- Our Family Story – EXPAT FI goals in 15 years
| Daily FI discussion thread - August 22, 2020 Posted: 22 Aug 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]  |
| I was unemployed for two months. It affirmed my desire to FIRE. Posted: 22 Aug 2020 07:21 AM PDT Hello everyone, I wanted to share some of my experiences after a brief period of unemployment. First some background, starting with where my mind was at. I had been working for an engineering company for 4 years and methodically contributing to my accounts in pursuit of FIRE, but I had certain concerns about it on my mind. Sometimes it would be demoralizing to run the numbers and see that FIRE was years off. Sometimes it even felt like it consumed my identity. Like it had become my ambition to watch numbers become bigger on a computer screen, instead of having an enriching career. I say this even as someone who made a conscious effort to try not to worry about it too much and enjoy my precious youth. I have continued to develop strategies to keep my attention on the present and enjoying my youth now. I also had concerns if I would be able to be happy in a life without work when I did reach the ability to FIRE. In June I was dismissed from my job. What followed has, in my view, given me the confidence and assuredness to continue on this path. At the time, I was 28 and I had 80k in retirement accounts, 22k cash, and 34k in the stock market, rented a home, and had absolutely zero debt. There are two distinct components I'd like to talk about. The first part of my satisfaction in pursuing FIRE was that I was enormously grateful I had made the choice to save money over the years. From day one, the pressure to resurrect my income was low because I had such a cushion to fall on. Many times over the years I had put money away instead of spending it on toys or even buying myself lunch thinking, "There may come a day when I wish I had held onto this money for a rainy day." Decisions like that compounded. It's clear that one of the benefits of FIRE is the freedom that comes even while still pursuing it. However I cannot deny that the additional $600 per week benefit due to the Covid situation was also well-timed and hugely alleviating. I also live with my girlfriend who pays 33% of the home expenses and, given that she is still working from home, could take on more if the situation deteriorated. Not to mention the stock market exploded. I admit, I was fortunate in many of my circumstances. The second component is how I spent the two months: My days were often spent waking up at 7 am (much improved from 5 am when I was working), prepping breakfast for my girlfriend, listening to political talk radio until 9 am, walking and training my German Shepherd until 10 am, reading books and drinking coffee until noon, using the hot afternoons to go to the gym, clean the house, comfort my girlfriend more as she worked, and then read more. I went for runs at sundown. I researched day-hikes that we could do on the weekend. Sprinkled in there were job applications which ultimately led to me getting a new job in the same area. Therefore, no move will be required. I recognize that here too, I'm very fortunate. While unemployed, I parted with some money to get some festering problems fixed. I spent $800 to fix my car's cooling system and now it runs beautifully. Parting with this much money may be counter to the frugality that unemployment should inspire. But the way I saw it, now I had the time to negotiate with mechanics around town, and get the car fixed up and properly running before the next phase of my life. Not to mention that FIRE again help yield the extra cash that could be expended on these necessities. No longer have to worry about a nuclear meltdown on my car. The point is that I felt very satisfied with this lifestyle, not trapped in a hell of purposelessness. I feel regenerated and rested. Mentally stimulated from all the reading I did. Productive for up-keeping on the house, training my dog, and getting my car fixed. Maybe I'm wrong in this assessment of how things happened. But its made me feel much more assured in my pursuit of this financial security and prospect of being able to stop working. I'll continue to relish my youth while I have it, but I feel more comfortable than before that the pursuit of FIRE gives me the safety net to absorb hardship along the way, and will give me the lifestyle that I want on the distant horizon. As a final note, the week after I was released from my job I found a kitten in the road that needed $300 in vet care. FIRE also allows you absorb the expenses of those who need your help. [link] [comments]  |
| Our Family Story – EXPAT FI goals in 15 years Posted: 22 Aug 2020 08:32 AM PDT 33F, 42M Married, 1 child (4Y) I love this thread and it's success stories. I wanted to start documenting our journey to help create a manifesto for my son. (I always re-read JL Collins manifesto to help encourage me avoid materialistic temptations. https://jlcollinsnh.com/manifesto/) I'm a first generation immigrant to the USA. I was raised by single mom with four siblings. I moved here in 2005 and got married in 2012. I love seeing people ask for marriage or relationship advice. I'm a firm believer that your future mate will make or break your net worth. I hope this encourages someone. My first decade in the US was pretty interesting. I was 18, no family in this country. I did not have a penny to my name. I got a job at the Marriott full time, while going to school full time at a community college. I would study during the day, and my shift at the hotel would start at 4pm-12midnight. And get up to study and go to school at 6am. I highly recommend working at a hotel or a place that can provide entertainment benefits! The Marriott offered employee meals for $1.50, I would go to the employee canteen for all my meals. And even order a packed lunch to go to school. Instead of going to the grocery store, buying meals saved time and help me concentrate on studying during my downtime. They also offered employee rates and friends and family rates for hotels. This was awesome, this helped me travel without accumulating any debt! You can stay at most hotels around the US for under $50 a night. And internationally for under $150. After the Marriott, I worked at House of Blues and saw over 300 bands for free that year. Staying friends with my former co-workers also helped since they could give me their friends and family discount at hotels and free tickets to concerts. I graduated with an accounting degree in 2010. I didn't want to deal with competing for jobs. My classmates either worked in gig jobs or went back to school for their Masters. And I didn't want to accumulate more student debt. There was no career jobs available. So I decided to backpack throughout Asia. It's pretty cheap. I had decent money saved up from the years I have been working. I was already saving up to 40% of my money even while making minimum wage. I didn't have a car, and always had roommates. I burned through my savings for that year. My boyfriend then proposed to me in 2011 and we got married in 2012. I moved back to the US. We were a single car couple. We lived walking distance from his work. So we didn't use the car as much. We lived in downtown San Diego and just walked everywhere! San Diego is a high cost of living area but you can live here on the cheap. We were saving close to 60% of our income to pay off our student loans in a year. We lived in a really tiny studio in Banker's Hill for under $900 a month. I found a job as an accountant and worked full time till I gave birth in 2015. We always wanted a parent to stay at home with my child. It was really painful financially. You can see the dip in income in 2016-2017. My husband wrote internet articles as a side gig and just hustled. You can see his income start to rise in 2018. He got a promotion to a sister agency in LA and we decided to live in the Inland Empire where it's cheaper than living in LA. And I just got hired this year part-time. He qualifies for a pension at 100% of his highest salary and I purchased a vacation home in Asia. My goal is to hit the FI part in 15 years. We could do it earlier but I don't know if my son wants to go to college. My biggest takeaways from our journey:
Here are our stats: 2011 Annual Income $58,578 Student Loan $50,000 Net Worth $8,578 2012 Annual Income $87,703 Student Loan $ 47,000 Net Worth $40,703 2013 Annual Income $102,244 Student Loan (Paid Off) Net Worth Didn't Track 2014 Annual Income $108,209 Net Worth Didn't Track 2015 Annual Income $95,433 Net Worth Didn't Track 2016 Annual Income $84,361 Net Worth $178,319 2017 Annual Income $79,947 Net Worth $179,377 2018 Annual Income $85,252 Net Worth $200,000 2019 Annual Income $97,621 Net Worth $255,422 2020 Annual Income $130,000 Net Worth $281,576 [link] [comments]  |
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