Financial Independence Daily FI discussion thread - Sunday, June 06, 2021

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• Daily FI discussion thread - Sunday, June 06, 2021
• First year Post-FIRE: Lessons learned
• Any one here have a Net worth-linked wish list / bucket-list that they care to share?
• A Purple Life - Really cool story & numbers (podcast episode)

Daily FI discussion thread - Sunday, June 06, 2021 Posted: 06 Jun 2021 02:00 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. submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

First year Post-FIRE: Lessons learned Posted: 06 Jun 2021 05:48 AM PDT Background: I achieved FI (chubbyFIRE target) two years ago in my mid-40s, working in the SF Bay Area in biotech. One year later, I handed in my employee badge and drove out of the company parking lot, almost certainly bringing my 20+ year career to an end. A few weeks later my family moved to the Central Coast of CA. Now twelve months after leaving my job, I found it a useful exercise to reflect upon what I've learned along the way. I'm hopeful that someone might find my experience useful. After a year I still generally avoid the term "retirement" or I place it in quotes as I've done here. At my age, I still think it unlikely that I'm completely done with all things that could be termed "work". It is true that I leveraged reaching FI to step away from the only career I've had – and still have no intentions of going back. But it's also entirely possible that one of the many ideas I'm exploring could turn into gainful revenue generation. Who knows? That flexibility is exactly what I was targeting with my FIRE journey. That said, I can't imagine myself schedule-bound to an office job at someone else's company. 🤮 It seems more likely with each day that this will continue to be the case. Right now the only thing I do that could be called "work" is pour wine one day a week at a local winery tasting room. It's super fun and that's why I'm doing it! - it's just a little fun money, really. My budget assumes no non-investment income. Without further ado and in no particular order… Lessons learned in year one: It can be very difficult to resist the temptation to fill all your time with "stuff". Our careers train us in this way and it takes active effort to get comfortable with anything else. But I think that having truly "free time" is vital to allow the creative process to happen! Like any big changes, leaving your career behind is an emotional roller coaster with many highs and lows. You can't truly prepare for that, short of just being cognizant that the mental churn will happen and is completely normal. It's really important to reflect on what you're feeling. Journaling or blogging can help! (I won't self-promote here but I've found the latter so useful.) Talking openly with your partner & family is really important. Sharing the emotions you're feeling helps everyone. After all, they are going through this huge change with you! Keeping it in will only create tension that helps nothing. Ask them how things are going now that you're around so much more and see if anything needs to be adjusted. If your identity is tightly wrapped up in your former job as is common, it will be a substantial change when this is removed. Thinking about your purpose and what defines you and is important now, is really useful. What is your next phase of life going to be about? Don't fear trying things and setting them down. This is the very heart of having the freedom to choose how to spend your time. If like me you have many interests, it's perfectly OK to try them out only to decide "that's enough for now" or "I don't actually want to do this". Related to the above – it's important not to pressure yourself to find "the next thing to do". At least in my case, this created stress in the first few months. Financial independence means that additional income – while nice, is not required. Your time is better spent exploring, from which may spring that next great idea! But don't rush into anything hastily. As many will agree, it can be really tricky talking about FIRE and early retirement – particularly with people you're meeting for the first time. Admittedly I often tell people I am a consultant. Yes, it's a total cop-out, but it works before I get to know someone well. It's worth thinking through how you will handle this in advance. You'll get lots of practice, I promise you. The things you miss about the workplace may surprise you. Giving some thought to this before you depart may help you identify other ways to satisfy those needs – but it won't be perfect. Again, this is just part of the emotional roller coaster that will surely come. Many workplace friendships are just that, and they won't all persist after your shared work life is no longer there. COVID + moving certainly didn't help in my case as visiting people wasn't an option and Zoom meet-ups are only so effective. But I am convinced that many relationships at work are very much tied to the workplace itself. This is perfectly OK! On a related point, it's easy to under-appreciate how much socialization occurs at work. What will you do during those weekday "working hours" while your friends are busy? Finding appropriate avenues to engage with others is still really important. Clubs, civic groups, volunteering, and other means to find like-minded people is important – particularly if you relocate in retirement, as I did. Pouring wine one day a week is proving to be fun for me and plenty social! Lots of people make bucket lists of big and small things they intend to do once they retire. I have found since leaving the workplace that I continue to generate ideas of things I might like to do. I keep these out of sight (I use Notion) in an "idea funnel" that I revisit from time to time. It's fun to see how my thoughts change about prioritization; there's also no pressure to feel like it is a "to do list" that I must achieve. This subtle difference feels really good to me. Building skills and "making" things are really effective ways of continuing to challenge yourself, to keep learning, and also to feel productive. They are also great mechanisms to unearth potential business opportunities or at least new hobbies and avenues of personal entertainment. Knocking procrastinated chores off your to-do list only lasts so long! Just because someone is willing to pay (a lot) for your expertise doesn't mean it's the right thing to take on. I'm grateful to have been presented many consulting opportunities over the last year. While tempting, I've had to be really careful about not over-committing at the peril of being unable to do all the other things I want to do! These days I'm not doing any consulting at all. It just doesn't fit what I want to do presently. Be sure to choose wisely. The freedom gained via FIRE has proven to be well worth it! I love being able to choose how to spend my time. I can't count how many times I've woken up with zero plans and at the end of the day realized what a fun day I had, just taking things as they come. My wife is much more spontaneous than me and I'm finally starting to understand the joy in this. On a similar point, I'm really excited to finally get the chance to test out our interest in longer term travel. This summer we'll take a five-week trip to visit family and friends. Like most Americans, we've never been away more than two weeks on vacation. It's a little scary, but almost entirely in a good way! These are merely my observations from my own experience. For sure, there is not one "right way" to do this. From talking to others in this community or elsewhere, whether in FIRE or traditional age, retirement is definitely individual. We each have our own goals, our interests, and our individual preferences. I do think many of the points herein apply broadly. But we each need to determine what is important to us and how we will spend this next phase of our life. I hope you've found this useful! It's been really helpful reflection for me. I remain incredibly grateful to be in the position I am. It is my earnest hope that in sharing my experiences I can assist others in their own journeys. Thanks to all in this sub and others from whom I learn much each day. Best wishes to you all! submitted by /u/anonbcnumbers [link] [comments]

Any one here have a Net worth-linked wish list / bucket-list that they care to share? Posted: 06 Jun 2021 01:57 PM PDT I often went through the mental exercise of saying, "One day...I'll be able to afford that." Or "When I'm rich, I'm going to do X". The problem with that is, "One day" and "When I'm rich" are poorly defined. So I decided to fix that and recently started making a Net worth-linked wish list / bucket-list. Some of the things I came up with are: $50K: Watch US Open (Edit: Tennis) in-person $100K: Gamble $500 in Las Vegas (ultra-high roller, I know...) $250K: Eat at Michelin Star Restaurant $500K: Trip to China $1M: Tesla Model S Plaid Would be cool to see what other people in this forum consider splurging. submitted by /u/LifeScientist123 [link] [comments]

A Purple Life - Really cool story & numbers (podcast episode) Posted: 06 Jun 2021 03:47 PM PDT Just listened to "Purple" from A Purple Life talk her story on the Road to Wealth podcast. First time I've heard her speak, and I was really inspired. If you're into podcasts and into FIRE, this is a worthwhile listen. She talks about keeping her expenses under $20K per year while living in Seattle, and how she's now FIRE'd at age 30. Link to the episode in Google Podcasts. And here is Apple Podcasts link if that's your preference Idk if it's elsewhere submitted by /u/BestInterestDotBlog [link] [comments]

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