Hi, this is August

[AugustPlace]

I've been a practitioner of voluntary simplicity since the early 1990's. What this means to me is that I try to have a reason for everything I do. Cutting out unnecessary things, re-examining traditional things everyone does by default. In my 30's I went through a 4 year period of unemployment, where I was forced by necessity to hone my frugality skills.

I don't know how typical my situation is for the ERE crowd. I'm 49 years old, and for the last 10 years have been living in my parents house as a live-in caregiver for my mother (and my father before he passed away). As a caregiver I have the benefit of low housing expense - getting a room/utilities in exchange for part-time labor and paying some of the bills. I also work a full-time job for an insurance company that I tolerate (at best).

My goal is to give up the job as soon as possible. The work is exhausting, and I feel like I'm wasting my life being worn out at the end of every weekday, resting on the weekends. I look forward to someday spending time on hobbies instead, some of which could develop into part-time income.

My savings have grown to the point where I could take about 10-15 years off without an income, as long as I continue to live in other people's houses. Of course I'd prefer to live independently. As it has been so long since I lived in an apartment, I fear that I lack understanding of the expenses involved.

I do have a car, which I see as a necessity because of where I live - the house is in a very rural location. As long as my mother lives there I don't have the freedom to relocate, and need the car to get around. It's a 15 year old car with 170K miles in good shape, paid for and cheap to repair. I wouldn't mind giving up driving when my living situation changes.

Glad to be here and looking forward to giving/receiving advice as appropriate.

[DutchGirl]

Hey August, welcome. First I thought you were a month... Ha. But then again, we could have an April join us, too.

You seem to be well underway to become FI, with 15 years of current expenses saved up. And a house can be very expensive, or it can be very cheap. I'm not sure how you qualify for those positions, but taking care of people or of their homes is a legitimate business and can indeed keep housing costs low..

[Gudrun]

Welcome August! Sounds like you are working really hard - it must be difficult to look after your mum and before that your dad and have a full-time job. Hope you will be able to make the jump into freedom soon. Which country are you based in?

[AugustPlace]

@DutchGirl
Thanks for the reply. I'm not interested in becoming a professional caretaker. What I do is a family obligation. This is why I'm unsure about early retirement - my expenses will change unpredictably when I'm no longer needed here.

@Gudrun
I'm in the northeast USA. I'd love to "jump to freedom", or at least change to working at my own pace on things I enjoy.

I have been a saver, not an investor. Up until now my motivation with money is to minimize the amount of paperwork I have to do, not maximize returns. The main theme of my life is simplicity and it guides all my decisions including financial. This is something I need to rethink and figure out.

What is retirement? My father retired from a traditional company at age 65 with a party and a nice wristwatch. That's the retirement I knew as a kid.

Listening to talk radio on the weekends, I hear discussion of retirement. Mostly from financial planners selling products to help you prepare for retirement. They spend lots of time encouraging the fear of running out of money in old age.

On the internet now I'm learning about the concept of financial independence. Where you reach a point where you have "enough" income and are no longer striving for "as much as possible just in case".

[Chad]

I have been a saver, not an investor. Up until now my motivation with money is to minimize the amount of paperwork I have to do, not maximize returns. The main theme of my life is simplicity and it guides all my decisions including financial. This is something I need to rethink and figure out.

Actually, investing doesn't have to require a ton of paperwork. There are a few strategies that would minimize your paperwork.

One would be to use retirement accounts for all your investing, as any dividends or capital gains inside a retirement account aren't taxed until withdrawn. Obviously, this would depend on when you plan on retiring, but at 49 you only have 10 years until you hit 59 1/2.

Another would be to use a dividend investment strategy where you only buy stocks you basically plan on holding forever and collect dividends. This way you only have to account for your dividends at tax time.

Others may have different ideas.

[Gudrun]

I think you are in a great position August. Like Chad said, investing doesn't have to be complicated. I joined this forum mid January after reading Jacob's book. I am 42 and retired since December with some savings and the public sector pension my husband will start to receive in a month's time (we are in the UK and he can leave at 55).

I didn't know anything about investing mid January, but I've been reading up on things, reading some of the conversations here. Over the last month I've set up a tax-protected investment portfolio, which I can administer through my normal internet banking and I feel like I know what I am doing. The basics are really not difficult (use low-cost mutual funds and divide your money between stocks, bonds and real estate depending on the level of risk you are willing to take; leave to compound as long as you can; never sell when the market goes down). The only thing I intend to do now is feed more money into my portfolio and re-balance my investments between stocks and bonds 1x per year.

I think Chad (is that right Chad?) recommended this guy in a different thread, but I like his stuff. It's clear, easy to understand and other people say the some stuff, i.e. externally verifiable.
http://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/
Also, this forum has been great with answering my questions, so I don't feel completely on my own learning something new. So, good luck

[Chad]

I think Chad (is that right Chad?) recommended this guy in a different thread, but I like his stuff. It's clear, easy to understand and other people say the some stuff, i.e. externally verifiable.
http://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/
Also, this forum has been great with answering my questions, so I don't feel completely on my own learning something new. So, good luck

Not me. But, no worries.

There is a ton of info on the basic dollar cost averaging into the low cost funds/ETFs, which are separated into the appropriate asset allocations Gudrun mentions.