C40's Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
Post Reply
User avatar
C40
Posts: 2748
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:30 am

Post by C40 »

I made a mental list of my hobbies the other day. Compared to a couple years ago, the list is much longer.
Weightlifting

Bicycling

Grip strength training

Nutrition

Gardening

Personal Finance

Investing / Economics

History (Ancient Roman and Greek)

Coins (Roman), ancient money

Stoic Philosophy

Learning about Central and South America

Learning Spanish

Video Games

Watching local sports (Bike races, baseball, football)

Real Estate

Photography

Art / Graphic design (making T-shirt designs)


secretwealth
Posts: 1948
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2011 3:31 am

Post by secretwealth »

I need more hobbies, but I notice we have a lot in common. Except bicycling, nutrition, coins, and local sports, we pretty much share the same interests.


Shandi76
Posts: 113
Joined: Thu Jan 13, 2011 4:11 pm

Post by Shandi76 »

My partner just got himself one of those 27" monitors you mentioned a few posts ago. It was an even cheaper one than yours (£270 including import taxes) and he loves it.


User avatar
C40
Posts: 2748
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:30 am

Post by C40 »

Pretty cool looking little house for sale. $37k !!!
http://tinyhouselistings.com/small-chalet-lake-house/
It's kind of out in the boonies but also within an hour of St Louis. Not so sure I'd want to live in Illinois for long, but this might be the kind of house for me if I stay up here in the US.


mds
Posts: 104
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2012 11:14 pm

Post by mds »

Wow, that house looks awesome. Crazy to think you could just write a check and buy that kind of house. That deck looks amazing too. I think you can dive right off the deck into the lake.


User avatar
C40
Posts: 2748
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:30 am

Post by C40 »

------------------------------------

AUGUST 2012

------------------------------------


TOTAL MONEY IN: $7,469

Work income: $4,970 (extra paycheck this month)
401 Contribution: $2,454
Sales: $0
Shirt sales: $45

SPENDING: $1,286

Home expenses: $671
Food: $456
Entertainment: $114
Transportation: $45

SAVED: $6,221

401k: $2,454
Post tax: $3,768

Savings rate for August was about 80%.
Extra/nonstandard spending was:

$120 for quarters for laundry (home expenses)
$125 for 10 lbs of whey protein (food)
$20 for some uncleaned Roman coins (entertainment)
$25 for a bike trail pass (entertainment)
$64 for a dinner date (food)

----------------------------

CHARTS

----------------------------















----------------------------

NOTES

----------------------------
Not a whole lot new to share. Strength training is going pretty well except I’m not always eating right and putting on more fat than I’d like. I alternate between enjoying the summer well (with bike rides, going to watch local baseball games, reading books in the park, and an occasional hike in a nearby state park) and being lazy (playing videogames and watching movies). Still reading about Ecuador mostly. Started studying Spanish on Duolingo.com and Memrize.com.
It’s been one year since I started using the Permanent Portfolio. In my 401k I use the PRPFX mutual fund (can’t buy ETFs with 401k). For post-tax money I use four ETFs (VTI, SHY, TLT, IAU).



The ETFs have performed as expected, but PRPFX has not done well in the last year. I got worried when Switzerland pegged their Franc to the Euro (PRPFX has 10% or so Swiss Franc investment), though I don’t really know what impact that had.
I’m going to consider making one PP spread out over my 401k and Post-tax savings. A year ago nearly all of my investment money was in my 401k, so there was no way to do a split PP. But not with my savings rate high (and from actually getting investment gains with them), my post-tax savings are increasing quickly. My 401k options are limited – probably to either stocks or cash, so I might have to keep some PRPFX until my post tax savings are larger than my 401k.


secretwealth
Posts: 1948
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2011 3:31 am

Post by secretwealth »

It seems that the PP funds (PERM, PRPFX) underperform because they don't accurately track the PP philosophy. I think four ETFs is a much better way to pursue PP--as your experience seems to confirm.


Ralphy
Posts: 198
Joined: Wed Jul 21, 2010 11:41 pm
Location: Iowa

Post by Ralphy »

Yeah, PRPFX is relatively light on Treasury Bonds, which have carried the PP since last summer. If you want to keep your 401k money in PRPFX, maybe you could overweight TLT in your taxable account.
I'm in a similar situation where I can only use the 401k for stocks and cash, both of which have ridiculous expense ratios (1+% for S&P 500 index, 1.45% for stable value fund). One of the bonuses of leaving my job will be moving those assets to an IRA and finally having some real options :)


User avatar
C40
Posts: 2748
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:30 am

Post by C40 »

Finally patched some jeans today. These are $140 Deisel jeans that I bought about 6 years ago. I'm pretty slow at sewing so it took about as long as it would've taken to drive 30 miles each way to the mall and buy new jeans. Except it only cost me about $0.50... And I got to watch football the entire time. I win. :-)









I have another pair of jeans that fit me perfectly but have big holes in both knees (I believe they had the holes or some intentional wear on them when I bought them years ago -- stupid me :-P ). Since these will take more sewing to fix, I think I'll take them along when I go visit my Grandma in a few weeks because she has a sewing machine.


J_
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:12 pm
Location: Netherlands/Austria

Post by J_ »

Perfect stitches! What patience! And you are a master in getting the photo's in the right size. Although you learned me how to use flickr (thanks), how to choose these sizes is still something I have to learn.


User avatar
C40
Posts: 2748
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:30 am

Post by C40 »

------------------------------------
SEPTEMBER 2012
------------------------------------


TOTAL INCOME: $4,880

- Work paychecks: $3,216
- 401 Contribution: $1,632
- Shirt sales: $32

SPENDING: $1,098
- Home expenses: $526
- Food: $203
- Entertainment: $42
- Transportation: $76
- Travel: $251

SAVED: $3,680
- 401k: $1,632
- Post tax: $2,048

Savings rate 75%

Extra/nonstandard spending was:
- $75 for 1 year of car registration (Transportation)
- $176 of Gas on vacation
- $40 of booze on vacation
- $35 extra food cost on vacation


----------------------------
CHARTS
----------------------------


Spending vs. 3.5% SWR
Image
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8031/8064 ... 148d_b.jpg

Net Worth in years
Image
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8458/8064 ... db4d_b.jpg

SWR Needed if retire now
Image
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8036/8064 ... 1e8c_b.jpg


Net Worth:
Image
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8175/8064 ... b40a_b.jpg


Net Worth – future projection. I made this with the following assumptions:
Image
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8452/8064 ... 4ae8_b.jpg


- I’ll keep the same savings rate as I have averaged over the last couple years (it will go a little higher)
- I’ll get 10% per year from my investments, then using a 3.5% SWR for income after retirement. I don’t think I’ve gotten 10% so far.
- Income will stay the same (it should actually go up a bit)
- Need $350k to be FI, want $550k before I retire.

So if things go according to this plan, I’ll be FI around the end of 2014, and ready to retire in 2017.
I’ll stop posting the net worth in years and the SWR charts every month. Now that my spending has stabilized, they don’t change much in single months.


----------------------------
NOTES
----------------------------

I’m going to write about quite a lot here… Not sure if it’s a good idea to use this Journal so personally or not. Much of this does have impact on my finances though.

CHANGED MY PERMANENT PORTFOLIO.
I didn’t like having a bunch of PRPFX, so I created a Permanent Portfolio with as much of a mix between my 401k and post-tax savings as I could. My 401k investment options for the PP are limited to Stocks or Cash. I have more money in my 401k than post-tax, so I still had to keep some PRPFX, but was able to reduce my PRPFX holding from 90k to 38k.

Image

VACATION
I got a ticket to the Nebraska vs Wisconsin football game (it was in Nebraska) so I drove back for a vacation. My grandma lives there so I hung out with her for a few days, and then spent a couple days in Lincoln with an old friend. I’ve been going back to Nebraska for an early football game the last couple years and I always have a great time there. I guess it’s some combination of nostalgia, my old friend still being there, and feeling like I fit in better there.

BEING SINGLE… Loneliness vs Solitude

I’ve been thinking lately about relationships and whether I should be actively looking for a long term girlfriend/wife. I’ve been single most of the time, and I’ve generally always been content with that. My last two trips back home, I’ve had good experiences with females and each one left me feeling lonely afterwards (Some of this is also due to my sort of nostalgia of the city and how much I enjoy it when I’m back)... I suppose the one thing I think I should be thinking about is whether I’m putting enough effort into meeting compatible women. Over the last 10 years, my efforts in meeting and courting women have probably been about sex too much and not about finding women I enjoy being with while not having sex. If I had worked more on the latter, my life might be significantly different right now. I’m still content with what I’ve done because I know that while that might have resulted in being in a great LTR right now, it very well could’ve resulted in being trapped financially and/or, uhh, parentally. I don’t feel like writing much about this right now so I’ll pretty much leave it at that and maybe come back to it within a few months.

I did hear a radio show about this subject on NPR, and what I found pretty interesting was the discussion of how people normally see being single as a problem, and treat single people accordingly, and also about how many people are intentionally single or are content with it.. Sort of reminded me about ERE behaviors and the current common objections/confusion of people being happy while spending less money.. They mentioned these two books on the show and I’m going to try read them:

- Single – Michael Cobb (I think the interview was with this guy for promoting the book)
- Going Solo – Eric Klinenberg

And maybe this one also:
- Quiet – Susan Cain

--------------------------------------------------------------

And I’ll dump a few pictures I’ve liked a lot from various blogs/places. Not sure why I’m posting these, but what the hell.

More daydreams of building a small house: (don’t know where I got these)

Image

Image


A few pictures from Glenn (www.tosimplify.net) when he went through California
Image

Image



And I don’t recall where I got these two. I think the first is from a hiking blog and the second a climbing blog.

Image

Image
Last edited by C40 on Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
C40
Posts: 2748
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:30 am

Post by C40 »

Ralphy, my admiration is mostly nostalgic. There are definitely some nice things about the city. It's basically a simple mid-sized mid-western city.


THE GOOD

- Midwest real estate prices
- Very little crime. Not really any ghetto areas.
- People are nice there. They aren't as immediately friendly with strangers as in some places, but they are generally honest, straightforward, courteous, and have good intentions (more so than many other places).
- If you like football, it is a serious football city. And people there are serious fans. There are some local amature sports teams that are cheap to go to (A hockey team and a baseball team)
- Mostly conservative (~republican). After living in a very liberal city later, I found that I prefer a conservative city
- The downtown area is pretty nice. There are a few good restaurants, and a lot of nice bars. There is a sort of College & late 20's area (main downtown), and another area close with bars that folks a bit older go to.
- There are some nice parks, and a pretty good number of bike trails
- There's not much traffic
- There's a university, a big community college, and a small private college. So there's a fair amount of young people.
- Pretty good place to raise a family.
The bad things:
- The weather. I think it's too cold there in the winter. Nice spring, summer, and fall.
- The landscape. Not that it's specifically bad (there are nice rolling hills and some lakes), but there aren't mountains, oceans, or big state/federal parks nearby.
- It's generally a car city. There are some buses but I don't know what they're like. It easy to bike commute.

And other details:
- I don't know much about taxes in other places, but I'm guessing that state income tax there is lower than many states, but property taxes are fairly high.
Last edited by C40 on Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
C40
Posts: 2748
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:30 am

Post by C40 »

I've had some requests for advice on how to post pictures in the forum hope this helps: (I will move this to a new thread once it's complete)
So it's a little harder posting pictures here than in some other places because of the narrow post width (about 400 pixels). Here's one way to do it. You will want to limit the size of the pictures in your post to about 400 pixels wide. Any more will be cut off. I'll generally get a small version that is 320-400 pixels wide, and use that to link to the full size version.
I've captured 2 videos of the process and the Step titles have links to them.
PART one -- get the images uploaded and get the addresses to the full size image and a small version:
1-A - Upload the pictures you want to use to Flickr. (There are certainly other places that will work. Flickr works pretty well because it will create a 320 pixel width version of the image for you.)
1-B - Go to that image in Flickr. Right click it and select the largest size option. This is what you'll be linking to.
1-C - The next screen has the full size image. Right click it and either select "Copy image URL" or similar, or open it in another tab so you can get the address later.
1-D - From the same Flickr screen, select a smaller size of the image. Above the image are re-sizing options. Generally you'll want to select the 320 pixel width one. Click that.
1-E - Repeat step 3 on the small image.


Part two -- posting the image in the forum:
In the post, set up the HTML codes. If you don't know how HTML works, go find a very basic tutorial that shows how to make a link (the "A HREF" one), and how to post an image (the "IMG SRC" one). Create a link to the large image. Then you make the clickable part for the link the small image itself, rather than some text. The small image will show up in the post and will be a link to the large image. Do it like this, but with the html brackets instead of parentheses:
(A HREF="LARGE image URL")

(IMG SRC="SMALL image URL") (/a)
(obviously, using the actual addresses within the quotation marks. I don't think it matters if you actually use those quotation marks in the code or not. If your image URLs don't start with http:// and end with .jpg, you have a problem.)


M
Posts: 423
Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2010 7:34 pm

Post by M »

@C40 - If I were you I would focus on FI first, and then focus on finding a compatible long term girlfriend/wife...Unless of course, the perfect ERE girl just pops up out of nowhere.
Speaking from experience, raising a family and trying to accomplish ERE is kind of like trying to melt and freeze ice cream at the same time.


User avatar
C40
Posts: 2748
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:30 am

Post by C40 »

Power cooking 101. Round 1 and 2:
I'm a big fan of cooking a lot and having left-overs, and lately I've tried scaling the volume up a bit.
First - a week ago I made a giant soup of chicken, rice, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, squash. Got a couple sets of glass jars to keep them in. These work well because I can carry them to work in my lunch box with no risk of them leaking (like other plastic or rubber containers without screw lids will). The smaller jars are one meal, and the bigger jars are two.






Today I made Chili:






... My countdown to FI is 800 days. Retirement is 1,680 days.


pooablo
Posts: 241
Joined: Sat Aug 20, 2011 4:32 am

Post by pooablo »

Impressive. I like how colourful the photos are.


User avatar
C40
Posts: 2748
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:30 am

Post by C40 »

------------------------------------

OCTOBER 2012

------------------------------------
TOTAL INCOME: $4,885

Work paychecks: $3,216
401 Contribution: $1,636
Shirt sales: $33

SPENDING: $1,890

Home expenses: $526
Entertainment: $706
Food: $392 !!
Travel: $225
Transportation: $41

SAVED: $2,922

401k: $1,632
Post tax: $1,286

Savings rate 60%
YTD Saved: $50,690

YTD Savings rate: 86%
I've reached the savings goal I set for the year - $50,000. YEAH!!
Extra/nonstandard spending was:

$650 – Gym membership for two years
$225 – Plane ticket for Christmas trip
$30 – Booze (went out 3 times)

Food spending was crazy. Some of this was eating out. Some of it was supplements ($35 of Creatine). And some of the high cost is simply because I’ve been eating a LOT. I’ve started lifting more seriously & frequently, and eating a pretty large caloric excess in order to make sure I gain strength as fast as possible. I did cook three huge batches of food (the third being BBQ pork, rice, beans) and that has been very nice. So I’ve got sort of a rotation going where I have a variety of options to eat with very little work. The first two that I made I did it quickly and spent a lot (bought canned beans instead of cooking them myself) so it will get a little cheaper because I won’t do that regularly. I’ll be content if I have my food cost at or under $300 for November, and it should be less in December because I expect to reach my strength goal for the year and start losing weight in December (I’ve gotten fat by my standards).
----------------------------

CHARTS

----------------------------
Spending vs. 3.5% SWR



I don't like the looks of this... Really want to have more months under $1,000. Come on dude!! (The gym cost was the big thing this month.. I had been considering going without, but just didn't feel quite ready for it. At $325 per year, it's not a huge expense - and I'm using it a lot more than back when I was riding and racing a lot.)
Net Worth in years



----------------------------

NOTES

----------------------------
Books, and thoughts on being single long term:
Quiet: The Power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking. By Susan Cain.

An entire book about introverts. I found this book very interesting. For those that already have a good understanding of personality types, particularly introversion and extroversion, it contains a lot that you’d already know. It does dive into the subject deeply (270 pages), so it will also have some new and interesting things even for those already familiar with the subject. For those who aren’t very familiar with introversion (and want to learn more), this is a good place to start.

Some of the things it covers:

The differences between introverts and extroverts
Why introverts feel and act the way they do
Situations in which introverts work better or are more successful
Why introverts are more likely to pursue ERE than extroverts (indirectly)

Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone By Eric Klinenberg.
I wanted to see what this book had about living with a significant other vs being single. It did discuss that some, but it more was about whether people just live by themselves or not.
I’m already certain that I like living alone, so I didn’t really see much that was new. It did have a lot about old people – aging alone, needing help with care, etc… This is one of the things I think about at times. I’ve been single most of the time and I very rarely ever feel like anything is missing – so I have no concern for now. What I do wonder at times is If I don’t get married, have children, etc, (and don’t have very tight lifelong bonds with people who will be alive and younger than me when I’m old), will I regret it later on? I do know that having a wife and children would only create a chance of having those kind of relationships. This is something I think about every once in a while, but I'm not worried for now. There will always be options later – if I’m 50 and lonely, I could find a woman with a big friendly family.
I think this book might be more along the lines of what I’m looking for: Single: Arguments for the Uncoupled by Michael Cobb. I heard about this book from a radio interview he did on an NPR show. It sounded pretty interesting.
And maybe I should read something promoting marriage and family and all that stuff also.


akratic
Posts: 681
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:18 pm
Location: Boston, MA

Post by akratic »

I'd say finding the right partner is more important than FI, so should be prioritized higher than FI. Who knows though, being single might work best for you.


User avatar
C40
Posts: 2748
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:30 am

Post by C40 »

------------------------------------

NOVEMBER 2012

------------------------------------


TOTAL INCOME: $5,129

Work paychecks: $3,470
401 Contribution: $1,636
Shirt sales: $23

SPENDING: $1,077

Home expenses: $536
Entertainment: $370
Food: $272
Transportation: $59
Sales: ($160)

SAVED: $4,043
Savings rate: 79%
Extra/nonstandard spending was:

$210 – Asus Google Nexus 7 Tablet
$63 – PS3 Game (Assassin’s Creed 3)
$60 – Very nice case for Nexus 7

I’ve been thinking for the last year or two about buying a tablet computer. My Mom has had iPads the last few years and it is nice using them when I’m visiting her. But they were $700 a few years ago and that was too much money. My computer is a desktop, and I find myself sitting down to do something short but then settling into spending hours on the internet, looking at random stuff on Youtube , Reddit, Facebook, etc.. It’s like I sit down and get stuck there, hooked up to the computer with a stream of content flowing out at me. I’ve been wondering if having a tablet computer would make it more likely that I spend less time on the internet -- because I don’t think I’d look at all the crap on it – only stuff I really care to see. (What?? I’m going to spend less time on the internet by BUYING another computer to use the internet on??). I saw a Black Friday add for iPads and started thinking about it. But they are too expensive, so I got a Nexus 7 instead. So far I like it. And so far I do spend less total time on the internet, and when I am on the web it’s often in less unproductive ways (reading blogs that are much more interesting than the crap, and that I learn from).

----------------------------

CHARTS

----------------------------



----------------------------

NOTES

----------------------------

Not a whole lot to say..
-- I’ve been focusing a lot on strength training the last couple months and it has been going well. I got pretty fat also so I’m losing the weight now. I’ll give updates on this at the end of the year.
-- I was spending way too much time outside of work stewing over things that had pissed me off while at work. I started focusing on not doing this, and it’s been going much better lately. No more work dreams. (although I did dream last night that I had decided to buy a NEW Honda Accord. NOOOO!!)
-- I’ve been reading through all the posts from the beginning on tosimplify.com. So my latest phase of daydreaming about what to do after retiring is about loafing around the country living in a vehicle. Some other phases of my retirement daydreams are:

** Buy a cheap house in a city or small town and garden a lot..

** Buy or build a small house out in mountains/wilderness. Garden a lot and such. Learn how to hunt / trap / fish.

** Move to South America

** Move in with my Brother for a while. (If he wants me to). Spend a lot of time with family.

** Hike the Pacific crest trail and/or the Appellation trail

** Long bicycle tours

** Do some kind of part time work that I particularly enjoy
Just for the hell of it, here are pictures of what I eat for breakfast nearly every day:




All the fruit and vegetables are frozen except for the Spinach. That’s whey protein in the upper left corner.






That’s it for this month.


frugaladventurer
Posts: 118
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:05 pm

Post by frugaladventurer »

Hmmmm....reading your musings on being single has got me thinking a bit.
I'm looking at the question from the opposite end - I'm in my 50's and was married for 24 years (until my ex husband had a serious midlife crisis and went Poof!).
Now, as a single woman dating, I find myself questioning just exactly what am I looking for in a relationship now.
AND - I'm finding a lot of men my age who I've come to call "The Hermits" - guys who've hit their 50's, experienced some bad relationships in the past, experienced a dip in their sex drive so their NEED for female companionship has lessened - and they're quite content with a casual "friends with benefits" relationship that consist of maybe sex once a month and rather infrequent or long distance social contact otherwise.
I've chocked this phenomenon up to their flagging hormone levels, but when I hear a young guy like you sounding not much more motivated......makes me wonder about all the xenoestrogens in our environment or something.
Not saying that you should be just out on the prowl for sex - and good on you for realizing maybe your energies should go into finding someone you actually want to spend time with - but where's the drive?
I've been single for four years now, and while I do miss the companionship and having someone to lean on - I DO have friends who can fill a lot of those gaps. What I REALLY miss from my marriage is the steady regular sex! There's a LOT to be said for that!
Now that I'm single and dating, I realize how blessed I was to have that for so many years in my marriage.


Post Reply