Early Retirement Extreme Forums

C40 wrote:
2) - It's a Lifeline AGM. So, no venting needed. I do need to secure the battery so it doesn't become 165lbs of certain death in a rollover.

Ok, awesome! I have AGM batteries in my tiny cabin so I don't have to vent; it's the way to go. Securing it is a good call, though. Plumber's tape would do it pretty quickly I suspect. AGM batteries can off-gas and leak if the case is cracked, plus as you mentioned the person-massed projectile in the event of a collision.

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Pics look incredible. I love that part of the country. I've also been reading Undaunted Courage recently (I live in TN and drive the Natchez Trace pretty regularly, part of which was along their route). Crazy story, right?

@Jacob How's the grip feel on the plastic ones? I've only ever used wood and metal, and metal is too slippery/heavy.

@C40 if you decide to go with rings, let me know and I can point you to resources on what to do with them.

> I love this kind of hiking – no trails, but without a lot of trees – so you can decide where you want to go and you can see where you’re going.

If you come west from Portland on a daytrip, I can guide you through the trees on a hike. There aren't scenic vistas in my favorite canyons, but rather nice "living rooms" that change character as you go around each bend. You'll be here as the fall salmon runs begin, so that could be a bonus sight.

Great pics. I recognize some of those Yellowstone hot spots from a recent trip. Did you stop in Missoula or the Bitterroot Valley by chance? Looks like you may have driven right through it.

Dang! I just stopped by to say your pics of your travels are absolutely amazing! Congrats on everything.

Been nice to catch up on your journal C40, congrats on the house sale, quitting and travels. Looking forward to more of these gorgeous photos!

Thanks everyone for the compliments

@Jacob and Dskla - I think I'll skip the rings for now. Thanks for the idea and offer.


So, I played Monopoly with my friends a few days ago. Today after checking for dividend increases among the stocks I own, I was inspired to make this:



YESS!!!! Ha ha HAAAAAA

I forget which companies' increases I noticed. I suppose I could make one for about $2,000 capital gains from selling out of an ETF this month. I could get pretty annoying with these if I really wanted. Dividends. Capital gains. Insurance subsidies from the government. $0 tax rate. Finding/making stuff for free.

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AUGUST 2016
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SPENDING: $1,700

• * Bike $790
  * Food: $300
  * Gas: $210
  * Van Insurance: $134
  * Dating: $80
  * Entertainment/Hobbies: $80
  * Miscellaneous: $80

My road bike wasn’t working well on roads with washboard bumps and deep/soft gravel. I was checking Craigslist for the cities I would be going to and found a good cyclocross bike in Spokane. It works way better for non paved roads, grass, singletrack, etc.



Spending Vs. Possible income:





INVESTING

I moved my 401k money into a Traditional IRA. Here’s the asset allocation I decided on for the money:


Here is the forward dividend income, after getting most of the 401k rollover money invested. I lowered my theoretical income because with these new purchases, I’m not getting as much yield as before. That was sort of an assumption error from before. The stock prices were going up a lot and I was still using the same theoretical yield.


The last thing to do is to get my pension money in there and invested too. That will get me another $1,500 per year bump, bringing my dividend income to about $16,000 per year. The main purchase left is the REIT fund, and maybe prices will drop and I’ll get a bit more yield.

Don’t ask me many questions about my asset allocation choice . I don’t have good reasons for what I chose. I expect to get $6,400+ dividends per year in the traditional IRA. I’ll probably be converting about $9,800 to my Roth IRA each year. So I just need another $3,400 per year, which I expect I’ll get by selling whichever of the funds went up over the last year, or if they go down, by using the cash (S.T. bonds) portion. If the stocks and gold just keep going down and down, I have enough cash in there to last for 12 years. So I should be able to avoid selling at stupid times. The question is – will I decide to invest the rest of the cash after drops?




TRAVELS

Still going wonderfully.

-- Went west through northern Washington
-- Hung out in Seattle a couple weeks (half of that with an old friend and half in the city itself). Seattle is cool. I could spend a whole summer in the city. I like it because the water blocks off the city edges so there isn’t sprawl or much reason to leave the city once you’re in it. Real estate is too expensive. One woman I went out with had a TWO MILLION dollar house, with huge property taxes.
-- Went camping and hiking in Olympic National Forest
-- Came down to Portland (Also visiting old friends and bumming around the city)

These are not in chronological order.











FREE CAMPSITE! Spent 4 days here


(this was in northern Wyoming)








FREE MOVIE!


FREE BEACH! I spent three afternoons here.









What’s next? I’ll be in this area in September and into October. I’m expecting to go down through that string of national forests in the right side of the ellipse.

Phenomenal photos.

Are there any downsides to van living so far? Anything you weren't expecting or are having trouble with?

Nice! You got a lot of cx bike for $790.

Real estate is too expensive. One woman I went out with had a TWO MILLION dollar house, with huge property taxes.

It's funny how house prices in a place can go up by 5%+ for years on end and the city still finds a way to spend all the extra money.

Don’t ask me many questions about my asset allocation choice .

Sorry. 10% Gold?

If you are in the neighborhood I recommend the McKenzie River Trail: http://mckenzierivertrail.com/. The Deschutes River Trail in Bend was also cool if I remember correctly: http://www.mtbproject.com/trail/17917. You can hike or ride either one, though I'm not sure a cx bike is going to have enough tire for the McKenzie.

Great update as always. You seem to be moving through the PNW pretty quickly, what are your plans after? Are you spending the winter up in that area?

Very nice!

I put together a map that will take GIS information from government servers and show Federal Land Ownership. It is helpful in finding free camp sites in National Forests and BLM land.

https://mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php? ... icland.txt

If you click on Hybrid, you can toggle the Federal Land layer on and off. There are a few layers not displayed that can be turned on. You have to zoom in to 20 km or less to see the Federal Land layer. The green is US National Forest Service land.

Be sure to check out the Oregon coast! A bicycle tour north to south is great. Tons of hiker biker sites and you can park your van up in Astoria no problem. Take a bus back to Astoria at the end. Lots of hiker-biker sites. Best beaches I've ever seen; some great rides.

theanimal wrote:Phenomenal photos.

Are there any downsides to van living so far? Anything you weren't expecting or are having trouble with?

So far, very little. Fewer than I expected. I worry about the van being broken into or especially stolen, as that would suck big time. I should get around to installing a kill switch and maybe a GPS tracking device. Some things take more time - like putting my curtains up and taking them down often - that takes a few minutes each time. Finding places to park and sleep in cities at night takes some time, but it's easy. The time it takes to manage living in the van is less than it took for living in my house (and my house had almost no problems).

- Cooking and eating is easy (for me at least. I cook simply).
- Hygiene is easy
- Pooping and peeing is easy

I suppose if I was working out of the van and needed to wear clothes without any wrinkles, that could be annoying. But that could just be another thing like the above that are easily solved (clothes that don't wrinkle? I already have shirts with small patterns that don't show wrinkles). Maybe an Iron would be usable with my electric system. Doesn't matter for me anyways.

Gilberto de Piento wrote:Nice! You got a lot of cx bike for $790.

Don’t ask me many questions about my asset allocation choice .

Sorry. 10% Gold?

If you are in the neighborhood I recommend the McKenzie River Trail: http://mckenzierivertrail.com/. The Deschutes River Trail in Bend was also cool if I remember correctly: http://www.mtbproject.com/trail/17917. You can hike or ride either one, though I'm not sure a cx bike is going to have enough tire for the McKenzie.

Yep. That’s 10% of the traditional IRA, which ends up being 5% of my total invested capital.

Those trails both look great! Thanks I expect to spend time in Bend. And I’ll be in the general area of the McKenzie trail. From what I can see on google images, i’ll be comfortable either.

cmonkey wrote:Great update as always. You seem to be moving through the PNW pretty quickly, what are your plans after? Are you spending the winter up in that area?

Yeah. I’ve been hanging out with my friends while the weather is nice. I plan to go south as it gets cloudy up here and follow the sun down to San Diego along the Pacific Coast. I expect to be moving slower from here on out.

sky wrote:Very nice!

I put together a map that will take GIS information from government servers and show Federal Land Ownership. It is helpful in finding free camp sites in National Forests and BLM land.

https://mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php? ... icland.txt
…..

Wow! WOW WOW! That’s a great map. I looked at it a bit so far and I think it could be very helpful for me. I can already see how useful it will be for finding hot springs.

bryan wrote:Be sure to check out the Oregon coast! A bicycle tour north to south is great. Tons of hiker biker sites and you can park your van up in Astoria no problem. Take a bus back to Astoria at the end. Lots of hiker-biker sites. Best beaches I've ever seen; some great rides.

Ughh.. I know. That sounds wonderful but it won’t be in the cards this summer. One of the biggest problems I’ve had so far while traveling is finding and hearing about so many more cool places than I can see. In Montana/Yellowstone I decided I’d spend all next summer there. Then I saw I could do that in eastern Washington, or even inside the city of Seattle, or probably Portland, or certainly Idaho. Shit… The western US is so big and wonderful that I’m finding out about all kinds of amazing things that I’m not doing.

C40 wrote:Ughh.. I know. That sounds wonderful but it won’t be in the cards this summer. One of the biggest problems I’ve had so far while traveling is finding and hearing about so many more cool places than I can see.

Sounds like freedom overload!!

cmonkey wrote: Sounds like freedom overload!!

Yeah. What a problem to have

just wanted to say that your journal is super inspiring and the photos are awesome. thank you!

zb2 wrote:just wanted to say that your journal is super inspiring and the photos are awesome. thank you!

Thanks buddy

Read journal from start. Wonderful. Congrats. We lived on the road 8 months and felt all emotional looking at pics. it is such a fabulous life and one you can only understand if you live it for a while. if you have an instagram ac please pm me so i can follow along. get 50k more to do so and u can make a living from it. well done and keep posting.

Did wrote:Read journal from start. Wonderful. Congrats. We lived on the road 8 months and felt all emotional looking at pics. it is such a fabulous life and one you can only understand if you live it for a while. if you have an instagram ac please pm me so i can follow along. get 50k more to do so and u can make a living from it. well done and keep posting.

Thanks Did