FI in 10 years

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FBeyer
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by FBeyer »

The one thing I've heard over and over is that Turkish Get Ups with kettlebells is a major exercise for martial artists. It's supposedly one of the best strengthening and stabilizing exercises there are. 'heard about it before?

steveo73
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by steveo73 »

Fbeyer - thanks for the feedback. I have heard about it and used it as well. I didn't get much out of it to be honest.

For my shoulder the best thing I've done is just hang from a bar. For my upper back the best thing I do is an all over stretch and roll a tennis ball over my back. One thing I struggle with is doing the remediation exercises regularly. They just aren't as fun and if I feel good then I don't feel the need to do them.

Truthfully though I think that as I'm getting older this is going to happen. You just don't move as well as when you are in your 20's.

steveo73
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by steveo73 »

I thought I'd ramble on for a little bit on here.

So a couple of points about how being frugal is difficult in today's society. My parents are wealthy. Dad doesn't want to spend money or better put his expenses are low or what I consider fair. My mum though seems to feel it's her duty to spend as much money as she can. So it's Christmas time and we don't want to buy a large number of presents for everyone in the family nor do we want presents. It becomes a drama though. Mum wants a Kris Kringle and honestly the amount to spend is $100 per family. That is just for the adults. I reckon that is crazy. At this point I'm just staying out of it.

On top of that my two older kids see my mum as a mark. So they are requesting new beds from her. Not just a single bed either but a double bed. I reckon that will cost $2k for both of them at least. Then we have to buy new sheets and possible donnas as they have single beds now.

The next issue is my youngest brother. He is a decent guy. He is 10 years younger than me and we have some of the same interests - we both do jiu-jitsu, he also does MMA and we play chess. Anyway he is getting married. His fiance is also really nice. Sounds great and it is. The problem is the fiance is someone who wants everything to be right. My daughter is a flowergirl and she has to get a custom made dress. I have no idea how much that will cost but I assume $1k or thereabouts. My other brother and myself are to be groomsmen and unless we are wearing navy suits we will have to buy new suits (again I think that this could easily cost another $1k). To add to that we will have to pay for ourselves and our 3 kids to go to the wedding. We probably won't pay for the 6 yo but we will pay for the other 2. That will be $400 minimum. There will also be bucks nights out and possibly my wife will even go to the hens night.

So to me ridiculous spending appears to be coming up. I can handle christmas. My wife has already bought all our christmas presents. We don't spend much. The wedding though is out of control. I can see the wedding costing at best $1000 and at worst say $2000. That is crazy money.

How crazy is this world ?

Onto another rant. My other younger brother (not the one getting married) does have a good high paying job. He is a lawyer. He loves it as well. He wants though to upgrade the house and get a pool. We live in Sydney Australia so house prices are crazy. I think his house now would be worth about $2 million. It's honestly an ordinary house. I think our house is much nicer and it's worth about $1.5 million but it's not in an area that is relatively overpriced. All houses are overpriced. Anyway I figure he will spending something like $3-4 million on his house.

We just don't fit into the spend everything that you have and more culture.

I should add that my parents are wealthy and can afford to spend what they have. They were relatively frugal. My younger brother (the lawyer) does earn a lot of money and to be fair isn't a massive relative spender. He does save money. The youngest brother doesn't earn great money but his fiancee works full time as well. I think they are in the normal spend way too much category though. Her parents I think were never good with money.

To repeat my previous statement - how freaken crazy is this world ?

Erenymous
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by Erenymous »

Made to measure navy suit can be bought for 100-300+. Less for the dress.

Choose cheap/free gifts you want to give.

Free beds - nice! Sell the old beds and sheets. Buy new cheap sheets. Invest the extra money! :D

Everyone everywhere says that houses are overpriced in growing cities. Can the markets be wrong everywhere?

Good luck!

steveo73
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by steveo73 »

Erenymous wrote:Made to measure navy suit can be bought for 100-300+. Less for the dress.

Choose cheap/free gifts you want to give.

Free beds - nice! Sell the old beds and sheets. Buy new cheap sheets. Invest the extra money! :D

Everyone everywhere says that houses are overpriced in growing cities. Can the markets be wrong everywhere?

Good luck!
I don't reckon I will be able to get a made to measure navy suit for that price for a wedding. I do already own one though so if it's a navy suit the cost will be negligible. I also am not involved in the dress that is being purchased. They choose. I assume they pay for it as well.

We will just chuck the bed out and maybe the bed sheets. The other bed will be used for the youngest. We will save money there.

As for house prices who knows what will happen. It's crazy.

Thanks for the feedback though.

steveo73
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by steveo73 »

I just started a 6 week holiday yesterday. It's also christmas and I've had a couple of social events that to me are actually nice but at the same time not in sync with who I am.

So I drank a lot of alcohol at a pub with a couple of friends. My friends probably do this a couple of times per week and one friend basically every day. I come home and I stink plus I wake up feeling like crap. To add to that I spent $60.

Last night I met two friends that used to work for me. It's really good that people that came from another country as cheaper labour and worked for me view me as a friend. Dinner and a couple of beers cost $70 for the 3 of us. Indians (from India) don't drink as much as my white Australian friends. They ended up paying for everything. I will have to return the favour at some point though.

I've also started a vege patch. I would like to be able to grow a good portion of my own food but I figure it will be an experimentation time.

I should update on the suit. I spoke to my brother and told him let's all use navy suits. His fiance wasn't happy for this and decided we all needed black suits. So we have to buy a black suit that will probably never be worn again. I hate black suits. They are appropriate for funerals and even that is a stretch.

steveo73
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by steveo73 »

When it comes to the 6 week period off I have started playing guitar again which is good. I'm taking care of my 6 yo right now as my wife is at work for another week. He is going through a phase where he loves his dad best and it's nice.

steveo73
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by steveo73 »

I'm back at work again. The work itself is okay in that I still have a tonne of freedom. The problem is that it still sucks.

My vege patch is going well. We continue to save. The markets have been good.

FI is still a long way off - i.e. 3-5 years.

wolf
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by wolf »

steveo73 wrote:
Mon Jan 30, 2017 3:35 pm
I'm back at work again. The work itself is okay in that I still have a tonne of freedom. The problem is that it still sucks.

My vege patch is going well. We continue to save. The markets have been good.

FI is still a long way off - i.e. 3-5 years.
any updates steveo73?

steveo73
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by steveo73 »

wolf wrote:
Fri Nov 30, 2018 1:28 am
any updates steveo73?
It's been ages but here are some updates.

We've saved up to 13x yearly expenses with a goal to retire at 20x expenses. I think that this will take 3-5 years longer. 3 years with good returns and 5 years with average returns. Worst case at that point I'd go part-time. I may even go part-time when we reach 20x expenses but I'm not ready to make that decision just yet. Part-time work which would mean pretty close to not spending any of the portfolio is a smart option because it would help with sequence of returns risk but I may just quit. It'll depend on how I feel about work at that point.

Work is okay. It sucks really but I don't do that much. It's more boredom. I've become cynical and I have no ambition at work. I leave early and do minimal hours. So I don't fit into that corporate culture but I don't want too. It's more about doing time until I save up enough. It's not that work is bad. It's just that i could do it part-time and spend less hours in the office.

Our expenses have increased a fair bit as well. We have two teenagers and an 8 year old. It's hard to keep spending low in this situation. We don't send them to private schools or will we pay for their college/university education. We may support them a little bit namely free board & food etc and maybe some additional money but we will expect them to work. We pay for other stuff that they spend on though and it adds up. We have one car. I bike everywhere. We do though seem to have increasing expenses. If our expenses hadn't increased so much we would be potentially retiring in a year or so. We can't do that now though.

Our investing approach is I think really good. Our portfolio looks like this:-

5% Individual shares. These are work gifted shares that I intend to use within my portfolio. I'd sell them but we can't because they are staff benefits and there are tax implications. They are good quality shares that have paid a good dividend for years and the company is fairly safe. These will be sold off first along with the Bonds fund.
15% Bonds Index fund -- the intention is to sell this first and move slowly to a 100% stock portfolio,
30% Australian Stock Index fund
50% International Stock Index fund

Wherever possible we use Vanguard ETF's. Whenever we save up enough we invest. It's like clockwork and I think this portfolio is pretty darn good as far as being future proofed. I'd like to think the International Share portfolio component will increase over time whereas the bonds and Individual shares will slowly be sold off.

My vege garden has done okay. The best we've gotten of it is a large amount of beans and parsley.

My brother passed away recently. It was a massive shock - he was hit by a car while jogging. Apart from this hurting more than anything in the world it's made me realize that every day is precious and I don't want to spend my time working.

wolf
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by wolf »

Hi Steveo73!

It seems you are on track with your plan. I got a similiar time horizon of 3-5 years. Either it will be part-time or a longer sabbatical.

Regarding your asset allocation. It's the same with me. My portfolio also consists of about 20% bonds (corporate and government). I'd like to use a glidepath (inspired by ERN), in order to get to 100% equities in about 10 years.
steveo73 wrote:
Mon Jul 08, 2019 4:00 am
...
15% Bonds Index fund -- the intention is to sell this first and move slowly to a 100% stock portfolio,
...
Do you hold additional asset classes, e.g. from different regions, size of equities (small)?
Quite recently I added some real estate stocks. (20% of total portfolio now).

Dissatisfaction at work is tough. Work shouldn't be boring. Well, there are good and bad times, I guess. But have you considered to quit work and apply somewhere else? What I learned from Tyler9000's Journal, that if you still have several years ahead of you (before FI), then improving the situation at work might be possible and good for your overall outlook on life. In addition to that, I changed my point of view. In the beginning I focused on the end goal and neglected the bad things at work. Nowadays I have the process in mind and therefore I improved several aspects* of work by "job crafting".
*e.g. flexible hours, working from home, role at work, challenging and interesting topics and tasks.

rube
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by rube »

Sorry to read about your brother @steveo73 .Wish you the best with that loss.
And yes, we're vulnerable. Perhaps we live another 40 years orso for which we need to plan, but perhaps it is just a few more years. Balancing between statistics and feelings.

steveo73
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by steveo73 »

wolf wrote:
Mon Jul 08, 2019 10:05 am
Dissatisfaction at work is tough. Work shouldn't be boring. Well, there are good and bad times, I guess. But have you considered to quit work and apply somewhere else? What I learned from Tyler9000's Journal, that if you still have several years ahead of you (before FI), then improving the situation at work might be possible and good for your overall outlook on life. In addition to that, I changed my point of view. In the beginning I focused on the end goal and neglected the bad things at work. Nowadays I have the process in mind and therefore I improved several aspects* of work by "job crafting".
*e.g. flexible hours, working from home, role at work, challenging and interesting topics and tasks.
This is a good point. I think I have a job that will be hard to beat at this point though. I work from home 1 day a week and sometimes more. I also work less hours - typically something like 9 to 3 to 4. The work isn't bad. I'm on a project that has been good for close to 2 years but it's starting to be poorly managed. We have less dollars to spend this year and people are being let go and the scope isn't clear.

I'm lucky in that hopefully I'll get onto a new project or this one will get cleared up and it will get better. My boss is fine as well.

Basically It's hard for me to leave at this point because a retrenchment would be good plus the work isn't really that bad. I should though push like you state for more challenging work.

I also intend to use a glidepath ala ERN. My index funds are just the standard index funds - so all world and Australian top 300 plus Australian bonds. I own my house which is crazy expensive so I don't want to invest into any more property.
Last edited by steveo73 on Mon Jul 08, 2019 7:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.

steveo73
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by steveo73 »

rube wrote:
Mon Jul 08, 2019 11:37 am
Sorry to read about your brother @steveo73 .Wish you the best with that loss.
And yes, we're vulnerable. Perhaps we live another 40 years orso for which we need to plan, but perhaps it is just a few more years. Balancing between statistics and feelings.
Thank You.It really sucks. My family is a mess. You have to go on though. You are right in that we tend to plan for the worse case scenarios when it comes to our finances - i.e. live for another 40 years and the markets perform poorly. That is really unlikely to happen but I suppose you don't want to run out of money prior to end of life.

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jennypenny
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by jennypenny »

I'm really sorry about your brother steveo. That stuff cuts deep. I think most people end up a better person after stuff like that happens but it's a painful way to grow.

Peace.

steveo73
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by steveo73 »

jennypenny wrote:
Tue Jul 16, 2019 6:49 am
I'm really sorry about your brother steveo. That stuff cuts deep. I think most people end up a better person after stuff like that happens but it's a painful way to grow.

Peace.
Thank You. It hurts so much. I've never experienced anything like that. At one point I was crying every day and multiple times per day. My parents are a mess. He was so good. He was an over-achiever to my mind an extreme way. He was great at sport. He had a result at high school that put him into the top 2% of results. He then completed a masters in law and was working as a general manager in a large company earning 500k per year. He ran marathons and triathlons. He was married with 3 kids. He was too intense in that he was jogging 20km to work at 5:30 in the morning when he was hit. He did stuff like this all the time.

I don't think you end up a better person but you are changed. The loss is also too much to not impact us for the rest of our lives. It's that bad. We go on but it's tough.

steveo73
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by steveo73 »

Current Update. I need to focus on my health a bit more. I've been sad and maybe depressed since I lost my brother and I've been eating poorly and put on some weight. I haven't been training as much either.

So I went to the gym twice last week. I'll see how many times I can get to the gym this month and do my own mini-workout. The trick is that after every workout I have to try and have a recovery workout. So stretch and self-massage my back. I also hang on a bar to give my shoulders a rest. If I don't do this my body breaks down. I'll also try and eat healthily as much as possible.

It's no point doing a finances update for me just yet. I tend to have a check every quarter even though I tend to monitor it all the bloody time.

El Duderino
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by El Duderino »

My condolences on your loss. Can't even imagine what you've gone through and so sad to hear.

Good call on getting back in the gym. Are you still rolling?

steveo73
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by steveo73 »

El Duderino wrote:
Thu Aug 22, 2019 9:58 am
My condolences on your loss. Can't even imagine what you've gone through and so sad to hear.

Good call on getting back in the gym. Are you still rolling?
I'm still training. I went 4 times last week but I doubt I can continue training that hard. I've been working on leg locks which for me consist 99% of heel hooks. It's changed my game a lot. The loss of my brother is intense and it's done a lot of damage to my family. Mum is devastated. I'm feeling a lot better but it is nearly 6 months since it happened. I still cry every so often - say once per week.

People take things differently though. I'm reading a book on stoicism and they state that these things happen and not to get too emotional. I understand this is good advice but I was a mess. My old instructor just lost his brother as well but he appears to be taking it a lot better than me.

Life goes on. Thanks for your support.

steveo73
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Re: FI in 10 years

Post by steveo73 »

I thought I'd give another update.

My job is going pretty well. I like the people I work with. I definitely will quit though as soon as I can. I'd just prefer not to work.
My family are doing pretty well. My daughter just finished her last year of high school. She is a pain in the backside but I have to let her figure her life out. My 16 yo son is doing really well. My 9 yo son is the cutest kid ever. My wife is good but sometimes she gets worked up and moody. To be fair she does so much work and she has a crap job. She also doesn't tend to get pissed off with me.

I've been training fairly regularly and eating fairly well so I feel good in that way.

One of my big problems is a dodgy shoulder. That is feeling okay at the moment but it still feels off. I have to constantly monitor it.

As for finances. We are doing well. We just save as much as we can. We save greater than 50% of our income and we are at about 65% towards our total target. To be honest this target is actually understated as we own our house plus we have long service leave available to us and I don't include these two assets in our net worth.

Emotionally I feel a lot better than I have for a lot of this year but I need a holiday desperately. I have though 5 weeks off in 2 weeks time. I can't wait.

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