The Journal of IwantLess

[thrifty++]

Being 30 is not so bad. In fact 30 was the best year of my life (no shit). Much of ageing can be batted off by thinking patterns as well as wellness habits. I just turned 34 but people regularly think I am about 23 years old - likely result of attitude and many years of health oriented habits. Every Christmas when I see all my relatives I look the youngest of everyone there despite some cousins being 5 or 6 years younger than me. It also seems that in your 30s you can enjoy knowing yourself better and detach from peer pressure more easily. The downside is that I have found it more easy to acquire injuries in the last 3 years. I have realised that it is much more important to focus on regular flexibility training now and minimising sitting down time also.
But I think there is an element of ensuring that you enjoy your youth and health and make sure you make time for treats which are specific to you - not that I am the expert in that - I need to do more of the same.
I think ERE type lifestyles aid youthfulness and help in a number of ways - less excess which usually causes others to age (food, processed food, alcohol, other drugs), more exercise (cycling and walking as a minimum rather than sitting in cars all the time), less stress ( less financial stress from having a massive stash all the time and less stress because you stop working earlier), less exposure to toxins and chemicals (from doing most things on a DIY homegrown basis).

[Pronoid]

It has been a bit since I’ve updated this. I still frequent the forums but haven’t added to my Journal since not many revolutionary things have happened. Still the regular plug and chug. However, below is a brain dump of some new incremental stuff that has occurred.


Financials - Hit another neat thousandaire milestone around my birthday that just occurred so that was exciting. I have ~100K to go before I hit my goal of being in a super good place. I am cash heavy at the moment and I’m not so happy about it. I feel like my ‘set it and forget it’ strategy is not as ideal as I once believed it to be. Probably because I read all the doomsday threads on this forum But I really don’t have interest in deep diving in stock picking and such. I would rather get a lower return and not touch it than the alternative. I guess I need to find a happy medium somewhere and get on it.

Since December, I have been trying to not be as crazy with fretting over every single dollar I spend, which has actually been nice. I used to get slightly bent out of shape if I had to spend money on restaurants or unnecessary Uber transportation. The dating world has kinda forced me to spend something as it’s impossible to do everything for free in LA, especially when you don’t have a vehicle. All that translates into me spending like 100-300 more a month on randomness, which doesn’t make much of a dent in my savings rate so it’s not that big of a deal.

Started seeing a lady friend that I met through dancing over six months ago. She’s decently frugal and at least accepts all my “weird” ERE tendencies so I can’t complain. Next year when I pull the plug, we plan on traveling together. Things have been really great so far so we’ll see where it goes. I imagine the traveling part will be the real test in futureness…


Health update - I gained weight a bit too fast and got up to 180lbs. Part of this was due to frequent work travel and the other part was due to purposefully increasing calories in my regular home diet. I’m currently working my way down to 175 where I’ll be in a good place. I’ve been actually trying the soylent route in my morning and evening shakes. I basically make the powdered soylent and add other foods to get to the macros I’m shooting for. It was working pretty well for a few months but recently it’s jacking up my stomach. I halved the dosage per serving and that has seemed to help. I have like 6 boxes of the damn stuff left so I’m really hoping it gets better.

I’ve also started going to an indoor rock climbing gym 1-2 times a week. It is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. The GF was also wanting to do it so I decided to buy us annual memberships and she bought us climbing gear. It ends up being a fun activity to do together in addition to some extra exercise. She started eating healthier after watching me and my strict eating habits so I was more than happy to also encourage some fun exercise that she was motivated to do. It does hurt my minimalist goals as now I have another pair of shoes and belt but I suppose I’ll live It’s pretty interesting to see how far we’ve both come. In the beginning, we could barely do up to some 5.10a’s. Now we can do basically any 5.10 and up to 5.11a’s and 5.11b’s. It’s damn fun to say the least.


Latino Stuff - I am finally serious about the whole learning Spanish thing that I have talked about forever. My library membership gives me access to Pimsleur Spanish levels 1-5 which is pretty awesome. I can check out the audiobooks on my phone and I listen to a lesson both on my bike ride to and from work. I’m about half way done with level 3 at the moment. In addition, I also do Duolingo and another app called Memrise, although lately not so much of the Memrise. Add some Spanish TV shows on Netflix and a fluent Spanish speaking GF, and my own Spanish has come a long way. Pretty gosh dang neat.

I’m also still doing the salsa dancing thing. I actually got asked to join a salsa performance team, which I reluctantly agreed. The first performance is in October. I’m not nervous yet but I’m sure I will be as time goes on. I have never done anything like this so it will be an experience… I basically have 3 lessons through the week of some sort and social dancing sprinkled in every now and then. It’s also pretty interesting to see the skill progression on this front. I feel like the first year was just forcing myself to go through the motions and understand what’s happening. This second year the patterns are finally ‘clicking’ and I can more easily do new patterns and whatnot. I can never practice enough, though, unfortunately.


Work - I’ve been pushing for a promotion for the last year and a half. It looks like it actually might happen in March, which is rather interesting timing. I plan on pulling the plug either shorty after March or in September of next year, as those are the times when I get my bonuses. It would be funny to get offered a juicy promotion and then quit shortly after. Ha! Oh well. If I leave work in September, then at least I’ll have 6 months of the raise. Not that it would matter much in the long run portfolio wise anyhow.

I took a few weeks off work for family visits and overall relaxation. It has been damn nice. Wake up, go to the gym, lay of the beach, read, study Spanish, relax, etc. Makes me want to quit sooner than later. Even though I know such a routine could get old after a while, I still would like to test the limits Moving to some LCOL Spanish speaking country on the beach would be pretty great.

I’ve been doing my best to live the life I want to live even though I’m still working. Learning a language, dancing, going to the gym, rocking climbing gym, beach, GF, eating well, etc. Life has been good. But not having to go to work would make life better. I need more nature in my life. Hiking, kayaking, camping, etc… I only have time for that stuff on the weekends and then it also competes with the beach or other stuff I enjoy. I really don’t see myself reaching boredom anytime soon with said activities. And then I think about all the books I want to read, other languages I want to learn, and places I want to see… Man, there really isn’t enough time for it all right now. Soon though…soon…


Until my next brain dump.

[Pronoid]

@thrifty - I hear you on the injury part. I have definitely shifted the way I attack going to the gym and other physical activities to avoid messing myself up. I think the worst part of turning 30 is just knowing that I'm old to people in their early 20s. Ha, just being I remember thinking that of people in their late 20s and early 30s when I was a pup going to college. The circle of life...

[jennypenny]

I’m also still doing the salsa dancing thing. I actually got asked to join a salsa performance team, which I reluctantly agreed.

What is that exactly? Where do you perform? Clubs? Competitions? It sounds really cool.

[Pronoid]

Well, another year down. Just hit my 2 year anniversary of living in SoCal. Quality of life here is still good when the weather is sunny and warm as that means I can go do stuff and be outside. But job satisfaction is at an all-time low. Luckily, my personal intrinsic goals are probably at an all-time high.

Health/Fitness
I have a more heightened focus on my health than usual, which is saying a lot since I'm usually the "face of fitness and good choices" compared to my peers. Minus occasional self-inflicted injuries, I'm ridiculously active and I feel great because of it. Ride my bike to and from work daily (going on 3.5 years of being car free!), lifting iron 4 days a week, running 2 days a week, and yoga + rock climbing 1-2 days a week. I feel good. My next goal is to increase my flexibility. Don't laugh, but I've never been able to sit cross legged/pretzel style. I remember being in grade school sitting on the floor doing whatever activity and always being super uncomfortable since I couldn’t just relax like everyone else. Doing yoga is super hard as a result as well. Damn those poses that have you sit cross legged and then do other stuff. I just sit there and laugh while squirming in pain. So, if I can even sit halfway comfortable cross legged by the end of the year, it would be a huge success.

Dancing
I completed the salsa performance back in October and that went relatively well. I did goof on one part as I only spun once instead of doing a double, but it was fine besides that. I was supposed to do another one this weekend but it ended up not getting choreographed. I can't say I'd voluntarily go back for more but it was definitely something I'm glad I experienced. This year I want to go social dancing more often. I'm a solid intermediate-advanced at salsa but could still improve on style points. I also started learning hustle, which is ridiculously fun, and waltz. I can see myself getting into hustle since it can be danced to regular top 40 type songs. LA is the mecca of salsa, though, so it’s easy to find places to dance. I'll have to do some work to find where the social scenes are for hustle once I get more moves under my belt.

Job
I had been pushing for a promotion for the past year or 2 and just found out I wasn’t going to get it. Not that I really needed it anyhow, it was just a goal kind of thing. I am/was pretty bummed about it just because I do a lot of stuff and am certainly eligible for it. My manager just sucks. I was hoping it would be a check box kind of thing before I bounce, but oh well. Just makes me want to leave sooner, which is probably a good thing. The dynamic of my job has also changed a bit with core team players having left. My customer has also had org changes and now there are super manipulative folks in charge. It still is relatively laid back and chill, but now I have unnecessary added pressure resulting from micromanagement and leadership fears.

FI
I deemed myself financially independent a while ago, but it all really depends on the cost of the rent in whatever place I end up. Last year's spending was about $23k but well over half was rent. I should be on track to hit around $18k this year. My core spending has been about $6-7k over the past 3 years. So as long as I'm not over paying for rent I'll be in good shape regardless. My plan is to only spend at a 2% SWR anyhow, so no worries there.

RE
The original plan was to bounce in March of this year. March is a key month since I front load my 401k, ESPP stocks hit, and I get half of the yearly bonus. However, due to timing of some family stuff, it makes more sense for me to OMHY (one more half year) it and bounce after August of this year instead. End of August is when I get the other half of the yearly bonus, get more ESPP stocks, and will be able to receive like 10 more paychecks. So, at that point I'll be more comfortable with my financial picture and will hopefully be more psychologically ready to leave the workforce. And I'll hopefully have a better understanding on how to proceed with health insurance planning.

Preparations
I'm still on the quest to optimizing my possessions into just what I use and need with the ultimate goal of fitting everything into a single backpack. I finally got off my lazy butt and put like 8 items on ebay, half of which are backpacks which is weird in a funny way. It was interesting as the stuff I figured wouldn’t sell for much sold very quickly and the stuff I thought was valuable hasn’t gotten much traction. There is still like 5 hours left on the auctions so fingers crossed that most of the action happens in last 5 minutes. Otherwise, my backpack is basically ready to go. I will need to rebuy some merino stuff as mine are getting old with minor holes, but otherwise have everything else. So, once August ends, the next phase of the life plan will commence...

2017 Goal Summary
Run a 7 minute mile - at about an easy 8 minute now - Record was 5:45 in high school!
10% bodyfat at 175 pounds - currently 180 with 12-13%
Sit crossed legged without being in pain
Climb up to a 5.12d consistently
Go hiking on a trail at least once per month
Social dance 1-2x per month but continue training multiple times a week
Read at least 1 book per month
Continue Spanish lessons
Invest all the cash I've been sitting on
Complete FIRE preparation taskers (update passport, establish different state residency, final dr appointments, etc)
Quit work


So, that’s the update and my plan. Now I just need to focus on the present and stop counting down til August…

[Pronoid]

I’m also still doing the salsa dancing thing. I actually got asked to join a salsa performance team, which I reluctantly agreed.

What is that exactly? Where do you perform? Clubs? Competitions? It sounds really cool.

The studio I train at had a 10 year anniversary. So they hosted it at some fancy place. Tickets were like $150 just to watch! I still had to pay it even though I was performing, which was lame. The night basically consisted of lots of fancy people eating and watching like 30 performances from students, teachers, and professionals with my salsa team being one of mix. We were 3 couples and did a choreographed routine. Was fun but super nerve wracking. The floor was also super fancy but ended up being sticky. So turns and such were more challenging. Then at the end of the show there was this world champion couple that did a few dances that had everyone ooo-ing and aww-ing over.

[Pronoid]

1/3/19

Figured I’d add to the mass of new year journal updates with one of my own. I changed my forum username so now it doesn’t quite match the thread title but oh well. These past two years have had a decent amount of change so it’ll be good to write it out in a therapeutic sense to clear to noggin. I have to admit that I’ve written a few entries before but deleted them before posting. I always feel like I’m just subtle bragging the entire time which I hate. Not sure how else to talk about good things without coming across like that but yeah I don’t like doing so. So with that, here’s my attempt at not bragging but still talking about myself in a factual and neutral but positive manner


Job Update
In early 2017 I started a new role at my same employer. I was previously getting frustrated at my old role due to lack of growth while I was counting down the days til I ERE’d. I was prepping to bounce the work force as my nest egg was already sufficient when one of my team members jumped to a Silicon Valley startup. His role was basically the last title on my imaginary “career goals checklist”. In addition to me being a good fit skill set wise, I also had the best relationship with the customer since I was sitting in their office daily so it was a no brainer for the higher ups to move me over vs hiring someone on the outside. Commence One More Year-ish Syndrome.

Before this new position, I was in a technical/SME role focused on one customer - support, labbing, engineering, etc. The new position put me in technical sales for the same and a few additional customers. So I still at least get the trust for being technical unlike some of my coworkers who are purely sales but there are new pressures of quota, closing deals, product meetings, traveling expenses, etc. Pros and cons just like any other position. The pros are pretty decent which make up for the bullshit and politics to a degree. Since I now work from home, I no longer have to commute by bike to an office and I get to expense some stuff which is pretty damn awesome. Home internet, ubers to the customer, dinners to entertain, stuff like that. I also travel about 1 or 2 times per month which means some of my life expenses gets paid for on the company dime. And hotel/airline points. It all definitely adds up. Also, since I’m considered sales, a portion of my pay is commission based. This can be good or bad depending on what’s going on, but 2017 luckily happened to be a super rare time when my team destroyed the sales quota, which means pay accelerators. Similarly, in 2018 we sucked pretty bad and fell rather short of the target which means not getting paid enough to break even of your on paper pay. So it ends up evening out in the long run. It’s all politics from the top down on what team they choose gets to make money and what team gets shafted each year. Since we did well one year, we magically get to fall the next. Fun.

With that said, I’m basically in a position that folks strive to get to and would stay at for 10+ years. It’s a sweet spot with good pay and influence over stuff both internal to the company, external to customers, and the industry as a whole. And you can move up the ranks more easily if you’re hungry and make shit loads of money eventually. Or hop around other tech companies like everyone else does. However, it definitely feels weird to still be counting down the days to leave. Back to the “career goals checklist”- I have now accomplished all of them which, for someone very goal oriented, leaves me even more ready to do something else. Some of those were stretch goals that I never really needed to hit but did because of my OMYish Syndrome. Hence, I’m mentally ready to focus on something else. I’ve been doing this stuff for almost 15 years nonstop since I was a freshman in college. I need something where I’m not checking my phone every few minutes for texts and emails and such. Plus if you don’t have the passion to continually learn new protocols, RFCs, products, technologies, architectures, etc then it ends up being a grind and that’s kind of where I’m at. I used to come home after work and excitedly study all night then go to work the next day hyped up to do it all over again. Can’t say I do that anymore. I hope I truly have the concept of “enough” and can quit here soon to stop the grind as it can be easy to just continue to save for no reason.


Exit Plan
The plan is to bounce in April or May of 2019, so 4 or 5 more months. I can see myself saying “one more month” so I can save a bit more due to the market going down but I really hope I don’t. I’m not 100% sure what I’m going to do specifically but I do want to travel. I may stay in LA for a few weeks after I resign to unwind, go visit family, then travel. Or just immediate pick a country and go. I want to go somewhere warm, close to a beach, and ideally that speaks spanish. Then hang for a while in that country to focus on weight lifting, mental health, getting fluent in spanish, salsa dancing with locals, reading a ton, and of course working on my tan

I’ve been hitting the spanish lessons pretty consistently, well minus the last week due to holiday travels. But I’ve finished the duolingo spanish tree and almost 5 crowned each lesson in duolingo speak. I also have been checking out the Pimsleur audio lessons from the library and have completed 1-4 and am halfway through the final 5th one. I’m at a point where I can speak decently well but just need to practice on a regular basis or I start to forget stuff. I’m still slow to think of words while I’m speaking and have lots of pauses to gather thoughts. So moving to a place of immersion will be perfect to iron out the kinks.

I still own basically nothing. Since I travel often for work, I already have a lot of practice living out of a small single backpack and could easily do so indefinitely. Worst case I hate it and have to buy a few more things. But I want to at least feel what it’s like getting rid of everything I own but the chosen crap in a 25L backpack. It is funny what you prioritize when space is limited like that. I bought a nintendo switch and made sure there was room for that in my bag while work traveling. And that’s more important than a button down shirt, for example, which makes me laugh to myself. Once I put in my notice for work, I’ll soon after give my 30 day notice for my apartment. Then I’ll probably make an appointment for salvation army to come by and just load up all of my stuff and donate it. The only thing valuable that I wouldn’t be taking with me in my backpack is my bike - Surly Disc Trucker. I’ll just craigslist that before I leave. That’s the plan at least. We’ll see how it works out when the time actually comes.


The Moneys
In 2018 I basically didn't care and spent on whatever I wanted since I expected it would be my last full year with a high income. Even with that I spent ~$22k. Most of the extra was more eating out, gifts, and travel that I paid for for myself and friends/family. So when I tried to spurge I really didn't splurge all that much considering, which is good. Most of my budget is always rent and then food (groceries/protein powder). Haven’t owned a car since 2013 and bike/some uber/walk everywhere. Still cook vast majority of my food. And my hobbies are all stuff that is cheap to do -gym, beach, dancing, reading, internets, some video games. Luckily all these things are engrained in me and it’s my preferable way of living. My taxable assets/cash are setup to throw off about $16k of dividends/interest per year. It seems around $17k is the sweet spot for ACA so if I fall short of that I’ll just transfer money from my traditional IRA to my Roth. Essentially, the goal is to maintain or reduce my expenses while living in different awesome places and continuing to have a high quality of live.


Wrap It Up Already!
TL;DR:
-Started a new position at same company about 2 years ago, was cool but now not cool and ready to not work
-Planning to travel after quitting job in 4-5 months to somewhere warm and spanish
-Still own not a lot and have maintained lowish expenses for HCOL areas
-Moneys are in good shape to live off of after quitting


So yeah, I’ll probably be better about updating more frequently since the time has finally come to quit here soon and do something new. It also really does help writing this out since I can’t really discuss it with anyone in person. Otherwise the thoughts stay bottled up in a way. Cheers!

[prognastat]

Good to hear it's going well. Are you waiting til may for financial reasons or just not ready to leave just yet?

[Pronoid]

Well the retirement date is set. I have a laundry list of things to do that I’ve been slowly crossing off and a rough plan of action is in place.

I’ve had a bucket list item of going across the Atlantic on a ship. I would be open to working on a crew or doing something crazy for a more ERE aligned type adventure but my SO wouldn’t be onboard (ha!) with that thought. So instead I’ve been watching some transatlantic cruises for last minute price drops and such to see if that kind of thing made sense. I read that the sweat spot for price drops seems to be around the 90 day mark from the sale date as that’s the last time you can cancel without a penalty from some companies. Sure enough one of the cruises I was tracking dropped in price by a significant amount 90 days out so I took it as a sign to lock it in. And with that booking set the retirement date and a goal to shoot for - May 4th, 2019.

Yes I know cruises kind of suck - they herd you like cattle, try to get you to buy all the things, up charge on soda and booze, tons of people everywhere, and everything else crappy. But realistically it will end up costing about 2-3x as much as a one way flight per person to Europe and I get all my living expenses and meals provided for two weeks. I hate long flights anyhow. Plus there is a gym which helps to solve my greatest challenge of extended travel - maintaining my physique and continuing to eat properly.

The cruise ends in Amsterdam at which the plan is to stay in Europe as long as possible until the visa time ends. And go to non-Schengen countries here and there to extend things in the middle. Then in September reevaluate if the travels will continue to maybe south east asia, south america, or be burnt out and come back to the US. I prefer a slow travel style as I hate having to pick up and leave every few days. I also have a butt load of Marriott points from all my work travels so I’m going to use that to mitigate housing costs where it makes sense. For example, I will be staying in Spain for 30 days on hotel points as they have a bunch of Category 1 hotels which are the lowest to redeem for points. I found one that is close to the beach, walking distance to a real gym, metro stop, and other cool stuff. So that’s basically the ideal setup as housing is free and I just have to pay for food, gym, and entertainment. A monthly gym pass is like 40 bucks, beach is free, and salsa dancing at a restaurant/club can’t be that expensive. And I get to use the Spanish I’ve been learning. I’m pretty amped for that probably more than anywhere else I’ve looked at in Europe as that’s my perfect living situation.

The rough itinerary is to hang out in Amsterdam for a week (hotel points), then go to Denmark for 2 weeks at the end of May as we have family friends near Copenhagen and Aarhus. Sprinkle in Germany and Serbia (more family friends) then end up in Spain at the tail end of June. Stay there a month then hit up Tangier, Morocco (more hotel points). Then use the last of the visa days in Italy somewhere for another month stay (probably AirBnB). I’m shooting to have a couple week-ish long stays, then a month stay (Spain), followed by more week-ish long stays, then ending with another month stay (Italy). That probably doesn’t make sense but it does in my head at least. If it was only me planning, I would choose 3 cities in different countries and spend a month in each but this was a compromise in seeing more stuff yet also doing a slow type of travel.

I’ve been reading travel itineraries on the internets for a while and a lot have like 1 day here, 2 days there, back to 1 day in another place... for a list of like 20 places. I’d go nuts. I don’t need to cross off every single museum and location someone mentioned in passing. But I’m probably on the other side of the extreme. I’m cool with seeing some sights and doing activities but I mostly want to chill and see different cultures as they normally are. I’m sure Europeans pick their nose and laugh at fart jokes like everyone else but I want to see it in person is all. I’d rather sit in a cafe and people watch then cross off a list of tourist attractions but that’s just me. I’m sure the other travel types would be bored with that. I think my GF falls in the middle so we’ll see how the dynamic goes.

I keep trying to plan out every detail of the trip but I know you’re supposed to have some flexibility in there which has been hard for me. I’m definitely one to wing it but I do enjoy having a place to sleep locked in at least. I’ve never been to Europe so this will all be completely new. Exciting and a bit nerve wracking. It hasn’t really hit that it’s happening yet but as the days go on the pressure feels more and more.

This leads to the ever growing list of crap I have to do before I can leave on the adventure. Making sure 401k is maxed, submitting my taxes, paying taxes (ouch!), open credit card to pay taxes?, making sure ERE cash flow math is correct, staring at spreadsheets with ERE cash flow math for hours multiple times a week to make sure it’s correct, figuring out how those damn mail forwarding services work (and don’t work), changing my address in all the places, figuring out when to give work my notice, selling my only valuable item (bike), figuring out how to donate everything in my apartment, etc, etc, etc.. The part that is annoying is I can’t just start knocking things out as most have to be done at a certain time. Like I’m not going to give work notice for another 6 weeks or so but knowing that I have to is eating at me. Coworkers make comments about how I should go on a certain work travel trip because I’ll be still be with the company in 3-6 months or whatever and I just have to bite my tongue. Or having my manager tell me to complete those career goal things for 2019 but I know it will be for nothing. I also obviously can’t start getting rid of the stuff in my apartment until the last minute so that‘s another thing that sits in back of my head knowing it’s a major task but I can’t get it over with yet. But yeah, it’s mostly just me whining and fighting my urges of being overly prepared and thinking of every freaking angle to everything. I ended up setting reminders on my calendar to schedule when I had to do certain things. That has helped with my need to cross things off the list ASAP as it feels like I’m doing something at least.

This post has gotten longer than expected so I’ll cut it here. More to come.

[Pronoid]

@prognastat - Glad at least one other person is reading my wall of text I was originally shooting for May just to draw a line in the sand. I’m under a 2% SWR already with current spending but the OMY mentality makes it hard to leave. Like, aww man, things will be way better once I save $10K more in cash. Then once I do, I think the same thing again. Only $10K more! But in reality it’s wasted time. I also know that I most likely will never have a job that pays like this ever again so I should milk it while I can. But yeah, to answer your question, May was the line to help get over all my mental blocks and get on with things.

That reminds me of another thought I caught myself having related to OMY stuff. Sometimes I think I should work 1-2 more months past my retirement date just to save money to make up for the times where I wasted it. Like I know I wasted several thousands of dollars in my early twenties when I bought various motorcycles and expensive insurance. I should work a little bit more so I can “neutralize” that wasted spend so to speak. Obviously this doesn’t make any sense if I already have enough money saved in general. But it’s just another case of me rationalizing working longer than I need to when I really don’t want to.