bottlerocks ERE Exploration

[bottlerocks]

I guess I'm turning this into a semi-annual journal now haha.

A lot has transpired in the past 6 months but it felt like it happened over a much longer timeframe. The biggest three occurrences would be that I've finally moved to redacted, I found a job here that didn't require making any FI timeline sacrifices, and I finally finished my MSc.

There are pretty big pros to the way things have unfolded but definitely some cons. For instance, I'm still working in redacted and likely will continue doing this until I'm ready for a FIRE experiment 5-ish years from now...this will probably be the last full time job I have for reasons other than "it's fun/interesting/good for the planet". Another large con is that I will be traveling fairly often to cold places in this new position. Hopefully my time in FL and the comp time I gain from traveling can offset this.

On the majority upside I'm now in a place I can enjoy outdoors year round and hopefully focus more on my health. Financially, even though base cost of living here is ~20% higher for me, I should still be able to tuck away 40-50k every year even with generous traveling plans to see friends/family. My net worth is now conservatively around 160K as I wait for my house to sell and as I stick 2-3K aside to spend (invest?) in kayak fishing equipment for two. Speaking of, I'm looking forward to sharing with you my adventures into pescetarianism (maybe plus some chicken) and cost savings through catching a main source of food.

Hopefully I'll get around to posting/lurking more on the forums but if not I'm sure I'll have enough to provide an update around Christmas time :>

[bottlerocks]

2016 update and recap time. Thanks to high market valuations I'm currently at 8 years current expenses and 10 of ideal expenses. I'm roughly on track for a 2022 FIRE date just based on WR but I suspect I'll have side income enough to easily justify 2021. Core expenses were ~$20,000, frivolity ~$5000, moving ~$5000 (mostly due to laziness).

My goals for 2016 were all attempted, I succeeded at some level on everything except Federer. If you're a tennis fan you understand why...I've now timed (bought tickets for) 3/7 of his short term withdrawals *ever*. First world problem confirmed. I'm a little fatter than last year but I did manage to get outdoors and enjoy myself more overall, mostly through fishing. Summer fishing here proved to be a steep learning curve and I haven't achieved nearly enough yield to sustain my ideal diet. I tracked expenses and income better (not great) and easily saved >25K since I didn't take any time off between jobs.

My new position is more engaging and demanding. Within my working group I'm probably at bottom of the second quartile in intelligence and at the top of the 3rd quartile for output...it's definitely a different dynamic than I'm used too. I received good end of year reviews so my interpretation of output may be skewed. For the first 4 months of working here I was on mandatory overtime and that drove me insane. redacted

Moving and experiencing a lot of changes has only reaffirmed my commitment to early retirement. I want to try, see, and master so many things that require all this time/energy that I cannot give while being engaged in a conventional job. I'm thankful there's a tried framework out there to help me reach this goal and a community that does some of the thinking/experimentation for me.

[bottlerocks]

I've been lightly lurking in the forums for the past year while weird political tensions were high, things seem to have maybe cooled down a bit and I'm back to reading a bit more regularly. My FI progress has stayed pretty much linear. My personal life has done some loops but I guess is linearly progressing too. Highlights:

-Up to ~15-17 years living expenses. Idk exactly because I'm not tracking expenses. I know my min savings rate because of reverse budgeting but I guess it's time to start thinking about optimizing and planning long term as I approach 25-30x. My cash-on-hand is getting ridiculous. I'm at most 3 years out for a bare bones 25x provided the market doesn't take a dump (which is looking quite possible.)
-I accepted a new job about 100 miles away from my current location. It's a 25ish% increase in total compensation although a 25ish% decrease in interesting work and commute convenience. I'll work that for 2-3 years and come back here.
-My current geographic location is the most "at home" I've felt anywhere before and I plan to fully retire here. I can embrace a beach/fishing-bum lifestyle and I'm very excited to arrive at that milestone.
-redacted
-I've given up almost all entrepreneurial/learning activities over the past two years. I've accepted that I'm a low-energy person and work + exercise takes up all the capacity I have to be productive in a given week. Hopefully things will change when I reduce the work hours.
-I've been doing a weight lifting program (5-3-1) consistently for about 5 months now and am in one of the best shapes I've ever been in. My knee is in horrible shape, however, and the back is as up/down as ever.

Nothing interesting has been brought to the forum table except maybe the self-realization that I don't aspire to be interesting while I'm finishing up this phase of "career mode". My current key to happiness is keeping my head above water and getting plenty of sunlight.

[Chris]

My knee is in horrible shape, however, and the back is as up/down as ever.

Do you know what the problem is with your knee? Is it something that can be ameliorated through targeted exercises?

[bottlerocks]

@Chris
It's been bone on bone for 10+ years from a teenage injury so my arthritis is advanced. It is what it is, replacement is my only course of action and I'm putting that off as long as possible. Luckily it doesn't really get in the way of weight lifting (no bad spurs), squatting 200lb+ is possible mostly pain free. Running and other high impact activities are the issue.

[thrifty++]

It looks like you are making such huge progress towards FI, especially for your age. You most definitely have FU money. at this point.

-My current geographic location is the most "at home" I've felt anywhere before and I plan to fully retire here. I can embrace a beach/fishing-bum lifestyle and I'm very excited to arrive at that milestone.

That sounds awesome. Im very attached to coastal locations. Mind sharing where you have arrived at?

@Chris
It's been bone on bone for 10+ years from a teenage injury so my arthritis is advanced. It is what it is, replacement is my only course of action and I'm putting that off as long as possible. Luckily it doesn't really get in the way of weight lifting (no bad spurs), squatting 200lb+ is possible mostly pain free. Running and other high impact activities are the issue.

Im surprised that you have such advanced knee issues at a young age. Have you had a full diagnosis including MRI scans etc? I never trust anything anyone says until I have seen all the scans possible for something.

[bottlerocks]

@thrifty
redacted

[thrifty++]

Awesome. Tampa Bay sounds very nice.

[bottlerocks]

I guess I'm going roughly Fibonacci with my journal updates.

I'm feeling very un-grounded lately. This pandemic plays its part, sure, but it has been a long standing/growing sentiment. Reflecting on my last journal update makes me antsy. Life/happiness is a known answer test at this point but for some reason I don't fully execute?

I'm at the point now where I could "retire" in a lot of geographic settings -- plenty of which would satisfy my hierarchy of needs. My most ideal location (previous place I lived) is not quite financially viable but could easily make it so with another 2 years at a similar income level. redacted

We know one thing for sure: we need to leave our current location. We both have great (albeit meaningless) jobs here and can easily meet financial goals but this is the last place I'd want to put down roots and potentially start a family. Now it's a balancing act of transitioning somewhere where we can both secure jobs or at least be confident that money isn't a concern. We had planned to start spending time this year touring cities we had identified as potentials and pick somewhere to land next summer. Mother Earth had other plans.

This could work out in a few different ways. Our jobs are secure for the foreseeable future, we're saving/investing during a down-market, hopefully the housing market corrects some as well. It's not clear if the job market we're targeting will be affected short/mid/long term but it's pretty clear I could get another job in the near term at any city we've identified as ideal. Do we take a leap of faith with the worst case of repeating the process two years from now? Do we wait a year or until a vaccine is ready and re-evaluate? I have a good feeling for the pareto frontier in terms of risk but not really opportunity cost. I feel bad even complaining about these very first-world issues.

TLDR; Some general FI-related highlights since my last update:
-Increased my stash (at the peak) by something on the order of 200K (50k being returns). Down maybe 70K from that high but financially my move here has really worked out.
-redacted
-Started a successful FBA business, hated it, terminated it with prejudice. Also why did I think it was a good idea to contribute to consumerism?!
-Have really embraced a "flow" lifestyle with regards to work I do not enjoy. I do not hit the lows I experienced towards the beginning of my ERE journal.
-We own two cars but are essentially a one-car household and waiting on a class action to dump the back-up.
-Improved skills in cooking, plumbing/electrical work, general engineering.
-Have not improved fishing, hunting, foraging, gardening skills Ready to gtfo.
-Fitness is near a 5 year low but isn't that bad and concavity is upward.

[bottlerocks]

Bored so journaling.

redacted

The answer to my last journal pondering was buy a single family dwelling in the targeted area, like right that second. Turns out it's one of the top 3 housing markets in the country now and prices are up about 20% since 2019. Whoops.

Oh yeah 2 big(gest) things worth mentioning:
-redacted
-My solo NW crossed the 800k mark. Feels like complete BS. Stash is all over the place and in desperate need of a consolidation/clean-up. Sitting on ~140k USD which obviously has come with a huge opportunity cost over the past 8-9 months.

I managed to pick up remote work with my current employer which is really going to help our mobility as we try to find a place to settle next year. New target goal is to be moved by mid-year 2021. If we can squeeze out another 200k in savings by EOY 2022 that should be the end of the grind, no excuses. Honestly we should be FI right this second but DW isn't quite on board with my housing optimization ideas. I really need to get her read a couple sections of the ERE book...speaking of which, since landing this job I've managed to pass the book through 3 individuals! I don't even know who has it at the moment because a couple of them wanted to read it a second time -- how cool!

[bottlerocks]

We're officially mid-year and I'm no more decided about my terminal trajectory out of the rat race. I've considered making a new journal since that's my sole focus right now and there was too much personally identifiable info here -- instead I just redacted out some personal life stuff and will keep the stream of consciousness going.

My networth crossed the $1MM mark a few months ago and I managed to re-allocate most of my assets in a more targeted manner, so my equities are more like 900k. Along with DW's stash we should be set but housing has got me so stressed. I'm having such a difficulty justifying such a large expense during an obvious age of FOMO, even though I can afford it and it's what I've purposefully set out to do over the past few years. I'm playing the OMY game already and started applying to jobs that will offer moving packages that can help offset some of this ludicrous market. I have an iBuyer cash offer in-hand for my current residence which is definitely an algo mistake so it will be hard to not make a transition very soon.

I kind of envisioned doing a 21 day makeover at some point this year in my heart of hearts. I may be able to start an unsynchronized 21 week makeover if the stars align over the next couple of months and I can get DW fully on board.