bottlerocks ERE Exploration

[bottlerocks]

Hi all! I'm a 26 year old ISTP STEM degree holder living in redacted. I recently finished Jacob's book and it has given me a little more motivation a lot more perspective on the topic of financial independence. It's really nice knowing there are articulate and thoughtful people out there who have similar views as me regarding the "system" I find myself part of and ready to rid myself of.

I wanted to start a journal simply because I'm the type of person who is motivated by accountability (even if it's all perceived ). By having ideas, goals, and spending written out for other people to see I'm hoping I will better retain focus which is something I've always struggled with.

A Little Bit of Background
redacted I wasn't raised to be frugal but always leaned towards that sort of lifestyle until I graduated college. I've held a job without a large gap in employment since I was 15 years old and really valued independence with my money and especially time. Scholarships covered most of my undergraduate education and my parents helped with books and a few summer courses (which I'm very thankful for). I ended up coming out of school with student loan debt of about $5000 and only about $2000 to my name due to a mass internship layoff during my senior year. Local industries went through a period of layoffs and hiring freezes during 2010-2011 (I graduated in Dec. 2010) so I struggled to find employment for a few months. I also applied to a dozen or so Math graduate programs and only got accepted in to backups in cold places (not my cup of tea). Finally, in March 2011 I took the first concrete job offer than came through the door for a redacted. I've stayed in the industry but hopped jobs a few times which brings me to where I am now. Frugality went out the window quite a bit but I've made some fortunate asset acquisitions and maintained a 40-45% (rough estimate) avg savings rate. I bought a vehicle in 2012 for $17000 which I mildly regret but I quickly rid myself of all debt aside from a mortgage which I also picked up in 2012.

Current Situation
Job: Engineer
redacted
Studies: Pursuing MSOR -- 4 courses + most of thesis left
Free Time: Not nearly enough

Assets
Townhouse: $130,000 (avg. sell in my neighborhood in last 6 months, zestimate is higher)
Vehicle: $9000 (lowballing KBB and craigslist)
Liquid Accounts: $15,000
Tax Advantaged Savings: $35,000
Non-TA Savings: $3,000
Other: $8,000

Liabilities
Mortgage: $98,000

Net Worth: $102,000

All in all I'm happy with where I'm at but could definitely be doing a lot better. I don't hate my job by any means but I find myself grow very stressed and feel stunted when I don't have daylight hours to think freely and dedicate myself to new skills/hobbies. It's very frustrating when I think about 80% of the time spent in an office is essentially going to waste for me...I'm not growing as a person and redacted. The economics of the problem is a side issue to me but infuriating none the less. I don't envision any modern 40-hour work week that will satisfy my lifestyle desires. I'm not afraid to find out I'm wrong, though!

Near-Term Goals [1-2 years]
-Finish Master's Degree and change industries (I need (want?) to experience something different)
-redacted
-Publish on Thesis Topic
-Monetize Thesis Topic
-Increase Job Income to $100,000/year
-Increase Passive Income to $100/month
-Reduce Expenses
-Quantify "Reduce Expenses" (I expect I will delve heavily into this soon)
-Obtain sub 10% body fat and figure out constructive solutions to current health problems (knee arthritis, collapsing lumbar discs)

Long-Term Goals [by age 35]
-Have $200k in tax-advantaged accounts
-Produce $1,500/month passive income
-Spend less than $1,500/month
-Obtain ability to live near an ocean for at least 3 months per year
-Completely free myself of the 40-hour work week machine


I wanted to write a lot more but I'm fairly exhausted from a long day of work and class. Next time I update I hope to have better collected my recent spending so I can start performing some analysis on it and come up with hard metrics to help keep myself accountable. Feel free to chime in some constructive feedback or just a hello! I'm very excited to start exploring the possibilities of ERE!

[5to9]

Great intro. Welcome!

The long and short term goals are great, but I would try to break them down even further to real near term actions.

Good luck!

[bottlerocks]

First up for this update, embarrassing financials:

August 2014

Income:
Primary Job Income $4954.7
Rent Income $350

Total $4017.81

Notes: Above is my net income. I currently contribute 10% of my salary to 401k, 6% of which is matched. I also incur taxes and a relatively small health insurance cost. I know these are real costs but it works better for me mentally to not consider them in spending/savings calculations.

Spending:
Food/Groceries $194.21
Entertainment $53.29
Grooming/Clothes $15.50
Auto Expenses $107.03
Cell/Internet $92.19
Mortgage $647.65
Home Expenses (Utilities) $143.11
Travel $524.25
Books $108.79
Tuition $3,902.00
Laziness $70.00
Golf $71.00

Total $5979.67
Total - tuition $2077.67

Pre-tuition savings rate: %58

First things first, that savings rate is the main metric I want to improve in the near term. The bottom line is that I had a high spending month and could have easily shaved $500 off of that number and wouldn't feel any different today than if I spent the full amount.

Also of note, tuition. Normally I would have my company reimburse me for this cost but my company has a fairly standard policy of requiring two years of employment upon completion of the course to be vested in their reimbursement. I could still take the reimbursement and pay them back once I leave next year (no interest) but my tax benefit outweighs any returns I could get in the market. Still, it hurts to see that number. I don't really see this as a true expense (thus leaving it out of savings rate calc) because I'm expecting a fairly significant and quick ROI.

Travel was my main culprit last month. I went to a convention in Atlanta, GA and the room cost (split among 5 people) was outrageous. Last year I also attended and the room cost was easily half of what it was this year. I didn't manage booking this year but I've heard the rates all seem inflated. I spent about $150 on food/entertainment but lumped it all into my travel category. Aside from the cost I don't even enjoy the event to the extent where spending the time is worth it so I don't think it's something I'll do next year. redacted

For September I expect a pretty mild month for spending. I've had one large grocery trip and bought a couple of video games so far but I can't think of much more outside of the necessities that I've purchased or will need to purchase. redacted

________________________________________________________

On 5to9's suggestion I will break down my short term goals further. I have these broken out in my head but it's good to see them in writing for sure.

-Finish MSOR and change industries. This semester I'm taking two of my final four courses and working on some data mining for my thesis (which I'm keep on the DL for now). They are really stressing me out but seeing the finish line keeps me somewhat motivated. I will likely start applying for jobs early next year (have friends/contacts at 2 different top 5 oil companies) but I would not mind a small sabbatical after moving. The tentative goal date for me doing so is July 1 of next year. Even if I have thesis work to finish I can do most of it remotely and the HSV->Houston drive is about 10 hrs if I need to come back for face to face time with advisors.

-Job Income increase. Oil/Energy and Actuarial industries are high paying and those are what I will be pursuing. I don't have actuarial certs but could take an internship while completing the first big two if it was an absolute.

-Passive Income. Moving will allow me to rent out my current residence. I would expect at least $200 positive cash flow from the research I've done. I've been very slowly working on some Swift applications in my spare time. I have a couple ideas for games that I think could be profitable, but even though they are simplistic this is a long shot and huge undertaking. I would also need to hire an animator/graphic designer because I'm the least artistic person on earth. I've also been contemplating starting a youtube channel specializing in nature DIY and primitive archery. My niche would be learn-as-you-go (even though I have some experience in both areas). I see a lot of channels that make self-bows or self-film hunts, but there is hardly any overlap. The main problem here is that I'm already strapped for time and the cold weather really kills my desire to stay outdoors for long. redacted

-Reduce Expenses. Still working on a concrete plan for this one.

-Obtain sub 10% body fat. I cleaned up my diet about a month ago and I've been cutting since. I also started p90x3 about three weeks ago. I'm down 7-8 lbs (currently 6'1 163lbs) but sort of stalling. I've also really been half-assing or not doing p90x for the past two weeks but that's probably because I was sick for the week following my ATL trip. I found some fabric measuring tape/calipers and will attempt to make better measurements on bf% but if I had to guess right now, I would say I'm sitting around 17-18%. A lot of people think that's weird for my height but I'm narrow shouldered and the ultimate skinny fat dude haha. Anyways, I highly recommend the IIFYM (if it fits your macros) and myfitnesspal combination. I really think that's helped my energy levels stay constant through 40hrs work + 15hrs classwork each week.

-Misc Health Issues. Lately I feel like I'm up a creek with these and it's fairly depressing. Chronic pain isn't fun. My back problem prevents me from sitting down for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. I went in for my 6th epidural steroid injection last month but even those are starting to not have much of an effect. My next stop is inversion board and maybe even some western medicine consulting...I'm that desperate. My knee hasn't been as bad lately (despite p90 surprisingly) but my orthopedic wants me to consider replacement. redacted. My surgeon won't even talk about partial replacements and he seems hesitant to refer. Frustrating and probably time for a new face.

________________________________________________________

That's about all I have time for on this update. I'm still trying to find some focus here but I'm sure it will come with time.

[UrbanHermit]

Re: back pain, as a former chronic pain sufferer I hear where you're coming from on this one. Before signing up for invasive surgery, let me recommend the following book: http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Over-Back-Pa ... John+Sarno

The title sounds a little new-agey, but I assure you it's not. It's about learning to recognise and short-circuit the build up of tension that leads to learned pain. Dr. Sarno's work helped me get over a debilitating RSI, after months of drugs and physiotherapy failed. I don't know if it will help you, but it's worth investigaing before going further down the surgery route.

[bottlerocks]

The title sounds a little new-agey, but I assure you it's not. It's about learning to recognise and short-circuit the build up of tension that leads to learned pain. Dr. Sarno's work helped me get over a debilitating RSI, after months of drugs and physiotherapy failed. I don't know if it will help you, but it's worth investigaing before going further down the surgery route.

I'll admit that reading the description and amazon reviews immediately turned me off, but like I said, I'm desperate haha. I will give this a shot. There is a newer book by Dr. Sarno that seems to cover the same material, any thoughts on that?

[UrbanHermit]

I haven't read the other books I'm afraid, but they're probably along the same lines. I don't agree with everything the author has to say, but the idea that often chronic pain is a conditioned response (and ergo can be unconditioned) turned things around for me.

Your mileage may vary, worst case you're out 10 bucks and an afternoon.

[bottlerocks]

Mid-November update since the last couple of days have been the least busy I've had in weeks.

I haven't been keeping a tight watch on finances since August for no apparent reason other than laziness. My spending hasn't been unusual but I need to try and wrangle up numbers for my next update. I'm guessing I've had a ~50% net savings rate, which I think is okay considering I just knocked up my 401k contribution to 20% of my gross. I expect some harsh spending numbers for November and December because I'm hiring contractors to replace my back patio fence and I'm personally doing some water damage repair in one of my bathrooms. I'm using the floor repair as an excuse to also tile my kitchen and second bathroom which currently have unappealing/nonmatching vinyl covering. The good news is that I'm saving ~$1000 in labor cost and am learning skills that should be useful in the future.

I haven't had much time to reflect on FI lately, mostly because of an elevated work and class load. I will never take two courses on top of a 40/hr work week again. redacted and the time I'm spending on home repairs, I get about 1 hour per day to unwind if I'm expecting 7-8 hours of sleep. The weekends are better but the courses I'm taking this semester are heavy with external projects. At least those are almost complete.

redacted I'm coming to terms with the idea that I may have to take a salary cut if I'm changing industries before completing my Masters, but I won't really know until I get some interviews under my feet.

On the physical well-being side, I'm down to about 160lbs (13-14% bf) and keeping steady. I've not exercised in weeks (outside of scouting hunting spots and home repair stuff) but have been consistent with macros/micros. It's showing in general health improvements...less fatigue, less joint pain (more on that in a future update), more motivation. I'm excited to have more time on my hands next month so I can get on track with exercising again...just in time to join all of the new years resolution crowd

[Legthorn Brownboat]

About back pain and Sarno. I read his http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Back-Pain ... 0446557684 and it's still readable today. I am morally opposed to pseudo-science, quack medicine, and anything that prevents people from getting modern treatments that they desperately need. New-agey treatments that mostly just serve to divert money from the sufferer are deserving of my fiery wrath, as is any pursuit that wastes the sufferer's time. I approached his work with extreme skepticism, but Sarno gets my recommendation with minor reservations.

Here's my quick take-away of his stance: First rule out serious structural problems. Of course, serious problems should be treated and not ignored, but that vast majority of sufferers do not have them. Most things are actually not serious structural problems, as they are common among those with and without back pain. Examples of that include degenerated/herniated discs. The back is not actually that fragile, it's strong and has served mankind through more hardships than we currently face. People who deal with continual back pain start to live in fear and coddle themselves. This fear and lifestyle restriction only makes it worse. Overcoming this fear and living life as though the pain did not exist has inexplicably improved the situation for many sufferers after a couple weeks. The unconscious mind regulates most body functioning, and is influenced by your emotional state of being -- think placebo effect. Repressed emotions, especially anger, cause the unconscious mind to lash out at the body so as to distract the sufferer from contemplating them. This very often results in back pain, when the unconscious mind deprives back tissues of oxygen resulting in increased tension, which results in spasms. Treatment consists mostly of self-reflection, mindfulness, and living without fear. In severe cases, psychotherapy is recommended.

My view is that the repressed anger is a bit too Freudian and outmoded. I don't think the unconscious mind is trying to distract me from the emotion, rather I feel it very strongly! However, I think general discontent and "stress" contributes significantly to physical well being, and in my personal experience, significantly to back pain. Depression/angst/stress and back pain is a 2-way street, and each feeds off of each other in a viscous negative feedback loop for me. I am skeptical of the whole oxygen deprivation thing, but even Sarno will claim it's just his best guess and the specific underlying mechanisms are not as important from a treatment perspective. Even if you don't buy the simplistic psychological model, the treatments are in general beneficial.

I think that Sarno stumbled upon the answer, or at least a perspective on the answer. The details may be mis-aligned for myself, maybe they apply to others, but the general idea and treatment is good. The idea of back pain as psychogenic, and treated by treating the mind first, and living without fear has improved my life. I should mention that in saying "back pain is psychogenic", I'm not saying the pain itself is purely psychological, but rather the tissue damage / weakness stems from a psychological source.

Also, personally, it significantly alleviated my problems. I went from constantly being bothered and harassed by my back to only occasionally feeling an issue. Now, I only feel it if I have a combination of long stents sitting and heavy stress, and even then I can mentally treat over a couple of days. It was well worth the read, and can be an introduction to thinking in the field of mind-body relationships. Just as Freud's specific details in his theory are laughably off from modern psychology, his overall general ideas were ground-breaking and surprisingly spot-on and worth reading for them alone. I view Sarno as similar. I recommend reading the book, as at the very least it will broaden your horizons about the issue and you may find your own path to a solution.

His teaching has attracted a cult following; basically people who suffered and his method "cured". Here's a wiki for it: http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/An_Introduction_to_TMS. They also have a forum. I believe certain media members (John Stossel, Howard Stern) are also part of the cult of Sarno, from their own personal experiences, and have done shows about it.

[Legthorn Brownboat]

Apparently there's a Kickstarter for a documentary about Sarno and his work: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ru ... otions-and

[bottlerocks]

Making a post to make myself a bit more accountable.

I have not been following many ERE tenants for the last few months. I've been consumed with daydreaming about FI but not putting in a ton of ground work to achieve it.

Finance:
My savings rate has dropped to around ~20-30% of net with the holidays, traveling redacted, and education costs. I at least managed to max out my 2014 Roth and stay on track to max out my 401K. I've super procrastinated on getting my townhome into "nice" rental shape and haven't hired a single contractor yet. I spent ~$600 on supplies to repair/tile my downstairs bathroom and anticipate another ~$200 on future tiling for my upstairs bathroom. Things ended up being much more complicated than I thought they would due to previous patch work I didn't know existed. That said, I'm proud that I stuck to it and learned some skills in the process.

I've already paid for my travel over the next two months but still have some major bills expected: $1500 for fence replacement, I have no desire to learn or perform this. $1000 for ceiling scraping/painting/trim work, again, no desire to perform this. $200 HVAC cleaning and possibly more for a turbo fan installation...turns out my dryer line isn't up to modern spec and since it's not pumping out any hot air it's probably a major fire hazard at the moment. I've switched to a water trap for the time being which works okay I'm just not sure that it's acceptable to ask tenants to use it in the future. I personally like hang drying my clothes but it's been a frigid winter here and the heat from the dryer is convenient lol.

Job:
redacted I just want to be warmer, I can worry about rising sea levels in my 40's especially if I'm FI by 37-38.

If I don't hear anything solid from my company by the end of March I'm going to rededicate my job search efforts to redacted most likely. I've been using my company as an excuse since January to stop actively searching which isn't good. They take good care of me though and I don't want to give up the amazing benefits if I don't have too.

Hobbies:
I haven't played tennis, hit golf balls, or gone fishing since October and it's killing me. The weather has been a complete s*** show. I didn't get to hunt much this past season either due to my heavy school load. To compensate I've picked up my reading...mostly sticking to fantasy with a little bit of health or climate change thrown in every now and then. I probably spend 15 hrs/week reading right now which is the most time I spend on anything outside of work, class and my relationship. Even though I enjoy it I somehow feel like it's a larger waste of time than enjoying time outdoors.

Health:
I finished Sarno's most recent book and I have to admit that it's not for me (but still thank you to Hermit/BrownBoat for the suggestion!) My pain is very localized to the site of a specific (and visible) injury that my body won't heal and I feel like it's as simple as that. The only time I even stress about the pain is when it flares up and affects my sleep. I can manage the pain through weight and diet management to an extent but I've kind of accepted that's as good as it's going to get until I can't take it anymore and pull the trigger on a fusion or maybe something better comes along in the future. My knee is still on its constant downhill arthritis route. I can still do most things pain free but I'm guessing I've got 2-3 more years left on it max.

My weight went up over the holidays. I binged like crazy and only put on 1.5-2% bodyfat so I'm not even that mad at myself. I've lost a little over the past month and have barely spent any money eating out. I've developed so many rice cooker and sandwich staples over the past year that I prefer my cooking to 80% of things I can order at a restaurant. Still gotta get that pizza and wings every now and then though.

Overall:
Been a very 'meh' period for me lately. No lows, no highs. Usually winter is my lowest point of the year so I'm optimistic about what 2015 has in store me.

[bottlerocks]

February Financials

Income:
Paycheck $4129
Tax Return $1712
Roomate $350
Interest $2

Total $6193

Expense:
Mortgages ($747)
Travel ($513)
General Merchandise ($276)
Clothing/Shoes ($194)
Utilities ($180)
Entertainment ($136)
Groceries ($110)
Gifts ($79)
Education ($67)
Telephone ($51)
Electronics ($39)
Restaurants ($36)
Uncategorized ($23)
Gasoline/Fuel ($44)

Total ($2495)
Savings Rate 62%
Normal Savings Rate ~44%

Thoughts/Notes:
I asked my roommate to leave on Feb 1 so I could repaint and re-carpet the room he's staying in (he's ruined it). Not only did he not leave, he avoided me at all costs and didn't offer up money for February until last week. Obviously I'm kicking him out, he said he'd leave by March 15 but I'm mentally preparing for eviction based on his history. It hurts a little to know that I've given a friend ~2.5 years of super reduced living expenses so he could get his stuff together and he's done nothing with it while taking advantage of me. To be fair he hasn't actually ever failed to pay me but it's been a horrible experience all around and I'll probably never live with a personal friend again. Income will be going down and it'll be hard to make that up for a while.

I think General Merchandise includes home improvement stuff but I'm too lazy to go reclassify. Neither Mint nor Personal Capital record spending to my liking so I'm probably going to develop some kind of manual tracker, might be a good Django project.

Travel is ridiculous as usual I'm so ready to reduce this. Without this I have 5+ years of living expenses even being unreasonable in other areas. Clothing was ridiculous but I don't need pants again for another few years hopefully. I did pretty good with food outside of traveling.

My tax return was crazy and that was even without a tuition deduction (turns out the income cap is at $80,000 -- I guess that's understandable). Need to update my W2.

[JamesR]

I wouldn't make a rule like "never live with a personal friend" because frankly, he sounds a like a bit of a user (as in, he used you) and not really a friend... I've lived with multiple friends, one was a sociopath that turned into an alcoholic and started coming into my room in the middle of the night, waking me up in the process, all because he wanted to talk or rant & rave. That was pretty bad, but all my other roommates/friends worked out way better.

By the way, in an earlier post you mentioned wanting a bit of a sabbatical. When you land a new job, and the HR person asks you when you can start, you can push that date out couple months, and then there's your sabbatical.

[bottlerocks]

>JamesR
I should qualify it with the fact that I've lived with 10-ish different people in the past 8 years and the only ones I've had issues with have been close friends. I think it makes me see the worst qualities in people I think highly of. This particular guy is a special case and has really just gone so far downhill that you're right, he's an outlier. Beyond that I think I'm past the point in my life where I want to share something as important (to me) as living space, except with my partner and pets.

As for time off I'm definitely going to ask for a month or so on transition. In defense it's really hard to do that due to the contracting system -- empty slots net parent companies negative ratings, but hopefully I don't have to deal with this particular bureaucracy again.

[bottlerocks]

Accountability alert/update for March.

Finances:
Sucked. For the first time in many moons I had a negative savings rate (when not counting 401k/Roth contributions). That said, I spent ~$2000 on home repairs and vacations so I don't regret a large amount of the purchases. I spent a lot of money on food in New Orleans but damn was it good. The only thing that makes me want to kick myself was the purchase of another gaming console of which I have too many already. I told myself it's okay because I'll catch up on my gaming backlog one of these days....apparently at the expense of delaying that opportunity altogether.

Also of note is my roommate finally moving out. It's technically a hit to my income but I feel like I've gained more in time not spent dealing with the situation.

Job:
Finally started getting some call backs in a few different places. redacted My current company keeps telling me they're close to some offerings in other locations but their lack of specifics tells me otherwise. I'm ready to hit the road. I completely finished refurbing one of my bathrooms and have a couple more big projects to wrap up before moving. Having a firm date in hand will motivate me to finish, along with having a break from class.

School:
I'm in the final two weeks of the spring semester and looking forward to a Summer break where no classes I can take are being offered. My advisor just informed me last week that my final two courses will suffice as a capstone which lets me drop the work I was doing on a (crappy) thesis. Won't hear me complaining about that. Should have a M.S. in hand this time next year.

Hobbies:
Weather is finally turning the corner and I'm taking full advantage of it. I've been fishing and hitting golf/tennis balls on almost every occasion the weather permits. Fishing is pretty cheap but I need to start thinking of creative ways to subsidize the other two hobbies. I've sort of stopped recreational reading completely but instead picked some web development practice which I hope will prove useful. I'm trying to create a mini-portfolio, starting with a slot machine concept that implements some bonus features I've seen on penny slots.

Health:
No real update. Had a bad back flare up but I suspect it was from eating very poorly over vacation. Weight is stable around 165lbs but still want to see that number closer to 155 with full water weight. I played tennis a few times last month and definitely felt it in my knee afterwards.

Thoughts:
I want April/May to be very productive months and I'm off to a good start. March should motivate me to limit discretionary spending, I'm seeing my net worth climb steadily but need to focus on dropping withdrawal rate from both sides.

[bottlerocks]

Exhausted update for June.

Finances:
Expenses
Mortgage $746
Groceries $258.00
Travel $219.00
Entertainment $169.00
Gifts $128.00
Education $123.00
Restaurants $110.00
Utilities $101.00
Personal Care $97.00
Internet $61.00
Medical $60.00
Telephone $51.00
Clothing $38.00
Home Improvement $32.00
Fuel $27.00

Total $2220

Income
Paychecks $4216
Investment Income $121

Total $4337

Savings Rate: 49%

Moving Forward:
I've been stuck in a pretty big rut in the last couple of months. No real motivation to do anything. Stopped applying for jobs, less effort at work, less socializing. I'm not even feeling blue...I just feel like I'm recharging batteries or something. But it's time to pick up the pace. My first actuarial exam is in three weeks and I've barely studied. redacted

Money Thoughts:
While my spending hasn't lowered any since I started this journal, I feel like I have a much better idea of what I need to do in order to reach FI. I feel like I've developed enough confidence in what I've built up over the past three years (and my ability to adapt to changes) that I'm never going to fear short or long periods without steady income. I've proved to myself that I can lower almost any expense outside of shelter/health to arbitrary levels with little effort.

Possession Thoughts:
I've been trying to get rid of a lot of crap and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. There's a ton of illogical sentimental attachements to things i'll very likely never use again that just take up space and could be used someone else...it's weird. Almost like I'm admitting fault and embarrassing myself every time I make a conscious choice to remove a possession. Anyways, keep the lookout for future posts if you're interested in larger male clothes and bulky kitchen appliances...I've got a lot of those to give away.

Health:
Down into the mid 150's, back is feeling better day to day. I'll probably start reverse dieting once I hit 150, try to add on a few lbs. of lean mass over the next year or so. I'll revaluate once I get to that point. On a low point I hurt my shoulder and I'm fairly sure it's a torn rotator cuff...I'm trying to make due for a while before going to the doctor but it's been two months and hasn't gotten any better. It's likely permanent damage, whatever the problem. My joints are aged so far past my actual age...I would give a lot of money for that to not be the case.

[bottlerocks]

July check-in. Sort of had a rough month. Failed my actuary exam and had a really bad burn-out period at work. I think the two were connected as I was spending about 25+ hrs. per week studying for my exam and dealing with a difficult assignment at work that wasn't even in my area of responsibility.

Studying for the exam really opened my eyes to how much my personality has changed in the past five years. In the middle of taking practice exams I often found myself thinking, "Why am I doing this?...This is so time consuming and probably 1/15th of what I'll need to do to receive preliminary certification...do I really want to spend that much time on top of 40hrs/week at work for the next few years?" The cost analysis just isn't there at this point in life no matter how much I enjoy the material (which I do). I ended up only spending 100-ish hours in preparation when I probably needed 150 minimum. I scored in an acceptable range on 2 of the 3 subject areas, failed the arguably easiest section. I'm pretty disappointed in myself but I think it was somewhat eye opening. Kudos to the people doing that stuff in their senior year of undergraduate studies.

redacted

I've been trying to minimize my possessions for the past couple of months but I'm really running into that wall/triangle of Minimal-Fast-Cheap choose two. For instance, I have a drop weight tennis stringer that I use to string my tennis rackets. I break strings about 1x per month during the spring/summer/fall. The stringer saves me a two-day turn around and $10 every visit to a pro shop, plus I think I do a better job. The catch is that the stringer weighs about 30lbs and takes up an outrageous amount of room. Similar issues arrive for just about every hobby I have....is the solution to not have as many hobbies?

Finances:
Expenses
$2600

Income
$6180

Savings Rate: 58%

Benefitted from a small bonus this month. Spending was actually solid except for a solid chunk of change on getting a weird A/C problem diagnosed in my car and a donation to a friend of a friend without insurance who broke his neck last week and is now paralyzed. Still have high contracting costs planned for next month, not looking forward to it.

I need to evaluate some goals and reformulate on the short term for my next update.

[jacob]

The catch is that the stringer weighs about 30lbs and takes up an outrageous amount of room. Similar issues arrive for just about every hobby I have....is the solution to not have as many hobbies?

That does indeed seem to be the case based on the more hardcore minimalists I've met(*). Specifically, sports is almost always jogging or yoga. Food is almost always "eating out". Productivity is almost always software/writing related. However, you don't happen to be into yoga, restaurants, and blogging ... the standard brand of minimalism might be a bit ... restrictive.

(*) Those who make excel spreadsheets listing the quantity of items they own.

If however, you go by the usage-ratio count instead of just an absolute count, it would be fair to own the stringer since it's obviously useful in several ways and your life would be poorer without it. Alternatively, you can just change how you count. A recent list I saw had

toolbox: 1
book collection: 1

but counted each and every item in his kitchen, e.g.
cups: 6
plates: 10

If I counted the same way, then 80% of my stuff by weight could be counted as just six items
toolbox: 5
book collection: 1

So it would seem that the rules are rather arbitrary. But that's fine ... I think the point of minimalism is to realize that all items have both cost and value ... and to avoid acquiring or getting rid of ALL items where value<<cost. Easy test: "If I didn't currently own this item would I pay to reacquire it right now?"

[henrik]

Easy test: "If I didn't currently own this item would I pay to reacquire it right now?"

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/07/ ... y-sell-it/

[bottlerocks]

One year-ish evaluation time.

Current Situation:

NW: ~$125,000
Passive Income: ~$100/month + $350/month in rent (not sure if I want to count this)
Location: Same, still looking at transition to central FL
Expenses: ~$2500/month avg

I quit counting my vehicle towards my net worth and also depreciated the value of my home based on trends in my neighborhood. I also I had a small position in BTC (~20BTC) that took quite a dip over the past year. Using similar metrics as last year I increased my NW by about $40,000 which is pretty much right in line with a 60% net savings rate during a flat year market-wise (percentage is obfuscated by 401k). My spending was not good this year overall mostly due to home repairs, travel, and tuition. I'm hoping to see those areas much lower over the next year.

Short term goals:
Finish Master's Degree: Still on track to finish Spring '16. Pass.
Change Industries: Still a large possibility within the next year. Unevaluated.
redacted
Thesis Topic Stuff: Thesis is technically complete but irrelevant, monetization no longer possible. Will not pursue publication. Fail.
Increase Passive Income: Dividends just crested over $100/month with my current allocations. Pass.
Reduce Expenses: I didn't track well in 2013-2014 but my gut tells me I failed this one.
Quantify "Reduce Expenses": Didn't even attempt. I'm bad at this ERE thing and being INTJ. Fail.
Obtain sub 10% body fat: Sitting at 12%, down 10+lbs. Progress but no cigar. Fail.
Constructive Solutions to Health Problems: Weight being down and yoga has helped back/knee a little, still have consistent pain. Meh.

Long-Term Goals:
200K in TA Accounts: I'm up to ~60K, should surpass this goal.
Produce $1500/month passive: Need to plan this out more, dividends are likely not getting me there before I FIRE.
Spend less than $1500/month: Not there but I can easily see myself getting lower than original goal.

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

My review of the past year is lukewarm I guess. Still have a lot to accomplish from a purely financial standpoint. Mentally/socially I've made a lot of progress and have evaluated most aspects of my life to make sure they fall in scope of what I want for the future. redacted I don't think I'll be going back to school anytime in the near future after I finish my M.S. I also redacted. Those two things may have worked out but the time/money commitments just don't align with my goals anymore.

I'm heavily considering taking a gap year if things don't pan out with a geographical move with my current company. Livingafi (thanks Dr. Doom)helped me start thinking about the real implications of doing it early in my journey to FI...if I can stay motivated to pursue income on my own terms I believe the pros outweigh the cons:
http://livingafi.com/2015/08/04/taking-a-gap-year/

I'll probably wait to re-assign short term/long term goals until the calendar new year. It's easier to keep track of that way and also aligns with my birthday, luckily. In the mean time I'll attempt to keep accountability up on the journal but we're falling into the time of year that sucks the soul out of me. Winter is coming.

[bottlerocks]

Since my birthday was yesterday and the new year is less than 48 hours away, I figure it's a good time to plan out some new goals.

2015 was a good year. Not great but certainly not bad. Honestly it felt a little stagnant...not much accomplished. I want to change that with 2016.

2016 Goals:
1) MOVE somewhere warmer year round.
2) Be more active. Lift weights, fish, hunt, play tennis more frequently.
3) Start working on something I'm passionate about. Nebulous.
4) See Roger Federer play in person one more time. On the cheap if possible.
5) Net 25K USD savings despite planned time off.
6) TRACK better.

Long Term Goal Adjustments (5-7 years):
1) 250K in tax advantaged accounts.
2) 250K in brokerage.
3) Spend <$1500/month.

Where I'm headed:
I've decided that in lieu of substantial job offers I'm going to move to central FL around June of next year and attend a coding bootcamp. It doesn't seem like a very ERE driven decision on the periphery but I believe it's my shortest route to achieving more geographic flexibility for my future. The bootcamp I'm looking at costs $12K and claims 100% job placement success at an average salary of 80K. They have several big tech players as strategic partners who retain a lot of their grads long term. This kind of success is achieved by selecting hire-able candidates in the bootcamp application process. I'm looking at the cost and potential decrease in pay as being equivalent to gap year, hopefully it will only set me back 1 year max and knock off some goals on my list in the process.

I'm sitting on 22K cash right now and I want 30K + a sold house by the time this move rolls around. I've got 1 more class for my M.Sc, 2 major house updates (>$1K cost each), and a front-loading Roth contribution as looming expenses but should be able to hit that 30K number without problems. I hope the house sells with ease but it will be my first experience with such a thing. Oh also I'm going to attempt to front load my 401k contributions but it's hard to do that scientifically when I don't know for sure if I'll receive any other 401k benefits for the rest of the year.