WorkatHome's Journal

[workathome]

So this year my investments have done pretty well (11%+). Obviously the year is not over, but as long as the market continues to perform similarly to how it has done for the last 100 years I'll be okay. I'm at a 2% SWR in 2016.

I find I'm feeling completely demotivated. For the last 8 or so years I worked really hard to get to this point. I suppose I have an extremely conservative survival instinct (never felt really comfortable until financially independent, always worried). The last 1-2 years have been spent reading things like this blog, budgeting, investments, etc. With my INTP or Aspergers-bent I'll get intensely absorbed into a subject until I feel like I've sufficiently grasped it for my needs, and then almost entirely lose interest. It's sort of a 110% or 1% thing - either it takes over my thoughts almost completely or I can barely trudge up the energy to think about it again.

I find I'm just sort of not interested in anything right now. I don't want to garden, or do carpentry, or travel, or party, or build my own house, or do improvements.... or anything at all, though weightlifting is fun at the moment.

If anything, maybe a bit towards the minimalism bend where it seems nicer to just get rid of everything, anything that seems to require attention, maintenance, etc.. but drawn out to the point where I also don't want to have anything (hobbies, etc.) which require doing. Which is wonderful that there's no negative excitement at the moment (e.g. I don't have cancer, not starving, etc.). I went on vacation and didn't like it, was very happy to get back home. Perhaps it's not that unusual, it seems in a lot of places it's not uncommon for people to be fairly content just sleeping and eating... maybe going for a long walk now and then.

[steveo73]

Have you thought about just focussing on eating well, exercising and reading. Then you could see what comes up and just do that.

I used to love to play computer games but I've gone off that because I just don't seem to have the time or inclination. I wonder if when I retire if I get back into it. I find that now I have to be more driven. For instance I play chess which is a lot harder in my opinion that games.

[BlueNote]

With my INTP or Aspergers-bent I'll get intensely absorbed into a subject until I feel like I've sufficiently grasped it for my needs, and then almost entirely lose interest. It's sort of a 110% or 1% thing - either it takes over my thoughts almost completely or I can barely trudge up the energy to think about it again.

I find I'm just sort of not interested in anything right now. I don't want to garden, or do carpentry, or travel, or party, or build my own house, or do improvements.... or anything at all, though weightlifting is fun at the moment.

As an INTP I can relate to this. Right now I am still interested in investing literature so I guess I'm at that 110% phase. I also like variety therefore my interests shift widely compared to most others.

This creates a challenge because INTP personality types are rare and therefore peoples expectations are biased towards more common types like the SJ types and SP artisan types. The more common personality types seem to have more of a bias towards being able to spread their attention over different interests easily. They also seem to have an easier time shifting their attention quickly whereas when something has my attention I tend to shut out external stimuli. For example if I'm reading something interesting someone might have to say my name three or four times before I'll even know that they're trying to get my attention and I will probably be annoyed that they are trying to get my attention.

[K60]

Hi Workathome, I've been thinking about your DW's vision. This website may be of interest:
http://nutritionfacts.org/2012/07/19/pr ... ough-diet/

[steveo73]

Maybe that is where your budget will have to stay.

[workathome]

Hi Workathome, I've been thinking about your DW's vision. This website may be of interest:
http://nutritionfacts.org/2012/07/19/pr ... ough-diet/

Thank you for the link! I don't think I saw this before.

[workathome]

Our second son was born recently. It's definitely easier this time around! It's still a challenge, but we already have all the clothes, and a lot of experience in getting used to night time routines. My wife breastfeeds so no additional formula expenses or anything.

Being semi-retired (or not having a set schedule) is nice, because I can take the older son to a lot of different activities during the day.

Because of the larger family, we'll be eligible for some pretty heavy ACA subsidies if my business income ever stops. We also get some pretty heavy tax breaks, so that's nice too - We're effectively retirement-ready if god-forbid-something-ever-happens-to-me. I setup two investment plans, one just a passive asset allocation, and one using a blend of momentum/value while I'm around (DW isn't interested at all in investment management). Hopefully the "smart beta" strategies aren't overplayed.

The wife's eyes have stabilized. While pregnant her eye condition effectively subsides. Some sort of hormonal response? It happened with the first kid too. Now she just has to stay perma-pregnant and she'll never go blind

The lease on the Audi finally expired, after 3 years. I first got the lease right before I found these forums, lol. The options for parting with it early were so penalized it seemed to make more sense to ride it out at the time. Between insurance, registration, and the lease payment we'll save ~10k/year going forward.

[workathome]

Woohoo!

1. The Audi is finally gone. Time to celebrate. Our withdrawal rate dropped 0.5% overnight.

2. I tend to be late to catching into trends, and just realized how cool credit card churning is. We're paying huge unsubsidized ACA payments monthly that will basically start earning $130/month towards free vacation/hotel stays going forward. I just have to apply/get a new card every 90 days or so.

Warning -

DW hijacked some of the now non-existant car payments into new countertops and the adhesives and crap smell horrible. I said no, no, but finally caved in. A quick internet search shows these products have a pretty long off-gassing time / half-life and are horrible for your health. I don't recommend it.

[workathome]

Not sure if I've mentioned it, but I have Celiac's disease and simply avoiding gluten-free food hasn't cured it. I started something called the "Specific Carbohydrate Diet" a several days ago and so far it's stopped some of my.... stomach problem for the first time in what seems like quite a while. I accidentally ate gluten about a month ago and since then it's had been nonstop pain and problems, and seemed to be getting worse and worse. Even beforehand my stomach was very inconsistent. So this hopefully will make a big difference. It's pretty similar to Paleo in the actual foods consumed, though it has a phased schedule of starting very basic and slowly introducing new things.

If anyone is interested:

http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info

So, of course, ERE and having a high degree of FI is very beneficial when health issues are encountered and more expensive diets are required.