Saved 32% in June. That's including the loss on the rental unit for June. Next month it should be squeak into a profit and every month after that should net about $150. Most of my gains this month were from the stock market though. I noticed my net worth has increased 20% this year already. 5% from RE, 5% from a cash position and 10% in retirement funds. So we're shaping up pretty good on a year to date basis.
I continue to bike to work. I did buy a nice bag for my bike rack. I needed something safe to bring my work laptop in and $60 is a small investment. It's also quicker to attach to the bike than using bungie cords. We're still eating out a lot. This is mostly due to our kitchen being covered in boxes still. We're whittling the boxes away and this weekend I'll be able to build some new open shelving for storage and work space. It'll be much more livable. Other than that, still on auto pilot for 18 more years. Sigh. Need start moving cash into taxable investments. Thinking of moving $1K over each month and buying the cheapest asset class of PP (which has been working fairly well for me 8 months in. Gold is down but everything else is up). Between credit cards and $10k operating cash, I see little reason to put $40K in an online bank earning .7%. Good plan?
A question for anyone still reading this.
1) I'm renting a SFR and pay all the utilities. What are my true obligations to keep the grass going? It doesn't rain here ever and I'm afraid to see the water bill. I only water the grass on the weekend, and do the front by hand and the back with a sprinkler. The grass is still dying though as it's not enough. I'm thinking about investing in making my own above ground sprinkler system (more for fun) to keep the grass green, but not sure if it's worth the cost (which it might be, as I'd be able to take it with me, and I'd learn some). Plus I'd get my time back. Should I keep watering?
Phayen's Journal
So July came and went pretty quickly. Savings rate was 16%, mostly due to buying $1K worth of tires for DW's car. Net worth is still going up faster than anticipated. Its funny to see it go up by my monthly income on a monthly basis. Ie, my NW has gone up $27K, but I've only "saved" $15K. Last year I saved $15K and my NW only went up $12K. Starting to appreciate having money working for you instead of working for your money. Also, pleased to note I've saved more in 7 months this year than I did all of last year. I guess that's one of the perks of keeping track of what's going on.
I did end up starting a taxable account. I did this instead of paying extra principal on our rental property's mortgage. I feel like this will give us a better asset allocation as I have more NW in Real Estate than I do in securities. Might not be the best approach, but it's more liquid and I like the flexibility of managing my own funds.
Still bike to work. Down right easy now to bike to/from work. Every month I bike, I figure I save approx $300 (Car/Gas/Insurance). At some point, it won't be worth it. It is for now though.
Long Term though it's still kind of a struggle. I know I"ll be working for a long time, and trying to cope with that. I don't mind the work, but wouldn't mind more time with my family/less stress. My goal is to retire at 45 (in 18 years), and I'm on pace for about 20 years till retirement. This is assuming no windfalls and no unexpected catastrophes. Also this is assuming no wage growth or expense growth. This is a conservative approach, as I know I'll be getting raises and bonuses even in poor economic times as my company still makes money. But I also know I'll be having more children and buy a house at some point where we are now (probably 4 years from now).
Sorry, this kind of just rambled on now. But I only really review this once a month and this is really the only forum I have to talk about it. DW doesn't mind the cutbacks, but she's not too concerned with the future. "Normal" people at work are cut throat and want to work forever. Its good to know ERE people exist, but it'd be better to find some in real life.
I did end up starting a taxable account. I did this instead of paying extra principal on our rental property's mortgage. I feel like this will give us a better asset allocation as I have more NW in Real Estate than I do in securities. Might not be the best approach, but it's more liquid and I like the flexibility of managing my own funds.
Still bike to work. Down right easy now to bike to/from work. Every month I bike, I figure I save approx $300 (Car/Gas/Insurance). At some point, it won't be worth it. It is for now though.
Long Term though it's still kind of a struggle. I know I"ll be working for a long time, and trying to cope with that. I don't mind the work, but wouldn't mind more time with my family/less stress. My goal is to retire at 45 (in 18 years), and I'm on pace for about 20 years till retirement. This is assuming no windfalls and no unexpected catastrophes. Also this is assuming no wage growth or expense growth. This is a conservative approach, as I know I'll be getting raises and bonuses even in poor economic times as my company still makes money. But I also know I'll be having more children and buy a house at some point where we are now (probably 4 years from now).
Sorry, this kind of just rambled on now. But I only really review this once a month and this is really the only forum I have to talk about it. DW doesn't mind the cutbacks, but she's not too concerned with the future. "Normal" people at work are cut throat and want to work forever. Its good to know ERE people exist, but it'd be better to find some in real life.
Okay, so August is keeping pace for the year. 47% savings rate which is the best of the year bringing my average to 34%. 3% away from my goal of 37% for the year. (Last year was 28%, so already marked improvement). Food spending is still kind of high, but overall we're getting the hang of things in our new house/city. We're proud of ourselves to maintain s large increase in year over year savings percentages even with a lot of one time expenses hitting (LASIK/Car Tires/Rental Deposit/Fixing up Condo for rental/Moving). If we can reach our goal of 37%, next year is to reach 42%. Should be able to achieve this through normal cost cuts (less social eating at work, less trips to visit in-laws). And that 42% is with an international trip for our family and having another child (expenses baked in).
I find as I get more and more routine about saving large percentages of our income, its more about the future than the present. I focus a lot of my spare time now on my family and investing in preparation for becoming FI. I'm almost fully allocated to the PP in my self directed accounts. This seems to be working out okay. Not sure what else really to do from here going forward other than just keep working and try to spend less. I'm 27, married with 1 child and another on the way though, so I'm forecasting another 15-18 years of work. I figure our "number" at $1.4M. 1/7 of the way there.
I do get inspired by all the other journals out there. Mostly single people meeting their goals in 5 years or so. Makes me envious. Somewhat out of the goal reaching being so much earlier and somewhat that those people must see much more progress every month.
I've been on this ERE journey for 1 year and 5 months. NW has gone up from $150K to $195K. Funny to think that comes out to almost $3k/month in savings (which is huge relative to after tax income). The last 8 months has been closer to $4k/month which shows some progress. My timeframe above includes no market adjustments (or raises/windfalls, etc..), so my time to retirement is overstated. In fact, I started out with 135 years to retirement. At the end of last year I had only 75 to go. So knocked 60 years off in 9 months. In the last 8 months I've gone from 56 years to 18 years, so almost 40 years there too. Trending out the curve flattens as gains by cutting are harder to achieve (yet have the highest impact).
I find as I get more and more routine about saving large percentages of our income, its more about the future than the present. I focus a lot of my spare time now on my family and investing in preparation for becoming FI. I'm almost fully allocated to the PP in my self directed accounts. This seems to be working out okay. Not sure what else really to do from here going forward other than just keep working and try to spend less. I'm 27, married with 1 child and another on the way though, so I'm forecasting another 15-18 years of work. I figure our "number" at $1.4M. 1/7 of the way there.
I do get inspired by all the other journals out there. Mostly single people meeting their goals in 5 years or so. Makes me envious. Somewhat out of the goal reaching being so much earlier and somewhat that those people must see much more progress every month.
I've been on this ERE journey for 1 year and 5 months. NW has gone up from $150K to $195K. Funny to think that comes out to almost $3k/month in savings (which is huge relative to after tax income). The last 8 months has been closer to $4k/month which shows some progress. My timeframe above includes no market adjustments (or raises/windfalls, etc..), so my time to retirement is overstated. In fact, I started out with 135 years to retirement. At the end of last year I had only 75 to go. So knocked 60 years off in 9 months. In the last 8 months I've gone from 56 years to 18 years, so almost 40 years there too. Trending out the curve flattens as gains by cutting are harder to achieve (yet have the highest impact).
Thanks Magnus! I agree with your assessment. DW is planning on working after the kids go to school (approx 5-6 years). Not sure what she'll do, but will probably be more for her getting out of the house/socializing than for income. Income won't hurt though 
. And my income continues to increase. My base pay has gone up 10% over the last 17 months. That's inclusive of a job change, so that rate will probably slow down to 2-4% per year.
. And my income continues to increase. My base pay has gone up 10% over the last 17 months. That's inclusive of a job change, so that rate will probably slow down to 2-4% per year.You are welcome Phayen
Assuming your kids will go to pre-school, your wife might be able to go out to work / study part time in about 4 years. I do not know her background but she can look into various careers in the meantime.
As for your salary increasing - the next 5 years or so will be crucial. As your stash grows and your confidence with it, you will be able to demand larger raises or, even better, move companies every 2-3 years. I believe between this and whether you can progress to a more senior job, you could potentially aim for a 7-8% annual increase with half coming from changing jobs.
An even more important consideration is living location. If you moved from Orange County to an average US city, you'd save 25% if the figures I've seen are correct. I realize auto analysts can't work everywhere, but consider moving in 18 months or so - best would be to a recession ravaged zone like Detroit - you would likely be able to buy / rent very cheaply and while you would have to put up with winter for 3-4 years, the savings would be significant (I realize you'd need a car for winter in Detroit and this is something to ponder).
Hope this gets your brain juices flowing!
Magnus
Assuming your kids will go to pre-school, your wife might be able to go out to work / study part time in about 4 years. I do not know her background but she can look into various careers in the meantime.
As for your salary increasing - the next 5 years or so will be crucial. As your stash grows and your confidence with it, you will be able to demand larger raises or, even better, move companies every 2-3 years. I believe between this and whether you can progress to a more senior job, you could potentially aim for a 7-8% annual increase with half coming from changing jobs.
An even more important consideration is living location. If you moved from Orange County to an average US city, you'd save 25% if the figures I've seen are correct. I realize auto analysts can't work everywhere, but consider moving in 18 months or so - best would be to a recession ravaged zone like Detroit - you would likely be able to buy / rent very cheaply and while you would have to put up with winter for 3-4 years, the savings would be significant (I realize you'd need a car for winter in Detroit and this is something to ponder).
Hope this gets your brain juices flowing!
Magnus
I'm getting later and later in posting my journal. I still update after the month is over, just never get a chance to come over to the forum and write about it though. I think I've been losing focus as it is just a waiting game at this point.
My average savings rate for the year is now at 36%. Just a shade away from my goal of 37%. Who knows, maybe we can do even better than the 37% with a few months here. If we can get to 38% that will be a full 10% more savings than the prior year.
Its harder and harder to find places to cut costs though. Housing is one of the few places left (a full 50% of our monthly cost), and we already live in a smaller place in one of the cheapest neighborhoods around. If we bought a place, we could reduce our housing costs a few hundred dollars a month. i toy with this idea a lot, but DW is against it. We are already heavily allocated towards RE with our rental property. In addition, we're thinking this latest move might be temporary (less than 2 years). We'll just keep absorbing the higher cost for a bit.
I'm looking to refi our rental property. Interest rate is at 5.125% which gives us a lot of room. I know a broker who is willing to work with us (not a lot will, investment condo, HOA is only at 6% reservers). Luckily we have over 25% equity and renters who are paying. We can get a rate as low as 3.625% for a fee of around $4K. Payback on this is less than 2 years. Just not sure if we want to keep our rental or sell it and get the equity out.
We have a second car now. Inherited from family. Its insured, smogged and registered (annual cost = $250). We'll keep it around in case of emergencies as DW is almost due with our second child. We'll revaluate having two cars after things settle down in the Spring.
Just going to keep saving for now and try to stay focused.
My average savings rate for the year is now at 36%. Just a shade away from my goal of 37%. Who knows, maybe we can do even better than the 37% with a few months here. If we can get to 38% that will be a full 10% more savings than the prior year.
Its harder and harder to find places to cut costs though. Housing is one of the few places left (a full 50% of our monthly cost), and we already live in a smaller place in one of the cheapest neighborhoods around. If we bought a place, we could reduce our housing costs a few hundred dollars a month. i toy with this idea a lot, but DW is against it. We are already heavily allocated towards RE with our rental property. In addition, we're thinking this latest move might be temporary (less than 2 years). We'll just keep absorbing the higher cost for a bit.
I'm looking to refi our rental property. Interest rate is at 5.125% which gives us a lot of room. I know a broker who is willing to work with us (not a lot will, investment condo, HOA is only at 6% reservers). Luckily we have over 25% equity and renters who are paying. We can get a rate as low as 3.625% for a fee of around $4K. Payback on this is less than 2 years. Just not sure if we want to keep our rental or sell it and get the equity out.
We have a second car now. Inherited from family. Its insured, smogged and registered (annual cost = $250). We'll keep it around in case of emergencies as DW is almost due with our second child. We'll revaluate having two cars after things settle down in the Spring.
Just going to keep saving for now and try to stay focused.
Just another month on the journey. Had a 61% savings rate last month. Mostly driven by 3 paychecks and a bonus check. Still on track to hit 38% savings for the year which is my goal. I broke the $200k net worth barrier this month too. Bad news is that the expenses have creeped up quite a bit. There are reasons for it and I know its only going to be for a few months, but its more than our generous forecast. (I upped our food budget from $400/month for 3 to $600/month for 3... we hit $750/3 last month. I've also budgeted in gift buying and other things, so I think we can get the 38% rate even with higher spending.
Still not sure what to do about housing. I'd have to move some 30 miles away from my work to cut costs even $200/month. Not worth it to me. Trying to find a place that we could buy that would be a little higher standard of living than we have now, that would still be close to work and would save us at least $200/mo (excluding equity). There are not too many places like that though. This would be the only options, as this is a temporary stay (sub 3 years), it'd have to be priced competitively enough to also work as a rental investment. Much like our initial home purchase.
Still not sure what to do about housing. I'd have to move some 30 miles away from my work to cut costs even $200/month. Not worth it to me. Trying to find a place that we could buy that would be a little higher standard of living than we have now, that would still be close to work and would save us at least $200/mo (excluding equity). There are not too many places like that though. This would be the only options, as this is a temporary stay (sub 3 years), it'd have to be priced competitively enough to also work as a rental investment. Much like our initial home purchase.
Just finished putting together the November numbers and they look okay. Still on track to hit a 38% savings rate for the year which is a full 10 higher than last year. At this point its just a matter of continuing to put away any savings either into a house fund/cash or taxable investments. My net worth has increased 25% so far this year. Not sure how long that kind of growth is sustainable, but most of the growth came from savings and not investments. So we'll see. Refinance on the condo is going smoothly, should be ready to sign off in a week or two. That will decrease the equity in the rental, but increase the cash flow. Payback period of 19 months. Two goals going forward is to trim down the food costs and buy a SFR. We've budgeted for the food costs as I buy dinner to bring home now that DW is only 2 weeks away from bringing second child into the world and can't really cook. I'm hoping we can cut our food costs down to their normal $400/mo level by April (from their current lofty $650/mo). The SFR is probably going to be easier. Just building up the cash for a 20% down payment and waiting for my current refi to finish. Then its just finding the right house at the right price.
Hi All! Happy New Year. Finished my first full year on my way to ER. Highlights. Spending is down 11%, NW is up 24%. Savings rate has jumped from 28% to 39%. All good news. Will keep tightening the bolts on certain items that get away from us. My goal of refinancing was completed last week so all settled there. 2013 will be exciting. I'll have almost $13K in bonuses vesting. So income will continue to increase, while hopefully we can keep expenses flat (or tracking inflation). Goal next year is to finally cross the 50% savings rate for the year.
Details:
Total Spend: $46.2K ($15.4K/pp not counting new child)
Total Savings: $29.5K
NW: $161K to $200K. ($29.5K savings + $10K gains)
With a full family of 4, an investmnet property, renting a house in a new city with a new job its hard to keep track of what our goals really are. This journey has really helped me to focus on what we're spending on as well as what we're savings towards. Just want to say thank you to everybody for the encouragement!
Details:
Total Spend: $46.2K ($15.4K/pp not counting new child)
Total Savings: $29.5K
NW: $161K to $200K. ($29.5K savings + $10K gains)
With a full family of 4, an investmnet property, renting a house in a new city with a new job its hard to keep track of what our goals really are. This journey has really helped me to focus on what we're spending on as well as what we're savings towards. Just want to say thank you to everybody for the encouragement!
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Spartan_Warrior
- Posts: 1659
- Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2011 1:24 am
Hi Phayen. Congrats on the newborn! I find your journal very interesting as your starting point in terms of age, salary, and housing expenses is pretty close to where I am now (though your net worth/savings was higher!), and I'm also interested in having a family at some point. It looks like you've done very well the last few years. Good luck in the new year.
Thanks SW! I always look for other journals for people who have kids too. Seems those journeys are generally slower than those for single people. Glad to see someone is reading it. That really does enforce the writing aspect for me.
We've made most of our changes and with a family of 4 its going to be focusing on small changes in spending mixed with larger changes in lifestyle, ie building skill sets and approaching problems from more angles.
Good luck to you too!
We've made most of our changes and with a family of 4 its going to be focusing on small changes in spending mixed with larger changes in lifestyle, ie building skill sets and approaching problems from more angles.
Good luck to you too!
Hi All,
January was a good start to the month. 57% savings rate. My ESPP's vested and came out to a 34% gain in just 6 months. Expenses were in line with what I had thought as well, which was higher than normal given we had family in town for a few weeks. NW increased from $201k to $206k.
I'm struggling with two things right now that I'm not sure how to move forward on.
The first is my ESPP's. I feel like this is a big no no against asset allocation as 4% of my NW is tied up in one stock. Should I just sell these and rediversify against my normal PP. Consequences would be short term cap gains tax, and potentially missing out on further gains.
Secondly, I'm tired of renting. We rent a small house (1100 sq ft), for 1795/month. It's expensive, no doubt. But its the cheapest place we can find within 10 miles of work (I'm only 3 miles away). Homes in the same area are selling for approx. $400K. If we put 20% down, I came to the conclusion that our monthly outgoing cash would be about the same. We would come up ahead only by counting equity. Pros would be that we could start to customize the house and settle in. Our current place isn't very nice at all and makes it inconvenient to do basic tasks. I find that if the outgoing cashflow is approx. the same, then it would also most likely be a poor investment opportunity as well. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks for reading.
January was a good start to the month. 57% savings rate. My ESPP's vested and came out to a 34% gain in just 6 months. Expenses were in line with what I had thought as well, which was higher than normal given we had family in town for a few weeks. NW increased from $201k to $206k.
I'm struggling with two things right now that I'm not sure how to move forward on.
The first is my ESPP's. I feel like this is a big no no against asset allocation as 4% of my NW is tied up in one stock. Should I just sell these and rediversify against my normal PP. Consequences would be short term cap gains tax, and potentially missing out on further gains.
Secondly, I'm tired of renting. We rent a small house (1100 sq ft), for 1795/month. It's expensive, no doubt. But its the cheapest place we can find within 10 miles of work (I'm only 3 miles away). Homes in the same area are selling for approx. $400K. If we put 20% down, I came to the conclusion that our monthly outgoing cash would be about the same. We would come up ahead only by counting equity. Pros would be that we could start to customize the house and settle in. Our current place isn't very nice at all and makes it inconvenient to do basic tasks. I find that if the outgoing cashflow is approx. the same, then it would also most likely be a poor investment opportunity as well. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks for reading.
I second appreciating the journal. Please keep it up, it is inspiring.
Could you fix up your current rental and have the some of the cost taken out of your rent? That might be cheaper in the long run considering closing costs and would maintain your mobility. The landlord might appreciate someone doing the work/arranging for it and you would have things more to your liking.
Could you fix up your current rental and have the some of the cost taken out of your rent? That might be cheaper in the long run considering closing costs and would maintain your mobility. The landlord might appreciate someone doing the work/arranging for it and you would have things more to your liking.
Just a quick update for Feb. Slightly lower savings rate of 42% which is mostly timing with last month's high savings rate. NW went from $206K to $209K (mostly due to automatic contributions to 401(k) and ESPP). I'm currently 16.4% done with my goal to get to $250K NW this year (from $201K). Pretty on pace. Overall savings rate for the year is currently at 46% which is a little light from my goal of 50%.
I haven't sold my shares, which seemed like a bad idea as the price quickly dropped 3%. Today the prices recovered above where I received them though. I don't know how to feel. It seems like this is a bad asset allocation as I'm extremely invested in my company at this point in time by my reliance on a salary alone. On the other hand, I do believe my company will do well. For the interim, I'll hold until we decide to buy a place or I hit the long term cap gains mark, whichever comes first.
CS - Landlord won't consider it. They are retired and use the money for living expenses. They don't really care about the condition as long as it is habitable. The low cost of the rent justifies the low quality (and it probably is fair, similar sized homes go for a few hundred more a month). We'll just keep making small improvements for now. I do think they'll let us go month to month once we hit our end lease date which is nice and gives us some options.
I haven't sold my shares, which seemed like a bad idea as the price quickly dropped 3%. Today the prices recovered above where I received them though. I don't know how to feel. It seems like this is a bad asset allocation as I'm extremely invested in my company at this point in time by my reliance on a salary alone. On the other hand, I do believe my company will do well. For the interim, I'll hold until we decide to buy a place or I hit the long term cap gains mark, whichever comes first.
CS - Landlord won't consider it. They are retired and use the money for living expenses. They don't really care about the condition as long as it is habitable. The low cost of the rent justifies the low quality (and it probably is fair, similar sized homes go for a few hundred more a month). We'll just keep making small improvements for now. I do think they'll let us go month to month once we hit our end lease date which is nice and gives us some options.
Another quick update. Savings Rate for March was 69% largely driven by extra income from tax refunds. In addition, my Q1 savings rate is at 57%. Well on pace to hit 50% for the year. As far as my goal to getting to $250K NW, I went from $209K, to $217K. Also ahead of schedule here. This is primarily due to accumulation rather than appreciation.
Work has been terrible. I've been doing two people's jobs for over a month now. Things like this make me want to quit. I know it is temporary, but there is still no benefit to working extra hours. Can't wait to have a stockpile of money saved up so I don't have to try this hard.
Work has been terrible. I've been doing two people's jobs for over a month now. Things like this make me want to quit. I know it is temporary, but there is still no benefit to working extra hours. Can't wait to have a stockpile of money saved up so I don't have to try this hard.
April went well too. Really high food costs that we still need to get figured out. I'll reread MMM's blog on food, cause we are obviously still doing something wrong. Over $800 for 4 people (and 2 of those are kids). Overally savings rate was 52% for the month, and still at 55% for the year. NW went from $218K to $223K. Mostly from 50% of my 401(k) matches vesting. Should be able to hit my $250K goal by October at this rate, 2 months early.
We've opted not to move. We don't like the place, but it isn't worth moving and giving up more money each month to rent another. We also came to the conclusion that we'll be moving somewhere else in the next couple of years (mostly work/social circle related) so not going to buy a place.
We've opted not to move. We don't like the place, but it isn't worth moving and giving up more money each month to rent another. We also came to the conclusion that we'll be moving somewhere else in the next couple of years (mostly work/social circle related) so not going to buy a place.