I just discovered that FIRECALC has tabs that allows you to play with the assumptions behind it....
I feel like I just learned that Santa doesn't exist or something, that there was something everyone has known for years except for me!
Anyway I had a great deal of fun calculating the following based on the following assumptions:
8190 Pension at Age 62, Inflation Adjusted beginning at age 62 Retirement in 2015
$656 of Social Security starting at age 75
Current Net Worth of 150,000
60,000 of Savings Annually, grows with inflation until 2015
Spending Power remains constantly adjusted for inflation
66 year retirement
Inflation = CPI
60% allocation in stocks
Annual Spending | Success Rate | $$ Required
10000 (+100000 for house) | 96% | 312782
10000 (+100000 for house) | 100% | 324480
15000 | 96% | 340286
15000 | 100% | 359909
12096 (+100k house, 55k fun) | 96% | 421224
12096 (+100k house, 55k fun) | 100% | 436241
And these are conservative because:
1) I will likely earn something between now and death
2) I hope my returns on Net Worth will outpace inflation between now and 2015
3) I would likely be able to adjust spending slightly downward during terrible down markets
But NOT conservative (maybe?) because:
1) "This time is different"
2) I believe we are headed into high inflation in the next 0-5 years.
3) We might have the worst 70 year period in history right in front of us
Anyway this was fun.
LiquidSapphire's Journal
-
LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
-
LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
October 2011
===NUMBERS===
Housing/Utilities 606
Debt 218
Groceries 213
Medical 78
Stuff 70
Gifts 64
Cell Phone 26
Cat 10
Restaurants 32
Recreation 0
Transportation 0
Total spending: 1317
84% saved (3 paychecks this month)
Net Worth: 171454
4% SWR, Monthly equivalent: 571.51
===GENERAL REFLECTIONS===
Woohoo October! I had a great month as far as net worth goes. I am just about $8,000 shy of $200,000 in assets. I am thinking I might surpass $200,000 by the end of the year which would be an awesome Christmas gift to myself. I am somewhere around the halfway point as far as how much in savings I am looking to get for ERE (I’m not sure how much I will need... between $350K and $500K I think) so I really need to start thinking about how to structure the assets to prepare for withdrawal. So far they are in a smattering of various types of index funds and a REIT, amongst taxable and tax advantaged accounts.
I took a 1 week “staycation” this month to use up some “use or lose” vacation. It was somewhat eye-opening. While staying at home with no job was fun, it would have ceased to be fun very very shortly, probably after about one month. Health wise this staycation was horrible for me. I ate way too much bad-for-me food and too often, and I couldn’t get up the motivation to exercise. I engaged in plenty of leisure activities: video games, reading, etc, but it was beginning to get old. I redecorated (reusing stuff we had) and rearranged the master bedroom & bathroom, but we only have so many rooms. I began to feel restless, and a little lonely while the rest of the world worked. It would have been completely different had I had companionship but I didn’t. I realized on a new level that I can’t just quit my job with no plan for how to spend the time afterwards. I would totally flounder. I probably need something to structure and plan my life around. It would probably be best to get out of the house and around people at least 10+ hours per week. Ideally it would be for pay so I can quit sooner, or at least with a safety net. I have no idea what this looks like. Mentally I keep returning to bookkeeping or office assistant, but I have no bookkeeping experience so that may not be realistic. I’ve been told I have the potential for doing professional voice overs... so maybe give that a shot?
I have also considered medical assistant or physical therapy assistant type work. I’d have to get one of those fly by night 8 month degrees but it sounds easy enough, low stress, don’t have to deal with nasty people too often.
I guess I’m nearing the end of the “change your life” phase of ERE. I have a few things to do this month and next but don't foresee much beyond that. By the end of the year, the only remaining change to make will be housing. It’s not really that pressing though; I need $145,000 in assets to support the purchase, tax, insurance and maintenance of a $100,000 home. $180,000 covers my current rent at a 4% SWR. Anyway, I might tweak other categories a touch but I don’t see a way to get these expenses too much lower. In other words, I expect my expenses and spending to stabilize by Jan 2012. So I hope to get a handle on what a "survival" budget would be, and also what a happy but frugal existance would be, so I can nail down an ERE budget. I will also soon probably probably shift focus from arranging expenses to thinking more about income (side hustle) and investing/withdrawal strategy. At the moment I am considering a timing strategy with NTHEX.
I overshot my 1250 spending target.
This in spite of the fact I spent NOTHING on recreation and transportation, and felt I was pretty much “good” without being completely draconian on the other categories. I guess I’m keeping it as a pie in the sky goal but I think it’s a little out of reach while I’m paying off debt. 1250 would represent a constant 80% savings rate each month.
=== CATEGORY BREAKDOWN ===
This month I think I will just discuss each category on its own, as well as the plan for the future for that category.
Housing/Utilities
Well Housing will be a 2012 issue. Now for Utilities. I got BF to go in with me on a space heater, yay! We got a small one and an analog timer, so it heats up the bathroom for 5 minutes before we each enter each morning. This allows us to turn the heat down at night. I am hoping this will help keep our utility bills under control. We calculated it costs roughly 10 cents an hour to run. We turned our heat on last week (55 degrees day, 65 degrees evening, 60 degrees overnight) as we got 8 inches of snow and a low of 12 outside. Oh, our city is offering a free indoor water audit. They are going to come to our house on the 11th and installing free faucet aerators and they’ll tell us where we use the most water and where we could save. They also offer a free low flow shower head but I hate those. We didn’t get anything in the mail about it, I just happened to check our city website and there it was. Perhaps your city has something similar? I have been thinking of getting one of those “Smart Strips” to turn off our entertainment setup with... we would hook it up to a 55” flat screen TV, computer, Wii, Playstation, DVD Player. Anyone have any luck with those? They are like $30.
Groceries
Will I ever make it under $200 here? However, I know there is non-food stuff lumped in here. Car mats, windshield washer fluid, etc. We made a huge stocking up trip at Costco for some things we probably won’t need again for a while. This was the biggest budget killer. Stuff like honey, yeast, toilet paper, etc. Also BF has had a bad medical month which resulted in some unusual grocery buys for us, and I bought medicine for him a couple times. On the plus side, I made homemade bread, pizza dough, and greek yogurt. The greek yogurt is sort of a pain but I am hoping to get a routine down so it’s not so bad. I’m liking the bread maker. I probably saved us at least what the bread maker cost so far ($20), so that’s pretty awesome. I am going to have to try to find special bread flour, see if it makes a difference. I eat a lot of eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese to get the protein. I am thinking maybe I can substitute at least part of this with beans? Anyone have any good tasty, easy, and less than $1 per day/serving recipe of just well seasoned beans? (and maybe some other stuff, but not rice, and not cheese, I'm counting calories) I do like baked beans... suppose I could try to make some of those. Sometimes before a big shopping trip we sit down and check out loss leaders. I also really gotta get it together on the price book, I've been kinda lazy with it lately.
Recreation
Zero... but with BF being out of commission half the month I probably made it up in “Groceries”. My ego came away negative... I got my ass kicked in Scrabble. This might increase a little next month. I have been itching to try my hand at the pottery wheel at least once.
Transportation
Zero... I wanted it borrow the car for $20 once but life got in the way. This will be higher next month.
Cell Phone
I bought a cheap used Page Plus phone and I tried the service out. I had some issues in the beginning but it seems OK now. The phone I bought, unfortunately, is a total POS and so today I bought a better on Ebay and I am going to flip this and the old Straight Talk phone. I first started with the $10 for 100 minutes just to try it out... you can also send texts for 5 cents each, picture texts for 25 cents, and you can use data at the cost of $1 per MB. So no movie watching but for just basic surfing no big deal. I’ve used Google Voice a few times for customer service calls... no problems. I think I am going to try using Google Voice largely for outgoing calls from home, work phone from work, and keeping my cell for calls “on the go”. That should be able to keep my costs pretty low. I just got 2000 minutes for 80 today, (will show next month) but I should be able to avoid any cell bills for, I hope, 4-5 months. I am hoping the sale of the two phones will make up the purchase of this one phone. That's a to do.
Debt
If the interest rate was not 2.5% and 1% respectively, I'd pay this off today. It's so annoying to see it count towards my monthly expenses. I could totally hit an 80% savings rate without it!! But it would take all of my liquid assets to do that. Egh. I'll stay the course for now.
Medical
I will be changing to an HDHP+HSA in November, it will be effective in January. The premium is $42.50/2 weeks, with a $61 premium pass through to the HSA monthly. I'll also bulk up the HSA to the max to save on taxes.
Gifts
I need to get started on Xmas shopping... I really do not want to spend too much. I'm partially done but have two small gifts to go.
Cat
$10 for 4 cups of Catnip on Ebay... Ebay is awesome.
===NUMBERS===
Housing/Utilities 606
Debt 218
Groceries 213
Medical 78
Stuff 70
Gifts 64
Cell Phone 26
Cat 10
Restaurants 32
Recreation 0
Transportation 0
Total spending: 1317
84% saved (3 paychecks this month)
Net Worth: 171454
4% SWR, Monthly equivalent: 571.51
===GENERAL REFLECTIONS===
Woohoo October! I had a great month as far as net worth goes. I am just about $8,000 shy of $200,000 in assets. I am thinking I might surpass $200,000 by the end of the year which would be an awesome Christmas gift to myself. I am somewhere around the halfway point as far as how much in savings I am looking to get for ERE (I’m not sure how much I will need... between $350K and $500K I think) so I really need to start thinking about how to structure the assets to prepare for withdrawal. So far they are in a smattering of various types of index funds and a REIT, amongst taxable and tax advantaged accounts.
I took a 1 week “staycation” this month to use up some “use or lose” vacation. It was somewhat eye-opening. While staying at home with no job was fun, it would have ceased to be fun very very shortly, probably after about one month. Health wise this staycation was horrible for me. I ate way too much bad-for-me food and too often, and I couldn’t get up the motivation to exercise. I engaged in plenty of leisure activities: video games, reading, etc, but it was beginning to get old. I redecorated (reusing stuff we had) and rearranged the master bedroom & bathroom, but we only have so many rooms. I began to feel restless, and a little lonely while the rest of the world worked. It would have been completely different had I had companionship but I didn’t. I realized on a new level that I can’t just quit my job with no plan for how to spend the time afterwards. I would totally flounder. I probably need something to structure and plan my life around. It would probably be best to get out of the house and around people at least 10+ hours per week. Ideally it would be for pay so I can quit sooner, or at least with a safety net. I have no idea what this looks like. Mentally I keep returning to bookkeeping or office assistant, but I have no bookkeeping experience so that may not be realistic. I’ve been told I have the potential for doing professional voice overs... so maybe give that a shot?
I have also considered medical assistant or physical therapy assistant type work. I’d have to get one of those fly by night 8 month degrees but it sounds easy enough, low stress, don’t have to deal with nasty people too often. I guess I’m nearing the end of the “change your life” phase of ERE. I have a few things to do this month and next but don't foresee much beyond that. By the end of the year, the only remaining change to make will be housing. It’s not really that pressing though; I need $145,000 in assets to support the purchase, tax, insurance and maintenance of a $100,000 home. $180,000 covers my current rent at a 4% SWR. Anyway, I might tweak other categories a touch but I don’t see a way to get these expenses too much lower. In other words, I expect my expenses and spending to stabilize by Jan 2012. So I hope to get a handle on what a "survival" budget would be, and also what a happy but frugal existance would be, so I can nail down an ERE budget. I will also soon probably probably shift focus from arranging expenses to thinking more about income (side hustle) and investing/withdrawal strategy. At the moment I am considering a timing strategy with NTHEX.
I overshot my 1250 spending target.
This in spite of the fact I spent NOTHING on recreation and transportation, and felt I was pretty much “good” without being completely draconian on the other categories. I guess I’m keeping it as a pie in the sky goal but I think it’s a little out of reach while I’m paying off debt. 1250 would represent a constant 80% savings rate each month. === CATEGORY BREAKDOWN ===
This month I think I will just discuss each category on its own, as well as the plan for the future for that category.
Housing/Utilities
Well Housing will be a 2012 issue. Now for Utilities. I got BF to go in with me on a space heater, yay! We got a small one and an analog timer, so it heats up the bathroom for 5 minutes before we each enter each morning. This allows us to turn the heat down at night. I am hoping this will help keep our utility bills under control. We calculated it costs roughly 10 cents an hour to run. We turned our heat on last week (55 degrees day, 65 degrees evening, 60 degrees overnight) as we got 8 inches of snow and a low of 12 outside. Oh, our city is offering a free indoor water audit. They are going to come to our house on the 11th and installing free faucet aerators and they’ll tell us where we use the most water and where we could save. They also offer a free low flow shower head but I hate those. We didn’t get anything in the mail about it, I just happened to check our city website and there it was. Perhaps your city has something similar? I have been thinking of getting one of those “Smart Strips” to turn off our entertainment setup with... we would hook it up to a 55” flat screen TV, computer, Wii, Playstation, DVD Player. Anyone have any luck with those? They are like $30.
Groceries
Will I ever make it under $200 here?
However, I know there is non-food stuff lumped in here. Car mats, windshield washer fluid, etc. We made a huge stocking up trip at Costco for some things we probably won’t need again for a while. This was the biggest budget killer. Stuff like honey, yeast, toilet paper, etc. Also BF has had a bad medical month which resulted in some unusual grocery buys for us, and I bought medicine for him a couple times. On the plus side, I made homemade bread, pizza dough, and greek yogurt. The greek yogurt is sort of a pain but I am hoping to get a routine down so it’s not so bad. I’m liking the bread maker. I probably saved us at least what the bread maker cost so far ($20), so that’s pretty awesome. I am going to have to try to find special bread flour, see if it makes a difference. I eat a lot of eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese to get the protein. I am thinking maybe I can substitute at least part of this with beans? Anyone have any good tasty, easy, and less than $1 per day/serving recipe of just well seasoned beans? (and maybe some other stuff, but not rice, and not cheese, I'm counting calories) I do like baked beans... suppose I could try to make some of those. Sometimes before a big shopping trip we sit down and check out loss leaders. I also really gotta get it together on the price book, I've been kinda lazy with it lately.Recreation
Zero... but with BF being out of commission half the month I probably made it up in “Groceries”. My ego came away negative... I got my ass kicked in Scrabble. This might increase a little next month. I have been itching to try my hand at the pottery wheel at least once.
Transportation
Zero... I wanted it borrow the car for $20 once but life got in the way. This will be higher next month.
Cell Phone
I bought a cheap used Page Plus phone and I tried the service out. I had some issues in the beginning but it seems OK now. The phone I bought, unfortunately, is a total POS and so today I bought a better on Ebay and I am going to flip this and the old Straight Talk phone. I first started with the $10 for 100 minutes just to try it out... you can also send texts for 5 cents each, picture texts for 25 cents, and you can use data at the cost of $1 per MB. So no movie watching but for just basic surfing no big deal. I’ve used Google Voice a few times for customer service calls... no problems. I think I am going to try using Google Voice largely for outgoing calls from home, work phone from work, and keeping my cell for calls “on the go”. That should be able to keep my costs pretty low. I just got 2000 minutes for 80 today, (will show next month) but I should be able to avoid any cell bills for, I hope, 4-5 months. I am hoping the sale of the two phones will make up the purchase of this one phone. That's a to do.
Debt
If the interest rate was not 2.5% and 1% respectively, I'd pay this off today. It's so annoying to see it count towards my monthly expenses. I could totally hit an 80% savings rate without it!! But it would take all of my liquid assets to do that. Egh. I'll stay the course for now.
Medical
I will be changing to an HDHP+HSA in November, it will be effective in January. The premium is $42.50/2 weeks, with a $61 premium pass through to the HSA monthly. I'll also bulk up the HSA to the max to save on taxes.
Gifts
I need to get started on Xmas shopping... I really do not want to spend too much. I'm partially done but have two small gifts to go.
Cat
$10 for 4 cups of Catnip on Ebay... Ebay is awesome.
I like it... Once you are past the "change your life" part (which seems to generally include some but not all of Jacob's 21 days... Whatever level seems right to people they reach a plateau/point of diminishing returns) it starts to become a waiting game. That seems fine.. For me the waiting is really a test of whether I can stick with it, or whether I'll randomly change my mind and want the consumer life. Practically, I have to recognize use that 1) people change their minds all the time, 2) I changed my mind once to start ere, and 3) maybe that was motivate by factors that will also change with time, thus altering y motivation.
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LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
@ palmera
I have a net worth of $171K but Assets around $192K because I have $21,000 of debt. Mainly student loans ($19,000 at 2.5%) and then I am slowly paying back my employer over time because they overpaid me, long story. ($2K at 1%)
@ bigato
My cat doesn't like fresh catnip!! I don't know WTF is wrong with her! I guess I should just take the fresh catnip and dry it, see how that goes...
@ dragoncar - I completely see what you're saying about diminishing returns, I am certainly approaching that point rapidly. Also with the "waiting game" I know what you mean. However, I don't want to "wait", I want it now G**D*** it! Anyway next year I will focus more on producing more income somehow, so I guess I won't be "waiting" so much. I find the "waiting" depressing. I like the feeling that I am making progress and doing something to bring the date ever closer.
I am not really concerned with whether or not I want to stick with it, I know I will, the only "sacrifice" I've really felt so far is the lack of a vehicle. It takes a great deal more effort to go places that I don't normally go or have a routine for. I have to look up bus routes I am unfamiliar with, stops I am unfamiliar with, etc. It's actually a deterrent, sometimes I just don't go, I don't know if that is healthy, as I already have tendencies to be a homebody and loner. So I may go buy a motorcycle sometime and add that back in to my budget. But beyond that, I see no reason not to just continue on this path. I guess in some sense I've had little tastes of the consumer life and I just didn't see what the fuss was all about... I've been to a restaurant with no prices on the menu... driven brand new cars... traveled all over Europe... had the latest greatest smartphone and... I just don't crave or need that stuff. I'd rather be free to choose how I spend my day guilt free, rather than feel I have to do this instead because the paycheck is so awesome and to quit now would be pretty damn irresponsible.
I have a net worth of $171K but Assets around $192K because I have $21,000 of debt. Mainly student loans ($19,000 at 2.5%) and then I am slowly paying back my employer over time because they overpaid me, long story. ($2K at 1%)
@ bigato
My cat doesn't like fresh catnip!! I don't know WTF is wrong with her!
I guess I should just take the fresh catnip and dry it, see how that goes...@ dragoncar - I completely see what you're saying about diminishing returns, I am certainly approaching that point rapidly. Also with the "waiting game" I know what you mean. However, I don't want to "wait", I want it now G**D*** it!
Anyway next year I will focus more on producing more income somehow, so I guess I won't be "waiting" so much. I find the "waiting" depressing. I like the feeling that I am making progress and doing something to bring the date ever closer.I am not really concerned with whether or not I want to stick with it, I know I will, the only "sacrifice" I've really felt so far is the lack of a vehicle. It takes a great deal more effort to go places that I don't normally go or have a routine for. I have to look up bus routes I am unfamiliar with, stops I am unfamiliar with, etc. It's actually a deterrent, sometimes I just don't go, I don't know if that is healthy, as I already have tendencies to be a homebody and loner. So I may go buy a motorcycle sometime and add that back in to my budget. But beyond that, I see no reason not to just continue on this path. I guess in some sense I've had little tastes of the consumer life and I just didn't see what the fuss was all about... I've been to a restaurant with no prices on the menu... driven brand new cars... traveled all over Europe... had the latest greatest smartphone and... I just don't crave or need that stuff. I'd rather be free to choose how I spend my day guilt free, rather than feel I have to do this instead because the paycheck is so awesome and to quit now would be pretty damn irresponsible.
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LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
You're right bigato. I was actually considering just paying off the debt so I could just stop looking at it, even though it's not financially smart. It's like a thorn in my side. I really like how you look at it. I read somewhere on whether or not you should try to pay off debt, whether or not you would borrow money at that rate and invest it in the stock market. Well I probably wouldn't at 2.5%, I'm pretty risk averse that way, but at 1%? Yeah I would seriously think about it.
But you're right I really should just count it some other way. I will do that next time. Thank you for your suggestion. Makes me feel better about this.
But you're right I really should just count it some other way. I will do that next time. Thank you for your suggestion. Makes me feel better about this.
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LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
Thanks! I looked my spreadsheets and realized that I had been double or triple counting my debt all along. Not only was I counting them in against my Net Worth, I was counting them as an additional amount I needed to save beyond a 4% SWR, and I was counting them toward my current monthly expenses (but not future). So I will have to streamline this somehow. Maybe I will just open a separate account with the balance of the loans with a CD ladder and just let it go on auto pilot for a while, and just completely take it out of my analysis. Thanks again.
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LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
November Journal
===NUMBERS===
***Expenses***
Housing/Utilities: 570
Recreation: 93
Groceries: 170 (yay!)
Liquor: 35
Restaurants: 53
Cell Phone: 131
Stuff: 345
Gifts: 9
Fees: 15 (Stop Payment fee, gee, thanks Quest Diagnostics)
Transportation: 20
Unknown: 9
Health Insurance: 78
Cat 18
Laptop Repair 18
Total: 1564
***Income***
Day Job: (6976 -1584 taxes) = 5392
Side Hustle: 70
Interest: 11
Dividends: 0 this month
Credit Card Rewards: 50
Total: 5523
Savings % = 71.7%
Net Worth: $170140.99
====REFLECTIONS====
Well, it's been a heck of a month. It's been pretty stressful. I've had a lot of job stress and also some family/relationships stress due to holidays, etc. I guess I have been dealing and focusing with other things so my willpower/resolve has not been as strong this month. I haven't tracked expenses as closely as I ordinarily do. Partially I intended for my expenses to go up some (I did sign up for an art class) but partially it was due to fatigue in dealing with other stuff, and I admit, I did engage in Shopping Therapy on Black Friday. I normally would not have gone in on some of that stuff, but I did, due to some stress in my life. So I spent significantly more than I ordinarily would on "Stuff". The other stuff I don't feel too bad about, actually. It's just that "stuff" category that got pretty outrageous there. Over 1/2 of it is 1/2 of a new Xbox plus some games, so I will certainly derive utility from it for months or years to come, but still, it's stuff. I'm not really going to beat myself up over it though. I make roughly $33/hr after taxes and so I spent about a day's worth of earnings on this Xbox. That's not so bad in the grand scheme of things. Clearly I don't go out and buy an xbox or equivalent every month. I will admit that was not one of my better coping mechanisms though.
I am not positive but I am quite certain that once I get around $350,000 in net worth I will likely quit my job and opt for some version of semi-retirement. $350,000, I believe, could sustain my current lifestyle. The semi-retirement piece would just be more to have something productive to do rather than sit around and mope all day, which is what ended up happening to me on my 3rd staycation of 6 months. I am beginning to hate and dread staycations. I should be able to live off of about $15,000/year ish and anything above that could be saved and I'd be just fine.
I discovered Amazon's Mechanical Turk website. I made $70 on it last month by essentially focusing on earning at least $2 every day. That can take about 5-30 minutes a day. However it's getting to be pretty old and tired to me. I thought maybe if I could keep it up that it would be a nice income stream to have but it's starting to drive me crazy.
I have more to say but I need to go so I will finish up later.
===NUMBERS===
***Expenses***
Housing/Utilities: 570
Recreation: 93
Groceries: 170 (yay!)
Liquor: 35
Restaurants: 53
Cell Phone: 131
Stuff: 345
Gifts: 9
Fees: 15 (Stop Payment fee, gee, thanks Quest Diagnostics)
Transportation: 20
Unknown: 9
Health Insurance: 78
Cat 18
Laptop Repair 18
Total: 1564
***Income***
Day Job: (6976 -1584 taxes) = 5392
Side Hustle: 70
Interest: 11
Dividends: 0 this month
Credit Card Rewards: 50
Total: 5523
Savings % = 71.7%
Net Worth: $170140.99
====REFLECTIONS====
Well, it's been a heck of a month. It's been pretty stressful. I've had a lot of job stress and also some family/relationships stress due to holidays, etc. I guess I have been dealing and focusing with other things so my willpower/resolve has not been as strong this month. I haven't tracked expenses as closely as I ordinarily do. Partially I intended for my expenses to go up some (I did sign up for an art class) but partially it was due to fatigue in dealing with other stuff, and I admit, I did engage in Shopping Therapy on Black Friday. I normally would not have gone in on some of that stuff, but I did, due to some stress in my life. So I spent significantly more than I ordinarily would on "Stuff". The other stuff I don't feel too bad about, actually. It's just that "stuff" category that got pretty outrageous there. Over 1/2 of it is 1/2 of a new Xbox plus some games, so I will certainly derive utility from it for months or years to come, but still, it's stuff. I'm not really going to beat myself up over it though. I make roughly $33/hr after taxes and so I spent about a day's worth of earnings on this Xbox. That's not so bad in the grand scheme of things. Clearly I don't go out and buy an xbox or equivalent every month. I will admit that was not one of my better coping mechanisms though.
I am not positive but I am quite certain that once I get around $350,000 in net worth I will likely quit my job and opt for some version of semi-retirement. $350,000, I believe, could sustain my current lifestyle. The semi-retirement piece would just be more to have something productive to do rather than sit around and mope all day, which is what ended up happening to me on my 3rd staycation of 6 months. I am beginning to hate and dread staycations. I should be able to live off of about $15,000/year ish and anything above that could be saved and I'd be just fine.
I discovered Amazon's Mechanical Turk website. I made $70 on it last month by essentially focusing on earning at least $2 every day. That can take about 5-30 minutes a day. However it's getting to be pretty old and tired to me. I thought maybe if I could keep it up that it would be a nice income stream to have but it's starting to drive me crazy.
I have more to say but I need to go so I will finish up later.
Hi liquidsapphire
at your other post prior to thanksgiving I typed up another response to you but it got lost after I supposedly press send... anyway...
I want to recommend a couple CDs to you. I am a big fan of kelly howell... and have lots of her work... the ones i want to tell you about are her stress reduction CDs...
Mine was a 4 CD set (called stress reduction therapy) which doesn't seem to be easily avail at Amazon these days, but the two I like the most and use at work (when I get stressed out) without problems are: total relaxation and stress free forever.
If you import it to MP3 and call it something else, people won't even find out that you are listening to a stress reduction CD at work... Just some pretty background music...
this is it but don't pay 98 bucks for it! It's just four CDs that you can have for, say @ $15 per CD, $60 in total...
http://www.amazon.com/Stress-Reduction- ... 826&sr=8-1
two of my fav individual CDs
http://www.brainsync.com/shop/stress-free-forever.html
http://www.brainsync.com/shop/total-relaxation.html
I find that after listening to stress free forever (1 hr cd), the result is equivalent to an one hour hike with endorphin kicking it... I become calm and relaxed... give it a try... You may not feel anything though so in case this can be a waste of money for you, try to see if you can get it at your local library...
at your other post prior to thanksgiving I typed up another response to you but it got lost after I supposedly press send... anyway...
I want to recommend a couple CDs to you. I am a big fan of kelly howell... and have lots of her work... the ones i want to tell you about are her stress reduction CDs...
Mine was a 4 CD set (called stress reduction therapy) which doesn't seem to be easily avail at Amazon these days, but the two I like the most and use at work (when I get stressed out) without problems are: total relaxation and stress free forever.
If you import it to MP3 and call it something else, people won't even find out that you are listening to a stress reduction CD at work... Just some pretty background music...
this is it but don't pay 98 bucks for it! It's just four CDs that you can have for, say @ $15 per CD, $60 in total...
http://www.amazon.com/Stress-Reduction- ... 826&sr=8-1
two of my fav individual CDs
http://www.brainsync.com/shop/stress-free-forever.html
http://www.brainsync.com/shop/total-relaxation.html
I find that after listening to stress free forever (1 hr cd), the result is equivalent to an one hour hike with endorphin kicking it... I become calm and relaxed... give it a try... You may not feel anything though so in case this can be a waste of money for you, try to see if you can get it at your local library...
-
LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
OK now on to Part Deux now that I have more time to type. As a side note I seriously could probably write 5X more on stuff I'm trying out or doing, but I suspect that would bore everybody so I try to keep my life to monthly summaries Plus I would probably seem infinitely more spastic, one week I'm here, next week I'm there, etc.
I guess part of my fatigue is the realization that ERE is a marathon and not a sprint and this is a lifestyle full of abundance rather than... I don't know what. Constant denial or sacrifice? ERE is not constant denial. It's about leading a purposeful life spending on what you care about (and being razor sharp clear on what that really is), and cutting out other crap that you do not care about. It just so happens that there is not much I care about and the stuff I care about doesn't cost much, which makes ERE totally possible. But I sort of have an all or nothing personality and so I perhaps pushed a little hard to the denial side and with the added stress in my life I swung the pendulum back to center.
I kind of equate the struggle to a diet vs. lifestyle. I have sort of been treating ERE like a diet. "You can spend $1250/month and no more!!! *whip slash*" Well that is not really a sustainable attitude, eventually one goes and binges and spends 350 on crap like xboxes because you're just mentally tired. I came to the realization, I guess, that I want to live a life of abundance, rather than monitoring every penny to get by every day for the rest of my life. But coupled with that is a deep awareness of what spending will really contribute to a life of abundance, and what spending will not? I think, upon starting your journey to ERE, the extreme tracking of every dollar and extreme mental control over every dollar you spend is really valuable. It really gets you to think about what is important and has value to you - would I rather save this dollar for ERE or would I rather spend it and delay ERE? Should be something every early ERE participant asks themselves before every expenditure. I have a frugal mindset and I was never much of a spender and so I feel I was able to get through this stage quite easily. I don't feel that I need to ask myself this question anymore or I need to track as closely anymore. I've slashed spending, and slashed and slashed some more, I'll probably continue to slash and I guess to a degree I've internalized the "Is it worth spending here?" question that I don't have to consciously ask it any longer. I just naturally question every dollar. So I think I will not do the conscious extreme monthly monitoring anymore. I will spend what I spend to live the life I want to, and it will cost what it costs. If it is 1250 or less, awesome. If it's a little more than that, that's OK too. I guess I need to be clear that I still intend to spend some focus on what really makes me happy and keeping expenses low (I think that is necessary so that you spend where it counts, and cut ruthlessly where it doesn't count) but I think I am just going to let the chips fall where they land at this stage.
=====CATEGORY BREAKDOWN=====
Housing/Utilities:
Housing will be a 2012 issue. Utilities. I suspect I will be receiving a Smart Strip for Christmas. That is good because we now have this crazy huge entertainment center full of electronics that is probably worth more than everything else in the house put together. We are going to plug that baby right in. (http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Strip-Prote ... 874&sr=8-1) We had our free water audit. Basically the recommendations were to put a 2gpm aerator on our kitchen faucet and a 1gpm aerator in our bathrooms. This was estimated to save us $30 over the year. The aerators were free, yay! They had some other recommendations for things in order to save water but they didn’t make sense for us financially or otherwise. Stuff like you should aim for 1.2gpf toilets, high efficiency washers, a more efficient dishwasher, a 2gpm showerhead. The savings for us were either negative or miniscule over several years. MMM had a post about 1.5gpm showerheads. Maybe we will try it.
Groceries/Restaurants:
Well, I can sort of take credit for this. I have been trying to get this under $200 for a long time and I finally managed. Here are the reasons I think helped.
1) McDonalds is running a promotion that every time the Broncos win, you can get a Big Mac and large soda for $1. So, needless to say, we have a lot of charges of $1.08 on our credit card. So... not really sustainable, Tebow will eventually stop stumbling into victories.
2) I'm still making my own bread and greek yogurt. I stopped eating eggs and cottage cheese. I have so far managed to supplement with other things? I don't know, I can't really explain this. I used to eat it a lot, and now I'm not, and I'm not sure why, and I'm not sure what's replaced it.
3) I made it my personal mission to "use up" things we had laying around the house, and just bought ingredients to complete recipes.
4) I've been washing out ziploc bags and reusing them.
I'm going to abandon keeping receipts (I don't know what to do with them?) and start just trying to come up with a meal plan that keeps it under $100/wk for the two of us. I tried last week but I got violently ill on Sunday and so that was sort of out. I'll try it again sometime this month.
Gifts:
Not much to report, Ebay is my friend, I got lots of stuff there cheap. (Cashmere Scarf = $8)
Medical/Fees/Health Insurance:
I changed to an HDHP Plan, this will open up the option to begin contributions to an HSA. A check I cashed from my lab bounced. They gave me no warning not to cash it so I'm sort of pissed off.
Cell Phone:
Just when I thought I had this under control. Well. I bought a non-crappy phone that was compatible with Page Plus, and purchased 2000 minutes for $80.00, that don’t expire for 1 year. I have been using Google Voice for most at home calls and Work phone for during work hours calls. I still have the option to send and receive 5 cent texts, or use data for $1/mb. I thought I was done. Now Page Plus has announced that they are starting a $12/month plan for 250 minutes, 250 texts, and 10mb of data. This is really a great match for my needs, though I could do with a little more data and a little fewer texts. No overage charges; the worst that happens is you renew your pla little early. I am going to change to this when it goes live 20 December. I do recommend kittywireless.com for purchasing Page Plus services. That is how I found out about this new plan. Also it will keep my boredom phone surfing from costing me too much and now I can budget roughly $13/month regularly for phone. It would have normally cost me at least that much to do their standard per minute/text/mb fees. I need to sell my old two phones.
Recreation:
This is higher but that's OK. I spent $50 on a weekly art class for December and $50 on painting supplies. I went to a comedy club once and to a movie I have been waiting to see for months. I took an intro class on how to throw on the pottery wheel, something I have always wanted to experience. No regrets.
Transportation:
I spent $20 on car sharing to see family.
Unknown:
I spent sometimes cash money on small purchases, but didn't bother to track it.
Laptop:
It's broken. I gave my mom $18 in exchange for her trying to fix it for me. I hope it's not a lost cause.
Cat:
Bought $18 of Cat Treats at a small per unit savings on Amazon.
Debt:
I decided to pay off my $2100 of government debt at 1% with my 2% Cash back Fidelity credit card. I thought about just paying for it over 2-3 years and letting it sit at 1%, but I didn’t want to open a silly CD at 1.4%, have to report it on my taxes, just barely break even due to taxes, then have this phantom gain due to inflation. At least with my 2% credit card, I will get $40 off, rather than pay out $40 extra in interest over the next two years. At least the $40 is going straight to my Fidelity account and into the stock market.
I also have $19,000 in student loans but also roughly $19,000 in liquid cash. I have elected to put that $19,000 into a dividend paying stocks fund rather than pay off the loan, and pay the loan from the proceeds and principal of the dividend paying stocks. So neither the cash nor the loans will be reflected in my financial analysis any longer.
===TO DOS===
December To Dos:
Become an electrity zealot - Search the house for power drains and eliminate them. Perhaps try to pick up a used Kill-A-Watt device.
Consider a 1.5gpm showerhead.
Sell old cell phones and other unused stuff.
Adjust my TSP withholding to $654/paycheck, $17,000 per year.
Try a weekly meal plan.
Set up an orderly transfer from my Dividend holding to my student loan.
2012 To Dos:
Price out other internet providers
Insulate our water heater
Find additional side hustles/income streams
Start automatic contributions to an HSA
Find some kind of semi-retirement occupation I'd like.
Maaaaaaybe take a class on how to ride a motorcycle if I decide carlessness is not working for me.
Plus I would probably seem infinitely more spastic, one week I'm here, next week I'm there, etc. I guess part of my fatigue is the realization that ERE is a marathon and not a sprint and this is a lifestyle full of abundance rather than... I don't know what. Constant denial or sacrifice? ERE is not constant denial. It's about leading a purposeful life spending on what you care about (and being razor sharp clear on what that really is), and cutting out other crap that you do not care about. It just so happens that there is not much I care about and the stuff I care about doesn't cost much, which makes ERE totally possible. But I sort of have an all or nothing personality and so I perhaps pushed a little hard to the denial side and with the added stress in my life I swung the pendulum back to center.
I kind of equate the struggle to a diet vs. lifestyle. I have sort of been treating ERE like a diet. "You can spend $1250/month and no more!!! *whip slash*" Well that is not really a sustainable attitude, eventually one goes and binges and spends 350 on crap like xboxes because you're just mentally tired. I came to the realization, I guess, that I want to live a life of abundance, rather than monitoring every penny to get by every day for the rest of my life. But coupled with that is a deep awareness of what spending will really contribute to a life of abundance, and what spending will not? I think, upon starting your journey to ERE, the extreme tracking of every dollar and extreme mental control over every dollar you spend is really valuable. It really gets you to think about what is important and has value to you - would I rather save this dollar for ERE or would I rather spend it and delay ERE? Should be something every early ERE participant asks themselves before every expenditure. I have a frugal mindset and I was never much of a spender and so I feel I was able to get through this stage quite easily. I don't feel that I need to ask myself this question anymore or I need to track as closely anymore. I've slashed spending, and slashed and slashed some more, I'll probably continue to slash and I guess to a degree I've internalized the "Is it worth spending here?" question that I don't have to consciously ask it any longer. I just naturally question every dollar. So I think I will not do the conscious extreme monthly monitoring anymore. I will spend what I spend to live the life I want to, and it will cost what it costs. If it is 1250 or less, awesome. If it's a little more than that, that's OK too. I guess I need to be clear that I still intend to spend some focus on what really makes me happy and keeping expenses low (I think that is necessary so that you spend where it counts, and cut ruthlessly where it doesn't count) but I think I am just going to let the chips fall where they land at this stage.
=====CATEGORY BREAKDOWN=====
Housing/Utilities:
Housing will be a 2012 issue. Utilities. I suspect I will be receiving a Smart Strip for Christmas. That is good because we now have this crazy huge entertainment center full of electronics that is probably worth more than everything else in the house put together. We are going to plug that baby right in. (http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Strip-Prote ... 874&sr=8-1) We had our free water audit. Basically the recommendations were to put a 2gpm aerator on our kitchen faucet and a 1gpm aerator in our bathrooms. This was estimated to save us $30 over the year. The aerators were free, yay! They had some other recommendations for things in order to save water but they didn’t make sense for us financially or otherwise. Stuff like you should aim for 1.2gpf toilets, high efficiency washers, a more efficient dishwasher, a 2gpm showerhead. The savings for us were either negative or miniscule over several years. MMM had a post about 1.5gpm showerheads. Maybe we will try it.
Groceries/Restaurants:
Well, I can sort of take credit for this. I have been trying to get this under $200 for a long time and I finally managed. Here are the reasons I think helped.
1) McDonalds is running a promotion that every time the Broncos win, you can get a Big Mac and large soda for $1. So, needless to say, we have a lot of charges of $1.08 on our credit card. So... not really sustainable, Tebow will eventually stop stumbling into victories.
2) I'm still making my own bread and greek yogurt. I stopped eating eggs and cottage cheese. I have so far managed to supplement with other things? I don't know, I can't really explain this. I used to eat it a lot, and now I'm not, and I'm not sure why, and I'm not sure what's replaced it.
3) I made it my personal mission to "use up" things we had laying around the house, and just bought ingredients to complete recipes.
4) I've been washing out ziploc bags and reusing them.
I'm going to abandon keeping receipts (I don't know what to do with them?) and start just trying to come up with a meal plan that keeps it under $100/wk for the two of us. I tried last week but I got violently ill on Sunday and so that was sort of out. I'll try it again sometime this month.
Gifts:
Not much to report, Ebay is my friend, I got lots of stuff there cheap. (Cashmere Scarf = $8)
Medical/Fees/Health Insurance:
I changed to an HDHP Plan, this will open up the option to begin contributions to an HSA. A check I cashed from my lab bounced. They gave me no warning not to cash it so I'm sort of pissed off.
Cell Phone:
Just when I thought I had this under control. Well. I bought a non-crappy phone that was compatible with Page Plus, and purchased 2000 minutes for $80.00, that don’t expire for 1 year. I have been using Google Voice for most at home calls and Work phone for during work hours calls. I still have the option to send and receive 5 cent texts, or use data for $1/mb. I thought I was done. Now Page Plus has announced that they are starting a $12/month plan for 250 minutes, 250 texts, and 10mb of data. This is really a great match for my needs, though I could do with a little more data and a little fewer texts. No overage charges; the worst that happens is you renew your pla little early. I am going to change to this when it goes live 20 December. I do recommend kittywireless.com for purchasing Page Plus services. That is how I found out about this new plan. Also it will keep my boredom phone surfing from costing me too much and now I can budget roughly $13/month regularly for phone. It would have normally cost me at least that much to do their standard per minute/text/mb fees. I need to sell my old two phones.
Recreation:
This is higher but that's OK. I spent $50 on a weekly art class for December and $50 on painting supplies. I went to a comedy club once and to a movie I have been waiting to see for months. I took an intro class on how to throw on the pottery wheel, something I have always wanted to experience. No regrets.
Transportation:
I spent $20 on car sharing to see family.
Unknown:
I spent sometimes cash money on small purchases, but didn't bother to track it.
Laptop:
It's broken. I gave my mom $18 in exchange for her trying to fix it for me. I hope it's not a lost cause.
Cat:
Bought $18 of Cat Treats at a small per unit savings on Amazon.
Debt:
I decided to pay off my $2100 of government debt at 1% with my 2% Cash back Fidelity credit card. I thought about just paying for it over 2-3 years and letting it sit at 1%, but I didn’t want to open a silly CD at 1.4%, have to report it on my taxes, just barely break even due to taxes, then have this phantom gain due to inflation. At least with my 2% credit card, I will get $40 off, rather than pay out $40 extra in interest over the next two years. At least the $40 is going straight to my Fidelity account and into the stock market.
I also have $19,000 in student loans but also roughly $19,000 in liquid cash. I have elected to put that $19,000 into a dividend paying stocks fund rather than pay off the loan, and pay the loan from the proceeds and principal of the dividend paying stocks. So neither the cash nor the loans will be reflected in my financial analysis any longer.
===TO DOS===
December To Dos:
Become an electrity zealot - Search the house for power drains and eliminate them. Perhaps try to pick up a used Kill-A-Watt device.
Consider a 1.5gpm showerhead.
Sell old cell phones and other unused stuff.
Adjust my TSP withholding to $654/paycheck, $17,000 per year.
Try a weekly meal plan.
Set up an orderly transfer from my Dividend holding to my student loan.
2012 To Dos:
Price out other internet providers
Insulate our water heater
Find additional side hustles/income streams
Start automatic contributions to an HSA
Find some kind of semi-retirement occupation I'd like.
Maaaaaaybe take a class on how to ride a motorcycle if I decide carlessness is not working for me.
Thank you for your posts, they are very helpful.
I am in the last day of a 2 week staycation, avoiding use it or lose it. Next month I have 2 more weeks. I enjoyed it so far except for cleaning out the garage. I believe that I could be doing great things if I did not have to work 40 hours a week at my current job. Great things might mean a writing project, another job or it might mean a business. I could get used to spending time at home, but I would want to have some type of focus or fascination that I could work towards.
A tasty crock pot bean recipe (that you asked for months ago)
simmer 3 chopped onions in olive oil till brown in a large frying pan
Add 6 cloves chopped garlic
Add 1 cup each, chopped celery, leek and carrots, simmer a while
wash 2 cups dried beans (pinto or your favorite)
Add dried beans, sautee'd vegetables and about 2 quarts water to a crock pot
Turn it on high for 5 hours
After about 4.5 hours, add about 2 Tbs chicken bullion, some salt and ground black pepper
Serve beans drained or as a bean soup. Use broth to make rice.
I am in the last day of a 2 week staycation, avoiding use it or lose it. Next month I have 2 more weeks. I enjoyed it so far except for cleaning out the garage. I believe that I could be doing great things if I did not have to work 40 hours a week at my current job. Great things might mean a writing project, another job or it might mean a business. I could get used to spending time at home, but I would want to have some type of focus or fascination that I could work towards.
A tasty crock pot bean recipe (that you asked for months ago)
simmer 3 chopped onions in olive oil till brown in a large frying pan
Add 6 cloves chopped garlic
Add 1 cup each, chopped celery, leek and carrots, simmer a while
wash 2 cups dried beans (pinto or your favorite)
Add dried beans, sautee'd vegetables and about 2 quarts water to a crock pot
Turn it on high for 5 hours
After about 4.5 hours, add about 2 Tbs chicken bullion, some salt and ground black pepper
Serve beans drained or as a bean soup. Use broth to make rice.
-
LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
Hey, sorry for the delay, I had a fun weekend unplugging for the most part
@sky - Thanks for the recipe; I'll have to try that out sometime soon.
@palmera - I hope to be there by October 2014. My spreadsheets show 3.07 years, with an accrual of $62,102 per year. It still seems so far away though. My hope is that I will be able to reduce housing/food expenses and/or generate an additional income stream so as to speed things up so that I could make it happen October 2013 or earlier. I think this is possible but would take something of a perfect storm. In theory, if I bought a 50% interest in BF's house (thereby eliminating rent) and reduce food expenses by another $50/month, that would reduce time to ER to 1 year 8 months. At that point my monthly expenses would only be $650/month and I would only need to have a net worth of $270,000.
Now, If I bought 1/2 the house, ate $50 less per month, AND generated an income stream of $300/month, I could retire today. Now just to go find that income stream, right?
@sky - Thanks for the recipe; I'll have to try that out sometime soon.
@palmera - I hope to be there by October 2014. My spreadsheets show 3.07 years, with an accrual of $62,102 per year. It still seems so far away though. My hope is that I will be able to reduce housing/food expenses and/or generate an additional income stream so as to speed things up so that I could make it happen October 2013 or earlier. I think this is possible but would take something of a perfect storm. In theory, if I bought a 50% interest in BF's house (thereby eliminating rent) and reduce food expenses by another $50/month, that would reduce time to ER to 1 year 8 months. At that point my monthly expenses would only be $650/month and I would only need to have a net worth of $270,000.
Now, If I bought 1/2 the house, ate $50 less per month, AND generated an income stream of $300/month, I could retire today. Now just to go find that income stream, right?
-
LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
Bigato -
Glad I was helpful to someone
ERE is a problem that can be attacked from two angles... reducing expenses, which this site focuses really well on, but also, you can expedite ERE by increasing income, passive or non-passive, depending on your goals. On my end, there is only so much left for me to cut, so I am going to try to come up with some mostly passive income streams next year. Sounds like you might also, good luck!
PS at the very least, it can be a nice backup, a safety margin if you will, a la MMM.
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/ ... ty-margin/
Glad I was helpful to someone
ERE is a problem that can be attacked from two angles... reducing expenses, which this site focuses really well on, but also, you can expedite ERE by increasing income, passive or non-passive, depending on your goals. On my end, there is only so much left for me to cut, so I am going to try to come up with some mostly passive income streams next year. Sounds like you might also, good luck!
PS at the very least, it can be a nice backup, a safety margin if you will, a la MMM.
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/ ... ty-margin/
-
LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
FireCalc claims that my current assets + pension + expected SS of $656 at age 75 (who the heck knows?) would support a spending level of $10,329 per year ($860/mo) 96% of the time. ($9,740, $812/mo for a success rate of 100%)
I could probably make this work pretty well if I owned my own home and was only on the hook for maintenance, taxes, insurance. So once I own a free and clear house, Firecalc basically says I'm good.
hmmm. Hmmmmm. HMMMMMMMMMMMM.
Maybe I have only about a year or so left at this place, especially given my plans for semi-retirement instead of just FIRE.
I could probably make this work pretty well if I owned my own home and was only on the hook for maintenance, taxes, insurance. So once I own a free and clear house, Firecalc basically says I'm good.
hmmm. Hmmmmm. HMMMMMMMMMMMM.
Maybe I have only about a year or so left at this place, especially given my plans for semi-retirement instead of just FIRE.
-
George the original one
- Posts: 5406
- Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:28 am
- Location: Wettest corner of Orygun
AND generated an income stream of $300/month, I could retire today. Now just to go find that income stream, right?
I spent a year developing many small passive income streams, and one thing I noticed over and over again is that the streams would die out if I truly left them alone (let them be passive).
For example, I designed some t-shirts in 2008, and here are the sales numbers for these t-shirts since then:
2008: 337
2009: 257
2010: 51
2011: 29
In the beginning I was making ~$10/shirt, and now I'm making ~$2/shirt, due to commission cuts by the website where I sell my shirts.
You can imagine how excited I was to have created what I thought was a passive income stream worth ~$2k-3k/yr... except these days it's throwing off around $50-100/yr, and soon it will probably be nothing.
The eBook that I worked on followed the exact same pattern of falling sales.
There certainly are lots of different ways to make money out there, and as a resourceful person you can certainly count on yourself to always come up with something... but the idea that you can just set something up that will throw off $x/yr without any additional effort... well that has decidedly not been my experience.
I spent a year developing many small passive income streams, and one thing I noticed over and over again is that the streams would die out if I truly left them alone (let them be passive).
For example, I designed some t-shirts in 2008, and here are the sales numbers for these t-shirts since then:
2008: 337
2009: 257
2010: 51
2011: 29
In the beginning I was making ~$10/shirt, and now I'm making ~$2/shirt, due to commission cuts by the website where I sell my shirts.
You can imagine how excited I was to have created what I thought was a passive income stream worth ~$2k-3k/yr... except these days it's throwing off around $50-100/yr, and soon it will probably be nothing.
The eBook that I worked on followed the exact same pattern of falling sales.
There certainly are lots of different ways to make money out there, and as a resourceful person you can certainly count on yourself to always come up with something... but the idea that you can just set something up that will throw off $x/yr without any additional effort... well that has decidedly not been my experience.