Cheers

[Jeremy]

About a month ago I read about this crazy guy that lives off of tuna fish and beans and spends less than $10 a day, so I had to check that out. Turns out the guy isn't so crazy and writes some interesting and thought provoking blog posts
I'm 36, and about 2 years ago I hit the point where my portfolio's dividends and interest paid our bills so I slowed down on savings and started using my salary for things like a (used) Porsche and other "entertainment." It was a sweet ride, but after not driving it for 3 months because the bus and walking are easier, I dumped it to the highest bidder. I'm now back up to saving about 90% of my after-tax income and the dividends and interest get auto-invested back into the portfolio
I spend a lot of money on food because I eat mostly from farmers markets and in this area (Seattle) they seem to target the yuppie crowd. (We are mostly raw.) All up, my monthly expenses are about $1300 (2x that including the DW.) I have an HSA, but my employer pays the premiums, so this will go up a little bit if we live in the same area after I take the last stroll out the office door.
Originally, my last day was planned to be 10/1/2010, but we are working through the immigration process for my wife and I don't want to have to explain the 4% SWR to the immigration officer when we have our first interview and he asks why I don't have a job ("Wait, you're "unemployed?!?!"). In the mean time, there were some changes at work and I'm on a new project working with long time friends and people I enjoy working with, so my exit date is TBD
We are planning some serious adventures in the coming years, namely sailing around the world, long distance backpacking (we've done the Wonderland Trail), being snowboard bums, scuba diving, extended duration yoga school in India, driving a van around to all the US National Parks (which I refer to as living in a van down by the river), and various other travel. Ultimately, we plan to "settle down" on a small plot of land, living based on permaculture principles. Good times
I've enjoyed following the ERE blog. It has definitely inspired me to be more efficient with some expenses and to consider replacing the 20 minute bus commute with a 14 mile bicycle ride

[gibberade]

Hi Jeremy,

You're planned adventures sound amazing! Backpacking, sailing, national parks, scuba diving, a Walden lifestyle...WOW.

Kudos to you for switching from bus to bike. Such a great way to get around.

Glad you saw the light when it comes to materialism too. Selling your Porsche and saving 90% is quite the turnaround.

Expensive prices for good quality food can sure be frustrating, I agree.

[ktn]

You save 90% of your post-tax income + have monthly expenses of about $1300 = post-tax income of atleast 13k? Care to tell us what you do for a living? I am sure many of us would like to attempt a route like that.
I'd be interested in hearing about your portfolio strategy as well, as I am just starting out on mine.
Great plans for post ER living.. that is quite a fun list indeed! Congrats on being so on track.

[Jeremy]

@gibberade - I only tried on the materialism hat for a brief while after I'd already reached a "good enough" portfolio, but it wasn't really for me. I guess a tiger can't change its stripes. As a reference for how much stuff I have, I could fit everything I own into the back seat of that car, including a guitar, a snowboard, a vitamix, a food dehydrator, and all of my books.
@ktn - I do super geeky engineering stuff in the mobile phone industry. This basically means I meet with CTO type people and help guide the direction of their companies investments in future technologies. Thanks to the perceived need to develop things like better iPhones, people think that what I do is important and I get a decent income from it. Technically I could get a much larger salary if I switched companies to get a bigger title. A couple years ago I was asked to interview for a VP of Development position at Palm, but I didn't want to be in the Bay Area and I didn't want to work 80 hours a week so I politely declined.
Re: Portfolio Strategy

I have thought of my portfolio as having two pieces, one being the index funds that cover the broad market and another being a calculated effort to massively grow the total capital. I've seen some reference's to Harry Browne's Permanent Portfolio in the forums, and if I recall correctly he would have called the former Investing and the latter Speculating. An index fund is basically a way of buying a lot of different stocks because you aren't sure which ones are going to be the winners, kind of like using a shot-gun to hit a target. You just blast it and get it all.
Buying individual stocks is more like using a rifle, where you take careful aim and only pull the trigger when you find a good one. If you have some skill you might hit it. I have a few of those stocks too. Since most of my salary currently goes to savings, this is the portion of my portfolio I intend to grow
The money I have in index funds is money I don't want to lose, and is what I plan to live off of, so this is what I use for the 4% SWR calculations. If this goes to zero, I'm screwed. If the individual stocks I have go to zero, its a bummer but I still eat. If they go up 1000% percent, I eat really well (or more likely my heirs eat really well.)
I've adopted this strategy partly because I had enough starting capital that I could hit the 4% SWR without having to get big returns from my portfolio. I actually plan to not touch the capital here and just live off the dividends and interest, so I'm looking at more like a 2.5% withdrawal rate.
Most of what I have invested was cash up until a couple years ago, when I went all in after the market dipped 25%. Unfortunately, it fell another 40% so I guess I had poor timing, but its now back above where I started. All is well that ends well
Since its easier to keep what you already have then to earn new $, I've tried to tax optimize my investments by buying interest bearing funds in my IRA, and buying stocks that will get most of their return through capital gains in my standard brokerage account.
Most of the shotgun portion of my portfolio is in VTI and VEU, with some bond funds like IEI, TIP, MUB, and also some GLD. I keep some of the portfolio in bonds because having twice as much money wouldn't make me twice as happy, but having half as much money would definitely impact my state of mind
I haven't tried to explain this to anybody for awhile so if it isn't clear let me know