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Excited to be here

Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2016 9:06 am
by Lemur
I have lurked these forums for a while and figured its now time to make an account.

Background

I am 25 years old, prior military, married, and I have one child - a boy about 7 months old. I began my ERE journey about a year or so ago. Previously I had always saved up some money and invested because that is a topic I fell in love with; however, I didn't exactly know what I was saving up the money for. I would always thinking "it will compound and I will get rich one day or something." Once I realized that early retirement is possible, that became my primary focus. Personally, I would like to have $1,000,000 so I can live quite luxuriously off $40,000 a year. My wife is a foreigner from the Philippines and we have plans to retire there one day. As far as we know, the $1,000,000 goal is subject to change (if we can effectively learn to live on less) or whether we want to stay in the Philippines (maybe / maybe not so much to consider and too far ahead for my thinking)

Career
I have recently just separated from the military and I am seeking employment. In fact, tomorrow I have a job interview for a government GS internship so I hope I can get it because it will be my first form of employment since leaving the military. I hold a Bachelor's Degree in Finance and will be pursuing a 2nd Bachelor's in Accounting beginning this Fall. If I get this internship, I plan on relocating so I can live pretty close to its location (this is a strategy I learned from the Early Retirement community that I can't wait to implement - the strategy of living close to work to reduce commuting costs). I feel as if I am in a career re-building stage. In the military, I worked construction; a line of work that had nothing to do with Finance. I separated knowing I may have to take a step backwards to make a step forward.

Current Net Worth
I currently hold 3 investment accounts

-TSP from the military: $2,000 or so. I don't know the exact number actually but wish I allocated more to this when I served
-Roth IRA: $18,000
-Brokerage: $31,000
-My Son's 529 College Savings: $300
-Savings - $7,000
-Total Investments (not counting kid's college and savings): $51,000 (5.1% towards my goal)

My investments are simply spread across several Vanguard index funds (VOO, VO, VIOO, VCIT, VEA, VWO) and a REIT (Realty Income Corporation: O). My strategy is simply buy and hold and I simply invest when I have funds ready to put in the funds that area underweight in my allocation.

Frugality
I'm still learning much in this department but my biggest accomplishment so far, last year, was cutting down my electricity bill from $250 to $74 at one point. I bought a kill-o-watt and learned about phantom loads, using LED lights, efficient shower heads, turning off the water heat (or just lowering it), hang drying cloths, and washing my clothes on cold water to name a few.

Some of my future goals

-Savings rate of 70%. I managed to hit 62% for a one month period. The 70% truly alludes me.
-Start a garden and grow my own foods
-Finish my 2nd Bachelor's Degree and get closer to earning a CPA
-Side business?
-Lose 25 pounds

Thanks for reading my post. I am thinking of starting a journal. I also have my own retirement blog but I won't be advertising that here.

Re: Excited to be here

Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2016 9:34 am
by Gilberto de Piento
Welcome! Your improvement on the electricity bill alone is huge.

Re: Excited to be here

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 9:22 am
by Lemur
Some of my future goals

-Savings rate of 70%. I managed to hit 62% for a one month period. The 70% truly alludes me.
-Start a garden and grow my own foods
-Finish my 2nd Bachelor's Degree and get closer to earning a CPA
-Side business?
-Lose 25 pounds
Umm...it has been just over a year when I made this thread. How much has changed?

-I have yet to achieve a savings rate of 70%. In fact, I'm stuck at 25% which automatically goes to my 401(k). Cost of living is higher than I thought where I live now + child is a bit more expensive than I thought.

-I did hit this goal! Yesterday I harvested my first squash and tomorrow I will harvest another. It is a very small garden (49 sqft), but I have 2 squash plants, 4 onions plants, and 2 cucumbers just planted recently.

-I took a different track. I decided to pursue a Master's instead of a 2nd Bachelor's. I am halfway through.

-I tried a business but ended up getting a federal contractor job. I like what I am doing.

-I did not lose 25 pounds. I have lost about 5 pounds or so. I'm the world's laziest dieter. I still have 20 pounds or so to go.

Re: Excited to be here

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 11:45 am
by wolf
Hi. Welcome. I think that you have a great ressource here for fresh ERE ideas. The beginning phase is always exciting. Stay on course and keep saving.

Re: Excited to be here

Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2020 1:20 pm
by Lemur
LOL at myself for bumping this but this is interesting as it has been almost exactly 4 years since I joined these forums. Here some before/after:

Career - I successfully rebuilt myself from military to government consultant working for Big4...

Net Worth - $51k investments to $157k investments. Counting spouses investments/cash looking at $250k ish.

Frugality - I actually did not change much in this department. Having a son increased expenses slightly but other than that I got to a certain level and stopped there. I'm more in the "don't consume stage" but haven't made it to the creativity / renaissance stage. This I attribute to my relatively high salary making me lazy in this department...

Future Goals - Funny what I projected here. Savings rate is 40% steady these past 4 years. Had I had a 75% ERE style savings rate...I probably could have been talking retirement later this year instead of projecting 6-10 more years of work. Side business? Nah, 40 hours a week is enough. CPA? Lol I went for a Master's and then after I completed two years ago I swore off more schooling. Also are those the same 25 pounds I'm trying to lose right now? ....I did start a garden though and discovered some new hobbies here.

The best part of this post is a success. Very first paragraph...At first I wanted a cool $1m to live a 'luxurious life'. That sure did change a lot. Now I'm aiming for $600k and a purposeful life...

I'm still 'excited to be here' . I savor the fact that a forum like this exists. Its such a niche forum....and one that I hope continues to stay around for a long time.

Re: Excited to be here

Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2020 4:05 pm
by Vaikeasti
Nice to see an update here! I think this is a great way to use these posts.

Keep up the good work!

Re: Excited to be here

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2020 9:12 am
by Workingsucks
I love that you keep coming back to give updates. Life doesn't always work out exactly the way we plan it to. But it looks like you're doing a great job! Keep up the good work. Dont even get me started on losing weight lol. I've been trying to lose 40 pounds for at least the past 2 years. :)