Hristo's FI Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
Hristo Botev
Posts: 1734
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:42 am

Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by Hristo Botev »

Before I buckle up for the work day, with DW's likely exit from the workplace, at least for the time being (she's given her boss a deadline of this Friday to get her a final yes/no on the part-time option), here's what the budget should look like going forward (it's been awhile since I've done this):
  • P/I: $1,012
  • HOA: $254
  • Life Ins.: $59
  • Kids' Sports (fees, uniforms, equipment): $250
  • Internet: $20
  • Utilities (water/elec./gas): $150
  • Cell phones (3 people): $45
  • Groceries: $500
  • Home Stuff: $50
  • Restaurant: $100
  • Dog: $50
  • Gifts: $150
  • Travel/Ent./Misc.: $250
  • RV Storage (hopefully a short term thing): $250
  • Car Gas: $60
  • Clothing: $100
  • Beauty (not mine, I assure you): $100
  • ATM: $100
  • Total: $3,500

This doesn't include 529 savings ($666.68), charitable giving ($400-$500), and it also doesn't include the big expenses we pay once or twice a year: school tuition, property taxes, home insurance, and car insurance, for which we set aside $2,000/mo. But adding that all in to the mix and we should still end up with about $1,500 extra each month, after accounting for the fact that the health insurance premiums will be coming out of my paycheck now.

So, doable, as this would still work out to somewhere between a 40 and 60% savings rate, as opposed to a 55-75% savings rate, which is what we're at now. Very much worth it. And this only accounts for my base salary; not development and performance bonuses.

Hristo Botev
Posts: 1734
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:42 am

Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by Hristo Botev »

Just for fun, for comparison. Progress; slow, for sure--but progress nevertheless:
Hristo Botev wrote:
Wed Aug 01, 2018 9:46 am
July 2018 expenses

mortgage, insurance, property taxes: $1,925.30
less mortgage principle: ($330.44)
health/dental/vision insurance (and wife's workplace gym membership): 431.18
HOA (water, trash, landscape, insurance, etc.) (includes an extra payment; normally $200): $400
electric: $99
gas: $37.67
my cell: $73.41 (need to get on family plan with wife; my former employer paid my cell bill but I lost that with the job change)
wife cell: $51.23
kids' tuition: $1,517.60
dog: $444.98 (boarding for a week while at the beach; need to figure out a smarter way to do vacation)
grocery/home: $1,572.66 (wtf)
restaurant: $1,106.14 (wtf)
car: $202.62
clothing: $935.85 (includes kids' uniforms for the year, but nevertheless, wtf)
entertainment: $697.05 (wtf)
gifts: $286.84
cleaning lady: $130.00 (have switched from 2x mo. to just 1x mo, and we are working on phasing this out completely)
internet: $19.99
term life insurance premium: $59.15
ATM: $165.25 (probably mostly babysitters)
Playstation Vue: $44.99 (got it for the World Cup; have already cancelled it)
wife gym: $109
me gym: $29.99 (working on cancelling it)
Spotify: $9.99 (already cancelled it)
Total: $10.019.45

Jiimmy
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Location: Nevada

Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by Jiimmy »

Damn, enormous progress I'd say. Nice work

mooretrees
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Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by mooretrees »

That cell phone looks perfect! I'm totally interested in it too.

Cool to see your progress. Groceries, wow, what a drop! In some cases, categories are gone too, no gym, no cleaning lady and such a smaller amount for entertainment/misc! Nice work.

Got that book on hold at the library, glad my instinct was to wait a few days (thanks ERE!). Picked up the Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson in the meantime. https://www.amazon.com/Ministry-Future- ... 247&sr=8-1

Kind of a crazy, weird book that is actually almost hopeful about climate change. Not the most cohesive novel, but it's nice to read something hopeful, even if it is fiction.

Scott 2
Posts: 2824
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by Scott 2 »

Great progress. I'd want to account for your known unknowns too:

home maintenance - repairs, service, replacing aging furnishings/appliances
similar for the car
healthcare copays and deductibles
same for dental
taxes on capital gains or dividends

Those can hit pretty hard and blow up the budget. Your burn rate of $6700/month offers some slack, as does the high savings rate. So practical concern is low. This would be more for future maneuvering, as well as optimizing life time tax management strategies. That last one could offer 10k's to 100k's of money on the table, especially given your intent to keep earning.

Mendes
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Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2020 7:15 am

Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by Mendes »

Great to receive your updates again. Your journal is really inspiring!

Hristo Botev
Posts: 1734
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:42 am

Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by Hristo Botev »

Thanks @mendes. Used a homemade cleaner for the weekend housecleaning for the first time--1 part white vinegar, 3 parts distilled water, and the juice from about 4 lemons (mixed in an a repurposed spray bottle). Worked just fine; and the lemon seems to balance out the smell of vinegar quite nicely, which was a concern I had. Check that off the list of one more thing that I don't have to run to Wal-Mart for anymore. Next I want to try and get a good recipe for a glass cleaner--seems like rubbing alcohol is the trick (with water and vinegar); but we'll see.

Hristo Botev
Posts: 1734
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:42 am

Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by Hristo Botev »

Thank God for a return of the school year and a return to a regular schedule. DW and I up at 5:30, followed by a little over an hour of focused reading (M, W, F) or barbell training in the garage (T, R (also Sa or Su)), then about an hour for getting everyone ready for the day before walking out the door with the kiddos for the long, arduous 5 min. walk to school, followed by another 15 minutes or so for me to walk from the kids' school to the office, during which I can get caught up on my podcast listening. I do love our little morning routine.

For reading, I'm finally tackling the Iliad (just started Book 13), and my "light" reading (i.e., what I read at night) is currently Ernst Junger's Storm of Steel. I didn't really plan it this way, but the two books pair very well together in their usually differing, but sometimes similar, takes on battle and warfare--from the ~1200 BC Trojan War to the trench warfare of WWI.

I should have read the Iliad a long time ago; and I understand why it's a story that's been told for so long. The Odyssey is next. And for the light reading I'm picking up Louis L'Amour's memoir Education of a Wandering Man.

For the barbell training, last week was another set back as work has been crazy, and one of the side effects of work-related stress for me is I sleep horribly, sometimes just an hour or two a night--and the barbell training gets dropped. That said, I'm back on my schedule this week and this morning I was able to hit my numbers from where I'd left off. Just trying to get a little but stronger each week; I'm now benching my body weight 3 sets of 5, which is stronger than I've ever been. But, my deadlift and press are pathetic (my deadlift is only about 5 pounds ahead of my squat on my novice linear progression). I used to really enjoy deadlifts, but clearly I wasn't lifting heavy before; cuz now I really dread doing them. Good news is I'm only doing deadlifts every other workout now, because my body can't really recover fast enough to do deadlifts every workout. On the alternate days I'm doing power cleans instead; which is fine for now because I'm not doing them heavy yet--but I'm not sure my garage is set up for doing truly heavy power cleans.

Finally, today is the day (I think) for DW to make her go/no-go call at work. She's meeting with her boss and her boss's boss in a couple hours. My guess is she'll get more delay tactic stuff; which is fine, DW has already gotten very comfortable with just walking away completely if that's what it comes down to. Honestly, I think she's just moved beyond that job in her mind, and she's ready for the next thing. It'll be interesting.

white belt
Posts: 1452
Joined: Sat May 21, 2011 12:15 am

Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by white belt »

Hristo Botev wrote:
Tue Aug 10, 2021 7:31 am
For the barbell training, last week was another set back as work has been crazy, and one of the side effects of work-related stress for me is I sleep horribly, sometimes just an hour or two a night--and the barbell training gets dropped. That said, I'm back on my schedule this week and this morning I was able to hit my numbers from where I'd left off. Just trying to get a little but stronger each week; I'm now benching my body weight 3 sets of 5, which is stronger than I've ever been. But, my deadlift and press are pathetic (my deadlift is only about 5 pounds ahead of my squat on my novice linear progression). I used to really enjoy deadlifts, but clearly I wasn't lifting heavy before; cuz now I really dread doing them. Good news is I'm only doing deadlifts every other workout now, because my body can't really recover fast enough to do deadlifts every workout. On the alternate days I'm doing power cleans instead; which is fine for now because I'm not doing them heavy yet--but I'm not sure my garage is set up for doing truly heavy power cleans.
The SS program in my experience can result in faster progression of your squat compared to deadlift due to the simple fact that you are squatting 3x a week always at the beginning of the workout and only deadlifting 1-2 times a week always at the end of the workout. Your squat is just getting more quality work so it will likely progress faster.

The other thing to consider is that your anthropometry might favor one lift over another. For example, if you have a long torso and short limbs then you will find squatting easier. If you have a short torso, long arms, and big hands then you will find pulling easier. Check out powerlifting great/freak of nature Ed Coan on YouTube if you want to see an example of what an ideal body type for the big 3 lifts looks like (he’s short with a long torso, short legs, long arms, broad shoulders, and giant hands). The first time he ever stepped in a gym he was able to pull over 400 lbs, which shows how much genetics is a factor in lifting.

The sleep issues from work related stress is a concern, especially if it’s something that is happening every week. You might want to examine that more and figure out some better stress management strategies.

Hristo Botev
Posts: 1734
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:42 am

Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by Hristo Botev »

DW's boss waited until the absolute last minute, but it's official, she's going to be allowed to go part time, to a .5 FTE.

Score this one as a win for having FU money, and bargaining from a position of strength; because DW's boss REALLY didn't want to accommodate DW's request, but she was left with very little choice because she knew DW was serious when she said she was walking Sept. 3 if the answer was no.

We're pretty excited at the Botev household, as I think ultimately this is probably the best case scenario for DW personally and for our family collectively. She's accomplished all that she wants to accomplish in this particular career, as far as success milestones are concerned, but she still likes the day-to-day of seeing patients and practicing her profession; she just doesn't want to do it 40 hours a week. But she'd probably also get a little stir crazy at home all the time, with the kids in school and mostly self sufficient and me still at the office. There's only so much volunteering and side-hustle entrepreneurship stuff you can do.

So now, instead of 10 days every 2 weeks, it'll be 5 days every 2 weeks, and we'll get to keep the fantastically cheap (but still gold-plated) healthcare coverage that comes with working for a large healthcare system. And she'll get to volunteer at the kids school (our daughter is already dreading having her mom volunteering for lunch duty!), and with the church, and she's got a long list of projects around the house she wants to get to, and lots of ideas for small side-hustle business ideas she wants to explore (who wouldn't be interested in a cooking-centric summer daycamp, run by a registered dietitian with a masters in public health, where lunch is provided and the kids bring home dinner!?).

I'm a little bummed that we aren't going to be forced to make our budget work on what would have been a pretty drastic slash to our income, once you factor in how much more we would have been paying for healthcare had DW quit--I was looking forward to the challenge. But perhaps we can still try and simulate that forced spending reduction by having her paychecks go straight to savings, in addition to the automatic savings we already have taken out of checking each month.

This is good news.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by Western Red Cedar »

That's great. Congratulations!!!

2Birds1Stone
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Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

I vote for simulating the pay cut and see if it hurts. If nothing else you learn something.

Congrats! That is an absolutely sweet setup.

Hristo Botev
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Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:42 am

Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by Hristo Botev »

Crazy stuff: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/y ... 0532793045; https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... s-earlier/

I've not been following the COVID origin stuff lately, so this podcast kinda blew my mind a bit. This guy (Josh Rogin from WaPo) seems to be saying (citing, inter alia, Rep. McCaul's congressional report) that the leak may have happened in late August or early September. I don't know how it could have gotten from Wuhan to my little corner of the American Southeast by late September (the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan were in late October), though my wife does work in a very large hospital and sees lots of patients every day, but here's my timeline:
  • According to my writings in this journal, I first woke up with a fever on Monday, September 30, 2019, after a brutal 10 days or so of nonstop movement in 90+ degree heat moving into our current house (viewtopic.php?p=197548#p197548).
  • According to my work emails, I first worked from home on Wednesday, October 2, 2019, and I got progressively worse throughout that week
  • I went to urgent care over that weekend, probably October 5, thinking it was the flu, and the doctor said it wasn't the flu (and also not pneumonia), but that it was some sort of upper respiratory infection
  • By Monday, October 7, I was actually rescheduling client calls because the fevers had me so wiped out that I only had a handful of moments in between fever spikes to get work done, and so was in triage mode work-wise
  • On Tuesday, October 8, I told my law partners that I was "still running a 103 fever," but had been told by the urgent care doc that 8-10 days is a reasonable expectation for this kind of thing to run its course, and was hoping that I was therefore at the turning point
  • On October 10 I told my law partners that I was still running "4-5 fever cycles a day," but that I was going to see my primary care doctor the next day; also, I had one last client call on October 10, during which I barely had any voice and was struggling to breathe--the client told me later that I sounded like death
  • On October 11 I went to my PCP, and she came rushing into the room as soon as the nurse reported my pulse ox to her (it was somewhere in the low 80s, IIRC); she told DW to take me straight to the emergency room--she also listened to my lungs and said I definitely had pneumonia
  • I was intubated pretty shortly after arriving at the ER, on Oct. 11, and I remained that way until Oct. 14; and I was ultimately discharged on Oct. 19 (though it took me several weeks after that to get to a point where I could walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded)
  • For almost all of the time that I was at home sick, before going to the hospital, DW had me quarantined in our bedroom, and she was the only person I had contact with
  • I emailed a friend who is an infectious disease doctor (who was somewhat familiar with my case) in March 2020, asking if she thought I maybe had had COVID, and she said most likely not, as the "coronavirus that is circulating now was first identified in December in China"; however, she also said that "we never figure out what causes pneumonia for a significant minority of cases--and I think that's what happened to you"; that while what I had was a viral pneumonia, it couldn't have been the same virus causing COVID-19 given the timeline
  • DW tested positive for antibodies in April 2020
So, the timeline is interesting. They never did figure out what caused my pneumonia, and they had no idea why I got hit with such an extremely severe case, as a (relatively) healthy 41-year-old.

mooretrees
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Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by mooretrees »

Congrats on the part time win!

What a crazy timeline for your health last year. Dang. So glad you recovered.

TakeTwo
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Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2021 1:58 pm

Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by TakeTwo »

I just spent the better part of a few workdays getting through your journal and I just wanted to say thank you for all the inspiration.

Also, if you are still looking to add to your long reading list, I'd like to suggest Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America. It's a well reasoned philosophical rant that I think you would appreciate. Although, part way through, when I flipped back to check the copyright, I was a little depressed to see that it was written in 1977. So long and we've learned nothing.

Salathor
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Location: California, USA

Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by Salathor »

Hristo Botev wrote:
Tue Aug 10, 2021 7:31 am
I should have read the Iliad a long time ago; and I understand why it's a story that's been told for so long. The Odyssey is next. And for the light reading I'm picking up Louis L'Amour's memoir Education of a Wandering Man.
I was on a huge Louis Lamour kick in my early teens and recall reading his memoir, and although I can't remember any of the specifics I remember it being great. Roald Dahl also has a great autobio/memoir.

zbigi
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Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by zbigi »

TakeTwo wrote:
Tue Aug 24, 2021 3:24 pm
I just spent the better part of a few workdays getting through your journal and I just wanted to say thank you for all the inspiration.

Also, if you are still looking to add to your long reading list, I'd like to suggest Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America.
Interestingly, Czesław Miłosz (one of my favorite writers, and Polish Nobel laureate) has met Wendell Berry and was surprised and disappointed to basically see your standard liberal-arts college professor, in a tweed jacket, playing all the political games (being nice to everyone but esp. to people who matter etc.) and otherwise meeting the stereotype. He was expecting some kind of rebel farmer vibe instead. Miłosz himself held a professorship at Berkeley as his dayjob, but he stayed outside of the coteries and didn't play their games.

7Wannabe5
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Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

In a previous life, I worked at one of the central hubs for U.S. book store tours. Sometimes writers are just like their writing voices, but very often they are not.

Hristo Botev
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Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:42 am

Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by Hristo Botev »

zbigi wrote:
Wed Aug 25, 2021 5:03 am
Interestingly, Czesław Miłosz (one of my favorite writers, and Polish Nobel laureate) has met Wendell Berry and was surprised and disappointed to basically see your standard liberal-arts college professor, in a tweed jacket, playing all the political games (being nice to everyone but esp. to people who matter etc.) and otherwise meeting the stereotype. He was expecting some kind of rebel farmer vibe instead.
Hmm, if you're going to criticize Wendell Berry on this journal, you're going to need to do a better job of it; this strikes me as a rather lazy ad hominem attack that seems to be entirely irrelevant to whether or not Berry's The Unsettling of America is well reasoned and/or worthy of suggestion. Are you saying that Berry is some sort of a poser? And if so, what does that have to do with the wisdom and reasoning of his essays, and The Unsettling of America in particular?
TakeTwo wrote:
Tue Aug 24, 2021 3:24 pm
I just spent the better part of a few workdays getting through your journal and I just wanted to say thank you for all the inspiration.
I'm flattered, though I could probably think of an infinite number of ways your time could have been better spent!
TakeTwo wrote:
Tue Aug 24, 2021 3:24 pm
Also, if you are still looking to add to your long reading list, I'd like to suggest Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America. It's a well reasoned philosophical rant that I think you would appreciate.
I'm definitely a fan of Berry and of The Unsettling of America in particular; his Library of America set of essays in one of my most cherished items in my library. Like the Bible and the Catechism, it's one of those rare books on my bookshelf that I can just randomly flip open and find some real nugget of truth and wisdom.
Image
TakeTwo wrote:
Tue Aug 24, 2021 3:24 pm
Although, part way through, when I flipped back to check the copyright, I was a little depressed to see that it was written in 1977. So long and we've learned nothing.
I hear you, but I wonder if his ideas aren't starting to really catch on in certain influential circles. Granted, I tend to limit what I read, see, and hear to folks who are likely to be Berry-esque in their worldview and their criticisms of modern life, at least in some ways. But, I'm reading and hearing a lot more about the importance of "place" now than I used to (and in many unexpected places), as a rejection of the narrative that "success" means abandoning home and family to go work for BigCorp, etc. So perhaps there is hope that Berry will eventually be more fully embraced as a prophet, warning us all of the evils of modern life while offering himself up as a sort of model for an alternative way of living.

zbigi
Posts: 978
Joined: Fri Oct 30, 2020 2:04 pm

Re: Hristo's FI Journal

Post by zbigi »

Hristo Botev wrote:
Wed Aug 25, 2021 7:43 am
Hmm, if you're going to criticize Wendell Berry on this journal, you're going to need to do a better job of it; this strikes me as a rather lazy ad hominem attack that seems to be entirely irrelevant to whether or not Berry's The Unsettling of America is well reasoned and/or worthy of suggestion. Are you saying that Berry is some sort of a poser? And if so, what does that have to do with the wisdom and reasoning of his essays, and The Unsettling of America in particular?
Not a critique at all, I liked his books too. Just an observation about the guy himself, not his work, and one that may or may not mean much - he probably just had to adopt a "liberal arts professor" persona to survive in that environment.

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