Matt's Journal - Currently on FIRE (After working 10 years)
Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2019 6:31 pm
Hey everyone, I wanted to give a breakdown of my story and what my plan is in case anyone is interested. This year due to discovering ERE I was able to achieve FIRE (mostly lean). Here's the main details.
The Background
38 years old male, single, living in NJ, working consistently only for 10ish years. Was broke through most of my 20's, never worked all that much. I was tired/exhausted all the time but didn't know why (more on that later), by my late 20's I discovered coffee and was able to get into programming after many years of absence. I Took a job for 13/hr and within 4 years was earning 170/hr BUT that was cut short after a year due to being sick. I've had a lot of on again off again jobs because of that.
Through most of it I was never a huge spender in terms of buying lavish things, but I did spend a lot on just living itself. I'd say my salary over those 10 years probably averaged out to 100k-130k. I saved most of the money I earned, however I'd say my yearly burn was about 50k or so, sometimes more when I couldn't work (never got disability).
The one thing I did well was avoid stupid purchases, I did buy a new Honda Civic for 27k but I didn't buy a Bentley (which at one point I could easily afford), so at least I wasn't insane. I wouldn't say I was ever really frugal though, mostly because I came from a poor background and just didn't like that feeling, however I also was afraid to dump money on dumb things. My goal was just to save up as much as I could, and then when I got too tired I would take time off. And that's what happened. I'd work for a year then take 3-4 months off. Obviously that ate into my savings, but due to my health I had to do it. I also gave a lot of money away to help others, mostly kids, in the third world.
Something strange happened...
Then about 5 years ago I started getting really sick. A few months after I had moved to the North East and I started getting all sorts of crazy things happening mostly in one day. I felt stabbing pains in my spine, I was seeing spots (which had been happening before but it got way worse), My heart was beating very irregularly and I couldn't breath well. My muscles started siezing up if I did anything like make a fist or use anthing other than the most minimal strength. It felt like someone had turned up gravity, like I weighed 1200lbs. I was thinking heart attack but I didn't have any chest pain. It got worse, I started having insane hot flashes (I'm a guy, didn't even know what that was till I got them), I couldn't even lay down without my heart feeling like it wasn't pumping properly, and strangely if I fell asleep I'd be like electric shocked back to consciousness immediately after I fell asleep. It was literally the most insane thing ever. I didn't even know most of this could happen to a person.
I went to the hospital the next day, after 8 hours of waiting the doctor told me he was gonna run some tests. He did that and did a chest X-Ray (during which I heard technician say through the door "OH MY GOD, I've never seen anything like this, Karen come have a look!" while looking at my X-RAY... Yeah that was terrifying. Turned out she wasn't talking about my x-ray at all, which turned out to be normal). Then the doctor came back after all that and said "You are fine, You are just having a panic attack. This is all in your head". I explained patiently that I wasn't panicied (other than what was currently happening) and that this was legit. He didn't believe me at all, thankfully though the head doctor at the hospital seemed to believe me and said she was gonna run some other tests. They sent me home and said I'd be fine. Just gave me some pills with opioids. Told me "Just be careful, they are addicting". Thanks doc! I never used them as I wasn't in severe pain.
Got a call a few days later. Turned out I had a super severe bacterial infection in my brain and spinal cord. Normal range goes from 0.9 to 1.1 (1.1 is a positive), I was at 2.8. Didn't cause a fever at all, or any normal sickness signs. Apparently I had had it for years and that was what was causing my severe fatigue, at this point though my body just kinda caved in and it took over. It's a spiral bacteria (Borrelia burgdorferi, aka Lyme) related to syphilis, literally a lot of the symptoms are the same. It's not a STD though, it's tick bourne. Anyway, the only symptom I ever got was being tired afaik, but long term with both diseases it moves into your internal organs and starts going to town on your body. Apparently it can cause virtually anything to go wrong.
Anyway, I got on antibiotics and that fixed the super severe symptoms. I no longer felt like I was dying, and I was able to go back to work. Still though I was pretty tired. I was able to trudge through my work but just bearly. I've never really been a healthy eater but I hadnt gotten too big because I exercised so much (basketball, etc). After that incident however I didn't care much at all. I was too sick to cook and I was in so much discomfort I would spend any amount of money to make that go away. And paradoxically when I ate worse I felt some relief from my symtoms (apparently most of the issues I was having are not due to the bacteria itself but your body's immune reaction, so maybe eating bad hurt my immune system and therefore I felt better? no idea).
Considering how to reduce expenses
Enter ERE. So for a long time my goal was just to earn enough money I could go someplace and not have to work, mostly because it was so exhausting. I was thinking India or Thailand. Maybe even hire some people and do a little startup. But that just wasn't practical because I wasn't very healthy. Takes a lot to move across the world when you feel like you haven't slept. And I didn't have millions of dollars where I could just retire in the US.
So, in May of 2019, things just go worse to the point where I couldn't work again. I wasn't having the awful symtoms of before but I was literally so weak I couldnt sit at my desk for more than 20 minutes. My arms felt like I was lifting 200lbs just working at a keyboard. So I knew at that point I was in some trouble. My burn rate was $5,000+ a month and I knew if I couldn't work I'd be broke in 5 years or so. So I was pretty desperate for some options, I knew I needed to live cheaply but I didn't know what that meant or how it was possible.
I saw a youtube video with Graham Stephan and he mentioned how he's basically earning a million a year through YouTube but is only spending 1200 a month. That kinda blew me away. He mentioned his expenses and it kinda opened my eyes to what was possible. I mean I should be able to cutback somewhat, but I didn't really know how or think it wasn't really practical. I think he mentioned Jacob though and I got to ERE from there.
Discovering ERE
What stood out to me about Jacob is that he was so extreme, and so adamant about how extreme he was. Extreme in the sense that he basically said "You don't need all this stuff you think you need". And it made me realize... 'Hmm... maybe I don't'. I knew I couldn't hit his exact level of austerity but I could probably reduce my expenses and the more I reduced the longer I could go without havig to work. It really just hit me like a ton of bricks and made me question all the things I spend money on. Did I really need to pay that much for rent (I live in NJ and it's not cheap), did I NEED to spend 100 on internet? What if I got the 50 dollar package instead?).
Initial Spending Reductions
So I spent a week straight feeling sick and tired but reading as much of the ERE website as I could. I think what helped me was to realize I had to do it in chunks. I couldn't go from 5500 a month to 1k a month. I just need to start with what I could and reduce from there. So the immediate thing I was able to do was cut my eating out bill down. I would go to a local store here and get coffee like 2 or 3 times a day at 2 bucks a pop. That's 4-6 dollars a day I was wasting. So I went out and bought coffee and just made it at home. 10 cents a cup instead. That just exhilerated me. I also went to the grocery story and bought anything I wanted, realizing that eating out was way too much. I was spending 12 bucks to eat at Chipolte (and I ate out at least once a day). Ultimately if you spend 5 a meal from the grocery store it's much cheaper than $12 eating fast food. So that first month I got my food budget down to about $400, so a $600 a month savings. It doesn't sound like much but it was something. I was also able to remove a few bills and services I didn't need. Any little bit helped. I think that first month I saved ~1.3k overall.
Spending Breakdown:(2k utils and rent, 1k for car - 400 for car payment; 600 for gas and tolls, 1k for food, 1500 for everything else, including health insurance and golfing when I felt good.)
Getting a cheaper place to live
So now I was down to about 4.2k a month. The biggest expenses of course was housing. Now I knew if I could get down to 1 Jacob I could quit my job and live off the money I got from my investments, probably even 2 jacobs or about 15k a year. Still that was a long way to go. But that would mean that IF I could get down that low, then I wouldn't have to work, or at least not work as much. I think that was the key. The job was just taking up so much of my time where my time would be better spent working on my health (better diet, trying things, etc). Also the fact that my earning power was MUCH higher than his but my net worth was much smaller.
So with the realization that I wouldn't have to work I looked into what options I had for housing. I knew I could buy a cheap sub 100k house, and if I did I could reduce my expenses by about 1400 a month. And I wouldn't need to work so being farther from everything was no big deal. I love to drive so I knew I couldn't go full Jacob with no car, so the issue of getting groceries wasn't a problem, I didn't have to be close to that stuff. So I started my search and found a house for 90k in a small town that was livable. I knew the area and it's pretty quiet, nice neighbors, and safe enough.
I ended up buying it in cash. That brought my new monthly burn down by 1400 a month. Still had to pay $600 a month for property tax, utils and what not.
My new burn was $2,800. Still pretty high. A quick solution there was to rent out my other bedroom to a relative. I've lived alone my whole adult life but my thinking was that I'd rather have to make some sacrifices than to keep working forever. So it made sense. I got 600 a month from that, so that brought me down to $2200 a month. Cool, I was getting close.
My Car Costs
My 1k, monthly car bill was reduced because I was able to pay off the loan (was at the end of the term). So that brought that down by 400. Now we're at $1,800. I didn't have to pay any tolls anymore because I'm not driving to Philly, so about 200 a month savings. Now we're at $1,600. getting closer. Also reduced my driving somewhat so I saved on gas. Got me down to around 1400 total burn.
Other expenses
From $1,400 I was able to cut down golf somewhat (it's easier because it's cold outside), that's saving me about 150 a month, now we're at $1,250. Also was able to cut my insurance down by about 250 a month because I'm not going to be working as much so I qualify for a discount (which is good because I just can't to the extent I used to). That got me to about 1k a month burn.
So that's where I'm at now. In 6 months I got my expenses down from ridiculously high to pretty reasonable and was able to achieve FIRE. Even if the market is down and I want to replenish my money I'd only have to work about 2 months per year to more than cover all my expenses for the year and then some (granted I'm high earning but still).
I think even if I had only 6 months money saved up and could only earn 40k I'd much rather work 6 months of the year and have 6 months off for whatever I want to do. If I REALLY scrimped down I figured out I could get my expenses down to roughly $400 a month. I'm not willing to do that unless for some reason I absolutely had to but it's possible.
Hitting Fire
I hit fire once I bought my house a couple months ago and since then I've really focused heavily on my diet. No more junk, just healthy stuff I cook at home. Lots of greens and things that are good for you. Since then I've had more success healthwise. More energy. Not a ton but I can function much better than before. But instead of going back to work I'm going to just focus on my health and getting better, and whatever little side projects I feel up to.
Okay so why do a journal? If I already hit FIRE, what's the point? Well basically this is my retirement life. My goal isn't to not work but to work on things I'm more interested in. For example, maybe write some apps, another book (I wrote a tech book that was #1 in it's category for a while), a blog, a youtube channel (so cliche I know). Just work on things I find interesting, which is the whole point of ERE. You get to do what you want with your time. Long term I want to travel more if I'm up to it.
So that's my plan. Ultimately I owe Jacob a huge debt of gratitude and I'm very thankful that he woke me up to what is possible. I just didn't have any idea. I never thought about retiring early, or at all really. I thought I'd have to just trudge on but because of the drastic reductions I was able to make, I don't have to be part of the rat race anymore. I'll keep updating this as I go.
The Background
38 years old male, single, living in NJ, working consistently only for 10ish years. Was broke through most of my 20's, never worked all that much. I was tired/exhausted all the time but didn't know why (more on that later), by my late 20's I discovered coffee and was able to get into programming after many years of absence. I Took a job for 13/hr and within 4 years was earning 170/hr BUT that was cut short after a year due to being sick. I've had a lot of on again off again jobs because of that.
Through most of it I was never a huge spender in terms of buying lavish things, but I did spend a lot on just living itself. I'd say my salary over those 10 years probably averaged out to 100k-130k. I saved most of the money I earned, however I'd say my yearly burn was about 50k or so, sometimes more when I couldn't work (never got disability).
The one thing I did well was avoid stupid purchases, I did buy a new Honda Civic for 27k but I didn't buy a Bentley (which at one point I could easily afford), so at least I wasn't insane. I wouldn't say I was ever really frugal though, mostly because I came from a poor background and just didn't like that feeling, however I also was afraid to dump money on dumb things. My goal was just to save up as much as I could, and then when I got too tired I would take time off. And that's what happened. I'd work for a year then take 3-4 months off. Obviously that ate into my savings, but due to my health I had to do it. I also gave a lot of money away to help others, mostly kids, in the third world.
Something strange happened...
Then about 5 years ago I started getting really sick. A few months after I had moved to the North East and I started getting all sorts of crazy things happening mostly in one day. I felt stabbing pains in my spine, I was seeing spots (which had been happening before but it got way worse), My heart was beating very irregularly and I couldn't breath well. My muscles started siezing up if I did anything like make a fist or use anthing other than the most minimal strength. It felt like someone had turned up gravity, like I weighed 1200lbs. I was thinking heart attack but I didn't have any chest pain. It got worse, I started having insane hot flashes (I'm a guy, didn't even know what that was till I got them), I couldn't even lay down without my heart feeling like it wasn't pumping properly, and strangely if I fell asleep I'd be like electric shocked back to consciousness immediately after I fell asleep. It was literally the most insane thing ever. I didn't even know most of this could happen to a person.
I went to the hospital the next day, after 8 hours of waiting the doctor told me he was gonna run some tests. He did that and did a chest X-Ray (during which I heard technician say through the door "OH MY GOD, I've never seen anything like this, Karen come have a look!" while looking at my X-RAY... Yeah that was terrifying. Turned out she wasn't talking about my x-ray at all, which turned out to be normal). Then the doctor came back after all that and said "You are fine, You are just having a panic attack. This is all in your head". I explained patiently that I wasn't panicied (other than what was currently happening) and that this was legit. He didn't believe me at all, thankfully though the head doctor at the hospital seemed to believe me and said she was gonna run some other tests. They sent me home and said I'd be fine. Just gave me some pills with opioids. Told me "Just be careful, they are addicting". Thanks doc! I never used them as I wasn't in severe pain.
Got a call a few days later. Turned out I had a super severe bacterial infection in my brain and spinal cord. Normal range goes from 0.9 to 1.1 (1.1 is a positive), I was at 2.8. Didn't cause a fever at all, or any normal sickness signs. Apparently I had had it for years and that was what was causing my severe fatigue, at this point though my body just kinda caved in and it took over. It's a spiral bacteria (Borrelia burgdorferi, aka Lyme) related to syphilis, literally a lot of the symptoms are the same. It's not a STD though, it's tick bourne. Anyway, the only symptom I ever got was being tired afaik, but long term with both diseases it moves into your internal organs and starts going to town on your body. Apparently it can cause virtually anything to go wrong.
Anyway, I got on antibiotics and that fixed the super severe symptoms. I no longer felt like I was dying, and I was able to go back to work. Still though I was pretty tired. I was able to trudge through my work but just bearly. I've never really been a healthy eater but I hadnt gotten too big because I exercised so much (basketball, etc). After that incident however I didn't care much at all. I was too sick to cook and I was in so much discomfort I would spend any amount of money to make that go away. And paradoxically when I ate worse I felt some relief from my symtoms (apparently most of the issues I was having are not due to the bacteria itself but your body's immune reaction, so maybe eating bad hurt my immune system and therefore I felt better? no idea).
Considering how to reduce expenses
Enter ERE. So for a long time my goal was just to earn enough money I could go someplace and not have to work, mostly because it was so exhausting. I was thinking India or Thailand. Maybe even hire some people and do a little startup. But that just wasn't practical because I wasn't very healthy. Takes a lot to move across the world when you feel like you haven't slept. And I didn't have millions of dollars where I could just retire in the US.
So, in May of 2019, things just go worse to the point where I couldn't work again. I wasn't having the awful symtoms of before but I was literally so weak I couldnt sit at my desk for more than 20 minutes. My arms felt like I was lifting 200lbs just working at a keyboard. So I knew at that point I was in some trouble. My burn rate was $5,000+ a month and I knew if I couldn't work I'd be broke in 5 years or so. So I was pretty desperate for some options, I knew I needed to live cheaply but I didn't know what that meant or how it was possible.
I saw a youtube video with Graham Stephan and he mentioned how he's basically earning a million a year through YouTube but is only spending 1200 a month. That kinda blew me away. He mentioned his expenses and it kinda opened my eyes to what was possible. I mean I should be able to cutback somewhat, but I didn't really know how or think it wasn't really practical. I think he mentioned Jacob though and I got to ERE from there.
Discovering ERE
What stood out to me about Jacob is that he was so extreme, and so adamant about how extreme he was. Extreme in the sense that he basically said "You don't need all this stuff you think you need". And it made me realize... 'Hmm... maybe I don't'. I knew I couldn't hit his exact level of austerity but I could probably reduce my expenses and the more I reduced the longer I could go without havig to work. It really just hit me like a ton of bricks and made me question all the things I spend money on. Did I really need to pay that much for rent (I live in NJ and it's not cheap), did I NEED to spend 100 on internet? What if I got the 50 dollar package instead?).
Initial Spending Reductions
So I spent a week straight feeling sick and tired but reading as much of the ERE website as I could. I think what helped me was to realize I had to do it in chunks. I couldn't go from 5500 a month to 1k a month. I just need to start with what I could and reduce from there. So the immediate thing I was able to do was cut my eating out bill down. I would go to a local store here and get coffee like 2 or 3 times a day at 2 bucks a pop. That's 4-6 dollars a day I was wasting. So I went out and bought coffee and just made it at home. 10 cents a cup instead. That just exhilerated me. I also went to the grocery story and bought anything I wanted, realizing that eating out was way too much. I was spending 12 bucks to eat at Chipolte (and I ate out at least once a day). Ultimately if you spend 5 a meal from the grocery store it's much cheaper than $12 eating fast food. So that first month I got my food budget down to about $400, so a $600 a month savings. It doesn't sound like much but it was something. I was also able to remove a few bills and services I didn't need. Any little bit helped. I think that first month I saved ~1.3k overall.
Spending Breakdown:(2k utils and rent, 1k for car - 400 for car payment; 600 for gas and tolls, 1k for food, 1500 for everything else, including health insurance and golfing when I felt good.)
Getting a cheaper place to live
So now I was down to about 4.2k a month. The biggest expenses of course was housing. Now I knew if I could get down to 1 Jacob I could quit my job and live off the money I got from my investments, probably even 2 jacobs or about 15k a year. Still that was a long way to go. But that would mean that IF I could get down that low, then I wouldn't have to work, or at least not work as much. I think that was the key. The job was just taking up so much of my time where my time would be better spent working on my health (better diet, trying things, etc). Also the fact that my earning power was MUCH higher than his but my net worth was much smaller.
So with the realization that I wouldn't have to work I looked into what options I had for housing. I knew I could buy a cheap sub 100k house, and if I did I could reduce my expenses by about 1400 a month. And I wouldn't need to work so being farther from everything was no big deal. I love to drive so I knew I couldn't go full Jacob with no car, so the issue of getting groceries wasn't a problem, I didn't have to be close to that stuff. So I started my search and found a house for 90k in a small town that was livable. I knew the area and it's pretty quiet, nice neighbors, and safe enough.
I ended up buying it in cash. That brought my new monthly burn down by 1400 a month. Still had to pay $600 a month for property tax, utils and what not.
My new burn was $2,800. Still pretty high. A quick solution there was to rent out my other bedroom to a relative. I've lived alone my whole adult life but my thinking was that I'd rather have to make some sacrifices than to keep working forever. So it made sense. I got 600 a month from that, so that brought me down to $2200 a month. Cool, I was getting close.
My Car Costs
My 1k, monthly car bill was reduced because I was able to pay off the loan (was at the end of the term). So that brought that down by 400. Now we're at $1,800. I didn't have to pay any tolls anymore because I'm not driving to Philly, so about 200 a month savings. Now we're at $1,600. getting closer. Also reduced my driving somewhat so I saved on gas. Got me down to around 1400 total burn.
Other expenses
From $1,400 I was able to cut down golf somewhat (it's easier because it's cold outside), that's saving me about 150 a month, now we're at $1,250. Also was able to cut my insurance down by about 250 a month because I'm not going to be working as much so I qualify for a discount (which is good because I just can't to the extent I used to). That got me to about 1k a month burn.
So that's where I'm at now. In 6 months I got my expenses down from ridiculously high to pretty reasonable and was able to achieve FIRE. Even if the market is down and I want to replenish my money I'd only have to work about 2 months per year to more than cover all my expenses for the year and then some (granted I'm high earning but still).
I think even if I had only 6 months money saved up and could only earn 40k I'd much rather work 6 months of the year and have 6 months off for whatever I want to do. If I REALLY scrimped down I figured out I could get my expenses down to roughly $400 a month. I'm not willing to do that unless for some reason I absolutely had to but it's possible.
Hitting Fire
I hit fire once I bought my house a couple months ago and since then I've really focused heavily on my diet. No more junk, just healthy stuff I cook at home. Lots of greens and things that are good for you. Since then I've had more success healthwise. More energy. Not a ton but I can function much better than before. But instead of going back to work I'm going to just focus on my health and getting better, and whatever little side projects I feel up to.
Okay so why do a journal? If I already hit FIRE, what's the point? Well basically this is my retirement life. My goal isn't to not work but to work on things I'm more interested in. For example, maybe write some apps, another book (I wrote a tech book that was #1 in it's category for a while), a blog, a youtube channel (so cliche I know). Just work on things I find interesting, which is the whole point of ERE. You get to do what you want with your time. Long term I want to travel more if I'm up to it.
So that's my plan. Ultimately I owe Jacob a huge debt of gratitude and I'm very thankful that he woke me up to what is possible. I just didn't have any idea. I never thought about retiring early, or at all really. I thought I'd have to just trudge on but because of the drastic reductions I was able to make, I don't have to be part of the rat race anymore. I'll keep updating this as I go.