Liberate Minds Journal.

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fiby41
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Re: Liberate Minds Journal.

Post by fiby41 »

Follow up question: how does spending the following year correct mistakes in the previous year?

More details will be highly appreciated.

I ask because father has allowed my to optimize his taxes with my limited knowledge. I'll share about it after December in my journal.

LiberateMind
Posts: 197
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:18 pm

Re: Liberate Minds Journal.

Post by LiberateMind »

@fiby41,

Thanks for commenting.

Yes tax filing. I made the mistake of filing for the previous year instead of the current year after the due date. I am not able to correct via the system and has to spend for auditor and interest and stuff.

There is no mistake as such in the previous year, except me and my sister have gifted my family to buy a car for my parents. This gift is almost 45% of my current year expenses.That's one of the dads long time wish, which I happy to see fulfilled. In fact he works from 17 to till now for his parents and brothers and then for our family, now for us. We use it regularly between me ,my parents and sis ,which I happy with. Because of this we can transport lots of luggage back ( including idli batter and vegetables from farm which makes my life bit easy ) and forth :-) I can have it for a month also with me according to family travel plans.

More in the sense what I mean by remedy is to save more and spend consciously instead of the impulsive decisions. I would like to increase the net worth as much as possible in the coming year. But again my first priority would be starting the family and improving the quality of my life than the net worth. I can afford to slow down on the increase of net worth. I believe my net worth can cover for my shelter , basic food and clothing for my entire life if required but it definitely cant support the current life style. So onward and upward for the future.

LiberateMind
Posts: 197
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:18 pm

Re: Liberate Minds Journal.

Post by LiberateMind »

MDFIRE2024 wrote:
Mon Nov 20, 2017 12:54 pm
Wow. Well done! Congratulations to your progress! Would be great if you keep us up-to-date. Thank you for sharing. I gotta start now to read at the beginning of your journal.
Thanks for reading and commenting!! All my decisions are not based on finance alone, so won't find my journal a straight path to ERE rather with many zigzags now and then.

LiberateMind
Posts: 197
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:18 pm

Re: Liberate Minds Journal.

Post by LiberateMind »

Going to start a new journal as much of life, values and priorities has changed. Previously my thoughts were if I can cover my expenses on the investment flow then it is okay and I have reached my end goal for FI.
However, after my marriage I have to reevaluate my beliefs on the financial part and the contribution to the society and family. Things, which lead me to here, are,
  • I am married to a husband who cannot envision himself retiring, as he has to take care of his parents and want to do the social role of a husband in this society. Even though, I do share the share the financial expenditures with him, he would like to cover the family expenses on his income alone. Right now, almost all his income = His part of our expense+ parental support + Tax investments + Land Loan payment. Nothing much left after this. Therefore, it would practically take quite a long time for him to be FI.
    So two options for me,
    • I can work so that we can both retire pooling resources and using my income more towards investments. I have a few mental blocks to do this.
       I would like to make my decisions independently and do not want to make joint decisions financially. If I go via the path, what is yours is mine, what is mine is yours. Most likely it would end up what is mine is yours again due to gender biased social role-play.
      [Prevalent social practice in my (small town/ village circle (Not indicative of the entire region as it varies based on many many things). Here mostly males are the family heirs and daughters are given periodic gifts ( even though there is law towards equal inheritance rights to daughters as well, few families actually practice it) so majority of the decision making and the financial responsibilities as well financial decision making falls on the Male gender which is both a boon and a bane. Daughters mostly play homemaker roles (although it is changing much in the current generation and government also introducing schemes to improve the inequality in financial sense between genders) and would receive periodic gifts from the brothers on all the important events of her life. Although she will not get the property, she will get almost equal share in jewels, utilities and cash during the important events in her life. In the event of her widow hood or any unfortunate incidents, her brother / parents take the responsibility, so that she does not have to be dependent on the in-laws. Again, this is due to woman mostly staying home and not getting much exposure or getting a low pay working roles as they give priority to familial duties (like taking care of parent-in-laws, maintaining social circle, children first.)] I do not want to mingle my finances, as it would be very difficult to fight the perceptions and practices, which is followed and formed quite a few generations ago.

      o I can retire first. Whoa what a mess it would be. The responsibilities at home would shift more toward me. I derive much of my self-worth from my paycheck. I should find a proper alternative, before even considering retirement. Again, why I want to retire is to gain more freedom on my time and to experiment/structure my life. When my husband is working and with me retired, it would not be fair to expect him to take part in family duties as well. I would most likely doing the almost same amount of work at home (DH wants every dish to be done from scratch.. if time permits.. ) instead of office, which is a strict no no for me. I tend to burn out on doing routine tasks without much of appreciation or acknowledgement. Month long travel is not an option with him working. I would like to have a design of my lifestyle before even considering this option. Technically, I can resign tomorrow and my husband would be completely to take care of me (which is unfair to him and I don’t intend to do unless really needed). So it’s definitely not one-sided. It is just that we struggle with traditional gender roles and different expectations from each other.

      - If it comes to handling my parent’s health care, I would not like to ask and give. I would rather give and inform. We do not have a proper health care established for seniors here, even though there are government hospitals. The service is poor. As my parents got two daughters, I do not want them to be punished for that decision. Even now, my parents are working and won’t get monthly support from me and my sister. And I am also reluctant to give them as they tend to spend whatever they have on us or for the society, putting faith in god and us to take of them if the need arise. So I would like to be prepared and keep a cash buffer for their care.
    - It might look like a bleak picture on us taking so many responsibilities, but that is not much of the case in reality. We do get equal support from parents as well. Say during my sister pregnancy & childcare period for the past one year, my mom or her in-law is fully supporting her in day-to-day tasks. When she goes back to work, her in-law would take care of the baby or she can take the help from our mom. My in-laws acquire and process the rice, ragi, groundnut oil and such from farms and share it with our parents and us. It’s more interconnected. We do get familial properties from them, which would cover more than the financial expenditure they might need. However, I do not want to include that in my decision making process, when my parents or in-laws are in need of any medical attention. Yes, I will support for the medical needs of my in-laws as well, I do not have any qualms about that. Just the monthly support am not completely okay with.

    - I hope I didn’t paint a rather incorrect picture of DH. He is one of the most generous man I met in my life and quite sensitive to my needs. I firmly believe, he will take care of parents as well if it comes to that. He is more sacrificing kind of person, who shares more than his share of load. However, he has some stubborn beliefs, on which he would not budge from. And there we are bit incompatible and compete.
    So it turned out be long bit of why I can’t excuses post. Still I will reevaluate the beliefs and find ways to establish my life in line with my goals and ideals rather than the pre-established routine.
I have not yet decided on how to proceed on this whole retirement scenario. I would definitely want to be FI and with possibility to support my hubby and future childs as well.

Finance Ramblings and Goals:
My tracking of financials will take a different format from now on. I would be tracking only important metrics only for much individual finance and focus would shift towards the family finance.
Again, I have good cushion for any events in my life, so finance will take backseat in the coming year and few other goals will come front. DH and I transfer equal amounts to joint account based on the needs, this I would track as income and all the expenses and tax saving investments will flow from here. The goal is to keep it positive mainly.

Primary Goals:
- Start family either via IVF or naturally.
- Reduce distractions in your life.
Read only non-fiction books, which add value.
o Do purposeful browsing alone except for Saturday afternoon.

Sep Goals:
- Concentrate 2 hours of work in the office.
- Save 50% of your income.

The idea is to increase the number of hours I have control over and achieve my life goals as such.

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