Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

simplex wrote:
Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:31 am
Your internet income looks quite dependable in relation to the amount of work you put into it. Congratulations.
Thanks!

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

March 2018

It was a three paycheck month so even though I spent too much on groceries and sporting goods I saved 73%. :)

Expenses
Alcohol & Bars 12.65
Auto & Transport 30.67 (routine car maintenance)
Bills & Utilities 17.22
Business Services 27.98
Charity 20
Clothing 177.76 (I bought a lot of sports clothes. My old stuff was getting really smelly and torn up so it needed to be replaced.)
Gas & Fuel 42.63
Gift 36.93
Groceries 307.14 (Too high!)
Gym 39.04
Hotel 48.18 (For a future vacation.)
Internet 21.1
Mobile Phone 16.31
Mortgage & Rent 740
Pharmacy 15.81
Sports 88.41 (Replaced shoes with holes in them.)
Total -FI 1641.83

Income
Paycheck 3787.79
Amazon 33.87
Checking 9.49
Gift 54 (Not really a gift, I sold something I wasn't using.)
457b 2145.09
Total +FI 6064.11

Savings 4422.28
% Spent 27%
% Saved 73%
SWR 8.1%
SWR with Internet Income 7.9%
Years Remaining 8.1
Years Remaining with Interest 4


Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading; I will rather say more necessary, because health is worth more than learning.
Thomas Jefferson

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Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

A few quotes as a reminder to myself.

"You deserve what you accept."
Not sure of the author

"If you don't have a plan for your life, someone else does."
Not sure of the author

“A ‘no’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.”
Mahatma Gandhi

Jason

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Jason »

Gilberto de Piento wrote:
Fri Apr 20, 2018 12:42 pm
“A ‘no’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.”
Mahatma Gandhi
I think the more one dedicates themselves to that statement, the less people will ask of them. If you say no to yourself on the deepest level, I think it will manifest in people not asking you for things. But really, what the fuck do I know.

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

May 2018

I went on vacation but it didn't completely blow up the budget. An OK month.

Expenses
Alcohol & Bars 27 (Extra due to vacation)
Bills & Utilities 14.8
Business Services 43.15
Gas & Fuel 104 (Extra due to vacation)
Gift 6.86
Groceries 271.94 (Extra due to vacation)
Gym 39.04
Hotel 31.06 (Vacation)
Internet 21.1
Mobile Phone 15.92
Mortgage & Rent 740
Parking 43.5 (Vacation)
Pharmacy 23.71 (Vacation)
Restaurants 207.84 (Vacation)
Travel 237.45 (Vacation)
Total -FI 1850.73

Income
Paycheck 2529.03
Amazon 12.53
Checking 9.73
457b 1384.6
Total +FI 3935.89

Savings 2085.16
% Spent 47%
% Saved 53%

SWR 9%
SWR with Internet Income 8.9%

Years Remaining 11.5
Years Remaining with Interest 6


I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.
Khalil Gibran

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Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

May 2018

I spent too much as usual.

Expenses
Alcohol & Bars 25.3
Auto Insurance 232.23 (six months)
Bills & Utilities 17.22
Business Services 180.34 (domains renewed)
Fast Food 40.14
Gas & Fuel 57.58 (summer driving season)
Groceries 233.09
Gym 39.04
Internet 21.1
Laundry 20
Mobile Phone 17.61
Mortgage & Rent 1166.5
Restaurants 70.09 (one expensive night out)
Sports 100 (replaced cracked bike wheels)
Total -FI 2225.24

Income
Paycheck 2529.02
Amazon 46.73
Google 126.08
CafePress 56.13
Checking 10.73
Gift 383 (mostly sold things but it goes in the gift category)
457b 1430.06
Total +FI 4581.75

Savings 2356.51
% Spent 49%
% Saved 51%
SWR 11%
SWR with Internet Income 10%
Years Remaining 20.3
Years Remaining with Interest 8


Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

June 2018

I had a really good month in June, with a savings rate of 75% based on fairly low spending and some unexpected extra income at work. This resulted in a low SWR of 7.9% or 6.0% if internet income is included.

I have too much in cash right now. I need to invest it somewhere. I'll probably put it into an index fund but I'm trying to think about other options.

Expenses
Alcohol & Bars 12.65
Bills & Utilities 17.22
Business Services 27.98
Charity 20
Fast Food 12
Gas & Fuel 26.38
Groceries 203.98
Gym 39.04
Home Improvement 40.88
Home Insurance 299.5
Internet 21.1
Laundry 20
Mobile Phone 15.51
Mortgage & Rent 740
Sports 13.99
Total -FI 1510.23

Income

Paycheck 4207.84 (Made some extra money at work, unfortunately it was a one-time opportunity)
Amazon 52.87
CafePress 25.06
Internet Ads 300 (Awesome!)
Checking 14.27
Gift 65 (Sold some more stuff I wasn't using)
457b 1430.06
Total +FI 6095.1

Savings 4584.87

% Spent 25%
% Saved 75% (Wow! This is a really good savings rate for me.)

SWR 7.9%
SWR with Internet Income 6.0%

Years Remaining 6.8
Years Remaining with Interest 4


If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.
Zora Neale Hurston

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George the original one
Posts: 5404
Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:28 am
Location: Wettest corner of Orygun

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by George the original one »

It looks like next year you will often be bouncing off the 4% goal often enough to be an incentive.

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

It looks like next year you will often be bouncing off the 4% goal often enough to be an incentive.
I hope something can motivate me. I'm a hard worker but I have a difficult time getting motivated to make more money.

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

OK, this probably isn't going anywhere, but I've decided to try to motivate myself using a reward. I nearly always drink a beer each night. I don't think I'm an alcoholic or anything but if I don't get my beer I get a little antsy. I'm going to try an experiment where if I don't sit down at the computer and do at least one internet marketing related task (no matter how small) I don't get a beer. The rule does not apply on weekends, holidays, or during vacations. I'd rather be internally motivated but if this gets me to do a little work and make a little money it would help to get me on the right track. I'll report back on how it goes, even if I quit or the results are not good.

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Bankai
Posts: 986
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2014 5:28 am

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Bankai »

I don't know man. Sounds like you want to do to yourself what marketing is trying to do - associate something bad (alcohol) with something good (in commercials - happy moments with friends etc., in your case - a reward for hard work). This would have a possible effect of increasing productivity at the cost of strengthening the alcohol habit. What about choosing something that's actually good or at least neutral for you as a reward?

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

I hear where you are coming from but I think we might have a fundamental disagreement about alcohol. I agree that alcohol can be bad but I don't see one beer per night as bad.

I think it is more likely that this experiment will decrease my alcohol intake since I'm already drinking one beer per night and on days where I don't work I will now get no beer. I do agree that my plan could cause an unintended link between work and drinking but it seems unlikely to me. I will watch for any negative outcomes.

If I could think of anything else that would be a good reward I would try it. Coffee is about the only other thing that I can think of that I would miss if it was taken away. I don't seem to respond to positive reinforcement like "if you work five days in a row you get a new whatever."

Thank you for thinking this through with me.

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

July 2018

I moved so I had to pay some extra expenses. Despite this my spending was relatively low this month. :)

I didn't start the experiment mentioned earlier regarding beer and working on internet marketing. Things were just too busy. I suppose that is an excuse and someone more determined would have fit it in anyway. I'm going to return to the idea soon. :roll:

I still have about $25,000 in cash that I need to invest somewhere. I've been reading books about dividend investing and it makes sense but I'm concerned I don't have the time to do it properly. I'm also concerned that about half the examples in the book are of stocks I don't want to purchase directly for moral and environmental reasons (though I am mostly comfortable owning them in an index, it makes no sense). I do like that the dividend stocks produce more consistent income though. I've been doing some thinking about what it would be like to live off of my current asset allocation and it would be a wild ride. I may invest in a dividend index fund in hopes of smoothing out my income somewhat and being better able to weather a bear market.

The last chart below is relatively new and I don't think I've shared it before. In these monthly reports my "S"WR is always bouncing around because it is very responsive to spending and swings in the market. The chart shows a rolling 12 month average of SWR and I think does a better job of really showing where I stand.

Expenses
Alcohol & Bars 44.88 ($20 is due to trading beer for an item, it was a good deal)
Bills & Utilities 33.89 (overlapping costs this month)
Business Services 27.98
Charity 20
Fast Food 25.29 (due to moving)
Gas & Fuel 81.14 (partially due to moving)
Gift 6.2
Groceries 234.35 (not bad)
Gym 39.04
Home Improvement 198.31 (needed materials and tools, doing the work is a good investment)
Internet 25.19 (overlapping costs this month)
Mobile Phone 15.36
Mortgage & Rent 740
Restaurants 39.59
Shopping 15 (recycling fee for a broken microwave)
Total -FI 1546.22

Income
Paycheck 2565.44
Amazon 65.05
Google 118.55
Checking 14.25
457b 1430.06
Total +FI 4193.35

Savings 2647.13
% Spent 37%
% Saved 63%

SWR 7.8%
SWR with Internet Income 6.9%

Years Remaining 6.9
Years Remaining with Interest 4


Man’s mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

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Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

August 2018

My internet income went crazy and covered two thirds of my expenses this month! Unfortunately this is unlikely to be repeated but it's still great. This extra income plus a three paycheck month and reasonable expenses led to a record savings rate of 77.6%. :mrgreen:

I'm still working on moving some cash into Vanguard. I'm thinking of putting $15,000 into VDADX (dividend appreciation fund). "This low-cost index fund seeks to track a benchmark that provides exposure to U.S. companies that have a history of increasing dividends. The fund focuses on high-quality companies that have both the ability and the commitment to grow their dividends over time..."

Expenses
Bills & Utilities 89.66 (this is going to be higher from now on)
Business Services 27.98
Charity 70
Fast Food 57.07 (did some travelling)
Gas & Fuel 37.24
Gift 5.26
Groceries 272.8 (this includes alcohol, it got mixed up this month)
Gym 39.04
Home Improvement 78.71 (doing some needed work)
Internet 50.1 (temporarily up)
Mobile Phone 15.95
Mortgage & Rent 790.73
Restaurants 46.58 (higher than I'd like it to be)
Shipping 1
Shopping 14.5
Total -FI 1596.62

Income
Paycheck 3877.96 (three paycheck month!)
Amazon 86.24
CafePress 32.88
Internet Ads 908 (wow!)
Checking 15.45
Gift 62.98
457b 2145.09
Total +FI 7128.6

Savings 5531.98
% Spent 22.4%
% Saved 77.6%

SWR 7.8%
SWR with Internet Income 2.8%

Years Remaining 7.3
Years Remaining with Internet Income 0 (If you use the internet income to offset costs my investment income would be enough to cover my remaining expenses)


It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.
C. S. Lewis

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Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

I put $15,000 into Vanguard's VDADX dividend appreciation index fund this week. I've been a Boglehead style indexer for a long time but I'm concerned that if I am really going to live off of these investments at some point the all US or target date index funds I've been in are too unreliable in a downturn. I'm hoping something more focused on dividends will provide a more stable income without sacrificing much accumulation.

I have another $10,000 to allocate at some point. I'll probably do the same thing with it but it needs to come out of another account so I haven't moved it yet.

I would have liked to wait until a downturn (which feels somewhat close at hand) to buy but I am not confident I can time the market. Also I think it would have been best to buy individual stocks but I just don't have the time to do the necessary research and I also am not sure I would be successful at it. This was a case of "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

I bought another $10,000 in VDADX just now. It's now about 10% of my portfolio, VTSAX is another 13%, and a Vanguard target date fund makes up the rest. This isn't part of some master plan, it's just what happened.

I'm fully invested other than my emergency fund. The emergency fund probably needs to be downsized a little but it's a matter of one or two thousand dollars so it doesn't matter a whole lot.

I sometimes wonder if I am making a mistake by not putting some of my investment money in an IRA but I'm afraid they will change the rules and I won't be able to get it out for early retirement purposes.

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

September 2018

This month I bought a few big ticket items (phone, car parts, house parts) and it caused my savings rate and SWR to suffer. I probably should have tried to put one or more of them off to spread them out but I didn't because I just wanted to get them done and move on.

Unrelated to money, I'm really feeling a lot of time pressure lately. I have more work to do than I can get done. I also feel like my life is off track, though I don't think this journal is the right place to discuss the specifics. I have had some troubling thoughts lately that I am on track to become an "old man, filled with regret"* because I didn't do many of the things I would have liked to have done with my life and the window has closed or is closing rapidly on those possibilities. Time for a midlife crisis? :lol:

* A nice phrase, from the entirely unrelated movie Inception.

Expenses
Alcohol & Bars 12.65
Auto & Transport 194.28 (The car needed an oil change and brakes. The parts add up, especially using the 15,000 mile synthetic oil.)
Bills & Utilities 101.44 (Need to look into this in detail at some point and see if anything can be done to lower these costs.)
Business Services 66.32 (Some websites renewed.)
Charity 20
Clothing 5.31
Fast Food 16.86
Gas & Fuel 41.86
Groceries 212.88
Gym 39.04
Home Improvement 210.68 (Still spending money on the house. This will continue but is a good investment.)
Internet 23.73
Mobile Phone 238.81 (The old phone wasn't dead but it had become very, very slow. I got a new one on sale and it is working well. If it lasts nearly three years like the old one it will be less than $10 per month, not so bad. I'm also hoping it has a good enough camera that I don't have to replace my nearly dead point and shoot.)
Mortgage & Rent 790.73 (It's been fun to watch the amount owed on the mortgage ["death lock"] creep down, though it is moving very slowly.)
Pharmacy 22.1
Shipping 10
Shopping 9
Total -FI 2015.69

Income
Paycheck 2601.83
Amazon 57.29
Google 100.22
Checking 16.97
Gift 15.41
457b 1430.06
Total +FI 4221.78

Savings 2206.09
% Spent 48%
% Saved 52%

SWR 9.7%
SWR with Internet Income 8.9%

Years Remaining 14.7
Years Remaining with Interest 6


I don’t count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. That is when I start counting, because then it really counts. That’s what makes you a champion.
Muhammad Ali

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Smashter
Posts: 540
Joined: Sat Nov 12, 2016 8:05 am
Location: Midwest USA

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Smashter »

Gilberto de Piento wrote:
Fri Oct 12, 2018 10:10 am
I also feel like my life is off track, though I don't think this journal is the right place to discuss the specifics.
Have you read the journals around here lately? :D That kind of stuff is the best part!

But really, I have been struggling with similar thoughts and would leave to see you expound, here or elsewhere. I am due for an update as well.

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

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by LiberateMind »

Its your journal and think aloud. That makes the journal more interesting. By the way, love your quotes.

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

October 2018

A vacation and a political donation caused some extra spending but still not a bad month in part because of significant extra income. It's too bad I like traveling or I could save some more money as this seems to happen a couple months out of every year.

Expenses
Alcohol & Bars 18.09 (Vacation)
Bills & Utilities 74.13
Business Services 27.98
Cash & ATM 60 (Vacation related miscellaneous expenses)
Charity 100 (Politics)
Doctor 15
Fast Food 15.52 (Vacation)
Gas & Fuel 53.69 (Vacation)
Groceries 287.88 (This is high for some reason)
Gym 39.04
Home Improvement 100.09 (Doing some repairs, hopefully it will pay dividends over the long term)
Hotel 197.25 (Vacation)
Internet 23.75
Mobile Phone 19.11
Mortgage & Rent 790.73
Parking 7 (Vacation)
Restaurants 71.54 (Vacation)
Shopping 52.68 (Vacation)
Total -FI 1959.48

Income
Paycheck 2601.83
Amazon 55.9
Google 126.02
CafePress 52.05
Internet Ads 452.6
Checking 7.31
457b 1430.06
Total +FI 4725.77

Savings 2772.29

% Spent 41.3%
% Saved 58.7%

SWR 9.9%
SWR with Internet Income 6.4%

Years Remaining 14.1
Years Remaining with Interest 6


The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.
Nassim Taleb

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