cmonkey's journal

[jennypenny]

What a great room. I love the fireplace.

You do more work on your house in a week than I do in a year. It's embarrassing. I wish you'd slow down and stop making us all look bad.

[cmonkey]

What a great room. I love the fireplace.

You do more work on your house in a week than I do in a year. It's embarrassing. I wish you'd slow down and stop making us all look bad.

Thanks jp, we love the room too, it is about 400 square feet (20x20) and now that we have the double doors to the rest of the house it feels incredibly spacious inside. Compared to before....it's just amazing. We can now see from one side of the house (living room window) to the other side (hallway window) and its about 40-50 feet across.

WRT my speed.....it's mostly because I have nothing better to do....I'll be slowing down in about 2 weeks since all I will have to do is put trim on and put up ceiling fans and such. I'll probably start spending my evening laying on the carpet. No motivation to get up and work then.

Just to add to the pics above...we now have the entire ceiling drywalled today. 400 sq feet of drywall in about 6 hours I think with a small break. I built a brace out of 2x4 and attached handles. All she had to do was hold the brace/drywall in place while I screwed it up. I should have done that from the start....

[Dragline]

cmonkey rules. Score another one for the Iowa public schools (since I also attended them ).

Going to put you on a plane when I need a renovation job. And I'm only half joking.

[cmonkey]

cmonkey rules. Score another one for the Iowa public schools (since I also attended them ).

Going to put you on a plane when I need a renovation job. And I'm only half joking.

Yes, Iowa for the win. Although, I enjoy rural Iowa a lot more than suburban or urban. I grew up 3 miles from the nearest 'town' and only about 75 people lived there. School was 20 miles away.

[cmonkey]

One Year of Renovation Photos

Every so often I look back at my posts in this journal to see what I was doing X months ago, or last year at this time. Yesterday marked exactly one year since I put up the very first photo of the work we are doing to our home!

Here it is....we had just finished putting down the subfloor in our basement.




All of October last year was spent building the framing for the 3 rooms that we now live in full time. At least for the next 2 weeks.


It has been one hell of a (long/short) 12 months. It has absolutely flown by yet just dragged on and on and on. Very strange feeling.

Lending Club Returns

In other news, I am not doing a financial update this month (we spent everything again) other than posting this photo of our Lending Club returns compared to the aggregate. The top photo shows our 'site return' and the bottom photo shows our 'adjusted' return if all of our late loans were to get charged off today. You can see we are trending toward the top of the return line, so I am really happy with how our strategy is going.

These charts are zeroed in on accounts within 0.5% of our interest rate, accounts with more than 500 notes, and no note larger than 0.25% of total account value.







I will probably post a financial update for Sept and Oct next month. October paychecks are going to carpet. November we start saving again.

[cmonkey]

Big Changes At Work & Catastrophic Thinking

I'll preface this by saying that I hate change, and I know it's a liability. It's probably good to have change forced on you because it makes you grow, but it seems my natural way of going through life is to find good routines, one's that serve me and make me a better person, and sticking with them. Resist anything else.

Anyway, we have some large changes coming in our organization. A separation program has started, which is designed to push folks who are 1-2 years away from retiring out the door. Folks who have over 30 years of experience are being offered 1.5 years of pay as a lump sum payout if they quit at the end of the month. Needless to say, many people are biting! This include the 2 senior members of our team, the muscle, brains and planning behind everything. One of them is absolutely retiring. The other is flip flopping back and forth.

A separate position elimination program has also been started and while it's not affecting our area (our work is deemed "company critical"), we may get some 'eliminated people' shuffled in to fill the 2 spots which may open up. That's what happens here...you aren't technically 'eliminated' right away. You have 90 days to move elsewhere in the company.

The best case scenario is that 1 or both positions are filled and we continue on with just some hiccups.

The moderate case scenario is that neither position is filled and work responsibilities will be pushed onto the remaining 4 members of our team. This is what I am predicting due to budget constraints.

The worst case scenario (and the one I automatically default to) is that since the business relation on our team is leaving, our positions would be outsourced. I think this is highly unlikely but my mind entertains it anyway

We'll officially know after the end of the month what is happening. In any case, I am very thankful to have 5 years of expenses saved up at this point. By the time any other "separation programs" may roll around, I will have over 10 years of expenses saved.

This is why I pursue FI. So when this happens again, it won't even matter.

[_JT]

So, am I correct in seeing that your average ROR for Lending Club is about 8%?

[cmonkey]

So, am I correct in seeing that your average ROR for Lending Club is about 8%?

My site return is about 11.5%, and my adjusted (taking all losses now instead of spread out) is about 6.5%.

My actual return is just above 10%.

[FBeyer]

High-yield for the win (for now)!
I'm happy for you.

[cmonkey]

@FBeyer, thanks I am very happy with where we sit in the aggregate. The past year has been consider "tough" in the P2P space but I really haven't seen it, most haven't. There are a few more outliers now though. I like being invested a both ends of the capitalist model (producer & consumer levels) and have solid confidence in the consumer side of things for many years to come. My actual returns should drop to about 8-9%.

For the past few months, volume shrunk considerably at LC, but it has picked back up in the past month as investors return.

[_JT]

Cool, thanks for sharing. I have quite a bit of cash on hand I'm looking for places to invest, but with stocks and real estate both high in the areas I'm knowledgeable about I've been looking more to P2P.

[cmonkey]

Cool, thanks for sharing. I have quite a bit of cash on hand I'm looking for places to invest, but with stocks and real estate both high in the areas I'm knowledgeable about I've been looking more to P2P.

If you go with LC, the two criteria that I have deemed most important to my higher returns are 1. Zero Inquires and 2. Income greater than 72K annual (6K monthly). Outside of these two, I don't have much other than focusing primarily on C & D grade loans. Two other things I do to boost returns is no more than the minimum ($25) per note and don't invest less than $2500. I'd say to get good stable returns you should invest at least $5000-$10000, but LC states anything over $2500 is best.

[Dragline]

+1 on the loan criteria. I've been trying to go with incomes higher than $8K per month.

[steveo73]

This is why I pursue FI. So when this happens again, it won't even matter.

I think that this is a big positive in relation to pursuing FI.

My job is similar in that they are constantly restructuring and retrenching. They did it last year and I kept my job but you never know when it will happen again. I actually want to get retrenched but I'd prefer it to happen in a year or two's time. That way it would probably mean that I'm FI via the retrenchment package.

I think the process of becoming FI though is so important. I haven't worked much this week at all. I don't have much work on. I don't feel though that I have to turn up and push for more work. I think the process of becoming FI gives you more resiliency or at least it feels that way.

[_JT]

Cool, thanks for sharing. I have quite a bit of cash on hand I'm looking for places to invest, but with stocks and real estate both high in the areas I'm knowledgeable about I've been looking more to P2P.

If you go with LC, the two criteria that I have deemed most important to my higher returns are 1. Zero Inquires and 2. Income greater than 72K annual (6K monthly). Outside of these two, I don't have much other than focusing primarily on C & D grade loans. Two other things I do to boost returns is no more than the minimum ($25) per note and don't invest less than $2500. I'd say to get good stable returns you should invest at least $5000-$10000, but LC states anything over $2500 is best.

Great tips, thanks! I was looking at doing C & D loans, and I'd probably invest 10k or so for starters. But I'm waiting to hear back on a few real estate deals I may partner on instead.

[cmonkey]

It's Always Darkest Right Before Dawn

As of 3 pm yesterday.......CARPET!









With the pad, it is about 1.5-2 inches thick* and SO DAMN SOFT. When you have spent months and months walking on nothing but tiling and plywood......you just have no idea how wonderful carpet is, let alone luxury quality carpet. Yesterday completely justified the last 10 months of slaving away on this project. It's like walking on clouds, or cotten candy. It feels like I shouldn't be walking on it, lest I ruin it.




October

Anyway, October has been a pretty great month, but admittedly hard since we have be SO close to wrapping up this project....yet quite a lot to do yet. I think I had all the drywall up on the Weekend of Oct 8 and we also ordered our carpet on the 7th. Then I spent 2 weeks finishing the drywall and also finishing the drywall in our staircase. This was difficult! I had to use a ladder and it was extremely awkward. We spent the past week getting everything painted and I put the last coat of paint on the stairs the night before the carpeters arrived. Everything worked out perfectly.



DW's cousin also arrived on the 16th and she has been great to have around. She is 22 and is student teaching near our home. Its fun having someone new around, and someone who isn't like us**. We went out and celebrated turning the corner on our renovation last night by going to a local Indian restaurant. I have never been to one, and I have fallen in love. Too bad the price turns me away.


The next 2-3 weeks I will meander my way around putting all the trim on, the rest of the outlet covers and a couple of ceiling fans. All the little finishing touches. After that we need to fix up the old hardwood floor in our new bedroom. Nothing will be as intense as the last few months, and I am feeling really great.


In the mean time I have appropriately gotten a jump start on my long "to-read" list by picking up this classic by Tom Hodgkinson. I spent yesterday reading it while the carpeters worked away, and I skipped work in the afternoon by taking some much needed vacation (aka Skiving Off to you Brits ).




Sunrise

If July and August were the darkest parts of our year, September saw the sky starting to brighten a little bit. October has seen vast swaths of red and pink clouds filling the sky and November will see the sun dawn of the next phase of our life where we can enjoy our new home and raise a little ERE-style family. I am really excited to be reaching the end of this and get on with what comes next. I won't work so hard from now on....I promise. I will have one more update for this project - I'll post before and after photos of everything and also whip up some floor plans of before and after so you can see what we changed. Expect this in late November I think. Eventually I will finish the rest of the basement, but not for a while. I need a break.


Oh one more thing - tomorrow I get paid and it's the first paycheck since April where I will actually SAVE again and keep saving. So thrilled.

* It's so thick I needed to cut 1/2 inch off the bottoms of the doors, despite shimming them up 3/8 inch when I installed them.
**She is very extroverted/energetic and enjoys going out, as opposed to DW and I who would willingly spend 2-4 weeks huddled in our home if given the chance.

[vexed87]

@cmonkey, your place is really coming on. Is the cat indoor only, you're brave letting him/her on such a light carpet if not, although I guess they are cleaner than dogs... For this very reason, our homes have always had wooden/tiled flooring. Although I do like plush carpets, particularly in the winter! Dogs bring in vast amounts of dirt and water so it's impractical, ours is particularly clever and opens doors, even to get into the bedroom, so even for the technically off limits rooms, carpets are not feasible!

P.S., technically skiving isn't taking annual leave entitlement, it's like "playing hooky" which is naughtier, just sayin .

[cmonkey]

@vexed, Well I didn't log the vacation in our system, so.

Thanks for the compliment on the house. We are really happy to be this far. The trim won't take too long since it is pre-stained wood. Just cut and put it up. The two girls are indoor only and Monty is put into our fenced-in garden when the weather is nice. The only bit of carpet he can be on is the staircase, since we keep him in the basement. Even so I wiped his feet yesterday when I brought him in.

[FBeyer]

Indian food man... It's the proverbial bee's knees!
I've slowly dialed in a tarka dal recipe that I think is pretty close to what we can get at the local Indian restaurants around here. I also finally took the time to bake naan recently to complete the experience.

Let me phrase my excitement with an external image:



Despite the bad rap lentils get, dal might be one of my favorite foods right now!
Recipe coming to the Lifestyle section soon

'grats on the house. Enjoy it. And work hard not to let hedonic adaptation set in.

[llorona]

It's fun seeing your cats cautiously explore the new carpet.

Indian food is the bomb! With a few basic spices like cumin, coriander, tumeric, etc. and a good supply of garlic, ginger, and onions, you can replicate many recipes at home. This site has great recipes: http://showmethecurry.com/