Alex K Journal

AlexK · Post by **AlexK** » Thu Nov 25, 2010 5:41 am

I am 37 and living in Sparks, NV. Currently working as a mechanical engineer in the semiconductor industry.
I was living the american dream (big house and mortgage, lots of toys, small savings account). I found some books (How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World, YMOYL) and the ERE blog in 2008 . I became motivated to change my ways. I was spending about 3k per month I estimate.
Since then I have moved into a very modest house which I paid for with cash, rented out the original house (almost no cash flow and I owe what it's worth), and reduced my expenses considerably. No mortgage but HOA, utilities, DSL, property taxes are about $400/mo.
I make money on the side by buying/selling/fixing motorcycles so I need to have a garage to do that. It isn't passive income but I like doing it and it helps a lot with the saving.
I still have two cars, two motorcycles, a few bicycles, a closet full of guns so I'm far from a minimalist, although I'm getting better.
Below is a graph of my expenses and earnings versus time since I have been keeping track. I have found that simply the act of keeping track has motivated me to improve. I think the fact that I'm posting it here for all to see will do even more. My assets are not graphed: 80k in retirement accounts and 25k in individual stocks and cash, maybe 50k in home equity.
My ERE goal includes doing work that is of interest to me, but I want a significant cushion of at least 10 years expenses (not including retirement accounts for life after 60) before I quit my day job.
I look forward to meeting members of this forum in person as we seem to have many common interests outside of personal finance.

aquadump · Post by **aquadump** » Fri Nov 26, 2010 6:49 am

It seems like you've reached the cross-over point, along with an unaccounted padding. How much longer do you plan to "work?"

AlexK · Post by **AlexK** » Fri Nov 26, 2010 7:13 am

The non-employer income isn't passive and it's highly variable. I don't want to rely on that yet. For example a lot of it is ebay sales and ebay is always changing their fees (sometimes ebay makes more than I do from my effort). What I should graph is passive income like akratic does, but that would be so small since I don't have many investments yet. I don't count the 401k and IRA because I can't access any of that until age 59.5.