Early Retirement Extreme Forums

The work travel is starting to wear me out already. In the past 8 weeks I've either been on the road 18 nights or 12+ hour days traveling into NYC/NJ about 15 days.

I'm starting to understand why people don't usually last in the startup culture. I am almost done with the work-shadow part of the ramp up phase, and into working with my own clients/pipeline. Already doing demo's and first pitch presentation on some shared accounts.

Had a long conversation with SO and she definitely doesn't like me being away so much. She tries to hide her disappointment, but I know her well enough. Unless work-life balance improves in the next few months, I don't see myself lasting into the summer.

The other big impact besides my relationship is the lack of energy when I'm not at work to do things I normally enjoy, namely cycling/MTB/running etc. I've still managed to hit the gym pretty regularly for weight training, but between sitting so many hours in offices/planes/trains and eating on the road a lot, it's definitely been counter productive to my weight goals. My 7 day rolling average is up to 204, which is still down 16 lbs from June, but also up 9 lbs from the low on 9/10.

I also feel less flexible/stiff, and noticed that I'm not sleeping as well. This past weekend I couldn't stop thinking about what I had on my plate for Mon-Wed. This is all silly because I have FU$, and don't know why I'm letting work stress my out as much as it has.

I'm sure 1 year of expenses disappearing from my portfolio the past 3 weeks hasn't helped =P

Good update. I’d write a longer more thoughtful response, but am stressed out by my own start up adventure I think it’s hard to continue accumulating net worth in that environment, other than a potential big payout at tail end. Personally I’m breaking even in terms of net worth and otherwise just spending all incoming cash on convenience. I do know that I am much more calm during current market ups and downs than I would be if I didn’t have cash coming in.

Look forward to hearing how things play out! Seems like you’re building a good resume so you can definitely afford to take a break this summer if you want.

Hey tb, I've been following along with your adventure pretty closely. I've given thought to spending more on convenience, including moving into NYC for the remainder of my employment with this company. However, the uncertainty over how long I'll be there makes me wonder if it is truly worth the hassle/cost.

I am working from home today and tomorrow, before leaving for another work trip Saturday afternoon, to return on Thursday. This time it's Vegas

jacob wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 17, 2018 4:52 pm

Since you're planning to leave the country within 2 years, your primary concern should be tax optimization/minimizing exit-taxes. At least that's how I think about it. I'm realizing that I've set my financial roots deeper in the US than is warranted given the present political climate, so my focus is on reducing my liability for a tax-slam even if it means giving up the pursuit of finding a greater fool given the present financial climate.

How could you minimize the exit tax? I think the tax is purely based on the assets you own when you leave.
What do you mean by a tax slam and what could you do to prevent it?

The current administration is obviously very polarizing, but they come and go. If the Democrats take at least the House next month, as is widely predicted, why would you worry? There won't be anything accomplished in Washington. Obama was quite popular and he lost his Congressional majority for the last 6 years of his terms in office.

The stock market has begun a much awaited slide, which sucks in the short term.....

Work Update
It's been mad the past month, with craziness of travel and 7 day work continuing throughout the end of the year. I've been on the road Sunday-Thursday almost every week, flying around the country meeting with clients. Some pursuits are showing promise with deals that could close in Q1 of 2019. My future with this employer will hinge on my success in the first half of '19. If the income reflects the workload, it should be easier to put up with the hours/travel. If I'm not successful, it's likely that finding an alternate will be mutually agreeable.

At this time, I'm only focusing on short term goal of getting to April 1 with as much business booked/in the pipeline. Then will re-evaluate with SO on where we stand for the rest of the year.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Financial recap for October coming on Wednesday/Thursday.

I feel a little better now.

...

That is a really good analogy.

2Birds1Stone wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 28, 2018 12:47 pm

As a thought exercise, I imagined the market crashing 50% from tomorrows level.......I would be down $110,000 leaving me a portfolio of $290k, which despite sucking very hard, would still throw off $960/month at 4%.....I could still be FI in Poland or Thailand.....and any new stock purchases would be at a real discount. Market returning to current levels after a few years of accumulation during the down period, would have me instantly FI in the USA.

I feel a little better now.

Options. Its all about having options.

I'm not confident the market is done dropping, so we will see if this months contributions evaporate as well. If we do begin a recovery, I can sense my tolerance for BS at work may drop.

@liberatemind, touche

Right now the options are abundant. Should the juice no longer be worth the squeeze, I have no doubt that the parachute chord gets pulled prior to my intended June 1 2020 date.

Work is actually fun/challenging ....the one and only downside (a big one though), is the crazy amount of travel. I'm on the road again next week, pretty much all week.

Posting from a hotel room in Miami, for my most recent work assignment. Things could definitely be worse

Just 20 months to go before you say goodbye - Keep it up!

18 Months and 3 weeks, but who's counting

This brings me to my point, which is that I'm essentially working for two main reasons right now 1) to pay for luxuries in life after work 2) to get to a point where I could cover my SO's shortfall and we can adventure together sooner than waiting for her to get to 4% on her own.

It sounds kind of fucked up when I say it out loud, but it's the reality. I'm not sure if I find comfort knowing that I'm trading my time for either of those reasons, or if I should re-evaluate my priorities. I guess I'm getting restless, and can't help but think that 568 more days is just too long.

I guess it is a challenging situation for you right now (mentally wise). Theoretically you (2Birds1Stone) are FI, due to the fact that your WR is around 4%. But practically you (2Birds1Stone+SO) are maybe not?, because of the combined WR with around 7,6%.

Based on your October numbers, I calculated it through what it would mean to reach a combined WR around 4%. I did that in order to understand the situation you are in. Now, after reflecting, I can understand it better.

Re-evaluating priorities in life from time to time is a good idea in my opinion. At least I found that my priorities changed a lot during the last ten years (and also since practicing ERE).

What are your current priorities? How are they included in your Web-of-Goals? What is important for you for life in general?
I guess, you have already considered such questions?! If not, then I hope, I gave you some ideas to think about.

I think you get the mental challenge, although it's not as black and white as the math would lead you to believe.

Many things have changed since our relationship began, since FI became one of my biggest goals (at least from a working/career standpoint).

Initially I never counted SO's income/assets/expenses in my ERE calculations. I figured I would just be FI or work PT while she did her thing. As our goals meshed more and more, and she expressed interest in ERE/FI lifestyle, the dynamic changed. This was 2014-2015 time frame (we've been together since 2011, and I discovered FIRE in Jan 2012). In 2014 I changed career paths to quicken the time to FI, and she followed suit. Unfortunately she's been underemployed since 2016, and the income/asset gap continues to grow.

I feel a sense of responsibility to work in order so we could be FI as a couple, and sometimes curse myself for resenting the situation to an extent. If I were single, there is a very strong likelihood that I would have pulled the plug on FT work already. Our relationship is pretty amazing, and aside from her low income, she's pretty frugal, on board with van-life, geographical arbitrage, and a plethora of other ideas we have come across in the FIREsphere.

To answer your question in the last sentence.......I'm finding that things well outside the influence of money are becoming more important to me.

A network of close friends and family, a sense of community and belonging.
Physical fitness and health (which I really need to focus more on).
Learning skills and getting ready for our upcoming round the world sabbatical
Not having to earn an income to do the things we would like to do.
To be able to make a positive impact on this planet, through both reduced consumption as well as leveraging my professional skills and talent in a non income producing capacity. (maybe fundraising for good causes? Recruiting others to specific causes which are near and dear to me, etc)
The freedom to explore interests that otherwise won't be on my radar until I'm no longer devoting 50-80 hrs/week to work/commuting.
I REALLY want to learn how to surf, get back into snowboarding, master XC mountainbiking, do some thruhiking/mountaineering, and just enjoy the planet before humans completely fuck it up for the next few decades.

There are many others, but those are the big things at the top of my mind as I type this post.

Except for surfing, which I would substitute with TONS of diving, we share approximately the same list of "things that matter" to us.

I like the countdown-style new thread title

I do love to dive as well =) PADI advanced open water certified here.

I like the countdown too, although this market has been giving me the jitters, and pushed my projected FI date back by several months over the past 6 weeks......my model shows me now crossing the 4% WR mark on March 1 2020.....which seems so damn far away.

Morning Weight - 206
7 Day Average - 205.8

Off from the gym today, tomorrow hitting legs and possibly a short run.

I worked up to a 4.0 mile run on Sunday in under 35:00, so about an 8:40/mile pace. A lot of work to do before the race in January. I'm fluffy and out of shape.

11

Every so often, I re-read this entire journal. It's good for perspective. Yesterday I realized that I joined this forum 3 years ago, predicting that I would be FI in 6 years time (after reading the ERE book, lol).