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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 11:55 am
by wolf
2Birds1Stone wrote:
Thu Aug 24, 2017 8:59 am
Mini Update
Congrats for both mini updates. I hope that the second one also works out just fine as the first one. All the best!

Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 12:32 pm
by Jason
Congrats on getting engaged.

As a point of curiosity, what did you spend on the engagement ring in terms of percentage of income? Was ERE a factor? The diamond industry in one of the great mass marketing schemes of all time has made it common practice that one spend three months salary on engagement ring. Three fucking months. I mean even if you are enjoying the milk, that's a lot to pay for the cow.

This article provides the history.

https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... ng/385376/

Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 7:57 pm
by 2Birds1Stone
Jason wrote:
Fri Aug 25, 2017 12:32 pm
Congrats on getting engaged.

As a point of curiosity, what did you spend on the engagement ring in terms of percentage of income? Was ERE a factor? The diamond industry in one of the great mass marketing schemes of all time has made it common practice that one spend three months salary on engagement ring. Three fucking months. I mean even if you are enjoying the milk, that's a lot to pay for the cow.

This article provides the history.

https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... ng/385376/
Thank you Jason.

~1 months of gross income

I went with a beautiful double bypass setting in white gold, with a ~1ct round cut .
MDFIRE2024 wrote:
Thu Aug 24, 2017 11:55 am


Congrats for both mini updates. I hope that the second one also works out just fine as the first one. All the best!
Thanks!! Still waiting but should hear by end of the week.

Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 3:16 pm
by Jason
My wife actually walks around with over five figures on her finger because my mother gave me her dead mother's wedding ring which shocked the shit out of me as Nana more than once confessed in front of her entire extended family that my douchebag brother was her favorite. On that note, fuck you Nana and the horse you rode out on.

I admit that I have supported the diamond industry. But I have also supported the Medillen drug cartel, Cosa Nostra, various local and international sex slave rings, the Republican party, the New York Yankees and Woody Allen so I got tons of shit weighing down on my conscience.

Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2017 3:17 pm
by 2Birds1Stone
Jason wrote:
Wed Aug 30, 2017 3:16 pm
My wife actually walks around with over five figures on her finger because my mother gave me her dead mother's wedding ring which shocked the shit out of me as Nana more than once confessed in front of her entire extended family that my douchebag brother was her favorite. On that note, fuck you Nana and the horse you rode out on.

I admit that I have supported the diamond industry. But I have also supported the Medillen drug cartel, Cosa Nostra, various local and international sex slave rings, the Republican party, the New York Yankees and Woody Allen so I got tons of shit weighing down on my conscience.
Haha! That's pretty funny.

Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 9:14 am
by 2Birds1Stone
I started the new job last Monday, and on Wednesday I got a call from my boss letting me know that they are getting let go for underperformance. Knot in my stomach. Go figure I have a big room planning meeting at the corporate HQ on Thursday and have to skate around the subject until I figure out wtf I'm going to do.

Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2017 9:18 am
by 2Birds1Stone
Better late than never.

Rest of the year will be more spending and significantly less income.

I'm trying to figure out how to drop my spending down to <$24k next year, since that is the level I plan on living on when I am FI.

Re: 2Birds1Stone's 29 month hustle to freedom!

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2017 1:08 pm
by trailblazer
great progress! sounds like the employment situation has stabilized. seems like lots of low hanging fruit for dropping spending (entertainment, gifts). But I'm in awe of your grocery spending as this is by far my biggest waste.

Re: 2Birds1Stone's 29 month hustle to freedom!

Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 7:07 pm
by 2Birds1Stone
trailblazer wrote:
Sat Nov 11, 2017 1:08 pm
great progress! sounds like the employment situation has stabilized. seems like lots of low hanging fruit for dropping spending (entertainment, gifts). But I'm in awe of your grocery spending as this is by far my biggest waste.
There is not of low hanging fruit

Alcohol
Eating out
Driving a luxury sports car (2008, but still!)
Vacation spending (we could do better despite travel hacking a lot)
Xmas giving tradition with family, it's excessive imho
Expensive activities with friends (escape the room for example this past saturday for $27/per person)

I've been reading more and more about slow travel and ERE level budget living and I'm growing more motivated to start chipping away at my spending before the gap year we plan in spring of 2020.

Re: 2Birds1Stone's 29 month hustle to freedom!

Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 10:15 am
by 2Birds1Stone
Random Update

I've been spending a lot of time on the nomadic living blogs. Both RV/Van Dwelling as well as slow travel around the world. Some seriously inspiring stuff that people are doing. It gets me thinking about what other things I can be doing over the next 28.5 months (+/- depending on life) to prepare for a successful dry run of the RE life.

1) Possessions - I've already drastically limited accumulation of new possessions over the past few years, slowly starting to pare down my wardrobe, random items I have not used in 12+ months, etc. We will likely rent a storage unit for our larger items that we would like to keep (triathlon bikes, mountain bikes, BIFL kitchen appliances, etc). This is until we find a permanent home base, likely a SFH in a cheap part of the USA.

2) Health - I could stand to lose about 20lbs and cut my drinking back by about 75%. The later should help the former quite a bit. I'm currently 216lbs, and think that this is something I can track in my monthly updates here when I do financial review. I am running and cycling quite a bit and plan on doing another Ironman 70.3, or maybe even a full 140.6 before 2020. I should be a in good cardiovascular shape when we pull the plug.

3) Skills - I would like to learn basic clothing repair, improve my cooking, learn basic car maintenance, and how to do basic carpentry and home repair stuff. A few of my friends are contractors or in various trades. I might see if they would take me on for some side work at low pay in return for more detailed instruction. Would be great to learn how to reno a bathroom or other various work that can lead to one off income in the future.

4) Passive income streams - I don't have a vlog/blog and I don't really have any great ideas for passive income in FIRE, but it's something I would like to explore. Even if I can build a passive income of a couple $100 a month, it would be a big help when living on a low budget in the future.

5) Social network - Leaving work in 2 years means that social interaction will be less conventional compared to working a corporate job. I am slowly making friends around the globe who share similar interests. It will be great to have a network of people to visit, travel with, and host in the future when I am not bound to an office schedule.

6) Travel Hacking - It would be very helpful to accumulate a couple hundred thousand airline/hotel miles over the next two years. Once the schedule is open, deals with points can be had, and a large obstacle of international travel can be mitigated over the first year or two of RE.

Re: 2Birds1Stone's 29 month hustle to freedom!

Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2017 10:49 am
by 2Birds1Stone
Today I downloaded Duolingo to begin learning spanish.

Many of the places I want to visit or live in are native spanish speaking countries.

Re: 2Birds1Stone's 29 month hustle to freedom!

Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 7:34 am
by 2Birds1Stone
I've been reading Michael McClungs "Living Off Your Money: The Modern Mechanics of Investing During Retirement with Stocks and Bonds" and find it excellently written, covering topics that are often discussed here.

I highly recommend it, and the first3 chapters (100 pages) are available for free.

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Off-Your- ... 0997403411

Re: 2Birds1Stone's 29 month hustle to freedom!

Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:32 am
by LiberateMind
Thanks for the recommendation. Where can one find the first 100 pages? Amazon is not showing.

Re: 2Birds1Stone's 29 month hustle to freedom!

Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 11:41 am
by 2Birds1Stone
LiberateMind wrote:
Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:32 am
Thanks for the recommendation. Where can one find the first 100 pages? Amazon is not showing.
http://livingoffyourmoney.com/download/1160/

Re: 2Birds1Stone's 29 month hustle to freedom!

Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 8:38 am
by 2Birds1Stone
Good month in terms of spending, ok month in terms of income and gains.

Things are moving in the right direction.

Re: 2Birds1Stone's 29 month hustle to freedom!

Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 1:25 pm
by wolf
Hi 2Birds1Stone. That is great progress. Your Savings Rate is quite high!
Thank you for the recommendation for "Living off your money". I read it and find "Prime Harvesting" quite useful appliable. What are your thoughts about the book? Do you want to apply some principles from it, or do you even apply them today?

Re: 2Birds1Stone's 29 month hustle to freedom!

Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 10:11 pm
by LiberateMind
2Birds1Stone wrote:
Mon Nov 27, 2017 7:34 am
Thanks.

Re: 2Birds1Stone's 29 month hustle to freedom!

Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2017 2:29 pm
by 2Birds1Stone
MDFIRE2024 wrote:
Sat Dec 02, 2017 1:25 pm
I have not yet begun to implement much of it as it deals with spending down wealth, but it provides a lot of food for thought on how one would want to allocate investments during accumulation to support many of his ideas. Whether through asset allocation, fund placement, CD ladders etc.

I love learning about these topics, I feel like it helps me to grasp concepts and their implementation way before I will actually need to.

Re: 2Birds1Stones' 28 month hustle to freedom!

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 7:04 pm
by 2Birds1Stone
Recap

Re: 2Birds1Stones' 28 month hustle to freedom!

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2017 3:33 am
by classical_Liberal
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