classical_Liberal's Semi-ERE

[2Birds1Stone]

Hey there, how did Q1 end up for you? I've moved up my date to June 1, 2019.

[classical_Liberal]

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[SustainableHappiness]

Really digging the title switch. Based on the enthusiasm you've shown to this approach in various places, it makes sense! I too plan on getting back to journal writing, starting tracking monthly expenses/income again at the end of this month after a long hiatus while we sold our houses.

Also, cool pictures.

[2Birds1Stone]

Dang, I'm not trying to "shame" by any means. Just genuine curiosity from someone who is on a similar path and values your contributions here.

I like your plan. And woah, I'm impressed by that spending over the past 12 months. It's where I hope to be in a years time.

Do you count Roth IRA as part of Retirement accounts or After Tax?

[light_bulb_moment]

Cool pictures. Sounds like you're going to get great value for money on that annual national parks pass

[Seppia]

Seems like a reasonable and well thought out plan.
As with all journals, the outdoors pictures are amonth the things I enjoy the most.
Remember to hit me up if your future slow travels will include Italy, I may be able to help with recommendations

[classical_Liberal]

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[classical_Liberal]

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[Gilberto de Piento]

Including Yellowstone with South Dakota destinations will certainly work with good planning but it will change the character of the vacation. If you only have 10 days and like to settle in at some of the places, I'd recommend doing one South Dakota + Devil's Tower vacation and a separate Yellowstone + Tetons vacation. If you like to tick off a lot of destinations and don't mind more driving and logistics combine it all together. It depends on your interests.

Nice pics of Roosevelt. I like the buffalo.

[Fish]

Hi there CL, great to see you doing well on both the love and financial fronts! Regarding your plan, it's helpful that you've mentally divided it into two buckets which sets a limit to how much you're willing to deplete the portfolio. I expect that the biggest risk is not financial, but rather that the relationship ends before you reach phase 2. If it's very important for you to have that experience together, you might consider moving up the start date by (1) planning for part-time work during the trip, (2) you contributing some funds towards her portion, and/or (3) reducing the duration (maybe do a 3-6 month test run to validate interest, then save up for a multi-year trip if it still interests both of you). Regarding #3, doing a shorter trip might convince you and GF that it is ok to go before she is fully debt-free with nest egg saved. Another suggestion is to slow-travel within the US, selecting contracts based on interest not compensation, while taking the occasional international trip to scratch that itch. Or have GF (and maybe you too?) start looking for nursing jobs abroad and let that determine your destination. You've probably thought of it already, but that is what came to my mind.

Some other thoughts:

• Supposing you set a goal of covering expenses (i.e. not touching your pre-60 bucket) even with 0% real returns that will put your combined net worth at 13 years when those buckets are combined in old age.
• Instead of SS as an afterthought, maybe we should be taking it into consideration for AA. The reasoning being, if SS actually does pay out, paper assets likely would have done ok. If we presume the converse is also true, this would imply a high correlation between SS payout and equity/bond returns, meaning there would be some systemic failures that would take out the portfolio AND your safety net. This would suggest that tilting the AA towards hard assets would offer a higher likelihood of success even if the expected return is lower.
• Until you're fully FI, you're not financially immune from the proverbial "hit by a bus" disaster. But since your footprint is only ~2 jacobs (excellent work btw!) it's likely not going to be catastrophic if you can pull off some side income.
• When you take a break from nursing, consider part-time freelancing (e.g. odesk) to develop new skills while generating a side income and having fun (maybe?)

I'm excited to see the Deliberately coasting to FI idea put to practice and eagerly await the results of this experiment!

[classical_Liberal]

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[classical_Liberal]

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[classical_Liberal]

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[wolf]

Debt-free...well done! I follow your journey of "semi-ERE" because it is marked with milestones along the way. And that is also something I prefer.

I think you made the right decision to move together in a new home. Unfortunately I didn't do that with my last GF and I think that was one reason why we broke up the relationship.

The pictures are beautuful. I like the beauty of the National Parks in the US. If you visit further parks, please post those pictures also.

Take care in your salary-man-job. It is the same for me, but you and I do have milestones in sight. Step by step from milestone to milestone! The journey continues.

[classical_Liberal]

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[Seppia]

Great update, Yellowstone/Teton is the best.
DW and I didn’t go too far away from the main paths because we were afraid of bears (but then we have no problem diving with sharks, go figure), but still had a great great time.

Of course I’ll cook pasta or other stuff if you come visit

Regarding your plan: I know it would not work for me*, but it doesn’t sound unreasonable provided you still have some margin of safety, which you seem to plan for.

*I know it’s me that has a problem though, I ALWAYS add many more margins of safety than necessary

[wolf]

She moved into my apartment (2.5 bedroom) where I have been living for >5 years. So almost every room was already decorated and had its function. I am a person who favours function over aesthetics. She on the other side wanted to decorate everything. She also had to let go of many things of her last home. So if she wanted to change something of the Status Quo, I felt that I loose something. And she always had to "fight" for the change. There were many arguments about trivial things. I guess she always felt like an intruder. It didnt become her home too. Although this was the best financial setup (very low monthly home costs bc. no rent) it was obviously in retroperspective a bad setup for our relationships. One reason I think that caused the breakup was my inflexibility with her needs and wants. I couldnt communicate to her the win-win-situation. For her it was win-loose. I should have tolerated more things like decoration...and let go partially in function and efficiency. But we didnt struggle only with housing, there were other issues too. But housing was a big issue because you live there for >16h p.d. together. It was also a relatively small apartment for two persons.

[classical_Liberal]

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[2Birds1Stone]

Those pics look amazing. I personally approve of your plan =)

At our expense level, it doesn't take much to get by

We will be at 15X combined expenses when I take my first 4 month sabbatical, I wonder if my desire to go back to FT work will change during that time =D

I need to find something like contract work, but in sales.

[classical_Liberal]

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