Fingeek's Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by fingeek »

Update for Sept:

Primary job income cover (How much of my primary salary am I saving?): 75% (Last month: 75%)
Savings Rate: 66% (Last month: 66%)
Current net worth (not including home): £301,437 (Last month: £303,686)

To cover "fixed expenses" (lean FIRE):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 7.3% (Last month: 7.2%)
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £246,442 (Last month: £244,194)
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 4.7yr/Jun 2023 (Last month: 4.7yr/May 2023)

To cover "fixed expenses + optional expenses" (live as today):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 8.8% (Last month: 8.8%)
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £364,267 (Last month: £362,018)
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 7.0yr/Sept 2025 (Last month: 6.9yr/Aug 2025)

---

Another month of a slightly dropping net worth - And this should be the last of them, as I'm getting the house in order for the yearly plan. Not too many other thoughts this month, just following the plan!

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by fingeek »

Q3 update on yearly plan

1. (DONE 100%) Fix/simplify asset allocation, and reduce costs.
2. (DONE 100%) Review the current investment platforms, to ensure I'm optimising for fees.

3. Purchase at least two more property investments this year.
INPROGRESS 80%. Pub conversion property completed, and renovation is 90% done (reopen downstairs as a pub/bar, create 8 residential units upstairs). No plans to buy a 2nd, as this first one ended up being a beast.

4. (DONE 100%) Reduce P2P investment.

5. Max out my wife and my ISAs for the year.
INPROGRESS 50%. Current surplus capital is going into the pub conversion; Once that's done, surplus will go to fill our 18-19 ISAs.

6. Literally getting the house in order.
DONE 100%. Ensuite replaced! Painting done inside/outside! Only thing remaining is the radiator replacement. Interestingly, with the pub refurb I've gained enough random building knowledge, to be comfortable with changing rads myself. So I'll plan to keep £1k invested and just replace the rads as and when they rust/leak.

7. Ask for a sabbatical before pulling the trigger.
DONE 100%. I'm taking practically all of next year off for paternity/shared parental leave, so this will double up as my sabbatical.

8. Quit work in August (????)
DONE 99%. I'm considering this task done as I've "slipped" it to January with baby due, and take the subsequent year off. That way, I have a good chunk of time off, and also have a fallback option to go back to work if I need (or chose?) to. By end of year, I'll be in a position where investments and property income generate >100% "core monthly living income". And then a small trickle of fun money from side businesses and barFI. Task marked 99% to review this is the case come January.

9. (DONE 100%) Find x hobbies, build life outside of money

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by fingeek »

Update for Oct:

Primary job income cover (How much of my primary salary am I saving?): 75% (Last month: 75%)
Savings Rate: 66% (Last month: 66%)
Current net worth (not including home): £300,287 (Last month: £301,437)

To cover "fixed expenses" (lean FIRE):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 7.3% (Last month: 7.3%)
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £247,593 (Last month: £246,442)
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 4.7yr/Jul 2023 (Last month: 4.7yr/Jun 2023)

To cover "fixed expenses + optional expenses" (live as today):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 8.9% (Last month: 8.8%)
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £365,417 (Last month: £364,267)
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 7.0yr/Oct 2025 (Last month: 7.0yr/Sept 2025)

---

Yet another month of stable/slight dropping net worth (3 sequential months now I think). The pub conversion is broadly done, and we're looking for a tenant to take on the bar now. The net worth bleeding should be stemmed at this point, and we should be getting better month-on-month from here, barring any more surprises.

The focus this month has really been on getting us ready for baby - Sorting the room and such. It's been fun shifting gears and focusing more on family again! Looking forward to having next year off and reassessing when I should go back to work in ~Jan 2020.

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by fingeek »

Update for Nov:

Primary job income cover (How much of my primary salary am I saving?): 75% (Last month: 75%)
Savings Rate: 66% (Last month: 66%)
Current net worth (not including home): £304,280 (Last month: £300,287)

To cover "fixed expenses" (lean FIRE):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 7.2% (Last month: 7.3%)
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £246,213 (Last month: £247,593)
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 4.7yr/Aug 2023 (Last month: 4.7yr/Jul 2023)

To cover "fixed expenses + optional expenses" (live as today):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 8.8% (Last month: 8.9%)
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £364,632 (Last month: £365,417)
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 7.0yr/Nov 2025 (Last month: 7.0yr/Oct 2025)

---

Bit of a late update this month - Has been majorly busy. Am looking forward to being less busy now going forward.

The pub/bar conversion is 90% complete. We're opened and tenanted, and money is finally coming in (The bleeding has stemmed). Back to slight normality in that net worth increase has resumed. Hopefully going forward, it will increase at an accelerated rate.

I've let everyone in work know about leaving for baby parental leave in Jan 2019, and back Jan 2020. Which means I will be away for a full year. From the FIRE perspective, it's a little scary, but mostly exciting that I get to do a 1yr trial FIRE run! Will I blow my accounts and have to go back to work early? Will we keep reducing our expenditure such that I don't actually have to go back? Will I get bored and do some new business or hobby things?

I wish you all a pleasant Christmas and New Year period, and hopefully you all get to relax and do what is most meaningful to you, with whomever is most meaningful to you too.

wolf
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by wolf »

Congrats to your financial progress and your 1 year trial FIRE! I guess, that you going to learn many things....and enjoy!

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by fingeek »

Thanks for the encouragement, wolf! I don't believe I will be able to full-FIRE just yet, but this will give some "real world" data to help me adjust my FIRE figures/date.

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by fingeek »

Update for Dec:

Primary job income cover (How much of my primary salary am I saving?): 75%
Savings Rate: 66%
Current net worth (not including home): £306,570

To cover "fixed expenses" (lean FIRE):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 7.2%
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £243,922
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 4.7yr/Jul 2023

To cover "fixed expenses + optional expenses" (live as today):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 8.7%
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £362,341
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 6.9yr/Nov 2025

---

We have a remortgage to complete for the bar conversion, and then that project is effectively complete. This will realise an increase in equity, and will skew the NW figures (more accurately I believe, though equity (value of property, shares, businesses) needs to be moderated against actual returns).

I've wrapped up most of my primary work, and we have from 0-4 weeks until baby is due. I have about £6k of payments to go out in preparation for the year ahead but otherwise I think I'm all set. Looking forward to trialling this FIRE thing, and most importantly spending time on family and health.

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by fingeek »

Q4 update on yearly plan

1. (DONE 100%) Fix/simplify asset allocation, and reduce costs.
2. (DONE 100%) Review the current investment platforms, to ensure I'm optimising for fees.

3. Purchase at least two more property investments this year.
DONE - Achieved 80%. Pub conversion property completed, and renovation is 90% done (reopen downstairs as a pub/bar, create 8 residential units upstairs). No plans to buy a 2nd, as this first one ended up being a beast.

4. (DONE 100%) Reduce P2P investment.

5. Max out my wife and my ISAs for the year.
DONE - Achieved 50%. ISAs are not full for this calendar year, but still plan to fill the ISA by end of 18-19 tax year.

6. (DONE 100%) Literally getting the house in order.
7. (DONE 100%) Ask for a sabbatical before pulling the trigger.

8. Quit work in August (????)
NOT DONE - 99%. Taking the year off as discussed in previous quarterly review, but not "quit" in the real sense. We are practically at covering 100% "core monthly living income" if we cut back, and it will be interesting to see how the SWR and cover figures show over the coming months

9. (DONE 100%) Find x hobbies, build life outside of money

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by fingeek »

Update for Jan:

Primary job income cover (How much of my primary salary am I saving?): 75%
Savings Rate: 66%
Current net worth (not including home): £308,113

To cover "fixed expenses" (lean FIRE):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 7.1%
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £239,752
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 4.6yr/Aug 2023

To cover "fixed expenses + optional expenses" (live as today):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 8.6%
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £355,766
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 6.8yr/Nov 2025

---

Test FIRE year has started! - Baby has arrived, and I'm taking 12 months off work.

I still have 2 months more of salary coming, so am still having a bit of life support, but I have been off work for 2 weeks. Already I have noticed how I'm feeling like I should be doing something, should be catching up or finishing a project. I do have some things I need to do this year, but nothing that's at the forefront of my mind. It's pretty strange. Unfamiliar.

I've already gone through a few phases:
• Continued stress - Feeling like I should be don't something, catching up or finishing a project. This lasted about 1 week, until I caught myself with "huh, nothing else to be done - Time to relax".
• I found myself rushing through cleaning my teeth. I think I've done this for years but am only just noticing.
• Realising that I'm (mostly) done with commitments. Waking up each morning with a hurting jaw, stiff back, anxiety, headache and lethargy. I believe this to be due to the "let down" effect - Not unlike the headache one might get after starting a vacation. This lasted about 1 week.
• A wash of calm finally arriving. Helped by listening to music (something I "haven't had time to do" in the last couple of years - Funny brain concocting burden).

I still haven't formulated my 2019 plan as SMART goals. I will do, but for now it's: Baby, family & health.

wolf
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by wolf »

I am looking forward to read about your experiences. I wish you and your family good luck and many good moments. Take care of you. And congrats to the financial progress, which is supporting your test FIRE year.

classical_Liberal
Posts: 2283
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:05 am

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by classical_Liberal »

Congrats!! Another semi-ERE journey begins!

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by fingeek »

Thank you both (& have been following your progress too @classical_Liberal, great inspiration!)

JollyScot
Posts: 212
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2015 3:44 am

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by JollyScot »

Congrats on the last year been a lot of big changes. I am guessing having a baby means you will be less bored than you were initially worrying about.

Interesting to read about the pub fixing coming to fruition. Still have at the back of my mind doing a commercial build purchase, but I'm not there yet.

Good luck in the year long experiment I'm sure you will have a pretty awesome time of it.

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by fingeek »

Thanks JollyScott! Yes you might be right about boredom, though it's probably also beneficial to be bored/relaxed/aimless for a short while after FIRE, to get through that decompression phase - Did you find this was the case?

Feel free to PM me if you want to chat about prop stuff, I'd be happy to help bounce ideas back and forth or with any technical detail stuff if that's helpful. I did plan to just lease it out proper, but it just happened to fall this way and is going to be quite a bit more profitable too (well, hopefully). My overall preference was (and still is) to buy a more boring office or warehouse type building and lease it out proper.

JollyScot
Posts: 212
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2015 3:44 am

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by JollyScot »

Hmm sort of, but when I first retired I stumbled into some contracting work. So that initial retirement lasted 6 weeks. I would never have had the opportunity had I not pulled the trigger though. You seem to be making a start on that with your side things.

Eventually I had a longer stint of 2 years of nothing and tried a few things. Eventually you get used to not needing to be somewhere each day. In those 2 years I did a lot of stuff on paper but never really felt "busy". Life is just less stressful in general, as long as you avoid the news.

I'm still not sure I have figured out what to do with myself yet, but I could never go back to a full time job I think. My patience with company structures and processes has all but ended. I would only do it now if it was linked to a VISA or something like that.

As for the commercial property I may give you a shout at some point. I have 2-3 ideas of what to do with myself that could require a commercial space.

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by fingeek »

Update for Feb:

Primary job income cover (How much of my primary salary am I saving?): 75%
Savings Rate: 66%
Current net worth (not including home): £313,830

To cover "fixed expenses" (lean FIRE):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 7.0%
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £234,035
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 4.5yr/Aug 2023

To cover "fixed expenses + optional expenses" (live as today):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 8.5%
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £350,049
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 6.7yr/Nov 2025

---

The first full month of test FIRE year done, and things are going well. Baby ensures we have very little sleep, but an enjoyable experience nonetheless. Instead of complaining, I realised it's a good opportunity to test out other sleep patterns. We have all settled into a 3-4hr core sleep + 3x 20-min power naps. A total of 4-5hrs sleep per day therefore, but it feels fairly manageable. And as JollyScot predicted, I haven't been bored at all so far...

I keep catching myself falling into "rush because rush" mode, then pausing and resuming back into relaxed mode. I'm really realising how screwed up I had let myself become in the last few years of job, high stress and pressure wise. Jaw and back pain have all but gone, and I've even started a little exercise.

Scott 2
Posts: 2824
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by Scott 2 »

It's tough to step back and recognize the stress when you are in the middle of it. Hopefully you can use people's bias towards family to mitigate some of the pressure upon return.

One of our rising stars was able to negotiate a 4 10's schedule coming back from maternity leave, and reduce her travel. She'd been working at least 5 10's against a promised 37.5h week schedule, so she effectively cut 20% off the work week. It hasn't impacted her career at all. They just had her hire more people to the team and encouraged distribution of the work load.

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by fingeek »

It's a good point, though much of the stress has been down to lack of challenge. As you might have seen, I ended up challenging myself elsewhere, buying property and starting a side business. This improved autonomy, mastery and purpose (as well as the flexibility and reduced hours) appears to be the right thing for me, and so I can't imagine going back to The Job for too long.

Thanks for the reply, and it's great to see companies with good management that cultivate great staff by "simply" being flexible.

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by fingeek »

Update for Mar:

Primary job income cover (How much of my primary salary am I saving?): 75%
Savings Rate: 66%
Current net worth (not including home): £317,497

To cover "fixed expenses" (lean FIRE):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 7.1%
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £248,286
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 4.7yr/Dec 2023

To cover "fixed expenses + optional expenses" (live as today):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 8.5%
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £357,443
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 6.8yr/Jan 2026

---

Second full month of test FIRE year. Some things:
- This is the last month full work pay, so the test becomes more real at this point.
- Babies are hard! Challenging, but good! He is slowly settling into some semblance of a routine.
- The "1 core 3-4hr sleep and 1-3 20-min power nap" pattern appears to be working really well. More than 50% of the days now I'm feeling fresh, and it's given me what feels like extra time between 3-5am to do what is still "things I need/want to catch up from over the last 2 years". I might very well stick to this sleep pattern for the long-term. Anyone else experimented with different sleep patterns?
- The rush mode has all but gone finally, and burnout is practically gone too which is all great.
- I'm pretty busy! Much of this is catching up with that last 2 years of life - By next month I will get practically up to date which will be really great.
- About anxiety attacks - Though I'm no longer rushing, the latent anxiety attacks are still there a little bit. They are dropping off in frequency, so it's more of a curiosity than a concern at this point. I'm of the opinion that now the overarching stress of work is gone, peeling back the layers into relaxation is illuminating the underlying uncalm that is there, ready to be fixed.
- I've noticed the last three months, our expenses have dropped slightly. We're staying in a lot more and doing more free stuff. Our baby expenses have kicked in of course but that's budgeted for. Going forward it will be much tighter, and so the ready-retire date should pull in closer.
- My sense of humour has come back in full force (much to the detest of my wife and others ha ha!), and has surprised me at how grumpy I must have been.

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Fingeek's Journal

Post by fingeek »

Update for Apr:

Primary job income cover (How much of my primary salary am I saving?): 75%
Savings Rate: 66%
Current net worth (not including home): £324,987

To cover "fixed expenses" (lean FIRE):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 7.0%
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £241,719
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 4.6yr/Dec 2023

To cover "fixed expenses + optional expenses" (live as today):
Current Withdrawal Rate requirement: 8.3%
NW deficit to 4% SWR: £350,876
Years of savings to 4% SWR: 6.7yr/Jan 2026

---

Third full month of test FIRE year. Some things:
- Investments continue to sustain our "basic living costs" as noted previously. We are still discretionary spending, and some baby spending, but it's definitely less than when I was working. I don't want to be too restrictive on ourselves at this time, but I expect this extra spending to drop further over the months. I am tracking this on a spreadsheet and starting to analyse outgoings a little more.
- NW has continued to creep up a little bit due to investment performance and spending reduction, though I don't expect this to continue
- I'm still not missing work, no surprise as baby is keeping us busy! I am missing the structure and some of the socialising however.
- My weeks have become unorganised and unstructured. As an INTJ, I don't work best like this so I have started to pull a schedule together again. I dedicate two full days a week to doing "work", and keep the other days free for the most part.
- I'm still catching up on life bits but it feels like I'm about 1 week away from sorting the backlog. I'm much more relaxed about it at this point and I'm just scheduling the remainder into my days.
- I've started to exercise again, which is giving me further clarity and calm.
- The anxiety attacks have dropped right off, and I only have the odd one or two per month. I'm fairly certain now that that this has been stress or stress-release triggered (work and property stuff I got myself into over the last few years).
- I find myself listening to music or staring out the window for an hour. Something I haven't done really for many years. I forgot how enjoyable it is to "pause" - Just stop and be for a moment.

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