What to expect from this journal?
As opposed to many others I won't focus nearly as much on how I'm saving money unless I come up with something I feel is extremely clever.
I'm saving enough money that I will inevitably become FI much sooner than my state-mandated retirement so reaching that particular goal is not really of any concern to me, at all! It's going to happen. There is NO stopping me. The thing that does worry me is how to keep my head cool on the way to FI; how to avoid focusing so much on becoming FI that you're not enjoying your journey there. There is no point in filling your life with suffering for 10 years to enjoy the next 40 if you could enjoy the first 15 years and love the next 35. There is no point in becoming FI if you have nothing to retire to, but I also believe it is pointless to fill your life with current worries solely to reap the benefits later. In other words, even if you have something to retire to, there is no point in heaping on things to retire from either.
As a consequence this journal might be much more about how to keep your house in order, how to keep from going insane at work, and how to avoid stressing out about all the day-to-day chores you need to do.
Since I don't already have the answers, the journey will be a WIP, and most of my fuckups along the way will therefore be out in the open for all to see.
Being a Dane, I reckon most of the financial discussion will be focused on taxation and how it relates to investing. The information might come in handy for others at some time.
So: less talk about saving money, more talk about not becoming a loon on the way to FI.
Who is he?
Danish citizen. Male, (as of Dec 2015) 34 years old. He has a 2 year old daughter and a 37 year old GF.
He is a carpenter, has an MsC in Nanotechnology, and is a PhD student in Physics, doing statistics... You read that right. I can build houses, program distributed parallel applications in FORTRAN*, and do multivariate statistics.
He has been diagnosed with ENTJ/ENTP by Meyers Briggs and diagnosed with ugly hair by his peers.
He currently despises Danish politics to the point where he's contemplating starting a fund that will sponsor economists and statisticians to call the politicians on their character assassinations and bullshit, whenever an election is coming up.
He drinks Islay single malts, plays blues on the guitar, likes barbell training and loves board games. He listens to brutal technical death metal, Classical music, complex jazz, blues, good ol' Rock 'n Roll, Hard rock and mellowed out pop-rock (think Bahamas).
Why is he here?
He suddenly got a paying job!** Now, like most people I decided to spend my first paycheck on something completely ridiculous, but when push came to shove I couldn't think of something that I actually wanted to spend all that money on. So far my paychecks from February to November have been spent on 10 bottles of whisky and some board games. The remaining 17000$ are just sitting there, doing nothing really.
The entire journey started when my GF bought Mindfulness by Penman & Williams. Then I bought The Life Changing Magic of Tidying, then Early Retirement Extreme, then The Four Pillars of Investing and then my world came apart.
Since I was 5 years old I've been bored with any single thing I've been doing for more than 3 years. I have an extreme need to learn new things and so I took the 'wrong' way through university, taking interesting courses rather than beelining for industry. I switched major topic during university 3 times. Mesoscopic physics, High-performance computing and now statistics. Now I'm beelining for industry so I can make some money...
When I came across ERE and Mister Money Mustache I really felt like I finally found something I could call home. Something I'd like to work towards without feeling like I'm selling my soul or my life for shit I don't want. It has been a tremendous eye-opener that there really seems to be a way out of the drudgery of 9 to 5 and increasingly specialized work, with the increasing diminishing returns.
What does he want?
Financial Indepence!
Jesus christ would he love to work with whatever strikes his fancy without worrying about money. Currently I'd love to work from home as a consultant from time to time, as well as start a construction company and build stuff from time to time. Construction is absolutely wonderful; so is sitting on your ass doing math
To learn about investing, especially in a country as fraught with taxes as Denmark.
He wants to move somewhere cheaper so his GF can join him in FI (she owns the apartment and pays the rent).
A garage! A garage with a deadlift platform and big ass stereo and a drum kit. Fuck cars. Garages are for weightlifting gear and power tools.
I don't play the drums.
Yet.
He also wants to publish two books.
What is he doing right now?
He's loving the PhD. I'm getting paid to learn new things and the group I work for expects me to come up with crazy ideas; the more ideas, the better.
AWESOME!
My work ethic is killing me though. I am an absolute sucker for work efficiency and with a project as open ended as: Have fun, just have some ideas and see if we can put them to good use, means that the sky's the limit. My fickle interests might just benefit a bit from some constraints, but on the other hand constraints put a damper on my will to work.
Maybe I am just an asshat, I'll have to reflect on that...
He's reading Economics Explained by Heilbroner & Thurow, 4 pillars of investing, masonry tips and tricks, working on his PhD, running around the house roaring like a dinosaur when the little one is awake.
He's trying to train himself for a low-information diet.
Trying to learn about long-term investing, looking for a kettlebell training plan, trying to find a statistics mentor, incorporating minimalism into my home, my mind, and my outlook.
The only real thing currently going on towards FI is reading up on stable investments and paying off a 32000$ household debt before summer 2016, meaning no more mortgage and approx 215K$ net worth for my GF.
The Big FI-related Reading List
Currently Reading:
The Intelligent Investor
Your Money or Your Life
A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
Mindfulness (again)
Count of Monte Cristo
Work Less, Achieve More.
To-read:
The Education of a Value Investor: My Transformative Quest for Wealth, Wisdom, and Enlightenment
The Little Book that Beats the Market
The Little Book of Valuation: How to Value a Company, Pick a Stock and Profit
Irrational exuberance
Choosing Simplicity - Linda Breen Pierce
How Children Fail - Holt
How Children Learn - Holt
Learning All the Time - John Holt
Home Grown - Ben Hewitt
http://www.amazon.com/Disciplined-Minds ... 0742516857
http://www.amazon.com/Succeed-School-Wi ... 340&sr=8-1
https://personalmba.com/ (The Personal MBA)
Free Capital: How 12 private investors made millions in the stock market
Negative Interest Rates on Certificates of Deposits in Denmark as of 2016. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7310&p=108927#p108927
Value Averaging: The Safe and Easy Strategy for Higher Investment Returns
The Millionaire Next Door
Poor Charlie's Almanack
Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy
Economics in One Lesson
(possibly) Security Analysis
Feeling Good
Drama of a Gifted Child - Alice Miller
The investor's manifesto
Boglehead's guide...
Pebbles of Perception
The Lessons of History
The Investor's Manifesto
How to Read; the classic guide to intelligent reading
Common Sense of Mutual Funds
Random Walk Down Wall Street
How Markets Fail
Stock for the Long Run
Done-reading:
Fail Safe Investing
The Dhando Investor
All About Asset Allocation
Nudge
Mindset; the new psychology of success.
Enter The Kettlebell
The Four Pillars of Investing
Life Changing Magic - Kondo
Clutterfree with Kids - Becker
The Joy of Less - Jay (blergh! what a POS book)
The Economy Explained - Heilbroner & Thurow
The intelligent asset allocator
Simplify your life
The BIG TODO list:
Iværksætterkonto (a tax deductible type of savings to establish a company later... can potentially be used for stocks and buying appreciable assets!)
TAXES: lagerbeskatning, kapitalafkast, pension accounts
Investments:
Cheap brokers/ways to save on investment related fees.
Find out about the economic difference between andele and ejer (two types of apartments in Denmark)
Estimate the cost of organic diet/switching to a 2/7 vegetarian diet.
Legal Tax shelters in DK (43% tax as a minimum is harsh IMO).
Learn to meditate.
Current plans for portfolio:
SNAFU?.. Lots of things still to consider. I'm looking to build a global portfolio derivative with REIT.
June 2016, Current portfolio plan is: 5-way split portfolio in equal portions.
Global Safe, EU/US LCV stocks, global bonds, global high-yield bonds, REIT in the form of flipping fixer uppers... Maybe. Either that or renting it out.
Taxes will most likely determine my actual portfolio, rather than my risk tolerance...
Personal & Active part:
Rental Property...
Sparinvest:
global safe (0.29)
US value (0.57)
EU value (0.63)
Maj Invest:
Maj Invest - Global High Income (0.66)
Maj Invest - Globale bonds (EU focus) (0.33)
Procrastination is rooted in fear: fear of failure, fear of success, fear of change. These are rooted in developing an attachment to a specific outcome