C40's Journal

[jennypenny]

Your van is trendy ... http://sanjuansufficiency.com/alternative-housing/

[SimpleLife]

C40, like the van setup. Looks very comfortable and like a studio apartment. The pics caught me at a bad time, as I keep telling my gf I have the bug to rent everything out, put stuff in storage and go travel the country in an RV/5th wheel, and seeing you do it makes me want to do it that much more. The RV or 5th wheel she would do. Van or car, not so much. The RV is closer to a traditional home and we have pets. In any case, sitting here about to dial into a conference call I don't want to be a part of, I looooong to be outside right now breathing the fresh air at a camp site, getting some breakfast started on the stove or grill, while *I* decide how to spend my day. Perhaps a little fishing. Perhaps go on a hike, or go foraging for mushrooms (not that kind haha).

A few questions if you don't mind:

-Have you considered curtains for the windows?
-Also, is the bed long enough for you to sleep on comfortably?
-How do you balance the risk of serious mechanical breakdown of your home vs living in a 5th wheel trailer? If the beater 2K truck you are towing it with breaks down, it's easy to live in the trailer while the truck is off getting fixed. Or easy to get another one without changing your home. Or pay someone to move you if you need to.

[C40]

....
A few questions if you don't mind:

-Have you considered curtains for the windows?
-Also, is the bed long enough for you to sleep on comfortably?
-How do you balance the risk of serious mechanical breakdown of your home vs living in a 5th wheel trailer? If the beater 2K truck you are towing it with breaks down, it's easy to live in the trailer while the truck is off getting fixed. Or easy to get another one without changing your home. Or pay someone to move you if you need to.

I like where you're going with those thoughts. For me, It's just me, so I only built the van expecting that I'd be in it alone (or only with a very kindred spirit along with me).

- Curtains - yes, I will be installing curtains or some kind of shades for all the back windows. I'm also expecting to make a curtain to block off the front of the van from the rear. So when I want to, I can have the back of the van completely blocked from view for anyone outside the van.
- Bed - yes, it's long enough for me to sleep with my body entirely straight, and I have a few inches left over which allows me to have my arms up a bit further past my head. Some of the other makes of cargo vans are a bit narrower and this might not work in them.
- Breakdown risk - I'm just charging into the fray and testing fate! I think I will appreciate the strengths of the van (being able to easily sleep in cities with no one bothering me, being self-contained, taking up less space, etc.) over the logistical issues of where to sleep while it's being repaired. I will definitely have some options: I could find a mechanic who won't mind me sleeping in the van on the shop lot at night. I could Couchsurf in that town for a few nights. I could camp near the town or in someone's yard. While I'm still working (I travel for work most weeks) I could fly back to a city where a friend/family lives and stay the weekend with them instead of going to where the van is.

[SimpleLife]

Is that a light you have affixed to the ceiling in the van? And a mini fridge? Did the van come with the fan in the ceiling? Sorry was skimming through and may have already been posted.

Also, I think you can negate the awkwardness of bringing women back to your place by having room mates, be it in a house you own or a house you rent. I've considered doing it myself (taking on room mates). Not as good as having the house to yourself, but better than bringing them back to a van or an RV. Oh, and with the room mates, if you buy right, you get your housing essentially paid for. Small price to pay for a little bit of inconvenience. Plus, with the van setup, anytime the boarders get on your nerves you just take a break for a while and take a trip somewhere.

Again, congrats. Seeing you vancamping makes me really want to get out there. Nothing like waking up at 9 AM and having some breakfast, hot drink and deciding what to do with your day instead of being stuck in an office or in another meeting with people you can't stand. Freedom...

[C40]

Is that a light you have affixed to the ceiling in the van? And a mini fridge? Did the van come with the fan in the ceiling? Sorry was skimming through and may have already been posted.

Yeah, I got some LED light strips and housings/covers. I installed the fan in the ceiling. And everything else.



Here's the fridge:
It's a Whynter. 45 quart model I think.

Here's what the van looked like when I bought it:


The van conversion posts start on page 16 of my journal.

[C40]

--------------------------------------------------------
NOVEMBER 2015 YEAR
--------------------------------------------------------

TOTAL SPENDING: $2,684

NORMAL SPENDING: $1,343

• Home - $483
• Food - $323
• Health - $323
• Tattoo - $300
• Hobbies - $127 ($276 minus $149 from selling stuff)
• Transportation - $52

HOUSE SPENDING (Prep for sale): $1,341

• Driveway repair materials - $760
• Paint & supplies - $526
• Cleaning stuff other - $The rest

With the van building, and now with the house sale preparation, I’ve had a lot of non-standard spending this year. I was inspired by a chart Cmonkey made and copied the format:



The van total is $10,400 so far. I’ll probably spend a couple thousand more on it.


HOUSE SALE PREP

I’ve been spending a lot of time cleaning up and painting in the house. I’m getting close to finishing all the painting on the main floor. Most of it is just a fresh coat of the same or a similar color. I painted the kitchen cabinets white and that made the kitchen look a LOT better. I will also paint the basement walls and floor.

I have a really long asphalt driveway. I’ve only had concrete or rock driveways before this. So I never knew about asphalt maintenance. I should’ve put a new coat on when I first moved. Now I have a lot of sections to repair. There were many spots that were cracked up and plants growing through in various spots. So I pulled out some pretty big sections. It’s turned out to be a LOT of work. I’m most of the way through filling in the big holes. The limitation is the tamping. I’m using a manual tamper and it is really hard on my hands. So I just do 5 hours or so of work and then wait for 5+ days for my hands to recover from all the impact. If I knew about this from the start I might have rented a power tamper. But I don’t know if that would’ve worked because of how inclined my driveway is.

After I finish the painting and the driveway, I have a list of fairly small repairs/improvements. When I first decided to buy a van, my timeline was to finish building the van in the fall/winter or in the spring of 2016, and to sell the house spring 2016. But of course I was thinking about how to do it quicker. So I was initially thinking about trying to sell the house in late summer (2015)… then in the fall.. But I won’t have it ready until at least December. So, spring it will be.



DIVIDENDS



I’ve received more dividends each successive quarter. Most of the increases are from purchasing more stocks. I’ve been getting some good raises from most of the companies that I own. I did a quick check of all the companies that I owned before the start of 2015, and the average dividend increase so far in 2015 is 5%. This includes CVX, BP, and VOD not increasing dividends.



Things are looking good here. I’m getting up close to my retirement target. YAY!



RETIREMENT TARGET ADJUSTMENTS

(I’ll probably make a different thread about this, so it would be better to hold off your advise until then)

Since I’m getting closer to pulling the trigger, I’ve been asking myself questions. The two main ones are:

1 – HOW MUCH CAPITAL DO I REALLY NEED? When I was setting targets before, I was just making them my desired spending amount. But how much will healthcare cost? How much tax will I have to pay? How will the 401k-IRA escape ladder work and how will that impact my taxes? So, factoring in healthcare and taxes and everything – how much capital do I really want? I’m in the middle of researching this stuff.



2 – ARE YOU SURE YOU SHOULDN’T JUST WORK ANOTHER YEAR OR SO? Then you could have enough money to support another person if you meet a soul mate you want to come live with you and not have to work. Then you could buy nicer hobby gear or have more options of where to live. Then you’ll be more secure and won’t have to work again for sure.

I think my answer to question 2 will come into clarity after doing the following:

• Answering question 1
• Getting out of my house and starting to live in the van.
• If I don’t quit before the summer starts, taking a month-long vacation from work. That will probably seal the deal and I’m guessing I’ll want to quit after that as soon as I reach the capital target set by answering question 1.

MORE CHARTS






These charts show my results on my 2015 yearly goals. I adjusted the targets a couple months ago to account for van building.

[cmonkey]

Its super exciting when one of us is approaching the big day. You're dividends are really rolling in.

I have also been tossing around those questions in my mind and I'm quite a bit further away than you are so I imagine I'll really need to wrestle with them when the time comes. I have pretty much settled on a target of achieving 3% for Lending Club, but the second question will linger in my mind. Is an extra 6-12 months worth it? I'll be interested in the discussion.

[m741]

@C40 - I know the feeling with those questions - it feels like it's harder to pull the trigger the closer you get. You're closer to reality than you were before, when you were just dreaming of retirement.

[Carlos]

Excited to see so much progress in your journal!

2016 will be the first time I have to purchase health insurance so this subject has been on my mind lately. In my limited research so far it seems that the cost of coverage varies widely by state and city so I recommend you factor this variable into your decision-making for where you'd like to establish your official residency.

If I continue my COBRA employer coverage I'd pay $400/mo. On the health exchange I've found high-deductible bronze coverage for about $250/mo (HSA eligible) with no federal subsidy as my income will be too high (more than 400% of the federal poverty level). You might be able to keep your cost down to $75/mo given your targeted income level steady-state but be careful when starting out if your work a partial year.

The blogger GoCurryCracker has two recent posts about optimizing taxable income for either IRA Roth conversions or for health insurance subsidies. I recommend you check it out for a brief overview. Hope this helps!

[Kriegsspiel]

How goes figuring out the solar system?

[C40]

Good news! - I think I have these things figured out well enough (for now at least):
- Healthcare cost
- 401k-IRA conversion ladder
- Taxes in retirement
- Net worth target. (moving my target back up to $500k)

I'll probably post details about these within a month.


Bad news! The van electrical system research is tough! I was doing a lot of research back in June. Then I stopped and went to Colorado. Then I started working on my house to try to get it ready to sell in the fall. So now I'm going back into the electrical stuff, having forgotten a lot of it. Electricity has always been a mysterious field for me, so I'm not as confident about being able to figure it out as I'd like to be. I've forgotten a lot of stuff since June. I did take some good notes, but also had things in my head that I can't remember now. I guess if I learn this stuff two times, I should be able to remember it better over the long run. I think, realistically, I'm actually picking it back up ok. It's just that I still had a lot left to figure out when I stopped in June. I've made myself a list of the different things I need to research, decide, and purchase. I'm going to try to just do one at a time and knock them off the list. If there are any electrical experts here, I will post my wiring diagrams once I make them so you can tell me what I need to change!

[C40]

--------------------------------------------------------
NOVEMBER 2015
--------------------------------------------------------

TOTAL SPENDING: $1,886

NORMAL SPENDING: $1,691

• Hobbies - $734
• Home - $601
• Food - $234
• Clothes/Other - $70
• Transportation - $67

VAN SETUP SPENDING: $179


Well I bought a lot of stuff this month:

• A fancy (and very useful) notebook
• 2 Really nice pens (and I sold two pens)
• ~6 months worth of tea (black Friday sale)
• A new bike helmet (black Friday sale. My head has gotten bigger and my current helmet barely fits, even with all the pads removed. Saw the same exact helmet at 66% off retail)

CHARTS!!


A lot of the net worth increase for this month is because I updated my house price to be what Zillow is estimating. Zillow has been increasing the estimated value over the last 4-6 months. I’m using their estimate minus 6%.








I think it’s pretty awesome that I can spend so much money on hobby stuff, yet my total spending is still pretty reasonable.


RETIREMENT TARGET ADJUSTMENTS
I did some research in the last month or two. I got a lot more clarity on:

• Taxes in retirement
• 401k-IRA ladder
• Healthcare cost

This helped to clarify:

• How much money I’ll have available to spend (after taxes and health insurance)
• How the 401k-IRA conversion ladder will work. Impact of different conversion levels decisions
• Where my spending money will come from. Especially in the first 5 years while the conversion ladder gets started.
• How little income tax I’ll be paying (and how to accomplish this)

I want to make a separate thread sharing what I learned. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it will be helpful for those who, like myself, have been setting a net worth target just based on (SWR)*($Capital) without knowing how the details will work.

With the new clarity, I still want to get to $500k net worth before I quit. $450k would probably suffice, but with $500k, I could keep my spending low and increase my capital to allow for higher spending later on, or broaden the options of where I could live. Plus, while my motivation and interest at work is quite low, my job is pretty damn easy, so I think I might as well stick it out. I could get a very strong urge to quit after taking the month-long vacation I have planned next summer, but by then I’ll be closer to $500k.


VAN PROGRESS
I’ve been doing a ton of electrical research, and creating/updating my system design as I go. It’s taking me a long time because I’m not familiar with this kind of stuff, and I’m not going to just wing it, and I want to make sure I do it well.

I have tested the desk/table surface a few times and it works well. Here are a couple pictures from today. I was also testing a heater I just received. (The moisture on the windows is both from rain outside, and some condensation inside. Also, the refrigerator is not in the van in these pictures. It goes directly behind the chair)

• The electrical stuff will go into the area that has the white mat on the floor (the lower compartment that is just to the right of where my feet would be while sitting in that chair).
• When I’m not using the table/desk surface, the set of drawers that is to the left of the chair in the pictures will go into the foot/leg space
• For sitting inside the van, I plan to use an upside down bucket (perhaps with some kind of pad that I’ll put on it). That makes it easier to move around than a chair like this
• Yes, I’m going to get curtains/covers for the windows

[George the original one]

> My head has gotten bigger

LOL, another confirmation of the effects of being very close to early retirement!

> For sitting inside the van, I plan to use an upside down bucket

Kind of like the librarian stools? All you need are some retractable wheels around the rim of the bucket to complete the picture. Would double as a stepstool for reaching the van's roof. Boat cushion for the seat and some hooks to secure the handles to make the cushion removable.

[GandK]

@C40:

Scrolling through my RSS feeds, I saw the photos that came with this post on how to shower in your van and immediately thought of your van.

That's the guy from the Without Bound documentary, BTW. If you haven't watched it yet, you should.

[fiby41]

I wanted to tell you this for a long time that... you make sexy charts.

[fiby41]

I wanted to tell you this for a long time that... you make sexy charts.

[SimpleLife]

As I sit on another useless conference call, your lifestyle is motivating...if I was single, with no pets, I'd put my stuff in storage and give it a try. Alas, I do have a paid off house that would probably not be as drastic a lifestyle change. Can do it now, just waiting for a reason...

[SimpleLife]

@C40 - I know the feeling with those questions - it feels like it's harder to pull the trigger the closer you get. You're closer to reality than you were before, when you were just dreaming of retirement.

I suspect it has something to do with all of a sudden being right there, but scared to do it. Like sky diving. It seems all exciting and fun when you are looking at the brochure and signing up, but when you are on that plane, looking out the open door, as you are about to jump....Well, let's just say, this is where it gets real. Will your parachute open up and help you glide down safely? Will your FI plan work?

[SimpleLife]

@C40, You have a very high income, I didn't realize manufacturing paid so much! And you find your job easy, so it makes it easier to add that buffer by staying a bit longer. What kind of degree do you have? Clearly at a salary close to 150K a year you don't assemble widgets on the assembly line. Are you an engineer of some kind? An economist?

I find it interesting that the vast majority of people who want to FIRE, are high income earners. Maybe the stress becomes too much to want to subject yourself to over 40+ years. I suppose I had a few fleeting thoughts in my twenties about having another 40 years of this crap to look forward to, but it wasn't until I became a high income earner that the suck really started to be embraced and I started to consider how I could exit the workforce.

[cmonkey]

I find it interesting that the vast majority of people who want to FIRE, are high income earners.

I think its a matter of strategic/high achieving personalities realizing that money isn't everything and that they can do better than what others give them. When you don't have money, or are generally low income, its thought that more money = more happiness. Once you have money, we realize that it doesn't equal more happiness, and that enough is enough. Combine that with strategic thinkers and you have the FIRE/high income crowd.