Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Gilberto de Piento, I am proud to announce that you are the ERE blogger of the month for September, 2017 and for this great accomplishment you get a whole free bunch of jack fucking shit.

Keep up the good work.
Thanks Jason. I like your realism.
Second, a newbie question. Doesn't your net worth vary with the stock market fluctuations? I.e., even though today you're worth 220k, it's not unlikely that next month you'll be worth less, right? I ask because your graph only has like 3 points where the derivative of the curve is <0.
I'm mostly invested in a Vanguard target date 2055 fund (VFFVX) that has gone up smoothly for the last year. Over a longer period there has been more variation:

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TBH I do think you might need a kick in the ass though for still paying high rent to live on your own, as well as having problems with car costs. There are two obvious solutions there. I think your NW growth could escalate much faster if you sort those things out. Maybe stop stressing about whether or not to buy a house as that is a big decision giving rise to procrastination. You could substantially cut your rent by taking a lease on a say 3 bedroom place and filling two of the rooms with roommates. Also you could maybe explore not owning a car anymore and live in an area where you dont need one.
Good points! I got a new apartment recently, cutting my costs by about $200 per month. I think the car is here to stay though. I'm hoping the next one will need less work.

Jason

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Jason »

I started a Vanguard target date fund last year. I am also in a Fidelity target fund date.

The Vanguard has significantly lower expense ratio but less active management. Management is not necessarily trading but re-allocation between asset groups based on current stock market performance and your age.

Target funds like everything are debated. Detractors - they are merely a fund of funds. Proponents - they put your shit on auto-pilot. I don't think JL Collins plays with them - I believe he just does straight up indexing.

What I did was select a Target Fund 10 years beyond when I hope to retire in order to add higher degree of risk, which in this type of instrument is negligible. There is very little difference between a 2055 and a 2060 Target Fund when you look at it.

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

September 2017

I spent a lot and made a lot. It would have been a normal month without the extra income and spending.

Expenses
Alcohol & Bars 58.76 (tried an expensive place)
Bills & Utilities 18.39 (two months worth)
Business Services 54.32 (sites renewed)
Charity 1199.98 (I donated to a good cause; FI is important but so are other things; I have hardly given anything in recent years)
Coffee Shops 2.91
Fast Food 35.86 (vacation)
Gas & Fuel 83 (vacation)
Groceries 195.1 (not bad)
Gym 51.7
Home Improvement 5.14 (fixed something)
Home Insurance 110.86 (six months)
Internet 60.65 (two months worth)
Mobile Phone 8.46
Mortgage & Rent 740 (changed location and lowered rent by $230 per month)
Parking 92.25 (vacation)
Restaurants 38.82 (vacation)
Sports 14.66 (had to replace a broken item)
Travel 299.25 (vacation)
Total -FI 3070.11

Income
Paycheck 2454.95
Amazon 78.96
Consulting 9000 (unfortunately not repeatable)
Checking 18.94
457b 1384.6
Total +FI 12937.45

Savings 9867.34
Spent 24%
Saved 76%

SWR 17% (way too much spending)
SWR with Internet Income 16%

Years Remaining 86.9 (ha! too much spending)
Years Remaining with Interest 14

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."
Kurt Vonnegut

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El Duderino
Posts: 177
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2014 12:24 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by El Duderino »

don't you just hate it when spending goes up a month and kills the metrics? Nice job pulling in the big fee for consulting services!

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Thanks Dude!

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

In a recent thread there was a discussion about spending per year, month, and day. I thought I would paste my response here as well for the record:
$24,479.57 over the last 12 months.
$2,039.96 per month.
$67.07 per day for one person.

I'd like to get down to $18,000 per year, $1500 per month, $50 per day.
Thinking about ways to look at spending I decided to look at it by percent too. As you can see, rent is the biggest expense, followed by groceries and charity. I put an * by the categories in the list that seem fixed.

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Mortgage & Rent* 45.9%
Groceries* 10.8%
Charity 6.8%
Travel 6.2%
Auto & Transport* 6.1%
Gas & Fuel* 4.8%
Gym 2.5%*
Business Services* 2.2%
Auto Insurance* 1.7%
Taxes* 1.4%
Internet* 1.3%
Doctor* 1.2%
Gift 1.2%
Alcohol & Bars 1.1%
Restaurants 1.0%
Sports 0.7%
Mobile Phone* 0.6%
Clothing* 0.6%
Fast Food 0.6%
Cash & ATM 0.6%
Laundry* 0.6%
Health & Fitness 0.5%
Home Insurance* 0.5%
Parking 0.4%
Pharmacy 0.3%*
Home Improvement 0.2%
Bills & Utilities* 0.1% (I only started having to pay this recently so this value isn't an accurate look at 12 months of utilities)

Grouping the above list into categories helped me to think about it:
HOUSE 46.6%
Mortgage & Rent 45.9%
Home Insurance 0.5%
Home Improvement 0.2%
Bills & Utilities 0.1%
FOOD 13.5%
Groceries 10.8%
Alcohol & Bars 1.1%
Restaurants 1.0%
Fast Food 0.6%
CAR 13.1%
Auto & Transport 6.1%
Gas & Fuel 4.8%
Auto Insurance 1.7%
Parking 0.4%
CHARITY 8.0%
Charity 6.8%
Gift 1.2%
BE A HUMAN NOT A MONEY SAVING ROBOT 6.8%
Travel 6.2%
Cash & ATM 0.6%
HEALTH 5.3%
Gym 2.5%
Doctor 1.2%
Sports 0.7%
Health & Fitness 0.5%
Pharmacy 0.3%
SPEND MONEY TO MAKE MONEY 3.6%
Business Services 2.2%
Taxes 1.4%
COMMS 1.9%
Internet 1.3%
Mobile Phone 0.6%
CLOTHES 1.2%
Clothing 0.6%
Laundry 0.6%

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

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by wolf »

Hi Gilberto de Piento. Nice statistics and charts!
Could it be, that you chose your nickname from one of the "Bourne"-movies. I saw one recently. If I remember correctly they mentioned "Gilberto de Piento" as a codename?

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Gilberto do Piento, Gilberto do Piento, your party is waiting for you.
;)
Last edited by Gilberto de Piento on Wed Nov 01, 2017 10:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

October 2017

This month is my four year anniversary at ERE! In the last four years my net worth has increased by $160,000 and my safe withdrawal rate has decreased from about 40% to under 10%. I'm not there yet but I feel like I'm making progress.

This month my spending finally got back down to where it should be, around $1500 per month. This resulted in my lowest SWR value yet, at only 8.5%! I'm hoping for another good month again next month - I feel like my expenses could reasonably get down to $1300 if nothing comes up.

Expenses
Alcohol & Bars 10
Business Services 17.98
Charity 25
Coffee Shops 1.85
Fast Food 11.8
Gas & Fuel 102.03 (did some travelling)
Gift 17.28
Groceries 244.15 (a little high)
Gym 51.7
Home Improvement 133.08 (needed to replace a broken item)
Mobile Phone 20.23
Mortgage & Rent 740
Parking 35 (parking ticket!)
Restaurants 61.7
Shopping 61.64 (most of this is for a professional credential)
Sports 9.75
Travel 25
Total -FI 1568.19

Income
Paycheck 2454.96
Amazon 90.94
Google 109.45
Checking 19.56
457b 1384.6
Total +FI 4059.51
Savings 2491.32

% Spent 39%
% Saved 61%

SWR 8.5%
SWR with Internet Income 7.4%

Years Remaining 7.7
Years Remaining with Interest 4 (don't get too excited about this)


"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone."
H.D. Thoreau

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Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

The city got me for another $35 parking ticket yesterday. I moved to a place where sometimes it is OK to park on a given street and other times it isn't. There are signs but I thought I had it memorized and got it wrong.

It is frustrating because 1. the ticket costs much more than is necessary, 2. the parking situation is supposed to be so that the street can be cleaned but street cleaning only happens a couple times of year, and 3. there are only a couple of cars on either side of the street on any given block, this feels more like revenue production than a ticket for a real reason. Since I hardly drive the car this is going to be a problem. Argh.

Jason

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Jason »

It is revenue production and that's why you feel the sting of it more. I was recently pulled over with three other cars for not stopping before entering a highway. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. The cop knew to sit there because it's just not reasonable or customary not to yield in such a situation. I was pissed because it really is a minor form of entrapment or at least baiting. If they know that's a place to get people, then something's wrong. So yeah, they were just waiting for you and it cost you .005 of a Jacob. Because when you spend it willingly, its ok. But when they take it from you, its time off of ERE.

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »


Fish
Posts: 570
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 9:09 am

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Fish »

This point is likely to get lost on non-science types, but the Jacob is a rate of spending (a flow parameter) equal to $7,000 per year.

It’s not $7,000, period. The “per year” part is an important part of this fundamental PF constant! :geek:

To express the $35 parking ticket in terms of Jacobs, you either have to assume a frequency of receiving parking tickets (e.g. 1 per year, in which case it is 0.005 Jacobs) or you need to multiply the Jacob by a unit of time (e.g. 1 year, in which case it is 0.005 Jacob-years). Here is an example of proper usage: viewtopic.php?p=152677#p152677

Jason

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Jason »

Based upon the circumstances of the ticket, I’m thinking it was not a unique and one time event but will be minimally, an annual event.

Nothing personal GDP, but I see more windshield literature in your future.

Therefore, I stand by my calculation.

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

I made it to $230,000 net worth today!

Ignore the months with big bumps, Mint gets confused sometimes.

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

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by wolf »

Congrats your milestone of 230k$. The networth change between Nov2013 and Nov2017 ist quite impressive! May I ask what assets you include in your networth? Is it also your real estate, where you live?

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Hi MDFIRE! Thanks!

There is no real estate included in my assets - I am a renter. I include a 457b account, a taxable investment account, and two checking accounts.

LiberateMind
Posts: 197
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:18 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by LiberateMind »

Gilberto de Piento wrote:
Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:24 am
I made it to $230,000 net worth today!
Congrats!!

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Thanks!

Jason

Re: Gilberto de Piento's Journal

Post by Jason »

Congrats on 230K.

I remember when I hit 240K and needed to buy a new car and was looking at this one. It was a few years back so its probably gone up.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... itors.html

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