Nomadic-ERE Year 5 - Wanderlust Prevails

Where are you and where are you going?
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2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 12 month hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

May Financial Update

Our combined spending was awesome, and lowered our trailing 12 month expenses. This should keep getting lower till it levels out around 36-40k/yr.

At the airport about to board my flight so I will post more thoughts later.
Last edited by 2Birds1Stone on Fri Feb 05, 2021 4:54 am, edited 2 times in total.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 12 month hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Well, it feels pretty amazing knowing that I have less than a full year till I take my first mini retirement. 2.5-3 more additional years of FT work to get to 30x desired RE budget.
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2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 12 month hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Today I reduced my cash position by $20k and purchased $10k worth of I Bonds, and $10k went into my taxable brokerage, which will be distributed into VTI/VXUS this week.

Just wait a few days, and if history repeats itself, we will see a nice little correction in the coming weeks (or any time I lump sum invest).
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Seppia
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 12 month hustle to freedom!

Post by Seppia »

Progress and savings are impressive.
What is your plan for the first mini retirement stint? Did it stay the same since you first planned it or did it evolve?

I'm curious because my recent track record is similar to yours, and while the general end goal has stayed the same, tactics have evolved quickly and adjusted to a changing environment.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 12 month hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Thanks Seppia.


These are grandiose plans, and life tends to get in the way. But for now, I'm sticking to my story :)
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Seppia
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 12 month hustle to freedom!

Post by Seppia »

It's a great plan.
Life may get in the way somehow (a kid, a great career bump, a newfound love for an expensive hobby such as flying etc) but that's part of the fun.
My approach is to have a long term general vision about what I want to do with myself and my family, and then try and be flexible about the short and mid term.
I am a huge "strategy over tactics" kind of person, it seems you are following a similar path.

Remember to hit me up before you visit northern Italy, in 2019 I'll be most probably living in Trieste, so we may get in touch if you visited.
In any case I can try give you some recommendations, I'm from Como and I know northern Italy sufficiently well.

Keep kicking ass

classical_Liberal
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 12 month hustle to freedom!

Post by classical_Liberal »

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2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 12 month hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Thanks Seppia, I'll definitely let you know when I'll be heading to Italy!

c_l, that's awesome. You have a pretty good gig with work and should have no problem re-entering the work force if your desired lifestyle inflates or there is a particularly bad sequence of returns. I on the other hand have no formal education and would likely see my income chopping in half trying to return into the workforce in a similar role during economic downturn.

I think the 120 days will be a good test run, then I can decide an exact date for the sabbatical once I am earning again. I am super pumped! I do know I don't want to continue living on $18k/yr forever though =D

I dumped a decent amount into stocks over the past few months. My allocation is getting close to where I want it to be. 60% stocks, 20% CD's, 15% bonds, 5% Precious Metals.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 12 month hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

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classical_Liberal
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 12 month hustle to freedom!

Post by classical_Liberal »

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2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 12 month hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Any specific towns/areas you would recommend?

We are able to stretch our current $3k/month budget pretty far living in a HCOL area, big part of that is travel hacking and I get a ton of travel/culinary experiences that are expensed for work. I spent the past 3 days staying in NYC for some customer meetings and internal stuff. Tried Smith & Wollensky steak house for the first time, got some ridiculous sushi the second night, and had poke for lunch on Tuesday and today, while work catered some bomb food yesterday.

Tomorrow I'm in the office and it's already weekend time again. I think I'm going to be mountain biking on Saturday morning, and doing a hike/BBQ for fathers day with my parents, brother, his SO, my fiances family too. Always fun having 10 people over to our 1 BDRM apartment =) At least we have a huge yard.
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2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 350 day hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

I need to start tracking weight and activity more diligently.

My weight has crept back into the 218-220lb range the past week, and today I started tracking calories and expenditure (using my Garmin 920xt).

My ideal weight is somewhere around 195-198lbs, which I have not been since spring/summer of 2014.

classical_Liberal
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 350 day hustle to freedom!

Post by classical_Liberal »

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2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 345 day hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Ah, yes for now the family and friends thing is pretty important, and provides low/no cost entertainment and a social support system. Once we are RE'd though, we will be traveling 50%+ of the time anyway, so the lower cost option will win. That may be renting a room in a family members home to store our stuff and decompress between adventures, or buying a small home in a low cost state like we discussed last year. Something <$50k in rural FL, CO, UT, AZ etc, but a few hours drive from a major airport.

I'm heeding your advice on not making too specific of plans years in advance, what we want, as well as the world around us will be different beyond what we could imagine in the current time.

I'm just counting down the days, 345 to be exact, till I can execute phase one of semi-ERE.
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2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 350 day hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Every so often, I get this feeling, which starts off as an inkling that something is not quite right.
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classical_Liberal
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 350 day hustle to freedom!

Post by classical_Liberal »

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slowtraveler
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 350 day hustle to freedom!

Post by slowtraveler »

It's understandable you feel stressed and have a conflict of interests in your desires. You want to get a break and feel attachment to the vacation but life happened.

I hope she feels better soon and you get to enjoy your time off.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 350 day hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Leaving for vacation tomorrow, looking forward to a nice week away from work.
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trailblazer
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 350 day hustle to freedom!

Post by trailblazer »

499 . . . so close . . . if only she hadn't missed work :D But nice job!

2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stones' 350 day hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Thanks tb, if the markets cooperate we will be over $500k NW moving forward. It's a pretty cool milestone, another $500k and we will be fully FI and never have to work again.

I'm on vacation in FL visiting family and friends this week. 8 days and 7 nights, which gets a bit expensive even with travel hacking the flights. I'm not confident that we will be able to stay under $3k for our July combined spending.

The trip has been incredible, and just what the doctor ordered in terms of stress relief. When we don't have to work FT anymore, I can't wait to take trips like this much more often.

It's going to be hard to go back to work on Monday after 10 days off.
Last edited by 2Birds1Stone on Fri Feb 05, 2021 4:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

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