wolf's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
Sarouel
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by Sarouel »

Congrats! Only 6000 € of expenses is really hard in germany, good job!

wolf
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Location: Germany

Re: wolf's journal

Post by wolf »

Sarouel wrote:
Wed Aug 01, 2018 9:03 am
Congrats! Only 6000 € of expenses is really hard in germany, good job!
Yes, it is. Inflation has been increasing lately. So it will get even harder to stay around 1 Jacob (currently 6041€).

Luckily I am very content and happy with my current lifestyle, although I haven't travelled in my last three vacations. Right now life is good and I appreciate that.

I would like to live (work,save,invest...) like that till I will reach my milestone around 2019/2020. Then I will reconsider "coasting to FI/FF" and maybe changing/adapting my lifestyle accordingly but only slightly/minimal.

Well, thank you Saroul, also for reading my journal.

wolf
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what I usually do these days

Post by wolf »

If you wonder what I usually do these days, beside occasionally posting my financial status each month ;) , I'd like to outline it a little bit.

Usually I work two out of five days from home. I go by bike to work. Each morning I review my journal entry from the last month and write about it. On sundays I cook in bulk for the next three working days. After work I always exercise. In spring, summer and autumn I swim, walk, hike, jog, exercise with body weight, do HIIT (high intensity interval training), yoga/stretching and bike of course. After work and after exercising I relax at home. I read books about 30 to 60 minutes a day. My goal is to read one new book and one "old" book (which I have already read before) each month. Almost every day I check the ERE forum. In addition to that I watch videos at youtube (Jordan Peterson, Noah Trevor show, philisophical, nature, travel, etc. ) If there is a good movie in TV (IMDB rating > 7.0) I'll watch it. Otherwise I look for documentaries. Usually I meditate for 15-30 minutes before going to bed. During the day I surf the web for news, such as ECONOMIST, Visual Capitalist, business websites, surveys, statistics, academic papers, etc. On weekends I visit friends and family, do longer trips and read good quality newspapers.

So summarizing, I value routine, structure, habits and time alone. I "love" new data from books, internet, videos, ERE forum, or at work. I also value a balance between work (for my employer) and leisure time. I hope that gives you an idea of my current life.

trailblazer
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by trailblazer »

Sounds like a very pleasant routine. If you didn’t have to work do you think you would just extend it to 100% of your day?

What do you do for the body weight and HIIT? I’ve been doing basic strength training but it’s starting to hurt a bit too much and I want to go 100% equipment free.

wolf
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by wolf »

trailblazer wrote:
Sat Aug 18, 2018 7:18 pm
Sounds like a very pleasant routine. If you didn’t have to work do you think you would just extend it to 100% of your day?
Yes, I do. There are so many ideas and on my GALT (Getting-a-life-tree Building a Vision of Life Without Work) and my ULAL (Ultimate-Life's-Adventure-List*, based on "How to retire happy, wild and free" by Ernie J. Zelinski, it is basically a bucket list of all your dreams). So I don't fear to run out of ideas.
Especially when I am still able to do things physically. Therefore my health is very important to me. Just two weeks ago I figured out that I can jog without feeling pain in my knees. I haven't jogged for 10 years now. I tried it two weeks ago and so far it feels great.
trailblazer wrote:
Sat Aug 18, 2018 7:18 pm
What do you do for the body weight and HIIT? I’ve been doing basic strength training but it’s starting to hurt a bit too much and I want to go 100% equipment free.
Some years ago I bought this book about it: You Are Your Own Gym: The Bible of Bodyweight Exercises

These days I do pull-ups, hip extensions on the floor, shoulder presses in combination with push-ups, etc. It is very basic, but just right.

For HIIT I use a crosstrainer. I do about 5 to 10 intervals a 1 min very fast and slow on the highest intensity. But you could also do it without a machine by doing squats, burpees or/and jumping jacks. It is only important to get your heart pumping.

trailblazer
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by trailblazer »

Thanks for the reply. Going to check out those books.

wolf
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Location: Germany

August 18 financial progress

Post by wolf »

Savings Rate = 87,6% (12 months rolling average)
Yearly Expenses = 5683€ (12 months rolling average) *
Withdrawal Rate = 8,3% (actual yearly expenses + margin of safety + health insurance)
Milestone = 84% (accumulated money compared to milestone of 210k€ by end of 2019) **
Investment Ratio = 67% (invested money in equity/bond/commodity market, rest of it in cash)
Passive Income = 50% (actual dividend&bonds passive income covering my actual yearly expenses)
Monthly Investment = 4017€ (my goal is to invest at least 4k€ monthly using cost average effect)
JAFI = 1.08 (assuming I had to pay health insurance like I were RE)

* that is without health insurance
** After achieving the milestone, I'd like to reevaluate possibilities to "coast deliberately to FI/FF"

EDIT:
added JAFI
Last edited by wolf on Sun Sep 02, 2018 9:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

classical_Liberal
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by classical_Liberal »

...
Last edited by classical_Liberal on Fri Feb 05, 2021 12:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

wolf
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Location: Germany

Re: wolf's journal

Post by wolf »

@classical_liberal: Thank you very much for your comments!

Yeah, milestone is advancing fast! :-)

Regarding my expenses:
Please be aware, that it is without health insurance, therefore I guess a direct comparison to 1 Jacob (one year of expenses) is not possible.
But if you relate 1 Jacob to 7000$ (which is another way to do it, according to the consensus on this forum) you can compare it. Then with currency exchange I would have 6597$, so 0,94 Jacob

Well, 1 wolf is fluctuating right now around 6000€ (+/- 500€) ;)

Breakdown of my 12-months-trailing-expenses (all in €):
- housing: 2713 (electricity, internet, cable, utilities, maintaining, )
- living: 1385 (food, etc..)
- things: 1146 (books, prepping, outdoor stuff)
- transportation: 276 (public transport, bicycle repair/gear)
- travel&fun: 163

Regarding my WR
Yes, my margin of safety is 100%. (so 2x expenses). In addition to that I add health insurance (because it is not included in my actual expenses)

No, I won't consider myself FI when I reach my milestone (of 210k€), because
1) it is without health insurance,
2) it is without margin of safety,
3) with health insurance it would be a WR of about 4,1% and that wouldn't be a sustainable SWR IMO
4) it doesn't cover travel&fun expenses, etc.

Achieving my milestone will provide more possibilities to choose from (e.g. work). And I will reevaluate "Deliberately Coasting to FI/FF", which means I could lower SR and increase spending. Right now my system (earning+spending+investing) is a "well-oiled" machine. And I'd like to have it that way for another few years.

Overall, what is important to me is, that my currenct lifestyle is sustainable. That means I am personally very satisfied and happy with it. Everything is provided. Almost all of my needs and wants are fulfilled at the moment. If that were not the case, I would change something.

edited some minor changes
Last edited by wolf on Sat Sep 01, 2018 8:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Bankai
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by Bankai »

I'm wondering if a jacob should not be adjusted for inflation. After all, once expenses are optimised, it's quite difficult to keep cutting them further year after year (the lower the spending, the higher the proportion of unoptimizable expenses (i.e. taxed usually only go higher)). Especially in the long-term. One could've probably lived quite comfortably for $700 back in 1918 (equivalent to 1.8 today's jacob). Not so much nowadays.

Checking online inflation calcs, 2008's jacob has inflated to around $8200 today (about 17%). Should we start using 'IAJ' (inflation adjusted jacob) or 'JAFI' (jacob adjusted for inflation) or something similar?

So 1 wolf = 1 jacob = 0.85 JAFI.

wolf
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by wolf »

Bankai wrote:
Sat Sep 01, 2018 4:36 am
I'm wondering if a jacob should not be adjusted for inflation.
Bankai, I guess that is one way to see it. Thank you for the idea with adjusted by inflation. 'JAFI' sounds great. You would need a reference point from the past, like you suggested.

Another way would be to see 1 Jacob as 7000$ per year, as fish thought of:
Fish wrote:
Thu Nov 09, 2017 10:31 am
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

jacob
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by jacob »

It would be nice to have it adjusted for inflation. Until recently I've managed to beat inflation by spending more efficiently, similar to the YMOYL trajectories, but this year I get hit with hikes in health insurance and RE taxes.

So I'm actually spending 1.1 jacob now. But if you compare with my original 6k spending almost 20 years ago, I suppose, I'm closer to 0.5 jacob compared to when I was a noob and didn't know any better than to sacrifice in order to save money.

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Bankai
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by Bankai »

Another benefit would be that 'the dream' (spending within 1 jacob) would not become more and more elusive and unattainable as the time passes. It's super hard as it is, even for people on this forum, and devaluating the jacob further would only discourage new converts.
jacob wrote:
Sat Sep 01, 2018 11:28 am
It would be nice to have it adjusted for inflation.
Where would you say should the reference point be? The year you first divulged your spending level on the blog? 2008 was a stab in the dark on my part, but I imagine this wasn't far off - 2006-2007 maybe?

jacob
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by jacob »

Lets just do Dec 4th 2007 when the blog started.

niemand
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by niemand »

@wolf: nice journal, you're really rocking it! I have a similar timeline as you, but my number is closer to 3 wolfs :oops:
Your margin of safety seems huge though, care to elaborate why?

wolf
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by wolf »

@niemand: Thank you for your feedback!
niemand wrote:
Sat Sep 01, 2018 5:22 pm
Your margin of safety seems huge though, care to elaborate why?
...because 1) my level of cautiousness is quite high.
And 2) I have many ideas on my "Ultimate Life's Adventure List".
Maybe both will change in the future a bit, but for now I'm ok with it. :)

SustainableHappiness
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by SustainableHappiness »

Oh my goodness. It's taken me 9 months to realize you switched your name. wolf, you are rockin' it! Good work and thanks for sharing!!

Jin+Guice
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by Jin+Guice »

Great journal wolf, thanks for sharing! I'm very impressed by your low level of spending. I'm glad you changed your name as I think you were probably focusing too much on retiring early (spoiler alert: I think almost everybody on here focuses to much on FI, including myself). Wolves are also cooler than financial independence.

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Jean
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Re: wolf's journal

Post by Jean »

In which part of Germany are you?

wolf
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Re: wolf's journal

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