SWB's path to financial independence

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SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

I concluded I need to start looking for other employment. Day job role would transition into some new kind of role that doesn't interest me very much and doesn't really add to my market value. Plus if I'm going to jump ship, I'd like to jump while the economy is still going okay. Although it'll probably be another startup so who knows if the landing will be safe. There is a slight chance the company is actually prepping themselves for acquisition and I could benefit in some way but it doesn't seem like a worthy gamble from my perspective (that is -- doesn't seem worth hanging on).

It's tempting to hang up a contract programmer shingle and see what happens. I did some rough calculations with FireCalc and it looks like 10 more years of $38k in savings with a 0.75 social security multiplier (to play it safe) would mean goal met (starting with where we should be in two months when this contract programming side gig is over). It's tempting to consider slowing down or being open to the possibility enough to risk trying something new. I'd love for contract programming to take off and be able to hit that goal much sooner and eclipse it quite a bit for safety (particularly if I'm enjoying myself while doing so).

We also checked my wife's social security and she needs 4.5 years more credit to qualify. We might not need it but it doesn't seem like a bad thing to check off the list. I'm a bit fuzzy still if she that means she wouldn't get medicare either and if that is the case, I think we'd want her to get another 4.5 years in. The good news is it doesn't have to be at a very high rate of pay (looks like about $5.5k+/year to get the credits -- more is good in terms of more money and I suspect she'd be way over that of course but I'm looking at it from a 'bare minimum needed' perspective).

I suggested to her if we do homeschool our kids, she could use her background to create material that other people could use too (she is a teacher and now has a background in another niche market that definitely has some people looking for similarly inspired educational material when homeschooling their kids). That could even turn into a business that might bring in enough money to hit her credits needed.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

According to AARP, my wife would qualify for medicare based on my employment. However, she may need to pay for Part A premiums (it's a bit unclear if she qualifies under my payroll taxes in full for Part A). We'll have to learn more about this going forward but for now, it's just something to keep in mind (my wife is home with our young kids and we still debate adding one more so it'll be a while before she might go back to the work force).

Resolved to roll off the contract position (it's going south) and maintain the day job while interviewing for new opportunities. Last time, it took a while for the right thing to come along so might as well start early and see what turns up.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Progress: 47.5% (~$571,000/1,200,000 -- some taxes not yet factored in)
Weight: 213 pounds (21 pounds to goal weight of 192)
Side business goal: 2 out of 50 schools

Holding ~25% cash. I have to figure out how to put that to work at some point. In the meantime, it's getting a tiny return in a savings account.

Housing update: We're debating two ideas

1) Travel around the USA while I continue to work remote. Probably following the weather. Locomotion has been investigated and RVs are probably out due to carseats and safety. So it was on to Travel Trailers but we went to go look at some at an RV dealer and researched them and... They seem to be built to last about 10 years of occasional use and then they are near worthless. I don't doubt with very good maintenance (particularly on avoiding leaks by replacing all the flexible products used in the roofs regularly) they would last. Another issue is our tow vehicle has a 6,200 pound limit and if you want to step up to better quality, the weight steps up too and it just won't work (I don't want to change my tow vehicle either). So then on to cargo trailer conversions or trampers. This seems to be the ticket -- we can get something well under 6,200 pounds that will last much longer however it requires a bit amount of time investment to DIY finish out the interior. There is a whole web forum dedicated to this and I both really like this idea and think I would have fun doing it but also worry about how long it would take (and, to some degree, how much money as such projects due tend to have unforeseen costs -- but I'd rather put the money into this than a shoddy travel trailer).

2) Move to a lower cost of living area. Right now, my current fancy is a mobile home park I found on the Western coast of Michigan. It looks like for about $40k (plus $570/month for water, sewer, taxes, etc), you can get a 2 bedroom mobile home on a canal where you can tie your boat up right by your house. Like all the mobile home parks I've seen, the houses are still packed in but somehow the water access makes it all seem more exciting to me. It helps the canal goes out to a bigger lake which connects to Lake Michigan and there is a nice state park right there so you can go spend your weekends in an area that isn't going to get developed. They even do rentals at this park so we could try it on for size. They also have a place for RVs to stay with hookups so if we did #1, we could go check it out and get a couple of weeks there to get a feel for the whole thing.


My wife prefers #1. I also realized one of my goals, if life takes me that way, is to build my own house on some land and #1 would come in handy for such a project. My ideal situation there is I'm basically FIRE with a little work on my side project so I can dedicate most of my time to building a house (and/or managing subcontractors building parts of it). Hrm....

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

We spent the weekend in Ludington, Michigan. It was fun to get away from home and camp for a couple days. Although our youngest really does get super dirty crawling around the campsite. It was good preparation for the week long trip we're taking to the Upper Peninsula. We realized we have to push everything up a bit in order to clean up the kids and get dinner done and get to bed at a reasonable time. Also sandy beaches are hard -- really need a solar shower (I've had the camping type with a little hose and a black plastic bag). Or just a gallon jug painted black/dark and set in the sun. Then we can rinse off the kids once we're back to the parking lot.

Ludington was charming and nice in some ways. We heard but didn't get a chance to see the S.S. Badger arrive and depart. It's a car ferry that goes from Ludington across Lake Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. We did drive around the mobil home park and it was nice. Off of the water, there is a big area full of travel trailers that wasn't quite as nice (really jammed in there) but closer to the water and towards the outskirts, there were some nicer spots with a little more green space and/or canal access. Unfortunately, the office is only open on weekdays so we're going to take another trip back one day.

We stopped in Grand Rapids on the way there and had a really amazing early dinner at Vander Mill. It was a Friday late afternoon and locals started showing up on bicycle. I had one of their ciders and it was amazing. We're both curious to see more of Grand Rapids.

The trip was a nice departure from my usual weekends. We're going to start doing weekend camping trips more often (if we don't start full time RVing). It helps me get out of my head and away from the computer and work.

I also had an annual checkup. The first since I started a Keto diet. The doctor was enthusiastic about Keto even long term which was a pleasant surprise (and also very happy about the weight loss). All the bloodwork looks much better than last time (I had a blood test about 3-5 weeks into Keto and it was a bit rougher). Only bad things were slightly too low good cholesterol (I always struggle with this, I really try to love avocado but not that big a fan except with Mexican food -- I don't like the texture in an otherwise crisp and crunch salad). Only other problematic area was liver enzymes being up. Long story short, when I herniated the disc in my back, I think I put my liver through a workout so it's probably still due to that. But the doctor wanted another blood draw in a couple of months so we'll see. If the liver still is slightly abnormal, I might just take that as a sign I should baby my liver by quitting drinking (and whatever else helps your liver).

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Vacation in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan was great! With the sailboat mast raising improvements put together with my dad earlier this year, it was no problem getting the boat setup to go. We stayed at two different locations so there were two setups and two tear downs. It does take a while to get the boat setup and taken down however I've got some ideas to speed it up (mostly around storing the ropes/bungie cords for each area in a specific bag so don't have to look for things) and with practice, I think it will get faster (the second time up was much faster than the first).

As to actually sailing, that went well too. We spent some time out in calmer areas -- think pockets of peninsulas. My wife went out and she seemed to do fairly well although felt some motion sickness. But no throwing up and it was a one of the slightly calmer days with mild waves. But at least somewhat promising on that front which is great news.

Camping with the kids was good too. The crawler did get really dirty crawling around the campsite and it was a bit much to deal with however he is really close to walking. But there were no surprises -- probably down to doing the practice camping a couple weeks ago (and before that, camping in the backyard a couple of nights).

We didn't get as much time as planned in Marquette. It was more of a quick stop for lunch and a walk along the water. It was very nice but we're both more of the mindset to go with the RV instead of moving to a permanent location. I'd like to go back in the RV and spend more time there to scope it out (along with much of the Upper Peninsula and other parts of Michigan).

In the meantime, the contracting gig had some money issues and didn't make the most recent payment. This is concerning as I was all set on Monday to give notice to my day job after signing the paper work to go to full time employment with the contract opportunity. So I'm still in limbo with two kettles going at once and deciding what to do. I'm trying to see the opportunity in this and getting some ideas.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

I'm finding that it is hard to control the stress around my current employment situation. Logically, it shouldn't be that stressful as we have a large amount of savings now and everything will be okay no matter how it works out. But every once in a while, I'll make a minor thing into a brief tantrum. It's unpleasant, a bad example for our kids and just not the normal me. My wife pointed out that it's still stressful if you work and don't get paid which is a good point.

On another thread, I mentioned my blood work was good now however my HDL to LDL ratio needs to improve. For that, I tried diet but it hasn't seemed to help much.

I think for both exercise would help. So that is the next thing I have to figure out.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

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Progress: 49% ($590,000/1,200,000 -- minus some 1099 taxes)
Spending: $46,000/year (family of 4)
Weight goal: ~216 pounds (goal 192)
Side business goal: 2 schools (50+ desired)

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

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Made a (an?) LLC for consulting so I can open a Solo/Individual 401k. That should let me put away 1/4 of the 1099 money (regular paycheck should take me past $128k so shouldn't have any medicare/social security taken from 1099 if I have it right).

Most recent income pushed us up over $600k net worth or 50% of goal but the 1099 taxes are still looming. If the contracting gig catches up with payments, that will put us over $600k including the taxes on the 1099 income.

The contracting gig is also done as far as I know. So no more 1099 unless I go out and find some. The day job is still extremely slow but I'm beginning to feel much less burnt out. So I'm in a holding pattern until something changes. In my ideal situation, I'd take 3-6 months off after the day job (if it ends shortly as I'm guessing it will). Then I'd do more 1099/contracting work.

I've also done some more work on my side business which makes me feel good (I felt like I was abandoning it a bit during the day job + contracting on the side). It's still humming along and we're still trying to expand that. I am going to try being a sales person to see if I can do it. I want to learn more about what it's like and it can't seem to hurt us at this point.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

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Progress: 50.8% ($609,500/1,200,000 -- minus some 1099 taxes)
Spending: $56,000/year (family of 4) -- revised per wife :(, I want to get this down
Weight goal: ~216 pounds (goal 192, had some cheat days lately after a year of no cheating at all and now hovering around the same weight)
Side business goal: 2 schools (50+ desired)

Owed a big chunk of money ($25k+) on the contracting work still. Hoping the company pays it. Setup LLC as mentioned above so I can open an individual 401(k) and put a big chunk of the 1099 work into it to avoid some of the taxes.

We're still looking at options to lower our housing costs. I'm back to putting more time into the side business. I haven't tried my hand at sales yet but that is definitely something I want to try soon (there is a fair amount of delayed non-sales work that I'm wanting to catch up on first).

I'm on a holding pattern with the day job. I think the company is either going to run out of money or get acquired (but probably not in a rah rah, money for everyone way). It isn't grueling work right now so it's tempting to just hold on and see where it goes. But the current work focus is just not in my nature and I don't see value in it in terms of leveraging it for other opportunities (seems more like negative value in fact) so... What to do? It seems like the silver cloud is potentially being laid off although I know their severance terms are not generous. But something is better than nothing (ie just quitting)? I'm undecided.

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Seppia
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by Seppia »

I definitely wouldn't quit without having a new job lined up, what's the upside?
That is, unless work becomes unbearable obviously :)

I like your idea of getting into sales, I think it's a very valuable skill that can help in a very wide variety of ways (side gig, resilience*, contract negotiation for salaried work, etc)

*sales people are the first to take the blame when targets aren't met (but this is compensated by higher pay VS other functions), but also the last ones to be fired when a company needs to cut costs.
So in a downturn, a good sales person is much safer than a marketing guy/gal or whatever

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

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@Seppia I agree. I keep telling myself not to quit. The work is bearable for now. I'm trying to not make any big decisions until I no longer feel burned out. If I were to quit, I think it would be more stressful as have negative cash flow, have to worry about health insurance and costs, etc.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

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I've tried to write a post a bunch of times about where we are right now, what we're doing and what we probably will do next.

Where we are:
  • I picked my target $$$ goal somewhat seat of the pants -- first $1.6M then $1.2M. $1.6M was chosen because it would include cost of a house plus ~4% of annual spend. Later lowered to $1.2M because $1.6M seemed too high given our current living situation is overly expensive.
  • I burned out working two full time jobs for ~6 months (plus putting a little time/thought into side business). My approach right now is wait it out until things get better. It's been a month since I've been down to one job and some work on the side business and things are much better already.
  • My one (day) job is still in a constant state of flux due to management/company changes. I don't have confidence it will be around, it don't like how it's changed but it is not overly demanding. It's just mentally annoying. So for now I am doing what I need to do and trying not to get wrapped up in any of it.
  • I want to get our housing costs down but buying locally seems like a bad deal. We have a lot of options on what we could do and I don't want to sign a lower cost 12 month lease before we are sure we want to stay in this area. Our current lease is month to month.
  • At or near to 50% of the lower goal, I am wanting to focus on lowering our expenses too. I don't regret the second job as the income (besides some owed that we might never see) is in the bank. But if we could get our expenses down and the side business doing better, we're potentially not that far from a (to current us) lean FI or comfortably risking me focusing on contract work full time (and working on side business(es) between contract work).
What we are doing:
  • I'm rereading and my wife is reading the ERE book -- we started by each reading the first chapter and then talking about it. Goal is to do that with the whole book chapter by chapter.
  • I'm staying conscious of negative impact of burn out and working on getting back to more positive state of mind (before making big decisions).
  • My wife has lead the charge on downsizing our possessions. Some things are hard to let go but I now more clearly see the cost of dealing with all these material objects and am happy to see them go on to other people. So far, we're up a bit over $300 with a lot to sell still.
What we will probably do next:
  • Sell one of our two vehicles -- we only need one if I commit to working remotely.
  • Lower our housing costs.
  • More based on outcome of reading the ERE book together.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

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One of my coworkers at the day job resigned. I'm on a fairly small team so the resignation has a good chance of negatively impacting me. As much as I want to resign, I'm going to try to keep riding it out. Perhaps being older with more work experience has made me better able to cope with it all job-wise. The person who resigned seemed to have a hard time with ambiguity and letting people learn through failure (instead of trying to helicopter everything).

I suspect this means I'm less likely to be laid off :(. I am going to start interviewing in order to be prepared.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

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This evening I repaired my old MacBook Pro 13 that had a bad touchpad/keyboard/something. A while ago, I tried to test a new touchpad and a new keyboard but couldn't figure out what exactly was broken. I sent it off for diagnosis and they recommended swapping the whole lower half. Today, I di that (swapped the whole lower half which is top of lower case w/ keyboard and touchpad and the glued in battery). So far, it seems to be working great. Fingers crossed the replacement part has a good battery. My wife has been limping along* with an older MacBook Air 13 which had a liquid spill a while ago that took out the shift key (and maybe one other) on one side. So we'll swap her over to the Pro once it's updated and I'll figure out if I can fix hers (hoping it's old enough that the keyboard is screwed and it's not a pain to replace). Then Craigslist the Air off and be decluttered even more (this downsizing is paying off in multiple ways).

I had delayed on this for over a year because the parts were sitting in the closet and I thought I needed a couple more oddball screwdrivers but I happened to have everything I needed by chance.

Yay!

* Well technically she has been fine and not complained at all but it annoys me :).

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Progress: 49.3% ($591,500/1,200,000 -- minus some 1099 taxes)
Spending: ~$56,000/year (family of 4)
Weight goal: ~220 pounds (testing how occasional non-100% keto days work for me)
Side business goal: 2 schools (goal: 20, 50 desired)

Behind on updating but had the similar setback in investments as most. Still holding a lot of cash but the majority of investments are in mutual funds and those had the typical drops with recent markets. On my play accounts, I gambled with TSLA stock. I didn't have any before but with the big drop, I gambled the true believers would bring it back up. After seeing that happen once with a couple stock, I sold and then saw it drop again. I went all in on my play account and got that up 30%+ and then sold out on it too. That play account is still down a couple thousand from June of 2016 when I sold GOOG/NFLX to try to catch a falling stock. Good lesson. Glad it's learned though and it's painful to see where that account would have been if I'd left it in GOOG/NFLX! Now I'll roll over the play account into my main retirement savings account and only play with less on Robinhood. My definition of what is a play amount of money has gone down.

Day job is still stressing me out with random leadership/structure changes. A couple more coworkers quit. I've done a little bit of interviewing but nothing exciting so far and I don't want to start something new right now unless it's a clear win. Did have one random opportunity drop into my lap and I'll follow up on that and see where it goes.

I did some research on the solo 401k and I think I've made up my mind to stick with Vanguard for that. I have the paperwork to open that so just have to get that done.

The housing cost issue is still a work in progress. We have a couple of things that are impacting were we live:

1) access to education (either good public, a specific private school system or decision to homeschool)
2) proximity to family

#2 is still outstanding but for #1, we've been discussing our options quite a bit and thinking about it. My wife is accredited for the private school system and I attended it as a student however I lean towards home schooling. She was leaning more towards the private or public option but has come around a bit on homeschooling. We've also realized we can of course change our minds part way through (although it requires some care to ensure a smooth transition so timing can be important). If we homeschool, our options of where we can live expand to include a lot more affordable areas. At this point, with impending winter, we're expecting to be here through the spring and then hopefully we'll have figured out the next step.

Selling excess stuff is going well. We're over $600 in sales so far.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

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Weight myself today and I'm up to 232 pounds. I need to be at about 212 or so at end of January or perhaps end of February if I push it. I did eat carbs over the holiday though so that is maybe +6 of water weight. But 232-6-212 = 14 pounds. The reason for the goal is for the second weigh-in to get life insurance reduced. So I want to hit it as it should be a big reduction and if it's not, my agent/insurer was fibbing on their unique benefit and I'll need to switch insurers.

Zooming out, I was absolutely strict for a little bit over a year on the diet. But then I slipped on vacation in August and ever since then, I've occasionally had carb days. Up until this past weekend, when I ate carbs I really overdid it. I think going forward I could balance it with more moderate carb days however I now know I have to do it by a calendar schedule so it isn't something I can think about.

So it's back to strict until the weigh-in, then after confirming all is good with that, I think I'll try moderate carbs but pay more careful attention to it so I can observe the weight deltas. It might be that if I want to do moderate carbs, I have to also do some form of physical exercise besides walking (or walk more).

Edit: I normally do a morning weigh in and it was 228.5 this morning. So I need to loose approximately 10.5 pounds.
Last edited by SavingWithBabies on Sun Nov 25, 2018 1:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

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On the job front, I had an interview and did two of the interview steps so far on it. It went well however it doesn't align well technically with my background and it doesn't seem to have any other interesting things besides being a job on a smaller team. I'll keep going with it but I think it's a no.

I also had an interview with Google for what I learned was mostly a non-programming role. After finding that out on the second interview step, I turned that down. It would likely have required relocating too which I'm not interested in at this point. Plus I do prefer smaller companies and while I'm curious about Google (my impression is that it is basically luck if you end up with a good path there or not), I definitely am not curious enough to relocate.

I heard about yet another opportunity from a former coworker and this sounded the most promising. I'm waiting for more details on that.

Another option is to quit my day job and do another bootstrap of a business (and perhaps hang out a contractor shingle to see if anything comes in that way). I have at least one idea I want to work on. But I worry about how long the gravy train* is going to last with software development so I lean towards trying to bootstrap that on the side (although it's getting tricky with day job and going from one side thing to two).

* If I had to bet, I would bet it is going to last for quite a while but for a variety of reasons (getting older / potential age discrimination, health insurance, FI doesn't seem that far away, etc) I want to keep working while it's easy to do so. If I'm wrong though, I would hate to miss earnings up to that point as if we really buckle down and reduce expenses, I think we could be FI very soon or at least close enough to risk spending time on side businesses instead of working any job possible.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

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The thing I'm most excited about though is there was a big box of K'Nex bits and pieces at the thrift store for $5. Our kids are too young but I couldn't pass it up. It is one of those sets with a bunch of pieces to make anything not a specific thing and it has a bunch of wheels, a wind up motor and so forth. I loved legos as a kid (the big box of random blocks, not specific models) and I can't wait to spoil our kids with toys like this. I had to get it out tonight after they went to bed so I could build something (a wind up car).

I wish my Grandparents had held onto those legos to pass them down. I guess I'm not the only adult that likes to play with kids toys because used legos are super expensive. Somehow, everyone got the word but if we keep hitting up yard sales, maybe we'll stumble across a deal one day. I would pay new prices for legos if it comes down to it but...

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

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Progress: 50% ($600,000/1,200,000 but minus ~$22k of 1099 taxes)
Spending: ~$56,000/year (family of 4)
Weight goal: ~223.5 pounds (goal for end of January is 212, long term 198)
Side business: ~$5k annual profit (goal ?), not paid out yet so not included in progress

I got a rough estimate of the taxes due on the 1099 income at CreditKarma. It looks like approximately $22k.

Weight dropped as expected due to the typical keto water flush. I can actually feel the difference with rings on my fingers. My wedding band will more easily fit over my knuckle on keto and I don't know if that is due to just the fat under the skin going away or also the joint being smaller (less hydrated? less inflamed?). I'm already down one wedding ring size and would guess if I get to 198, I'll be down another size (I prefer $5 metal rings so no big deal).

I realized it would be more sensible to keep track of the business(es) in terms of annual profit to me. So I started doing that above.

The $600k currently breaks down to:
- 4% stocks
- 29% cash (~$22k of this is owed taxes as noted above)
- 67% index funds
I would like to lower the % of index funds soon. Some of the index funds are in the taxable account and I hesitate to sell and incur capital gains tax. I also hesitate to sell in the tax-deferred accounts. It might be better to sell off in the taxable account in 2019 (this year my income is unusually high due to contract work).

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

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I forgot the biggest thing: we tried switching up our grocery shopping by trying to as much as possible at Costco. At first, we were going to do Costco-only however there are some things they don't carry or require too much bulk. I was also skeptical this would save us money as was my wife. However, it saved us $400 over the month before. My wife pointed out though that the month before was unusually high so it saved us more than it normally would but we're both excited about this. I think it simplified our meals a bit and the vegetables we did buy were in bulk so we had more of the same. But neither of us was unhappy with it at all.

So that is a step in the right direction. I'm really waiting for the shoe to drop on housing as I think if we can dramatically lower both housing and food costs... I also shopped around for car insurance and found I could save ~$900*/year by switching. Ideally, we'd go down to one vehicle and save even more but going to take the insurance savings for now.

Also wife read through chapter 3 of the ERE book. I need to catch up with my reread. Going a bit slower because a library book came in that she was waiting for and she is going to read that first (can't be renewed as in demand).

* A bit chunk of this savings is due to opting into the requirement that we have medical insurance (by another provider). For some odd reason in Michigan, some insurers default to this being on and some require jumping through some hoops to enable it and lower your rate. But the new provider is also a little lower on the other parts of the policy. Oh, and I would have done the medical insurance discount with the existing provider however the discount was much much lower than with the new provider.

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