Lemur Journal!

[Lemur]

Another Paycheck. Another $1,026.92 to the investments. Nothing else to report....growing wealth smoothly. Getting into the groove at my new job too. Monday-Fridays are such a strict routine....Wake up and eat my breakfast I prepared from last weekend, commute to work, work, eat my lunch I prepared last weekend, work, commute, come home, eat the same meal I've been eating since March 1 for dinner, play with my kid, browse some stuff, sleep. Very productive at least. Can't wait until the weekend though. Even my weekends follow a routine to some degree.

[Kriegsspiel]

5 meals created this week for lunch. I've kept this habit up for a few weeks now. This week I experimented with a lentil soup...turned out terrible. In the interest of never wasting food, I must now eat this concoction for 5 days now. Sticking to tomato sauce next time. The chicken broth recipe did not turn out well...

What did your attempt include? Beef + lentils + tomato sauce is a personal staple.

[Lemur]

What did your attempt include? Beef + lentils + tomato sauce is a personal staple.

Onions, Carrots, Sweet Potato, Garlic, Bay leaf, Peppercorn, Chicken broth, Brown lentils, Celery.

[Lemur]

Crazy to think in some perspective this morning, that I as one person ($115,000 * 0.03 = $3,450 annually) has food covered for the rest of my life at 3% SWR...

https://www.foodaidfoundation.org/world ... stics.html

Some of it due to diligence, making deliberately better choices (with money especially), etc...
Some of it due to sheer luck (being born in a 1st world country, went to decent schools, made random choices as a teenager that worked out in my favor, lucky breaks in career, parents weren't too messed up, etc..)

[Lemur]

What did your attempt include? Beef + lentils + tomato sauce is a personal staple.

My lentil lunches for this week came out good. Each lunch is approximately 2-2.5 cups of lentils. I may take up your beef idea though to get in some added meat protein (so do 1 cup of ground beef and 1 cup of lentils) ...doing this now:

Lentils, Onion, Carrot, Celery, Potato, Tomato Sauce, Yellow Bell Peppers all in a slow cooker.

[Kriegsspiel]

I've done higher ratios of lentils to ground beef, it's all good. Beef & barley is good too, and the barley cooks with the same method as the lentils so you can combine them in whatever ratio you want. I just pulled a ton of carrots out of my garden so I'm going to try them with it.

BTW, for spices I usually go with one of three combos

taco spice

chili pepper
salt
pepper flakes or pickled peppers from the garden

Tony Chachere's spice

[Lemur]

My client today: “My goal is to eventually automate all of you out of a job.”

I appreciate this vision because I believe in it...We have better things to do.

[2Birds1Stone]

Love it! I was just presenting an automation strategy this week. It's not all about replacing people, but taking the mundane and repetitive shit off their plate.

[Lemur]

Damn this guy could probably FIRE with the money I've right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yXU8K-9SIw

[Lemur]

I've done higher ratios of lentils to ground beef, it's all good. Beef & barley is good too, and the barley cooks with the same method as the lentils so you can combine them in whatever ratio you want. I just pulled a ton of carrots out of my garden so I'm going to try them with it.

BTW, for spices I usually go with one of three combos

taco spice

chili pepper
salt
pepper flakes or pickled peppers from the garden

Tony Chachere's spice

Nice I've a whole week of recipes following close to this and today's lunch is fantastic. It works with my diet I got going on too because I needed to add some meat protein (+beef) and drop some carbs (-lentils)...

So each batch has approximately 1 cup of lean ground beef and 1 cup of brown lentils slow cooked in tomato sauce, onion, carrot, celery, banana peppers. Seasoning mix is: Salt, Pepper, Oregano, Basic, Chili Powder.

[Lemur]

Surprised to learn today that parts of Australia have a shortage of energy supply...mainly due to political reasons.You would think with all that land and lithium this wouldn't be a problem, Sad!

Planted some red potatoes and started some carrots in my kitchen (to get the heads to sprout). First time planting both. Additionally, I pulled a whole bunch of weeds out of my garden. Very odd I thought this bed was a failed experiment but had completely forgotten I planted collard greens there which kind of look like weeds if you aren't familiar with them...

[Lemur]

Too much time on my hand again...that is fine. Ran some projections and never done a bi-weekly projection before which was a lot of fun because I was able to see exact dates of certain milestones. Never before (at least to this level of detail) have I tied money/time so much together. So every two weeks I'm investing $1026.92 in the market and using a 5% growth rate. Every March, I max out the IRA ($6,000) from tax-refund and additional savings. Some interesting way to play with the numbers, for instance, is if I skip the vacation this year and invest the money instead, I could take off 3 paychecks (6 weeks) of working. Interesting...interesting. Anyhow, I'm gonna keep this chart and update the "PV" portion and delete out the starting rows every 2 weeks as I accumulate paychecks (I'm such a salaryman haha).


August 4, 2023 - $300,000 in assets reached. Could live on $1,000 a month if so desired...it took me 113 paychecks to get here!

July 3, 2026 - 188 paycheck later, I've reached $450,000 in assets. Could FI in my spouse's home country but would have to optimize and not go on vacations or make a side income to fund that.

February 9, 2029 - In 256 paychecks, I should have about $600,000 and can consider significant lifestyle changes. This is my current projected "number" as at this point I'm not working anymore for full-time money. Could fund current lifestyle.

April 18, 2031 - $750,000 in assets reached in 313 paychecks. I'm only at this point because on February 9, 2019 I decided that I didn't hate my job just yet and would stick around.

August 4, 2034 - In 399 paychecks....I'm a millionaire. At this point I'm spoiled and my Excel projections don't go past this point (399 paychecks got me here).

[Lemur]

Another payday. Another $1026 invested. My former employer 401(K) had more money than I thought was in it. So I'm up to $121,275 now.

I've read tons of articles lately about the yield curve, the federal funds rate, and other macroeconomic concepts. I'm starting to find it weird that everyone and their mom keeps shouting "time in the market > timing the market." SURELY over the long-term this works but couldn't one beat the index in the long-term if they time themselves properly over seemingly obvious macroeconomic indicators?

[Kriegsspiel]

It seems to me that if you want to wait until the next big slide to invest in stocks, because indicators are telling you the market is overvalued, then you're only missing out on dividends. That is, unless the market never drops again or never drops to the current price again. So if you park that money in Treasury bills, you're only missing out on the difference between the Treasury's yield and the dividends from the index. If you are content to do that until the market slides enough that you can dump it all in, then why not?

This is a site I check to see how the Buffet Indicator is doing. I only use broad indices right now so I figure it's good enough.

[Lemur]

It seems to me that if you want to wait until the next big slide to invest in stocks, because indicators are telling you the market is overvalued, then you're only missing out on dividends. That is, unless the market never drops again or never drops to the current price again. So if you park that money in Treasury bills, you're only missing out on the difference between the Treasury's yield and the dividends from the index. If you are content to do that until the market slides enough that you can dump it all in, then why not?

This is a site I check to see how the Buffet Indicator is doing. I only use broad indices right now so I figure it's good enough.

Certainly aware of this indicator...as well as the Shiller PE Ratio, the Yield Curves. So many indicators pointing towards a downturn, not to mention the piling student debt crisis and our current trade war with China.

I'm not selling equity off yet, but I am allocating more towards bonds.

[Lemur]

One of my clients is an ass. Got it out of my system. Back to work. Also listened to a good Ted talk on dealing with "difficult people." Ultimately ended in putting yourself in their shoes and see if you're the difficult one. I did that. They're still the ass though. Something else I like to do when I think of people at work who're always edgy, tense, pissed off, or what have you, I think to myself "man they must be miserable" or "who hurt you..."

That makes me feel better.

[Lemur]

One of the psychological traps I tend to fall into is the one where you're always thinking of the future...I feel like this is mostly a natural byproduct of the accumulation phase and some personality types. In doing so, I often forget to live in the present moment. Now living in the present moment has become to be associated with "let’s spend money now." This is where trying to disconnect can get tricky because I often feel society raises us up this way to spend money on things/experiences/etc. Because this is how you live in the present moment... because 'you might not have another tomorrow.'

For most of us on this forum, mastering the desire to spend money is easy to control for the most part. I've little problems with that (the occasional energy drink / coffee, movie ticket, well desiring vacations maybe that is about it). Some issues stem from dealing with anxiety every now and then, overthinking about workplace conflict, is my spouse happy? etc...Stuff like that: the trap is "one day I'm going to be retired and not have to deal with this" but that isn't the right way to look at these problems because it doesn't solve anything in the present.

So this begs the question of what does it mean to truly live in the present moment? I've been listening to random Buddhist Society talks on Youtube. There answer seems to be a theme of letting go of desire because in doing so you can find contentment. When something is desired, you're essentially telling yourself what I have or where I am at right now is not good enough.

So going back to workplace conflict. I've to ask myself "why am I working so hard to try to live to someone else's expectation." For the anxiety, why am I bathing in worry instead of hope?

I don't know how to answer the why. Is this just ingrained? And if so, could one meditate these problems out? This is a good argument for meditation at least because like a muscle, we've to exercise the brain to get better. I don't meditate myself but maybe I should try that out.

[classical_Liberal]

Very nice last post!

You are not alone, I struggle with these exact issues. While there is very much an art to learning to live in the present, I think some of us are more hardwired than others to look towards the future. I've had varying success in my life trying to focus on the present.

I think consumerist YOLO is only a bastardization of true present mindedness. The period in my adult life in which I was most successful in remaining present-minded was also the period where money and consumer pleasures were the most scarce (because I was poor). I don't have an answer for you if you suffer from this, other than abstinence, which would force substitution. Soon enough the reality will reveal itself.

Obviously there are plenty of internals to focus on, but I think there are also plenty of externals as well. I have a hard time focusing on now/the next 24 hours when I see very little joy in the upcoming activities. I really think the key is to begin to take away the activities we know are undermining happiness. Too often we are tempted to analyse and compare. Like, "oh 'X' isn't so bad, there is no reason it should make me miserable, at least I don't have to Y". This may be stoic in a sense, but it is the wrong answer, IMO. If you know "X" is something that consistently brings about unhappiness it needs to be substituted for something else. We all need to look forward to our present and our next 24 hours, without sacrificing next year or decade. The wealth of modern society has afforded us this luxury. If our day-to-day activities are pleasant (based on each individuals perspective), present focus becomes much easier.

[prognastat]

I would say a large part of consumerism doesn't come from the actual present, but rather the near term. The anticipation of the purchase/acquisition leading to the payoff.

This is why there is a certain empty-ness shortly after acquiring something new. The enjoyment came from the lead up, the anticipation and maybe the first moments of use. Much like the child on Christmas, enraptured by opening a present only to put it aside and forget it while moving onto the next wrapped toy.

I wouldn't say this is really being present, but rather a distraction from the present.

[mooretrees]

I’ve been thinking of this dilemma quite a bit lately too. I want to be out of debt and am anticipating how great that will feel, but that thinking takes me away from my son, and husband and out of the present. I felt I could have written this! I wouldn’t say I have a solution, but I keep turning to my “web of goals.” I figure if I focus of those activities that I want to do and things I want to learn now, then the future thinking will fade away. Of course, it’s not 100% effective, but it is a start. Good luck to you!