UrbanHermit's Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
TheRedHare
Posts: 202
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:40 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: UrbanHermit's Journal

Post by TheRedHare »

Pedal2Petal wrote:Hey it's cool to see this journal from another guy in Vancouver. A few of you in here too. My wife and I just moved from North Van to Burnaby and are paying 960$ for a 2-BR, or 480$ each. I've lived in several places that were as low as 250$/mo in this city. Many single people live in vans in this city for free, I can point you to some youtube channels that is 100% what I would do if I was single. Just my $0.02 ;)
I live in Charleston, SC and my rent so no where near that bad. But I've been thinking about living in a van. What recommendations do you have. Love your websites by the way...great stuff!

Pedal2Petal
Posts: 107
Joined: Sat Nov 12, 2011 8:01 pm
Contact:

Re: UrbanHermit's Journal

Post by Pedal2Petal »

TheRedHare wrote:I live in Charleston, SC and my rent so no where near that bad. But I've been thinking about living in a van. What recommendations do you have.
Personally I like Sprinter vans the best because they are roomy, tall and have excellent gas mileage while being "stealth" enough for city use. You can search "sprinter conversion van" and see lots of habitation examples, or run the same search on craigslist to find sprinter homes for sale. You could also live much more comfortably in an RV and park it in an RV park or on someone's land like we did we 9 months in 2014.

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

Re: UrbanHermit's Journal

Post by wolf »

Hey UrbanHermit, how are you? How have everything worked out?

UrbanHermit
Posts: 103
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:39 am

Re: UrbanHermit's Journal

Post by UrbanHermit »

So there I was, scrolling through the back cataglogue of journals ERE journals, wondering what became of all the journalers I used to read regularly like Tyler900, Spoonman, Pedal2Petal, Akratic, Ebast, JeanPaul, Spartan_Warrior, ...

And there was *MY* journal, gathering dust for almost three years! Have I really been just lurking all that time?!? Oh the shame... :D

UrbanHermit
Posts: 103
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:39 am

Re: UrbanHermit's Journal

Post by UrbanHermit »

September 2019 Update

Back in 2014 when I started this journal, my goal was to hit FI before my 40th birthday, and relocate to a lower cost area. Well, the deadline has come and gone, did I accomplish my goal?

Sort of, but not really.

I'm still here in Vancouver, still working the same job. My portfolio balance is way up from where I started, but my goals have realigned themselves along the way, and I'm not at the point of pulling the trigger quite yet. That said FIRE is no longer a distant dream.

At this point I'm about 6-8 months away from being able to sustain my current lifestyle here in the downtown on a 4% SWR. If I moved back out to Burnaby where I was when I started this journey I could hit that mark today. If I relocated back to my hometown, I'd be at a 3% SWR with no other changes in lifestyle.

There are days when it's tempting to do exactly that. On a bad day, when the pressure is on and I'm frustrated, angry, and stressed-out, the urge to just quit can be powerful. Knowing that walking away forever is a actually an option doesn't help when I'm trying to convince myself to suck it up and stay the course.

Most days however, I remind myself that living this lifestyle forever isn't the goal. The way I live right now is a comprimise I've been forced into be the necessity of living in a large city to have access to work, and accepting limitations on my lifestyle do to the excessive cost of having those things in my current circumstances.

My current post-FIRE goals involve a small house, with enough yard for a garden and a dog, and space for a quiet home-office (working from home is currently impossible for me due to noise issues with construction, renos, and neighboring suites). The massive run-up in Canadian real estate has pushed the price of what would meet even my minimal standards up significantly, to the point that a budget of 200-250k is barely adequate (only one province has a median house price under 250k, the national average is 490k so while cheap houses exit they come with immense trade-offs).

My net worth as of this month is 745k CAD (564k USD), and my annual savings net of taxes are in the 50-60k range. If the markets manage an annualized 3% return or better, I could hit the $1M mark in the next 3 years. At this point I feel the balances on my retirement accounts are adequate, and I'm directing savings in to a house-fund.

Running the number I think I could use up to 250k of my current savings to buy a property and live off the remaining 500k with no issues. So at this point the question is how much I want to gild the lily.

Currently the conditions under which I see myself pulling the trigger on full fire are (1) hitting the $1M threshold, (2) reaching age 45, or (3) losing my current job and not getting any good offers.

OTOH I might get there and convince myself that the numbers look better if I retire at fifty... is that 5MY syndrome?


ERE Field Report #1

My brother has recently ERE'd at the age of 43. He doesn't call it that, but he rage-quit his high pressure job and is now living car-free in a basement suite on a 2.5% SWR while he codes side projects with no commercial value, reads a ton of light novels, and watches netflix or whatever. Might get a job again someday. Currently not looking.

Seems a lot more relaxed than before, but still resistant to the idea of excercise despite my frequent reminders he's got an extra 60h a week now and would only need to spend a tiny fraction of that in the gym...


ERE Field Report #2

One of my co-workers and partner took off last year on their 2nd sabaticle in the decade that I've known them. May of may not get other jobs afterward. They were car-free and house-hacking while holding solid tech jobs so I've got to think work is optional at this point.

Last I heard thery were on a year long bicycle tour, living out of saddlebags. No idea what the SWR on that is, but when you're sleeping in a tent and surviving on trailmix and oatmeal, it doesn't take a lot.


ERE Field Report #3

Met up with a former colleague at a bar a while back. Young guy, late 20s. No car, no mortgage, splitting rent with his girlfriends on a small apartment. Figures he's about 2 years out from hitting the 4% mark on his side of the bills (forget the exact number, something south of 1250/mo).

Talking about moving to a LCoL country, somewhere in SE Asia maybe.

UrbanHermit
Posts: 103
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:39 am

Re: UrbanHermit's Journal

Post by UrbanHermit »

May 2020 Update

May expenses: 2482 CAD (1836 USD)
Effective Withdraw Rate: 3.8%

My portfolio has recovered to roughly November 2019 levels, although that includes 6 months of contributions, including a big chunk from my annual tax return. All in all I can't complain, if the worst is behind us.

Thanks to the recent rebound in the market and a reduction in expenses due to lockdown I'm very close to hitting FI at my current spending levels. Given that rent is 72% of my total spend, and I could cut that by $900/mo at any time by moving out of Vancouver with no other changes in my spending, I could theoretically FIRE at a 2.4% withdraw rate if I relocated myself within Canada.

I suppose according to the 4% rule I'm FI now based on my april/may results, but I'm waiting for my 12-month average spend to drop under 3.5% before calling it. Using 3.5% SWR as a target, I have about 2200 CAD / 1600 USD per month to work with should I find myself joining the ranks of the unemployed in the near future, which isn't too shabby.

Work

Still at my job. I've been working from home since March, which has been a mixed bag. Being able to sleep in is great, but I didn't really mind my commute (twenty minute walk), and my home environment is not ideal... no air conditioning, construction noise, poor ergonomics.

On one level I'm grateful to still be employed in these uncertain times, with the stabilizing effect of a steady income. That said I've lost the connection between work and any real impact on my quality of life. If I lost my job tomorrow, literally nothing would change. Rent would still be paid. Food would still fill my cupboards. My job is effectively a hedge against the future being significantly worse than the present, which is a depressing thought. Or maybe it's insurance against desire for lifestyle inflation in the future? Either way, it makes it much harder to motivate myself to slog through the bad days.

Mental Health

Not so great. I struggle with bouts of depression, and the recent situation hasn't helped with that. Some days are fine, others I'm drowning in frustration and pessimism.

Health

Prior to the lockdown I had been running 5-8k twice a week, and doing two 30-min sessions of body-weight exercise a week, very consistently for 6-8 months. That... stopped. Running I at least had some excuse for in the early days, given population density in my area, but realistically there is nothing preventing me from resuming now.

I've only gained about 3lbs despite my diet shifting to include considerably more simple carbs due to once-a-week shopping trips and physical limitations on what I could haul home (gone to twice-a-week now to help fix this). However, I've probably lost at least 5lbs of muscle, so body composition trend isn't great and needs to be brought under control.

(Redacted)

(removed a long self-pity rant. apologies to C_L and anyone else who saw the original)

Plans for the Future

Nothing currently, waiting to see how this all plays out. General trend towards remote work in the industry might make transitioning out of Vancouver easier if it continues. Depending on the results of the economic disruption I may end up working a few more years, or I may find myself suddenly unemployed. Hard to say at this point.
Last edited by UrbanHermit on Tue Jun 02, 2020 8:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

classical_Liberal
Posts: 2283
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:05 am

Re: UrbanHermit's Journal

Post by classical_Liberal »

You won't know the answer to your questions until you try. So set it up! Worst comes to worst, you end up back in a higher COL area. Which is fine, because REing 20+ years early you're going to find that you crave a little of that Eustress/Hormesis in life to be happy. So, more money will come your way at some point, sometime. when you're ready and more balanced.

You're free, you just haven't realized it yet. Try to do that, and truly let it sink in.

bottlerocks
Posts: 85
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2014 1:51 pm
Location: Magicant (WalkScore: Pajamas)

Re: UrbanHermit's Journal

Post by bottlerocks »

Hi UH, hope all is well! Found myself thinking about your journal recently.

How has this past year played out for you?

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