Hi

[forestfairy]

Hi everyone,

I’m a long term lurker of this forum and finally found the bravery to set up my own account.
I have found a lot of inspiration reading though Jacobs blog and some of your journals.

About me:
I managed to survive on this planet for 28 years so far. I live close to the woods in a small town in Europe. Currently I’m making an average wage by sitting at a desk and starring at two screens for eight hours a day. My savings rate has been around 75% for last two years.

ERE:
I plan to be IF within the next five years. I think I pretty much cracked down on the saving side, but need to become better at managing my money and being a good investor.

Skills:
So far I mend my own close, now how to cook and bake, know how to paint a room and some light bike repair. Recently I developed an interest in gardening and want to start to grow my own food to lessen my dependence on the local discounter.

I hope that I can meet like minded people here and will soon set up my journal.

Cheers

[Jim]

Welcome!

Looks like you've got a great start on your savings! Look forward to reading your journal and hearing more about your journey!

[Walwen]

Welcome!!! I look forward to reading your journal!

[frugaldoc]

Welcome! I am impressed by your savings rate and look forward to hearing how you achieve a 75% rate. Hopefully, I will learn from you. I feel virtuous with a 50% savings rate but am a high income earner so 50% isn't impressive at all. Gardening is a pleasurable activity whether it reduces your food costs or not. Hopefully your climate supports having a garden without having to water much. How big of a space do you have to garden?

[forestfairy]

@Jim & @Walwen Thank you. I just posted my first journal entry.

@frugaldoc I’ve heard you’re investing a lot of money to become a better doctor, that’s probably one of the best ways to spend money. It’s much more easier to live frugal if you’ve never spent a lot of money in the first place, that way you never had to lower your standard of living. But once you’ve experienced what money can buy you in life it must be harder to cut back on spending. Also at your income you’re saving a much higher amount of money than I could ever, even if I’d save 100% of it. The garden is pretty small and not big enough for homesteading and the weather always changes. Some summers are completely rain free and some years we barely see the sun.

[DutchGirl]

Hi, welcome. What a nice name you chose for yourself here Your savings rate indeed is impressive, so I do feel like you won't need to stare at two screens 8 hours per workday for long, if you don't want to.

I hope with investing you have thought about "just" investing in low-fee diversified index funds and just put money in as soon as you can and keep it in through ups and downs. The last 1.5 year have not been a lot of fun on the stock market, but good times will return at some point (and then bad times will also return again at some point, it's just how it works). If you were in my country, The Netherlands, I'd have some advice on through which brokers to invest, but since we don't really have forests, ha... I don't think you live in my country. So in Europe in every country you have to find other brokerages and each country has its own tax system and its own pension/retirement options system. So good luck with that

[forestfairy]

@DutchGirl Thank you. While the last 1.5 years where not so fun on the stock market, I made some nice bucks on p2p sites. I don't have anything against low-fee diversified index funds, I feel like they're just not the perfect fit for me. At the moment I prefer picking individual stocks. I already switched brokers 4 times, they all offer nice welcome conditions the first year and then start to intruduce all kinds of fees the following year. Sadly my country is currently destroying our retirement system. I don't see this as bad thing, it just means I get to create "my own retirement fund".

[frugaldoc]

@frugaldoc I’ve heard you’re investing a lot of money to become a better doctor, that’s probably one of the best ways to spend money. It’s much more easier to live frugal if you’ve never spent a lot of money in the first place, that way you never had to lower your standard of living. But once you’ve experienced what money can buy you in life it must be harder to cut back on spending. Also at your income you’re saving a much higher amount of money than I could ever, even if I’d save 100% of it. The garden is pretty small and not big enough for homesteading and the weather always changes. Some summers are completely rain free and some years we barely see the sun.

Yes, I do spend a fair amount on improving my medical skills. Unfortunately that does not translate into increased compensation for me. If I really wanted to increase my compensation I would let my clinical skills atrophy and focus on leadership (and in military medicine that just means administrative work). Doing so would lead to faster promotion.

Even if your garden is small, it is nice to have, whether it can support you or not. There is something satisfying about growing things. Your precipitation situation does seem to be problematic. I am trying to figure out the perfect place to locate myself so I can have an abundant garden. Vermont is a leading contender currently. However, I remember Jacob recommending above 50 or 55 degrees of latitude. That would put me deep into Canada. I will have to delve deeper into climate change predictions while also realizing it likely won't make that much of a difference to my life satisfaction.

[chenda]

However, I remember Jacob recommending above 50 or 55 degrees of latitude. That would put me deep into Canada.

I believe it was 40 to 45 degrees north which would include Vermont.

[Veronica]

I don't see this as bad thing, it just means I get to create "my own retirement fund".

its great that youre looking at this as postive thing.
my advice would be to, at the very least, measure your performance against one of these low cost diversified indexes.
they are the default choice for millions of people for a reason.

actively managing things does take time. you better make sure that the time you spend at the very least gives you a better outcome than what you would have gotten from the automatic zero time index fund option. otherwise, youve thrown away time for no good reason.

but if you enjoy it, then go right ahead. time you enjoy wasting isnt wasted at all.