C40's Journal

[rube]

The seed you planted is growing now slowly

[FrenchGirl]

.. and now this week my mom asked me for a list of personal finance and investing books, and then tells me she's been reading MMM and sent me the name of a blog of a girl that lives & travels out of her van whom she saw recently.

That's pretty awesome! I would love to have anyone in my family on board.

[C40]

I wouldn't say any of them are on board (and I don't need them to be). But I am definitely lucky that, outside of being born into the middle class of a first-world country:
- My family are reasonable and fairly open-minded. They won't kick me out of the family or give me huge amounts of grief for going my own way in life.
- We're all pretty independent, and, while some of them spend a ton, they don't seem to be making disastrous decisions, and I don't see them asking for or expecting me to go in on ]hair-brained schemes or bail them out of money situations. (fingers still crossed though)

[spoonman]

Dude, count yourself lucky on two counts:

1) Your mom is reading MMM!!!!! I mean, how freaking awesome is that!?

2) Everyone in your family pulls their own weight.

I am ashamed to say that many people in my extended family have no idea how to handle money.

[C40]

Today, I'd slept down in Missouri, but set my clock for California

I had songs like this on the stereo today for a wonderful drive - and in my head while I sat on this rock for half an hour:

(facing the other direction of course - other than for this camera timer self-portrait)

A couple weeks ago the boss asked if I wanted to go to a factory assessment happening in XXX, California.. Yeah... YEAH!! Where is XXX again? Oh, yeah... right by all those parks? Yeah I should go to that assessment.

I flew into Fresno at noon PST, and had about an hour drive, so I took the long route - four hours of driving through Sequoia and Kings Canyon forests. Next weekend I'll get to call those areas home for 3 days. It looks every bit as good as I was hoping for; I think I'll have a great time.

Reserved an SUV for the car rental:


and guess what - the back seats fold flat!


So I'll get to test out the road trip/camping thing even earlier than I'd hoped for.

The red suitcase is full of my camping & hiking gear. YAY!!

[theanimal]

Good for you! What a beautiful area. Enjoy the weekend, I'm sure it will be great.

[spoonman]

That's an awesome opportunity, I hope you have a great time!

I look forward to hearing more about your adventure.

[C40]

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SEPTEMBER 2014
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SPENDING - $1,740
- $540 - Home
- $520 - Transportation
- $260 - Entertainment
- $270 - Travel
- $70 - Hygeine
- $70 - Food

Transportation costs:
- $205 – Car repairs - Windshield, rearview mirror, air filter
- $280 – Registration, driver’s license, 6 months of insurance

I thought I needed to replace the windshield in order to register my car, but I realized after doing it that I didn’t actually have to do it now. St Louis has annoying safety and emissions inspections. The safety inspection includes things like your blinkers working and your windshield being free of any cracks (yes, really). The emissions test is simply a test of whether your check engine light (MIL) is on. I have a manifold pressure (sensor) fault so my light is on, and I was going to have to fix that also. After I replaced my windshield, I investigated the laws and found that I didn’t need to fix anything this year. (When you first register after moving here you don’t have to do the inspections, and also, you inspect every other year and this would be my off year anyways.. The lady I had spoken with last year had told me wrong - that I had to do the inspections then). If my windshield gets another crack between now and when I have to go to inspection next year I’ll get some good exercising trying to not get pissed off about something I cannot undo.







CHARTS



With the stock price drops in September, my net worth ended up decreasing slightly overall. This was the first month that happened for about 3 years.

I believe in you, unbounded growth! You can do it!!










INVESTING ASSET ALLOCATION
With the changes I made last month, here’s where I am:
- 54% - U.S. Stocks
- 20% - Real Estate
- 14% - Bonds / Income
- 10% - Pension

(The pension is frozen cash. I have just a small amount of un-invested cash and a few bullion coins.)

I think I might switch some of my US Stock fund in my 401k to an international stock fund. I’m thinking about making this change right now. Any thoughts on the timing? (I’m assuming that my 401k funds will follow these charts below pretty closely)



US Stocks:





International:











CAR CAMPING TEST AND HIKING – Sequoia, California

I went to the central valley of California for work, so I stayed over the weekend and spent 3 days and 3 nights in Sequoia national park, and one more night in Fresno. With my recent focus on living in a van for a while after quitting, this was perfect timing to dip my toes in the water.

I had an SUV to sleep in and a great forest to explore. I didn’t know anything about the area and didn’t do a lot of research. I camped in the Antwell Mill camping area, and that worked out well. It’s on the south side of the park – off a much less-traveled road compared to the main highway that goes through the park. I checked a 10-day forecast a ways before the trip, and looked at different altitudes. It showed highs of 65-80 and lows around 50 I believe, at pretty high altitudes (6,500 feet) and really hot days at low altitudes. The days I was looking at were actually the week preceding the weekend I’d be there, and I wasn’t aware that those temperatures were unseasonably warm, and that it’d be cooler when I was there. So it was a bit colder than I expected for a couple of the days, but that didn't stop me from having a great time.

I flew into Fresno on Monday, and took the long way to the hotel I’d stay at while I was working Tuesday through Thursday. I took a 4 hour drive through the park on the main highway. The weather was perfect.

Thursday evening, I finished up work and drove up to the campsite. I left work after 6. It was dark by the time I got to the park. The road up to my chosen campsite, Mineral King rd., was a far cry different from the well-manicured main highway in the park. It was narrow and bumpy, but it worked just fine. I got myself set up, ate a little snack, stashed my food in the bear box, and slept in reasonable comfort.

Friday morning it was beautiful outside. I used the fire pit to have a warm breakfast and took off for a hike. I went up the mountain – 4 miles to the top of the ridge I was on, and I continued a couple more miles down the other side. That place is incredible - wonderful views, crisp air, warm sunlight, a nice trail, and trees that were alive before Jesus! I spent about two hours during this hike just sitting, watching, listening, letting go of everything else... and then some thoughts of the future – which tend to come with more clarity and purpose on days like this.

The next two days it was cold and rainy. The highs were maybe 50 and the lows approaching freezing. I would’ve brought a warmer jacket and my warmer sleeping bag if I knew better (a warmer jacket and my warmer sleeping bag) but everything worked out ok. If I hadn't brought my rain gear, I would've really been kicking myself.

Day two I hiked the other direction from camp. The clouds and rain really didn’t prevent a good hike as this one had waterfalls instead of expansive views. Day three – my last day there, I packed up and drove down and hiked from 2,000 feet. It still rained for 1/3 of the hike but it was warmer.

I had to be at the Fresno airport around 8:00am for my flight, and I didn’t want to go to sleep that last night at my campsite and have to wake up at 3:00am to drive out of the park in the dark. So I drove to Fresno that evening and found a nice neighborhood to park and sleep in the SUV.

So - this little van camping test was a success. It has increased my interest in becoming a weirdo in a van. The benefits of having a vehicle set up for long-term life will make a pretty significant difference. Acclimation to sleeping in different places and getting used to the space will help as well. Being in the confines of the SUV never annoyed me, but I did find myself wondering how much I’d tire of it in the long-term. I didn’t spend a lot of time inside it, and that’s probably how it would go in the future as well. I’ll keep researching and planning.

Trips away from work, whether it’s taking a week off at home, or just 1-3 days out away from the city in wilderness, have been increasing my motivation to stop working more and more each time.


Costs: $268
- $85 - Rental car
- $49 - Food (Groceries) *
- $48 - Campsite *
- $38 - Gas
- $27 - Parking (airport parking back home)
- $11 - Food (out, Chipotle in Fresno)
- $10 - Hygiene

* I overspent on these. I didn’t know for sure what the fire situation would be so I bought a bit more than I needed to have options. Also I paid for 4 nights of the campsite when I first arrived and hadn’t yet really planned what I’d do that last night and I ended up staying at that campsite only 3 nights.

Long-term costs would be much less than this. I wouldn’t have the rental cost, parking, camp fee, less food, hygiene costs spread out over more time, etc.

Sleeping arrangement:


Campsite:


While driving through the park Monday:


Hiking the first day:


Hiking the third day:


There are some big views while driving through the park:


Hiking, first day:


Click this to see more pictures – a photo album on Flickr

[spoonman]

Absolutely stunning! Thank you for sharing so many photos.

So many beautiful hills in the distance, that seems to be one of the hallmarks of that area. I've had Sequoia on my bucket list for years, but haven't been able to go (last year we had to cancel when we decided to sell our condo).

While sleeping in the SUV, did you have to lower one of the windows for ventilation?

[theanimal]

Wow. Looks like it was a great trip. I'm looking forward to reading about your future van dwelling stories.

[steveo73]

That is a professional post. It also looks like great fun.

[learning]

Hey C40,

My GF and I did several tests of the car camping thing, including a few weekends in towns and cities around where we lived and a few-week road trip in the south of the US. One idea is to incline the front seats forward to give you more space. Some curtains for privacy. Taking bikes on a rack allows you to use the car to drive from one area to another and for sleeping in, then use the bikes for going around locally. An ice chest. Car adapters for cell phones and notebook. A fuel efficient car and only moving from place to place occasionally makes the gas cheaper. There are many free places to park, such as some 24-hr Wal-Marts informally allow people to sleep/camp in their parking lots. Check when you arrive to see if/where the other people are parked. This gets you some security, 24-hr bathroom, 24-hr shopping. Some states have security staff monitoring their highway rest stops and many people sleeping there. Many middle class residential neighborhoods and commercial areas don't really bother people at night, especially if you keep moving around from night to night. Coastal areas with beaches sometimes have beach showers and also people there all night. I started out trying to only use public wifi but then decided that a cellular hotspot was the best idea, probably from Verizon. Cell phone service is, of course, national anyway, so we just talked to everybody like normal with a StraightTalk prepaid phone. A gym membership at a nationwide chain such as 24 hour fitness or planet fitness gets you workouts, showers, and some socializing. A rooftop storage is nice to keep things out of the sleeping area. The parks, tent camping, you seem to already be on to that. I think you can mail things like books from Amazon to your name at General Delivery in the next town you're going to and pick them up at the main post office, but we never tried that.

I really liked the fact that we always had everything with us and could go to sleep or move on at any time. I didn't like the fact that when it rained it was loud and I couldn't read. I never really slept as well as in a home, but I did get to where I slept quite well. My GF slept really well because she was relying on me. Traveling around with the climate is a good idea. We found that checking in to a cheap motel about once per week was good for us psychologically.

Now, back living in an apartment, I like the fact that we could just go in the car at any time. We could sleep anywhere we are. We've never done it, but we could. Also, it would be useful in some sort of civil emergency or natural disaster for mobile evacuation. A sleep-able car is also a good last resort in some sort of financial emergency that would result in homelessness (google guide to homelessness), which, hopefully will never happen, but I prefer having a sleep-able car to a non-sleep-able car just for that extra bit of insurance. And, of course, for more trips in the future, although having done it, I'm now happy to live in a city while having the option there.

[C40]

So get this - my mom called me this weekend and told me that her and her husband are planning to rent out both of the houses they own and live in an Airstream so they can travel while still working. This will lower their spending substantially and allow them to retire in 5 years. (My mom is in her early 50s and I think her husband is a bit younger)

When she first described it, I thought she meant they would stay living as they are now, and then retire in 5 years and get the Airstream. I was asking her if she was going to rent out one of their houses right off the bat (which would speed things up). But since they work from home - and can work from anywhere, they can make the change right now! They just have to figure out a good internet setup - and they've been testing something at home for the last couple months.

I'm a bit surprised. She said that my discussions with her about saving money and my thoughts/plans on living in a van have given them things to think about more than they might have otherwise and I suppose have encouraged them to do this, or to do it sooner. She said thanks for sharing my own thoughts and actions and that it helped them - and I said "now don't blame me if you end up not enjoying it". I'm not worried that she would. I was never suggesting that she do anything herself, just sharing my own plans and reasons.

[GandK]

Good for them!

Other than surprise, did you have any thoughts about this?

[theanimal]

That's great!

You said that sharing your plans and goals helped her, is there anything else you did (explain the concepts etc.) to make her "see the light?" The reason I'm asking is I've tried to do the same with my mom who is about the same age but it has not proved successful. I've shared a bunch of MMM articles with her and she even read some of the first few pages of the ERE book. But she misses the forest for the trees: "I don't want to ride a bike everywhere." "I don't want to give up TV." etc. etc.

[C40]

Good for them!

Other than surprise, did you have any thoughts about this?

Oh - I think it's good. I'm guessing it will help them to be/stay more active. I think they will enjoy the traveling. It will also be nice because I'll be able go along with them for short periods - like a week next spring/summer. If/once I do the van travel thing, it will be nice to share advice, experiences, suggestions on where to go - and it will be really cool to to meet up in places together!

[C40]

That's great!

You said that sharing your plans and goals helped her, is there anything else you did (explain the concepts etc.) to make her "see the light?" The reason I'm asking is I've tried to do the same with my mom who is about the same age but it has not proved successful. I've shared a bunch of MMM articles with her and she even read some of the first few pages of the ERE book. But she misses the forest for the trees: "I don't want to ride a bike everywhere." "I don't want to give up TV." etc. etc.

ummm, not really. I wasn't trying to convince her of anything or get her to change. I was only telling her about what I was doing/planning a little bit about why. This may have been more convincing than me actively trying to convince her to change.

I think she took some interest in this stuff naturally. I once brought up the ERE forum and book for some reason (may have been telling her about going to the Chicago meetup or just saying that I got a lot of info and ideas from the book/blog)... she got and read the ERE book (without telling me she was going to). At the time she was mostly dismissive. But I think she knew the importance of saving/planning (even though she may not have been doing much at the time(?).

She has gotten into some types of, I'd call them lifestyle trends - things like popular diets (raw/vegan) and I think that exposed her a bit to other things even - like tiny houses (which I might have also mentioned tiny houses or at least that I desire to one day build a pretty small house for myself).

I may have done some specific things to encourage her - like this: one day she told me she had seen a girl who was traveling and living in her van and she emailed me the girl's webpage. This girl's van was really trashy looking and she had a pretty serious "dirty hippy" vibe going. I emailed my mom some of the van living blogs that I've been reading - ones where the writers look, by common standards, attractive, happy, and fun. (Ones like wheresmyofficenow, Kombi LIfe, and 63mph.com. I'm guessing they may have already had the Airstream thing in mind at that point, but maybe it encouraged them more.

To add to my first post from today and put in perspective the size of the change:
- The 2 house thing may not have been clear. They live together all the time. They own two different houses in two different states. They're both new, full size, ~2,000 sq ft houses. They live in one for a while, and then go live in the other for a while. (One house is near his family, and the other is near my siblings and in a large city they both like.)
- They were buying a new car every year or two for the last 5-8 years.
- Their internet cost right now is about $300 per month. This includes internet service at both houses, plus data plans for two iPads.

So even though an Airstream is not particularly cheap, it will probably cost much less than their current set of houses. Plus it was clear they've done some research on depreciation of different RV and trailer types and took that into consideration.

[spoonman]

Consider yourself lucky! I wish I had that kind of rapport with my parents.

[C40]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
OCTOBER 2014
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SPENDING: $950
- Home - $475
- Entertainment - $300
- Food - $145
- Transportation - $30

That’s my lowest month of spending since moving into my house. YAY!!! I had bare minimum utility costs, fairly low food spending, a normal amount of hobby/entertainment spending, and absolutely no spending on special/non-standard things.

Most of the entertainment cost was for my current main hobbies that cost money: fountain pens and tea. I’ve been using a pretty nice pen at work. I write a lot of notes while standing and talking to people. I drop my pen every once in a while. I dropped it recently and it fell right on the nib and totally ruined it. A new one cost me $60 (it’s a gold nib). So I’ve been experimenting, trying to find a different type of pen to use when standing at work (a rollerball or whatever works well and is cheaper and/or won’t break when dropped)

Most of the tea spending was for some steeping gear and cups (a gaiwan, and some small cups from Target that I think are actually condiment dishes), plus an electric kettle with different temperature settings. I like making tea this way much better. The gaiwan isn’t much of an improvement over using glass jars of a shape that works well (jars of a thinner shape).




CHARTS. FI Progress




This chart gives me a pretty good look at how close/far I am to FI. There’s a lot of data going into it, and it’s kind of hard to read. Here's what's what:
- The blue bars are my actual spending. High in the 2nd of half of 2013 when I bought the house.
- The stacked area parts are: green=average actual investment growth/income. Yellow = actual hobby income. The investment gains include both dividends and also price appreciation. Most of it is the latter. I added in my hobby income on top. The hobby income has been fairly consistent, and I could double it by spending more time on my current method. There’s some risk of it dropping off from factors outside of my control and I'm certainly not expecting it to last forever. I have other ideas for hobby income sources for future, post-FI years though.
- The lines with dots are 3.5% of my total net worth. This is more of a long-term income estimation and what I'll make my retirement decision based on - much more so than the current actual investing results.






So I’ve reached my savings amount goal for “FI”. $350k. WOO HOOO!!!!

I don’t consider myself FI right now though. Because I’m actually not. My house costs more than what $350k can support (at least while living in the house alone).

What I consider this to mean right now is that I have the option of quitting and then reducing my spending and not having to work any more. I could live in a cheap area of the U.S. and be really intentional about spending little. Or I could go to SE Asia or South America and spend significantly less. Another complexity is that over half the money is in pre-tax accounts.

As far as capital acquisition goes – I’d say I’m in phase two now – saving more money to allow more spending and/or a better safety margin. I have a good bucket of “fuck you” money now. Using it would carry some conditions and complexities. I’ll keep saving more to open up more post-employment options.

Speaking of which…

MORE VAN-DWELLING TALK

So I’ve been thinking about the whole van thing a lot lately. It was actually starting to cause my some anxiety. I was feeling like I needed to figure it all out right away. Of course, I’m generally the kind of person to do a lot of analysis and make really intentional decisions. And there are a lot of decisions that can be made with this van thing!

But I have no need to hurry, so I took a step back for a week and didn’t think much about it. I played Civilization V instead. Even if I don’t decide on much at all for an entire year, I still won’t have a need to rush anything.


And then my mom told me that her and her husband are planning to live and work out a travel trailer. This is essentially the same as I plan to do.

While I’m doing planning and research I have questions for myself – such as:
- How long will I want to do this?
- Will I get tired of living out of the small space?
- Will I get tired of not having a stationary home to return to?

I tend to form my own opinions very independently and I am confident about what I want to do. But this kind of confirmation from my family ads to my motivation. It helps me be certain that the idea is not so crazy. There will be opportunities for us to go to the same location and spend time together. Also, being able to share experiences, challenges, and advice with them will be nice

My mom asked if I could get and live in a van while still working my current job. It is certainly possible, but would bring some challenges.

My job requires that I travel to 5-6 different locations around the United States. I go to a different place each week. I spend one week per month in the office in St Louis. The idea is I’d be living in the van – maybe sometimes in St Louis, and probably other times in other areas of the country. When I have the van somewhere other than St Louis, each week would go like this:
Monday- Drive the van to nearby airport and fly to where I’ll be working that week. Tuesday-Thursday – work.
Friday – fly back to where the van is and drive to where I want to stay for the weekend.

I’ve done some thinking on this, and weighed some pros and cons. I won’t list them all out here, but the fact that I work in different locations each week would bring some benefits (being able to just fly to wherever I want to have the van at that time and spend the weekend in that area) and some drawbacks (logistical difficulties of needing to be in St Louis one week per month but without expectations that work pays for a hotel and rental car for that week. So I’d have to still be able to stay in my house (or someone’s) that week, or have the van there, or tell work I don’t live in St Louis anymore and need a hotel/car.)

Overall, I don’t have a strong desire to do this right now. I’m planning on working 2.5 more years. I think I’d like to get a van all set up and be ready to hit the road immediately after quitting. Whether I live in the van before quitting or not is something I can decide later on. One cool thing about my mom embarking before me is that I may get the opportunity to go spend some weekends with them. If they’re close to an airport, I’d just fly there after a week of work instead of flying home. They could pick me up at the airport, we’d spend the weekend together, and they’d drop me off at the airport Monday. Or, of course, I may be able to go along with them for a week or so as a vacation.

[jacob]

Oh, if only you had entertained yourself with a ukulele and a handplane or somesuch instead of $300, you could have beat me

Have you found a way to profit from the pens? How's eBay efficiency in the pen market? (It's very high in the mechanical watches department) Can fountain pens be considered inflation proof, like precision tools, or are they more like collectibles in that profit depends on identifying the next hot item?

PS: It sucks to be a leftie when it comes to fountain pens