Early Retirement Extreme Forums

February 2019


Money

DW and I have decided to try live for the first three months of the year with a budget with $600/mo + $100 for emergencies only.
First month was a success, with spending at 481 euros, equal to approx $550.

February was above budget at 581 euros (about $660) because I took advantage of some end of season sales and bought two pair of Gant pants for the office at 60% discount.
I'll have to spend $590 or below in March to reach my goal, but regardless of the outcome, I'm very pleased we decided to embark on this test.
Since we got back to Italy in January 2016, we didn't have even a single month where spending excluding rent was as low as either January or February 2019.

To the surprise of probably no one on this forum, we didn't suffer any material inconvenience or drop in quality of life.
We will not keep this up through the year because we love to travel and scuba dive, but I will aim for 8-10 sub-$600 months during this year.

Savings rate for the month was at 80%, while revenue from dividends was pretty insignificant.


Work / Travel
My work travels brought me to Japan (Tokyo) and Korea (Seoul) this month.

In Tokyo I decided to stay in a different area than usual, went for Ebisu instead of Ginza.
Ebisu is nice and quiet, clearly a very wealthy, residential neighborhood.

Not exactly exciting but very close to Shibuya so it's a quick walk in case one wants some more active life at night/weekend.
I visited one of our customers (the Park Hyatt) and they have a restaurant with a fairly stunning view:



On a funnier note, I finally found something I always wondered if it was true or legend: used girls underwear (!)





I then went to Seoul, decided to spend the weekend there (I prefer Japan most of the time) because I wanted to visit the border with North Korea.
It was a very cool and touching experience.

Locomotive that was assaulted with machine guns during the Korean War



The border



With my distributor under the map of the trans Eurasian rail map, inside the train station of Dorasan (connecting North and South Korea)



Reminder: Koreans eat strange stuff.
These are silk moths, and they taste similar to beans. Definitely edible, but won't exactly travel to Korea just for them



Other

Then I got back to Trieste and really enjoyed the weekend with DW.
Sunday was a fantastic day and we spent the whole morning walking on the seafront, ending at the Miramare Castle (miramare means “overlooking the sea”).

I’m always amazed how beautiful my home country can be









Have a great March

Nice pictures and good job on sticking to a very low budget. One more month is definitely doable though. Keep up the good work.

Nice pictures! Those silk moths look...interesting. There's similar types of foods that the natives used to eat up here. The most common is bot fly larvae found in the skin or nose of a caribou. Colloquially called "eskimo popcorn." I had one with a friend a couple springs ago. Bland taste but a weird crunch. I'm fine sticking with the other stuff.

Keep up the great work on the spending front.

You are a brave man. I'd have to be truly starving to eat that bowl. There are a lot of people of Korean descent where I live so a couple of reasonably authentic Korean restaurants. Interesting food, but only two- or four-legged land critters.

Interesting. I have access to a lot of mulberry trees, so maybe I could raise as protein crop? Insects as livestock are even more efficient than rabbits.

Seppia wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 28, 2019 3:33 pm

On a funnier note, I finally found something I always wondered if it was true or legend: used girls underwear (!)

Imagine the confusion of someone who searches for that term when google sends them to the ERE forum.

Might be something for the ERE ladies to think about. I mean, from an entrepreneurial perspective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyuEB72V8W0

Thanks to all for the kind words.
I'm usually very open with regards to food, I always tell myself that if many people eat something, logic would dictate that it's not digusting or too unique.
Everybody in Korea loves those insects. They taste like sweet beans but I couldn't tell if the sweetness came from the critters or from the sauce.

They do look... very strange, but did you ever look closely at shrimps?
So much of our perception is dependent on what we're used to

jennypenny wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 01, 2019 7:21 am

Imagine the confusion of someone who searches for that term when google sends them to the ERE forum.

Seppia wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 01, 2019 7:59 am

They do look... very strange, but did you ever look closely at shrimps?

I think the main difference is that shrimp cook up to a nice white color and are usually served/eaten with the head and appendages detached. But it's a fair point.

Seppia wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 01, 2019 7:59 am

So much of our perception is dependent on what we're used to

Yes, we're pretty much stuck with that. I've eaten a moth or two--unlucky ones who wound up in my mouth accidentally while riding a bike or playing under a street light at night. At best an acquired taste and nothing at all like beans.

Always enjoy your updates, especially the photos! Given the winter we are having here in the Midwest USA, I can't help but wonder if I was born into the wrong climate when I see someone else's winter photos and they look like that. I need to visit Italy someday.

That castle is amazing.

Watching Anthony Bourdain made me realize I'd starve to death if I travelled to most of these places. And to keep said narrative going, I think I'd rather hang myself than eat a bowl of those silk worms. I bet if a plane of silk worms crashed in a remote tundra, without any food or water or chance of survival, they'd rather starve to death than eat each other. Silk worms would be staring at a bowl of silk worms saying "Sorry, I'm not Korean, I'd rather die then eat this shit." These place's, their cousine is like one long gross out competition.

@Jason:

But that's what they think about the people in Wisconsin eating all that bright orange mold-ridden stuff made from fluid extracted from the teat of a cow fed on Field Corn 2 mash and molasses mixed with urea.

Until they find a bunch of emaciated Koreans frozen to death outside Lambeau field because they couldn't find it in themselves to share a plate of nachos, I'm going to maintain my viewpoint.

March 2019

March was the last of my three month test where DW and I are trying to live with the same level of spending that I had back in 2004, a budget of $600/mo + $100 for emergencies only.
In January we clocked at 481 euros, equal to approx $550, while February was above budget at 581 euros (about $660) so in March I had to stay at $590 or below to reach my goal.
Excluding my annual charity expenses (that I will not consider in this calculation) I ended up spending 440 euros, about $497, all while sneaking in one day of diving in Thailand. There's still tomorrow, but I don't expect any spending except for maybe a few euros for grocery.
I'll continue this experiment for the rest of the year, even if I know already that April will be higher as we have found a couple pieces of used furniture to put in our small apartment.
It's hand made from the area of Cantu', a small town famous for handmade furniture, both pieces for 350 euros in total, not even ikea prices.
I'm always amazed how much value one can get with patience and a bit of luck.
I'm happy we decided to only buy the bare minimum when we got in the apartment, as opposed to furnishing it 100% from the get go.





I also made an adjustment to my stock portfolio, selling a few smallish holdings and consolidating them in a single larger stock holding.
It is kind of a big deal for me because I almost never sell anything as I try trading as little as possible (I probably hit "sell" no more than 15 times in my life).

My work travels brought me to Thailand first. After working in Bangkok during the week I took a quick flight to Samui and spent the weekend there

Hotels are nice and cheap


Had a drink at the amazing W


Then on saturday I went diving. Visibility was bad but diving is like pizza (there is no such thing as bad diving)




On Sunday I was off to Australia, first stop in Adelaide then Sydney.

The airport in Adelaide has some concerning signs


Sydney really is beautiful.

Loving all of the pictures you incorporate into your updates.

As you already know, Thailand is on our shortlist for 2020, namely because it's a great place for SO to get her PADI OW certification and for us to do a few dives together. Thinking about it, I need to take a PADI refresher course before throwing on full gear =)

Toilet water must have a sought after flavor?

The furniture is beautiful! What a deal! As Always I'm jealous at your travel on the companies dime.

Does this mean the people of Adelaide drink from toilets if the water is not-recycled? You would think a sign "People shit into Adelaide Airport Toilets" would be enough of a deterrent but I guess they feel its necessary to take it to the next level.

I laughed semi histerically for about two days after I read that sign.
There is clearly a great story behind its existence, I'd love to know it

You have should have taken a pic of the other sign in the airport: "Welcome To Adelaide. Where You Will Never Get Yelled at For Leaving The Seat Up."

As the forum's resident Adelaidean I have to say the sign's a mystery to me too.

Before judging the people of Adelaide, though, perhaps be mindful that a lot of people passing through the airport are actually not from the city, and maybe the sign's there for their benefit?