Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Thanks!

Last year I spent close to 10k visiting my dying father. I would have spent every penny I had to be there for him.

If it was my mother, I would have told them to ship me the body at their expense and upon receipt promptly thrown it out of the back of my car onto the New Jersey Turnpike.

Last year I spent close to 10k visiting my dying father. I would have spent every penny I had to be there for him.

Thankfully my situation wasn't to that point but things were really looking bad for a couple of days. I agree with what you are saying.

Damn, I'm spending too much money lately. I just looked at my spreadsheet and it has been six months since I met my goal of spending $1800 or less, let alone the $1500 I was spending for a few months. I really need to get my act together. I know I can do better than this.

This month (August) is going to be bad too. I spent $220 on a flight for a vacation next month, $75 on new shoes (the old ones had holes in them), $480 on a weeklong vacation, and $150 on a car repair. For the most part my travel is cheap and I mostly work on the car myself but it all adds up.

Whats the problem? Vacation travel and auto repairs. I haven't done a lot of travel in my life and I don't want to regret not having more fun but its really messing up my finances. I have a lot of vacation days and to just use them one at a time here and there seems like a waste. The car has really been a money pit over the last few months. I still think it is an ok car but it has needed a lot of maintenance. I think for the next car I am going to spend more to get something with lower miles and that is more known for low maintenance.

Glad the health thing turned out alright.

I was recently with these Italian people visiting my area. One of them was a cab driver in Vatican City. He was headed out to bike over the Brooklyn Bridge. We didn't speak the other's language but we found a way to communicate to the other that he was sick of Vatican City and that I wouldn't bike over the Brooklyn Bridge if Serena Williams had her butt cheeks spread for me at the other end. That in a nutshell is my view on travel.

Now cars. Pure. Fuckin. Evil.

August 2017

A good savings rate due to three paychecks and solid internet income but way too much spending due to a vacation and yet another car repair. Jason's earlier comment about cars is proving true, though I'm not sure how do what I want to do without one.

I haven't fallen off the wagon but my feet have been brushing against the grass for awhile now and I've become used to it. Next month, barring anything crazy happening, I'm going to do much better on spending.

Expenses
Alcohol & Bars 23.62
Auto & Transport 150 (The car exhaust I replaced last fall broke and had to be replaced/repaired. I had someone else do it.)
Business Services 17.98
Cash & ATM 100 (vacation related)
Charity 20 (Hurricane Harvey)
Clothing 73.85 (New running shoes, old ones tore prematurely.)
Fast Food 29.15 (Vacation, should have made lunches instead of buying)
Gas & Fuel 317.88 (Vacation driving)
Groceries 191.84 (not bad)
Gym 51.7
Home Improvement 24.82 (routine maintenance)
Laundry 20
Mobile Phone 20.17 (wanted data plan for a month)
Mortgage & Rent 740 (moved so rent is lower, this should really help over the long term)
Restaurants 42.22 (vacation)
Shipping 7.2 (sold an item but had to ship it)
Sports 48.84 (vacation)
Travel 221.4 (vacation)
Total -FI 2100.67


Income
Paycheck 3666.98
Amazon 123.19
Google 108.09
CafePress 32.48
Checking 19.52
Gift 13.71
457b 2076.9
Total +FI 6040.87

Savings 3940.2
Spent 35%
Saved 65%
SWR 12%
SWR with Internet Income 11%
Years Remaining 19
Years Remaining with Interest 8

Develop the habit of letting small bad things happen. If you don't, you'll never find time for the life-changing big things.
Tim Ferriss

Gilberto de Piento wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 01, 2017 9:43 am

Expenses
Total -FI 2100.67

Income
Total +FI 6040.87

Savings 3940.2

Hey Gilberto de Piento, I like how you view and write about "expenses" as "-FI" (minus FI) and "Income" as "+FI" (plus FI). It is plain simple, but I don't see it in many journals. I guess you are one of the few, who write about it in your journals. But you are 100% right, expenses means less FI and income is more FI. What I like is, that it highlights the factors behind FI. I am trying to visualize many things, e.g. charts, statistics, etc. with colors..., but up to now, I haven't wrote a "-" (minus) before my expenses. Perhaps I try that too.

By the way: great progress on your journey to FI. It seems, that you have managed to increase your SavingsRate over the last few years.
What I am interested in. Do you purposefully write FI and not FIRE, ERE or FF?

Do you purposefully write FI and not FIRE, ERE or FF?

I'd like to say that I did a lot of thinking about this but really I am just copy/pasting from a tracking spreadsheet that I downloaded from another ERE user.

Thinking about it now, "FI" for financial independence seems appropriate for my situation. I'm working toward early retirement but even if I didn't have to work at my current job I'd probably keep busy with other work.

I think I'm going to start celebrating round number net worth achievements here. I hit $210,000 today!

I'm really starting to see the compounding work due to recent stock market gains. If I have $200,000 and the market goes up 11% (vtsmx is up 11% this year) I now have $200,000 * 1.11 = $222,000 for a gain of $22,000. This is around what I am able to save each year. Crazy.

A stash is like having an employee that goes out and works for you. It is a hot stock market but its nice.

Congrats.

Congrats Gilberto! I think I see the beginnings of a hockey stick bend.

A stash is like having an employee that goes out and works for you. It is a hot stock market but its nice.

Congrats.

Congrats Gilberto! I think I see the beginnings of a hockey stick bend.

Thanks guys!

Thanks to some extra side work income I got to $220,000 today! Unfortunately the work is not likely to come up again but it is better than nothing.

So that's a 20K increase in two months.

Serious progress.

Gilberto de Piento wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 28, 2017 8:17 am

Thanks to some extra side work income I got to $220,000 today!

Great progress! I also want that kind of extra side income. keep on going. It seems your networth chart is changing from linear to exponential growth.

Yahoo!! You are kicking butt.

Thanks guys!

Gilberto de Piento, I am proud to announce that you are the ERE blogger of the month for September, 2017 and for this great accomplishment you get a whole free bunch of jack fucking shit.

Keep up the good work.

First, congrats on the progress! I'd love to be in your place

Second, a newbie question. Doesn't your net worth vary with the stock market fluctuations? I.e., even though today you're worth 220k, it's not unlikely that next month you'll be worth less, right? I ask because your graph only has like 3 points where the derivative of the curve is <0.

Wow congratulations on such a big NW and big NW increase! I love reading the journals that have run for a long time. And you can see the amazing progress.

I think we are somewhat similar in that I was also burdened by a massive student loan debt of more than $60k which impeded my NW growth and probably around the same age. I am not quite at your NW level yet. I hope to be where you are in about a years time.

TBH I do think you might need a kick in the ass though for still paying high rent to live on your own, as well as having problems with car costs. There are two obvious solutions there. I think your NW growth could escalate much faster if you sort those things out. Maybe stop stressing about whether or not to buy a house as that is a big decision giving rise to procrastination. You could substantially cut your rent by taking a lease on a say 3 bedroom place and filling two of the rooms with roommates. Also you could maybe explore not owning a car anymore and live in an area where you dont need one.