Hristo's FI Journal

[MBBboy]

That's fantastic! Looks like I've identified another journal I need to go back and read closely. Our starting points are very similar, in amount if not in allocation.

[Hristo Botev]

A friend sent this text out this morning in a group text:

"Gas up another 10 cents. Hristo may have it figured out walking everywhere. All he gotta do is charge his phone to keep listening to all those podcasts."

Indeed. But, it doesn't change the fact that those things that we actually do buy/consume go up in price right along with gas. We can limit how many and how much of those things we buy/consumer, for sure; but, if this situation continues for any extended period, no one who is engaged with society in any real way can be completely immune.

That said, my friend drives an F-250; and that's not even his work truck. His work truck is an F-150. I've got a Ram 1500, and you can be assured that that thing has been and will continue to sit in the driveway gathering dust for the foreseeable future. We were supposed to go camping with it and the Airstream this weekend, because our daughter had a soccer tournament out of town with a campground nearby; but we're going to effectively be a one car (Prius) family until "this" passes, if it does.

[MBBboy]

FYI, managed to make it through your entire journal. Very excited to have found another person with my faith and political convictions.

I'm actually in the market for an RV to park on our land.....any tips? I've never had one and am currently setup to be a prime example of "buyer's remorse"

[jacob]

I'm actually in the market for an RV to park on our land.....any tips? I've never had one and am currently setup to be a prime example of "buyer's remorse"

I have opinions. It's a little bit like buying a house and a vehicle at the same time, so it depends a lot on how you plan to use it.

[AxelHeyst]

If the aim is to have it mostly parked, decouple shelter from transportation. In non nerd lingo, get a trailer, not a RV. Rent/borrow a truck to move it when necessary.

[Hristo Botev]

I'm actually in the market for an RV to park on our land.....any tips? I've never had one and am currently setup to be a prime example of "buyer's remorse"

I don't have any tips. From the look of the various Facebook Airstreams for sale pages, there's a whole lot of buyers' remorse out there right now, presumably given (a) COVID being over(?), and (b) gas prices skyrocketing to the stratosphere.

I don't have any particular remorse; but don't let the Youtubers of the world trick you into thinking you're getting something you're not.

We bought ours (a 25ft Flying Cloud with twin beds) with the understanding that we'd use it for family trips and eventually it'd get parked on our land, once we bought land. On the former, turns out it is surprisingly more difficult to nail down a camping spot than either DW or I imagined. Maybe campgrounds have been busier than normal b/c of COVID or whatever; I don't know. But, the idea of just, on a whim, saying: "Hey, DD has a soccer tournament in X, let's get a campsite near the field to avoid having to stay in a hotel room!"--is a little more challenging than we'd thought. We've had some great trips, for sure, and we'll have plenty more. But, there's a bit more planning involved with a trip than I'm really up for most of the time. Also, I'm growing more and more averse to traveling in general as I get older.

On the latter, we are still probably about a year or so from buying land. Unfortunately, for the past year we've had to store the Airstream at a warehouse on the opposite side of town, at the cost of $250/mo. Very, very un-ERE of us. Fortunately, we just paid our last month of storage, b/c we will be moving the Airstream down to our new house next month, and it will be parked in the backyard and serve as my office, as I'll be working for my current firm remotely. That will continue until we buy land, at which point the Airstream (and my office) will move there, once we are set up for electric and Internet.

I'm glad we have it. I'm glad we bought it when we did. I'm glad that we will be making much more use of it in the near future than we had been, and I am very glad that we will no longer be paying .4 JAFI to store it.

I have a friend that has a side hustle buying old Airstreams and gutting them out and making 'em look pretty; either to be used as they were originally intended or as more of a tiny house scenario. I've helped him with a couple of those builds. From that experience I've come to see them as (sort of) stores of value. It's a durable good that can be used for a variety of different things. So, part of the reason I like having it is b/c of the utility and options it provides. That's not to say it makes sense as an investment, as a general rule; but I'm good with it. Kinda like buying an old diesel sedan or truck that can be converted to run on vegetable oil (see @Sclass). Or buying an old sailboat that can be lived in, and making that your hobby so you know what you're actually doing--you know, "just in case."

@Jacob is the expert when it comes to using a camper trailer or RV for ERE purposes.

[Hristo Botev]

FYI, managed to make it through your entire journal.

Very sorry to hear that; things slow at work?

Very excited to have found another person with my faith and political convictions.

I have no political convictions.

[MBBboy]

I actually mean a travel trailer, not a Class B or Class C or anything like that.

Actually realizing this can turn into a bigger discussion, so I'll keep it off Hristo's journal going forward and post something in mine

[MBBboy]

Thanks for the reply and the thoughts.

My work is generally pretty slow, but I've simply been substituting ERE journals for other personal finance sites in my "internet reading time". It's a different muscle to flex, I don't need to keep reading the same FIRE / PF stuff all the time. Diminishing returns.

By political convictions I wasn't referring to a specific party, I meant conservative. But these labels can be a touchy subject, so apologies for bringing it up if it's not something you want to talk about.

[Stahlmann]

Do we have Christian nasheeds?

I remember trying to sing a cappella https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogurodzica, in opposition as everybody else said the words out in high school.

[Hristo Botev]

No worries; that was my poor attempt at humor.

That said, I'm not a conservative either. I'm sure I've spouted some conservative, Kirkian/Burkean-esque nonsense on this journal in the past, but I don't think there's much left to conserve at this point. I'm more interested in building; the next generation or two can try to conserve what we've built. My only "convictions" are directed towards my faith and my family.

[Hristo Botev]

A benefit of pulling our kids out of Catholic school (DD for sure; likely DS as well), is we get to try our hand at homeschooling religion. I don't trust our new parish's CCD/RE program to catechize my kids. This is because I've taught Sunday School at our current parish (or tried to), and it's as if we are actually TRYING to ensure these kids don't end up becoming practicing Catholics as adults. The Loyola Press garbage--with its felt banner-y, "God is Love," "mindfulness" focused, beige/soft/fake/feelings-focused Catholicism--is absolute heretical poison; and our kids will be participating in RE at the new parish only to the extent required to be eligible for confirmation. Perhaps the RE program at the new parish is better than at my current parish, I'm sure it is, actually. But, I'm also sure that the program will not do a better job of catechizing our kids than DW and I can/will.

To that end, I asked around among some Catholic homeschoolers for some resources, and the universal response I got back was the Baltimore Catechism (https://cathyduffyreviews.com/homeschoo ... chism-no-1). Perhaps it's because I'm not a cradle Catholic, but I actually didn't know what folks meant when, in the past, I'd hear references to the "Baltimore Catechism." I thought the Baltimore Catechism was just an earlier version of JPII's 1992 Catechism. It's not. It's the foundation of what passed for religious education in the US for decades before the felt bannery-people took over "faith formation" sometime in the 70s or 80s or whenever. My in-laws learned from the Baltimore Catechism. When I saw these books I nearly cried, because this is exactly what I THOUGHT I'd be provided as a resource when I volunteered to teach Sunday School classes. It wasn't. And had I known these books existed and tried to teach from them, I don't doubt for a second that I'd have been told my services were no longer needed.

"Ummm, actually, we don't talk about original sin any more, or mortal vs. venial sins; we focus on 'love'." Horseshit.

So, I bought these books yesterday and am very much looking forward to beginning using them with our kids.

Once we complete the Baltimore Catechism we will move on to Fr. Laux's religion series https://cathyduffyreviews.com/component ... n-religion, which I also bought.

And all of this will be supplemented by regular scripture readings from the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, which I'd also not known existed (I've been using the garbage that is the translation provided for in the New American Bible Revised Edition https://www.autom.com/product/the-new-a ... uoQAvD_BwE).

There is so, so much that is good in this world that we are in danger of losing.

I also bought this book yesterday https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Your-O ... 0898706602. In the meantime because I know it will help me with doing the homeschool religion thing. But, also to prepare for the inevitable day when the public schools that my kids will soon be attending (the same ones that DW and I went to) become so unbearable that there is no choice but to pull them and homeschool/un-school them. That day will come; best to start preparing now.

[Biscuits and Gravy]

What do you mean by “felt banner-y”? Never heard that term before. I’m excited for your family’s upcoming change and really rooting for y’all. Reading you and your family’s growth over the years has been a privilege and an education; thank you for continuing to share.

[Hristo Botev]

What do you mean by “felt banner-y”?

http://www.eyeofthetiber.com/2013/03/07 ... ic-church/

ETA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxgw6pbW59E

It's amazing there aren't even more lapsed Catholics out there; with this Barnie-esque nonsense that Gen Xers were subjected to.

Felt banner-y

[jennypenny]

If you're not a cradle catholic, I assume you've done RCIA. Why not use that material for your kids?

[Hristo Botev]

If you're not a cradle catholic, I assume you've done RCIA. Why not use that material for your kids?

Because it was garbage. The only reason I stuck it out was because, on my own, I purchased and read a copy of JPII's Catechism of the Catholic Church. It made RCIA classes damn near unbearable as I was trying to square the solid and well reasoned passages from the Catechism with the wishy-washy drivel that our RCIA director was throwing out there.

[jennypenny]

Wow, I didn't realize that programs differed so much (normally Catholicism is really good about standardizing materials). Disappointing to hear. Our RCIA program definitely wasn't wishy-washy. Participants were warned early on that Catholic tenets weren't just there to be memorized to pass the course.

[Biscuits and Gravy]

That YouTube video made a believer out of me. Praise felt banners, I’m saved. I see why you’d want to go the homeschooling route.

[mathiverse]

ETA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxgw6pbW59E

Nice! Throwback to my childhood. I am a lapsed Christian, so another point against the felt banners.

[chenda]

Forgive my ignorance... But what's the deal with banners?