GreenMonsta Journal

[GreenMonsta]

During 2020 I left my supervisory position and joined another company. My new role was much less stressful. I was able to negotiate for similar pay which I thought was a win since I was leaving a much more demanding position.

Some positives of the new role: No longer in an office (no office politics); able to get a company car which drastically reduced my transportation expenses.

During my work traveling I started consuming FIRE related podcasts. One day I listened to an interview with Jacob. Then I listened to multiple reviews/summaries of his book. However, I actually did not read ERE until recently.

Between 2020-2022, DW and I started to aggressively invest. In 2020 we maxed out a 401k. We fell just short of maxing out the 401k in 2021 but we acquired a rental property. The rental property was bought with a mortgage and produced a few hundred bucks monthly in cashflow. The house was ready to rent and a tenant was quickly found. DW and I took on the management of this rental.

Through many conversations with DW, we learned that neither of us aspired to have a fancy house, expensive vacations or toys. Most of the things we sought were free but required significant time and energy that our current lifestyle didn’t afford. We came up with interesting ideas that we could pursue together if we were FI. This was a pivotal moment for us both. We became very much aligned in our goals/purpose.

Back to the investing. We later found a fixer upper for sale. After having fixed up our current house over a period of 10 years, we thought we could do it again. Said house was listed for considerably less than the value of our primary home. After having our offer accepted, we listed our primary home for sale.

We were able to sell our primary for a sum of money that was much higher than previously fathomed.

In a strange turn of events we ended up buying two houses with the proceeds from selling the primary. One house to live in and the other to keep as a rental. Both of these houses needed work but again nothing that we had not done in our previous house. Fast forward to the end of 2022 and DW and I have two rentals in addition to our primary home. The rentals cashflow just enough to cover our primary home mortgage.

Our primary home is essentially still a work in progress. I hesitate to call it a flip because I feel we will stay until our youngest matures and leaves the nest.

This journal entry concludes my reflections. I know they weren’t necessary as it seems most just start journaling from their present. The reflection has been certainly meaningful for me. At the most basic level, it’s a way for me to remember how DW and I arrived here.

In prior journals I gave a breakdown of household net worth. After lurking the forum a while I have noticed the tendency to track this in years of expenses that are actively invested.

Currently GreenMonsta household is sitting at 7x annual spending invested in rental real estate and index funds.

Savings rate is 50% in 2022.

[GreenMonsta]

My ERE Goals

I know who I am today will likely differ from the person I will be in 5-10 years however I’d like to make note of where and what I am striving to be and become.

Present: 7x annual expenses
-Accumulate index funds and increase cash flow from rental real estate.
-Maintain healthy diet and be active
-Be a supportive husband and nurturing dad.

First goal is much easier (as well as measurable) than the later two. I need to spend more time in 2023 focusing on those.


By 2030 Age 45:
-Goal: 25x annual expenses
-DW to fully retire from W2 employment
-Sell primary (larger home) and convert rental to primary home
-myself to take intermittent travel contract work to pay for bare bones expenses, health insurance. Take DW along during my travels.
-Let net worth grow untouched

By 2040 Age 55
-Goal: >50x annual expenses
-Potentially move close to DS/DD if life takes them away from hometown
-Be self sufficient with little need for money except for taxes and insurance.
-Engage in work to the extent it provides meaningfulness.
-Enjoyment from: Long walks with DW; Long runs alone; Grow food; Cook inexpensively and feed others.
-Help DW/children/grandchildren by giving my time, caregiving, handyman skills or anything else that a career or job would otherwise limit.

[GreenMonsta]

Meaningful victory today:

DW and I recently moved into our fixer upper home. The house is larger than the previous house we lived in. The small office couch we are using sufficed in the prior home but we are now faced with filling “unused rooms” with furniture. With the small office couch being awfully uncomfortable we have been searching our local buy nothing group x2 months for another with no luck, until tonight! We are now the proud owners of a pre loved sectional at no cost. The fact that the transaction was facilitated by DW gives me great hope that FI is possible for us.

Cheers to a great 2023!

[GreenMonsta]

I spoke with a good friend/coworker today who mentioned needing to work extra hours in 2023 due to purchasing a truck. The truck being used came with a price tag around 25k. Obviously people are out buying 50k trucks so it’s a “conservative” purchase in that regard.

Interesting, I know the guy is a Dave Ramsey fan and has paid off as much or more debt than I have. I was a little surprised to learn he financed a vehicle that I know isn’t imperative to his needs/lifestyle.
I thought about the conversation on my evening run, not in a judgement way but with introspection.

Once people get out of debt, the same old lizard brain processes that got them in debt remain. I can see this in myself as I have bought and paid off 3 cars on credit. This has equated to around 70k in dollars over the last 10 years.

Each time I needed a car. Each time the new or almost new car gave me the most security. After ever purchase and subsequent payment, I felt less free. I had no choice but to trade my future time to honor the agreement that I made.

Right now I have no car payments. While I still have to trade my time for money, I can at least use said money to buy back future time instead of diverting it to a past purchase. This will continue to be the case for some time as my transportation needs are stable. But what happens when our current family car needs repair or replacement?

That last question is where I arrived as I contemplated my dear friend’s recent transaction. I do believe I will be back to my primitive behavior/thinking and want to finance a safe/reliable car for my family if/when our transportation security is disrupted.

At this time, GreenMonsta’s household transportation cost is very modest. My DW lives walking distance to work and my work transportation is covered via a company car benefit.

But at the end of the day, I know I will struggle in making the right decisions if our family car fails. Would I elect to fix an aging vehicle or simply replace it with something trustworthy? I believe the insecurity comes from my childhood where a reliable vehicle wasn’t common.

Hopefully when the time comes I will have the cash and a good mechanic to keep our current car on the road. Maybe I will have the time and skill acquisition to fix it myself. I just hope I don’t commit myself and DW to another 3, 5, or 7 year loan term.

[horsewoman]

Is it maybe an effect of successful marketing and advertisement that only a new or newish car is viewed as "safe"?
Or is it the fact that cars in the us are so unnecessary huge that driving a smaller car feels unsafe (because those ubiquitous trucks will flatten you in an accident?).

Our small and medium size European cars feel very safe, and we got them used - paid in cash, one was 5000 € and the other 3000 €. We've been driving them for around 7-8 years so far. They are very reliable. Small repairs are of course necessary now and then, but I know plenty of people whose newly bought cars have issues after 3 years or so.

[GreenMonsta]

Horsewoman: I think it is a mixture of all you mentioned. Especially the marketing. But there also seems to be a perception here in the US that once your car hits 10 years old, you should replace it with a new one instead of repairing. Our car is approaching that age but luckily still running well.

[GreenMonsta]

I tracked all spending and savings for the month of January. It seems I would have completed a detailed budget as such before but this is the first. I was relieved to know our savings rate was at least 50%. With rough guesstimation, I assumed it was around 50% throughout 2022. I believe my household can improve from here.

51%savings
28% food, hobbies, fixing up house, DS college cost, Vet bill.
12% housing
4% cell phone, utilities
3% student loans
1% insurance
1% transportation

There are a number of ways we can improve. At this time, I am examining the second category. I consider these items the most discretionary. We don’t eat at restaurants however, we are not the most efficient in meal prep. In reference to fixing up house: we live in a fixer upper home (bought with this intent). We are slowly buying supplies and doing the work ourselves. In January we purchased fixtures, paint, door knobs and cabinet knobs. We plan to spread these cost over time. The extra time allows us to learn handyman skills, establish creative solutions and allows room in the monthly budget for other investments.
DS college cost will be ongoing. His degree should add value to his career prospects and thus it’s an investment I want to help him with. The vet bill was unexpected and should occur rarely in future budgets.

[GreenMonsta]

I just completed a planned week off from work. The week was allocated to personally painting the inside of our family home. We have lived in the fixer upper for 3 months and up until now the walls and ceilings have been coated with a primer that I slapped on prior to us moving in. The coat of primer was essential as to block the smell (nicotine, etc.) that the previous owner left.

I have committed to doing all the work that is within my capacity (or potential) to increase my skill set but also the household savings rate. So to said purpose, two week have been scheduled off this year. The first was just completed and given to painting. The next will be taken in April and allocated towards laying proper flooring. Right now our flooring is a base concrete mostly throughout. Before moving in I also stripped the carpet and vinyl floors due to previously mentioned odors. I say it is mostly concrete now because I was able to get new tile laid in the bathrooms before we moved in. DW was adamant about not having concrete floors in the bathrooms for any length of time.

So back to painting. This past week was a change of pace and routine for sure. Daily, after waking and assisting DW and child out of house for work/school, I essentially painted all day. Financially, this saved about 3-5k. I didn’t miss out on any work earnings since it was paid time off. The cost obviously came in the form of my time. Really, it was my leisure time that I gave up or more appropriately stated, family time. This is true because as a salaryman I can only accrue and be granted so much time off. So I feel a little sleazy in a way for using my time off in such a manner. But then at the same time, I am painting the house to give my family a more comfortable dwelling. Not sure I should think too much into that phenomenon but I do.

In other thoughts, painting the house does provide some fulfillment. Not like life changing type of fulfillment but surprisingly more than one would think. At the end of each day I could see meaningful progress being made. I am imagining a similar experience when I lay flooring in April.

In the future I want to talk more about my housing endeavors because it’s a big part of my and DW’s ERE journey. It’s hard to say how exactly but I know housing accounts for a large percentage of the household budget. By buying a fixer upper and performing repairs/work myself while living here, I am hoping to lower our lifetime housing cost and do something similar that is mentioned in George Clason’s book The Richest Man in Babylon: make for thy dwelling a profitable investment.

In any event, it’s back to salaryman in a couple of days. So now I need to clean up all the painting supplies around the house and prepare for DW and I a busy workweek.

If anyone has similar experiences with working on their house or how they incorporated a similar housing strategy into ERE, please don’t hesitate to comment if you’d like.

[GreenMonsta]

February 2023

This makes my second month of tracking household spending/savings.

51%savings
19% food, fixing up house, family activities
9% housing
6%insurance bill
6%transportation
4% cell phone, utilities
3% DS college support
2% student loans

I am going to start separating the items of line 2 (currently at 19%) into distinct categories. I know it’s a no brainer to separate the essential items (food) from true discretionary spending. For some reason, so far I’ve had a tendency to group all “none bills” as general spending. This is evident in my Jan/Feb budget breakdown. I feel I am taking baby steps, but none the less steps in the right direction. This journaling, spend tracking and forum in general is beneficial in allowing me to learn how others evaluate/analyze their personal finance so I can improve in my abilities.

More money came in this month but unfortunately, more money went out. Increase in spending was due to an unplanned maintenance expense for DW’s car. The breaks started making an awful noise in what seemed to be overnight. The only win here was that we were able to cover the bill easily without dipping into cash reserves. The other large and less common expense was a big insurance bill due this month. We pay most insurance premiums all at once instead of monthly. It saves some money to do so but the annual or 6 month policy all at once makes a dent in the monthly budget.

[GreenMonsta]

March 2023

44% savings
11% housing
11% fixing up house
10% food
10% general spend (medical, family fun, charity)
5% utilities, cellphone, etc
4% DS college support
3% student loans
2% transportation (taxes, fuel)


So savings rate came in at 44% this month. This percentage consists of earned income that went into index funds as well as cash reserves account.

The amount spent on fixing up the GreenMosta house came in at 10% of income. This went towards some flooring; Materials only as I laid myself with help of DW.

There is a part of me that wants to consider this as savings as well. Other part says no since it’s money spent on our primary residence.

DW and I have strong plans to sell or rent out our residence once the kids fully leave. At which time we would move into our rental property, buy another project house or just travel. Considering we bought the house at below market price and are adding value, selling the home would make for an excellent tax efficient early retirement windfall.

The other side of me fears DW and I will become attached to the house or fix it so nicely we won’t want to leave it. Or maybe we will grow older, have less energy for life changes, and simply want to stay put. The latter thought seems plausible.

In either event, fixing up the house certainly increases our current net worth which supports the case for considering it under savings/investing.

When I look back over the last 10 years, buying and fixing up real-estate has added the biggest boost to our net worth. It wasn’t really planned that way though. Much of that success should be attributed to a rising market and no genius on my part.

Also in conflict is my Boglehead brain that only wants to count index funds and cash equivalents as relevant retirement savings.

For now I will focus my “savings rate” toward index funds/cash. But, tracking what I spend on house projects should provide insight also.

[GreenMonsta]

April 2023

28% savings (index funds)
23% flooring in home
13% Transportation/6 month ins. premium
11% housing
11% food/home supplies, etc
7% DD bedroom furniture
6% cell phone, utilities
1% student loans

Home projects:
It’s been a productive month in regards to fixing up the house. I laid tile in the sunroom. Although I have some experience here, my skill level is certainly novice at best. Overall, the sunroom makes the 3rd room I have tiled and I wish I could say it was the charm. Afterwards, 1 or 2 tiles were found to be uneven and my grouting was the equivalent to a toddler having received hold of pancake batter unsupervised. Only difference being that the pancake batter would be easier to clean up.

After some google research, the solution appeared to be utilizing sugar, warm water and a light scrub brush. This did not work at all. In passing conversation with an old timer I learned that brick masons (which he previously was) use muriatic acid to remove excess mortar from brick.

I decided this would be my next plan of attack. My fear was that the muriatic acid might jeopardize the appearance of the tile which DW heavily liked. If such happened, I intended to just stain the entire surface, as long as the sloppy grout was removed.

Luckily the muriatic acid did work like a charm. Actually, it worked too well and removed 90% of the grout between the tiles. At least the integrity of the actual tiles were not affected allowing a second chance at grouting.

As for as the rest of the house, I am happy to say we no longer live on concrete floors. In the remaining parts of the house, DW and I applied LVP flooring. It took us about 3 hours of “playing” with the planks to figure out how best to connect, lock in and sequence. This entailed us doing about half the living room only to realize it looked terrible with too many cracks between planks. This realization was followed by pulling all the planks back up and starting fresh. After learning the basics, the other challenge was learning to transition the flooring from the kitchen > dinning > hall >bedrooms > closets with no thresholds. Cutting around doors frames mainly being the challenge.

DW and I both scheduled ourselves 1 week off work to complete the LVP flooring. We worked about 10-12 hours per day x5 days to lay ~450 planks or about 1200sq ft. There were times when I truly felt a state of flow during the project as I “worked” to the beat of Imagine Dragons, Elton John or whoever else. Ultimately, I believe we did a great job. We are definitely proud that we learned how and executed it ourselves. Now at this point, in reference to floors, we still need to regrout the sunroom, apply a few baseboards and a whole lot of 1/2 round trim.


Budget thoughts:
Savings rate is down sharply this month as the price of flooring significantly dented our cash flow. I am trying to only equate savings rate to money flowing into liquid assets (cash, equities). However, I need to be balanced and not get discouraged about money that is being converted to planned improvements of the family home.

Other purchases consisted of furniture (bed, couch) for DD’s room. She will be having a sleepover this month (first time in this home). The sleepover is much of the reason, I wanted to get flooring in as well as her bedroom set assembled in April.

As a family, we spent a large majority of our monthly income this month, as reflected in the reduced 28% savings rate.
While I am never happy when spending money, I do find some relief that it went toward a floor that should last in this house for at least 30 years and that DD has a pleasant place to read, study, hang out with friends etc.

[GreenMonsta]

I have been trying to change my input as of late. More specifically, replace my narrow interest of podcasts with audiobooks. I am on the road a lot for work so auditory consumption of information is most conducive. After looking through the forum for books, I became drawn to Antifragile.

I purchased the audiobook on my phone for $18. Interesting, maybe not so much, I don’t buy anything for myself. I really never feel compelled too. This purchase hurt viscerally because in my mind books are free to borrow at the library or cost 2 dollars at the second hand store. But I haven’t been motivated to access those resources which I suspect don’t have a good selection of audiobooks.

Anyways, the $18 dollars felt like a bargain when I realized I would receive 16 hrs of thought provoking education also with a secondary benefit in helping escape the FIRE podcast funk/obsession I have sunk into. I find that I am deriving less and less value with those. Most of the good stuff was in the earlier episodes published almost 10 years ago. Everything published today seems to be promotional in nature.

So this past week (Mon-Friday), I refrained from podcast (or CNBC for that matter) and completed Antifragile. The barbell strategy of personal finance was interesting but it’s difficult to generalize to my investing, as I don’t trade options. But nonetheless, with some introspection and analysis I could evaluate my portfolio and investment style wearing the lenses of antifragility.

Even outside the investment realm the concept is valuable. Life situations (work, housing and social relationships) can be classified as anti fragile or its opposite. Most situations we find ourselves in have have positive or negative convexity lending themselves to asymmetrical upside or downside.

What did I appreciated most? The book is philosophical as well. It points out all the BS in society that we accept as normal or even worse, helpful.


If anyone is interested in reading I certainly recommend it. Even paying the $18. In the end, it’s a small price to pay for years of an intelligent dude’s knowledge accumulation. Although the book might be cheaper or even free from the library. Especially if you don’t need the audio version.

Next week I will listen to Siddartha which I attained for free since it is public domain.

[mathiverse]

Double check to see if your library has an ebook and audiobook lending app. My library gives access to Libby and Hoopla which each contain ebooks and audiobooks. I checked Libby and my library system has Antifragile available as an audiobook loan on the app.

[GreenMonsta]

Mathiverse, thank you for the recommendation.It is good to hear that someone is having e-book success at their library. It gives me motivation to get on board and explore what my library has to offer electronically.

[Jim]

Most of the good stuff was in the earlier episodes published almost 10 years ago. Everything published today seems to be promotional in nature.

This is the theme with so many podcasts. The podcaster gets success because of their initial episodes, where they discuss the thing they know most about in the reatest detail. But then, in the interest of promoting the podcast, they get into secondary, and tertiary subjects that are less pertinent to the original intent of the podcast and there are diminshing returns. There are obvious exceptions, but podcasts that are based around a specific theme (FIRE for instance) trend this way, whereaspodcasts about, say, history or news have a more diverse body of content to explore.

I also struggle with spending money on books. The internet is such a great resource, but the format of a book or audiobook does wonders for streamlining your attention.

Siddharta is a classic! I haven't read it in years, but it was definitely a formative book for me growing up. There will certainly be some takeaways there about frugal living. I hope you enjoy it.

[GreenMonsta]

Jim, thank you! Also, you perfectly summarized my predicament with listening to FIRE podcasts as of late. I am excited to get Siddhartha underway. I have always prioritized reading the classics and I feel glad to have discovered a new one. I found it here as one of Jacob’s recommendations.

[Jim]

Have you heard the advanced retroadaptics podcast? It's by @axelheyst and it's not like the other FI podcasts

[GreenMonsta]

Jim, yes I have!

BTW: I finished Siddartha yesterday. It was an amazing story. I think I had a preconceived notion that the book was about the Buddha. Not the case! It is amazing how well relatable the book can be for people across the life span. It will be a reread and recommended book by me for sure!

I agree Advanced Retroadaptics isn’t like mainstream fire podcast and I certainly get value from the episodes. Today I listened to the latest with MoutainFrugal and it was inspiring. I bet this forum is full of some very interesting souls.

[Jim]

I'm glad you enjoyed Siddhartha. I want to reread some of Hesse's stuff, specifically "the glass bead game." I haven't touched it since high school and that one might've been over my head. What's next on your list?

[GreenMonsta]

I am currently reading Walden. It’s an interesting book to take in concurrently with my immersion into the ERE forum. I have only partially completed it so far. It will take a while to finish as the material is such that I have to repeat chapters as to take in the information to the best of my ability.

Thoreau’s way of life has me thinking of the Wheaton Scale. I wonder what level he might encompass. From what I read, it seems he is functioning at chop wood/carry water.

From my understanding, he may have worked partially as a day laborer, partially tending the land he occupied. He seems to be only attaining what is needed and not storing up for expenditures later in life. Simply, he is keeping inflows and outflows in line. In trying to relate, I asked myself “how would I implement this mindset?”.

My first thought was, I would stop accumulating financial and physical capital. Next, I would liquidate assets to clear all my “good debt”. Then, I would work on a contractual bases only accepting assignments as needed to feed, cloth and shelter my family. I would certainly still need to work but the hours would be near trivial comparatively. I would keep a basic ledger balancing money in=money out. Nothing more.

But this is just a thought experiment. While I know it’s theoretically doable, I would not, could not, place myself/family in the uncertainty that such actions would bring. It would be irresponsible right? Would it not be selfish too?

So, in reference back to the Wheaton scale, where am I? Reluctantly, I place myself as high as a level 3. Levels 1 and 2 are ruled out if being such involves relating to the dogma of Ramsey, Oreman, or Sethi. However, these 3 have had their place during my financial journey.

Whenever, I began lurking the forum and discovered the Wheaton scale, I thought, “yep, I am rolling at level 5”. However, with ongoing introspection and reading, it’s becoming evident that I likely just aspire to be a level 5.

In the current moment, I am striving to invest/save as much as possible for tomorrow. I feel like at any moment the music or “good times” will stop and leave me stuck at an unknown level of net worth. Also, I understand the role of momentum and I am hesitant to slow down the train.

Those are just some current reflections about myself that were sparked by some intake of Walden.

PS: I am listening to it for free on LibriVox.