Sodatrain's Journal

[sodatrain]

* Couple quick edits to correct my use of Jacobs as a unit of measure (1 Jacob ~$7000USD, right?)
Hey Folks-

I made an introduction back in Sept 22 and was encouraged to start a journal. It's a new year with some timely inspiration from @AxelHeyst content, finally got the ERE book and off we go.

I'm not exactly sure what to include here so I'll take inspiration from a few others and mix in some of my own stuff.

I wrote this the other day:

Vision - I want to live. Not work. Jobs > Careers. To live a life full of things I want to do and as few things as possible that I don’t want to do. Have the time, physically and mentally, to explore curiosities and nurture relationships. I want to live a life where I do not notice if the internet is down.

Thoughts:

• wow this is a lot to get thru. A lot to digest and a lot of feelings of excitement, validation, and uncertainty!
• I watched this 90 minute video of Jacob on The Stoa and found it very interesting and helpful. I felt it set some good context for me before jumping into the book. I love the quote about how people who have/want millions in the bank are seen as uninspiring/unimaginative to Jacob - I've shared it with friends a few times. The whole Allegory of the Cave is so powerful in the book.
• Just two chapters into the book and WOW - I've never highlighted/underlined so much. It puts to words so many partial thoughts I've had. It feels like so much truth and distillation of ideas usually presented as complex.
• The last couple days have been me cleaning up my Mint account, categorizing expenses to get my baseline. My current employment (Tech) provides a pretty handsome income.
• I am sort of straddling two worlds right now. I'll expand on that below and would love some thoughts from y'all.
• Not a ton of assets at this point. Divorce and life can be expensive! Well, my Colorado rental property *$95K Mortgage) - going to Airbnb that soonish to increase passive income, my Central American property (Paid) (Maybe $120K each), $125K in retirement accounts, $20k in HSA. Income is high - 1-ish Jacob a month. Historically I've been spending most of it. Was unemployed (and loving it) during the pandemic for a while. Volunteered on a new small homestead. Learned Natural building, how to milk a cow, full lifecycle of raising chickens, lived in an off grid camper trailer, built a yurt etc etc. Self employed for a while. House in Central America is rented when I am not there. That can be $500 a month maybe. Maybe more. I could build little longer term rental cabins on my property. Not exactly sure but build em for $40K and rent em for $500/month. Maybe a vacation rental or two and always keep one of the two (my house, or the potential future rental) rented and both rented when I am not there.
• I don't own a vehicle. I have my main house paid for. I'm single (would like to be partnered). When I am in the US, I stay with family/drive their extra car and chip in a bit of rent per week I'm there. I'm a giant nearly well north of 6' tall and 300lbs.
• Food is joy and love. I love to eat, to cook, and to share delicious food with friends. Historically I've spend a lot on eating out. That is different now. A lot on travel - but that is going away too. I just cancelled a trip to South America.
• My goals for life in Central America are... 1) read more 2) cook more 3) walk more. I anticipate I'll be there more and more as my kids get older.
• I am not optimistic on the climate issues nor the willingness of the developed world to check it's self and keep from going all Easter Island on itself. I've accepted this and it is motivation to reap the benefits of the ERE plan. I love the idea of living ala ERE even outside the climate catastrophe context...

My Two Worlds:
- I am divorced and have two teenage boys. I've been moving my life out of / away from the usual USA/American life for the last couple years. I own a small (paid for) house in Central America that I think of as home. My oldest will be 18 in about 6 months, the youngest in about 2.5 years.
- I have financial obligations to them/their mother for child support and to provide health insurance until they are 18. Support + health insurance - Somewhere in the $1500-$2000 range depending on how you count. Plus other misc related expenses.
- I back to the Central US on a TBD basis. Last year it was maybe 7 times. Part to see kids, part for work/other familyl
- I have an LLC that I did some consulting in 2020
- My home in Central America is paid for and the CoL is very low. I'm starting to grow some veg in a garden and already have some fruit. I hope to add some protein sources soon. And Bees.
- I don't own a car in either country.
- I won a small rental property in Colorado that is rented and covers the costs or better by up to $450 right now - depending on the renter/rent paid.
- I'm highly motivated to cut my spending, increase my savings, quit working the 'career' job whenever it expires, and really live/enjoy life.
- My job (Tech) is... I want to FI and get out. I am curious about getting out before FI. I want to be in control of my schedule. I want to not work. I want to enjoy life, explore curiosities, nurture relationships and be in peace. Or I want to at at least make sure my responsibilities as a decent father are fulfilled until they are 18 - and I'm happy to support them. (Thank god Alimony is over!)

I think I need to live the "ERE" world as much as I can for myself - but be able to slip in and out of it for two reasons. 1) my boys and 2) to keep the job working for now. It's largely remote but sometimes I need to travel for meetings (on my dime, because I'm in Central America on my own deal - ~$1000 RT flight average.

Are there flaws in thinking that I'd continue to straddle both worlds (the job allows for enough income to do it) and still save a significant amount of money each month. Working thru the numbers still. I'd hope I can save ~1/2 Jacob a month while in this job. If I do it until Mid 2025 (2.5 years) the youngest is 18 and I will be done with legally required child support and health insurance/benefits. I don't want to keep the job that long - but it feels like perhaps I should. Seems like it might be a good milestone for FI too, with expenses low enough.

Enough rambling. So much more reading and calculating to do. And maybe selling some stuff. So many questions too.

[AxelHeyst]

Wow, it sounds like you've got a lot of interesting pieces already up and running. The place in Central America, lack of car ownership, decent income for now, some rental stuff. Sounds like a strong kit of parts you've got as you enter the ERE game.

1 Jacob = $7k,
1 Jacob Adjusted For Inflation (JAFI) = about $10k, there's a thread that tracks it, and
what Jacob currently spends now is <$7k, IIRC.

[Henry]

Not to mention as a divorced guy, it doesn't appear that visitation rights to his balls were part of the settlement agreement.

[sodatrain]

Not to mention as a divorced guy, it doesn't appear that visitation rights to his balls were part of the settlement agreement.

Not sure I totally understand your comment - but wow is divorce expensive. And yet still worth it. Spousal Support / Alimony ended Sept 2022 (WOOOOOOO). One kid graduates/hits 18 in the next couple months. Then other is a couple years after that. Would love to chat/discuss kids or being divorced with kids with anyone if they are in that situation.

[sodatrain]

Wow, it sounds like you've got a lot of interesting pieces already up and running. The place in Central America, lack of car ownership, decent income for now, some rental stuff. Sounds like a strong kit of parts you've got as you enter the ERE game.

1 Jacob = $7k,
1 Jacob Adjusted For Inflation (JAFI) = about $10k, there's a thread that tracks it, and
what Jacob currently spends now is <$7k, IIRC.

Thank you! And yea - some great things going for me already. Working on harnessing them and making it happen!

[sodatrain]

Quick update. I've been on the road a lot - balancing work, family, and sanity. Juggling the two worlds I straddle. (or is it 3?) Lots of time and energy on tracking my expenses - wow is it amazing to see how it all adds up. Second priority, after tracking expenses, is clearing out the CC debt. JFC - 24% interest on my fancy AMEX. Called them threatening to cancel the card if they cant lower significantly. They said they could drop it to 23% or some BS for 6 months. Got a new card with 0% interest on transfers. Canceling subscriptions, disputing some charges, adjusting 401K contributions (Lowering while still getting max company match - at least until the CC debit is paid off in a couple months). Already managed to drop the debt from about $25k to $15k. Plan to get it all paid off and then roll that directly into savings. I'm eager to get thru a few months to see how much I can reduce my expenses and to see how much I can save monthly. $6k in expenses last month inc child support and other kid expenses. Still getting everything wrangled/tracked/organized. Looking forward to a 3 paycheck month and a 6 month/end of fiscal year bonus/commission check in March.

Oh, headed to Colorado in March. Taking my yurt and converting it from long term rental to short-term rental via airbnb*. Expecting to 2x the pretty passive income from that.

*I've really wrestled with putting my place on Airbnb as Airbnb kinda fucks with small communities. My current renter is not paying rent in full at this point and I'll be giving a friend some cleaning/local mgmt income - I'm rationalizing the decision quite a bit.

[AxelHeyst]

Nice going on the debt reduction and chasing down leaks! It's a lot of hassle to organize it all but once you've got it on cruise control it makes the effort worth it

[sodatrain]

Just cancelled my "favorite" AMEX. Fee was $450. Insane. Done with mixed emotions - which seems crazy. Feeling good, optimistic and like I'm making progress. At the same time... feeling like I'm going to miss the airline status / perks that came with it. But... should be traveling much less. So... step in the right direction.

[sodatrain]

Quick update.

Been tracking all my expenses since the beginning of the year, tracking spending by category, tracking savings % etc. It Definitely feels approximate given the out of norm expenses (unexpected taxes, surprise maintenance etc). Feels good to pay attention and have indicative data. Working to further simplify my life, especially my financial life.

Was pleasantly surprise to learn that I could sell little my place inb Colorado for a nice gain - it's been rented for about 2 years. The water situation in the west made me nervous and managing the renters (not to mention the expenses of getting to/from the place) was all adding up. Happy to have deposited the check in my bank account today. I'll actually be taking most of the proceeds and re-depositing them in my IRA after taking a CARES (covid) distribution that was without the early withdrawal penalties. But I did pay a good amount in taxes ... so it feels like a double win to get those taxes back!

Thinking I'll use the remains to build a little rental unit on my property that I think I can recover the investment in less than 5 years thru Airbnb etc.

As soon as the deposit hits my account I'll pay the remaining small balance on my one credit card and will be absolutely debt free!! (no mortgage, no car payment, no nothing... just 2 teenage dependents )

July will be the first month where I can really jack up some of my savings.

Other misc stuff... I lost my second copy of ERE book and just got the third. Yikes. But man do I love that book. Going to a concert at Red Rocks in Colorado this fall and thinking of it as my "last concert" like that. It will be an expense but I'm going with a dear friend and it will be wonderful to show her my (now former!) life in Colorado. It's a splurge but am so excited for it.

Still trying to figure out how to solve for the health care side of post-work. I'm committed to eating better and being in better overall health, but health insurance is still a scary topic. I'm working, at a maximum, 2 more years. My youngest will be 18 and out of high-school then. I realize that is not that far off but sheesh. It cant come soon enough. I'm highly concerned about AI, the environment, the geo-political situation etc. I really want to go on some longer treks/slow travel to get to them (ie, Camino de Santiago). So... keep working for 2 years or be stoic and content that I have "enough".

[AxelHeyst]

Woo congrats on being debt free! So you now only own the place outside the US?

Have you seen JnGs post in his journal about health insurance strategies on low income? I'd link but am on phone... Also if you spend a lot of time outside of the US I wonder if you've looked at what digital nomads do for health insurance - those two search terms might give fruitful results.

[sodatrain]

Thank you, sir! yes. Officially debt free (not even a mortgage) and my only owned property is Central America. Expenses feel high at the moment, but this feels like a really powerful milestone. Sold my property and put most of it back into my IRA which will replenish a 2020 CARES Act (covid) withdrawal and the bonus there is I get back the taxes I paid on that withdrawl. So it was the clear and obvious best move for increasing overall net worth. Took the remaining money and now I am have, I believe, a solid 6 month emergency fund (Assuming spending levels a bit, and also the plan is that my spending will keep decreasing and that it will be more like a 9-12 months stash a year from now!)

I'm back in the US at the moment and WOW it's so expensive everywhere. And it's so easy to spend money. My Central American CoL and general existence (I call it the Slow Life) is so much more relaxed and inexpensive.

Tax refunds will take a few months to land - and I'm thinking about making some improvements to my property. 1) retaining wall to protect my place from river should a rough Hurricane season happen - and the climate seems to be headed that direction. 2) a rental unit. I believe I could pay this off with short term rentals in about 3 or 4 years.

[sodatrain]

One of the things I want to do when I'm done working (or done working for a while) is to go on some long walks/treks. My goal is to slow travel to the destination. By slow travel I mostly mean not fly and use shared/multi passenger trains/busses etc when I can. Hopefully I can get some more experience crewing on sail boats and cross the oceas as crew on a sailboat!

I started making a list of the walks/treks I think I want to go on today. Approximately listed in order of desire/preference/probability they will happen

I've been enjoying https://www.youtube.com/@kraigadams's YT channel that is full of gorgeous hikes.

• Multi day hikes in Guatemala
• Camino De Santiago (TBD on which route)
• West Highland Way
• Cordillera Huayhuash - Peru (!!). This incliudes 16k' mountain passes and I need to train up for those for sure!
• Everest Base Camp
• Around some mountain (PDF I have) in CA?
• Along the CA coast (BNB2BNB)? - http://walkaboutcalifornia.com/

[sodatrain]

So! It's been a minute. Some highlights:

* I'll be at EREFest in a couple weeks and looking forward to it quite a bit
* I got laid off this week, last day is Friday
* After EREFest, I'm catching a ride with a cousin who happens to be passing by and will spend a week or so on the Tahoe Rim Trail - my first backpacking. No expectations to complete a full lap around the lake. This is about gear shakedown and confirmation of my interest in backpacking.
* I just cashed in some miles to spend 3-4 weeks on one of the TBD Camino de Santiago trails in October.

So... the job. I really didn't enjoy it but it was a total case of golden handcuffs. I don't feel I am adequately prepared to quit working for good. But it's now the opportunity to really reign in the spending and put my walk the talk. If I can gear down my spending to $2k a month I can comfortably not work for a year or two without thinking about it too much. Goal is to spend 6-12 months not working and then re-evaluating. Child support is a big part of the mandatory spending. Thinking about @AH and his FU Stash mentality. FWIW, I tried to model my finances based on that but I feel like I still had questions about how to actually operationalize it. I'll go thru and re-attempt it and will ask questions if I get stuck.

I'm currently in the US. I definitely spend more money per day when I am here compared to Guatemala. But going thru the motions of cutting where I can. I think the biggest opportunity is restaurants right now. Had a trip booked with my 16 YRO (4 nights next week) that I'm keeping because the focused time with him is super valuable. Flights were booked with points. Airbnb was already paid for and not cancel-able. So here we go... will be interesting to navigate Chicago frugally.

I've been struggling with expense tracking lately. I was using Mint but really didn't like the way their expense categories worked. Been trying YNAB and love the flexibility but struggling to stay focused on expense tracking vs budgeting. And YNAB introduces some complexity - but perhaps also some benefits.

I feel like going completely manually (export of bank transactions) sounds very tedious and like something that would burn me out. But I guess since I'm laid off I'll deff be reducing my number of transactions.

I assume this will be an easy thing to cover at EREFest. In the mean time, are there any pre-existing good write ups that people know of here about how they are tracking expenses (and savings rate, tracking investments/net worth) with Excel/Google Sheets?

Also struggling with ideas of investing in my property (rental units, property improvements) vs sitting on the cash.

Golden handcuffs are off... how long can I stay that way?! Thoughts on future work... maybe independent consulting / project management again.

[AxelHeyst]

I'm a big fan of manual entry into DIY spreadsheets. I don't even do the export thing, unless I'm going back in time and trying to catch up on months and months of data. Once tracking goes realtime, it's 100% manual entry. The actual data entry consumes <10min a month now that I've got my system operationalized.

There's obviously no one right way to do a spreadsheet, but just some thoughts that might be helpful:

One tab for 'stocks', the balances of every account you have. Checking, savings, HSAs, brokerage, credit card balances, CDs, etc. To the right of the entry columns I have columns that sum everything up: total checking, total saving, total debt, total brokerage, etc. Keep it simple, easy to add analytic columns later.

One tab for 'flows', money coming in and money going out. Each instance of a flow gets a row: date, amount, category, description. There is a sum row for each month.

Another tab I call 'monthly analysis'. This takes the monthly sums by category from my Flows tab. Each row is a month. I have columns for analysis: total income, total expenses, net profit, ttmCOL, monthly SR, etc. It's easy to make more analytic columns for any metric I'm interested in.

Another couple of tabs is for recording and giving metrics on my portfolio, so I can keep an eye on if I should rebalance soon.

Those are the core tabs. I have random other tabs for various things I'm interested in, and graphs spread out all over the place. I think of it like a living document - I fiddle with it whenever I become interested in some aspect of my financial situation or my thinking about $ changes. It's easy to do and modify because it's completely custom.

[sodatrain]

@AH / Re: Expense tracking. I feel like the manual tracking is the right direction to head. It's daunting to think about building the sheet/tracker from scratch. (Thx for the DM tips, AH) But it seems best. I feel like this would be a 2nd switch of toolset, and as a result, I feel like I'm losing historical data. I guess I could fudge a best guess. Mostly because my expense categories have changed. Maybe I need to simplify them. It seems like there is a YNAB -> Google Sheets import option. I could simplify my YNAB use (ditch the budgeting features totally) and just use it as a expense categorize-r. It is handy for that. 100% customizable. I think what you are doing / described sounds pretty on point for what I would hope for.

A couple questions about your system, if I may @AH. Of course anyone can share how they manage these... please do!

1) How do you handle reimbursements? Say you spend $100 for someone because you are at a store and they needed something there. They pay you back. Is that two entries? Or do you just omit it all together?

2) If you buy someone dinner, do you split that between a food category and a gift/entertainment category?

Got distracted by reading other updates in the forum and lost train of thought and momentum! I'll stop here.

[sodatrain]

Oh, let's talk about projects a little.

1) I'm slowly working on a project to build a little 10x12 (well, 11x12... some breakdown and the cement posts are not as expected) shed that I can live in so that if someone wants to Airbnb my house they can! So far I've rented the house on Airbnb when I'm not in country. But I'll be here more now and I 1) have always dreamed of building a house and 2) would be happy to sleep in a smaller more rustic space if someone wants to pay me to sleep in my little house. I have a 6 cement post pier foundation. Working now on sourcing reasonable lumber - which is taking a couple days so far!

2) As I think about the longer term plans for my place here in Guatemala - I'm thinking about starting a folk school. It would bring together lots of my interests / things I hope to learn/do, help build some community, and be a source of income! This is a really neat model and set of ideas. I think I'd start by offering some barter based quick/easy classes. 1-4 hour & 2-8 people sessions. I'd offer the space (facilitator) and offer to host community members and they (we?) can benefit from some barter offered from the attendees. Then scale up to weekend/week long classes more. Need to build some rental accommodations here - which sounds fun anyway. Anyone have experiences or ideas?

3) Right before I got laid off, I purchased a BBQ smoker. It's easy to regret the outlay of cash. Now Im thinking about the expense of using it - the cost of the meat alone. But food is super important to me and it supports social needs/goals. So I'll enjoy it while finding ways to be frugal with it. Very interested in sausage making - so maybe it can be used to generate some income.

Wheeeee this is the fun stuff!

[AxelHeyst]

@AH / Re: Expense tracking. I feel like the manual tracking is the right direction to head. It's daunting to think about building the sheet/tracker from scratch. (Thx for the DM tips, AH) But it seems best. I feel like this would be a 2nd switch of toolset, and as a result, I feel like I'm losing historical data. I guess I could fudge a best guess. Mostly because my expense categories have changed. Maybe I need to simplify them. It seems like there is a YNAB -> Google Sheets import option. I could simplify my YNAB use (ditch the budgeting features totally) and just use it as a expense categorize-r. It is handy for that. 100% customizable. I think what you are doing / described sounds pretty on point for what I would hope for.

A couple questions about your system, if I may @AH. Of course anyone can share how they manage these... please do!

1) How do you handle reimbursements? Say you spend $100 for someone because you are at a store and they needed something there. They pay you back. Is that two entries? Or do you just omit it all together?

2) If you buy someone dinner, do you split that between a food category and a gift/entertainment category?

Got distracted by reading other updates in the forum and lost train of thought and momentum! I'll stop here.

1) I omit reimbursements. If the net change is $0 with a timescale of less than a week or two it doesn't need to go in my spreadsheet. (I may put a reminder in my gtd system "submit reimbursement for X/remind Y to pay me back" so it doesn't get lost in the cracks).

I have an Accounts Receivable tab for if people owe me money, which I discount and count as an asset towards my NW. (I think that's the approximate right way to do it?)

2) I'd put it in food. I err on the side of simplicity, and so I don't even have a gift or entertainment category. I had a "Fun" category once, but then I realized it just encouraged me to think that Fun was something I purchased; it made me forget that cooking a meal with a friend is Fun, that reading a book from the library is Fun, that riding my bike down from the pass is super Fun, and building stuff out of scrap is like the Funnest thing ever.

Having very simple categories makes data entry easier, too. Fewer decisions to make. For example I don't have a 'household necessities' category for soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, etc. I buy that stuff at the food store, so it goes in food category. I'm not going through my receipts and separating out a $3.89 bag of TP from my grocery bill. Precise? No. Accurate enough? Yep.

I've switched systems a couple times and have advice on how to handle historical data in a simple way. Kinda hard to explain typing, would be happy to give a spreadsheet tour when you're here in a couple weeks. The tl;dr is that it's easy to scrape historical account balances at monthly intervals, and often it's easy to scrape monthly budget totals, and you can ditch the rest of the data.

[sodatrain]

ok, I've over analyzed and over analyzed and tried tools and tried spreadsheets and talked to friends... I've finally found a method to use for a while. I'm still using YNAB but I'm doing my best to ignore their budgeting features. I'm using it as an auto importer of transactions, an easy mobile interface to enter cash transactions (I have lots of them), and something to help manage the CC expenses (paid in full every month). I found a set of expense categories that I like for now and I think are pretty good for the future. I envision migrating to a Google Sheet in the future with these categories more or less. So... crawl walk run perhaps. I'm under $3k a month budgeted with a good chunk of that going to Child Support/other kid expenses. 2 more years of child support.

Was in Chicago recently and learned that my youngest identifies as frugal - so that was cool. I hope to build on that as a good angle for better conversations about money. Hopefully he can learn more about money mgmt as a teenager than I did.

Got my final commission check today. Severance should be paid in a couple weeks.

Heading out Tuesday morning to head to EREfest - looking forward to meeting everyone.

Here are my expense categories for reference.

[Western Red Cedar]

If you enjoyed 180 degrees South, I'd encourage you to check out Mountain of Storms. This was the trip that inspired Jeff Johnson's journey and film. Still free on Youtube:

viewtopic.php?p=234446#p234446

[AxelHeyst]

Hey soda, how's it going in your world?