kawaivf1's Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
kawaivf1
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2023 11:26 am

kawaivf1's Journal

Post by kawaivf1 »

I was initially reluctant to start my own Journal because i typically avoid sharing things online especially on social media, but being new to the forum I felt like this would be a great way to start interacting. I plan on posting at least once a week (Monday), and using the remainder of the week to respond thoughtfully to anyone who has commented.

Here is a quick summary of our situation;
  • Paid for home in CT
    2 kids (4 and 2 yrs old), and 1 due in August
    Wife is an RN, and I work at a health insurance company.
    $0 debt, and no credit cards.
    Savings Rate target 50%+, but generally I don't keep track of every cent anymore. We just try to live by the ERE philosophy, and only buy what we need.
    % to FI: 48%
The majority of our investments are in 401K/IRA’s in a low cost index fund. Currently our home accounts for ~42% of our NW. I want to focus on getting this down to a very low percentage by investing outside of retirement. Even though it is tax inefficient I want to build up assets outside of retirement to provide flexibility.

Our family recently shifted our mindset to live debt free, and having no credit cards which I know differs from the current culture. Moving at the pace of cash can be frustrating at times, but it slows down and improves decision making which I find very comforting.. Right now we are in a small cash crunch having paid off our home aggressively in the last year. One of my goals for this year is increasing our cash and investments significantly to avoid these issues in the future especially when pressed with having to make a large capital expenditure.

Our FI number is slightly higher due to a chronic medical condition, and the high cost of healthcare in the US. We are due to have our third kid this summer so there will be a lot of posts related to these topics. We currently save/invest in an H.S.A., and pay medical costs out of pocket. I need to spend more time figuring out how to lower medical costs.

My family relies heavily on DIY'ing most projects/issues around the home typically with the assistance of my Dad (renaissance man). I am trying to absorb all his knowledge that I neglected to appreciate as a kid so I can one day pass down those skills to my kids. Recently we snaked our clogged septic drain pipe, replaced a clutch on our 2008 Subaru Impreza, repaired the engines on our snowblower & log splitter, cleaned our own chimney before the burning season started. We have always had a garden. Sometimes small sometimes big. This year I plan on dedicating a lot of time to this endeavor to really improve our results. I also want to spend more time outside so camping will be a big part of this summer's adventures. (An ideal day would be rolling out of my tent to water the garden with a warm cup of coffee).
Last edited by kawaivf1 on Thu Feb 23, 2023 12:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

mathiverse
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Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by mathiverse »

Welcome! Congrats on paying off the mortgage! I'm intrigued about how you've gone credit card free. I like your reasoning: it forces decisions to happen more slowly. Slowing down my own decision making has been a key factor in spending less for me.

I'm looking forward to hearing about your DIY projects and to see another person doing ERE with a family.

We have a few other people with higher asset targets due to working around the US healthcare system and expected costs due to chronic conditions or disability. It'll be interesting to see your plans around that.

kawaivf1
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2023 11:26 am

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by kawaivf1 »

mathiverse wrote:
Thu Feb 23, 2023 12:03 pm
Welcome! Congrats on paying off the mortgage! I'm intrigued about how you've gone credit card free. I like your reasoning: it forces decisions to happen more slowly. Slowing down my own decision making has been a key factor in spending less for me.

I'm looking forward to hearing about your DIY projects and to see another person doing ERE with a family.

We have a few other people with higher asset targets due to working around the US healthcare system and expected costs due to chronic conditions or disability. It'll be interesting to see your plans around that.
Thanks! It was honestly a really difficult decision for me, because I knew the math behind investing versus paying off a 3% mortgage. It was an easy decision for my wife (she is the wiser one I have come to learn). I finally came to the conclusion it was easier and progress was faster living life focusing on one goal at a time so we pulled the trigger and paid it off.

From a credit card perspective it has been a little bumpy mainly because we still purchase things online so we just use apple pay (or a debit card where we can't). It does seem like our spending has dropped enough to offset the 2% rewards.. Either way the 2% wasn't enough of our NW to continue worrying about credit cards. I can just pull out a wad of cash, pay for what I want, and move on with my life. As the person who primarily worries about money, and budgets it was a weight off my back (even though we never paid a dime in interest).

kawaivf1
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2023 11:26 am

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by kawaivf1 »

Happy Birthday to myself! I am 34 years old. When I was in my 20’s I was in debt, working my way up the corporate ladder envying everyone who was excelling faster than I was.. Now that I am in my 30’s I am debt free, saving over 50% of my much larger income, and not envying anyone. I am happier than I ever have been, not because I have all the “things'' that I thought I wanted when I was younger, but because I am content with what I do have. This is difficult for me. I am someone always trying to tweak something in my life. Setting new goals or doing some crazy new thing which is what drew me into early retirement extreme. After reading the book I realized it was a philosophy about life which instantly clicked with my way of thinking.

I have been feeling some guilt this week because I knew I had failed on some of my new year resolutions. My list was fairly long so it was inevitable that some of them would stick and others wouldn't. Now that I have this journal I think it will be interesting to keep track of some of my health and exercise goals.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES:

Reading: Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
# of books read (2023): 4 (have to do some work to figure out the exact number it could be higher)
Est body fat: 17.4% (used body fat calculator and measuring tape)
% to achieving FI: 48%

UPDATES:

Reading: I just finished reading the 3rd book in the Reacher series called “Tripwire” by Lee Child. I started rotating my reading by alternating easy to read fiction books after reading dense non-fiction. Currently I am reading the Benjamin Franklin Biography. I tried reading it before as an ebook, but was not a fan. This time I got the physical book from a local library. I may adjust the time of day that I read since it isn’t a page turner it is difficult to read at night. I was hoping to have a few more books read by now (1 per week).

Exercise/Diet: Around October 2022 I finally got disgusted enough with my weight that I vowed to start eating better and exercising. I stumbled upon NSNG which is essentially Keto. (not very ERE) I ended up losing 30 lbs which got me to my target weight. Now my primary focus is to increase exercise, and lower my body fat percentage. I would like to get my body fat between 6-14%. Due to time constraints (kids, life, work) I have a pull up bar and exercise bands in the room off of the kitchen to reduce the friction of having to do the task. I used to love the gym, but find it hard to get the same motivation I used to, and don’t want the added cost of a membership. I have been experimenting with intermittent fasting (very ERE). I noticed some sugar cravings the past month, and someone recommended it as a solution. I now skip breakfast except black coffee. Not only does it streamline my mornings not having to cook, I feel good, and it saves me money.

Achieving FI: Part of my journey to achieving FI is learning new skills to become more self-sufficient and reducing expenses to increase my savings rate. Over the past 2 weeks we replaced the clutch in my 2008 Subaru impreza. We were quoted $2000 by a local mechanic. The parts were only $300. My father and I decided to do the job ourselves, and in the process also replace the valve gaskets. My biggest take away from this job was not the knowledge needed to remove an engine, but it was that you need a network of people with specialized knowledge and tools. My dad leveraged knowledge from a mechanic buddy to diagnose the issue, and a local mechanic who was a friend of a friend to give us a reasonable price without trying to screw us over, and his employer who lent him an engine lift.

Random Musings:

“Dry” 2023 - I chose to start 2023 by not drinking alcohol. I made this goal for health, money saving, and general self-improvement reasons. I feel better than I have ever felt, I have spent $0 drinking. Nothing is worse than wasting a day being unproductive due to being hung over. I do feel left out in social situations, and having a cocktail with my wife., As a result I intentionally failed this when I had a birthday scotch this weekend. I limited it to 2 drinks, and felt ok the next day. I will keep drinking to a minimum. I feel great, and don't want to drink to excess anymore.

Firewood - I spent 66% more on heating fuel when comparing 2022 to 2021. Crazy! We purchased a load of logs for $600 equivalent to approximately 9 cords of wood late in 2021. We heat our home primarily using a woodfire insert that has a blower. I purchased some inexpensive fans to move air around to other rooms. We cut, split, and stacked the entire load. The issue is it takes 1-2 years for the wood to season. We ran out of fast drying Ash, and are now scrambling to find inexpensive/free sources of wood for the remainder of winter. I’ve learned a lot since starting to burn, and it is an activity that requires a lot of time, man power, and planning. It will be important to start planning now for our next batch of wood 2 years from now.

Money/Budget:

As a result of the diet being primarily protein my grocery budget has gone up considerably. Over the last 3 months my spending has averaged $672/mo versus my budget of $570/mo. Typically I shop at Aldi’s and BJ’s Wholesale. My typical cadence includes shopping 1 time a week at Aldi, and every 2-3 months BJ’s. I have a rough idea on unit prices, and what is a good buy. Typically I will purchase on sale items, and stock up using my freezer if I find something at an especially good price. I found food waste to be a slight problem that I can improve upon, but can be difficult with kids. I think this March I will test using only cash to buy groceries.

kawaivf1
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2023 11:26 am

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by kawaivf1 »

I don’t have a ton of updates this week. As time goes on I may adjust from a weekly to another cadence with respect to how often I make a journal entry. Due to the lack of new ideas this week I thought I would recap some of the changes I made after reading the ERE book, and doing some of the 21 day makeover steps.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES:

Reading: Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
# of books read (2023): 5
Est body fat: 18.4%
% to achieving FI: 48.7%

UPDATES:

Reading: My SO went to the library and surprised me by getting the next book in the Reacher series. I finished it this week. The main character made an interesting realization about wanting to be free, and not be tied down. He decided to sell his house, and car in order to become basically FI. He is the ultimate minimalist/anti-consumer. He has very few positions, basically a toothbrush, and wallet. It’s a really interesting choice for a hero main character. I found his choice of lifestyle to be very appealing. I have been a home owner for over a decade now, and thinking about all the responsibilities of owning a home is very time consuming, costly, and tiring. My goal overtime is to reduce that burden. There are things that wear out that can be replaced that will require little to no maintenance, and hopefully reduce the recurring costs. Unfortunately reading another Reacher book put a hold on reading An American Life. I will resume that reading now.

Exercise/Diet: I noticed an almost 6% gain in weight over the past few weeks. Some of it I can attribute to weakness in my ability to avoid sugar on say my birthday. But the increase in weight coincides with my fasting. Which is not what I was expecting. I think two things are happening. The first being that I typically consumed some kind of healthy fat in the morning, and that got removed completely from my diet. Then coming off the fast if I was hungry I was consuming foods with more carbs than I otherwise would have. So the carbs were up and good fat down. I started reducing those carbs, and increasing the fats after the fast. So far the weight has started to come down which is a good sign. I was able to incorporate some physical activity/exercise this week. We had back to back snow storms so that required a good amount of shoveling. In addition to that I did some body weight exercise (pull/push ups) on a regular basis.

Achieving FI: No significant changes to our investments yet. Soon we'll be aggressively investing in our taxable investments, but prior to that I need to solve our car dilemma.

Random Musings:

21 day makeover changes -

Started cutting my own hair, and my son’s. This wasn’t a huge deal since I used to buzz my own hair years ago, but the biggest obstacle was my SO didn’t want me to have short hair. We watched some videos on youtube and learned how to fade, and use scissors. So far this was a very successful endeavor, and I will likely never go back to a barber again. My barber was costing me $35 per month, and required me to drive 10-15 minutes. My son's hair cut cost $30ish for a very simple cut. He went less often, but his hair is very easy to cut.

I started a major effort to declutter, and sell stuff on the FB marketplace. I was astounded to see how much crap was accumulating. We just moved into our house 1.5 years ago. The worst culprit for accumulation was kitchen items. We had too many gadgets, and so I made probably $200-250 selling those items. I used some of that cash to replace an 1.5-2 year old non-stick pan that we used probably every day, but was no longer non-stick. I replaced it with 2 cast iron pans that I found on FB marketplace. 95% of my cooking is now done with the 3 cast iron pans we have. I also donated a large swath of books that I will not re-read. This was difficult for me. I was attached to my book collection, but my bookshelf was overflowing so it made sense to let some go.

Food price list. This one was a little tedious, but I was still debating if my wholesale club was cheaper than Aldi’s. Like everything in life I found out it depends on what you buy.

Insurance - I started thinking more and more about insurance. Outside of the normal employer offered insurance we have life, auto, and home insurance. I increased my life insurance. At our current NW, and family size it would be catastrophic if I died since we have yet to hit FI. Avoiding catastrophic risk is what I view to be the only reason to pay for insurance. I increased the deductibles on my homeowners insurance, dropped coverage on my wifes wedding ring, and removed rental coverage from our auto policies. Overall this resulted in about $432 in savings per year, but the additional life insurance cost about $327 so we netted about $100 in savings. When I hit FI we will likely drop the additional term life insurance coverage.

TV/Streaming.. This was a pretty simple decision. We started using an old Antenna this past year. The reception was surprisingly good considering we are in a more remote location. The big deal was stopping our subscription to Hulu/Disney Plus. We pulled the plug, and started borrowing DVD’s from the library. The last subscription is to Amazon, and I haven't figured out a good way to cut that out because we lose amazon photos which have many years worth of photos. They don’t make it easy to cut ties, and keep your backlog of photos/videos. The savings from cutting the streaming bundle was $15/mo.

Three areas I am still thinking about are cell phones, free hobbies, and clothes.

Our cell phone plan is $50/mo. It seems getting this down further is possible, but might cause more inconvenience than it is worth.

I still haven’t come up with any free hobbies. I’ve thought of some with an upfront cost such as archery, and little ongoing costs but nothing that would be completely free.

I don’t buy many clothes. I typically wear them out, and if I can’t repair them I get rid of them. The last time I bought a significant number of clothing items was probably 6-7 years ago. My weight was down, and I needed better fitting clothes. My weight went up over time, and most of those clothes are now gone. Now that my weight is down most of my clothes are too big, and very old, pushing me to the point that I probably need to acquire some new clothes. I will likely start at goodwill, but I find the men's section at goodwill especially in my sizes to be inadequate. Being in the northeast our wardrobes vary greatly from season to season so I need to really focus on color palettes so matching things becomes easier, and the ability to add layers when the temperature fluctuates. Also, durability matters since we do a lot of projects, and spend a lot of time doing physical activities outdoors.


Money/Budget:

This was my first week paying for groceries with cash. I came in $3.90 under what I was planning on spending. Which is impressive considering I didn't have to take anything off at the register, and at Aldi they have no personal scanners so I had to keep a mental accounting of how much I was spending. I reduced my spending on meat. Our food waste a lot of time comes from that category, but I made sure I purchased more than enough eggs. Eggs don’t spoil so there is less waste.

jacob
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Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by jacob »

kawaivf1 wrote:
Mon Mar 06, 2023 10:44 am
Reading: My SO went to the library and surprised me by getting the next book in the Reacher series. I finished it this week. The main character made an interesting realization about wanting to be free, and not be tied down. He decided to sell his house, and car in order to become basically FI. He is the ultimate minimalist/anti-consumer. He has very few positions, basically a toothbrush, and wallet. It’s a really interesting choice for a hero main character. I found his choice of lifestyle to be very appealing. I have been a home owner for over a decade now, and thinking about all the responsibilities of owning a home is very time consuming, costly, and tiring. My goal overtime is to reduce that burden. There are things that wear out that can be replaced that will require little to no maintenance, and hopefully reduce the recurring costs. Unfortunately reading another Reacher book put a hold on reading An American Life. I will resume that reading now.
Also note, though, that Reacher eats out all the time (although he seems to mainly exist on a diet of diner coffee with free refills). He's also constantly buying a new set of clothes instead of washing his old clothes (maybe it's hard to get the blood stains out). I don't recall him going to a laundromat or using the motel facilities. Speaking of which, he also lives in motels.

The annual cost of such a lifestyle, presuming that transportation costs are zero due to stealing the cars of his enemies, would be
365 * $50/night for 1 star motels
365 * $10/day for diner fare
52 * $40 for a new set of generic clothes store clothes
=$23980/year

For real world inspiration, there's Anders Ansar whose luggage fits in hit pocket (although I'm sure he owns more stuff at home) and Rob Greenfield who really owns less than 50 items.

macg
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Location: USA-FL

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by macg »

I'm a huge Reacher fan.

He doesn't do laundry per se, but he does wash items in motel sinks and drys them overnight. If you read enough, you get the idea that he lasts under a weekish before he buys new clothes, unless as Jacob mentions there's blood involved lol.

Jacob's numbers are around what I came up with when I did the math a few years back. Reacher is definitely a minimalist, but not so much ERE. He is pretty much FI, has the pension, but there's been times throughout the series he has had to do odd jobs here or there as well. It's the freedom piece that he definitely has, and no responsibilities, that likely is the huge appeal.

As an FYI, I really liked the Reacher TV series on Amazon Prime that came out last year. I actually enjoyed the 2 Tom Cruise Reacher movies as well, but many fans of the series couldn't get past the size difference between Cruise and how Reacher is described, so they have mixed reviews.

kawaivf1
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2023 11:26 am

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by kawaivf1 »

jacob wrote:
Mon Mar 06, 2023 12:35 pm
Also note, though, that Reacher eats out all the time (although he seems to mainly exist on a diet of diner coffee with free refills). He's also constantly buying a new set of clothes instead of washing his old clothes (maybe it's hard to get the blood stains out). I don't recall him going to a laundromat or using the motel facilities. Speaking of which, he also lives in motels.

The annual cost of such a lifestyle, presuming that transportation costs are zero due to stealing the cars of his enemies, would be
365 * $50/night for 1 star motels
365 * $10/day for diner fare
52 * $40 for a new set of generic clothes store clothes
=$23980/year

For real world inspiration, there's Anders Ansar whose luggage fits in hit pocket (although I'm sure he owns more stuff at home) and Rob Greenfield who really owns less than 50 items.
haha I am glad you put numbers to it. Thats awesome. Life is expensive being a drifter I guess. I look forward to checking out those links.

kawaivf1
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2023 11:26 am

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by kawaivf1 »

macg wrote:
Mon Mar 06, 2023 5:26 pm
I'm a huge Reacher fan.

He doesn't do laundry per se, but he does wash items in motel sinks and drys them overnight. If you read enough, you get the idea that he lasts under a weekish before he buys new clothes, unless as Jacob mentions there's blood involved lol.

Jacob's numbers are around what I came up with when I did the math a few years back. Reacher is definitely a minimalist, but not so much ERE. He is pretty much FI, has the pension, but there's been times throughout the series he has had to do odd jobs here or there as well. It's the freedom piece that he definitely has, and no responsibilities, that likely is the huge appeal.

As an FYI, I really liked the Reacher TV series on Amazon Prime that came out last year. I actually enjoyed the 2 Tom Cruise Reacher movies as well, but many fans of the series couldn't get past the size difference between Cruise and how Reacher is described, so they have mixed reviews.
I watched the Amazon series which led me to the books. Haven't seen the movies though. He does seem to eat his fair share of steak. He never seems to workout.. too bad we all couldn't be that gifted physically.

kawaivf1
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2023 11:26 am

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by kawaivf1 »

I am posting this early, and as I continue to mull things over modify things..

This past week I had some realizations that I need to rethink the way I go about FI and ERE. My biggest issue was that I couldn’t explain clearly the way I was thinking/feeling. For the majority of my working life I had a singular focus on my FI number, and was hell bent on achieving it through optimization of my budget, and sacrifice. After some good discussions, and reading some older forum posts I have come up with a few ideas that I want to start working on with the goal of increasing my current quality of life, learning new skills, and creating systems/feedback loops. Reaching my FI number will become a secondary and less important aspect of financial independence. My FI number will be a feedback mechanism telling me that what I am doing is working. Ideally those skills will meet some kind of values based goal, and solve more than one goal at a time.

GOALS/VALUES:
- Lower household expenses and reliance on external consumption (ie grocery stores, barber, mechanic, etc)
- Reduce household waste.
- Reduce my dependence from FTE.
- Go from WL4/5 to WL6

PRIMARY: (FOCUS)

SKILLS:
- Permaculture/Gardening (win-win since my wife is interested)
- Arborist (Fruit Trees - currently have 3 apple & 2 pear trees)
- Raising Egg Laying Chickens (whole family has been begging for chickens)
- Bee Keeping (win-win since my wife is interested)
- Make Non-toxic DIY cleaners and detergents
- Wood working (win-win since my wife is interested)
- Automotive & small engine repair/maintenance
- Accounting

SECONDARY: (FEEDBACK)

- % to achieving FI (Investments/FI#): 48.7%
- 2023 YTD Savings Rate (Expenses/Income): 40.6%


UPDATES:

Since I reside in the north east all outside gardening activities are on hold, but will be approaching shortly. In the meantime I will be spending some time reading the forum, and books at the library trying to get up to speed on permaculture, and improving our garden this year. In addition to that I need to at least get some basic knowledge on fruit trees. We moved 1.5-2 years ago to our new home, and haven’t pruned or tended to our fruit trees at all. The results have been very underwhelming. We had a few apples and pairs the first year, and now one of the trees is dying.


MONEY/BUDGET OPTIMIZATION:

Groceries - This week I spend some time estimating the cost per serving/grams of fat and cost per serving/grams of protein. My diet doesn't focus on calories, but on fat. When comparing on that basis it seems like ground beef even though it's more expensive on a per serving basis it provides much more fat and protein versus eggs, chicken thighs, and bacon. My typical day starts with fasting until noon (2 cups black coffee), then lunch is usually bacon and eggs, I have tea and nuts in the late afternoon, and dinner is usually some kind of beef or chicken dish with some veggies. Surprisingly with the current elevated egg prices it makes bacon come out ahead on both fat and protein. Goals for this week's shopping trip.. Limit packaged goods, reduce my daily food cost, and continue to use a cash budget.

Code: Select all

Food	$/serving size	$/gram of fat	$/gram of protein
ground beef 73/27	$0.50	$0.017	$0.029
Egg	$0.32	$0.063	$0.053
Bacon	$0.34	$0.057	$0.043
chicken thighs	$0.45	$0.055	$0.018

OTHER TOPICS:

Spend nothing year - going to look into this forum.. It sounds interesting although initially my wife was skeptical about participating with a baby on the way.. Maybe this is something I would do alone, but it looks like there is some flexibility in what constitutes a spend nothing year.

kawaivf1
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Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by kawaivf1 »

The more I read about the WL’s 6+ the more I become overwhelmed. Coming from FIRE to ERE is a huge mindshift change. I have a type A personality, and I am someone who typically has a million checklists, and tries to complete them as fast as possible. Right now ERE specifically WL’s 6 and beyond feel very abstract which causes a lot of frustration. I definitely feel like I have fallen short in some kind of way, and now there are all these things that I need to rush to accomplish. Even though I know logically that makes no sense. There is no finish line, and I am not competing against anyone. I think one problem is I took the idea of being a generalist too far, and had too many skills I wanted to explore. I will likely narrow my focus on 2-3 things at a time, and slowly integrate the ones I find appealing into my life, and quickly move on from the ones that don’t. I need to keep telling myself this is a gradual process, my goals/values may change over time, and I will likely still do WL4 and 5 things while also attempting WL6 things.

GOALS/VALUES:
Lower household expenses and reliance on external consumption (ie grocery stores, barber, mechanic, etc)
Reduce household waste, and carbon footprint.
Reduce my dependence from FTE.
WL4/5 to WL6

PRIMARY: (FOCUS)

SKILLS:
1) Permaculture/Gardening/Arborist
2) Make Non-toxic DIY cleaners and detergents
3) Automotive & small engine repair/maintenance

SECONDARY: (FEEDBACK) ← still not sure how to measure in something other than money, savings, or NW.

% to achieving FI (Investments/FI#): 48.7%
2023 YTD Savings Rate (Expenses/Income): 40.6%


UPDATES:

I started listening to some permaculture podcasts. I thought it would be a good way to start thinking about things when I am on a walk, or doing chores. My next task will be to read through the forms to start gathering reading materials, and jotting down ideas for this year.


MONEY/BUDGET OPTIMIZATION:

Groceries - this week's trip to Aldi’s was $5.02 over my predetermined budget of $140, but I am still within the total month’s budget. I got coffee which isn’t a typical purchase since I buy that in bulk. I also made it to the wholesale club, and stayed within my $300 limit. I didn’t find many good deals so I stuck to the items that I knew were cheaper than Aldi.


OTHER TOPICS:

Spend nothing year - I spent some time reading through the entire spend nothing year forum, and basically it seems like unless you stick to the “bills & food” it seems really easy to cheat a spend nothing year. I like the idea, but I'm not sure it’s realistic at this point for me. For one thing I don’t know that at this point I am willing to miss out on an experience with my friends or family. Over the past few years I have come to realize that life is short, and being there for those moments are really important. For example my friends are going up to VT for the weekend to do their annual “guys weekend”. They want to go to an event with a $24 cover for the band and the privilege to buy their beer. I balked at the entry fee, on top of the overpriced beverages..I don't even drink beer anymore). But I plan on going anyways, because I don’t see them often, and it’s something they enjoy doing. For the most part our spending problem isn't going out to eat, or to the bar, or buying clothes, or even gadgets. We don’t really make those purchases anymore, and rarely go out to eat except on special occasions. I was listening to an MMM podcast recently, and he had a saying that he tries to only buy or do things that remove a negative from his life. I think that is powerful, and is how I would like to make decisions.

New Vehicle - I read a few things about the alternatives to a car and WL6 thinking. I do get the concept, and the alternatives that exist (ride sharing, public transport, etc). Unfortunately I think there are some limitations due to location (no public transit), climates (snow), and obviously having families (3 kids with car seats). I plan on doing most of the damage by DIY repairs/maintenance. Also, get a used vehicle to avoid significant depreciation. Over time I think the plan is to go to a one car situation, but that will likely be when the kids move out. The benefits of a van are significant over a sedan. It has the ability to fit a ton of people, it can turn into a pickup with all the seats down. This will help when I find free wood, need to go to home depot, and I can fit more at the wholesale club reducing the number of drives I need to take.

kawaivf1
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Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by kawaivf1 »

This weekend was busier than normal, and more expensive than average. It was my brother's birthday, and we took my daughter to her first live play. It was pretty jaw dropping looking at the prices for these simple activities, and the amount of consumption that was going on at them. The bowling alley was not your typical run down joint. It was newly renovated with a full bar, shiny new arcade, and waitresses for each group of people. The enormous parking lot was full, and each lane at capacity with people ordering overpriced cocktails. Just to have the privilege to play an arcade game you have to buy a $3 card that had a $3 activation fee, and it was anywhere from $1-3 per game. Let’s just say we let our kids sit on the games and pretend to play. They had just as much fun, and even got a free stuffed animal from an adult playing a crane game. My wife really likes live shows, and so we took my daughter to a live Paw Patrol show. We left the 2 year old with his grandma which was a very smart choice since he doesn't have the attention span to sit through a 3 hour play. Tickets are $50-$100 per person, and food/drinks were crazy expensive. Popcorn and cotton candy $15 each for a small bag. Unfortunately we couldn't bring food in, but we did have food and snacks on the way down, and for when we got out. We did get my daughter cotton candy, but couldn't stomach more than that (most people were carrying as many toys and food/drinks as they could back to their seats)..The mother and ~2 year old next to us left within the first 15 minutes because the kid was crying. It was kind of surreal to see this level of spending from hundreds of people.. Considering statistically speaking most of these people are probably living paycheck to paycheck with little to no savings. We had a great time, and will have tons of memories from it. Obviously there are less expensive ways to spend a weekend that are just as fun, but we were able to minimize the damage by not feeding into consumerism. Next time I will definitely work on finding cheaper parking within walking distance, and sneak bottled water in.

I came across the Stoa youtube video that Jacob did, and thought it was really good especially if you're just being introduced to ERE. I am starting to think about my web some, and making sure each skill or interest I pursue solves more than one goal/value. I think it’s important to add health to my web.

GOALS/VALUES:
- Reduce external consumption (ie grocery stores, barber, mechanic, etc)
- Reduce household waste/carbon footprint.
- Reduce my dependence from FTE.
- Health (Diet & Exercise)

SKILLS:
- Permaculture/Gardening/Arborist
- Make Non-toxic DIY cleaners and detergents
- Automotive & small engine repair/maintenance

Still not sure how to measure in something other than money/NW.

% to achieving FI (Investments/FI#): 47.1%
2023 YTD Savings Rate (Expenses/Income): 62.7%


UPDATES:

- I didn't have a chance to read the permaculture forum or get any books yet, but I listened to a podcast about trees. I found it very fascinating. I definitely need to take inventory of the trees on my 1.5 acres to see how I can utilize what I have first. I also want to try and grow an apple tree by harvesting fallen apples from any tree that I find.

-My wife was talking about needing to buy some spot cleaner for carpets. Due to our dog's bladder issues. This will be a good opportunity to DIY a cleaner. Any recommendations are welcome! We do use vinegar and water, but need something a little better for stains.

-I have always had a passion for motocross, and motorcycles. I was thinking I could turn one of the bays of the garage into a repair shop. Repairing old bikes no one wants anymore, riding them some, and then selling them with enough margin to cover the cost of the bike, parts, and labor.


MONEY/BUDGET OPTIMIZATION:

Groceries - this week's trip to Aldi’s was $5.86 over my predetermined budget of $140, but I am still within the total month’s budget with enough left for my final week of shopping.

kawaivf1
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2023 11:26 am

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by kawaivf1 »

Sorry, I haven't kept up with my weekly journal. It seems like that cadence is too difficult to maintain. Especially if we had a lot of activities going on. I will likely just try and post once a month from here on out.

A few updates;
- I did some searching for a project motorcycle/dirt bike but prices seem to be extremely high even for bikes that have issues. Inventories seem low so I will keep looking.
- We picked up some sunflower seeds for our garden, and have started planning for this year's garden now that it has gotten warmer.
- We are pretty close to selling our current car to then purchase a van. We have a friend who is interested, and after owning it for about 3 years we are able to get out of it for about what we purchased it for due to the increased used car prices.
- This week was probably the last week for burning in our wood stove. It needs a good cleaning. We ran it constantly since October, and it wasn't drawing as well as it did in the beginning. We ran out of seasoned wood a few months ago, and ran it primarily on standing dead trees we sourced for free. Next year we should have plenty of seasoned wood so it will be important to start sourcing unseasoned wood to build our supply up.
- I spent a long weekend in VT with my friends. It was nice to get away, but not as fun as I remember. We have a lot of different interests now, and getting drunk/hung over isn't as fun as it used to be.
- I reallocated a 10% chunk of my investment portfolio. For a while now I have been just indexing, but realized I missed managing a portfolio, and researching companies. I decided to take a portion of my Roth IRA to buy individual stocks. Basically adopting a coffee can approach. I will purchase 8 companies with the lump sum that I have today, and each year buy one additional one.
- I am reading "The House of Morgan" right now, but haven't really had a lot of motivation to read so it has stalled out. I have a couple other books I want to pick up from the library as well so I am hoping to get back in the groove with reading again.
- Exercise dropped off.. It took a while to bounce back from the long weekend in VT. My diet and energy really suffered after getting out of my normal routine. Luckily the weather has improved, and I have spent much more time outside getting steps in.

Anesau
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2023 4:27 pm
Location: Hurricane Alley, USA

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by Anesau »

As far as food costs (from a few posts pack where you made a table for a few different foods), I've used & would recommend the Efficiency is Everything spreadsheets. They compiled a lot of different nutrients/$, and while local prices differ, I've found it overall very useful in thinking about efficient food.

I'm definitely interested to hear more about your investments as you continue to branch out from your index fund.

Also, which permaculture podcasts were you listening to, and would you recommend them?

Divandan
Posts: 79
Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2020 7:57 pm

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by Divandan »

Just read through your journal from the beginning. There is a lot of overlap with where we are in this journey, except you have a head start with home ownership, as I am just beginning with that fun.

I look forward to continuing to read through your journal as you progress on a lot of these skill ideas!

kawaivf1
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2023 11:26 am

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by kawaivf1 »

Anesau wrote:
Wed Apr 05, 2023 6:22 pm
As far as food costs (from a few posts pack where you made a table for a few different foods), I've used & would recommend the Efficiency is Everything spreadsheets. They compiled a lot of different nutrients/$, and while local prices differ, I've found it overall very useful in thinking about efficient food.

I'm definitely interested to hear more about your investments as you continue to branch out from your index fund.

Also, which permaculture podcasts were you listening to, and would you recommend them?
Thanks for the recommendation I will have to check that out. I feel like food in general is an evolving item subject for me. Especially as our diets change, and with kids it becomes difficult.

As for the portfolio I really enjoy the coffee can approach letting your winners ride, and losers become a smaller and smaller portion of the portfolio. It works well in an IRA where you have regular amounts invested each year so the cost basis of each holding is almost the same. I am trying to find investments that have strong balance sheets, long growth runways, good management, and fair/cheap valuation. My first 7 investments are CI, FRPH, MKL, NNI, HIFS, MSGE, CNI. All equal weighted. I purchased half of the position initially if I thought the valuation was fair, and will dollar cost average in the remaining half. I will post more on this here, and probably in the investing forum.

I listened to a few podcasts, but the only one I would recommend so far is The Permaculture Podcast with Scott Mann.

NewBlood
Posts: 182
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by NewBlood »

I read Sepp Holzer's Permaculture recently, it was an easy read and very interesting. He talks quite a bit about tree care (or lack thereof). He's in a different climate (high-altitude Germany), but lots of good ideas to glean from.

kawaivf1
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2023 11:26 am

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by kawaivf1 »

I can't believe I haven't posted on here since April. It was a pretty big fail on my part. Although I had some good excuses with a new baby to add to our growing family. I have a 5 and a 2 year old to go along with a newborn.

I find a growing urge deep within me to get back down to a less connected state of being. I am pretty tired of the smart phone. I find myself being addicted to podcasts, surfing the web, and checking stock prices. I think it has negatively impacted me, and I think it's time to make an extreme change. I have tried subtle changes like deleting apps, and not carrying my phone on me, and using screen time function. But I feel like I could really focus my attention on other endeavors, and on my family. I will be in search for an inexpensive dumb phone.

Financially speaking I think I am making some progress with my wife. We are now meeting weekly to do a very detailed budget. Typically the kryptonite in our budget was my wife not being on the same page, and as plugged in to our budget. Right now we are in a pretty slow savings phase of our life. We have two kids in daycare, and my wife is at home with our newborn. Hopefully starting in January we can really improve our savings rate to get our taxable investments, and liquidity much higher.

Our garden wasn't a smashing success we had too much rain this year. It caused a lot of our plants to rot. We did get 2 pumpkins, peppers, cucumbers, and our pear tree produced a ton of tasty pears. Our kids had a blast picking and eating straight from the garden. My son would dig to find all the worms so we could go fishing. It was pretty cool seeing them enjoy it. I grew up spending a lot of time outdoors, and when I see other kids spending enormous amounts of time staring at a screen it just makes me mad. They are all growing up missing life, and are already in poor health. Life is going to be really tough for them. I feel compelled to make sure my children don't end up like that.

I have continued to maintain a ketogenic diet. Which has been a pressure on the grocery budget, but a boon for my health. My blood work has looked really good. My weight has been consistently down. I also gave up coffee which was beneficial to my health and wallet. We are looking into getting a 1/4 cow to help reduce our spend. It seems like it will be beneficial in terms of quality and price per lb. For a 1/4 cow we got one farm offering it to us for $1200.

We visited my buddy this weekend. He has a tiny home he built for $20,000. It gets me thinking that after the kids are grown and gone that it would be nice to have a small cabin, on a big plot of land. Raise some pigs and chickens. A big garden. We lived in a 1000 sqft before so my wife was used to a smaller house for 10 years, and I was pleasantly surprised by her reaction to a tiny home. The cost and time required to maintain and live in a larger home long term just seems less and less appealing. Over time I plan to work my way towards that goal. Before we sold our house and moved in 2020 we had a vision board. I think it's the perfect time to make another.

I've read a few more Jack Reacher books, but with the new baby the pace of my reading has slowed. Especially with football starting up again. I have a few non-fiction books waiting to be read as well. I guess these things ebb and flow. With cooler weather coming I can't wait to read by next to our warm wood stove.

Our vehicle predicament was finally resolved. We sold our 2016 Toyota Camry for approximately what we bought after 2.5 years of ownership. This was a great deal for us, but we got bit on the other end since we had to buy a slightly more expensive 2016 Honda Odyssey. We decided to keep our 2008 Subaru Impreza. Even though it is less reliable we are able to do all the maintenance and repairs ourselves.

It sounds like this fall we might have a source of free wood I have about 7-8 cords left. I burnt 3 last year. My father has a friend who has a horses. They
build trails, and don't like to have standing dead trees because it can be dangerous. So if we can get free wood in exchange for use of our log splitter that would be a boon with the high oil prices. It cost $575 to fill our tank last week.

Posts on here may be sporadic, but I do plan on posting as time goes on and I have updates.

delay
Posts: 182
Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2022 9:21 am
Location: Netherlands, EU

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by delay »

kawaivf1 wrote:
Mon Oct 02, 2023 9:31 pm
I find a growing urge deep within me to get back down to a less connected state of being. I am pretty tired of the smart phone. I find myself being addicted to podcasts, surfing the web, and checking stock prices. I think it has negatively impacted me, and I think it's time to make an extreme change. I have tried subtle changes like deleting apps, and not carrying my phone on me, and using screen time function. But I feel like I could really focus my attention on other endeavors, and on my family. I will be in search for an inexpensive dumb phone.
Sounds familiar! I've been working to reducing smartphone usage. It is surprisingly hard. Work and social life require messenger apps. Travel is much easier with a smartphone. So a dumb phone seems like a step too far.

The effect of "screen time" is to make screen time feel precious. It makes me use the phone more, not less.

Not carrying my phone in my pocket helps (it's in my backpack.) Connectivity is turned off by default (disable SIM, disable Wi-Fi.) My mobile FireFox browser has an add on "uBlock Origin", I'm using it to blacklist news sites. I have an old-fashioned radio alarm to wake up, so my phone is not in my bedroom. An e-reader replaced my Kindle app.

It's so much effort and the lure is still there. I wonder if a dump phone is not the best way out after all.
kawaivf1 wrote:
Mon Oct 02, 2023 9:31 pm
I have continued to maintain a ketogenic diet. Which has been a pressure on the grocery budget, but a boon for my health.
Interesting, keto is the one diet that didn't work for me. I followed https://www.dietdoctor.com/. After five weeks I had several health problems, like not being able to run, and infected lips.

What type of keto diet works for you?

kawaivf1
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2023 11:26 am

Re: kawaivf1's Journal

Post by kawaivf1 »

delay wrote:
Tue Oct 03, 2023 3:25 am

It's so much effort and the lure is still there. I wonder if a dump phone is not the best way out after all.
It's a constant battle.. I agree that there could be significant down sides to it socially. My wife and I also use a shared calendar feature to organize our life, and mint to stay on budget. I will figure something out there is no other choice. I refuse to spend hours looking at a tiny screen.
delay wrote:
Tue Oct 03, 2023 3:25 am

What type of keto diet works for you?
My diet leans towards a more carnivore approach my vegetable and carb intake is very minimal. My diet consists mainly of 80/20 ground beef, eggs, pork, and chicken. I cook with butter or animal fat, and eat high quality EVOO and coconut oil. It was really important removing seed oils, processed foods, and fruit. I did some macro tracking I think my fat intake was around 70%. My protein fluctuates, but usually is around 1 gram per 1 lbs of lean body mass. You might have experienced the keto flu? I felt a little off in the beginning, but nothing like you mentioned. I did start having a ton of muscle cramps. I needed to significantly increase my salt intake specifically Himalayan pink salt. The one thing I have learned after doing a ton of research on how to improve my overall health is that everyone is different. If something doesn't work tweak it and try again, and/or get professional help.

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