Kielbasy journal

Where are you and where are you going?
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Kielbasy
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Kielbasy journal

Post by Kielbasy »

The number:

I've seen some very complex work done to calculate "the number". My thoughts are pretty simple:

[Gross salary - all investments for a year - mortgage principal - mortgage interest] ÷ SWR

Assumes everything I am not investing is expenses and my mortgage will be paid off.

The first assumption is mostly guessing. Future me will save a lot on taxes, but may spend quite a bit more on insurance. This assumes it is going to be a wash. It is a few years out, this is close enough for now.

The job:

I am a lower middle manager of a small engineering team making overpriced medical products with little medical value. I have no interest in management or engineering at this point. I listen to Hermetix podcast and the host asked an author of a book on hermits why he was interested in the subject. He answered that he's had supervisors and colleagues who were less than ideal. This is the nexus of early retirement. In 2018 I got a manager I hated as a manager and as a person. I'd been what I considered focused on retirement after reading John Thorne books and decided I would check out at 59.5. somewhere in here I used the retirement tools on the fidelity website and realized I would have much more than needed at 59.5. then COVID lockdown had this brief moment where life was much slower in pace. I've not recovered any interest in office work.

Awful boss left the company which is good, but the nearest to work friends I had are also gone. It is sometimes tolerable is about the best I can say.

The future:

Slowness. Basically all my interests fit into this. I'd consider PT work at a library, harvesting grapes, pouring beer at the brewery down the street, dog sitting or walking or PT work at a greenhouse. No meetings, no Microsoft teams, no performance reviews no action plans no email no quality emergencies. . .

I have no big goals or projects in mind. I don't know if this is a problem? I find myself getting very interested in the oddest things that I wouldn't have imagined before hand. With time (and hopefully energy) I could change this. Are projects worth it?

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Lemur
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by Lemur »

How old are you now? What is your current savings rate and spending? Can start there.

not sure
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by not sure »

Hi Kielbasy,
Welcome! Look forward to following your journey

Kielbasy
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by Kielbasy »

Lemur wrote:
Thu Jun 01, 2023 10:28 pm
How old are you now? What is your current savings rate and spending? Can start there.
Savings rate is about of 40% gross salary. Going to just shy of 50 in two years when I pay off my mortgage.

Kielbasy
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by Kielbasy »

What do you find interesting to read in journals? The journals of monthly net worth calculations or spend rates have no interest for me.

I like seeing interesting locations. If there is a journal with a Russian dacha in the plan somehow, or living on a container ship, long distance trucking, buying a building and living in your used bookstore I'd like a link.

My arrangements are quite middle class conservative in this respect and make for shit reading. Bought a modest house for my income at the time. I like the town but doesn't make for much interesting journaling. Plentiful taco trucks, used books, fields for dog walking. Not sure what long term will look like. Possible that reaching FI could mean buying my in-laws place. My mother in law wouldn't have to worry about the place, I could buy a place for three quarters market rate and my other in laws could take an early inheritance. Cannot make it work now as it wouldn't have the space for everyone.

Kielbasy
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by Kielbasy »

Looking to read more about happiness.

Looked at a book on Finnish (or Norwegian) lifestyle at the library, going to get it when the library reopens. If anyone could help with the name of such book that would help. US news seemed (I've gone low news consumption since 2016) to push the idea that people are all moving to the south of America for the tax rates and weather (people like 100% humidity?). Yet northern Europe consistently rates as happiest (dubious of these measures) with cold winters and hi tax rates. Almost as if US news is horseshit.

Read ran prieur and he's getting close to what I am trying to articulate. Similar to ere, but written by a more "woowoo" personality than jlf. Sloppy thinking but that's not to say w o value. I'd like to go low impact. fewer needs. No wants.

Occasionally I trawl for the type of job I might prefer and found multiple research assistant type listings. Seems like things that would normally go to students but somehow is on indeed. Bee keeping research of all damn things, forestry. . . Seems my speed.

Has anyone reading this done such work as a 'grown up'. ? Great work when I was a student but I would have thought unavailable to a middle aged person w different training and experience.

ertyu
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by ertyu »

Kielbasy wrote:
Fri Jun 30, 2023 3:11 pm
Has anyone reading this done such work as a 'grown up'. ? Great work when I was a student but I would have thought unavailable to a middle aged person w different training and experience.
"While I probably don't fit the traditional age and work background of the employee you may have in mind for this job, I am very interested in [the topic of X] and would very much love an opportunity to get paid for delving deeper into it. [Here is how my past experience means I'd be efficient at this]"

... of course this assumes your application will be reaching a live human. if the selection is done via algo, you're fucked.

godspeed

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grundomatic
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by grundomatic »

Kielbasy wrote:
Thu Jun 01, 2023 4:32 pm
Are projects worth it?
That's for you to decide! ERE is about living the life you want to. I think the projects people around here work on tend to be small so they don't overtake one's whole life. Learn to sew. Learn to cook. Learn to brew. These kinds of projects could be done by almost anyone reading this, as compared to projects like "build a house from scratch by myself" or "create a company will annual sales of $10 million within three years". That kind of thing will consume your entire life, which is fine if that's what you are into. Most here aren't, and it doesn't sound like you are either. Have you read Early Retirement Extreme the book? If not, it contains a strategy for "whole life" living.
Kielbasy wrote:
Fri Jun 30, 2023 3:11 pm
Looking to read more about happiness.

Looked at a book on Finnish (or Norwegian) lifestyle at the library, going to get it when the library reopens. If anyone could help with the name of such book that would help. US news seemed (I've gone low news consumption since 2016) to push the idea that people are all moving to the south of America for the tax rates and weather (people like 100% humidity?). Yet northern Europe consistently rates as happiest (dubious of these measures) with cold winters and hi tax rates. Almost as if US news is horseshit.
For happiness meets money reading, you could look into books on behavioral economics. I read all the books on it I could find until I got to where I could guess the original work the author was going to reference before they did so.

As far as Scandinavians being happier, I guess it depends what makes one happy. People and countries can lean either individualistic or collective. A collectivist living amongst people all "doing their own thing" may not be very happy, nor an individualist being sanctioned by his neighbors to conform. What will make you happy depends on who you are. My friend from the Netherlands told me he was happy to pay 50% taxes. He also rides his bike in the snow. I haven't heard a single American say to me they were happy about their taxes, and people most certainly are moving to the Sun Belt.

Kielbasy
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by Kielbasy »

grundomatic wrote:
Sun Jul 02, 2023 2:26 pm
Have you read Early Retirement Extreme the book? If not, it contains a strategy for "whole life" living.
I should read it again. First shot was too intimidating with the whole levels thing. Now I'm more at a point where I can appreciate it for the ideas on building a robust system

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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by jacob »

Kielbasy wrote:
Fri Jun 30, 2023 3:11 pm
Occasionally I trawl for the type of job I might prefer and found multiple research assistant type listings. Seems like things that would normally go to students but somehow is on indeed. Bee keeping research of all damn things, forestry. . . Seems my speed.

Has anyone reading this done such work as a 'grown up'. ? Great work when I was a student but I would have thought unavailable to a middle aged person w different training and experience.
Tricky. I think most "grown-ups" are turned off by the low salaries offered to a RA. The one example I know personally was an independently wealthy dotcom gazillionaire who started doing astrophysics. The second strike against is that taking on grad students is often a negative ROI for the professor except the occasional wonderkid. IOW, the professor is buying cheap lottery tickets in the form of students hoping that one will pay off in the form of good papers and future collaborations. An older/experienced student would bring more to the table but might also be seen as more likely to leave the career too soon. A major reason for age limits on certain educations (watchmaker, air traffic controller, ...) is that the education is very expensive, so the system prefers to milk their slaves for a good long time.

In principle, I did do a kind of RA like job when I worked for a few years as a quant. Industry salary (80k) to basically pursue whatever trading I found interesting being hired based on my computational physics skills. My utopia (see my Stoa2 talk) is to normalize transdisciplinary work. Some of the most original ideas/perspectives comes from bringing experts from other fields in to try to solve a problem. (Cf. the interdisciplinary approach where each expert stays within their own box and only connects by conversation.)

In terms of happiness indexes, I think it would be fairer to characterize Scandinavians as "not unhappy" than "happy". To the majority of Americans being happy means achieving more material success than their peers. (Obviously a game only a few can win.) For the Nordic welfare states, happiness or rather contentedness more about freedom-from financial, medical, educational, ... worries. The "are you happy"-question gets very different interpretation. If the difference was more explicit and people were asked if they "felt like they had successfully achieved their personal goals in life", I bet the Nordics would drop significantly in rankings.

The forum has different groupings of journals. Personally I'm most interested in "inner work", "technical work", and "philosophy/theory"-type journals. I'm not all that into travel, budgets, landscapes, or children. Maybe just a difference phase or kind of life. I generally suggest that people post whatever they like to see more of on the forum themselves.

Kielbasy
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by Kielbasy »

Sorry that was too broad a post I wrote.

I'm not interested in the N. European welfare state as reading material, more the lifestyle or out look on life that might promote contentment

not sure
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by not sure »

Have you heard of "Flow" by Mihaly Chicksentmikhaly? - might be an interesting read for you in terms of exploring the meaning of happiness. There might be TED talks on the topic, as well

Western Red Cedar
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by Western Red Cedar »

Kielbasy wrote:
Mon Jul 03, 2023 10:04 am
Sorry that was too broad a post I wrote.

I'm not interested in the N. European welfare state as reading material, more the lifestyle or out look on life that might promote contentment
I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but you might check out Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss:

https://ericweinerbooks.com/books/the-g ... -of-bliss/

It examines how different cultures, countries, and places affect contentment, trust, and a general outlook on life. It is easy-to-read and provides a lot of source material on happiness research in case you want to explore something in more depth.

Kielbasy
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by Kielbasy »

Western Red Cedar wrote:
Wed Jul 05, 2023 4:03 pm
I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but you might check out Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss:
Picked it up at the library today. Thanks

arbrk
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by arbrk »

Kielbasy wrote:
Fri Jun 30, 2023 3:11 pm
Looking to read more about happiness.

Looked at a book on Finnish (or Norwegian) lifestyle at the library, going to get it when the library reopens. If anyone could help with the name of such book that would help. US news seemed (I've gone low news consumption since 2016) to push the idea that people are all moving to the south of America for the tax rates and weather (people like 100% humidity?). Yet northern Europe consistently rates as happiest (dubious of these measures) with cold winters and hi tax rates. Almost as if US news is horseshit.

Read ran prieur and he's getting close to what I am trying to articulate. Similar to ere, but written by a more "woowoo" personality than jlf. Sloppy thinking but that's not to say w o value. I'd like to go low impact. fewer needs. No wants.

Occasionally I trawl for the type of job I might prefer and found multiple research assistant type listings. Seems like things that would normally go to students but somehow is on indeed. Bee keeping research of all damn things, forestry. . . Seems my speed.

Has anyone reading this done such work as a 'grown up'. ? Great work when I was a student but I would have thought unavailable to a middle aged person w different training and experience.
Scandanavians are very different from people in the US. Scandanavian life is very conformist - you don't want to stand out and you don't want to do better than your neighbor. You want to do about the same as your neighbor. In USA, you will not be happy unless you are doing better. In Norway and Sweden, it is not good to stand out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante

Kielbasy
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by Kielbasy »

Some rare good news. . . Finally looked at what I would qualify for under ACA

My insurance premium would be 869.

My FICA + Medicare + current premium=998.

Looks like my total expenses estimate seems reasonable for now.

The happiness book by Eric Weiner is ok. Not really sure that it is as actionable as I would like.

loutfard
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by loutfard »

Kielbasy wrote:
Mon Jul 03, 2023 10:04 am
Sorry that was too broad a post I wrote.

I'm not interested in the N. European welfare state as reading material, more the lifestyle or out look on life that might promote contentment
Macro reading about the northern European welfare state might be very boring. I'd guess the look on life and contentment is inextricably linked with the the welfare state though.

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grundomatic
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Re: Kielbasy journal

Post by grundomatic »

Reduce your income in retirement and you can get a subsidy on your premium under the ACA.

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