Portugal rather than Spain (Algarve) but I imagine it's pretty similar. Imo Iberia is the most interesting part of Europe; great weather, low COL, safe, lot of history. The bureaucracy isn't really a problem if you are just buying a property, though I agree renting first is a good option. Jerez is a great city not far from the Portuguese border.
Frugaldoc's journal
Re: Frugaldoc's journal
Re: Frugaldoc's journal
Well, I turned the big 5-0 today. I thought I would be more depressed than I am. Perhaps my grandmother passing away last week inoculated me against any self-indulgent lamentations over getting older.
I sat down and thought about what would make this, the 51st year of my life, a “win”. I listed five things and chose the one thing to devote most of my time to. If I failed at everything else but achieved this, I would still consider the year a win.
1. I am lean, fit, and healthy. *
2. I have a net worth > $1 million.
3. I spend quality time with people I care about.
4. I earn my Surface Warfare Medical Department Officer warfare device.
5. I am in a healthy and fulfilling relationship.
Those may seem like vague goals and to an extent they are. Some are partially out of my control (net worth). The ‘lean, fit and healthy’ goal required me to sketch out a list of metrics I want to meet to fulfill that goal. Now I need to work on process goals that I will implement each day.
February update
Spending
$2030 of spending in February, keeping me on track to spend <$40k this year. There was some additional spending in Osaka at the end of the month that will be reflected in March’s numbers. I really wanted to buy Cal Newport’s new book, “Slow Productivity” but stayed true to my book buying moratorium. I also found a store with great paper products (stationary, etc) but I resisted. I am determined to use up the supply of stationery and blank notebooks I already have.
Fitness
Increased walking with a few trips to the gym. I have set a goal of walking/running one mile every day for the next 100 days. It doesn’t sound like much, but I want to get the habit started and will likely do more once I find myself down in the gym. Flight deck operations start at the crack of dawn most days so if I want to walk/run I need to head below decks to use the treadmills that have an incline.
Reading
Completed ‘The Almanack of Naval Ravikant’. Lots of good stuff in there, even if I don’t agree with all of it. Almost done with the Warren Buffett biography “The Snowball”. While a great capital allocator, I can’t but feel a bit sorry for him when I read some of the stories of his life. In many ways, he seems childlike in many aspects of his personality.
Work
Still debating on extending in this assignment through summer of 2026 so I can have the Rota, Spain assignment. It wouldn’t be that bad, especially if we make the home port shift to San Diego in the latter half of 2025 as planned. But that seems up in the air. I could also go to Djibouti for a year to secure the Rota assignment. That could be an interesting assignment. Financially beneficial as well (tax breaks) but does not support the goal of being in a healthy, fulfilling relationship.
I sat down and thought about what would make this, the 51st year of my life, a “win”. I listed five things and chose the one thing to devote most of my time to. If I failed at everything else but achieved this, I would still consider the year a win.
1. I am lean, fit, and healthy. *
2. I have a net worth > $1 million.
3. I spend quality time with people I care about.
4. I earn my Surface Warfare Medical Department Officer warfare device.
5. I am in a healthy and fulfilling relationship.
Those may seem like vague goals and to an extent they are. Some are partially out of my control (net worth). The ‘lean, fit and healthy’ goal required me to sketch out a list of metrics I want to meet to fulfill that goal. Now I need to work on process goals that I will implement each day.
February update
Spending
$2030 of spending in February, keeping me on track to spend <$40k this year. There was some additional spending in Osaka at the end of the month that will be reflected in March’s numbers. I really wanted to buy Cal Newport’s new book, “Slow Productivity” but stayed true to my book buying moratorium. I also found a store with great paper products (stationary, etc) but I resisted. I am determined to use up the supply of stationery and blank notebooks I already have.
Fitness
Increased walking with a few trips to the gym. I have set a goal of walking/running one mile every day for the next 100 days. It doesn’t sound like much, but I want to get the habit started and will likely do more once I find myself down in the gym. Flight deck operations start at the crack of dawn most days so if I want to walk/run I need to head below decks to use the treadmills that have an incline.
Reading
Completed ‘The Almanack of Naval Ravikant’. Lots of good stuff in there, even if I don’t agree with all of it. Almost done with the Warren Buffett biography “The Snowball”. While a great capital allocator, I can’t but feel a bit sorry for him when I read some of the stories of his life. In many ways, he seems childlike in many aspects of his personality.
Work
Still debating on extending in this assignment through summer of 2026 so I can have the Rota, Spain assignment. It wouldn’t be that bad, especially if we make the home port shift to San Diego in the latter half of 2025 as planned. But that seems up in the air. I could also go to Djibouti for a year to secure the Rota assignment. That could be an interesting assignment. Financially beneficial as well (tax breaks) but does not support the goal of being in a healthy, fulfilling relationship.
Re: Frugaldoc's journal
Happy birthday. The day I turned 50 was the last day my father was cognizant. He died five days later. I could have sworn I screamed when the hospice nurse called it but my wife who was right there besides me said I didn't. No more Happy Birthdays for me. 49 of them is enough. Now everyone calls me sir, like I'm fucking Sidney Portier.frugaldoc wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 6:33 amWell, I turned the big 5-0 today. I thought I would be more depressed than I am. Perhaps my grandmother passing away last week inoculated me against any self-indulgent lamentations over getting older.
I sat down and thought about what would make this, the 51st year of my life, a “win”. I listed five things and chose the one thing to devote most of my time to. If I failed at everything else but achieved this, I would still consider the year a win.
1. I am lean, fit, and healthy. *
2. I have a net worth > $1 million.
3. I spend quality time with people I care about.
4. I earn my Surface Warfare Medical Department Officer warfare device.
5. I am in a healthy and fulfilling relationship.
Those may seem like vague goals and to an extent they are. Some are partially out of my control (net worth). The ‘lean, fit and healthy’ goal required me to sketch out a list of metrics I want to meet to fulfill that goal. Now I need to work on process goals that I will implement each day.
In your top five list, eliminating 4 because who knows what the fuck that is, and conflating 3 and 5 because I only care about one other person, I have achieved three. Better to have than not to have but from here on out you live under the shadow of death, the rest of your days with the increasingly warmer breath of the angel of death blowing down your neck and the raw ache of earthly disillusionment and dissatisfaction drilling through your innards creating the nail hole for the rattle of death. Or maybe that's just me. But that's been my story since I turned 50.
Re: Frugaldoc's journal
Wellllll.... let me just wish you a happy birthday, frugaldoc. With many more happy years to come 
Keep us posted on whether you extend this assignment or do something else. Are there perhaps yet other options for you, or could they maybe open up over the next months?
Keep us posted on whether you extend this assignment or do something else. Are there perhaps yet other options for you, or could they maybe open up over the next months?
Re: Frugaldoc's journal
-Random thoughts on striking out
A beautiful 245-acre property in Vermont came available last week. It had everything I wanted: lots of water with the Lamoille River running through it, about 30 acres of cleared land with rich soil that had been used as a garlic farm, 2 miles to the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail, and lots of forest with existing trails.
But it didn’t last long. Within 5 days the buyer had set a deadline for “final and best” offers. The agent indicated that they had already received a strong, cash offer. I had people on the ground willing to look at the property. The one sticking point was to access the property one must cross a private bridge that spans the river. There was a lot of flooding in Vermont in 2023 and I wanted a civil engineer to examine the bridge and provide a report on its soundness. That just couldn’t be done in time for the offer deadline. Plus, I wasn’t prepared to go above asking ($550k). So, I was a little bummed about that. Buying property from across the world is difficult.
But I did learn some lessons. Most importantly, my financial life is too complicated. I have too many accounts scattered around which dissipates the ability to use my assets as collateral. If I had had all taxable investments in a single account, I could have leveraged them to come up with the money to make a more compelling cash offer if I had wanted to. I have all these accounts because I am an inveterate tinkerer and like to run different portfolio strategies in different accounts. I think it is time to stop tinkering so much and stop trying to overly optimize in my quest to find the perfect portfolio strategy. So, over the coming months I am going to start working to consolidate my investments. The next time a dream property appears on the market, I will be less likely to strike out.
A beautiful 245-acre property in Vermont came available last week. It had everything I wanted: lots of water with the Lamoille River running through it, about 30 acres of cleared land with rich soil that had been used as a garlic farm, 2 miles to the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail, and lots of forest with existing trails.
But it didn’t last long. Within 5 days the buyer had set a deadline for “final and best” offers. The agent indicated that they had already received a strong, cash offer. I had people on the ground willing to look at the property. The one sticking point was to access the property one must cross a private bridge that spans the river. There was a lot of flooding in Vermont in 2023 and I wanted a civil engineer to examine the bridge and provide a report on its soundness. That just couldn’t be done in time for the offer deadline. Plus, I wasn’t prepared to go above asking ($550k). So, I was a little bummed about that. Buying property from across the world is difficult.
But I did learn some lessons. Most importantly, my financial life is too complicated. I have too many accounts scattered around which dissipates the ability to use my assets as collateral. If I had had all taxable investments in a single account, I could have leveraged them to come up with the money to make a more compelling cash offer if I had wanted to. I have all these accounts because I am an inveterate tinkerer and like to run different portfolio strategies in different accounts. I think it is time to stop tinkering so much and stop trying to overly optimize in my quest to find the perfect portfolio strategy. So, over the coming months I am going to start working to consolidate my investments. The next time a dream property appears on the market, I will be less likely to strike out.
Re: Frugaldoc's journal
Yup. What I learned when I was looking for my current house is that there will be new properties on the market, and there will be ones that will be just as good or better than the one that has just passed you by. So who knows what will come on the market next! (And yes, good to be prepared for it!).
...And I just finished my tax paperwork for this year, and am considering simplifying too, because it takes a lot of time to get all the paperwork together if you have 7 different financial accounts and some other tax deductible expenses. Pfew.
...And I just finished my tax paperwork for this year, and am considering simplifying too, because it takes a lot of time to get all the paperwork together if you have 7 different financial accounts and some other tax deductible expenses. Pfew.
Re: Frugaldoc's journal
My two person ERE book club
I somewhat haphazardly reconnected with a person I had met while living in San Antonio 15 years ago. We had only met once so I didn't know much about her except that she was an interesting, science fiction fan and lover of live music. But I recently discovered she has the frugality gene and saves 50% of her income. She started doing this without being exposed to much, if any, FIRE content out there (didn't even know who Mr. Money Mustache was
). So I hopped on Amazon and sent her a copy of "Early Retirement Extreme" and "The Richest Man in Babylon". A few days ago we had our first discussion of ERE, albeit over the phone. We talked at length about Chapter One and will probably discuss chapter two next week. It was quite satisfying to introduce someone new to Jacob's body of work.
I somewhat haphazardly reconnected with a person I had met while living in San Antonio 15 years ago. We had only met once so I didn't know much about her except that she was an interesting, science fiction fan and lover of live music. But I recently discovered she has the frugality gene and saves 50% of her income. She started doing this without being exposed to much, if any, FIRE content out there (didn't even know who Mr. Money Mustache was
). So I hopped on Amazon and sent her a copy of "Early Retirement Extreme" and "The Richest Man in Babylon". A few days ago we had our first discussion of ERE, albeit over the phone. We talked at length about Chapter One and will probably discuss chapter two next week. It was quite satisfying to introduce someone new to Jacob's body of work.