Frihet / Freedom - Journal

[frihet]

Experienced a known pattern the last few days. A pattern of prejob anxiety and dreaming extra about ERE. You almost believe you are ERE already when you have 4 weeks off frequently. This time the anxiety was even stronger because the work I'm being sent on contained more responsibility than usual. I always been a responsible person who strongly dislikes formal responsibility.

Culminated with me throawing up yesterday, felt better afterwards. It was similar to throawing up on ayahuasca where fear and emotion can leave the body that way.

Anyhow spent some time on Tyler's excellent site playing with withdrawal rate calculator's for the Golden Butterfly portfolio

https://portfoliocharts.com/portfolio/golden-butterfly/

Felt even better afterwards. Because now I sat the goal of increasing my portfolio with 300000sek for a 5% SWR as a first step and that is not so far away. If the job is unbearable then I could quit or talk to my boss from a position of strength that I want less responsibility.

I would prefer a 4% SWR but I don't want to loose health and sanity just to reach a number.

I also stated a final number with my girlfriend as a witness. I will not work longer when I reach 3 300 000 SEK. I have such a hard time focusing on several things in life and want to quit this quest for FI and get on with the important things. Who know's how long life will last?

Feels good to state it here also. 3 300 000 SEK maximum.

I how also checked how much student grant/debt I have left and found out that I can study for 14 years half time receiving 1412SEK in grant and 3604SEK as loan per month. to make use of this "free" money is another thing to consider. In that case I will put the loan in an separate Golden Butterfly Portfolio and doesn't need to repay it until I guit studying. A bonus of becoming ERE and never having attended university.

Carrying on towards freedom.....

[wolf]

Anyhow spent some time on Tyler's excellent site playing with withdrawal rate calculator's for the Golden Butterfly portfolio

You are following two different portfolio allocations, if I saw it correctly.
- Permanent Portfolio and Golden Butterfly

Why is that so? What advantages you think you have? Because, I guess, you also have more efforts controlling and managing it.
Right now, I do think about my portfolio allocation and maybe you can help me with some inspirations, because till today I thought I need a one consistent portfolio allocation strategy.

[frihet]

Hi MDFIRE2024,

Yes you are correct i have two diffrent portfolio allocations. The reason is historical. The Golden Butterfly didn't exist when i started, it's Tylers invention nearly 2 years ago. So from the beginning I had one PP in $ and one in SEK. Unfortunately it's not easy to keep a perfect allocation in PP/GB in SEK as there is no way to find 30 years bonds.

So I aimed for the middle way of keeping half in $ and half in SEK

I wanted to switch to the GB for better returns/SWR. But once again choose the middle way of only changing the swedish one. I don't trust the market right now and 25% PP stocks compared to 40% GB should be more stable. I also choose to splitt the GB between 20% swedish large cap and 20% emerging markets for further diversification.

The reason why the GB is smaller is because I choose to split my stock account in 5 parts and buy IAU as the gold portion. I hold quite a lot of physical bullion. But it's hard to balance the portfolio with that, hard to sell + need to pay capital gains tax on bullion but not ETFs in Sweden.

Not sure if this makes any sense it's more a acting on what feels right and swedish specific rules than being as scientifical as many on this forum.
In the end of the day it's my money and I need to feel right about my allocations

Make good use of Tylers site. It's amazing!

[wolf]

Thanks for the explanations. Yeah, you are right. It, the personal portfolio allocation, has to feel right.

[frihet]

Received summer bonus and salary today. A nice reminder why I put myself through the hassles of working far away from home for weeks throwing up before some trips.

117000 NOK in take home pay. This is not normal but love every June when it happens. Almost one year of spendings in to the account.

Ka Ching

[frihet]

After posting in the crypto thread and reading back in my journal I feel I need to ventilate something, mostly for future reference to my future self.

I wrote in June this year that I will quit at 3 300 000 sek portfolio then being at 2 million. Well when I calculated net worth again yesterday it was 2 700 000 sek. With about 600 000 sek being crypto. My other portfolios haven't performed very well neither has my savings rate.

With the volatility of crypto and difficulty of using it in the day to day life. How much can I trust this portion of my portfolio value towards the SWR?

No answer but something to think about. Neither to see crypto rising dramatically surpassing my target or falling steeply taking me further away would surprise me. Or worst taking me beyond my target, me quitting work and to then see my portfolio value crashing.

[wolf]

How about selling crypto in small parts, e.g. 10%...another 10%.. and invest it in other asset classes?
Then you can secure your gains with crypto bit by bit and build up a more defensive, income-focused portfolio.

[frihet]

How about selling crypto in small parts, e.g. 10%

Yes that's a good plan. But the greed part of me likes to keep a sizable crypto position for a possible home run.

[frihet]

Just summarized this year spending as I have received my last salary for the year. It was a pleasant surprise. I have not kept track of spending. But came close anyway to my goal of 10000Sek per month - 120000Sek per year.

As I mentioned last year I earn in Nok and spend in Sek. So this is not 100% correct but close enough. I have on average earned a few % each time i've changed currency.

756724Nok
$90847
Before taxes. That was 47940Nok less than last year. My company have been cheap on overtime because of the down turn.

522964Nok
$62783
In take-home pay. Just 15650Nok less than last year. The Norwegian way of calculating taxes is not easy to understand. I hope I won't owe during next tax return.

123949Sek
$14896
Spent this year. Which of 12269Sek was spent on RealVisionTV + mining newsletter and 17382Sek was spent on retreats. None of those was necessary spending but things I enjoy and learn from.

94297Sek
$11344
More barebone spending. But still with the possibility to cut more.

76.3% Savings Rate
That was actually 4.8% better than last year. Hadn't expected that when I started today!

Next on the agenda is the net-worth calculation. Who knows what the crypto goods will bring tomorrow. Might be FI with a 4% SWR already.

[frihet]

Ahh as I suspected, at this moment in time the crypto Gods were on my side. Not sure what offerings to make to continue trusting them though? Have therefore made three portfolio allocations and calculated SWR.

3 081 359Sek
$367 112
Total net-worth - which is enough to be FI with a 4% SWR

2 207 041Sek
$262 800
Net-worth inside financial system + physical metal - which is enough to be FI with a 5.6% SWR

1 720 601Sek
$204 984
Net-worth inside financial system - which is enough to be FI with a 7.2% SWR

Time to get out and catch some of the last little light of this gray December day. Might treat myself to a nice lunch actually. I think I deserve that after having achieved this. Funny had an argument with my boss this morning about traveling to the rigs 2 days prior to my work period without getting overtime.

Oh well it doesn't matter - I have FI/FU money now

Maybe I come back later today with portfolio allocation percentages.

Enjoy your day everyone - keep accumulating freedom on all fronts!

[frihet]

Ok so this is my unconventional allocation. Probably a bit crypto overweight if you ask sensible people and not crypto bulls

Permanent Portfolio in USD
26.7%

Golden Butterfly Sek/USD mix
22.9%
Containing
20% Emerging markets
20% Swedish stocks
20% Gold - ETF IAU
20% Short-term Swedish bonds
10% Medium term Swedish bond
10% Long term US bonds ETF TLT

Cash in savings account
9%
This is basically 2 years spending. When I was fed up with work this summer I decided to accumulate and keep this permanently. So I could quit any day and have this time frame to decide what to do next. Safety net upon safety nets........Have I forgotten that life is uncertain anyway?

Speculative mining shares
3.2%
A 20% loss on this part. Have been unwise and averaged downed too much on 3 large losses.Of which 2 have been sold, but there is still hope on the last one. Also, experienced a big win, for this portfolio, when a company got bought out so I'm hoping to turn this around.

Extra Stocks/funds
0.6%

Extra Gold
9%

Silver
0,6

BTC
24%

LTC
1.6%

ETH
1.4%

ETC
1%

Another way to divide the portfolio would be a "Crypto Butterfly" who clearly needs some rebalancing.
28% Crypto
21% Precious metal
20% Short-term bonds /Cash
20% Stocks
11% Medium/Long-term bonds

Or if I take the Crypto part out to find something that can be put into portfoliocharts.com.....
Nah that became too weird to write about. But it made one thing clear. I need to really think about my overall portfolio before I retire. The numbers I put in could only support closer to 3% SWR across countries. It has been savings rate and crypto luck that has built this scattered allocation. But for stability in retirement something else is needed.

[wolf]

Hi Frihet. Great numbers this month! I just compared them to your first journal post in August 2014. Your progress is quite impressive.
As you come closer to FI, I would like to ask you about your thoughts about that. Do you already have any plans to transition from FI to RE, or other things? Or do you want to save more in order to build up a "Margin of Safety"? Regarding ERE, are there some potentials in your expenses, which can be improved with "Web of goals", efficiency, etc.? If you don't mind can you share something about your ERE-kind of life?
Anyways, thank you Frihet for shareing those three interesting journal posts about your SR, Networth and Asset Allocation.

[frihet]

. Do you already have any plans to transition from FI to RE, or other things? Or do you want to save more in order to build up a "Margin of Safety"? Regarding ERE, are there some potentials in your expenses, which can be improved with "Web of goals", efficiency, etc.? If you don't mind can you share something about your ERE-kind of life?

Thank you MDFIRE2024,

For commenting and the overall positive vibe you spread on the forum. Have noticed your comments in other posts as well. It's a good thing for introverted forum lurkers like me that some like to participate and engage us turtle shells.

I'm thinking of your questions and might have to let them sink in for a few days. Short answers today.

Yes, I want to accumulate a bigger margin of safety before I quit. Thinking of working one more year and see where I stand then. That will mean around 400000NOK more saved. Ideally, put to work within the financial system to bridge the gap between portfolios.

There are expenses that could be cut. But how much do I want to cut? I also want to be able to spend money on my interest. Actually, they may very well go up in retirement as I won't be on the rigs 100days a year.

The short answer about the purpose of ERE life is that I want to 100% pursue the spiritual path. Meditation, retreats and so on. There are some specific reasons that stem from personal experiences with my former hiatus from work that make me feel that I need to be FI to do this. Might get into that in my next post. As I feel the "dark" side of meditation is not talked about enough with all the hype about mindfulness and so on.

Enjoy your weekend! Now off to Indian food with my woman.

[frihet]

Just came back from 3 weeks in mother India acting on a New Years resolution to start living and quit waiting for a perfect future. Oh was it reuvinating to step into her embrace again. There is something unexplainable happening there with all the devotion and prayer going on constantly. Spirit is closer to matter.

I have decided that my savings is enough of a safety net for now. I don't want to quit with this amount but if needed I could. So it's time to live the life I want right now. To postpone it any longer makes me depressed and spiritually drained.

It's amazing how being around a holy site in India with likeminded people can make meditation so easy and connection to the inner being so rewardingly fulfilling . There will certainly be more trips and retreats this year. Maybe next off period I'll be going to the US to spend time with a teacher I have a connection to.

One of the biggest reasons for me wanting to ERE has been that intense spiritual practice have made me ungrounded with a weaker intellect and memory in the past. This made me scared and feeling that I needed to be able to sustain myself without working. This scare is now very much lessened as I know that I can afford a simple life with current amount if I cut back on spending. Being in India again just reaffirmed how little I could live off there for example.

If work becomes impossible in the future I will simply quit and align myself with the budget at that time. Until then I will spend what I feel is needed on travel and retreats to progress on the path. Enjoying the possibility that my work schedule and salary makes possible.

In gratitude

[frihet]

Seriously contemplating quitting my job. Is it the best logical choice to make financially? No I don't think so. But how much longer can the voice of fear "what if?" have a grip on me? It's lessening and losing by the day now. And time....that's not something I will ever get back. It is time now, for time to be myself. No more pretending to fit in, not that I'm good at it. But what a relief to drop the fitting in altogether.

Was in India again at my favorite magical energy place. What do you need there to be content and feel connected. Not much, not much at all that's for sure.

Do I have enough $?

Yes I do. Can I live as I lived last year? No I can't travel and go to costly meditation retreats like I have the past year.

But do I need that? No I don't think so there is so many ways to practice/resources on this path that cost next to nothing. Been going through them in my head to lessen the fear and it's working.

What's also lessening the fear is my two backup plans of studying and/or go back to some type of part time work when wanted/needed.

Contemplating different end dates. Part of me feels like resigning straight away which means I can leave at the end of March. Another idea is to work until the end of June or August

We'll see...

I hope to make a financial end of year statement in the coming days. If I can get into the process of numbers and math for a while. The quitting process happens elsewhere right know. In the psyche and body. Very interestingly I had big muscular releases like TRE in the solar plexus on Monday. The bodily seat of identity and stored fear for me.

Merry Christmas to you all , be well.

[2Birds1Stone]

How many multiples of your average living expenses do you have saved?

I share your sentiment on jumping into ERE with just enough to make it work....but I ask myself for how long?

[frihet]

How many multiples of your average living expenses do you have saved?
....but I ask myself for how long?

I have 25x saved up so not the 33x most aim for at this forum. I did not live on this amount last year but it is an amount I know I can live on and spending 6 months a year in India would make the 33x a possibility if needed.

Yes i remember seeing in your journal that you are going through the same thing. How many annual living expenses have you saved?

[frihet]

Time for the traditional yearly financial report.

My best year ever on the income side.

Income 899000NOK - 924000SEK - $104000

Taxes 317 000NOK - 326000SEK - $36800

Take Home 582000NOK - 598000SEK - $67200

But on the spending side the most spendy ever. Made an effort this year to spend on whatever travel and retreats I wanted to go to. I feel it was money well spent. If just for the knowledge of what kind of level this was at.

Spent 209000SEK - $21200 to spend this much within a SWR of 4% i need 5 230 000 which feels far off

Saved 389000SEK - $41200

Which gives a savings rate of 65% for the year

Been going through a process since the last update thinking about where I could cut without losing much happiness. So I went through the credit card statements and removed expenses that I could have lived without. Or would be willing to give up for the freedom of not working.

Middle Way the most likely I would stick to and which included some retreats/travels 105000SEK - $11650 4% SWR check (3.6%)

Renunciate could do if the market or other circumstances make me to 80000SEK - $8900 3% SWR check

Ascetic living/food/healtcare 66000SEK - $7300


Investments and assets


Investment accounts 1 873 000SEK - $207800

Cash 335 000SEK - $37200

Precious Metal 698 000SEK - $77450

Cryptocurrency BTC, ETH, LTC 148 000SEK - $16400


Total Savings 3 054 000SEK - $338850

It's worth noting that my total net worth has declined slightly since last year. However as I don't count on cryptocurrency for FI it's more a bonus and possibility for a home run. It's not so bad.

My net worth in metal and cash/financial assets have increased from 2 207 000 SEK to 2 906 000SEK which makes me feel very good about the situation.

I'm in a strange place right now where I can't see myself working anymore in my current job and going offshore again. But I don't want to give up on the income and the possibility of reaching the goal stated somewhere in this journal of 3 300 000SEK. It also seems like the market is tanking and my logical brain says that I need to invest through the downturn. Had a yearly talk with my boss and told her that I don't want to be in supervisory roles. Something I would not have said without FU money and being fed up. We'll see if I want to be in any roles at all this year?

I also talked to a very awake (maybe some would say enlightened) friend who did not work between 2006 to 2013 and went back to work because she wanted to. Not because she had to even though she sold her apartment and invested the money just before the financial crash. Her advice was to quit, trust and live through the fear of a possible market downturn. She basically saw it as one of her great transformations to face all that existential angst tied to money. I could totally see how that would be beneficial but am I ready to take that leap of faith?

Another advice she gave was to not look at the account because it's all predetermined anyway. Not sure about this one but maybe all is predetermined within a SWR? 3 OR 4%

Have a great year everyone!

[frihet]

Monthly report January

This has been a trial month on my possible simple retirement life because I've been at home for the whole time. Not been called to work at all.

Perfect, I still got the base salary for doing nothing work related. Unless you call an one hour Skype meeting showing up for work?

If last year was a spendy year I intend for this to be a frugal one. Just to make a reality check on what amount I can live happily on.

The goal is to live on 10000kr = $1105 or less each month. Downloaded a simple Budget app to keep track. I like the mechanics of putting the numbers in manually and see them adding up after each expense. Makes it real somehow.

Rent 5400kr Paid for both me and my girlfriend to support her gap/retreat year as I'm working and using the apartment by myself this month
Repair fund 300kr
Healthcare 600kr
Telephone 423kr Switched to a low fee plan so this will go down from March. My job refunds once a year, but just in case I quit beforehand.
Union Fee 679kr Hmpf the union is expensive, tempted to cut this. But am hesitant, though business and they have helped me before.
Electronics 250kr
Bank Fee 59kr Ordered a Revolut Debit Travel Card
Groceries 703kr
Eating Out 346kr
Transportation 31kr
Dharma 1157kr Attended 2 online retreats, a new frugal and fruitful way of doing it.
Books 20kr Library fees for ordering The Mind Illuminated, this might very well be a buy actually. One of the if not the best meditation book

Total 9968kr subtracting the double rent, extra telephone and union fee, expenses that I wouldn't have to pay in ER 6297kr

Income was 27 500kr so the amount saved was 17532kr, not too bad, a savings rate of 63,8%

Among the ER skills, I've practiced have been walking everywhere. Why pay for a train/bus ticket? When you have plenty of time and on top of that get free exercise. Longest walks have been to a nearby spring to get water, natures tasty gift and an enjoyable 3h roundtrip through mostly nature reserve. I've also checked the food offers and walked to several supermarkets just buying the cheap stuff. I might be weird but I actually enjoyed this. It must be the hunter-gathering gene or I was just born a cheapskate retiree.

An ongoing contemplation as also been when to quit. I mentioned this in the last post, the urge to quit right away has quieted down somewhat. But not totally. June is tempting.

Have been reading Big Erns series on SWRs and that has made it clear that the logical thing to do is to continue for another year or two to close in on 3 %. We'll see if I can manage that. The series is highly recommended even though it's a bit over my pay grade. 28 blog posts on SWRs not bad!

https://earlyretirementnow.com/2016/12/ ... t-1-intro/

[frihet]

Monthly report February

Life was hard this month. Actually had to work for 8 nightshift. Am I crazy to be thinking of quitting this for Scandinavia well payed job with so much free time? Or well payed when I actually work, being at home doing nothing it's just ok pay. But the thing is every time I work I feel drained afterwards, eat a lot of cake and ice cream during my stay on the rig to comfort myself, luckily we use quite a lot of calories. But sugar is not healthy neither can weeks on the night shift be?

Have made up my mind to apply for distance courses during next free period and have my mind set on quitting in June after the summer bonus is payed out. If it wasn''t for the money the decision would be easy. I simply enjoy to invest the monthly cash flow the job provides and the distance courses is just an excuse to still get some incoming cash and to be enrolled in the social security system. I can't find any enthusiasm for drilling/completing wells anymore. Also doesn't like that I get pushed in to more responsibility than I like. Am out on a new job now, alone from my company. Just hate dealing with the customer and planing the job, dealing with onshore support. The imposter syndrome is telling me that I'm not smart enough and it's honestly partly true. I'm a simple man I just want to meditate and walk in the forest, a human being not a human doing/thinking. Or am I fleeing from challenges/responsibility? Maybe I need occasional work trips to ground myself? I perform my work though. You can not slack off totally when working with concrete things.

We'll see what happens. But this is my current process.

Rent 5400kr Paid for both me and my girlfriend to support her gap/retreat year this month again
Repair fund 300k
Healthcare 400kr
Telephone 433kr last mont with double plans
Union Fee 679kr
Home 239
Groceries 809
Transportation 128
Dharma 300 Not sure if to call this dharma, attended a cuddle party , was nice anyhow, in a way connecting to people is harder for me than meditation so it's defiantly on the personal development account at least

No books or eating out this month. The eating out my job payed for.

Total 8688kr subtracting the double rent, extra telephone and union fee, expenses that I wouldn't have to pay in ER 4975kr less than last month but rememberI am not spending anything on the rig

Income was the same as last month as the work trip didn't get accounted for on this salary. But I have partly of laziness and partly as a way to receive money in 2020 not delivered the tax card for the new year. Which mean that the Norwegian government pull 50% in taxes. This is money I will get back. I know this is not mathematically correct as I' m basically lending them money for free. But if 2020 is a recession it might come in handy. Realizing I'm backing myself into a corner to be able to quit. Another thing I did was telling my colleagues that I was tired of rig work and feeling more and more that it's not for me. Strange how I play games with myself!