Nomadic-ERE Year 5 - Wanderlust Prevails

Where are you and where are you going?
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2Birds1Stone
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Nomadic-ERE Year 5 - Wanderlust Prevails

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

I doubt anyone will be reading this, but I hope to look back on this post 6 years from now and smile :)
Last edited by 2Birds1Stone on Fri Oct 01, 2021 6:17 am, edited 153 times in total.

laheart
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by laheart »

I liked reading your story...congrats on your first ERE journal post!

George the original one
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by George the original one »

You underestimate the readership here, LOL.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

laheart wrote:I liked reading your story...congrats on your first ERE journal post!
Welcome, thank you :) Hopefully the store gets better from here on out.

George the original one wrote:You underestimate the readership here, LOL.
Possibly! I haven't been in the journal section too much yet.

Ramblings

Been running different projections to calculate possible exit strategies from the work force. The way I look at it I could either A) Work at my full time job till I had enough to 100% support my desired lifestyle. or B) Work at my full time job till I could transition to a medial part time job to cover the gap in withdrawal rate.

It looks like for me to be fully FIRE'd I would need to work ~8-9 more years till I am 37/38, meanwhile if I were to work just long enough to be able to go P/T I could quit the full time job in 5-6 years at 34/35.

Regardless I feel pretty optimistic that in either scenario I will be able to shave 1-2 years off with some budget optimization and increased income.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

..
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2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Happy Sunday everyone :)
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2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

FIRE is looking better and better :)
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2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

June Financial Update

76.5% Savings Rate

Musings

What a roller coaster of a month in the markets with Brexit. I did a few things this month.
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2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

I like my job, I really do......but the last few weeks I've been in a funk.

The extended holiday weekend gave me a taste of what it's like to not work while others are slaving away......I really liked it.

Even with a ERE/FIRE date much sooner than my peers I still feel so far away from the goal. I struggle with the idea of working another 6-7 years before hanging up the gloves......other days I feel like work is a breeze and it won't be any problem grinding it out.

I think I need more FU $$. I'm still not at the point where I would consider taking a sabbatical or a gap year from work. Hopefully when I get there some of the pressure to perform at work will diminish.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

July Financial Update

A 4% SWR will now cover my Rent/Utility/Grocery/Cell Phone bills.
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2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

I've been REALLY focusing on the gym the past 8 weeks.

Started training heavy 4-5 days a week. Signed up for a powerlifting meet in December.

Tested maxes this past weekend, ended up with a 290lb bench, 385lb squat, and 510lb deadlift.

Looking to improve these by 5% while dropping 5% bodyweight for the meet.

I also have a Sprint distance triathlon coming up in 3.5 weeks. I've been running but have to get in the water and on the bike over the next few weeks.

After that I have a 15K race in October.

Trying to keep active as I get older.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Musings

Ok month financially. Markets took a sideways month, PM's dropped a bit, spending was higher than expected thanks to car vandalism.
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2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

No one reads this.
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halfmoon
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by halfmoon »

2Birds1Stone wrote:No one reads this, but I figured I would do an end of 2016 update for my own records.
I'm reading it, and I doubt that I'm the only one. :) Congratulations on your continued success!

I do have one question: why do you have so many bank accounts? Are any of them incurring fees? (Oops...two questions.) I used to have a money market account, but the interest rate was so low that I transferred the funds into an existing brokerage account where I could buy short-term laddered CDs for no fee. I've also found that consolidation into just a few financial institutions saves me a lot of time and trouble.

AussieGirl
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by AussieGirl »

im reading along how do you keep groceries at $1300 /yr mine are more like $10k wondering if that is a country difference. mine is for two adults two young kids. But still, what are you eating??

wolf
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by wolf »

Hi, 2Birds1Stone.
Congratulations to your very good Financial Year 2016. Keep going an I guess you will reach FI rather sooner than later.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

halfmoon wrote:
2Birds1Stone wrote:No one reads this, but I figured I would do an end of 2016 update for my own records.
I'm reading it, and I doubt that I'm the only one. :) Congratulations on your continued success!

I do have one question: why do you have so many bank accounts? Are any of them incurring fees? (Oops...two questions.) I used to have a money market account, but the interest rate was so low that I transferred the funds into an existing brokerage account where I could buy short-term laddered CDs for no fee. I've also found that consolidation into just a few financial institutions saves me a lot of time and trouble.
Hello halfmoon, that is a great question(s).

This is something I have not posted about here in my FIRE journal yet, back in August I found out about bank account bonus churning. I have been travel hacking for almost two years now (opening CC rewards cards for the miles/points and cancelling before annual fees), and in reading and researching cards I stumbled upon www.doctorofcredit.com they have an updated list of all the new accounts and bonuses. Some are checking, some are savings but they usually offer you $100-400 per account to either hold money for X amount of time, or direct deposit X amount. None of them have fees, and after I meet the minimum time required to keep the account open and not lose the bonus I close them.

So far I've been able to open 9 accounts and earn $2550 in bonuses over the past 6 months.
AussieGirl wrote:im reading along how do you keep groceries at $1300 /yr mine are more like $10k wondering if that is a country difference. mine is for two adults two young kids. But still, what are you eating??
Howdy from the other side of the pond :) The $1300 is for my half of the groceries. Split with my SO. We do not have kids. Food is cheap here if you avoid the processed crap. We eat a lot of chicken ($.99-1.99/lb), ground turkey ($1.99/lb), London Broil ($2.49-2.99lb), rice, beans, potatoes, frozen mixed veggies, seasonal fruit/veggies (always cheap buying stuff in season), oats, peanut butter, yogurt, eggs ($.69/dozen), milk ($1.99/gallon).

We shop at Aldi, ethnic markets, make a list before heading to store and make sure we take advantage of sales and buy in bulk when more efficient. This also does not include household misc. such as cleaning products, paper products, alcohol etc. We don't have kids or pets so it helps keep the cost down. Our entertainment line item includes going out to eat so we do spend quite a bit there, usually ending up with leftovers to take to lunch.
MDFIRE2024 wrote:Hi, 2Birds1Stone.
Congratulations to your very good Financial Year 2016. Keep going an I guess you will reach FI rather sooner than later.
Thank you MDFIRE!


I would like to note that 2016 was an outlier in terms of income, I was fortunate enough to close some business last February/March for which I got paid tremendous commission. My income will likely be only 50-60% of last years in 2017. Which I am ok with, as spending should be a bit lower as well. I purchased a car in 2016 for $16,500 + TTR and while I didn't count the entire purchase toward spend I counted the tax, registration, insurance, and I track depreciation as a monthly expense, I will have lower depreciation in 2017, as well as no tax associated with that purchase.

My savings rate for 2017 is more likely to be in the 60% range, which is still good by most people's standards. We are a unique bunch here :)

Happy New Year and much success to everyone reading! I appreciate any feedback, questions, or camaraderie.

halfmoon
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by halfmoon »

2Birds1Stone wrote:This is something I have not posted about here in my FIRE journal yet, back in August I found out about bank account bonus churning. I have been travel hacking for almost two years now (opening CC rewards cards for the miles/points and cancelling before annual fees), and in reading and researching cards I stumbled upon http://www.doctorofcredit.com they have an updated list of all the new accounts and bonuses.
I looked at the doctorofcredit website, and it has good tips. The bank account churning seems pretty profitable as long as they don't have any account closing (or opening) fees and you don't mind the hassle. I always wonder, though, about the credit card hacking. How can you do this without negatively impacting your credit score?

2Birds1Stone
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

halfmoon wrote:I looked at the doctorofcredit website, and it has good tips. The bank account churning seems pretty profitable as long as they don't have any account closing (or opening) fees and you don't mind the hassle. I always wonder, though, about the credit card hacking. How can you do this without negatively impacting your credit score?
CC hacking does make your credit score fluctuate a tiny bit. A hard pull will usually drop your credit score ~5 points temporarily (~3 months) from my experience....but eventually having more lines of credit, higher available credit, lower utilization, etc helps in the long run.

When I started churning CC's back in March of 2015 my score was around 730, it dropped to 690 very briefly (I jumped in head first and opened 4 cards at the same time), now my score sits at 795.

There is a wonderful free course on travel hacking which I took 2 years ago. It's still available today http://www.travelmiles101.com/travel-re ... gistration

Travel Miles 101 was started by an MD and CPA who are regulars on the Mr. Money Mustache forum. The MD's wife is Japanese and he travels back to Japan from the USA each year with his 3 kids in tow. He fine tuned his travel hacking approach years ago to get that trip for free with miles each year. It's 15 days and will teach you all that you need to know in order to get started.

Next card I am opening is the Chase Sapphire Reserve. That one does have a $450 annual fee, BUT you get a $300 travel statement credit each year, and the sign up bonus is worth $1000 in cash or $1,500 in travel. I will open it in the beginning of March this year so I can use the $300 credit for 2017 and 2018. The total value of that card is $1,150 if you just cash out the miles, not counting other perks the card gives you (lounge access, travel insurance, extends manufacturer's warranty, etc etc)

halfmoon
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Re: 2Birds1Stone's hustle to freedom!

Post by halfmoon »

It sounds like you're making it work. What about the average age of your credit accounts, though? I thought that was a factor in the credit score...or are you keeping all the cards open?

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