Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I actually meant thank you.

This is why I came here. I need to be inculcated.

I don't want to wait.

Thanks for nothing.

Farm_or wrote:I don't want to wait.

Thanks for nothing.

Don't worry, there will be other frugal chicks.

Mint Money says I spent $893.00 in January.

That does not include:

Internet: $57.00 (verizon jacked me $8)
Cell: $186.00
HOA: $325.00
Mortgage: $1,350
Car Insurance: $220 (Which I paid for the entire year in 2016)
Subaru: $386.00

Looks like I'm at: $3,417.00 x 12 = $41,000.00

Part of this exercise is for me to figure out exactly what we are spending.

I bought breakfast and lunch out yesterday and now I'm self-flagellating like a Medieval Monk caught coveting his neighbor's tomato patch. $15.00 dollars shot to hell. Most of you people can feed your entire families for month on that.

If I live on 40K that means as of today, I have 9 years in retirement income and being 51 years old, that could be my life span which I wouldn't mind as I'm kind of sick of this nonsense. If I live past that, social security and my wife's pension might suffice. It's just too risky but seeing that it might be possible is encouraging.

I need to cut more. Have to start really focusing in on that.

Your cellphone bill is really high. Savings of usd 1,200 per year should be easily possible. do your clients really care if they are driven in a USD 18k Toyota Camry or a 28k Subaru? Changes are possible but you must embrace them.

It looks like our fixed monthly costs are $3,781 = $45,372

So to be safe, its +/- 50K

My wife takes nets approx. $3,200 per month= $38,400.00

I hope to take home $75-$100K this year.

So minimum savings is 60K this year.

singvestor wrote:Your cellphone bill is really high. Savings of usd 1,200 per year should be easily possible. do your clients really care if they are driven in a USD 18k Toyota Camry or a 28k Subaru? Changes are possible but you must embrace them.

After Talmudic discussion with customer service, we could not find way to reduce cell phone based upon usage.

The second part of your question is what do I feel comfortable in and what is required in my profession. In any event, I've already made that bed.

I understand your point, but this is not like your neighbor drives a lexus/Bmw. This is a business perception thing which has impact.

So Wednesday is my birthday and my wife agreed not to buy me my gift, but she couldn't resist giving me the card early.

It was a nice card until I flipped it over and saw she paid $6.95 for the damn thing. God bless her, but that is some self-refuting nonsense right there. I lost it and told her she could just written happy birthday on a post it. $7.00 for a card. I'm guessing that's how much some of you raise your kids on.

Now I have to figure out a way to make up for it without spending money. This is a whole new world.

Jason wrote:So Wednesday is my birthday and my wife agreed not to buy me my gift, but she couldn't resist giving me the card early.

It was a nice card until I flipped it over and saw she paid $6.95 for the damn thing. God bless her, but that is some self-refuting nonsense right there. I lost it and told her she could just written happy birthday on a post it. $7.00 for a card. I'm guessing that's how much some of you raise your kids on.

Now I have to figure out a way to make up for it without spending money. This is a whole new world.

My take is you can't sweat these things too much. I also think spending that much on a card is some stupid shit but at least she only bought the card. Basically though you just have to give it some time and let her adapt to a different lifestyle.

We tightened up our spending but my wife still has a tendency to buy some stupid shit. My wife is definitely frugal and we are now pretty good but we used to go the shops on the weekend and buy lunch and she would go and find something to buy because it was cheap. I always hated that. I buy stuff and I can spend more money but I buy rarely. I'm not an impulse buyer. Now though my wife doesn't really go to the shops and buy dumb stuff. I basically just stay out of it.

As a real estate agent, you're certainly familiar with the line "Location, location, location." I would add to that, "Perspective, perspective, perspective."

Come on; your wife agrees to a ban on birthday presents but buys you a SEVEN DOLLAR CARD? This is a massive mental step worthy of praise. Maybe she thought the card was more funny/profound/engaging than a Post-it note. Maybe you need to go back and tell her that you appreciate her attempted adaptation to your recently-adopted standards. We all respond better to reinforcement than enforcement.

You are absolute correct. Although, she was as upset as I was when she was at the check out line. She just didn't want to appear cheap in front of the check-out person and say that that her husband wasn't worth a $7.00 card so she bought it. She insisted that she is buying me George Saunders new novel which will be about $14.00.

I am lucky to have someone on board. One cannot be unequally yoked in this situation.

I recently showed her our flow of dividend payments. Its like all those little expenses that used to go out are now coming in.

But thanks for the censure.

So I've been spending a lot of time reading the board and if I'm not mistaken I am not ERE but am a Bogelhead i.e. dis-proportionately concerned with accumulation than spending.

That being said, I am no longer dripping and drabbing myself to death. No lunch, no coffee (well, once). I am tracking my spending as much as my savings.

I guess we all have our floors, and mine appears to be 500K with a 250K paid off home. As they say in Appalachia, its all relative.

Based on retirement/investing calculators, I need to save $500 per month at 5.4% return to reach 500K in five years. That should not be issue (unless personal catastrophe or serious market downturn) especially with lower spending. If market downturns, I think I can make up.

The acceleration of the mortgage, is my next calculation.

I just read Jacob's blog posts where he discusses wearing the same shoes for 15 years and makes an argument that there is an equivalency between owning a TV and consuming/destroying.

I realize that compared to him, I live on a different planet. I will never live on his planet, but maybe we can at least share the same solar system. I don't know if that works as an allegory. The only thing I remember from Astronomy class in college is when the Professor pulled the screen down and there was a pornographic picture taped to it.

I need to pray on these things. Sometimes I think its just too late. My wife just came in with a Reese's peanut butter cup wrapper like she was a prison guard and she found my shiv. I told her it was 15 years old.

May I suggest:
"How TV Ruined Your Life"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqeBcvH ... o1g6-IdQHh

Jason wrote:
Based on retirement/investing calculators, I need to save $500 per month at 5.4% return to reach 500K in five years. That should not be issue (unless personal catastrophe or serious market downturn) especially with lower spending.

Color me confused (maybe it's the red wine). I thought you wrote earlier that you could almost live on your wife's earnings. Why can you only save $500/month from your additional earnings?

George the original one wrote:May I suggest:
"How TV Ruined Your Life"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqeBcvH ... o1g6-IdQHh

Thank you for the opportunity to experience many more painful realizations!!!!!

halfmoon wrote:

Jason wrote:
Based on retirement/investing calculators, I need to save $500 per month at 5.4% return to reach 500K in five years. That should not be issue (unless personal catastrophe or serious market downturn) especially with lower spending.

Color me confused (maybe it's the red wine). I thought you wrote earlier that you could almost live on your wife's earnings. Why can you only save $500/month from your additional earnings?

No its not the wine.

The reason I wrote that is my income is not guaranteed and fluctuates greatly, so being a rigorous pessimist I think that I will make zero (even though this year I am at this moment guaranteed close to thirty). I know everyone speaks about the power of optimism but its not my nature no matter how much I try.

If I made what I made last year for three consecutive years, we would be donezo. As in here today, gone to Maui donezo. But its not going to happen because that was like two years in one - it takes time to build up that amount of activity.

Me saying five years is reasonable to most but when I say it, Pollyannish to me.

Fair enough, Pollyanna.

Just don't let that $30k vaporize into peanut butter cups and lattes, because the people here are just like your wife and they will want answers.

No chance. A 30K year annual contribution inputted into my handy/dandy Bloomberg Retirement calculator at a 5.4 return brings me to 645K in five years. That should be enough to eat peanut butter cups and ruminate on the benefits of optimism for the duration.