SWB's path to financial independence

Where are you and where are you going?
SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

SavingWithBabies wrote:
Sun Aug 14, 2022 8:33 pm
- after eating sourdough pizza, I had um... healthy bowel movements
I'd chalk this up more to random food consumption (and/or random fiber intake) than sourdough at this point. I'm sure it doesn't hurt but I was probably a bit overly enthusiastic above.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Progress: 55% ($881,500 / $1,600,000)

Still baking sourdough bread. I've made it through ~60-70 pounds of flour. Maybe a bit more. I typically give some loaves to neighbors and my parents so we're not eating all of it.

On the pizza front, one of our sons really likes Detroit style which is more of a medium pan style with oil in the pan to make the crust crunch and the tomato sauce is applied in stripes instead of an overall layer. There is more to it than that but I tried that (non-sourdough) and it came out great. I want to try it with sourdough sometime but happy to have some variation. Overall goal is being able to make all the favorites when we're on a boat so learning all these things ties in with that overall goal. I think that will be incremental (getting to living on a boat) but I don't really know and I'm not too worried about the details as money-wise we're still a ways out.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

I got the itch to try espresso which I wasn't really 100% sure I actually liked although I know I like milk-based espresso drinks. I tried to find a deal on the machine I wanted however nobody on Facebook marketplace wanted to ship it. I found one that was a fairly good deal but held out. Then I got really lucky and the exact machine I wanted popped up locally for 1/5 of the best price I'd seen so far. I assumed it needed some work or it was really old. However, it was in perfect condition and only a couple years old with light use.

I tried to use the same burr grinder I'd used for regular coffee (Aeropress most of the time) however I could only get really sour shots. I tried a bunch of things but figured it was my grinder. It can in theory grind fine enough but it doesn't have enough fine adjustments for use with espresso. You can kind of work around it by altering the amount of grounds however it's a bit tricky to figure that out was a beginner.

I opted to get a new grinder which cost quite a bit. I looked for a while trying to find a lower cost option but went for the best bang for the buck. And indeed, with the new grinder in place, I started to get more palatable shots. I still suspect my machine can do more than my ability but it's been fun to learn more every day.

I also found a used air-based coffee roaster on Facebook marketplace. I've wanted to try roasting for a long time but kept putting it off. But I decided to go for that too. I ordered up 15 pounds of green coffee beans to roast for espresso (well, 10 pounds are an espresso blend, 5 pounds are a single origin decaf that could be used for espresso or drip/other). I did 5 roasts tonight with each being about 170 grams of green beans in and around 144 grams of roasted coffee out. So about 1.5 pounds of coffee (4 batches of regular, 1 decaf) in about a bit over 1.5 hours (first time setup, had to rig up a ventilation system to vent to the outside). It wasn't as smoky as I expected but it was smoky. For example, we have a smoke alarm in our living room which we have set off when burning something cooking. I meant to disable it before we roasted but forgot and it did not go off. Now the 7-14 day wait for the beans to rest (off gas co2 and/or other things) and then they can be used in the espresso machine.

I'll probably roast some more decaf for non-espresso usage. Also the machine came with some sample roasts and given I bought it used, I'm not sure how old they are. I think it was a Christmas present from this past Christmas and green beans do last a while. But I think I'll try roasting some of those sooner than later just in case they are getting older. Probably for Aeropress/drip use but maybe espresso too depending on how much there is and if the variety seems suitable for it.

Oh, and of course, there is a computing/tech angle to this whole thing. The espresso machine I got is an entry level machine that is really popular and it has a project to make it computer controlled including flow control/pressure. I think all the parts to modify the machine have arrived but I'm going to hold off on a bit and use it as intended for a while longer. I also found some people researching how to hack the coffee roaster to have more control over it so that'll be fun to play with too as twiddling the knobs to program it on the fly, while interesting, does seem like something better automated if you can get your roasts just right and want to try subtle variations.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Oh, and still baking sourdough. I've experimented a bit with the recipe in altering the amount of whole wheat flour used which has been fun. But I mostly make it the same way other than that variation. I came across a "used" (actually new) bread machine locally from a really good Japanese brand and we picked that up and tried making some Japanese milk bread (think light/fluffy/little sweet). That worked great and the bread machine is interesting to use. It was inexpensive enough we could test out the whole idea and pass it on if we end up not using it. But some people use bread machines on boats to do all the kneading/proofing steps. It seems to work okay for that. Although I think sourdough is easy enough that I prefer my methods and the custom program mode of the bread machine is too rudimentary to really do sourdough. I do use the Kitchen Aid stand mixer we got as a wedding present but more because we have it and it does make it slightly faster now that I know what to watch for. But the KA mixer is actually really mediocre for bread (well ours is, a non-pro regular one with a dough hook that doesn't work very well and it can't handle the better dough hook) and there is no way I'd lug that onto a boat at this point. I was curious about it for pasta and we have tried that but we got a sheeting system. Then I saw the extruder-type machines and realized those are probably the way to go if you want noodles. I actually got the pasta attachment to make flat dough for dumplings but I concluded it's much easier to roll out small balls of dough than to cut them out of the sheet. I think rolling is the way to go with small wooden rolling pins that taper to each end. I do want to try a tortilla press at some point to see if that is the winner but I'm happy with the rolling technique.

Learning to bake bread has been neat though as now baker's percentages make sense to me and you start to realize that a lot of things are just minor variations on technique/methods. So you can make some pizza dough and use some of that to make hotdog buns (still on my list to try). I'm adapting some sourdough to try as Detroit-style pizza crust. It's just fun to experiment with this stuff. And sourdough exposes you to just how sticky dough can get yet still be workable (with the right methods and tools) which opens up your range. It also seems hard to really mess up baked goods (except of course burning things and/or using wrong ingredients by mistake).

Laura Ingalls
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by Laura Ingalls »

Enjoying your homesteading/home keeping adventures. I am definitely a co-conspirator on the bread and pizza crust. I am mostly a no knead gal. Except that I dumpster dived 7-8 loaves of quality bread a couple weeks ago.

We tried the coffee roast several years ago with the old air popper. Nothing we ever roasted ended up in the Goldilocks zone. Always either under or over roasted. Pretty sure DH is a Trade Coffee customer for life.

Your goal is ballpark lines up with our reality pretty well. We both make a dribbling of earned income but mostly living off passive means and income management for FAFSA purposes.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

@LI I think making bread (and pizza and related) has to be one of the most satisfying things I learned this past year. I really enjoy the process particularly the baking part and seeing the reveal on the sourdough! I'm happy with my pizza but I've concluded I need a pizza oven. I have my fingers crossed that a lot of "gifted for the holidays" used ones will show up on the various resale sites. I also discovered a local grocery carries "00" flour and I'm looking forward to trying that soon.

I'm hoping the coffee roasting works out. I'm fairly flexible on roasts and willing to drink my failures and I'm the only coffee consumer in my household so I think it'll work out okay although I do enjoy a good drink and do want to make roasts that work for me. I think I'm starting to crack the code but we'll see.

It's interesting our goals roughly align. I am still slightly unsure about my goal due to the wildcard of boating and the potential high costs that come with it. I honestly hope I can overshoot a bit just to soften the inevitable unexpected expenses that come with that lifestyle. But I also don't want to wait too long as I want to do it before out kids are too old. My fingers are crossed for it to all work out.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Progress: 63% ($1,010,000 / $1,600,000)

Finally got my front tooth extracted after waiting ~9 months for my appointment to come around. Getting that done was just one step of the whole process of getting an implant. I expected much more pain but thankfully it went well.

Dave
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by Dave »

It's fun to read along with your baking/pizza experiments...but it's making me super hungry :D!

Glad the tooth extraction went well, dental work is never fun. Nice to have it done and settled.

Laura Ingalls
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by Laura Ingalls »

I also have a tooth that needs an implant 🙁

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

@LI Ouch! I tried to write a long reply without being a downer but it's kind of hard to be positive about it. That said, the surgery went fair better than I expected in that I have had very little pain in recovery (I've only taken ibuprofen -- they did prescribe heavier duty stuff and I filled that prescription just in case but I've been fine without it).

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

@Dave I do eat more bread now that I bake it. It's hard to resist fresh bread. I don't think I've actually gained weight though as I think the other things I was eating instead were as calorie dense. Although I do have to be careful. I'm really happy I tried baking bread. I already said it above but it was definitely one of the highlights of last year just because it's satisfying to pull out that freshly baked bread you made yourself and it's a nice distraction from the rest of the world.

I'm thinking roasting coffee will be the highlight of this year however I'm still in the way early stages of figuring things out. Because of the variation in green coffee beans (moisture, density) and roasting equipment, there isn't really an nearly exact recipe like with bread. It's starting to click but it seems a bit more complicated as more variables change. I've tried to buy green coffee beans in bulk though so I can at least be using the same beans while altering the roasting technique (temperature altered in my roaster by controlling both the fan speed and heating coils). The good part is I think espresso is both more forgiving (when using the espresso as part of a milk drink) and more demanding (when drinking the espresso direct or diluted with water in an Americano). So while my roasts have definitely not been great, everything has been consumable.

ertyu
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by ertyu »

Lighter roasts result in a more caffeinated beverage, a win-win ;)

Dave
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by Dave »

@SWB

Ain't that the truth - it doesn't get much better than fresh bread! I had a phase ~5 years back where I was baking simple breads (and pizza), and now you've got me thinking of getting back into that. Maybe I'll split the diference and make a cast iron skillet pan pizza recipe I've had my list for a while (link: https://youtu.be/T57vFsL8eAU). I know what you mean though, it's an oddly satisfying activity to turn some basic staples into a gorgeous and wonderful-smelling loaf.

Nice work on the coffee! And +1 to @ertyu's point :D.

SavingWithBabies
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A rough plan is sketched out

Post by SavingWithBabies »

My goal is to get us to living on a boat within ~3 years. I was putting off taking concrete steps for a number of reasons. The main one was getting the money all figured out. But time marches on and if we're going to make a go of it, we need to get to that boat and get our feet wet and start figuring it out as our kids are getting older. I think there will be time to work to continue adding to savings while we figure out these things and maybe I'll be working for a couple more years on the boat. I'm okay with that. I'm also okay with, if push comes to shove, taking off without being "fully 4% invested" and figuring it out as we go along. It's not ideal but I'd rather have the experience with my family than never having to worry about working again in the future.

If things go well with the boat and we do want to "sail off into the sunset" as in potentially circumnavigate or at least go in that direction, I'd like to have the money figured out by then as I think it would be a whole lot more enjoyable not having it hanging over my head. But there is a lot to learn/do/see before we get anywhere close to doing that which means there should be time to keep on working too.

I wrote a longer entry on more about this but I think this is all I want to share for now. It's good to make a decision. I've been on the fence for a while timing-wise but plans must be made.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

The only problem I have with lighter roasts is I'm trying to figure out espresso and grinding for espresso too. I think my preference roast-wise is around medium for filter/aeropress and maybe a bit darker (but not too dark) for espresso. Right now, I'm roasting for espresso so I'm usually going around 30 seconds into second crack but I definitely don't have things dialed in yet.

The nice part about roasting is being able to play around with roast level quite a bit more but I'm holding off on that until I'm proficient at the basics. But while I'm learning, I'm getting a variety of roast levels anyway so... I was pleasantly surprised when I tried making an aeropress out of some of my roast for espresso. It was really good.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Coffee

Still roasting coffee. Meant to do it sooner as almost ran out. Tweaked my roaster to add some more monitoring on the temperatures (main one being bean temperature) which seemed to work fairly well. Then roasted two pounds this evening -- well, bit more than two pounds so I ended up with two pounds after the weight loss from the moisture loss. I went pretty dark on both as I was experimenting with shorter (getting hotter faster) roasts. The Brazilian coffee I bought apparently does better with a shorter roast. My first attempt at roasting it looked beautiful but didn't have much taste/body/acid. It's a good bean so I think it's all my fault on the roasting. The roasts today look darker than the prior attempts but it'll be interesting to see if they actually are or if it's just the surface (need to compare the ground coffee). The espresso blend came out much more even in bean color compared to prior attempts.

Bread

Also still making sourdough bread. I tried adding rye flour to the mix today and I'm looking forward to see how it tastes tomorrow. My normal wheat mix right now is about 900g white bread flour and 200g whole wheat. Today, I did 750g white, 200g rye and 150g whole wheat. Those combinations include the 100g of white bread flour in the starter (technically, more like 120-135g). This is basically the New York Times sourdough bread recipe with minor tweaks to the different types of flours (they go 300g whole wheat, rest white bread flour). The interesting thing was the dough today was a bit easier to deal with than my normal ratio. The rye made it gel a bit more. Still sticky. But once you get used to high hydration flour, it's not too bad but it does get a bit annoying and I liked working with the rye.

Also ground up a bunch more basmati rice in the coffee (burr) grinder. I was cheating for a bit and using some Japanese rice flour but it's kind of pricey and it is super fine. For bread, I actually like it a bit more gritty -- finer than playground sand/table salt but not too fine. Some of this ends up on the top surface of the bread after it's flipped out of the bowl and the dish cloth it's inside of is removed. Then I rub a bit on the bottom too before putting it into the dutch oven to bake. Also handy for pizza crusts on the bottom.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

I think one of my side businesses with someone I met through contract work (a former client) is going bad. I think there are two problems:
  1. I started working for them as a contract programmer. So it's kind of a "shake your head and do it" when you think bad choices are being made. It's generally for the best to do that as sometimes you're wrong or don't have the full context. But often you're right but it's kind of a "grin and bear it" thing -- it's good to give feedback but you don't want to get labelled as difficult to work with. Then I went into business with them and the roles were roughly similar but it wasn't that noticable when the pedal was to the metal and we were working fast. But now that we've had to pivot a bit, I don't think they like me questioning decisions and wanting to be fully involved in the choices (I am an equal partner supposedly at 50%).
  2. They have a drinking problem. Went to rehab. Not sure if it's back again (I don't live near them/see them in person, don't know their spouse, etc).
I'm not sure if they really want to part ways or what. Parting ways is difficult because I've put a huge amount of effort into writing some web software we're using. So it's messy to try to untangle that. It could be a power play on their part too.

It's easy to play the blame game of course but effort-wise, I think we've both been pretty invested until recently. I got a bit burned out trying to juggle two things and was worried I was short changing my bill-paying-fi-saving-income-producing main contract. They also made some major decisions and went through with them without really informing me or keeping me in the loop. Then there was a pivot to try something new and I did drag my heels a little bit.

So we'll see. Could be a constructive discussion. Or could go south. If they are back to drinking, I'm thinking the best thing to do is to push off major decisions and give them some space so hopefully they can figure things out and come back when they are good. I suspect alcoholics are prone to rash decisions with a tendency towards "burn it to the ground". So my thinking is to avoid that. I can't really help them but I do want to minimize the damage.

Of course, it could be they aren't drinking and are just distracted with other work and annoyed with me. We'll see...

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Progress: 66.7% ($1,068,000 / $1,600,000)

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Crisis averted with the business partner. Thankfully, just a bunch of miscommunication and some frustration at one point that was not ideally vented.

On the housing front, I'm going to go to another foreclosure auction assuming the house actually makes it to auction. I went to one in the past but didn't get my funds transferred in time and didn't do a lot of research up front. So it was probably good I didn't get that one (as it's still sitting, more than a year later, in some kind of limbo). This upcoming foreclosure is urban instead of rural so I think there will be more competition and it'll probably go for more than we want to pay but we'll see. Still figuring out the best strategy for these. Seems like:

- do as much research as possible on your own
- try to scope it out from the road -- here I'm concerned if the heat is on or not (frozen water pipes get expensive quick particularly if the building is uninhabited and all the flooring gets wrecked)
- pay title company for a "preliminary title search" (local place charges ~$175 for this, seems like they are only game in town)
- consider hiring a real estate lawyer that has foreclosure experience

Here, the Sheriff's office does the auction so no fee (at least not an auction.com fee). I think we're doing the first two options above. The prior owner (and I assume their estate) have up to six months to redeem it.

The house itself definitely looks like it could use some work but it's in a good location for us, good size, nice sized lot, etc. Most of the houses here either aren't in super great shape or are very highly priced so from that angle, I'd rather get in cheap and spend the money "saved" on fixing up the place how we like it done well instead of slapped together by someone who is just planning on renting it out to college kids. We actually want to keep it very basic and utilitarian in case we do want to rent it out ourselves (still going for the boat life).

SavingWithBabies
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Re: SWB's path to financial independence

Post by SavingWithBabies »

A couple of months ago, my wife decided she wanted an exercise bike. I feel bad I didn't think of suggesting it to her earlier as pre-COVID she was very into spin classes as a workout regime. Since COVID, we've had another baby and pretty much lived in a bubble. So no spin classes. Anyway, long story short, we now have an Echelon. My wife has been using it and is happy particularly once I added clipless pedals. We would have bought used but locally the prices were fairly high and it was actually a better deal to buy a lower model Echelon on sale than to buy used.

I finally got around to trying it myself last night. I actually watched the Youtube videos on sailing instead of a spin class but it was great. I went again today and again the distraction of the sailing video made it enjoyable. This seems to be a good way to get some exercise in that isn't hard on my back, that is easy to do (riding a real bike involves snow/slush/ice/etc this time of year) and I can feel a little less guilty being entertained on Youtube (but in hand, when I am entertaining myself with mild escapism, I can at least get some exercise in).

I hate to admit it but it's been a long time since I exercised regularly. I always tried to make it part of my daily life and it was easy when I commuted to work by bicycle in Chicago (although winters were rough, I did stop at some point for winter). Then in the SF Bay Area, there was a lot of fast paced walking although it wasn't really enough exercise (it was better than none though). But after going to work-from-home, it was harder to fit it in. It definitely requires being more intentional.

I'm going through so stress due to the side business thing so it's been helpful in that regard. I feel good! It's nice to get the body sweating, burn off some stress/calories and then take a shower. It's nice to have that back.

My focus going forward is to do at least 4 sessions of ~30 minutes each per week. I'll probably just do it daily because that is easier although my wife did pick up some weights so I could alternate "cycling" with weight lifting (after doing some research to find back-friendly lifting guides).

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