Lemur Journal!

Where are you and where are you going?
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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

Thanks WhiteBelt ...Upon some reflection

1.) Restaurants - It is certainly the experience of getting 'out of the house' and doing something. Unfortunately when you live in a deep suburb out in the country there isn't much to do. Well...you gotta learn to get creative or take up activity. On a plus side - buying temptations are very minimal here and one has to make a great effort to drive out and get something. Usually the effort is not worth it. My Spouse does not have hobbies...she works from home (self-employed she probably works too much tbh) and facetimes family for 95% of her day. She will occasionally binge a show on Netflix. I usually have something to read, a friend to play tennis with, swim, run, play a new game with my son, etc...restaurants aren't an experience for me but I could see how it could be for my Spouse.

Boredom is a thing which leads to #2.

2.) Both of us work during the day. Become mentally exhausted and don't feel like cooking. My spouse cooks 75% of the time. She is the better cook though I'm not bad myself. Most of the time when we go out to get a snack and split a fast food meal it isn't even because we're even hungry. Just bored and "treating" ourselves from a hard days work. This usually happens on a Thursday/Friday. I can certainly defeat this temptation by having things ready at home. I think in the meantime I hope my Spouse to follow my example but I won't object if she wants to to out for a snack. A big part of it again is just getting out of the house. Even going for a drive here is an experience lol.

Scott 2
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Scott 2 »

Coming from the buy nothing thread:
Lemur wrote:
Sun Aug 29, 2021 8:50 pm
my rule is “you get the cheapest meal on the menu and water only.”
IMO, if you show up, do the thing. This is dragging others into your game.
Lemur wrote:
Sun Aug 29, 2021 8:50 pm
One thing I don’t do is buy the latest video game consoles
Does your library lend video games? Mine has a pretty current selection, as well as a wide variety of electronic devices. They would be a tremendous resource for buy nothing.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

Scott 2 - Yeah that rule is for myself. I clarified that lol. I don't think dragging others ever works...Best is to always lead by example and hope others change. Hard enough as humans to change our own behaviors without deliberate thought & effort. Leading by example is the best way. I do think it is possible though to effect the 'spending overton window' of your household in doing so though given enough time.

I am not sure if my library has games - will have to check. I've never gone into that section but they do lend DVDs. My son mostly plays mobile games like Minecraft or I play my old GameCube with him with the one video game I've. I also have a PS3 collecting dust.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

Doing my monthly update a little early today.

August 30, 2021

Net-worth:
$517k (Up $16k)

Physical Health / Diet: Same - 176 pounds and 23.9 BMI. In great shape. 2x weekly tennis, 2x weekly jogs, swimming every weekend and body weight exercises. An ironman triathlon is still incredibly intriguing to me but I went on a 10 miler the other day (it has been a while since I've gone this distance) and I started to rethink my aspirations here lol. I'm vastly underestimating how tough this is.

Mental Health: Good and determined.

Job: Okay as its ever going to be. I took a week off next week. Woooo! 9 days off in a row....This is the longest break I've had since the start of the year.

Gardening: Harvested final bell peppers and tomatoes. Tomatoes were not edible...what a shame. They were great all year until they suddenly went black and rotted out? Oh well.

Reading / Other: I've been consumed by the concept of a buy nothing year so that is all I've been reading about. YouTube Ted Talks, Blogs, finding relatable journal entries.

Goals: I've concluded that my diet was a success. I dropped 10 pounds, kept it off, and now know when to let go and when to tighten the belt. I decided to settle at 175lbs high range. I eat whatever I want basically but within reason. Stopped tracking calories. I'm also consistently winning tennis matches. When I stopped caring about winning and started focusing on fundamentals is when I started winning...

I'm consumed by the buy-nothing year challenge. Its the competitive nature in me that has be challenged I think to do things. Something I learned from Tennis perhaps...

Mainly because I think it is achievable and I think I need behavioral changes to get to the next levels of ERE. I can read the ERE book multiple times but I'm at a stopping point until I start applying lessons to real life.

For the first month, I am tracking every bill and food expense down to the penny (Aug 29 - Sept 29) because I want to see an exact number annualized and divided by whatever my investments fall on that day to see exactly where the SWR is at.

Been carrying around a 1L water jug with a lemon inside...that has been the replacement for diet sodas & carbonated waters. If I feel a 'sacrifice' what I try to do is immediately find a replacement. Something I read a long time ago said that was a efficient way to get behavioral changes...that article is in my journal somewhere.

Found it:
https://www.samuelthomasdavies.com/how- ... bad-habit/
Last edited by Lemur on Mon Aug 30, 2021 8:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

white belt
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by white belt »

Lemur wrote:
Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:43 pm
Reading / Other: I've been consumed by the concept of a buy nothing year so that is all I've been reading about. YouTube Ted Talks, Blogs, finding relatable journal entries.
Did you read Boyle's Moneyless Man? It's essentially his own journal of his first buy nothing year, highlighting his transition from regular guy to moneyless guy. I know you mentioned you didn't really like Moneyless Manifesto, which I haven't read yet but from the description seems much more preachy and like a how-to book.

Lemur wrote:
Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:43 pm
For the first month, I am tracking every bill and food expense down to the penny (Aug 29 - Sept 29) because I want to see an exact number annualized and divided by whatever my investments fall on that day to see exactly where the SWR is at.
Excellent. Come enter the thunderdome with the rest of us who list expense categories in our journal entries. I've thought about leaving out any data on income and networth from my journal updates so that I can only focus on expenses for all to see. It's too easy with a high income to hide behind "look my savings rate is still 80% so I'm doing really well!" while still spending at a 2-3x JAFI rate.

white belt
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by white belt »

Lemur wrote:
Mon Aug 30, 2021 10:55 am
Thanks WhiteBelt ...Upon some reflection

1.) Restaurants - It is certainly the experience of getting 'out of the house' and doing something. Unfortunately when you live in a deep suburb out in the country there isn't much to do. Well...you gotta learn to get creative or take up activity. On a plus side - buying temptations are very minimal here and one has to make a great effort to drive out and get something. Usually the effort is not worth it. My Spouse does not have hobbies...she works from home (self-employed she probably works too much tbh) and facetimes family for 95% of her day. She will occasionally binge a show on Netflix. I usually have something to read, a friend to play tennis with, swim, run, play a new game with my son, etc...restaurants aren't an experience for me but I could see how it could be for my Spouse.

Boredom is a thing which leads to #2.

2.) Both of us work during the day. Become mentally exhausted and don't feel like cooking. My spouse cooks 75% of the time. She is the better cook though I'm not bad myself. Most of the time when we go out to get a snack and split a fast food meal it isn't even because we're even hungry. Just bored and "treating" ourselves from a hard days work. This usually happens on a Thursday/Friday. I can certainly defeat this temptation by having things ready at home. I think in the meantime I hope my Spouse to follow my example but I won't object if she wants to to out for a snack. A big part of it again is just getting out of the house. Even going for a drive here is an experience lol.
Sure in a suburb you might be limited in your local options. However, maybe there is the possibility of partnering with other friends and doing a rotation of outdoor meals at each other's house? Maybe use those nice under-utilized patios, decks, and backyards that are so popular in the suburbs? Just an idea. Or you could do a themed potluck night. Or a picnic. There's a lot you can do with music, decor, food, games, etc to make the meal into more of an experience just like a restaurant. For example, the other weekend I was at a friend's beach house for the weekend. Instead of going to a restaurant as a group one of the nights, we did a pizzafest since I have 2 friends that make homemade pizza and I recently got into the pizza game. This was preceded by going to the beach for spikeball and body surfing, using a frozen drink maker to make commercial quality alcoholic drinks once we got home, playing spades, and so on. Not much money spent other than on ingredients. Recently I spiced up the back deck in my shared rental house with some cheap rope cantina lights which really adds an intimate al fresco dining vibe at night. If you really want to get hardcore, you can watch a few youtube videos about how to plate a dish like in a restaurant so it has maximum visual appeal.

For #2, that's where having some "emergency" meals prepped and in the fridge/freezer can be useful. Basically you prepare them on the weekend or when you have time/energy. Then when you get to the end of the day and you are tired/stressed, you can just throw them in the [microwave] oven to reheat. Or maybe it's already having the potatoes sliced and seasoned so you just have to drop them into the air fryer for a few minutes when the mood strikes you (again just an example, not sure if you have an air fryer).

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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by jacob »

Creativity eventually emerges from boredom.
Alleviating the boredom with a drive to Applebee's or a random netflix show prevents this creativity.
Frustration and boredom is a common feeling the first 3 months.

As an alternative to "buy nothing", consider "no TV".
(By no TV, I mean "no watching"... so not just watching youtube et al.)

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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Salathor »

Lemur wrote:
Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:43 pm
Been carrying around a 1L water jug with a lemon inside...that has been the replacement for diet sodas & carbonated waters. If I feel a 'sacrifice' what I try to do is immediately find a replacement.
I posted about fun stuff to drink recently too. For me it wasn't diet soda/bubble water, but rather alcohol (not to the level of alcoholism, but our household monthly cost was topping $100 and I didn't like it). So far my favorite is a split--I make a big gallon batch of barley tea that I keep in the fridge for several days, and then each morning I make a quart of Tazo Passion Tea using a single tea bag (at the same time I make my coffee), which also goes in the fridge. Then throughout the day I drink barley tea and I have the passion tea in the evenings when I used to have a beer/bourbon/gin.

This month our alcohol spending was under $50, which is great! It's definitely not as good as bourbon, but it's better than nothing, a lot healthier, and MUCH cheaper. I'm with you in that I need the habit fulfilled rather than the subject of the addiction itself (ie., I crave coming home to have a cool evening drink that is not the same as the water I had throughout the day).

Do you just put a whole lemon (sliced up, I imagine) in a plastic gallon water jug?

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

@White Belt

I've not read the Moneyless Man yet but you just reminded me about the Moneyless Manifesto. I vaguely recall thinking 'this is never going to happen' and just not finishing the book...But I checked my kindle app and looks like I stopped at the chapter on 'Resource-Based Economy' so I only made it 25% of the way through. Perhaps I'll pick up reading it again.

Looking forward to the thunderdome! This is a great idea. What is easy in a buy nothing year at least is you don't have anything to track if you don't spend anything. :lol:

With my Son starting Kindergarten, my Spouse and I are finding a lot more time on our hands during the day. We both work from home...we're not as nearly as exhausted or stressed now. Its been easy to cook for one another. I'm actually finding my job very tolerable right now because I can focus without distraction. Coding requires a lot of that free time and not being bothered or distracted by anyone or anything...

I think a test is coming next week - I have the whole week off.

@Jacob

Speaking of which - my idea behind training for something incredibly difficult (like a Triathlon) was that sort of training would physically exhaust you to the point where one has permission to lay around the rest of the day and not do much...Easy to read a book then. For me at least; I think I am naturally high in 'NEAT' https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... via%3Dihub always moving...stand-up desk, finding excuses for yard work, etc. Jittery...

Boredom - Just like a kid without toys. They will claim boredom and lay around in defeat but eventually they will emerge with a completely made up game with arbitrary rules. No cable in our house - just Netflix that we borrow from a brother of mine. My Spouse likes those medical shows like Chicago Med. For me it is history documentaries...I'm intrigued by the Spanish Civil War lately that preceded World War II.

For better or for worse - my time is booked from 7:30AM to 5:30PM which leaves me 3 and a half hours left to do stuff. No creativity here is needed from M-F...dinner, play with son, read a book, do some exercise is all the time that is left.

@Salathor

Yep - just a sliced up lemon in a 1L water jug. You can also use an old milk jug. I found the lemon can last about 3 days before it starts tasting strange (you'll know it). I have a lemon/orange mix right now. One can also use sage (which tastes really nice / earthy if you let it sit in a fridge overnight) and/or cucumber. There are even some who try with Ginger? Haven't tried that.

I have found this to be a very suitable replacement. Haven't had any cravings. I thought my addiction was the carbonated water (and maybe it was) but seems to be I just always need to be drinking something. Sometimes I would go out after work and get a $1.99 Bubbly plus tax...not counting the drive. What a waste...

Alcohol - Can't speak to that as I don't drink. Some habits are best when you just don't start them I guess. But if you can find a suitable replacement or just go without for a while I have to imagine the need will fade away. I recommend the replacement method - it seems to have some evidence backed.

white belt
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by white belt »

Lemur wrote:
Tue Aug 31, 2021 7:48 pm
@Jacob
Speaking of which - my idea behind training for something incredibly difficult (like a Triathlon) was that sort of training would physically exhaust you to the point where one has permission to lay around the rest of the day and not do much...Easy to read a book then. For me at least; I think I am naturally high in 'NEAT' https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... via%3Dihub always moving...stand-up desk, finding excuses for yard work, etc. Jittery...
Sounds like you are either eating a caloric surplus and/or just too sedentary in general. As the paper points out, your NEAT will tend to increase with a caloric surplus and decrease with a caloric deficit. Some people have genetically higher NEAT levels, but they are usually also the folks that never have any issues with obesity. I do notice a certain restlessness on days when I don't lift weights. Do you track your daily step totals? You may be just walking much less since you're working from home compared to an office.

I got an under the desk walking treadmill for a similar reason when I was work from home for a year. It allowed me to walk while doing mundane work tasks like sending emails and other stuff. Harder thinking tasks generally required me to turn the treadmill off, but I did find sometimes walking will stimulate the mind in interesting ways.* I've been meaning to get rid of mine since I no longer have a use for it but it served me well when I was working from home. Not sure what region of the USA you are in but if you were local I'd probably just give it to you.

* = I've also been known to pace around when thinking hard.

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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by theanimal »

Great job on pursuing the buy nothing year! I'd like to do something similar but construction projects are my mental stumbling block. I think I can get past them without spending, but need to be more creative. Anyways, I look forward to following along.

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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by white belt »

How did the first week of the BNY go?

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

@White Belt

Thanks for checking in.

Actually a lot tougher than I thought it would be. I didn't realize I/we spend so much in social situations (dinner at Grandparents, family gatherings, taking Spouse out, kid) etc... and it really adds up. My bicycle seat also broke yesterday lol.

The good - I cut out a lot of bad habits like my energy drinks and no fast food this month. Water replacement and Coffee has kept me just as happy. I also made some bulk ready meals - and have gotten back into the habit of making lentils/rice ahead of time and eating leftovers. Leftover meal combos is a fun thing to do. Crush garlic, saute, and fry rice + add an egg or 2 + random stuff seems to work well regardless of what is added. I swear some meals even taste better when they sit in the fridge for a day or two. I have a book from the library coming in that I'm excited for. That would complete the series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Labyrinth_of_Spirits

The bad - Some boredom I guess? I went for a lot of random walks / bike rides. This week was the first week I've taken off since the beginning of the year and I took my Wife out to see a movie / lunch which cost. I think that would technically fail a true buy nothing year but a date with my Spouse was far overdue. I need to learn how to be creative in these adventures though going forward. Its a gray area like Scott mentioned - where is the line when bringing someone into one's game? Though it was cool when my Spouse loaded up on chicken that was on sale - she took some initiative and one of our grocery bills was the normal $100 we aim to spend but it looks like our cart was more full than it normally is.

Funny though ...I logged into my brokerage, wrote a far OTM put on margin, and said "well that covers these expenses for the day." My life feels like on easy mode regardless of w/e happens with spending and I'm eternally grateful for this position in life.

Moving forward though - I do like this 'Buy Nothing Year' thought first thing in the morning every morning - it is making me live a bit more deliberate instead of on autopilot. One thing I want to do is create my own detergent .... my Spouse swears the "Tide" brand is better than the "Cheapo" ones that I buy - perhaps I can make one that is better then both...I vaguely recall the ERE book mentioning how to make this. Edit: Here anyway: https://earlyretirementextreme.com/im-m ... rgent.html

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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by white belt »

Lemur wrote:
Tue Sep 07, 2021 3:54 pm
The bad - Some boredom I guess? I went for a lot of random walks / bike rides. This week was the first week I've taken off since the beginning of the year and I took my Wife out to see a movie / lunch which cost. I think that would technically fail a true buy nothing year but a date with my Spouse was far overdue. I need to learn how to be creative in these adventures though going forward. Its a gray area like Scott mentioned - where is the line when bringing someone into one's game? Though it was cool when my Spouse loaded up on chicken that was on sale - she took some initiative and one of our grocery bills was the normal $100 we aim to spend but it looks like our cart was more full than it normally is.

Funny though ...I logged into my brokerage, wrote a far OTM put on margin, and said "well that covers these expenses for the day." My life feels like on easy mode regardless of w/e happens with spending and I'm eternally grateful for this position in life.
I think the spouse date sounds like it was a necessity. Moving forward, I think there are a lot of date options that don't require spending much (or any) money. It sounds like your spouse likes getting out of the house, so here are a few lists of date ideas to just get your brain churning:

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles ... ate-ideas/
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles ... ally-love/

The possibilities are endless and you might find these dates more memorable/enjoyable than just passively consuming a movie at a theater or a restaurant meal. I'm not currently in a relationship, but in previous relationships I've been well known for creative date ideas beyond just watching netflix or going to bars/restaurants. I think there is common relationship advice to at least have a night every week or two that you treat as a "date night" with your partner in order to maintain the excitement even in old relationships. I think one benefit is that it allows you and your partner to see each other in different contexts/situations rather than just the drudgery of day to day domestic life. Cue 7WB5 saying something about lesbian bed death something something.

I can relate a little bit to your second statement about life feeling like it's on easy mode. In my own life, I interpret this as positive thing, but also it's perhaps a sign that I'm a bit complacent and have bandwidth leftover to challenge myself further. Although I'm not trading options (yet), my investment portfolio has performed very well thanks to the larger equity and commodity bull run along with the crypto bubbles. There is a guy in my office who has been trading NFTs and crypto that now makes more a month from that than his job, which has me tempted to get into a little speculation in the NFT market, but it's been too wild west for me up to this point.

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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Rags2Freedom »

Lemur wrote:
Tue Sep 07, 2021 3:54 pm

Funny though ...I logged into my brokerage, wrote a far OTM put on margin, and said "well that covers these expenses for the day." My life feels like on easy mode regardless of w/e happens with spending and I'm eternally grateful for this position in life.
Hi Lemur - following your journal and you're doing an awesome job building wealth !

About 12 months ago my total savings were nearly double yours and now your less than 20% behind me. (mainly because I pulled out of the market during COVID and didnt get back in at the right moment - need a tattoo on my forehead "time in the market , not timing the market !") either way, I can see your far more advanced and active in your investments.

I'm intrigued by your investment style , I know nothing about CALLS / PUTS etc...... where did you learn this from ? I've read the traditional investment books and stick to Index or blue chips but with strategys. I like to learn more of the CALLS/PUTS/OPTIONS to widen my knowledge of investing.

I'm finally biting the bullet and creating a blog myself. Somewhat in a rut and can see how your blog helps focus and motivate you (with the fantastic support and views of others on this forum).

Keep up the good work
Last edited by Rags2Freedom on Wed Sep 08, 2021 9:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

@White Belt

We've been too busy. Even having just one week off and hanging out with my Spouse has been fun. Like we're getting to know each other a little bit more. Reflecting a lot on life together. Didn't realize how robotic we were with our routine until after our son started going to Kindergarten and we suddenly found the place quiet. Just us. It feels like I've time with my best friend again. I scrolled through those articles - will read further but took one idea today and we went to a flea market and a thrift store. I bought nothing but my Spouse bought some things she wanted and browsed quite a bit...homemade Amish jam is pretty awesome.

Yes the get out of the house thing is a bigger deal for my Wife. I get out of the house naturally through exercise / sports. She desires future traveling and wants to see the world...me not so much. Sorta been there done that but I'd be lying if I did not have some aspirations to travel Europe one day - particularly Spain. I find that country's history to be very fascinating...want to see Barcelona & Madrid. And maybe Japan/South Korea once.

My grandparents never traveled extensively outside the United States because my Grandmother is scared of planes but one memory they've together is there cruise to Bermuda and back - they've always reflected that too us as one of their favorite memories together. So taking advice from the older generation - creating these lasting memories with one another is important if you want to reflect on your life one day as a couple. Doesn't have to be travel necessarily but definitely things together. And you're right - a dinner / movie will not accomplish that. Another one is my grandparents neighbor, an old widow who was randomly taken on a drive up to Niagara falls by her Husband. She said that was her favorite memory - it wasn't planned either. He just woke up one day and said lets go. They had no hotel and just slept in a car.

Life is just too easy lately - simultaneously with this week off I've had to learn a little bit about not being in a rush...slowing down. Man I've really come to enjoy it - wish everyday was like this. Went for a 5 mile jog, did a lot of bodyweight exercises, dropped my Son off to school, hung out with my Spouse...and its only 1pm. The challenges I can relate too - without work challenges, what other areas in my life do I want to challenge and become better at. The no buy year is opening this up though - lots of skill building to be done, things to read, places to go...

I recently liked the latest Stoa presentation. Particularly the point on getting 300 hours in various skills. I can see great utility in that not only from a resilience standpoint but also just giving yourself some challenges. That would certainly occupy one's time.

@Rags2Freedom

Relevant post:
viewtopic.php?p=243478#p243478

And yes - with options even if the market did not grow you could still make the return required to maintain financial independence. That is why I am a big proponent of options.

For example: Stock ABC is trading at $50. 3 months later, ABC is still $50. But if you regularly sold out of the money put options and collected premium, you would have made money despite the market not moving. It is simple really - with these options you can make money if the market barely moves up, trades sideways, or even decreases a little. And if you have margin - you don't even need capital to do it...just need to fulfill a margin requirement.

I do a combination of both passive index investing, long stocks, and options trading. 99% of the time I am the options seller and I rarely go long...in fact my first options trades were long calls and I lost big time. I considered that the cost of my education and never made those mistakes again.

My most simple strategy is this (and perhaps re-read this paragraph after you get through some options learning resources; it will make much more sense):

Sell/write out of the money (OTM) put options (Sell to open otherwise STO) at 30 to 45 days to expiration (DTE), collect premium, and set a buy to close (BTC) order at 50% profit. When choosing option strike price - maybe 0.25 to 0.30 delta is a good starting point. Honestly, what I do is look at the options chart furthest out of the money and move my way up the strike prices until I see somewhat decent liquidity (you can see this by looking at the bid/ask spread) and from the open interest. Why out of the money? Downside Protection. If the underlying falls, the price of the option increases but so does delta. The options price as long as it stays out of the money has no intrinsic value and this is what you want when trying to close out a short put. Why 30-45 days? Reduced gamma risk + max theta returns. Theta here especially works in your favor because there is exponential decay in this time frame. And setting the buy to close allows you to take money off the table when you're already up without having to monitor the position. If the underlying increases, this order will close soon. If the underlying doesn't move much, the order will close eventually before expiration. If the underlying stock price falls close to the strike price and becomes at the money (ATM) then you're in a loss situation on the option but not quite a loss yet - one could always buy back the option, maintain the strike price (delta), and sell at the next month expiration. At this time there is some finger crossing (that is your risk) but usually when a stock drops 10-15% or so within a month, there is usually support that builds in the short-term and the buying starts again...especially if the underlying fell with the rest of the market (systematic). More risk if it dropped due to a fundamental reason. In these cases, you should just eat the L here - all that matters is your win rate in the long run. Don't get attached to your positions emotionally.

When I look at my list of options trades I see W, W, W, W, W, W, L, W, W, W, W, L ...etc...and as long as I am in the green I am making money that I otherwise would not have in the end. I do not test the full margin ability of my account (no need to overleverage when you're as close to FI as I am)-

Rags2Freedom
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Rags2Freedom »

Amazing response , thanks Lemur.

I'm long on everything at the moment, OPTIONS interest me as a shorter term strategy for smaller sums.

I like you am close to FI , so risk averse at this stage (well apart from one stock has 38% of my portfolio in it ! hope i'm right).

Keep up the good work.

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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by mountainFrugal »

With respect to date nights and using your new found time together to strengthen your relationship: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven ... riage_Work - You can likely get this from your library. If you cannot get it, DM me and I will find a used copy and mail you one in support of your buy nothing year. This is the most evidenced based relationship book. My partner and I have cycled through it and are revisiting it this fall. The exercises are fun and we have a monthly "date night" just to work through this book together. You do not need to have problems in your relationship to benefit from the exercises. In fact, working through them before having problems sets you up for strengthening communication frameworks from small daily things to larger life aspirations. Highly recommended.

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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by white belt »

Lemur wrote:
Wed Sep 08, 2021 12:49 pm
When I look at my list of options trades I see W, W, W, W, W, W, L, W, W, W, W, L ...etc...and as long as I am in the green I am making money that I otherwise would not have in the end. I do not test the full margin ability of my account (no need to overleverage when you're as close to FI as I am)-
Are you doing your options strategy in taxable accounts or tax-advantaged accounts?

I’m dipping my toes into some of the options learning resources you’ve posted before. After I work through the curriculum I might experiment with combining covered calls/similar strategy with the commodity trend following portion of my portfolio to generate extra income. Right now I’m just long commodity producers and ETFs as ~18% of my somewhat Dragon Portfolio, so there is the possibility of using rolling options to generate income on that. I think CTF provides enough Alpha (provided I don’t lose too much on fake out signals) and I like the exposure in my portfolio already as an anti-correlation with the S&P500. Right now I just have an alert set to change my short/long CTF allocation based on when 40 day crosses 50 day moving average for DJP.

The 201 level on this might be to use some options strategies to additionally simulate long vol, again because it has strong anti-correlation with the stock market. The more I read the more I’m starting to realize that options on the VIX might not be the ideal long vol strategy to protect against tail risks.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

@White Belt

I options trade in taxable accounts because I'm trading on margin.

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