early retirement Archives - Page 5 of 7

“Our Next Life” Series – The SSC’s

We’re continuing the “Our Next Life Challenge” put out there by one of our favorite bloggers, our next life. The following is my take on it, and even a picture of me!

As you may have been following, we recently went through a drawn-out lay-off situation with Mrs. SSC. It was a blessing in disguise really, because while she didn’t get laid off, it really forced us to examine what would happen if she were let go. The short answer, is that our quality of life would most likely improve and we would end up a little better because of it. Schedules would get less hectic, we could focus more on family time, have more freedom, and less stress to get to better enjoy our downtime.

In short, that’s what we are looking for with “our next life”, is a more relaxed, less hurried pace of life that will allow us more time to spend with the kids and ourselves.

We’ve come to the realization that we aren’t seeking the typical Financial Independence Early Retirement (FIRE) situation, but rather a Fully Funded Lifestyle Change (FFLC). We feel it’s a distinction for us because Mrs. SSC really wants to teach, and while I would be happy not to work, if I came across a small Oil & Gas company, I’d definitely hit them up for some consulting and part time work. So, while we’re aiming for the FI part, we don’t really see it as early retirement, because we plan to be fairly busy with other projects, we just won’t have to depend on any income they may/may not provide. We see it as having the opportunity to pursue what we are passionate about – regardless of the paycheck, and to always have the freedom to put our family first.

Location:

Currently, we live in the great metropolis of Houston. While we love our neighborhood and immediate area, we would not want to retire here because we need four seasons, mountains to hike, and a smaller town that has a community feel to it. We’re currently looking at the Roanoke, VA area because it has a lot of amenities and a lot of small communities around it, while being nestled into the Appalachian Mountains. We haven’t ruled out North Carolina, or Eastern Tennessee, however the greater Roanoke area is close to some good colleges and universities that could fit Mrs. SSC’s teaching goal quite well. But, that could all change if she gets an offer to teach somewhere else that we hadn’t thought of yet.

Timing:

We’re looking at no earlier than Mid-year 2017. Unless we win the lottery, but I doubt the occasional $1-$2 ticket is going to make that happen, and yes, we will occasionally buy a lottery ticket. GASP!! Since we’re not counting on winning that, our financial models have us looking at 2017 for a few reasons. Mainly, I get fully vested with my company “retirement” plan then. It’s their version of a pension, so I’m not going to leave that on the table. I also have a golden handcuff bonus that hits mid-summer 2017, so I’m not leaving that either. Most likely it will be 2018, but if Mrs. SSC gets a good teaching job before then, and we can live off of that income, let our investments grow more, then we may pull the trigger on our Lifestyle Change in 2017.

What will we do:

We have no worries that our time will get filled up with activities. Beyond getting to have more home cooked from scratch style meals, just having free time to hang out with the kids will be awesome.

Mr. SSC: I like to play the banjo and guitar, and will spend a lot more time playing music. I also want to finally spend more time learning the dobro. Gardening is another way I plan to spend my time. Exercise. Something else I have to force into my schedule now to keep off the “office lbs” but can do for fun when I have free time. Blogging. Yep, I’ll spend some more time keeping posts coming out and updating you guys with how we’re doing. Volunteer/Part time work. I don’t know which of these will happen, but between the kids sports/activities, our local community or possibly church, I plan on doing some work with a few of these to keep socially active. Fishing, how could I have forgotten fishing? I like kayaking and fishing and plan to spend a lot of the time on the water doing one or both. Woodworking. I want to build a wood strip canoe, and maybe a wood strip kayak as well, along with other projects as they come along.

Mrs. SSC: Teaching. She will most likely have a teaching gig of some sort to keep her occupied. Photography is another hobby of hers that she doesn’t get to spend as much time with as she would like. Painting is something she enjoys but hasn’t had the time to enjoy recently. Reading. She longs for the days she can be “that girl” sitting somewhere for a few hours with a book/kindle in hand without a care in the world.

Travel:

We plan to travel during the summers or the kid’s school breaks. We want to take at least a month and road trip each summer across the US or maybe even Canada. We’ll just knock around camping and seeing the country. We also want to see a baseball game at every major park, and we can start knocking some more of those off of our list again. International travel is something we want to do, spending a few weeks or so in another country with the kids. I think it would be great cultural experience for everyone and a fun way to spend part of the summers. We’d like to live abroad at some point, but it will have to wait until Mrs. SSC’s parents are gone and the kids are out of the house. Camping and hiking whenever we have free time. With the Appalachians at our door, we are positioned well to be in the woods a lot.

I’m sure we will probably end up with a schedule where we will mix up time for kids, music, gardening, blogging, napping, exercise, and more once we get our rhythm established and get the pace of our lives turned down from 11 to a more respectable 3-4 level.

That’s what we see as “our next life”, at least as it is looking this month. It changes, but the overall goal is the same – more freedom, less stress, and enjoying life.

Layoffs – 3 weeks and counting…

Storm on the horizon... — Storm on the horizon…

Well, we’re drawing closer to the date, and the outlook is getting grim. We will find out what the verdict is by Oct 5^th, but morale has dropped significantly around Mrs. SSC’s office, and our house. Initially, the spin from management had been that there would be available jobs to apply for in Business Units, and therefore some hope was instilled in the troops. When job postings came out last week, and everyone began combing them for positions that they could apply for, it became very evident that the amount of actual jobs posted, versus the amount everyone was led to believe would be available was dramatically different. There were about 8 Houston jobs available, and 12 or so overseas jobs, if you want to move to the armpit of “enter country name here”. For those jobs, the compound life, horrid commute (an hour plus each way, but at least you’d have a driver) and longer work schedule make Houston seem like Shangri La! Also, most of those positions are already spoken for and aren’t an option for our family for many reasons.

On the positive side – yes there are lots of positives, we are in a better position than most of our friends who are in the same situation, and may or may not have a spouse with a second income. We’re also not leveraged heavily in our house, cars, credit cards, or lifestyle, so we can continue on and figure out what the heck to do from here, fairly unscathed. I can switch my work schedule to a 6:30 am – 4 pm sort of schedule and get home in time to have dinner with the kids. Plus, I get to see them for an extra hour each day. That also means I will probably have an easier commute in the morning, and well, my afternoon commute will probably stay the same, as a LOT of people leave the office around 3:30pm and later in our fair metropolis. I’ve actually found that my commute is lighter and quicker leaving at 5:30 pm on the rare days that has happened.

The biggest toll here is more emotional than anything. Mrs. SSC has been having a hard time getting okay with the fact she will most likely be let go. She understands it’s not her or her performance as a worker, it’s just a wrong place, wrong time scenario. She’s the newest and least senior person on her team, and when compared to her peer groups in the same job, they have more seniority in that position. Coming to accept that has been trying. Also, losing the sense of worth that is innately tied into working. She has been struggling with the fact she will feel like she’s not contributing if she gets laid off. We talk about these things and I tell her that I’m perfectly fine with her getting laid off. I understand the emotional toll, but she’ll be contributing in way more ways than a paycheck. Plus, it’s not as if this job is really making her feel happy, or giving her any satisfaction right now anyway. It’s like a catch 22 – losing the paycheck will hurt a little, but keeping the paycheck for a job that’s not very satisfying is almost like a lose too, especially when we discuss the positives for our family life that will change.

How will this all relate to our Fully Funded Lifestyle Change date? Well, we’re not too sure at the moment. We had recently changed it dramatically, even if it meant it was a Mostly Funded Lifestyle Change, but there’s no point in putting all that out there until after Oct.’s layoff deadline. So stay tuned for that, haha! We did decide that this life event has us re-evaluating what is important to us and what our priorities are. We’ve realized that we’re not driven by material items, but rather how we can spend more quality time with the kids and ourselves as a family. Not that we haven’t realized that before, but it sure has driven that point home. The sooner we can make our Lifestyle change, the better.

Until then, everyone have a Happy Monday and a good week ahead!

Stock Market Haiku

The storm is here!! — Is the storm here?!

Over the last few days, we’ve all seen the stock market crash. Following that, there have been a plethora of articles that have come out regarding what to do, what to buy, how to adjust, etc… This is not one of those articles. Inspired by all those articles, the talking heads on tv, and boredom at the office, Mrs. SSC and I have been having an impromptu haiku contest related to the stock market performance. 🙂

Here are some of our back and forth haiku below:

Be a young willow
Bend in the downturn breezes
Stay strong, be patient

No selling when low
Stay the course for tomorrow
Until then, just be

Goodbye ER plans
Stocks, why did you fail me so
I sit at my desk

The sky is falling
Hope is lost! Dreams crashed! Sell! Sell!
We are doomed! Doomed! DOOOOOMED!

We now return you to your original programming, please enjoy the rest of your day.

If you would like to add a haiku of your own in the comments, please do! I’d love to hear some other peoples haiku, just remember 5-7-5 for structure. 🙂

By Mr SSC
Posted on August 26, 2015August 26, 2015
9 Comments on Stock Market Haiku

It’s our 1 year anniversary!

I can’t believe it but it was a year ago that we decided to start this blog. It was a Friday off, and we were enjoying some coffee, on our sort of a “date morning” where we get 30-40 minutes to just catch up and talk about whatever and not be dealing with two demanding little humans. I love ’em, but man!. That week, our conversation was all about our FIRE plans. We’d been discussing it for real, because my brain finally accepted that, “Yes, yes we CAN do this and it’s not a pipe dream!” I was mainly quizzing Mrs. SSC about the intricacies, when she mentioned other blogs she had found that had kids and were in our situation, like Mixing Maroons and Big Guy Money.

I’d recently begun to dig around ol’ Mister Money Moustache and find that not everyone on there was an uber ER extremist, and that was heartening. This was when he was still cranking out posts regularly with his “clown car” and “sheeple” bravado if you can call it that, but all of his posts were great food for thought. They reaffirmed that I don’t need things to be happy, and trying to acquire things to achieve happiness is not a sustainable or healthy lifestyle. It had been a turning point a year or so earlier when I’d broken myself of my, “oh shiny! buy-now, oh shinier, buy now, oh! more shiny! Buy, buy, buy!” sort of lifestyle.

Exploring different blogs, I realized that “hey, everyone has their own thing going on, and our plan is going to be our plan.” Like everyone out there, they all have their strategy to get to FIRE and we have ours. I also realized there shouldn’t be a hangup with our plan being different from everyone elses, because, well it should be different, it’s ours. Reminded me of Full Metal Jacket a little, “This is our FIRE plan! There are many like it, but this one is ours!” Hahaha….

I remember the newby-ness of WordPress, and it seemed so foreign. Yet, I still get SO frustrated when I add a picture that has been turned the right way up, and I’ve snagged it the right way up and re-saved it the right way up, only to have WP turn it sideways when it gets emailed out, GAH!!!!! WTF WordPress?! Anyone else get that? Like this pic (although it will probably look right today).

Yep, that's my favorite mug to drink coffee from. — Yep, that’s my favorite mug to drink coffee from.

How do you fix it? GAH!!!!! But I digress…

It’s been 52 weeks and there have been 69 posts, and 682 comments! I can’t believe there are 69 posts, I mean a year ago I would have thought, what kind of ~~crap~~ ~~serious~~ financial ~~gobbeledy-gook~~ insights do I have? I don’t pay attention to that stuff, I rarely even know the price of oil within $20 and that’s my OWN industry, what views will I have to put out there? All the wrong kind, let me tell you. I know how to burn through money, make bad decisions, and live it up, above my means with the best of ’em!

So at least in the beginning, that was my voice and how I wrote. I find I still gravitate towards that sometimes, but I find it easier now to understand where those bad habits came from, why I felt that they were justified, and what it took me to break them. If I figure out how to put that all out there coherently in under 10,000 words, you’ll hear about it. It’s a twisted story my friends, but maybe one day… Besides, I’m sure more than a few of you have probably had your own version of the same experiences. Maybe we could start a “Before FI” series – Oooohhhh….

Now, I just like to write about what’s on my mind, and how our ~~FIRE~~ FFLC affects everything and a lot of our seemingly little decisions can affect that date. It’s also made me realize that while financial security and a constant paycheck is great, it ain’t everything. I’d rather take a chance and walk away from my industry and career while I’m just getting to that “show me the money” stage to have more time to get to make memories with my wife and kids. Having those little guys around has made the ER goal even more concreted into my brain because I’d love to have more time with them.

I got to spend the last weekend with my 2 yr old daughter, it was just us, and except for Friday, we didn’t even leave the house. We gave each other multiple “haircuts”, threw balls across the house, and each time she’d say “one more time throw ball!” and about 15 times later she went to go do something else. We played dress up with her baby dolls, and had lots of tea parties. Heck, we didn’t even get out of our pajamas all of Saturday and Sunday. We had a blast just getting to hang out and be, and cook, and play chase, and do what we wanted. When I dropped her off Monday morning at daycare, she was crying and sobbing, and I felt like it too, because I’d much rather have another day getting to hang with her than go to work.

A lot can change in a year, and I can’t even begin to guess what a year from now will look like in our household, much less many of yours. Steve at Think Save Retire is planning on being done in 2016, and looking at Even Steven Money’s Financial Independence Day list, a LOT of you guys, that I follow anyway, are looking at 2017! It should make for some interesting reading, while I’m in my office… Hahaha!

Until then, I’ll keep cranking out some posts and thoughts and do my best to keep it entertaining. I can’t say there won’t be more song and music analogies in there, because I do love music and find lots of ways to relate lyrics into real life, if you hadn’t noticed. 🙂 Thanks for a great year, and thank youall for putting out the great content you do that keeps me coming back for more. You all have been super supportive, helpful, and dang interesting to follow and get to know!

By Mr SSC
Posted on August 25, 2015August 25, 2015
26 Comments on It’s our 1 year anniversary!

The “About Series” rolls on!

Welcome to today’s post where I’m continuing the “About Series” put out there by Steve at Think Save Retire. It’s essentially a challenge to other bloggers to write more about themselves, their blog, and what not so we can get more of a sense of who they are by giving more details than what is on their “about” page. I took our next life’s formatting and some questions from their “About” post because I liked how it was structured, so thanks guys! Without further ado, here is About: Slowly Sipping Coffee.

Why did we start this blog

To be honest, we started it mainly to document what we were going to be doing. It was meant as a way to keep us focused on FIRE, now FFLC, and maybe connect with other people out there doing the same thing. We didn’t come across too many people trying to achieve FIRE with kids when we had been perusing the blogosphere, so we thought we would blog about our journey. It was also initially intended to be a side income deal once we kick-off our FFLC, but now I don’t know that we will go that route. Who knows what the future may hold though, maybe there will be some ads in the future, and we’ll try to harvest those pennies, but until then, Meh….

What’s the point of SSC

Slowly Sipping Coffee is really our way to keep focused on our goals. I hadn’t been on board with this whole FIRE idea, because the few blogs that Mrs. SSC had sent me to were filled with uber extreme minimalists and ER folks. Everyone has their own idea of what is minimal and what is extravagant, and I didn’t see us being able to do this to our comfort level. When I did get on board with it, this blog seemed to be a good way to stay true to that, and put another FIRE perspective out there.

Won't you join us in our journey? It's less weird than this graffiti I promise! — Won’t you join us in our journey? It’s less weird than this graffiti I promise!

What do we get out of it

I get an outlet to write, and you guys get subjected to my drivel each week, HA! Seriously, though I get a lot out of it. Beyond getting to tap into my creative side by coming up with post ideas, I like getting to think about things, post work life, family life, and everything in between. It helps me to think about how this is all interconnected and how one little thing affects everything else. I mean, I went from reading exactly zero blogs on personal finance, retirement, investing, and all that to being able to hold my own with a financial planner one-on-one in his office (that’s a whole separate post – maybe even two). I now read numerous blogs each week and like catching up with you guys out there in blog-ville. Seeing other people move their dates up, back, sideways, and reading about all the other motivations you guys have for wanting to FIRE has been great. Thanks to everyone out there that puts out good posts, and remind me each week that we’re actually doing this!

What’s the name all about

The name came up almost as organically as the blog idea did. We were literally sitting there sipping coffee on one of our Friday mornings off, when I said, “We should start a blog!” Once we decided we’d become bloggers, we had to pick a name. We had some interesting choices, most of which I forget now, so see, we chose wisely. Ultimately, we settled on the name Slowly Sipping Coffee, because except for our every other Friday’s off, we don’t get the luxury to sit and slowly sip anything.* With two toddlers running around, the weekends start at ~5-5:30 am and we can’t sit down and relax again until around 7-8 pm when they’re in bed, and actually staying there… We imagined our FIRE life being more of a, “get up, get the kids off to the bus stop, wave goodbye, and then head inside to get some coffee and go sit on the back deck or front porch and enjoy the view before we start our day.” Since we want the freedom and time to get to slowly sip anything, we thought it went hand in hand with what this blog is about. Plus, I’m a BIG coffee drinker, and that’s why it isn’t slowly sipping milkshakes, slowly sipping tea, or slowly sipping bourbon, which is really the only way it should be enjoyed.

What’s in our blog header

Our blog header is a picture the Mrs. took on a family trip out to Tahoe. It’s some beautiful country, and since we want to retire to mountains, we thought it was fitting. At the time, we were still scouring the Rockies for places, so it fit well with that. We may have to update it to some more Appalachian style views when we go visit out there. Until then, here’s one from a past trip.

We are hoping we will have a view like this from our porch!

Who writes our blog

It started off as a joint venture, but I do 98% of the writing now (that’s Mr. SSC). I like writing and except that I can tend to be really long winded even while typing, it comes easier for me than Mrs. SSC. She does make a good editor though, especially in the earlier days when I was still trying to find my voice and tended to blather on and on, and go on “shiny” mid-post tangents that make no sense but seemed to be important at the time, like this sentence. 🙂

Where do we think the blog is headed

I’m not too sure where the blog is headed, but we just hit our 1 year anniversary, so that’s pretty awesome! I like to think that it will be around when things get more interesting and we can be like Living AFI and post our actual FFLC experiences instead of our “working to get to FFLC” experiences.

Random fun facts about us we’ve never shared before

I am a big “Dead” head – enough so that I “burned out” Mrs. SSC on their music, she alleges. At least solo commuting I can crank it up on the way to and from work. That or bluegrass depending on the mood. But really, I like both kinds of music, Country and Western. 😉

The Mrs. and I met as interns in New Orleans – yep, it’s an oil patch love story.

If money wasn’t an issue I’d be teaching and I wouldn’t be looking for oil. It was fun having an intern this year that knew nothing about petroleum geology or the industry and getting to teach her all of that stuff and see the “light bulb moment” when she got a new concept.

Pre FIRE Mr. SSC was horrible with money. Beyond my credit card and student loan boondoggles, I would buy musical instruments I didn’t know how to play thinking it would be a good idea to learn a new instrument. Ultimately, they would sit there and I would end up not playing them. I still occasionally find myself online thinking, “I’ve always wanted to play the cello….”

* – We work a 9-80 schedule where we work 9 hr days 4 days a week, and every other Friday is an 8 hr day. This leads to having every other Friday off, which is pretty dang awesome!

By Mr SSC
Posted on August 24, 2015August 23, 2015
10 Comments on The “About Series” rolls on!

Layoffs are looming: Part 2!

With the upcoming layoff cycle, we’ve been looking at how we’d be affected if it happens to us. Chances are possible of Mrs. SSC getting cut, mostly due to the heavy, ~30%, cuts they’re making in her department as well as up to 20% business unit cuts. If you read the last post on this you might think, wait, wasn’t it only 12% cuts reported? Yes, yes it was, however, the biggest hit is geoscientists, so while overall it averages out to 12% company wide, the geoscientist group is getting hacked at 20-30% across the board. Yeeowch!

This affects us way more than I first thought. I figured, eh… we should be okay, just a little tight on savings, but then it sparked conversations on life, what we really want, if this career path is even fulfilling enough to go back, and if not, then what? I mean, this could drag out into at least 3 posts, haha! Don’t worry, I won’t belabor you with that, unless it’s still on my mind in a week and I haven’t found something shinier to focus on. I’m sure I could think of another music analogy post… Seriously though, beyond the financial part of all this is the innate thing we’re all searching for, and that is “what do I want to do, that I can get satisfaction from and get paid for?” Currently, that’s not Mrs. SSC’s job.

The other bigger conversation that has been brought up is, what to do next? I mean, Mrs. SSC hasn’t been happy at her company for almost 5 years now. Anyone else see how this timing ties into when Mrs SSC began plotting for FI? Haha! Coincidence? Heck, no!

For most of life we get driven to go certain ways in life or down prescribed career paths by our parents. For Mrs. SSC it’s even more extreme since she is very self-driven. She’s been driven to work hard, get a degree, work harder, save well, and all the other things will sort themselves out with life. At that point you’re already successful, so good job! For me, well I was driven to umm… well… I mean come o,n I was aspiring to be a long haul trucker for the glamour of it. Not exactly the same upbringing, and so let’s just say I took the long loopy path to where I am, and in the midst of all of that, I got to find myself. Mrs. SSC hasn’t had that experience yet and so she’s kind of wanting some time for that self-discovery that she missed when she was younger.

Personally, I think she’d be just as happy working in a bakery decorating cakes, and doing something she can see real results on. I loved working construction and getting to see an empty field become a hospital, or an empty plot of land turn into a house, it’s amazing when you see what you work on turn into something, anything, and not just be a nebulous “ XX barrels of oil/day produced”.

The beleagured point of this is that Mrs. SSC isn’t even sure she wants to go back to this field if she does get laid off. One of my colleagues recently brought up that 50% of people that get laid off in the Oil & Gas industry don’t come back. I’m sure that is an overblown number, but I know over a handful of associates that are okay with walking away for good if they get laid off. Straight up not coming back and finding something else to do with their degree. They have spent YEARS in school working on those degrees to work in this field. Now, if laid off, they’re content looking into gov’t jobs, academia, and even jobs with nothing related to their degree at all.

Heading forward, no looking back. Except this is clearly looking back…

Ever since one of our friends got laid off this spring, we’ve been working to see how this would affect us if it hit either of our companies. Well, it’s going to hit us in a few different ways but like most people, it starts in the wallet. We maintain a pretty good savings rate of about 50%. So, if we lose one salary, our savings rate would effectively be 0%. We are fortunate to be way ahead of many colleagues, since we generally live off of one salary already. Maybe even a little under that, but for the most part, all of our “essentials” can be taken care of alright with one salary. It’s not nearly as stormy an outlook as I was thinking at first. Plus, Mrs. SSC might get an added bonus of a forced “get to know yourself and what you want to do.”

Stormy, but hey, the sun's still shining! — Stormy, but hey, the sun’s still shining!

If a layoff occurs, we would have to find a way to move that savings rate from 0% to hopefully 10%, just to keep FI happening before we turn 50. We’d leave our oldest child in daycare full-time because he thrives well there and does great with the structure, friends, and the like. He will be in his last year before kindergarten, so it’s not a long-term bill, maybe 6 more months tops. Our youngest could do well with a 2-3 days per week/part time day care situation as she seems to be more independent and is a super fast learner. Plus, Mrs. SSC is looking forward to having time to spend with her and help her learn more too.

The biggest obvious budget hits are just the other luxury allowances we have now that would go by the wayside. These are the same things that will get cut with the FFLC anyway, so nothing to drastic yet. I’ve saved us about $1200 this year just doing the yard all season (it still has about 3 months before it ends) so that’s good, and we’d cut the maids saving us $260/month, and then Mrs. SSC parking and work gym would get rolled into an outside gym fee, which would likely even out. That’s her hobby, outlet, and she likes it and uses it, so we’re both good with that. Plus, we would be saving quite a bit on tolls and gasoline, since each commuting day is the equivalent of ~2.5 gallons of gas or ~$9, and $2.50 in tolls. At 220 working days a year, that is just over $2530/yr. Maybe we could even get the car insurance rate dropped on her vehicle too! Groceries budget could easily go down by $50-$75/month since Mrs. SSC would have time to shop for better deals, and we wouldn’t have to buy ‘convenience’ foods anymore. We could likely trim another $25-50 of general spending a month for the same reasons.

That beach might not be the most comfortable, but it's still beautiful! — That beach might not be the most comfortable, but it’s still beautiful!

When we looked at our FFLC date, it is a different story though. First off, I’ve gotta give a shout out to my man, compounding interest! Yeah, that’s my boy!! We’ve been good at feeding our FFLC accounts so they’ll still be working in our favor, hopefully. With our savings effectively reduced to 0%, we know we’ll just have to play a couple rounds of “what expense goes next?!”. We’re assuming we can still save at least ~$1k/month/yr and then increase it by $1k/month the next year due to my raises and maybe Mrs. SSC getting a part-time gig. I think we may be able to save more, especially if we make it a challenge. Take that and assume a 6% investment growth, and we’re still looking at mid 2020 for our FIRE date! We’re not looking at a date as early as ThinkSaveRetire, but we’re still doing better than most in this downturn since we still have an early retirement date before we’re both 45!

That’s a lot better than I was thinking initially. It helps to know your target number, and be aware of your budget, because of the case in point. My mind totally blew out of proportion how negatively we’d be affected, and then you do the math (I try to not ever do the math) and it’s like, “whoa! We got this, and we can adapt. Alright then… We can do this!” And then hope we don’t have to do this. Until we find out what we’ll be doing exactly, we’re just going to keep on, keeping on.

By Mr SSC
Posted on August 10, 2015August 9, 2015
34 Comments on Layoffs are looming: Part 2!

July 2015 Update

July was a rather boring mundane month, and after all the unexpected costs in June, I’ll take it! Boring is good on some levels, especially when it relates to out of pocket spending. For the most part, we’re on track with our predicted FFLC budget, and on an upside, July was our third cheapest month of spending this year. This has been good for us keeping a more detailed look at the finances to be able to see how accurate our predictions are for our FFLC number. Based on the year’s spending to date, it looks like our yearly budget is running right around $54k. This is inline with what we’re thinking so our target date remains unchanged. That may change in 8 weeks, but for now, we’ll just move forward as if things are good all around. Now to discuss some budget numbers!

As far as specifics go, the pet’s column is a little high again due to taking Lola to the vet for a baseline checkup and get her flea/tick preventer and heartworm meds. We should be good for staying away from the vet for a while now, but you never know. Groceries were a bit higher than usual, but that’s probably due to the Mother-in-law being at the house for about 3 weeks. Mrs. SSC had some allergies flare up and then turn into bronchitis, so the medical bumped up a bit. She’s fine, but had a continuous cough for almost a month… Due to the ridiculous heat, yes I know it is summer in the Gulf South, our utilities are higher as well, and that’s just keeping the house around 78… Blech…

Numbers, numbers, everywhere... — Numbers, numbers, everywhere…

On the plus side, it looks like the car repair/gas/toll is down from what is typical, woohoo for that! Phone/internet/tv is down due to the plan switching, although do I have a gripe with the new guys. I’ll save that for later though.

Thank goodness for an easy no surprises month. Whew! It was a welcome relief after June’s outflow of cash. I hope your spending has stayed reigned in and your month went as well as ours!

Layoffs are Looming! Would you be ready?

So it’s no secret that the oil industry is going through a typical cyclical downturn. Blame it on what you want, but that’s just the nature of the industry.

It’s also no secret that companies have been laying people off left and right. We’ve been fortunate enough to not have to deal with this yet, however, our time has come. Mrs. SSC’s company has been making waves about “re-org’s”, consolidation of departments and the like since February, and it had been rumored there would be layoffs, but it hasn’t been official until the last few weeks. They recently found out that there will be 12-15% staff reductions all across the board, with larger cuts most likely in Mrs. SSC’s group. No one is safe. Being true to their nature as a huge bloated bureaucracy, they plan on releasing little info and dragging the process out into October. Yippee!!
Alternatively, back in March my company announced that we can “keep on, keeping on” indefinitely with oil around $50-$60 a barrel. We did some minor reorganization, stopped our hiring campaign, and put raises on hold. They still paid out bonuses though, which was nice, and my move was well timed, so I already got a nice raise just by moving, so it isn’t too bad.

This week will mark the kickoff of the layoff cycle with a release of some info, possibly blank org charts, websites to see how you will be affected, and the like. Yep, everyone gets to essentially re-apply for their job and compete with others that may also apply for their job. Joy! Being a large company though, some people have gotten more information quicker than others. For instance, on a recent fishing trip a friend of mine told that he knows his boss’s job and likely his job is gone, as his group is going from 21 to 11 people. He’s kind of freaking out, because he’s a sole bread winner for his family, and no-one is currently hiring. However, he has a pretty good savings account, and he and his family live fairly well below their means. While he is worried, he isn’t super worried because they carry almost no debt, just the mortgage, they have a good savings account and emergency fund, and they have an amazing support group available from their church should things get really, really, bad. Another friend of ours who works with Mrs. SSC, recently had his wife get laid off from a different oil and gas company. Since he is now the sole bread winner and also works with Mrs. SSC he is more than a little worried about what could be coming. Again, they live pretty well below their means, and manage to save a decent amount. His job still covers their bills, and they can still save some along with that. So, while they are worried, they are not as worried as some other friends of ours, but no-one wants to be out of work, and have to start tapping into emergency funds and savings while scrounging for a job.

In my new company, I’ve only come across 2 people who mention that they save money outside of their work retirement plans. Two people… One of them is a new hire, and he follows the model of “pay yourself first” and then live off what’s left over. For instance one week, we were going out to lunch (I know, I know) and I invited him and he said he was going to be pretty broke the next 2 weeks because of a miscalculation with transferring funds to a Vanguard account. Apparently, he’d set it up to make a “monthly” transfer and it hit his account twice. Instead of dipping into his savings or other funds, he just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Nope, can’t afford it for the next 2 weeks.” Commendable, because I would’ve just used “other money” and then “rewarded” myself on saving twice as much as I’d planned. Sidenote – I still have bad financial ideas sometimes. The other person has “outside of work” retirement accounts, and a fund for a retirement home rather, a house to live in in retirement already and they’re only in their early 30’s. The rest of the people from our work group looked at us like we had tentacles growing out of our heads when they heard us talking about Vanguard funds, retirement savings, expense ratios, and the like. One person said, “Why are you talking about retirement, that’s like forever away!”

That leads to conversations of other people we know that are not in the same boat. Specifically, a couple that makes two oil industry salaries and are freaking out about layoffs, because they still live paycheck to paycheck with little to no savings, much less emergency fund savings. Yes, you did read that correctly. This couple, in their 30’s with children, still gets occasional help out from their parents with bills and vacations. They like extravagant vacations, and they take them as often as possible. In between vacations, their spending habits aren’t reigned in well either, because that’s just the lifestyle they are used to. They know they should be saving more, or any really, but between little things here and there, and kid functions, and birthday parties, and groceries, they just don’t manage their funds well. They are really worried, because with a layoff from just one of them, their house of cards could easily crash down. They’re taking the ostrich head in the sand, fingers crossed approach and hoping for the best.

This attitude and lifestyle of spend, spend, spend rings true with more colleagues of ours than you might think, hell it’s probably not much different in your industry either. For the occasional person that may be thinking about retirement early, or retirement at all, everyone else is thinking about more ways to spend their paychecks. It’s just mind boggling to me that people don’t save more. I have to say though, if I was still single and hadn’t met Mrs. SSC, I’d think I was doing alright maxing out my 401k, and having my debts paid down. If I was diligent enough to actually have them paid down, which is doubtful. Even then, I would probably still be only a few paychecks away from disaster. It was living with Mrs. SSC that got me to realize how to break that spend, spend, spend cycle and start focusing on investing, saving money, and paying off debt.

As the weeks move on, things will be pretty stressful around here. Maybe we’ll luck out and Mrs. SSC will get to retain a spot on the payroll. Maybe she’ll get laid off, and get to figure out what to do next? I know we’ve already figured out exactly how it will affect our FFLC date, and our savings though. Since this post has already gotten so long, I’ll go into that in detail next week with part two of this crazy adventure! Yeah, layoffs!!

Source: Macrotrends, Inc.

By Mr SSC
Posted on July 28, 2015
29 Comments on Layoffs are Looming! Would you be ready?

Forever In Blue Jeans? Done!

I love music, and I have since I can remember. It can give me chills, make me smile, make me cry, it’s the one thing I truly love in so many of its forms. My dad also loved music, stuff I can now appreciate musically, but most of which I still consider “crap” (sorry dad, but a lot of it is bad). Mom was more Motown, R&B, and “oldies” centric, but R&B when it meant rhythm and blues, The Temptations, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops, Ray Charles, man, I’m giddy just remembering those guys, and yep, just started a good Motown playlist in the background. Aaahhh…

One musician dad was a huge fan of that stuck with me though is Neil Diamond. Man, I love me some Neil! Cheesy as it can be, those lyrics cut to my soul so much, because I just get it. Although, as Mrs. SSC put it, “Neil Diamond, Neil Young, same diff, right?” Oh, Mrs. SSC…

But one of his songs in particular lately has struck a chord with me, “Forever in blue jeans.” What a song! It resonates with most of what I read on your blogs most every week, which is mainly that acquiring loads of money doesn’t matter, but as long as you have each other or what you deem your priority in life, you’re good. It’s about getting your life to a point where you call the shots and where you’re happy. Who doesn’t want that?

My whole life I’ve been money centric.

Money, money, money!! This was one of my first purchases as an intern in New Orleans.

Growing up broke as can be with parents that have zero good financial sense, I’ve tried to work towards making as much money as possible so that money is never a worry. Worrying about money, is the worst feeling in my life. It ranks up there with finding out someone you care about has died. I really hate worrying about money. This was my hangup with ER. Why the hell would I walk away from a nice comfortable setup to go back to scrounging just to not work?! No way! But then my focus changed.

For me, it was my kids. After having them I realized 2 things: 1. I’d do anything in the world for them. Yes, this really most exclusively means trading my life for theirs if God forbid that was ever an option, 2. I want to spend as much time with those guys as possible while I can.

One day, they’re going to go make their own lives and it is coming way sooner than I want. I already know this, and they just turned 2 and 4. I only have 16 years before they’re gone and off to college or career or who knows what, but it’s coming.

How does this affect me or my lifestyle or even our FFLC? Man, has my priority switched, because, since then and now, we’ve found our number that we’ve been living off of and can live off of and we have a date when we should reach that number. That date is in about 3 years and then we’ll be leaving our jobs.

Coming back to the Neil Diamond song, I realized my focus was echoed by these lyrics.

“Money talks,
But it don’t sing and dance
And it don’t walk.
And long as I can have you
Here with me, I’d much rather be
Forever in blue jeans”
….”And if you pardon me
I’d like to say
We’ll do okay
Forever in blue jeans, babe
And long as I can have you
Here with me I’d much rather be
Forever in blue jeans, babe”

Let’s see. Our “comfy life” as it is now, involves an almost 1 hr. commute each way, 9’ish hr’s at the office 4-5 days a week, to see the kids an hr or two a day before bed, and then get to hang with them while catching up on other errands/chores and what not over the weekends… Yeah, we’ve made it!! Versus taking a chance that our ER plans go as planned, but maybe we’ll be forever in blue jeans? I’ll take it.

I get really freaked out by this sometimes, and I try to put on a brave face, but I still get worried. Worried that we’ll try and fail. Worried that we’ll leave our “nice” jobs and end up in a horrid life of scrounging, scrimping, and worrying about money constantly. Kill me now, please. The knot and 20 lb weight in my stomach just writing about it makes me SO risk averse, part of me just wants to keep working until I’m really, really, sure I’ll always be good. And this is probably what drives most people to work for SO much of there lives. But that “horrid” life of watching our funds and scrounging for money, if it came to that still sounds like it’s a way better quality one than I’m living now.

I realized I’d rather be doing my life on my terms and forever in blue jeans, than in an office answering, “Yes, sir! Of course sir! Tomorrow sir, you’ll have those reports!” and if sh!t hits the fan, well, I’d rather try and fail than sit by in quiet fear and trepidation wondering what if. You know what I won’t get back ever? Time with my family. I also know that between me and Mrs. SSC, we can be making half the money my family was raised on and we’ll make it work comfortably. So, yeah, I’ll take that chance on spending as much time with family as possible while also maybe making my life way less comfortable than it is now. I have to say, the “comfort” I’m giving up versus the comfort I’m working towards I’ll take any day. And if we’re forever in blue jeans, I don’t count that as a fail either.

What made you want to get to FIRE/FFLC/Not working for the man and doing thing on your terms?

Neil Diamond Picture from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAWpkBurVno

By Mr SSC
Posted on July 21, 2015July 15, 2015
12 Comments on Forever In Blue Jeans? Done!

Sunshine Blogger Award!

Our blog was nominated for the Sunshine Blogger award by the bloggers over at Ditching the Daily Grind! Thanks for the nomination guys, I’ve been enjoying reading your blog! It’s nice reading about other families out there on the same path, and how their kids have/have not affected their FIRE goals. We really appreciate getting nominated for that award! Now, let’s get to the fun stuff!

The Rules:

Thank the person that nominated you

Answer the questions from the person that nominated you

Nominate some other bloggers for this award

Write the same amount of questions for the bloggers you have nominated

Notify the bloggers you have nominated.

The Responses to our set of questions:

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

These are really different answers from Mrs. SSC and I. Our family dynamics and priorities were pretty different growing up, as reflected in SO many ways in our lives. This is just one of those instances.

Mrs. SSC: She wanted to be a scientist or professor when she grew up. She’s done pretty well meeting those goals too, between being an actual rocket scientist for a bit, teaching some in grad school, and science-ing it up at her current career in the oil industry.

Mr. SSC: I wanted to be a long haul trucker. Yep, the guys on the road in the big-rigs hauling the 54’ trailers. I thought it would be fun, I’d get to travel a lot, see the country, and have a lot of freedom. Plus, you get to drive the biggest trucks out there! Woohoo! I’m a geologist instead and those dreams are in the rear-view mirror of life, and thankfully not the rear view mirror of my big rig.

What is the coolest/most memorable place you’ve visited

Mrs. SSC: Yosemite National Park. It was breathtaking and also one of the first times I ever went camping and hiking by myself. It was one of the first times I was able to take everything at my own pace, observe nature around me, and just get to be introspective and not have to deal with anyone else’s time table or schedule. It was awesome!

I really took this. It's so beautiful even at night. — I really took this. It’s so beautiful even at night.

Mr. SSC: Le Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, France. It’s an island commune and monastery that is just offshore, like ~600 meters. Besides being stunningly beautiful, an amazing thing is the tidal range of that part of the coast. When the tide goes out, it goes out 15 miles from the shore and drops nearly 40’!! When it comes in again, bam! The monastery is again an island surrounded by water. We got to take a 7 mile hike across the tidal flat at low tide, and it was awesome as a geologist, getting to see all those tidal features first hand. If you’ve never seen it, google it and check out the images, amazing! My picture doesn’t do it justice.

If money was not an issue and you could indulge in one thing, what would it be?

Mrs. SSC: My one thing would be land. I would want to buy an amazing plot of land with great views, mountains, fruit trees and more, and build a small but luxurious house. That and a Disney Cruise for the kids. Our friends say “it’s great!” and “the kids would love it!”, just like a 50’s tv ad, but it just seems SO expensive, so probably that too.

Mr. SSC: I’d go to the moon and spend a few hours bouncing around in my astronaut suit and riding one of those moon buggies around. That just seems like it would be a LOAD of fun, and it was literally the first thing that popped out of my mouth when I read this question. I mean, who could afford that nowadays? Not even NASA right, and you did say money was no issue. That would be my indulgence for sure.

What is the best compliment you’ve ever gotten?

Mrs. SSC: I don’t respond well to compliments, so I avoid them, and can’t think of a best compliment I’ve ever gotten. Sorry…

Mr. SSC: My best compliment was um, well, yeah I don’t know either really. I’ve been scouring my brain, but nothing jumps out. Sorry…

What legacy would you like to leave?

Mrs. SSC: I feel that if I can get the kids to grow up and be true to themselves, that would be good for me. I want them to be who they want to be, and not try to be someone that they think they should be because someone else wants them to be that way.

Mr. SSC: My legacy – with visions of being a trucker, I can’t say I’ve thought too much about a legacy that I would like to leave. When I was hiking the Appalachian Trail, I decided that I wanted to do something that would help the environment and not just take, take, take. Ironically, I ended up switching from Environmental Science to Geology and ultimately landed in the oil industry. Since I’ve had kids, I’d like for them to be adults that aren’t self-centered and self-serving and are empathetic to helping those who need it. Like Louis C.K. put it, “You should never look into your neighbors to bowl to see if they have more than you, but rather to see if they have enough.” If I can raise my kids to have that mindset, I’d feel good about that.

What do you prefer: beach or mountains?

Mt. Hood. We need to get back out there soon.

Both: Mountains for sure! Our relocation spot for our Fully Funded Lifestyle Change has to include a few things and mountains is one of them. We grew up near the Appalachians, so we like the feel of those mountains and are looking forward to being back there. I also love the Rockies, and could be there too, but as long as there are mountains and 4 seasons I’ll take it any day!

Our nominees for the Sunshine Blogger Award are (in no particular order):

Their questions: