Articles with personal finance

Fowling - football Bowling

Friends, Fun, and Fowling

A couple of weekends ago I was able to attend the Econome conference in Cincinnati, and readers, it was the refresh I needed. I wouldn’t have attended this conference had it not been for Military Dollar suggesting I should attend and she was super supportive throughout the process because let me tell you. I got the ticket, booked flights, and a room, and the next thing you know life happened and I freaked out and cancelled all of those plans. After a month of debating, I decided that I was just being cheap, not frugal and I needed to attend, so I repurchased everything, lol.

Bearcat bronze statue at night

 

Finally, Friends IRL

I have to say that I’m so glad that I did because, my God, do I love the people in this personal finance space and community. From the time I landed until after the conference was over, I was reminded why I felt such a great connection with everyone I met. Everyone has such great stories about where they are on their personal journey, along with the openness and vulnerability to share that information, and also are usually more than welcome to answer questions about any of it. When I attended my first PF event, it was Fincon ’17 and I got to finally meet so many people I’d interacted with online, but this time in real life! I wrote a post titled, “I found my tribe”, because I left like I found a place that I belonged, and was welcomed. Friends, that didn’t change with future events, like Fincon ’18, and Camp FI’s that I’ve attended, and it held true with Econome.

I got to meet even more, new, online friends in person, I got to make even more, new friends, and again, it was the refresh that I needed in so many ways. I’ve been absent from the blog for a while now. Not unexpected, because who wants to read about divorce, finding yourself, post divorce life, post divorce life without a career, and figuring out life in general, in a new state? Hell, I don’t want to write about it, so I can’t imagine anyone wants to read about it. Instead of just continuing to publish those types of stories, I just shelved it and moved on. Had my, probably bluehost blog renewal happened a few weeks earlier than it came up, I would’ve probably scrapped the blog and moved on with life, being a “PF Lurker” on Twitter and calling it good. However, after talking with everyone I met over that weekend, it really did a couple of things for me that make me feel happy to remain a part of this group of people.

Why Econome Made Me Feel Happy

The first, was that it validated the feeling that, “This is okay.” Being where I am in life now is okay, and so what if I never get back to oil and gas? I loved being a petroleum geologist and I had a blast doing it, but if I don’t get back to that lifestyle, I’m okay with that, and that’s okay. I feel like the support group in Wreck It Ralph, talking about being bad guys, “I’m bad and that’s good…” While I don’t feel like a bad guy, it’s hard for me accepting that, and realizing that, and you know what? That’s okay. If I never practice as a petroleum geologist again, that will suck because I loved it, but life moves on. I have lots of other shit to explore in the meantime.

The second, was that I feel like a failure on a lot of levels. Lots of levels. While I can reassure myself, that this waves arms around head isn’t a “fail”, and I’m defined more than that relationship, and blah dee balh, blah…. Let me tell you friends, it feels like a big fail from where I sit. My second reason was because I had lots of people build me up, affirm that if that is failure, they’d like to fail like that, and more. That was good for me, because while I’ve heard that similar thing from different therapists, they’re kinda paid to be supportive and it’s like your mom telling you “You’re the best!” Are you really? So, it was nice hearing the same types of affirmation from friends, and strangers. It may seem petty, but the acceptance and validation, keeps me sticking around for more.

Finally, the other reason I’m happy that I went to Econome, was the fact that beyond feeling re-energized about life, feeling affirmation on lots of levels, and connecting with people. I also, got about 5 or 6 ideas with notes and prompts about new blog post topics that I connected with, felt passionate about and want to write about. For me, that was huge! I haven’t read very many (maybe a handful) PF articles or blogs this year, and it reminded me that sure it’s cyclical, and the same topics come up and die, and new people start and they come up and die, but usually there’s a little spin added. Even if there isn’t, it’s good keeping that stuff more in the forefront of my brain than just piddling away in the back of my brain shooing me away, saying, “no, no, we’ve got this, we’re good.” So that’s nice for me as well. A good reminder that, I don’t have all this known and down pat, and like anything, use it or lose it. It’s not the main things I need refreshers on, it’s the nuanced, fine details stuff like drawdon plans and well, I don’t have a glideslope, because I was sort of chucked off a cliff into this, so goodbye glide slope, hello, plunging freefall! lol

It’s not that crazy, but it feels like it sometimes. I heard at least 5 different topics I’d like to expand on, with the blog and provide my own take on. Because, life happens, it ebbs, it flows, sometimes you’re in the positive side and sometimes you’re on the negative side, and while I can’t say I’ve decided which side I’m on, it’s feeling pretty damn positive from where I’m sitting. It doesn’t always feel like this. Random Wednesdays when I’m home most of the day solo, working on the computer, just snuggling with Bolt and needing to hit the grocery, do laundry, put away laundry, prep school, get homework ready to get copies printed, etc… It can feel like a letdown.

Shift Your Mindset: Always to Positive

I just have to remember to shift my mindset. Don’t get stuck in the negative of whatever I’m feeling that day, but rather look at the positive. Positive mindset can affect a lot of change, and framing it as I have the freedom that I can take Wednesday off to focus on school, and snuggle with Bolt, and have Price is Right on in the background, as filler noise, entertainment and a time keeper to know when I should get ready to pause and hit the grocery or go walk or jog or do something else. That’s freedom. Being able to show up to work or not and having the financial flexibilty to also support that is amazing.

Those 3 things alone would have made it worth it for me, but then one of the better aspect of this conference over other conference style events, is that Sunday was essentially down time, and created for socialization. The structure was setup, so that you didn’t have to choose between hanging out and continuing to socialize with friends, or miss a talk, like how other conferences are usually structured. That was awesome! I got inroduced to the wonderful world of Fowling, where you throw footballs (overhand, not like rolling them) at bowling pins. It sounds easy, but man, was it harder than it looked. It was definitely fun though and provided more opportunities to meet and talk with other conference goers, and I got to meet 4 new people during that event. Then head to another bar after that, and I met even more new people! What a great conference. If you have the opportunity, I recommend it. Although the next one isn’t until Spring 2023, so, plan ahead. Far ahead, lol.

Fowling - football Bowling

Summary

I needed an event like Econome to go and reconnect with old friends, and find new friends, and get excited about this Lifestyle Change again. It wasn’t how I planned at all, but damnit, it’s mine and I’m kind of settling into it. Thanks, friends! Thnks old friends, thanks new friends, and thanks everyone that’s been there supporting me on the way whether I knew it or not. I appreciate it and am glad to have been active here and met you, whether in person or online. It’s been great and thanks!

Do you find yourself needing events like this to reenergize you about your hobby, passion, lifestyle interest? How does it work for you? Have you been to a PF conference sort of event? What did you think about it? I’d love to hear about it below!

False Peaks Suck!

For anyone that’s ever done any mountaineering, or just plain old hiking in the mountains you’ve experienced false peaks. For those not aware of the term, it’s essentially when you see “the top”, push to “the top”, only to get to “the top”, and then you see the actual peak even higher than where you currently are. It can be defeating, if you’re the kind of person to let mountains push you around, lol. I kid, I kid. But recently I’ve found out I’ve been dealing with nothing but false peaks, and I’m just about ready to pack up and hit the beach. Seriously…

Most of my false peaks seem to be around work, and income. I had been applying to jobs back in January, February, and I mostly stopped around March. In all, I applied to 42 jobs, and heard exactly nothing back from any of them, lol. Why did I stop? Lots of reasons, but these are the main ones.

First, there were no new jobs appearing, just the same handful of positions I’d already applied to.

Second, this whole buzz about some virus coming out of Wuhan seemed to rattle people.

Third, I had been talking with My CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) supervisor in January and she hooked me up with her daughter for a potential position with her son-in-law’s excavation company. Anyway, that hasn’t panned out yet, lol, but no worries, I’m optimistic.

Fourth, she mentioned that CASA would need a new supervisor position sometime around the 1st quarter and I’d be her preference for that position, so I was mostly just waiting for that, but applying other places, in the meantime.

Fifth, and final reason was that she (same CASA supervisor) also mentioned that she would love to help fund, start, work at, the child advocacy center I had approached her about starting.

Those are a myriad of reasons and seem to be scattered, but each one was a false peak and here’s why.

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I Dread Dealing With Money

Being thrust into control of my finances again has brought up a lot of “money emotions” for me. My relationship with money is an odd one because I mostly feel dread when thinking about money. Yes, dread.

Dread:   1. a) to anticipate with great apprehension or fear

                    b) to fear greatly

                2. to feel extreme reluctance to meet or face

Yep, that pretty much nails how I feel about money.

Even just thinking about checking my bank account balance fills me with dread. I actively avoid it… I even put it on a list It’s so weird to admit, but I dislike money. My happiest was when I was at a point in my life that I didn’t have to worry about money, or even think about it at all. Mrs. SSC was more than happy to take the role over and I was more than happy to throw my finances at her and run away laughing. Which is basically what happened.

Of course I was happy to hand this over… But now, it’s just me. Eep!!

Now that control of those finances got handed back to me, it’s all nice and neat and pretty and mostly organized. I’m curious how long it stays that way. Again, I’m amazed with how some of you check your bank accounts once a day, MORE than once a day (why? Just… why?), and you track ALL of your money. Yes, I’m admitting I’m amazed how easy it seems to come for… well, basically anyone/everyone I follow in the Personal Finance Community. You guys are on it! I’m just an imposter, riding the coattails of a person that IS good with money.

That’s how I feel anyway. I have no personal finance confidence and the dread is real.

Where Did the Dread Come From?

I think “when” may be a better question than “where”, but like everything that shapes our lives, for me it was back in childhood. I had money stress before I could even work and earn money. “But how can you stress about money that early” some of you are asking and others are probably nodding in agreement. Well, I didn’t grow up in the most financially stable of environments. The phrase, “money burning a hole in your pocket” was never more applicable than with my dad. He’d get paid every other Thursday and he’d cash his check and it was like a mini-holiday, at least for that night. We’d go out to eat, and then go to the mall followed by the bookstore. Instead of focusing on priorities, for those Thursday nights at least, there was money being spent on “frivolities”.

Why did I say frivolities? Well, because typically, the Wednesday before payday, we’d be low on groceries, gas, usually very low on actual money available, and there were at least 1-2 late bills waiting to be paid. When I started noticing this, was when things would happen like the lights would be out or the electricity or water would be turned off. The ever present mechanical breakdown of the car(s) and having to sweet talk the mechanic into a payment plan because we had to have the car running. Seeing my parents stress about this and then get upset, fight, or whatever the reaction was, spilled over to me. Even then I could feel it and it was ALWAYS about money. Usually the lack thereof, or the fact it got spent on “frivolities” and not “necessities”. That was the biggest sticking point and fight topic around our house.

While I couldn’t do much about things back then, at least until I started working, I still got stressed about money. And it was the worst kind of stress because it was worrying about things out of my control. I had fuck all to do with turning a light switch and it working or not but I’ll never forget that horrid feeling of flipping a switch and nothing happens. I’m going to say my “dread” associated with money started back then.

I Money Good, Relatively Speaking… (pun definitely intended)

Coming from that sort of background, it’s not hard to be better than what you’re used to seeing. Always seeing no money around turned me into “a saver”. Meaning I didn’t immediately spend money as soon as it showed up, but I would save it. I still remember my siblings being amazed/jealous that when they wouldn’t have money, I’d always have some money. Even in Atlanta when I was living with my brother back in ’96, he’d be like, “Alright man, you ready to go out tonight?” I’d say, “Yep, let me get some cash.” And I’d duck into my room, grab some cash and walk out and he’s giving me a look like, “where the hell is he stashing that, and how does he keep coming up with money?” When I came back from that summer, I had $2500 saved, just enough to cover a whole year of college, lol.

Got those phat stacks! Of singles, lol.

Comparatively, I always saved and had “better money sense” than what I grew up with. That’s not throwing my parents under the bus, but we can all agree some people are better with money than others. As a whole, you can put ALL my family into the “not good with money” category, I was just a little better than the rest. Back then, I never liked being in debt, and would save up to buy something outright if I needed it.

Mo’ Money, Less Problems!

Finally, around 1992 or so, I could start working and what a game changer! I had so much stress relief just from being able to buy my own groceries. I started paying the bills BEFORE they got cut off. What a concept! I had some control and I still had money left over. How in the hell did my $4.25/hr job cover the bills when my parents struggled with a $40-$50k income?! Lack of discipline with spending, I guess. IDK… This was when I went from dread to anger.

I was angry about having to pay for ALL my own bills, AND help with my family’s bills. My parents had split up around 1993, but why the hell is it my responsibility to cover my mom’s financial shortcomings!? I pitched in and “helped out the family” because that was expected of me. However, my older brother never bought a tank of gas for his car, or a quart of oil, or paid for his car insurance, or paid for any repairs, or had a job, or was expected to work, or expected to buy his own clothes, or was expected to help out the family in any way whatsoever. It wasn’t fair that I got the brunt of having to deal with the stress of bills, which ones were due when, where they got paid, and all of that, but if noone else was going to do it, I could at least make my role in it suck a little less by taking control.

It’s no wonder I relate to Shameless so much, lol. BUT, that situation also gave me a pretty independent spirit. When my whole family moved out of the house when I was 17, it was actually the biggest relief in the world. First dad moved out, and then Mom, leaving the 3 of us kids basically living on our own. My brother and I eventually had a “come to Jesus talk” with mom. We told her that we can’t be effective parents to our younger sister and that she needs to, um, well, be a mom. I had been floating ALL the bills and was the only “earner” in the house, so we also asked for money. So, instead of money, she took my sis with her and shortly after my brother left to attend culinary school. In a space of 2-3 months I went from household provider to single person with only me to worry about. WHAT A RELIEF. What 17 year old wouldn’t want to be living alone? My mom’s take, “You’ll be fine. You’re strong and independent and can handle this.” Um, yeah, but SHOULD I have to handle that? For better or worse, I finally had control of everything. Yikes! No wonder I dread dealing with money so much… I mean with all that positivity surrounding it in my formative years, I don’t understand why I would dread all things money. Maybe that’s why I default to Warren Zevon a lot, “Send Lawyers, Guns, and Money! They’ll get me out of this!”

How to Overcome the Dread

I honestly don’t know how to overcome the dread because I’m 42 and it’s still lingering. Ok, that’s not true. Give me a 6 figure salary and have someone managing my money for me and there’s zero money dread. That’s not likely to happen anytime soon and I need to figure out a better relationship with money anyway. How can i expect my kids to have a good relationship with it if they see me treat it with kid gloves and act like it’s bigger than me. Yikes!

Another one of my bigger worries about chasing FIRE was a return to dealing with this “money dread”. There were many conversations had with Mrs. SSC about how we could work thru this, or how big of a problem it may be, and if it was enough of a trigger to not quit working. I hate that dreaded feeling enough that I’d honestly rather work another 5 years or more to NOT EVER have to feel it again. Maybe I will, I don’t know.

I know what I’m going to do to try and take back my negative feelings associated with money though.

First!

I’m going to look at my bank account EVERY day! Every… Stupid… Day… I’ll log into my bank and at least glance at it. No, I’ll stare at it. Then, I’ll smile at it. Yes, as dumb as that sounds, me smiling or laughing at my bank account will help. Maybe even just bullying it a bit and taunting it like, “So, you think you’re getting out of here, huh? Get spent, see the world? Well, Not Today buddy! Not! To! Day!” while I also shake my finger at it, or something like that… Who knows? I know, I’m weird. But I like keeping it “personal”, in personal finance.

Second!

Now that all the “buying of crap” for a house is mostly over, and all my other money stuff is in Mint, I can go thru and set bill reminders for myself, where I don’t have autopay setup already. I’ve already paid a couple of bills “past due” so, yes, that has happened. Instead of beating myself up about it, I can now make that dread suck just a little less by setting calendar reminders and “forgetting about it” until they need to be paid. Plus, I can see what my monthly “recurring stable budget items” are and plan for them.

Third!

I just have to remind myself it’s only money. Yes, I typed that and sent it into the PF blogosphere.

“It’s Only Money”

Yikes! What’s the point of saving money if you don’t use it to ease your life? Well, for me, there isn’t a point. That is LITERALLY the point of saving money in my opinion. Not to hoard it and collect the most, but to have it so when life goes all pear shaped, you have one less thing to worry about during those times. So, I’ll allow myself to spend that money, but just not WASTE that money. It was a lot of work saving it, so I need to treat it with respect and not piss it away. In my opinion, stressing about money whilst looking at a big pile of it just seems beyond idiotic.

Fourth!

There is no fourth item, I just wanted to type more exclamation points!!! Lol!!!!!

Summary

I don’t know how to fix my dread associated with money, but I know how I’m going to try to fix it. That’s all I can hope for, right? Find a problem, pick a solution, and try it. When that fails, try another solution until one actually solves the problem. Like I wrote previously, if I can make this problem suck just a little bit less, it is worth it. Even if it takes most of a year to get that ironed out, well, that’s progress. I went from not dealing with any bills, or any financial accounts (allowance excluded) for the last 11 years and well, now I get to relearn those skills. I sure don’t want to fall back on my usual habits that were in place back then.

When all else fails, “Send lawyers, guns, and money! They’ll get me out of this!” – Warren Zevon

If you aren’t familiar with the tune, shame on you… But here it is.

Energy Efficiency: It’s a Money Problem

When we bought our current money pit, erm, house, we expected to get pretty good energy efficiency due to it being a concrete and Styrofoam construction method, think adobe style with 1’ thick walls. Yes, 1 foot thick (0.3 m) walls that provide extra wind resistance to over 300 mph (allegedly), better fire ratings, and definitely better insulation properties than a traditional built home. When we replaced our furnace and AC unit last year, we opted for a more efficient system because it costs less to operate, uses less resources to run, and we thought it would go well with the rest of the energy efficiency aspects of the house. What we didn’t realize is that the home was built with the concrete walls because the previous owner was terrified of tornadoes… Um, maybe move out of tornado alley? IDK… Just a thought.

If this was my worst fear, I wouldn’t have moved to “NO-klahoma”               image credit: Mike Hollingshead

Beyond that fear, they didn’t care at all about energy efficiency. We’ve been making some efficiency improvements around here and even during these past 2 cold spells, our downstairs has stayed above 62 F WITHOUT the heat coming on all day! This was during a 3 day cold snap with temps around the 30’s F and the latest cold spell with temps of 26 F and 30 mph constant winds with 50 mph gusts. The inside temp finally got down to 62 F by 5pm, but again, this is without the heat coming on ALL DAY! How did we pull this off? By throwing money at it of course!

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Camp FI Texas: A Very Late Recap

About a month ago, I was able to attend and speak at Camp FI in LaGrange, Texas. When I first heard the location, I immediately heard the guitar riff from ZZ Top’s “LaGrange”. Anyone else, anyone? If you are like a few camp members I met that had never heard of it, well, hear you go, LaGrange. It’s a great rocking song, but I digress…

Camp FI seemed like a good alternative to Fincon for me, and I was hoping it would be a nice Personal Finance (PF) recharge, with being around like minded folks, talking goals, dreams, life, and of course money. In short, I was not disappointed! It reminded me of the newbie feeling I had at my first Fincon in Dallas. I came back from that conference and wrote this post about how I Found My Tribe and this felt very, very similar. In fact, unless I get more active with the blog, I don’t see a need to attend Fincon anymore. Gasp!! If the thought of thousands of people swarming around looking for Vanguard bags and mugs freaks you out, try a Camp FI. You will not be disappointed and here’s why.

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2018: The Year of the Lifestyle Change

What a year 2018 was for the SSC household. There was a LOT going on with the kids, the dogs, our house, and most importantly both of our jobs. At the beginning of the year we were designing a house to be built on our property at Canyon Lake and expecting to be in Houston for another 2 years. By the end of the year I wasn’t working and we were celebrating Christmas in our “new” house in Oklahoma. Wow! Just wow… Even for us, things seemed to come so unexpectedly the only thing that we knew to count on was that our plans would constantly be changing. Ultimately, it was the year we kicked off our dream of the Fully Funded Lifestyle Change (FFLC)!! There was a lot more detail than just that, so let’s get into the 2018 recap.

Moving Time

Early in 2018, Mrs. SSC landed a really sweet gig working at a well-respected University with a strong and established petroleum program. This forced us to move to Oklahoma and it wasn’t even on our radar for places to live. We found a great place out in the country with 2 untamed acres. On the plus side, we could shape it to be as wild or as manicured as we want because literally nothing had been done to the woods except let them grow wild.

Goodbye Green Wall of Doom!

The downside is that there is a TON of downed timber across that 2 acres, a lot of underbrush, and it isn’t anywhere I’d want the kids or myself wandering through in the summertime. I’ve been putting a big dent in clearing that brush, and I’ve cut down about 20+ trees already. I have marked so many more trees with flagging tape that I ran out of 200’ of tape. Yipe!

Selling Property Sucks

Our Houston house went on the market in mid-March and we figured it would be slow until summertime, but expected to be able to sell it over the summer. It went 90 days without a showing, in part I believe to the “okay but not great” photos that were taken. Pro-tip – interview multiple realtors prior to picking one. Ours was Mrs. SSC’s trainer and was convenient, but I feel like we could’ve found a better realtor and saved ourselves a LOT of $$ and anxiety. Mid-summer we got an offer and man were those buyers nit-picky. They argued over every single dime wanting us to put up more and more money. After a month of negotiations on post-inspection fixes, we found out these jack-wads weren’t even approved for a loan! How does that happen!? Well, they barely squeaked by for a pre-approval with a high 500’s credit score. Fast-forward 5 months and who has been missing car payments and racking up MORE debt? Those guys. Needless to say, their credit score had dropped to low 500’s and they couldn’t get approved for the loan. Thanks for keeping our house off the market the last month and a half of summer and being jackasses about EVERY single item… Ugh…

Buyer #2

The next buyers wanted our property, but didn’t want to make an offer until their house sold. However, they wanted us to take it off the market and hold it for them. Can you hear me laughing? That was rejected, and the house stayed on the market. Another buyer put in an offer and had the inspection done, then pulled their offer 3 days later. Their main concern was having to replace the water pipes due to the amount of rust coming out of them. We were puzzled and then remembered we’d replaced the main shutoff and the plumber told us to run the water to flush any rust/sediment/etc… that had gotten knocked loose and that it may look dirty until it gets flushed. We asked our realtor to do that and he had done it, according to him. Those pictures of the bathtub with rusty looking water said otherwise… Ugh…

Third Time’s a Charm

FINALLY, we got another interested couple, they made an offer, were easy to negotiate a price with, and we were under contract. We waited for the inspection and heard nothing. Literally nothing. We contacted our realtor and he said that they’d gotten the inspection and didn’t have any follow-up requests for us to fix. Yay!! While we technically closed in 2019, we did finally close on that house and that 2018 contract went thru. Yippee!

Leaving My Job

Me leaving work was a little tricky due to the fact that I had to prep the house for sale, keep it under wraps, AND spend time driving up to Oklahoma for house hunting, home inspection, and closing. It was easy enough to tell work that I’m “taking time off” but everyone was convinced I was interviewing at other companies. That was just fine with me, because what do I care what they think? I’m leaving in 3 months.

 

One Friday, I was at my desk and get a call from my boss to come to our bosses office. I get nervous and then think, wait, why am I nervous? I didn’t do anything wrong. Then I got excited thinking I might be getting laid off and could get a severance package. Buoyed by that prospect I went in, sat down and was told I was being promoted to my bosses position but for our Texas-Delaware Assets. Hooray… Ultimately, I declined that offer, and you can read more about it here. Since my upper managers now knew I was leaving in August, I wasn’t getting any more additional work or put on other special teams. Double yay!!

When the time got nearer for me to leave my boss proposed a 3 month remote work assignment to help with reserves. It got approved and ultimately we had 3 more months of pay, health insurance, and a little extra $$ we hadn’t counted on to help with the “new” house projects. It turned out to be a mixed bag that you can read more details about here, but ultimately it worked out well for everyone.

Money Pit

The new house is the last big topic of 2018. When we moved in we knew it needed some cleaning and maintenance as it looked like it hadn’t been maintained in the 16 years it has been around. We got the ducts cleaned, I vacuumed the walls, and I dusted and cleaned every other surface and Mrs. SSC was still having troubles with allergies and breathing. The previous owners had a cat, so I suggested that we replace the carpet sooner than later. We did that and her breathing got immediately better. Hooray!!

The house temp wouldn’t get cooler than 83/84 F on days when the outside temp was over 93. We had an AC inspection and it was working correctly and pumping out cool air, but that wasn’t the issue. The issue was that it was a 3 ton unit and this house needed a larger unit than that to be effective… I shopped around 4 different contractors and found a great deal on a higher efficiency unit than we previously had, and after it was installed problem solved.

I also noticed that the upstairs bonus room was a heat/cool sink for the house. Everywhere else appeared to have adequate depth blown-in insulation but the walls for this rom were only 4” thick. I wanted to get some more insulation and add it to them along with some other spots I’d noticed that had thin blown in insulation (4” or less). On Black Friday, Lowe’s had 30% off their insulation. Score!! I bought 24 batts (11 pieces in each batt) of R-30 insulation for ~$1k discounted, installed it myself, and have seen some great results. Plus, now I can keep the heat off in the bonus room. On the coldest nights it gets down to 58 but mostly stays between 60-64 without any heat on. Double Score!!

Summary

That’s the very long recap of our year. I’m sure I may have missed some things, but those were the biggest ones for us. So far, we’re loving the town, country living, the kids school, and our neighbors. While this state wasn’t even in the running for places to consider living in, we are really liking it. There’s more topography than we expected, especially in our home area. The people are super friendly and it feels like it has a great sense of community about it. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2019! Be on the lookout for a “new” home spending post. There’s way too much to put into this one, and it is ridiculous…

Hope your 2018 went as great for you as it did for us.

Our 2017 Spending: What a Dumpster Fire!

Man, what a year 2017 was, what a year indeed. We thought it had gone fairly well. Our new Lifestyle Change schedule was amazing, we bought the land to build our house on when we pull the plug in 2019, or 2020, and I got to go to my first ever FinCon! Plus, I got to the end of the year and had extra vacation and thought, “Man, it felt like I’ve already taken a lot of vacation!” There were lots of good feelings all around.

Then we tallied up our total spending for the year, and womp, womp, the rain clouds moved in and shut down our parade. While we had been having a great year from a lifestyle perspective, our spending had been going on a tear, kind of like the stock market.

Our 2017 Spending…

We both sensed it in January when we replaced our dishwasher and it cost an additional $300 in plumbing fixes that were discovered during installation. Mrs. SSC prophetically said, “I hope this isn’t “the year of spending…”” Well, it was. Where did our spending get derailed, how close were we to our FFLC (Fully Funded Lifestyle Change) budget, and how bad was it? Well, it wasn’t pretty that’s for sure.

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Personal Finance Win at Work!

I’ve made it no secret that I like talking finance at work and my co-workers know that. I try hard to not be a pest about it and pay attention to the conversation dynamic, so that when co-workers get the 1000 yard stare, I reel it back in. This constant talk of finance has finally started to get some good results. For instance, I’ve had a co-worker ask me to figure out whether or not paying PMI was worth it. We worked it up in ~10 minutes on my whiteboard and figured out that she’d be paying ~$13k over 4 yrs to PMI versus putting that same amount aside towards a down payment. She’s still saving for the 20% mortgage down payment instead of pulling the trigger on buying a home a year ago.

Other wins have been handing out 5 copies of the millionaire next door to younger colleagues, and getting good feedback on it after they’ve finished reading it. I’ve also been compiling an ever growing word document (for download below) with links to different blogs, investing sources, investing definitions, savings art links, etc… I keep the master and delete and add links as needed to cater to whatever question I get at the time. I’ve sent it out to my team, one of my supervisors, and more. It’s gotten positive feedback each time, so I just keep growing and editing it.

Yesterday came the biggest win of all so far! I mentor a younger person at work, and while we do talk a lot about work related things, one of the other things I keep talking about is investing now to give yourself choices later in life. I hadn’t felt too much success at any of this talk making any impression on my mentee, so I’d backed off on it and only offered advice when asked. I was super excited when I was recently asked about 401k elections and starting a taxable account outside of their 401k.

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Weddings and Finances – Perspective Changes Everything

This past weekend we attended my brother-in-law’s wedding at the Isle of Palms in South Carolina. All the planning had been done by “Jill” (now his wife) so that she could cut costs where necessary and still keep the wedding affordable. We got our flights booked early enough that they weren’t exorbitant. We also split a house with Mrs. SSC’s parents and Aunt to defray those costs. As a bonus, on the weekend of the wedding I found out that the father-in-law offered to cover the housing cost. That news was a nice surprise indeed! While I was expecting a nice, modest sort of ceremony, reception, etc… because of so much talk of “keeping the wedding affordable” man, was I surprised how this “affordable wedding” fit my version of a really nice wedding. It reminded me that you see the same differences in perspective of affordable and extravagant, whether you’re talking about planning a wedding or planning for retirement and financial independence.

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According to “Retirement Calculators” I’ll Never Retire…

Last week I was on some random PF site and I saw a retirement calculator at the bottom of their site. Just for grins I threw in some numbers similar to our projections and OMG was I surprised at the outcome. According to this calculator I won’t be able to retire – ever… I mean, this particular calculator said that I’d need $10 million to retire based on my inputs. Really, $10 million?! Because of course I can’t live off of less than $500k per year, I mean, seriously, who does that? Well for starters, we don’t and according to the Census Bureau the median household income was only ~$54k which is only $450k short of our “recommended” retirement goal. While these inputs weren’t specific to our numbers, they’re close enough that we can ground truth them with our personal retirement spreadsheet.
For these calculators to get those kinds of numbers, the assumptions they make have to be pretty ridiculous, but it makes me think that these calculators can be misleading for the uninitiated. The biggest discrepancy I see is that they don’t ask what your expected income level will be. I only found one calculator that let you put that in, and nope, it wasn’t at Vanguard. I know, I expected them to have a better version of a retirement calculator, but with the screenshots I snagged, we can see why it falls short.

Holy Crazy Assumptions Batman!

Let’s start with the calculator that sparked this whole post. Again, I don’t want to say where I found this or what company is running it, but just google “retirement calculator” and have fun playing with the different versions that are out there. This calculator basically took my assumed income (not really my income, but that would be nice) and the current savings input number (not our actual number but close enough to where we’d like to be at retirement to know if the calculator is telling the truth) and spit out a freaking ridiculous number. How ridiculous you ask? Well, let’s look at it. My assumed income is $200k/yr and evidently I need to save enough to spend $500k/yr because in 25 yrs (assuming I retire at 65) I’ll have more than doubled my spending rate, and hopefully income to support that lifestyle. How it thinks I will spend $42k/month, yes, $42k PER MONTH is mind boggling. Remember that according to the Census Bureau the median US household income is only $53k per year. PER YEAR… And this calculator is telling me that I’ll need to save enough to spend $42k per month?! Holy shit….

retirement calculator - crazy
Wow! Just, wow….
I’ll Never Retire…

No wonder people get dismayed when looking at retirement needs and savings levels. I’d be really discouraged if I thought this calculator was for real. I mean, to save $10.7 million I’d have to work another 110 yrs at our current savings levels. Actually to put it in real terms if I exclude compounding growth, I only need to save $376000 per year between now and when I turn 65. Oh yeah, you read that right. This calculator assumes I will magically gain a 53% increase in salary and be able to save ALL of it towards retirement. Wow, just wow… Who the F created this thing?!

Surely Vanguard Can Save Me?

So, I thought surely all calculators can’t be this bad, what about Vanguard, the crème de la crème of institutions that us FIRE folks love. Well, they don’t love early retirees that’s for sure. Evidently in their world you can’t retire before 50, yep, that’s the lowest age that their calculator goes. Boo… I can’t save more than 30% of my salary, because really, who does that? Oh yeah, us and probably most of the PF community. If you don’t save that much, don’t feel badly about it, that’s why it’s called “personal finance”. I’m just pointing out some flaws with their assumptions. I mean building a retirement calculator can’t be much different from building a house right? You start from nothing and design a blueprint, layout, and add all the bells and whistles. So why not make the age for retirement anything before 50 or savings rate anything over 30%? I’m no software engineer, but if you can cut it off at a certain point, why not set that point at a crazy range so people can estimate things outside the box of “early retiree is 50” and we can only save 30% of my income. At least they only assume I’ll spend 60% of my current income in retirement, which we don’t. Maybe closer to 25% of our income would be realistic, but not 60% otherwise, I’d have to work until I’m 65.

Close but no cigar!
Close but no cigar!
Bankrate’s Calculator – A Nice Way to View Retirement Projections

This fairly simple calculator from Bankrate had a different take on it. Basically, you put in your inputs and then it shows you waht your portfolio could generate in monthly income. So, again if you know your monthly needs, you can figure out what you may need to start with to get there.

bankrate calc
Not bad, Bankrate!
Really, MarketWatch has a nice Calculator? I’m Pleasantly Surprised

Then I found a nice calculator at Market Watch that didn’t set variables on anything. PLUS, it lets you calculate what you need for retirement income totally removed from assumptions based on what you make now. You can input your yearly retirement income needed based on your assumptions, not any random made up assumptions. Brilliant! PLUS, like the Bankrate calculator, it allows you to set inflation, tax rate, retirement tax rate, rate of return before and after retirement, I mean, it has it all. If you want a quick look at how doable your situation might be. Our spreadsheet also does this, but it gets so complicated explaining it, that um, yeah, this works great for me to play around with. You can see in this scenario we run out of “pre-60” money at 56 yrs old. Yipe! Granted, I could add more tweaks, and get really specific with our numbers and get a more realistic outcome, but the main point is that this is actually a good calculator.

Nice inputs!
Nice inputs!
Good detail and control.
Good detail and control.
What to do about that spending gap...
What to do about that spending gap…
Good income output, except for that darn gap...
Good income output, except for that darn gap…

If you want to play around with your numbers, I’d recommend using this one. Cfiresim also has a good calculating system, but it runs your data against all the historical data. So, if you hone in on a situation that you like using this Market Watch calculator, then you can plug the same data into Cfiresim and see how that plays out for you. It also lets you add in additional costs like estimating healthcare costs in the future, additional income and more.

Summary

We found that creating our own spreadsheet worked best for us. It’s grown and changed over the years, as we find different things we want to track, but it’s essentially our version of these 2 calculators. I rarely use it, but Mrs. SSC runs different scenarios on it about every other week. I just plug our data into one or both of these calculators and let it run and then discuss specifics with Mrs. SSC. I do use the spreadsheet but I often break it, so it’s good I’m only working with a copy, lol.

What about you? Do you use your own spreadsheet or a different retirement forecasting tool? How comfortable are you with the assumptions these online calculators make? Are they realistic for you or totally off base like I found? Let me know!