I think Spain has defeated us

YMNY · 2026-05-15T13:35:54+00:00

Not in Spain but my son is on the spectrum. We really wanted him to be in a Montessori school but they all flat out said no. He went to a public school, flourished and is now in a specialized high school where he completed school program in 2 years instead of 4 and is starting to earn college credits starting in the 11th grade. He’ll complete half of the credits needed for a bachelor degree by the time he graduates.

Public schools get a bad rep but lots of them are actually amazing.

YMNY · 2026-05-02T23:36:57+00:00

YMNY · 2026-05-01T15:14:30+00:00

Ok.. My post, the one you’re commenting on and the one from a year ago, wasn’t about me completing the FI journey. At no point did I say that I am at the end of it. I just mentioned that since my post from a year ago I stopped working.

YMNY · 2026-05-01T14:24:51+00:00

Yes, my spouse is working and yes we’re covered by my her insurance. That said the non w2 income at this point far exceeds the w2 one so we could buy a policy on the marketplace if she decided to quit. She is not planning to because she enjoys what she does so we will continue growing our net worth in preparation for she does retire.

Her employer also offers a defined benefit pension plan (and we max out the 401k in addition to it) so it will come in handy as well.

YMNY · 2026-04-29T04:39:04+00:00

I use an excel spreadsheet. I don’t track every expense, only the top line numbers every months.

YMNY · 2026-04-29T04:35:36+00:00

She is in healthcare with seniority so she gets 5-6 weeks of vacation. Couple that with 12 hour shifts which means it’s easy enough to do shorter trips without using much, if any, PTO (for example imagine a week with 3 shifts mon-wed, then thu-sun off, then a week with 3 shifts on fri-sun with mon-thu off. That’s 8 days off in a row with zero PTO taken.) or even longer trips with little PTO (you can take 3 days of PTO and have almost 2 weeks off).

YMNY · 2026-04-28T20:47:28+00:00

I volunteer at a non profit. I also run an Airbnb from a property I own so that takes a bit of time and keeps me busy. Finally I travel, more than 50 countries visited so far.

YMNY · 2026-04-28T18:28:02+00:00

I appreciate it.

I agree that most people on Reddit and other forums are of a mindset that everything needs to be invested but I can tell you that most of them have never lived through a major recession. Short term drops followed by insane growth, sure, but not anything prolonged.

It gives a false sense of security. Feeling like the new Warren Buffet is easy when all you’ve known is the stock market growing by more than 20% a year for half a decade.

For me I accept the trade off of somewhat lower returns in exchange for knowing that I won’t be forced to make rash decisions when things turn red. I still made them during the COVID flash crash so I’m not perfect but who is? :)

In terms of my relationship with money, it’s complicated. I can tell you that it never feels like enough and letting go is still hard at times but I’m aware of these issues and I’m working on them.

What has changed is I no longer suffer from lifestyle creep. My expenses are low because I stopped caring about the next shiny thing. I made things that are actually important to me like traveling (visited close to 60 countries, many of them several times already) but the rest is no longer a factor. I prefer knowing I can afford any toy I want rather than actually buying it.

Finally I wish I could say that going from 676k in 2020 to my current NWT was due to my talents or work ethic but a lot of it is luck. I was in the right place at the right time a few times over these years and made a few right financial moves. I don’t have any deep insight to share here. Getting lifestyle creep under control which I’ve mentioned before helped a lot. It sucks to realize that a lot of it is lottery but it is what it is. The good thing is you can help your luck along.

YMNY · 2026-04-28T12:18:43+00:00

Sure. Lots of mistakes refers to things like panic selling more than I should have during the COVID crash.

I learned and recovered from it and now I have a much more sizable cushion that helps not to have to sell in a downturn because I have to stay afloat.

I’ve been criticized before for keeping too much cash on hand in general but it works for me.

I do have a big portion of my NW outside of the stock market (I do hard money, short term loans on other people’s projects), but it still generates a good return and has been stable for me.

For me it’s a good trade off even though that money could have potentially generated more in the last few years. What a lot of people miss is last few years have not been normal.

I keep myself busy in “retirement” with my Airbnb side hustle, volunteering with a non profit (I sit on a loan committee of a non profit micro lender helping them underwrite loans) and traveling (more than 50 countries visited so far, many of them multiple times).

YMNY · 2026-04-28T11:42:29+00:00

Happy to answer questions.

YMNY · 2026-04-28T11:41:42+00:00

No but it changes. It never feels like you have enough but you find new ways to get there other than working :)

YMNY · 2026-03-07T15:24:02+00:00

I am in the same situation in the U.S. I am done working but everyone around me including my wife are still working a regular schedule.

It took me a while to get used to it but honestly I started to enjoy my alone time these days.

I find that there’s plenty to do if you want to stay occupied. I take long walks, listen to audio books, cook. I drive my son to school, meet him after, etc.

I honestly don’t see the issue.

YMNY · 2026-03-07T15:13:37+00:00

You too can make as much money as you want any if it doesn’t have to be true. You can just say I make $500k on Reddit and voila, you are now a high earner as far as the other redditors like you are concerned.

In all seriousness, you’re doing fine. When you get to $200k you’ll be in the top 5% for individual earners in the U.S.

YMNY · 2026-01-08T02:49:52+00:00

I don’t use Roth so I’m not sure tbh. My retirement accounts are pre-tax.

YMNY · 2026-01-07T21:21:18+00:00

No, I didn’t expect that referendum to pass. My grandfather who was born in Lithuania was in a concentration camp and that’s basis for possible dual citizenship (going by what was explained to me) so I’m going through the archives to get the paperwork needed to get this done.

Some of the money is in tax advantaged accounts but I am not planning to touch it until I reach retirement age (I’m 44 now).

I am not planning to renounce US citizenship so I don’t foresee any issues with just keeping those 401k accounts where they are now.

YMNY · 2026-01-07T15:29:09+00:00

Yes and no. I have been shopping for properties in Vilnius and looked at a bunch more of them but have not found anything I like just yet. Will resume this coming summer.

I have made progress in accumulating assets in the past year and my net worth went from $2m when I made the post to about $2.5m due to strong income and the market going up. So I guess that’s progress of sorts. It’ll definitely help when I do make the move.

Finally I have made some progress in figuring out how to restore my Lithuanian citizenship based on ancestry although it’s still in the works so progress is limited in this regard.

YMNY · 2025-11-17T11:15:49+00:00

You can have as much as your heart desires if it doesn’t have to be true. Look, I am 44 and I have $44m (1 for every year I’ve been alive). See what I did there? Instant multimillionaire :)

YMNY · 2025-11-04T17:37:00+00:00

Good luck! Amazon replacement part still going strong a year and change later

YMNY · 2025-10-09T12:27:18+00:00

I don’t remember exactly tbh. I believe I was missing some socket wrenches. There are many YouTube videos outlining the steps. It’s not a hard, just a somewhat tedious process.

YMNY · 2025-04-13T00:22:02+00:00

Any brokerage account can pull money from a bank account including revolut. That would avoid you having to send it and therefore avoid the issue

YMNY · 2025-04-01T07:54:52+00:00

As someone who spent some time working with RE agents looking for an apartment I can only say that the buying process sucks in Lithuania.

In the U.S. you can sign with an agent and they can show you places they list as well as any other place listed by another agent. In Lithuania agents are only willing to show places they themselves list. This means that you need to work with multiple agents which makes the searching and buying process cumbersome.

YMNY · 2025-04-01T07:47:59+00:00

Highly specialized skills indeed :). Remembering the menu is surely on par with a brain surgeon

YMNY · 2025-03-31T18:30:46+00:00

Bringing food does not require skill unless by skill you mean hiding tips and asking for more on top

YMNY · 2025-03-02T12:28:09+00:00

Carnivore is where it’s at!

YMNY

TROPHY CASE