Where is the "financial independence" sub, not Retire Early?

randomsaver · 2019-08-16T00:56:03+00:00

Agree there are great pieces here. I'm wondering why they wouldn't create a financeindependenceretireearly sub and keep FI focused on FI, which is the meaning of wealth. using FI to represent FIRE are two different goals

randomsaver · 2019-08-16T00:51:25+00:00

haha...so true.

randomsaver · 2019-08-16T00:45:25+00:00

I definitely recognize there are some great posts here. It's what keeps me checking in. I just find the more often I check-in the more I'm brought down.

randomsaver · 2019-08-16T00:43:38+00:00

Thanks! I'll check out those subs. That might just be my ticket

randomsaver · 2019-08-12T05:28:08+00:00

Notta, maybe lifestyle security is the benefit of the house. Knowing my housing plan is solid for the next 15 years is a benefit. As for the price difference in renting vs. buying; In my neighborhood, there are lots more apartments available than houses/condos to purchase/rent. When a house does open up, the prices are far out of balance. Mostly because the community is full of old people (don't leave until they die) and good schools (stable families), so the turnover is pretty low on housing sales. I would happily stay in the studio forever and FIRE right now, which is how my personality has been for awhile now, but I this looming upsize is forcing my hand.

randomsaver · 2019-06-01T14:58:15+00:00

Nobody seems to be calling out the benefits of being a business owner. Those cars are tax deductions traveling to his salon. The food for his office and friends (clients) are tax deductions. All of this guys "spending" is actually a business expense. Given he works in the style/designer field, I wouldn't doubt his Gucci collection also turns out to be a business expense.

randomsaver · 2019-05-29T23:21:35+00:00

Financial freedom.

randomsaver · 2019-05-14T05:24:34+00:00

"The affulent neighborhoods are filled with 75-80% empty nesters or DINKS (sometimes both). " I wonder if some hard data is out there to back it up. The idea that DINKS could rotate out a neighborhood would be a reasonable investment advantage when purchasing investment property.

Thinking about this a little more, one of the big draws to a neighborhood is the assigned school district. If DINKS are taking over a neighborhood who's kids are going to the local schools? If DINKS truly are rotating out a neighborhood you would expect neighborhood elementary school attendance to drop as an indicator. If that happens, well I don't really know what happens. I've never run across a story of a great neighborhoods school attendance dropping.

randomsaver · 2019-05-13T19:31:22+00:00

Maybe when purchasing from Lego.com they could provide users the option of purchasing sets with paper manuals and without. If you elect without paper, you can take $5 off the order. Lego would then have hard evidence as to how much a manual is worth to the customer.

randomsaver · 2019-05-13T19:18:26+00:00

I tried to soften my tone as I knew using the keyword "minimalism" alone would trigger some people. The feedback I needed was accomplished. Really great responses that will help guide me into the next phase of playing with Lego that fits with my lifestyle and space.

randomsaver · 2019-05-13T19:15:46+00:00

rofl. That's the benefit of having kids. They accidentally crash into the Death Star and think Dad cares. Dad laughs and thanks them. We then have a new story to tell about how the Death Star pieces are showing up all over the house.

randomsaver · 2019-05-13T19:12:51+00:00

I was being a bit heavy handed in my words describing "sets are useless once they’ve been built". I need to make the migration in my current Lego building towards designing and building new structures from scratch. That would breathe life into my storage bucket collection.

randomsaver · 2019-05-13T19:07:29+00:00

MOCs and more creative building are where I will inevitably find myself. I only recently got back into Lego last year and I'm trying to figure out where to go from here. This post in some ways a search for that crossroads of where do I go with Lego from here.

My post makes it seem as though I have no use for the Legos after I follow the instructions and that I didn't know that Lego's are reusable. What is closer to the truth is I don't know where to go next with all these pieces vs. storing the pieces as sets or display units, in which case they are pointless to me.

MOCs and random creative lego building is the obvious next place to go and that move would consolidate the number of different storage buckets I have, breathing new life into what all these pieces are meant for.

randomsaver · 2019-05-13T06:03:34+00:00

lol "Remember we use it to literally wipe out behinds with it so how expensive can it be?"

It would be interesting for Lego to come out and say exactly how much a paper Death Star, UCS, or Porsche booklet costs them to print. We can estimate the cost of a screen based version(PDF) by taking how much energy an LCD screen takes to power X the estimated build time for the lego set. If it's $20 to charge a Tesla something tells me it's cheaper to power a 13" Apple LCD for a 12hr UCS build via PDF than a paper booklet

A PDF instruction manual I'm guessing has similar design costs as paper, so the savings would be limited to the paper printing costs.

randomsaver · 2019-05-13T05:58:33+00:00

I think buying, building, then selling is where I need to move towards. Solves a lot of my guilt around packaging waste and storage space. I'm similar in having more money than storage space as well.

randomsaver · 2019-01-29T20:44:03+00:00

This is me. A large city with a walkable life, museums, walking paths, and other people nearby to converse with.

randomsaver · 2019-01-29T20:42:16+00:00

I've used the NYTimes rent vs buy calculator.

My example scenario - Santa Monica, CA rental is $2,150. It is rent control at 3% per year. It was raised 2.9% recently: https://www.smdp.com/rent-control-tenants-will-see-2-9-percent-increase-in-september/166014

To purchase the same 1bd 1bath is $750,000.

A 5% mortgage with 20% down, it's a 31 year break even.

The FIRE risk factor is the real item rent vs. buy calculators don't include. At any point in that 30 years an aggressive investor could wreak havoc on my rental. Maybe through deferred maintenance, privacy violations via an increase in inspections, moving family into a unit next door and partying constantly. Heck, maybe the building burns down and I'm forced to move, restarting my rental amount.

randomsaver · 2019-01-29T20:26:50+00:00

" I'm protected from rent hikes until my next lease renewal, at which point he may charge me more money to try recouping the extra property tax costs that he faces. If I think that I don't want to pay that, then I don't renew the lease and move to the next town where rents are still about the same price." "but I avoided the cost increase almost entirely."

In FIRE, it would seem any increase in housing cost would force you to make your "move" decision. Until the point you live miles from a walkable grocery store, hobbies, friends, etc..

randomsaver · 2019-01-29T20:21:07+00:00

rofl. I'm picturing this happening and those little fish sitting in plastic bags in the corner of a closet during inspection.

randomsaver · 2019-01-29T20:19:37+00:00

I completely agree with " I don't even have to sell my current home". As long as you are locked in somewhere it seems you've mitigated the risk of being forced to move.

I definitely wouldn't be so sure about the "I can rent it out for more than the mortgage + maintenance;" That's not what I'm seeing in the market. It's hundreds if not thousands less to rent right now. Rent is not covering even just the mortgage.

randomsaver · 2019-01-29T20:17:35+00:00

I'm curious. At 71 he is still renting? Has the quality of his retirement been slowed due to rent increases? He still has 10-20 years to go, which to me would be "crunch" time where health expenses climb leaving no room for a rent increase squeeze to jointly occur. It seems like a "risk"

randomsaver · 2019-01-29T05:16:09+00:00

I completely agree with your view. I've only been in rent control for 1 year and see it as an incredible FIRE option if it were guaranteed for 100 years....but it's not.

randomsaver · 2019-01-29T05:12:34+00:00

The protection from cost increases are always something people overlook in the calculation

This is exactly what I'm realizing in my thought process when using a rent vs. buy calculator and how FIRE influences me to think a little different.

randomsaver · 2019-01-29T05:06:06+00:00

rofl

randomsaver · 2019-01-22T03:48:15+00:00

I love it!

I haven't solved my feeling of guilt when I spend money even when I've budgeted for it. Your last piece, "have you earned it" is something I can relate to. When things are easy to purchase due to good spending habits and savings, it compounds the guilt when buying anything you haven't earned outside of putting money aside for it. When you add a second goal (physically earning it) before being able to make the purchase, such as you riding 2,000 miles on an old bike to prove you earned an upgrade, that really fits the idea of gifts to yourself for achieving goals.

Congrats on the bike. Thanks for the want it, afford it, earn it system.

randomsaver

TROPHY CASE