The Awakening - 1. Days to Freedom. 15. Days to Freedom. My goal is to retire in 1. I am writing this on January 1, 2. I’ll sail off into the sunset of early retirement in February of 2. The three parts you are about to read are my manifesto. Part 1 details how I arrived at this blog. Part II discusses the way you need to think in order to retire early. Part III breaks out my financial situation and the goals of the blog. I. The awakening. Sunrise in Kauai. My life was good. I had a job that paid well. I had 2 good kids and a good wife. I had 2 decent cars in a middle class enclave with nice neighbors. We were smart with our money. I maxed out my 4. When housing was going gangbusters and before we had kids, my wife and I flipped houses. The French and Indian War (1754-1763) Pre-Revolutionary America (1763-1776) The American Revolution (1754–1781) The Declaration of Independence (1776) Building the State (1781-1797) The Articles of Confederation (1781-1789. The Asian-American Awakening: That Moment When You Realize You’re Not White October 16, 2013. Directed by Penny Marshall. With Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Julie Kavner, Ruth Nelson. The victims of an encephalitis epidemic many years ago have been catatonic ever since, but now a new drug offers the prospect of.
We would buy older, outdated homes and spruce them up. We would live in them for a couple years, therefore not incurring any taxes on our gains and make a nice profit. We had kids; two beautiful girls. I planned to raise them as best I could and send them on their way. I planned to retire in my 6. My life was ordinary and very similar to most everyone else. Right around 2. 01. I started reading the Get Rich Slowly blog. The author, JD Roth, discussed how he attained early retirement by abandoning the ridiculous, debt intensive, consumerist lifestyle that most people seem to embrace. Money Muchtache, The Simple Dollar, Brave New Life and Early Retirement Extreme all started to open my eyes to another way. The common thread was that financial independence early in life isn. Not only did most of these folks attain early retirement, but they did it without huge sacrifice. I was now suddenly aware of an alternate universe where people in their 3. Again, I have to reiterate; no get- rich- quick schemes; just smart decisions along with intelligent saving and investing. Some people will call the tweaks a compromise or too much to give up. Those people are still asleep and haven? I enjoy my work, so I. What I do know though is that I want the freedom to choose! By rejecting a consumerist lifestyle and putting in a little hard work, you can set yourself free from the Matrix to live life on your terms. What could be better? This is it. You get one life and one shot. Make the most of your time and live it the best you possibly can. Evaluate your value system carefully and figure out what is most important to you. Realizing this is your first step out of the Matrix. Take the red pill and follow me. II. What really matters. Think about the happiest, most meaningful times in your life. Seriously, think about it for a day or a week or a month if necessary. Write these times down and then come back and read about mine. OK, ready? Here is my personal braindump: I remember the holidays as a child. I remember my grandparents coming over on Thanksgiving and Christmas. We would all sit down for a wonderful, homemade dinner and enjoy everyone’s company. I remember our family vacations. They weren’t extravagant affairs. Sometimes we’d go camping and sleep in tents or the back of our pickup truck. We’d swim during the day and have camp fires at night. I remember the joy I felt in college when I worked my ass off and earned As in difficult classes like organic chemistry and calculus. I felt on top of the world when I graduated at the top of my class in a difficult major. I remember meeting my wife for the first time. We argued about pro- wrestling. That may sound a bit strange, but we clicked. I remember my first child being born. She came out purple and quickly changed to a normal color after she took her first breath. She seemed to look around, wondering where the heck she was and what was going on. I remember my second child being born. She came out, took a deep breath and started screaming. I remember thinking “How can something so tiny make such a loud sound?” She didn’t stop screaming for almost 4. I remember all of the crazy things our kids have said. Do caterpillars fart? Does thunder have legs? When I grow up, I want to be a banana! Standing in the mist of 3. None involve possessions or buying stuff. Not only do materialistic pursuits not generate long term happiness, but they are actually detrimental. If you have to work long hours to support a material lifestyle, what are you giving up? Are you going to miss your child? No one ever said on their deathbed (except maybe Steve Jobs) . This is the fundamental principle of this blog. If you think that you need expensive things to make yourself happy, reevaluate your life. I’ve seen people who buy things to fill an emotional void in their life. Find a different way to fill that void. III. The goal: $1,0. What would it take for me to retire early? I did some number crunching and a whole ton of research. Here are the main points: How much money do we need?: My wife and I wrote all of our expenses in a book. Every time we returned from shopping or paid a bill, we logged it (more on this in a future post). Based on our logs, we can live on $2. This is assuming no mortgage or other debt. This must be paid off. The 4% rule is a really good guideline and the one that I will stick to. Based on the 4% rule, I need about $8. I’ll also be contributing $2,0. I fired up this little investment calendar and ran my numbers. Here is what I came up with: So, not quite $1,0. I expect to be able to increase the amount I put in per month over time, so that will make up for the slight shortfall. Possible challenges. Getting canned: Should I lose my job, I may have to use my savings to live on. I am a contractor and my current contract runs through the end of 2. Stock market taking a dump: If the US is attacked again or we have another economic meltdown, my portfolio will sink. Possible upsides. Real estate: I. From crunching the numbers, I feel that I can purchase rentals that will generate me significant income from the start. More on this later. Stockmarket: The past four years have been pretty miserable. I do believe the next four will be better. Sidejobs: As a computer programmer, I often am able to get side jobs. Some come from friends, some come from Craigslist. I create, such as writing smart phone apps. More on this in a different blog. Where do we go from here? Here is what I want to do with this blog: I. At the beginning of each quarter, I’ll tell you how I’m doing here. I have too much money in the stock market now, but will be branching out into rental properties shortly and detailing it all. I’ll tell you about Lending Club and Prosper. I really like both of these sites as income generators. I’ll get on my soapbox frequently about rejecting consumerism. Learn from their stupidity. There is a better way. I’ll tell you how to save money. Most of the people I know make bad decisions about money. I will give real- life examples of this, and tell you how I think they should be changed. The real millionaires are the ones next door. I’ll give you examples of what works. However, I also want to learn from you. Please contact me with any thoughts, your story, suggestions, comments. I’d love to hear from you! Happy saving! Big Sur: If this doesn’t inspire you, nothing will! Broadway Show Tickets.
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