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That Bus commute time is not bad for a 20 minute commute. That's how far I drive to work and it takes, at best, 35 minutes. And that's if I manage to catch every green light and there's no traffic. I say go for it a couple times and see if it's reliable enough.
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Nov 25, 2014 23:11
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| # ? May 17, 2024 01:27 |
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Thread should be changed to Financial Independence/Frugality thread. In practice people focus most of their discussion upon the frugality part of FI anyway, since the investing part is pretty simple and easy if you're just doing a standard allocation of index funds, and career advice tends to be only narrowly applicable. Frugality and Financial Independence: Every (Wo)Man a Mustachian
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Nov 25, 2014 23:31
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Pretty much what I concluded when I wrote my post. There is scope for people to update things they have done to boost their investments/income.
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Nov 26, 2014 00:12
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Agreed on thread title change. I would put FI before Frugality though, since the goal of our particular brand of frugality is FI. People may live frugally for other reasons, with no plans to become FI. Also, I feel bad for you folks that live so far away from work with lovely route options. I live 5 KM away from work, with no speed limits above 50 KM/h. Most of my route has very little traffic - the one street that I do hit traffic on, it's usually bumper-to-bumper, with me whizzing by in the (unprotected) bike lane. My city is far from a cycling utopia, but I'm feeling good about it after the last string of posts. Also, my next house that I buy will likely be even closer to work, and everything else!
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Nov 26, 2014 18:06
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I feel like my city will eventually progress to the point where I could bike to work/use the rail but as things are I don't mind wasting the gas. I will definitely look for jobs a little closer next time I need one. I would probably only save $100 bucks a month but switching even if I got my wife on board.
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Nov 26, 2014 18:33
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:I would probably only save $100 bucks a month *record scratch* What is that "only" doing there? I can't think of many cuts I wouldn't make to free up $1200/yr. I mean, I live in a reasonably bike-friendly city and it turns out I really enjoy biking (I actually only came in to the office today because I'd get to ride my bike in) but hell, I'm making much deeper cuts to my lifestyle for significantly less savings.
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Nov 26, 2014 20:50
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Dessert Rose posted:I'm making much deeper cuts to my lifestyle for significantly less savings. I would genuinely love to hear about some of them, if you don't mind.
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Nov 26, 2014 21:03
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Dessert Rose posted:*record scratch* Yeah, you're right. Transportation is like the last thing I can really cut from my life that would save some significant change and benefit my health/lifestyle at the same time. I'm much closer to the rail than I used to be maybe I'll go for it next week when I get back from vacation.
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Nov 26, 2014 21:37
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Inverse Icarus posted:I would genuinely love to hear about some of them, if you don't mind. I dropped my internet speed from 50mbit for 80/mo to 7mbit for 30; I am basically slowly freezing myself this winter to save 50-100/mo on electricity; I've started making food for myself from Costco potatoes, veggies, rice, etc rather than eating out most nights or getting delivery, which isn't as easy to estimate yet since I did have the up-front cost of the membership and initial buy of staples, but looks to be at least 100/mo. Taking lunch to work rather than eating at the cafe a couple of days a week will probably give me another 60-80/mo. I'm also giving up my place downtown for somewhere much cheaper, smaller and closer to work; that's 400/mo. I've stopped buying ebooks; I got off my rear end and went to the library and picked up a card. That's probably 20/mo, and since I plan to start reading actual books more instead of Internet junk information it could work out to more like 40-50; I read fast. I cancelled the data plan on my iPad and am using tethering to my phone instead; 30/mo. Less quantifiably, I'm not buying random apps and games as often, nor buying whatever new piece of music gear strikes my fancy, nor TV shows/movies on iTunes. I think my last iTunes bill was 150 in a month, which is more than I'd pay to just loving have cable and HBO. So now if I want to watch Girls I'm going to have to chase down someone else who has HBO. Also, the aforementioned biking most everywhere, which is kind of a big deal since I live on a huge hill and my ebike conversion parts don't show up until January (drat shipping from China). I was already avoiding driving my car to the tune of only needing 50/mo for gas but I hope to move to making a tank last two months at a time. So I guess I was being a bit hyperbolic; most of the cuts I'm making aren't too extreme (though the me from two years ago might have a different opinion on that score) for pretty significant gains. I haven't given up my iPhone yet but I plan on keeping this one for the next 3-4 years (usually I upgrade every other year, this year was an exception and was one of the things that caused me to take a serious look at what I was doing with my money); given that T-Mo got wifi calling integrated into the OS I expect Republic to be iPhone compatible in the next couple years. I also don't plan on upgrading any of my computers for quite a while yet (none are less than 3 years old) which probably saves me like 300 every year I don't get the new shiny. I have a 360 and I have a backlog of amazing games on that thing that will last me probably well into the next generation pulling from the :tenbux: used bin. On that front I'm mostly just flexing the "I don't actually need that" muscle a lot more, delaying purchases until it's clear it is actually needed in my house. It helps to realize that as I acquire all this crap I then have to have a place to store it and it weighs me down so it's harder for me to move. My target is to get under 30k spent next year. That'll be over a 70% savings rate which puts me on track to be FI in a little less than 5 years. Depending on bonuses and raises and such at work. My stated goal is 2020 because it's a nice round number. I'm also planning to spend more of my time writing code for my own projects so I can get some more passive income coming in from the App Store; I have a single app on there already that pays for my dev license, if I actually shipped a couple more I could be pulling in 50+/mo which would be pretty rad. Sephiroth_IRA posted:Yeah, you're right. Transportation is like the last thing I can really cut from my life that would save some significant change and benefit my health/lifestyle at the same time. I'm much closer to the rail than I used to be maybe I'll go for it next week when I get back from vacation. The thing that really blew my mind when I started looking into this was how eating well, being healthy/fit and being frugal actually all support each other. I was eating like poo poo, driving tons of places and spending way too much money to do it. Now I'm eating actual food made from base ingredients, I'm enjoying doing so, it's better for me, and I'm getting free exercise when going places ... and it costs me significantly less money. It feels somehow like cheating. It feels really weird when I talk to people that haven't had this revelation and are still in the "I like buying whatever crap gadgets come out because I want to experience all life has to offer" place. They show me their neat new expensive point and shoot digital camera or their new xbox and I'm like ... yep, that sure is some shiny stuff. Technology moves so fast that I feel like I can take a five year break and basically not miss a thing. Dessert Rose fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Nov 26, 2014 |
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Nov 26, 2014 22:49
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Doesn't Amazon have some sort of unlimited ebooks thing for 10 bucks a month? I just checked, I'm under 30k spent for the year, but a good portion of that is the fact that I split rent with my fiance. Though I'm at like 60% savings. I did pretty much prepay half the honeymoon already though. I also just put up the plastic on the windows for the winter. It's crazy how effective that poo poo is. I could feel the cold air coming in through the gaps as I slowly sealed the window.
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Nov 27, 2014 00:05
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Dessert Rose posted:The thing that really blew my mind when I started looking into this was how eating well, being healthy/fit and being frugal actually all support each other. I was eating like poo poo, driving tons of places and spending way too much money to do it. Now I'm eating actual food made from base ingredients, I'm enjoying doing so, it's better for me, and I'm getting free exercise when going places ... and it costs me significantly less money. Yeah, I'm going through this change at the moment. I bought this little egg cooker thing ($12 bucks) so I could make boiled eggs in the microwave (they're loving perfect every time) at work (no stove) and everything just clicked after that. First it was the eggs, then I was bringing groceries from home, then I switched to carbonated water, then I started making my own carbonated water and now I feel like a free man. I feel like I'm completely 100% free of sodas for life, I'm eating/feeling better than ever, saving money and it's all easy. So yeah, if there was a time I could try to bike to work/public transit it would be now. Dessert Rose posted:It feels really weird when I talk to people that haven't had this revelation and are still in the "I like buying whatever crap gadgets come out because I want to experience all life has to offer" place. They show me their neat new expensive point and shoot digital camera or their new xbox and I'm like ... yep, that sure is some shiny stuff. The only thing that makes me laugh is that they're not really getting anything new out of it as far as I can tell. It's like those people that think they need the most expensive laptop they can buy every few years when they're just going to be browsing facebook and using microsoft office except now they're buying phones. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Nov 27, 2014 |
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Nov 27, 2014 00:10
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Really easy way to hit a 50% savings rate: have ~1/2 your income be split from the rest because it is given as a year end bonus, comes from freelancing, or is from stock options. Mental accounting is a wonderful thing. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_accounting
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Nov 27, 2014 00:20
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:then I started making my own carbonated water Details please. There's a good sale on a SodaStream model that I've had my eye on for a while, and I'm waffling about whether or not it would be a good buy. Being able to carbonate things (like coffee. carbonated espresso is amazing) instead of paying for seltzer water/soda might be worth it, but I'm trying to flex the impulse resistance muscles. I recently got a relatively expensive rice cooker ("used"; it was $50 less and it turned out to be new in box with all the paperwork so hey, free $50) and am making brown and white rice and steaming vegetables simultaneously basically all the time now. I could have gotten by with my previous rice cooker but it was a cheap piece of crap and rice is my favorite staple because of how versatile it is. It's easily paid its cost back in the last month with how much I'm eating not-garbage. I just put some rice and water in a bowl, swirl it around a bunch to rinse it, cut up and toss some vegetables in a different bowl, press a button and an hour later I have a meal that cost like $2 and can feed me and two friends. Sephiroth_IRA posted:The only thing that makes me laugh is that they're not really getting anything new out of it as far as I can tell. It's like those people that think they need the most expensive laptop they can buy every few years when they're just going to be browsing facebook and using microsoft office except now they're buying phones. This is what made me giggle about the camera. Like, this person also had a really nice phone which I assume has a good camera on it (and if not, then their phone is actually poo poo). Why does anyone need a dedicated point and shoot camera in 2014?
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Nov 27, 2014 00:24
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:The only thing that makes me laugh is that they're not really getting anything new out of it as far as I can tell. It's like those people that think they need the most expensive laptop they can buy every few years when they're just going to be browsing facebook and using microsoft office except now they're buying phones. When I was younger I spent a lot on fancy home built computers. I probably paid too much for some parts that I used, and at least I used each one to destruction. Now I don't get so worried about having high end parts (although it's easier now as the cpu and gpu don't matter as much for gaming). This is the best time in a long time to buy computers and devices to use for a long time. However, people tend to churn through electronics a lot. Especially smart phones/devices that seem to crap out a lot (or get dropped in the toilet). Dessert Rose posted:This is what made me giggle about the camera. Like, this person also had a really nice phone which I assume has a good camera on it (and if not, then their phone is actually poo poo). Why does anyone need a dedicated point and shoot camera in 2014? Given how poo poo people are at taking photos a point and shoot is not worth it. They need something that will fix all of their mistakes for them which is best served by a phone. A DSLR makes sense if you are a photographer or a film maker. Outside of those hobbies/businesses there's no need unless you are old and don't understand these electronic thingamajigs. Devian666 fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Nov 27, 2014 |
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Nov 27, 2014 00:33
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Really nice DSLR cameras are not replicated by smartphone cameras.
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Nov 27, 2014 00:34
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Yeah, my wife and I had gotten a soda stream about a year ago and it just ended up in our closet after I lost interest in it. Then I recently started buying carbonated waters with natural flavor and got hooked on those after a week. I realized I was dumping a lot of money into them and remembered that I had a soda stream. It turned out the natural flavor doesn't really add much to the water so it was easy to switch. If you get hooked on it apparently the C02 canister is designed to only work with Soda Stream and they're way overpriced but you can buy a little adapter for larger c02 canisters and refill them yourself. Devian666 posted:When I was younger I spent a lot on fancy home built computers. I probably paid too much for some parts that I used, and at least I used each one to destruction. Yeah I'm guilty of this as well. I would build a PC for one new release, play it for a few months and then go back to spending most of my game time using emulators, indie games, and stuff you can find on GOG games that was designed for DOS. Dessert Rose posted:I recently got a relatively expensive rice cooker ("used"; it was $50 less and it turned out to be new in box with all the paperwork so hey, free $50) and am making brown and white rice. How long does it (your rice cooker) take to cook brown rice. What kind of brown rice do you use? Whenever I see brown rice at the supermarket it just looks like white rice with a different color and doesn't seem more nutritious. My impression is the good stuff is probably at a specialty/foreign grocery store. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Nov 27, 2014 |
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Nov 27, 2014 00:35
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silvergoose posted:Really nice DSLR cameras are not replicated by smartphone cameras. Yes, of course. It was a point and shoot. You could control it with a phone app, which made me laugh more. Sephiroth_IRA posted:Yeah, my wife and I had gotten a soda stream about a year ago and it just ended up in our closet after I lost interest in it. Then I recently started buying carbonated waters with natural flavor and got hooked on those after a week. I realized I was dumping a lot of money into them and remembered that I had a soda stream. It turned out the natural flavor doesn't really add much to the water so it was easy to switch. Sephiroth_IRA posted:How long does it (your rice cooker) take to cook brown rice. What kind of brown rice do you use? A little less than two hours, which is a really long time for rice, but it comes out fantastically and you can set a timer to start cooking two hours before you plan to be home. I got a five pound bag of organic brown rice from Costco, which is delicious, (along with a 25lb bag of sushi rice) but I'm really holding out for another giant 25lb bag of brown rice. Brown rice is almost always nutritionally superior to white rice - I've always had the guideline "don't eat anything white". There's tons of fiber and other nutrients in there, even in the supermarket stuff. White rice has had tons of nutrients bleached out of it; it's not as bad as white bread but it's still a distinct difference. It really comes down to whether you dislike the texture/flavor of brown rice - it is a bit chewier and it has a more distinct flavor, but I happen to like both of those things. If it's texture you want to fix, look for short grain brown rice, it'll be a little bit closer to what you may be used to with white rice. I end up making white rice more often than I thought, actually, because it's easier to steam vegetables at the same time, and most recipes call for white. I have almost mastered making rice pudding at this point because I make two cups and then use half in some pudding. It continues to blow my mind how many different things you can make with the same ingredients.
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Nov 27, 2014 01:04
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Dessert Rose posted:Technology moves so fast that I feel like I can take a five year break and basically not miss a thing. My roommate/tenant was talking to me about how he needs a new monitor while he was smoking a joint in the garage as I replaced the brake pads on my commuter bike. I was just nodding along, listening to him talk about how his current one doesn't do "true black" anymore. If he does get a new one, I'll have to expect rent to be two weeks late again the following month...  He also just bought a second SSD. I guess I'm on the wrong forum to complain about someone's silly technology purchases, but man...no self control, and no appreciation for the simple things in life.
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Nov 27, 2014 02:52
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Rick Rickshaw posted:My roommate/tenant was talking to me about how he needs a new monitor while he was smoking a joint in the garage as I replaced the brake pads on my commuter bike. You need the companion thread to this thread.
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Nov 27, 2014 03:10
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If this was computer janitor subforum you'd be executed. Maybe the monitor is justified but the second SSD is kind of stupid though. I still have an Intel SSD I bought about four years ago and it's still going strong. I guess I'll have to put that down to trying to build computer equity.
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Nov 27, 2014 03:11
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Don't admit that over in the SSD thread. They'll guilt you into replacing it if you care about your data.
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Nov 27, 2014 03:22
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Saint Fu posted:Don't admit that over in the SSD thread. They'll guilt you into replacing it if you care about your data. How will I ever cope if I lose the operating system and some data that can just be downloaded again. That is if the server copy of my home pc is broken.
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Nov 27, 2014 03:25
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What kind of savings rate do you have? For some reason I never calculated this before. I calculated 53.5% for myself now, and in my younger days it must have been closer to 60-65%, since I had roommates (but also made less). I guess having a live in girl friend who pays rent would be good with money? poo poo, cutting half my rent alone would bump me to 65%. But I'll be damned if I live with roommates again. Maybe.
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Nov 27, 2014 03:34
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Chadzok posted:tuyop, I love that sentiment. gently caress perfect, you can't possibly account for every eventuality.
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Nov 27, 2014 03:48
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If you have to buy computer equipment, a (second) monitor is one of the most reasonable in terms of quality of life improvement. I think only the chair is more important. "True black" is a silly reason but it makes more sense to me than "new gpu 9000".
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Nov 27, 2014 03:53
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:If you have to buy computer equipment, a (second) monitor is one of the most reasonable in terms of quality of life improvement. I think only the chair is more important. "True black" is a silly reason but it makes more sense to me than "new gpu 9000". I've recently been using a single monitor exclusively instead of dual monitors, and I find it means that I'm less distracted. There was an article about this recently: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/technology/personaltech/surviving-and-thriving-in-a-one-monitor-world.html?_r=0
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Nov 27, 2014 04:54
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Well, yeah, if you bring up distractions on a second monitor, you're going to be distracted.
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Nov 27, 2014 13:46
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District Selectman posted:What kind of savings rate do you have? For some reason I never calculated this before. I calculated 53.5% for myself now, and in my younger days it must have been closer to 60-65%, since I had roommates (but also made less). I guess having a live in girl friend who pays rent would be good with money? poo poo, cutting half my rent alone would bump me to 65%. But I'll be damned if I live with roommates again. Maybe. I calculated around 82%, but my wages are actually pretty low, so 82% of only 1700/mo (after taxes and withholdings) ends up being not that much. I live at home with my family, though!
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Nov 27, 2014 15:52
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Do you guys include your 401K/RRSP/pension employer matching as part of your income being saved? What about mortgage principal payments? I'm at 63%, which doesn't include the employer match, but does include my mortgage principal payment as savings. 66% if I include employer match as part of my income saved. I've cut so much bullshit out of my life that I'm not left with much more to cut, which is a good place to be I guess. The only big changes I could make to increase that to 70-80% would be to add another roommate in my basement, which I may do, but not right now. My smartphone bill sucks. Would love to cut that out, but I work for the government and I can't morally justify taking the work phone they offered me. I don't really need it for my job. And I'm overpaid as it is.
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Nov 27, 2014 17:38
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Rick Rickshaw posted:... I think that is OK to take!
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Nov 27, 2014 17:55
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Computerchat: I built my computer in 2008 for about 1000 bucks when I played a lot of games. Got one of the best cases, motherboards, and power supplies I could find to future proof it while using last-gen CPU/GPU since that stuff gets obsolete fast. In 2012 I spent another 200 to upgrade CPU/GPU/RAM so it could handle newer games reasonably well. Since my computer is mostly used for MS office/Firefox/the occasional older game now I figure I have another few years of life left, but I could have done worse than 120/year for a gaming rig. E: my personal savings rate is currently something like 70% of take home, but a lot of things are deducted from pay (pension, rent share, health/life insurance) so that figure is skewed upwards. I score some awesome bonuses while working out of country so I'm saving/investing as much as I can, because when it ends in a couple years I'll maybe be able to save 40-50% at best (while taking a significant QOL/COL hit to boot).
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Nov 27, 2014 19:11
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Guest2553 posted:but I could have done worse than 120/year for a gaming rig. That's reasonable. Some of the man-children I know purchase $600 video cards every few years (while have a 0% savings rate).
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Nov 27, 2014 19:44
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I've become a lot more frugal over the last couple years overall, but I'm gonna blow a crapton on new GPUs when the consumer Rift launches. It'll basically pay for itself though since with virtual reality, I'll never need to actually go out anymore! 
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Nov 27, 2014 22:07
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It's spending on a hobby. If you are going to use the poo poo out of a new gpu it can end up being cheap entertainment, except if you buy games at full price.
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Nov 27, 2014 23:57
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I guess that's the other part of the question: how do you calculate savings rate? I use (cash savings + 401k contribution + employer match)/(net pay + 401k contribution). That's just my intuitive sense of what seems right. I guess I could put employer match in the denominator, that lowers me to 50.5% I don't think it's fair to count principle in your house but hey, that's just me.
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Nov 28, 2014 00:11
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District Selectman posted:I don't think it's fair to count principle in your house but hey, that's just me. I definitely consider it a form of savings. Reminding myself that at least a portion of the mortgage payment is not disappearing into thin air is what's keeping me sane after purchasing such a large illiquid, regionally exposed asset (which may not have been the best idea in hindsight). Besides, for a lot of people it's their only form of savings.
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Nov 28, 2014 00:31
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Counting 401k contributions pre-tax is kind of bogus, personally I don't count them at all.
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Nov 28, 2014 01:17
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Counting 401k contributions pre-tax is kind of bogus, personally I don't count them at all. I dunno dude, I can see discounting it in some way, but like how can I not count $17.5k in retirement savings as savings in any way? Am I a better saver by not using a tax advantaged retirement vehicle?
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Nov 28, 2014 01:57
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District Selectman posted:I dunno dude, I can see discounting it in some way, but like how can I not count $17.5k in retirement savings as savings in any way? Am I a better saver by not using a tax advantaged retirement vehicle? It's going to be so long before I can touch them that I basically don't have them - I'd like to be FI 20+ years before I can take from them without penalty. There probably is a point where you putting more in delays your retirement, depending on income. Definitely should be post tax and post-matching though. I'm not too caught up in my percentage though.
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Nov 28, 2014 02:12
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| # ? May 17, 2024 01:27 |
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:It's going to be so long before I can touch them that I basically don't have them - I'd like to be FI 20+ years before I can take from them without penalty. There probably is a point where you putting more in delays your retirement, depending on income. Definitely should be post tax and post-matching though. I'm not too caught up in my percentage though.
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Nov 28, 2014 03:07
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