Early-retirement wannabe

gadgetmind

Marine_life wrote: »

Its interesting but I wonder how many couples have full financial transparency (we do) and we also have a fairly clear demarcation of activities whereby she does all the day to day bookkeeping (including my tax return).

We have full transparency but tax returns are always joint efforts. We open some wine and make an event of them!

There is an element of tension as she is very cautious with money and that dictates our approach to investments

We have around 10% in cash, mostly index linked, and anything extra I tend to "spirit away" into investments.

cathybird

mozza78 wrote: »

Very true. I have worked with plenty of one time millionaires who haven't got a penny left except maybe a 10 year old Rolex, a rusting Lotus Esprit and some hazy memories of lap dancing clubs in the 80/90s. Most had no idea what pension provision was. Quite sad.

I completely misread this the first time I read it as "tap dancing clubs". I suppose most gentlemen who frequent lap dancing clubs wouldn't be best pleased if it turned out a club offered tap dancing instead.

Wednesday2000

I was reading Monevator today and I read that Jim of the SexHealthMoneyDeath blog has gone back to work after retiring.

Weekend reading: Another early retiree “de-retires”

The Returned | sex health money death

Marine_life

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

I was reading Monevator today and I read that Jim of the SexHealthMoneyDeath blog has gone back to work after retiring.

Weekend reading: Another early retiree “de-retires”

The Returned | sex health money death

Thanks for posting - I read a lot in there which feels very familiar

Marine_life

It's been a funny week.

On the one hand I've been watching a lot of vlogs by people who live in vans. A lot of them have chosen to do so through bad experiences or budgetary pressures while another subset do so because of the desire to travel. Whatever the reason the result is an extremely low cost (albeit cramped) way of life. Universally those these people seemed to be happy and relaxed and most are spending between $500-600 per month so around $6-7,000 per year.

On the other hand I was upgraded on a transatlantic flight to first class. The business class seat I had booked (company expenses) was around $4,000 and the first class upgrade (if I had been paying) would have been around $1,500. Was it great? Well errr.....no actually. In fact at a cost equivalent to a van dwellers annual budget it was downright disappointing.

The absurdity and the key message is that a certain level of expenditure becomes normal. You would expect that the people in first class were luxuriating in their surroundings and taking advantage of every goodie on offer (the free pajamas, the excellent wines, the extensive menu) but no....most of them (there were only four) went straight to sleep (ok, on a flat bed, with a soft fluffy duvet but hey sleep is sleep). So it struck me that this must have become 'normal' for them.

In that same way, albeit at a lesser level I think the same is true for other expenses, the new car, the bigger TV, the frothy coffee. It becomes expected and therefore we lose the appreciation. To retire early maybe we need to dial back the 'normal' to a level where we can reconnect with appreciation.

mgdavid

Marine_life wrote: »

It's been a funny week.

On the one hand I've been watching a lot of vlogs by people who live in vans. A lot of them have chosen to do so through bad experiences or budgetary pressures while another subset do so because of the desire to travel. Whatever the reason the result is an extremely low cost (albeit cramped) way of life. Universally those these people seemed to be happy and relaxed and most are spending between $500-600 per month so around $6-7,000 per year.

On the other hand I was upgraded on a transatlantic flight to first class. The business class seat I had booked (company expenses) was around $4,000 and the first class upgrade (if I had been paying) would have been around $1,500. Was it great? Well errr.....no actually. In fact at a cost equivalent to a van dwellers annual budget it was downright disappointing.

The absurdity and the key message is that a certain level of expenditure becomes normal. You would expect that the people in first class were luxuriating in their surroundings and taking advantage of every goodie on offer (the free pajamas, the excellent wines, the extensive menu) but no....most of them (there were only four) went straight to sleep (ok, on a flat bed, with a soft fluffy duvet but hey sleep is sleep). So it struck me that this must have become 'normal' for them.

In that same way, albeit at a lesser level I think the same is true for other expenses, the new car, the bigger TV, the frothy coffee. It becomes expected and therefore we lose the appreciation. To retire early maybe we need to dial back the 'normal' to a level where we can reconnect with appreciation.

aha! is the penny dropping?
the simple pleasure of laying in bed on Monday listening to the traffic outside as all the others go to work.
the simple pleasure of developing existing hobbies and trying new ones - just because you can.
the simple pleasure of sawing, splitting and stacking a winter's logs
the simple pleasure of walking to the shop the long way round because you want to sniff the air and hear the birdsong for a bit longer
the simple pleasure of doing nothing for an hour - or a day - because it's warm and sunny and you want to soak it up
etc

jamesd

Marine_life wrote: »

On the one hand I've been watching a lot of vlogs by people who live in vans. ... Universally those these people seemed to be happy and relaxed and most are spending between $500-600 per month so around $6-7,000 per year.

Same here, though there is that other set who are starting in on sailing cruising, an altogether more expensive passtime. The Wynns, say, who migrated from a class A RV rather than van to a catamaran. Or on a lower budget the Sailing Uma couple who have recently completed a year long cheap boat refurbishment. Typical RV living also seems to be more costly than that practiced by the often minimalist by philosophy van dwellers. Some of the B or B+ vans don't look so cramped as the image of a van might suggest. Prices of used RVs of any of the types can be remarkably low, so long as you don't want the latest and greatest and don't mind paying for some refurbishment work.

Marine_life wrote: »

It becomes expected and therefore we lose the appreciation. To retire early maybe we need to dial back the 'normal' to a level where we can reconnect with appreciation.

Maybe not a requirement but being used to a low income for a long time and not upscaling my spending certainly helped with my money accumulation and has kept a lid on potential spending levels in retirement. Helped by investment returns my investments are currently worth about 92% of my total (net pay plus gross pension contributions) from April 2006. Without any dramatic restricted spending, at least according to my habitual spending patterns.

gallygirl

mgdavid wrote: »

aha! is the penny dropping?
the simple pleasure of laying in bed on Monday listening to the traffic outside as all the others go to work.
the simple pleasure of developing existing hobbies and trying new ones - just because you can.
the simple pleasure of sawing, splitting and stacking a winter's logs
the simple pleasure of walking to the shop the long way round because you want to sniff the air and hear the birdsong for a bit longer
the simple pleasure of doing nothing for an hour - or a day - because it's warm and sunny and you want to soak it up
etc

Seconded :T. A lazy Sunday, knowing there is no 'Monday' the next day, is absolutely priceless. Mr GG and I often remark on how relaxed Sunday mornings gradually morphed into work mode as the day went on, robbing us of our already limited free time. (And to be clear, Mr GG loved his job and got real satisfaction from it in the same way you seem to do.)

gfplux

Having been early retired for 20 years I now only know the weekend is coming up as I have Aqua Gym on a Friday and only know it's Sunday as I have Nordic Walking on Monday.

mgdavid

mgdavid wrote: »

aha! is the penny dropping?
the simple pleasure of laying in bed on Monday listening to the traffic outside as all the others go to work.
the simple pleasure of developing existing hobbies and trying new ones - just because you can.
the simple pleasure of sawing, splitting and stacking a winter's logs
the simple pleasure of walking to the shop the long way round because you want to sniff the air and hear the birdsong for a bit longer
the simple pleasure of doing nothing for an hour - or a day - because it's warm and sunny and you want to soak it up
etc

and if the picture I painted sounds a bit dull or indolent, there's
last Friday's road trip with my son, an 18-hour day to collect his latest 'project car' from Glasgow.
or, spending many days and evenings in the garage on a rebuild of my current race car to have it ready for an event in France in 4 weeks' time.
or, planning a long trip for next year - Russia and China by rail.

The opportunities are only limited by one's imagination.