Reflections for 28 years

Thirty years is creeping up on me, but I'm not there yet!! I recently turned twenty-eight, and while it's not thirty yet, I definitely feel like a Real Proper Adult(tm) now. Turning eighteen was an entire decade ago. I've been living out of home for five years, and I've been working in a #ProperJob for seven.

In honour of my 28 spins around the sun, it's time to reflect on the good, the bad, and the future.

Financial Gratitude

Starting early

From my first paycheck I've been careful with my money. I have charts going back years tracking my growing net worth. It may have started slowly, but those early years set me up really well.

Brown bagged lunches

It might not be exciting, but brown bagging lunches is such a big thing. It flows over into how I cook at nights as well, meaning that I save time and money by cooking big cheap meals at home. And I'm constantly learning new things because there is only so many times I can eat pasta bake.

This blog

I started this blog over a Christmas break when I was feeling sorry for myself that Fiery Millenials was doing better than me. I think she still is, but having this blog has let me set goals, hold myself (mostly) to them, and let me met lots of wonderful people.

Buying a bike and selling my car

When I moved out of my parents home I dusted off my unused $600 mountain bike and rode it everywhere. A few short months later I sold my car. Over four years I estimate that I've saved almost $15,000 on car expenses, as well as being super fit from my daily rides. No gym membership required!

The house I bought

After four years we're moving out, but I am so very grateful for the house I bought. It was $60k under where I'd been looking, and a completely different build. It was (and still is) decorated in grandma pastels. It wasn't a flashy new construction, but it's solid. In four years it has grown 20% in value, and while we've outgrown it, my little 90 square metre house was a perfect place to start my adult life.

Financial Regrets

Skipping that trip to Japan

My number one regret in the last decade that would have cost me money is not going to Japan. My roller derby league was invited to a tournament where they played two teams from Japan, and a team from Copenhagen, and I didn't go because of money. I had the money, I was just being 'frugal'. 
No. I wasn't frugal. I was a straight up idiot.
If you're reading this, wondering if you should do that thing that will ruin your savings goal but will literally never happen again do it!! In the words of the young people of the day, yeet that goal right out the window. Go. Be free. Do the exciting thing. Experience life.

Starting early

Yes, I said I'm grateful that I started early, but I also regret it. I've never taken a spontaneous trip. I've never gone out drinking at a karaoke bar and woken up broke but smiling from having the best night. I've never impulse bought a cool toy, or started a stupid hobby on a whim. Maybe if I had, those things would be on this list instead. But I never had a wild phase (ignoring the teenage years when I had no money anyway) and I feel like I missed out on that.
Maybe I'll be that crazy granny going wild on the cruise ships one day...

Not choosing my career

I work in IT. It pays great. It's generally pretty interesting. But I didn't choose this. If I had chose my career, I'd be a vet. Or a surgeon. However I just fell sideways into IT because a friend helped my get a job with her... true story. I climbed the ladder from there, but it's pure chance that I work where I do.
My long-long term plans post-FIRE include studying again. I don't think I'll ever become a surgeon, or a vet, but I am interested in testing the waters of those careers later in life.

Purchasing a house

While I love my house, I do have some regret for purchasing a house at all. When Mr. FIRE and I first moved in, we said we'd move to Canada in three years. That would have been the end of 2017. Here it is, in 2019, and I haven't moved. In fact, we just bought another house 10 minutes down the road.
We still talk about moving overseas, or interstate. Part of me doesn't want to go because we're tied down to property, but if I'm honest, a bigger part of me is scared to leave this life I've built.

Side-Hustling my way out of free time

My biggest financial regret is the crappy little side hustles I've done over the years. in 2015 I had a second job as an online admin / writer that paid terribly and ate up all my free time. In 2016 I was writing 500word articles for $5 a piece. During that time I was writing two articles a week for this blog. I was tired and my relationship with my partner suffered. In 2017 and 2018 I was on so many committees for my roller derby league I was barely home. In 2019 I'm trying to ease back, but I've become so used to being busy all the time, it's been difficult. 

Really great memories

Camper vanning around Tasmania

The first thing that sprang to mind as a great memory was our camper van trip around Tasmania. I was just a few short months out of knee surgery and hobbling a lot. I also got ridiculously sick at one point and struggling to breathe through the snot. It was still the best trip ever. Being able to pull up anywhere, cook dinner and sleep in the back of the van was amazing. Not having a toilet wasn't so great... but I've definitely caught the bug. As far as I'm concerned, it's the best way to travel.

The birth of Baby Tempest

No, I'm not a parent. Well, not a human parent. One of my chickens was hatched in my own backyard. There is something pretty wonderful about watching an animal grow from a teeny tiny handful of fluff to a bossy knee high monster. It's even more amazing that one day she was just an egg, and a month later she was an entire creature. Tempest is still with me five years later, and the healthiest, coolest bird I've ever had.

Roller Derby Successes

So many things to go here. My very first tournament I played for the C-Team. My team came second and we got piled on by the A and B teams shouting 'we're number 2'. We were happier than the winners. My home team has won four seasons. I scored the winning points in a game once. I 'married' my best friend in Roller Derby style, and we renewed our vows this year. I've travelled to every state in the country (except WA... soon!) and I represent my state at the top level for my sport. It's pretty great.

In jokes with my gaming friends

If you ever come to our house there are two things you need to know. Mr. FIRE cheats, and he takes too long to make a decision. You'll also learn there are many games Mr. FIRE and I can't play together because we fight. My gamer group has seen (and can quote) every episode of Red Dwarf, knows every piece of Monty Python, and still shouts 'Too Soon!' if you make jokes about Reavers putting their spears through the Wash.
We are a group of tragic nerds. It's pretty great.

Lunch on the top of a tiny rock spire in Alligator Gorge

This is a small specific time. But one of my happy memories from the last decade is hiking an 18km trail with Mr. FIRE, and stopping at lunch on top of a tiny rock spire where I could barely move to have lunch. Why did we sit there? Dunno. But it was pretty, the sun was shining, and the sandwiches - while very basic - were delicious because we were so hungry. It was a small thing, but it was lovely.

Future Happiness Goals

Lift more weights

As I mentioned back in my spiel on maintaining motivation, I once did strength training every day and I felt great for it. But I struggled to maintain it, and fell out of the habit. I want to get back into the habit of lifting weights at least 2-3 times a week. Not only will I feel better, but heading towards my thirties I want to keep my body as healthy as I can.

Spend more time with friends and family

Long term I want to retire, but I don't want to be alone and boring when that happens. Which means I need to start cultivating friendships outside of roller derby. I plan to set up a regular family dinner (e.g. the third Thursday of the month.. or something) and well as making semi-regular friend plans.

Inspired by All About Balance and The Joyful Frugalista I've invited everyone over for a $5 potluck dinner. Fingers crossed it works! My friends are dubious.

Create more

Things I enjoy creating include blog posts (like this one!), let's play YouTube videos, food, beer, rough woodwork (think planter boxes) and the occasional bit of knitting. One day I want to make soap. I don't have a specific goal, but I know that making things makes me feel fulfilled, so I'm just reminding myself to keep creating.

Be a better partner

When Mr. FIRE and I moved in together we promised not to be those people who live together, and grunt at each other when we pass in hallways. We have become those people. We always eat breakfast and dinner together, but we also glue our eyes to screens while doing so (Kindles for breakfast, TV for dinner). 

While we aren't in a bad place yet, I don't want to let things slide. We also drink coffee together every weekend morning, and we're planning to ban screens during that hour.

Dog!

It's time. It's time to start plotting and scheming what life looks like with a dog. I hope to bring home a dog over the 2019 Christmas break (when I can take a couple of weeks at home to settle them in) - or maybe 2020 Easter - again, when I can take some leave and settle our pupper in. Between now and then we need to set a budget for our doggo, and check our housing a lifestyle situation.

Personally, I want a huge dog. A Great Dane with paws as big as my face.

Can you get filthy rich by spending more money every year?

I want to retire early and take back my free time. I'm willing to forgo expensive luxuries to get there earlier, but I don't want to retire to a life of poverty and pauperism.

However, if I have a couple of years of ridiculously lean living at the start of my journey, it could supercharge my retirement accounts.

So I feel like I'm presented with two choices. I could live the life I want now - knowing it will take longer to get to FIRE, or I could live like a monk for a couple of years to supercharge my investment accounts, then ease into a slightly spendier, but still frugal existence that I could maintain for many years of retired bliss.
 
Let's investigate this idea with our case study participants, John and Cindy.

John, 25, fresh out of University, ready to take on the world!

 

This is John. He's just finished studying a Bachelors degree in DefinitelyGettingAJob. A couple of months later he scores a job as a RegularWorkingDude for SomeWellKnownCompany. John's starting salary is $35,000 a year and he's pretty pleased with himself.

Cindy, 25, fresh out of University, ready to take on the world!

 

This is Cindy. She's just finished studying a Bachelors degree in DefinitelyGettingAJob. A couple of months later she scores a job as a RegularWorkingLady for SomeWellKnownCompany. Cindy's starting salary is $35,000 a year and she's pretty pleased with herself.

Fresh out of university: the winner is?

Well, right now our two contenders are identical. That is the point. Let's see how they do.

No longer a poor student, John is okay with things the way they are

 

John likes his life the way it is, his couch might be falling to pieces, but it's comfortable. He hangs out with friends, goes hiking and plays video games, just like he did when he was a student. He lives in a run down apartment with a couple of flatmates he's known since the start of university. 

He's happy to keep living like this for a while, but he finds all this money is piling up in his account, so he opens a Vanguard investment account and starts putting away $20,000 a year and earning 7% returns. He's used to living on the cheap as a student, so the $15,000 a year he has left is still pretty nice.

Living the high life, Cindy is splashing out!

 

Cindy is thrilled to be earning some real money at last! She gets her hair and nails done, buys all new furniture and goes out for fancy brunch every weekend. She rents a comfortable apartment, takes vacations, visits the spa and never misses a happy hour. 

Cindy is living it up! However she wants to plan for the future so she finds $5,000 a year and opens a Vanguard investment account with 7% returns.

Year One: our winner is..?

Financially, it's John - after all he has $20,000 in his account. Although I'm a little worried for his health because he's still eating ramen noodles for dinner every other night and the old couch has a funny stain on it.

Cindy's account balance doesn't look so great, but she's thrilled with her lifestyle. She has everything she wants and lives like a queen. She'd be happy to live like this forever.

Dog years, John goes to the office every day

Five years have passed and John still works for SomeWellKnownCompany. He's gotten itchy feet a few times and has been promoted up the chain, but not very far. He's gotten an average 2% pay rise each year and he spends it all. He's left his share house behind, got some nicer digs, he eats better and he's started taking local vacations.

He's not quite as spendy as Cindy, but having lived like a poor student for so long each little bit extra feels special. Back when he started at SomeWellKnownCompany he set up automatic payments into his Vanguard account and he hasn't touched them since. He checks the numbers one day and is pretty pleased to see he has $143,000 to his name.

Dog years part two, Cindy works in the same office

Cindy also still works for SomeWellKnownCompany and has gotten the same payrises. She's not enjoying work that much though and every time she gets a payrise she increases her investments. She's gotten comfortable in her nice life and expects the fine things. She still has regular brunches with the girls and is always beautifully presented. If there is a new fashion trend coming, Cindy is there leading the way.

On one of her many trips she met a ridiculously fun guy and married him. She's looking to the future of kids and free time to travel more, so checks her investment account one day to find she has $47,500 to her name.

Five years down, our winner is..?

Cindy is still pretty pumped with her life. She's been living on $30,000 a year for the last few years and knows how to stay on top of her finances. She's got a laundry list of places she's visited and wants to visit, although after that big trip to Europe she got a little tight on some bills. Still, she likes her life, and she's investing each year so she's happy with the way things are.

John has started eating home cooked meals with more than one food group and has bought a new-to-him couch. Most of his furniture is a little rough around the edges, but each year he finds himself with more money in his pocket. He's learned the value of making things last though so he doesn't buy anything without thinking it through first. He has a high quality mattress (because he loves a good snooze) but never bothered to upgrade the dining room table - it's big enough for his friends and no one minds the scuff marks.

Ten years on - John feels richer than ever 

John still works for SomeWellKnownCompany and the 2% a year payrises are still rolling in. Sure they aren't much but John feels like a king, constantly getting more money and having the freedom to spend it. He's settled down with a lovely Lady who shares his values and they are over the moon in love. John and Lady start talking about puppies and easing up on work. John peeks at his investments and is surprised to find he has over $275,000 invested.

Ten years on - Cindy is getting tired

Cindy is still spending her $30,000 a year on her lifestyle, but what once felt lavish and luxurious now feels tedious. She goes to brunch each weekend at the same cafe, orders the same meal and shares the same gossip. She wants to travel but feels like she's seen it all, and without spending a whole lot more she doesn't know what to do. She still works for SomeWellKnownCompany and is still pushing the 2% annual pay rises into her investments, but somehow she only has $130,000 to her name.

Ten year check in

John is leaping ahead in so many ways. His finances are more than double Cindy's despite having the same income and spending more each year. He's constantly thrilled with his life as each year he moves from spending like a poor student to a comfortable adult. He no longer worries about the bills, and eats well on delicious home cooked food with his Lady wife.

Cindy feels stuck, like no matter what she does she isn't moving forward. She wants to change up her life but isn't sure how. All her favourite restaurants serve the same meals every day, and she's tried all the hobbies she can think of. She isn't willing to increase her spending, but doesn't want to cut back either. She's restless with her life and looking to make a change.

Twenty years on - John is on his way up and out!

John and Lady are ready to hit the road! John looked at his bank account and realised he had enough money to never work again! When his boss asked him to work the weekend he politely told him where he could put that overtime and rode off into the sunset!

After 20 years of slowly increasing his expenses John now spends $30,000 a year, and lives like a king. Those early years of scrimping and saving have taught him valuable skills, and he can't imagine what he would do if he had more money.

The $20,000 a year he's been putting aside has turned into $820,000. John knows he can comfortably pull $32,800 a year from his investments, so he retires to a simple life of playing with his pups, taking long walks on the beach, chasing a good stick and sniffing the bushes

Twenty years on - Cindy is stuck and looking for the light at the end of the tunnel

It's been a long road for Cindy. She's spent the last ten years reinventing herself, and now she's pretty happy with her life. She's tossed aside brunches and hair appointments for play dates with the pups and couch parties with her friends. She's learned to cook at home so she can spend more on the things that matter to her like travelling. Cindy feels richer then before - even though she still spends $30,000 a year because she spends less on the little things and saves for the things that matter to her. 

After twenty years at SomeWellKnownCompany Cindy wants to move on. She checks her investments to find she has $438,000. She's disappointed because she really wanted to move away from the corporate world, but she knows the money won't last forever. She works out that she needs to spend another 5 years working and investing before she can step away from her desk forever.

And the winner is? Lifestyle inflation! And puppies!

John is a very good boy. After twenty years of continuously improving his life and relaxing the financials reins he finds himself flush with cash and ready to retire. Cindy on the other hand set herself some very solid spending rules and refused to deviate from them, even when she wasn't happy with her life, yet she has only half of the retirement nest egg that John has.

The oft quoted rule of early retirement is to not let your expenses grow as your income does. We argue endlessly that you can be happy without spending much, and that's true. To an extent.

As young health teenagers John and I ate nothing but junk food, slept on the floor without a mattress and worked 16 hour days without any ill effects. As we got older (I say, at the queenly age of 26) we can't do those things anymore. We like things a little nicer, like a well cooked steak, we get hangry if we skip meals, and we hate spending more than 9 hours at the office.

John and I don't need a yacht to be happy, but we want some slightly nicer things as we age.

By following in John's paw prints, you can let your lifestyle grow with your income and still save a giant nest egg. By starting small you can retire early, retire rich, and retire really really happy.

The earlier you start, the easier it is.

Missing the trees for the FIRE forest

In the Financial Independence world we are chasing such big goals and such big amounts of money we can forget the small things. I've been on this journey for a couple of years, even if the blog only started back in December and I have to say that it's full of big boring plateaus. Long stretches of time where it feels like you're running in place like a Looney Tune, nothing is changing and that great life you are chasing is stupidly far away.

Occasionally I need to remember to stop and take stock of what I have, what I have achieved and remind myself why I'm running down this crazy path and not sticking to the road more traveled.

I kicked off this blog back in December because I had gotten so wrapped up in the chase to Financial Independence that I was forgetting to enjoy my life. I was sitting home alone over the Christmas break listening to some pretty depressing music wondering how I got to this place.

I started this blog as a promise to myself that I would reach my goal, and I would have a good time doing it! After all, how truly terrible would it be to read a blog of a depressed miser who after years of being a grouchy jerk finally declared themselves financially free and that now they could be happy.

Lame. So very lame. Instead of eight and a bit years of solid grouching, I'm trying to build the life I want, on the budget I want, so that by the time I hit 35 I can walk away from my desk and never look back. So that all my little side projects can become my day to day and so when I try and find time to visit my mother I'm looking two days ahead, not two weeks ahead.

So today, I'm going to take a moment to look at all the cool stuff that I have in my life. To reflect on the fact that while achieving Financial Independence is still a long way away, the journey has brought some great things into my life that I've let go past without a blink.

I make a little money from this blog and I've met some cool people

When I made $225 from RateSetter referrals I brushed it off as only three referrals. Going into my 10k bucket it's barely a drop. I barely batted an eyelid until I stopped, took stock and realised that I increased my peer-to-peer lending investments by 2% simply by writing a blog I love. 

That one post made me more than 3 months worth of investment returns, but I am so wrapped up in reaching FIRE that it took me a (very long) moment to remember to celebrate. While it's 2% growth on my P2P investment, I was stuck for a moment on the fact that it's a mere 0.03% of what I need for FIRE.

I've also made a little bit of money from Acorns referrals ($2.50), a smidgen from Google AdSense (almost $4, woah!) and importantly I've met some cool bloggers like Mrs. Picky Pincher, Miss Balance, and Mrs. ETT who I'm loving sharing the journey with.

When I borked my knee, I could pay for it

One of the biggest character tests of my adult life was tearing my ACL. I was playing a practice game of roller derby and I had just said to my team "We need to calm down, someone is going to get hurt if we keep playing this crazy." And then I got hurt... yay me. It took five weeks to diagnose my injury properly (the first two 'specialists' said my ACL was definitely fine and I'd torn a minor stabilising muscle) and those weeks were right at the start of winter.

Between being completely unable to skate, run or walk on loose ground and the disappearing sun I struggled massively with my mental health. A huge amount of my identity was (is?) tied up in being a badass roller derby girl that plays a high speed high contact sport that always gets a big reaction when I tell people about it. 

For those weeks before diagnosis I kept improving my strength and balance and feeling like maybe I was getting somewhere, only to have my knee give out under my doing simple stuff like putting on pants. When I had to email my league and announce I was hanging up my skates for the season I cried so hard I couldn't feel my face.

So when the diagnosis came through and I had a choice between a giant hospital bill, or waiting a few more weeks to crawl through the public health system I threw money at the hospital and got surgery the very next day.

I had a few more weeks of dodgy mental health while I hobbled around on crutches barely able to bend my knee. I cried at work at least once a week for no apparent reason, I struggled to sleep, and I forgot what it felt like to walk without 100% razor-sharp focus on each step. 

The first time I caught the bus home after surgery was in the dark and my phone was flat. I nearly had a panic attack waiting for the bus to arrive, missed my stopped and had tears running down my face as I stumbled home. As someone who has always been confident and self-sufficient I felt small, lost and truly afraid.

Thankfully I got back on my bike after six weeks of rehab and pulled myself back together. My self confidence and happiness took some time to come back, but I got there. I'm still strongly contemplating taking up some kind of martial arts to bring back that confidence that I can walk home alone in the dark.

I am so incredibly grateful that I had my finances in a place where I could toss caution to the wind and take care of my mental health before anything else. I did second guess myself paying for the surgery instead of waiting, but I remembered that this is why I save - so when life throws a curve ball I'm ready for it.

I sleep soundly at night knowing I have safety money in the bank

I still remember last year when I was supposed to be getting all excited for a month long holiday and instead was straight up panicking because I'd messed up my finances and needed to find $8,000 for renovations on my rental property. I scraped it together, paid everything with credit cards at the last possible moment to give myself that extra couple of weeks breathing room before I 'really' needed to pay it. It was the worst financial strife I've ever been in. It's another reason why I kicked off this blog and the reason behind my six-month, $20,000 goal.

I was panicking at Mr. FIRE that I had screwed my finances and it was going to ruin my holiday and I didn't want to lean on him because that's not a great relationship and he said to me "Oh my dear, we have food on the table and a roof over our heads. Everything will be okay." 

Firstly, I know things are bad when he calls me 'My Dear'. That's when I'm really stressing and need to be taken care of. Secondly we have food on the table and a roof over our heads. There are so many people in the world that struggle with these things, and I panicked because I couldn't invest for a few weeks.

Now I have enough safety money in the bank that I could lose my job tomorrow and live 3 months without touching my investments. If I had to break open the investment piggy bank I could live almost two years without finding another job.

I don't want to break open the piggy bank, but whenever I stress about money I take a breath, take a step back and think of how secure I am. And how lucky I am to be in this position.

I own a house!

This is the biggie - I own a house! In a time when millennials are whinging giving up on the 'dream' of home ownership, I bought my little two bedroom home without years of painful saving. Thanks to having brilliant financially savvy parents who spoke openly about their investing attempts (and failures) I had it in my mind from a very young age that saving was good. Plus I was terrible at holding my drinks, so in a time when all my friends were burning their money on getting blackout drunk I was snoozing at home watching bad TV and playing free web games. 

The end result was that in last 2014 when I realised that as much as I loved my mother I couldn't live with her anymore, I checked my accounts to see if I could afford a house. Lo and behold I had more than enough for a deposit, and enough income for a mortgage. Within six months of deciding to move out of home, I owned a property. While it may not have been the wisest financial move, I spent $60k less than my budget, brought my partner with me (he pays rent, woo!) and saved my sanity. 

Bonus is that I accidentally bought in the perfect place to sell my car and ride everywhere. Completely accidental, absolutely amazing!

The takeaway thought

I am still more than eight years from my Early Retirement goal date. According to the Mad FIentist lab I'm only six years away, but according to my own maths it's more like ten. I keep getting caught up not seeing the beautiful trees and being overwhelmed by the humongous forest I have yet to grow. 

Financial Independence is a long-term goal and getting wrapped up in the short-term could easily lead me to get distracted by shiny things and stray off course. But there is no point in forging blindly ahead with my eyes fixed on my shoes and missing everything happening around me.