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FIREed just before 32 with $750k (self.financialindependence)

barefooter が 投稿

I always feel weird bragging, but it seems people around here like to here success stories, and everyone around me is just super jelly, so it's hard to get any credit for my achievements.

I quit my job as a software engineer just two weeks ago with $750k in total assets. The number might seem a bit low, but I have decent income from two rental properties, and I'm pretty confident I'll have north of a million within five years from real estate and bitcoin gains. Yes, it's speculative, but if I'm wrong I can always find a job easily and earn the big bucks again for a couple years.

Here's my current financial situation:

-own a paid off 6 bedroom rental house

-co-own a 9 bedroom rental house with my best friend. We both live in the basement which has separate kitchen, W/D, two bathrooms, etc.

-have about $150k in bitcoin

-have around $120k in cash, which I'm working on an investment plan for. I'll likely throw $40k-$80k into solar panels for my two houses, and put the rest in some low risk ETFs

And here's how I got to where I am:

-I was raised frugal, and never really cared about the finer things in life, so saving came naturally to me

-I was lucky to come out of college with no student debt. I did running start, then two years at CC, and then my final two years at university, all while living at home.

-I've been working as a software engineer for the last 12 years. I started earning around $60k out of college, and most recently I was making nearly $150k + average bonus of $30k.

-The majority of my adult life I've rented rooms in shared houses because I really like living with others and it's way cheaper. I lived in a closet in a 6 bedroom house, a basement and then an attic in a 9 person house, some other more normal situations, and now my current situation in the basement of my rental house. I was married previously, and even during that time we rented out rooms in our house, it's just the way I like to live.

-I've cashed out about $300k profit from bitcoin after buying it at $6 years ago. I still hold $150k of bitcoin as I'm very bullish about its future. This big gain put me a few years ahead of schedule on my plans.

-I made some pretty good returns on gold and silver before I got into bitcoin (I used to be a doomer :) ).

-I had pretty good timing on house purchases and was able to select two properties that had a very good rental price to purchase price ratio.

-Overall, I just lived relatively cheaply. Basic things like cooking my own food, going on cheap vacations (camping, cheap hostels, etc.), driving a cheap car (geo metros represent!), not paying for much entertainment, and just enjoying the simple free pleasures and adventures in life.

How I got interested in all this:

I was a hardcore doomer before I got interested in retiring early. I read things like Ran Prieur, and Derrick Jensen, and through that I learned about the idea of dropping out of society. My first attempt was a foolish one 7 years ago with a mere $100k in the bank, thinking I would just buy land and be self sufficient. Boy did I have some growing up to do. I never purchased any land, but I did end up taking about 7 months off work, but I eventually got back into the game. I finally wised up and realized the world wasn't going to collapse tomorrow, but I never lost sight of my goal of becoming truly free from jobs I hated.

What my plans for the future are:

Right now I'm just in recovery mode. In the last year, it's become quit apparent that I've neglected my health and let 12 years of desk jobs I didn't like run me into the ground. The last year of work I felt like a complete zombie, just zoned out and waiting for it to all be over. Now I've been walking a lot everyday, and going to the gym 5+ days a week, and I'm bouncing back very quickly. Before quitting I was worried about finding motivation to do things, but now I see that I was just under a state of chronic stress for years, which had killed my natural drive and sense of curiosity about the world.

I'm not one to be happy just chilling around all the time. I want to build things, learn new skills, create art, see crazy ideas through to completion, etc. I have a ton of ideas, so it's hard to say what I'll end up doing. I really like owning/running community houses, so I might try to acquire another property for this purpose. I have a crazy vision of creating a network of such houses in my city to help build community for those who are seeking it. I also love carpentry and would like to get better at it and build a tiny house in my back yard.

[EDIT] - better formatting

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トップ新着論争中古い順Q&A

[–]bkhutzp 45ポイント46ポイント  (18子コメント)

Ok, trying to wrap my head around this. You have $270k in cash and Bitcoin. Not quite sure the home equity matters if you rely on the rental income as well as live in one. So most of your retirement income must be from the rental properties. What's your profit from them?

Our plan relies on rental income as well so I don't really count our equity toward FIRE.

[–]alliknowis 35ポイント36ポイント  (7子コメント)

You and I are asking the same questions. I also think it's pretty unrealistic to plan on living in a bedroom of a 9-bedroom house, and changing that situation is going to be a drastic hit on cash flow.

[–]barefooter[S] 11ポイント12ポイント  (6子コメント)

What's unrealistic about living in a 9 bedroom house the rest of my life? Just because most of western society highly values living alone, doesn't mean I do. I'm even considering adding a bedroom, or building a tiny house in the backyard to grow the community here.

Even if I got married again, I'd only marry someone that wanted to live with others. That's just how I like to live, and while others may find it weird, I think it makes sense on a lot of levels. And I have no desire to have kids.

[–]bkhutzp 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

That's not so unrealistic where I live (SF Bay Area). I lived in a co-op for a long time but eventually decided it's not for me. I know plenty others like yourself who enjoy that kind of living, even raising their families like that. But if you're willing to share, I'm curious what amount of income/rental profit will be supporting you?

[–]Laser45 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

Not sure what western society has to do with it. I have travelled through a lot of the world, and most families like to have their own home, regardless of the culture. Some cultures like extended family in the same home, but I haven't seen anywhere that unrelated housemates are a desirable living arrangement at middle age.

[–]ruralife 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I might have some concern over the safety of any children you might have. You would want to do a very thorough screening of any potential roommates.

[–]alliknowis -2ポイント-1ポイント  (0子コメント)

"most of Western society" Okay, you can stop right there with your wanna-be-special philosophic stance. I don't know you, and odds are you'll get over the group living phase unless you need built-in "friends." I'm speaking on scale, not about you specifically. I'm sure you're the exception, so disregard anything I said if you don't believe it applies to you.

[–]beastcoin 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I'm with you! Nice work. And nothing wrong with living in a big house with lots of people, so long as everybody is respectful and cooperative.

コメントをもっと表示する (1 返事)

    [–]NeoGeo201533 / Fo5 / 45%FIRE 13ポイント14ポイント  (0子コメント)

    Yeah you really shouldn't unless you are willing/able to sell it. The problem with his layout is he only has 2 points of cash flow, 1 large bucket of speculation, and 1 losing investment (cash). The number he's at isn't bad for 32 by any means but even with fairly low expenses I don't think I'd be able to feel FI on that number.

    [–]letterT 17ポイント18ポイント  (6子コメント)

    Tech bust could be disastrous for this guy. Think it is a little too confident.

    [–]BumpitySnook 1ポイント2ポイント  (5子コメント)

    How would the tech bust affect bitcoin, cash, and/or retirement properties in Seattle and Bellingham specifically? Like what to what degree and what causal relationship are you picturing? Bellingham isn't a tech town and while Seattle is undergoing a bit of a boom, a 9 bedroom house can't be super close (SLU / downtown) due to zoning.

    [–]letterT 15ポイント16ポイント  (0子コメント)

    All of those are related to tech along with his occupation

    [–]barefooter[S] 3ポイント4ポイント  (2子コメント)

    I think my rental properties would actually fare quite well in the event of a tech bust in Seattle. My rooms are pretty cheap because the houses are big, so I'm renting to mostly young 20 year olds who have low paying jobs. I'd still have plenty of prospective tenants even if there was a big tech bust in Seattle. It's all the fancy new apartments that they rent from that would have issues.

    [–]lonesomewhistle 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

    With a general employment bust (and tech busts do impact everyone, I was in Seattle during the dotcom bust and it wasn't pretty), you could have tenants not paying rent and need to go through eviction in a relatively tenant-friendly city.

    [–]BumpitySnook 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

    Yeah, that seems pretty reasonable to me.

    [–]ducksqueaker30F midwest 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

    How would the tech bust affect [...] properties in Seattle and Bellingham specifically?

    Amazon, Google, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Zillow, Nintendo, Twitter, Facebook.... all have major offices in Seattle. A tech bust would result falling rents and destroy home values / equity across the city, which would likely spiral well outside of tech as well. Maybe you don't rent to SDEs, but you must realize that they impact the rental market overall.

    [–]barefooter[S] 3ポイント4ポイント  (1子コメント)

    I'm currently bringing in around $2000/month off the two properties after accounting for all expenses, taxes, and long term maintenance like roof repair, etc. I can live very comfy on $1500-$1800, and even less if needed. I can easily get rents up at both my houses, and I expect Seattle rents to keep climbing and outpace inflation as there is a ton of money coming into the economy.

    Sure, I'm playing it more risky than most, but I'm young and can always go back to work if needed if things go wrong. In the best case, my investments do well, and I'm free forever to do as I please, and in the worst case I go back to work for two or three years to bank more money and then I'm free forever. Also, I'm sure I'll earn money from time to time doing various things.

    People keep pointing out my risk as if I'm completely clueless about it. I'm well aware of the potential risks and rewards of my situation. If I wanted less risk I'd just shove it all in some ETFs, but I'm young and can recover if things go badly, so I'm chasing bigger returns. It may not be the right decision for others, but I feel comfortable about it.

    [–]bkhutzp 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

    Kudos! That's a great income if you can live off 3/4 of that comfortably. Funny about our perspectives on ages though; we're in our mid-30s and don't feel we're young enough to easily recover from a big loss anymore.

    [–]icbint 192ポイント193ポイント  (2子コメント)

    solid brag

    [–]sur_surly 62ポイント63ポイント  (1子コメント)

    With plenty of humility, was nice to read.

    [–]FrostyFire 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

    I was just about to dust off my pitch fork, then I saw the FI community already crucified this guy for me.

    [–]CavalierEternals 30ポイント31ポイント  (3子コメント)

    Word of caution being out of industry for 5 years and easily finding a job dosent not correlate. Your skills will get rusty and new applicants are always coming in. Congrats on everything else!

    [–]letterT 10ポイント11ポイント  (0子コメント)

    Newer and cheaper.

    [–]cafedude 6ポイント7ポイント  (1子コメント)

    The nice thing about software development, though, is that you can keep your skills up to date with side projects. If he's got a github and contributes to open source projects (or develops his own) that'll keep his skills up to date and this will be visible to potential hirers - and he can always say he quit to start his own startup which looks good on the old resume. You can't do that in other professions (like, say, if you're an accountant).

    [–]lonesomewhistle 6ポイント7ポイント  (0子コメント)

    he can always say he quit to start his own startup which looks good on the old resume

    Just claiming "oh yeah I worked at my own stealth startup" doesn't mean anything anymore because anyone can claim that. It's gotten to be a code word for "couldn't find a job, even at an actual startup."

    [–]spudddly 144ポイント145ポイント  (15子コメント)

    150k in bitcoin? and you're going to spend 30-60% of your remaining cash on solar panels? jesus christ man better keep your CV up-to-date...

    [–][削除されました]  (14子コメント)

    [removed]

      [–]stanfordy 5ポイント6ポイント  (13子コメント)

      Explain?

      [–]dont_let_me_comment 41ポイント42ポイント  (11子コメント)

      I'm guessing because tenants are often responsible for paying their own electric bill.

      [–]Kook_life 31ポイント32ポイント  (4子コメント)

      It's because you cannot take the 30% federal tax credit on rental properties. It has to be your primary residence. Solar panels will be 30% more expensive than OP had forecasted. Also he needs to look into his local utility's NEM program to see if it even exists.

      [–]homeworld[🍰] 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

      He can lease or have a power purchase agreement to his own holding company that owns the building. Solar City and the other big leasing companies get to pocket the FTC, solar credits, and claim depreciation on the systems they lease.

      [–]barefooter[S] 1ポイント2ポイント  (2子コメント)

      Okay, this is a fare point which I now see will restrict me to doing solar on the 9 bedroom house that I live in, and is my primary residence. It's also a rental too though, so I wonder if that would kill the tax credit or not. I'll have to do more research, as it's obviously only a good play with all the credits.

      [–]follyrob 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

      As long as the property is listed as your primary residence on your federal income tax returns then you will be able to receive the credit.

      [–]lotsoluck 12ポイント13ポイント  (3子コメント)

      and sometimes it's a hard sell to tell the tenants to pay a little more in rent because they'll save on the electric bill.

      [–]barefooter[S] -1ポイント0ポイント  (1子コメント)

      The tenants would pay the same, because I rent rooms on a flat fee with all utilities included. I'd just be lowering my operating costs.

      [–]SpookyPony 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

      Are your utilities really so high that putting tens of thousands of dollars into solar makes sense? I thought electricity was cheap in the pacific northwest.

      コメントをもっと表示する (1 返事)

        [–]theaback 7ポイント8ポイント  (1子コメント)

        also, Seattle and Bellingham. Not nearly the solar irradiance capital..

        [–]jimmythegeek1 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

        I didn't calculate the exact patback but we refinanced the home mortgage to roll the loan for our 7kw installation in and 3 years later we are below the pre refi balance.

        We generate mad watts in the spring summer yo

        [–]hankd4tank 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

        My guess would be very low ROI over panel lifetime in addition to possible higher maintenance cost.

        [–]emporras 40ポイント41ポイント  (3子コメント)

        Youve got $270 in cash and bitcoin. If you dont mind my asking, why is it only $480K for a 6 bedroom house and a co-owned 9 bedroom house? Also, props on leaving a job that paid you ~$180K and congrats on FIRE.

        [–]barefooter[S] 39ポイント40ポイント  (2子コメント)

        Thanks! It's certainly hard to leave an easy job that pays so well, but I couldn't be happier about the decision.

        As for your question. The house I have paid off is in Bellingham, WA, where houses are pretty cheap, and it's worth around $360k. Potentially more, but I'm being conservative. The 9 bedroom house I own in Seattle 50/50 with a friend. We just did a cash out refi as the value is up $240k in the last two years, so it's a $600k loan on a house that's worth around $840k. So I have half the equity, which comes to $120k. So $120k + $360k = $480k RE assets.

        [–]emporras 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

        Awesome. Thanks for explaining!

        [–]jeffclark 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

        Bellingham, WA

        The Bay City

        [–]Shaom1So this is how you do the flair feature... 38ポイント39ポイント  (11子コメント)

        I wish you well, but it seems like you left an extremely high paying job for a risky situation. Most of your net worth seems tied up in two rental properties and bit coin. Not a solid retirement plan, so hopefully you can return to that high paying field down the line if things don't work out. I would have worked a few more years, and just dumped money into some index funds. Good luck and great job on achieving all that you have.

        [–]harryhov 9ポイント10ポイント  (1子コメント)

        Agree... at such age, $750k with most in non-liquid assets won't go very far.

        [–]DeezNeezuts 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

        He sounds very leanfire so it might work.

        コメントをもっと表示する (9 返事)

          [–]NighthawkFoo 13ポイント14ポイント  (1子コメント)

          Bitcoin is extremely speculative. I'd be nervous with that much, personally. Do you have any equities?

          [–]BumpitySnook 169ポイント170ポイント  (77子コメント)

          I'm pretty confident I'll have north of a million within five years from…bitcoin gains

          Lol.

          [–]gornzilla 34ポイント35ポイント  (16子コメント)

          I'm currently working in China and the economy will tank some point in the near future. The longer the government keeps stalling, the worse it will be.

          Chinese are buying property outside of China (you can't own property in China, only rent it from the government), buying Bitcoins and using other ways of smuggling out money.

          I think that as China starts to crumble, Bitcoins will go insane again.

          [–]cafedude 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

          But that could also mean Bitcoin tanks because once they've gotten the wealth out of the country they'll want to cash in that bitcoin to buy houses, land, living expenses, etc.

          [–]MxO8 3ポイント4ポイント  (4子コメント)

          Would you be able to provide an approxiamte timeframe?

          [–]gornzilla 32ポイント33ポイント  (3子コメント)

          If I could, I'd be a millionaire by now.

          [–]appleciders 4ポイント5ポイント  (1子コメント)

          No, you'd be a millionaire later.

          [–]NotAVeryFlyWhiteGuy 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

          Pretty sure s/he'd be a millionaire now if s/he could read the future.

          コメントをもっと表示する (1 返事)

            [–]harryhov -1ポイント0ポイント  (5子コメント)

            Chinese are notoriously conservative investors. With rumours of BC getting stolen or trading platforms going under will spook them from investing in it. They prefer investments such as real estate and financial investment vehicles. They won't even open up to VC type investments.

            [–]ManDrone 10ポイント11ポイント  (2子コメント)

            But they gamble like crazy so....

            [–]plucesiar 11ポイント12ポイント  (1子コメント)

            Chinese are notoriously conservative investors.

            You have no clue what you're talking about.

            [–]DrHampster 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            He's talking about a billion people. There are obviously going to be some conservative investors, some crazy speculative investors, and a whole spectrum in between. It's not a homogenous group any more than "American" is

            コメントをもっと表示する (3 返事)

              [–]SmartToaster 49ポイント50ポイント  (40子コメント)

              And he really thinks it's a bullish market which is fucking asinine. And I'm someone who used to be really into BTC and held quite a bit and was not too shabby at day trading. At this point, there are too many neckbeards in a drama war to ever make BTC strong enough to become even remotely popular.

              edit - looks like I struck a nerve with /r/Bitcoin.

              [–]pumpcup 6ポイント7ポイント  (1子コメント)

              After I read the former prepper line nothing else could really surprise me.

              [–]BumpitySnook 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

              I was pretty surprised he managed to save so much and was so comfortable retiring "lean" given the prepper background.

              コメントをもっと表示する (1 返事)

                [–]ritchie70 11ポイント12ポイント  (1子コメント)

                I just want to remind you how fast tech changes, and how ageist it is. It's a lot harder to get back in after five years out at 37 than 27. I was out of tech ages 23 to 30 and had a hell of a time getting back in.

                Edits/ typos and autocorrect

                [–]IcyTrumpet 21ポイント22ポイント  (6子コメント)

                So basically, you got lucky with Bitcoin and are expecting that luck to continue...

                And $750k is no where near enough for a 32yr old to never work again...unless...you know....Bitcoin.

                [–]Guywalkes 2ポイント3ポイント  (3子コメント)

                Seems like 750k (or even the amount they have in stock funds) is plenty as long as they are semi retired -- maybe do some freelancing and keep up the rental income.

                [–]lonesomewhistle 11ポイント12ポイント  (2子コメント)

                OP doesn't have any stock. The $750K is real estate + cash + bitcoin.

                [–]hexagonalshit 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

                That's the most confusing part to me. Why not have some index funds? What happened to all his tax advantaged accounts from working?

                [–]lonesomewhistle 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                Maybe he cashed out to buy real estate or bitcoin. Or wasn't using them at all.

                コメントをもっと表示する (2 返事)

                  [–]rachetheavengerFIRE 2038 13ポイント14ポイント  (13子コメント)

                  Surprising. I might be in a similar situation to you, but a bit younger and behind, but I haven't thought that i am close to FIRE at all. I am very surprised you made the plunge with just 750k in assets. What gave you the confidence that it would be enough - particularly with potential future changes in lifestyle - marriage/kids etc. ?

                  My net worth is hovering around ~450-500k and I am 29. My current income is also really close to what you were making recently, so my net worth has gone up pretty well in the last couple of year. My primary residence is almost paid off, and i rent out one of the rooms. And i also bought a multi unit rental with one my friends recently - where we should have positive cash flow (but we only have 25% equity in it). All properties here have increased in value atleast 10% like clockwork last few years so I don't see issues with that.

                  But i estimate i would need to work 15-20 years more and own atleast 8-10 multi unit rentals (aiming for north of 2mil atleast) before i can think of retiring or do a MBA or something to try and get into the management chain to increase future earning potential, because i see a plateau as an engineer going forward. What do you think ?

                  My life growing up was similar to yours as well, so i have minimal expenses- i am immigrant who never had his own room till i was college, i just hung around the house - i didn't realize kids might need their own rooms ! But i do see a lifstyle creep - it's pretty sweet to travel to different countries and eat whatever, drive nice cars. I think ill keep doing that as long my savings are greater than 50% of income.

                  [–]lonesomewhistle 24ポイント25ポイント  (10子コメント)

                  OP seems to be expecting real estate and bitcoin to continue to outpace, and that he can get a high-paying job after being out of the tech industry for years if his plans don't work out.

                  [–]rachetheavengerFIRE 2038 13ポイント14ポイント  (9子コメント)

                  those are huge assumptions. real estate and bitcoin are fickle, and tech industry moves really fast.

                  [–]alliknowis -2ポイント-1ポイント  (8子コメント)

                  Real estate, not so fickle, especially if it's an owned rental property. He's also not in a particularly volatile region, even if the entire tech community moved out of Seattle.

                  [–]rachetheavengerFIRE 2038 5ポイント6ポイント  (6子コメント)

                  true, i guess not the same degree as bitcoin.

                  i just meant that one or two rentals is not a slam dunk - you can have multiple issues with renters and houses incur huge expenses like roof replacement etc.

                  [–]alliknowis 3ポイント4ポイント  (3子コメント)

                  You are right about that! Real estate is my primary source of income and has made me FI, but there are the occasional expensive problems. I don't think this guy's plan is going to work out exactly like he wants, but the real estate part isn't my big worry, unless they cash out again.

                  [–]rachetheavengerFIRE 2038 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

                  ok! how many properties or rentals do you think would one need to have to be diversified enough to sustain FIRE ?

                  [–]alliknowis 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

                  To be honest, I'm not as diversified as I should be, because all my properties are within about 70 miles of each other, so an economic slump could affect me significantly, but I'm fairly propped up by some recent military developments. I've also got a mix of single-family, apartments, and recently, some commercial. If you're interested, I did a fairly in-depth post about a year ago.

                  [–]kabekew47, RE'd at 39 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

                  But his main property is a boarding house. I can see the market for apartments and other single-family rentals, but a boarding house? If he needed to sell it, how many investors are really seeking out those?

                  [–]intertubelubernumbers/acrnyms/% 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

                  Yep, or a fire. This happenedto a friend on a multi unit property. It took over a year for insurance and repairs.

                  [–]na_cho_cheez 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

                  Thanks for this anecdote. This is exactly the reason I think rental income replacement coverage is a good idea for multifamily properties. I'm going to check that out. Not likely that a fire could knock out ten separate single family homes spread across a city, but could easily knock out a whole ten unit building.

                  [–]lonesomewhistle 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

                  Someone has never heard of the "will the last person leaving Seattle turn out the lights?" billboard: https://gilmanpark.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/lights-out-in-seattle/

                  [–]MiserlyLovesCompany31F, 55%SR 3ポイント4ポイント  (1子コメント)

                  The guy is already 32 and divorced. Not everyone needs marriage or kids to be part of the plan.

                  [–]kabekew47, RE'd at 39 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

                  A safe withdrawal rate for $750K is only about $20K a year, and that's with a well balanced, liquid portfolio that ensures stable enough growth to both account for inflation and withdrawals. You got two-thirds in real estate. What happens when the cash runs out? "I'll just sell a house" isn't a good answer, because it could sit on the market for a year or more. "I'll just go back to work" after a ten year gap in your resume? It's not easy. That $20K plus rental income has to cover everything, all taxes, property taxes, mortgage, insurance, health insurance, repairs, maintenance (enjoy getting hit up with a new $100K roof eventually, because they don't last forever), then what's left is all you have for your living expenses.

                  You just don't have enough to last you the next 60 years. And while now you don't mind living in a basement, eating ramen, sleeping on a futon and living and hanging out with 25 year old housemates (I'm guessing), you're going to get really tired of that when your same-age peers move on with their lives and now you're a 50 year old man still living like a college student.

                  [–]Turbo_swag 12ポイント13ポイント  (0子コメント)

                  This seems like a very poorly thought out plan.

                  [–]montalvvpile of debt but rapidly shrinking 5ポイント6ポイント  (1子コメント)

                  Curious about your strategy for accounting for inflation over the long term. I know its low at the moment, but you're likely to be alive for a long time. You mentioned low risk ETFs, which I am interpreting as either bonds or maybe value funds. Are you considering diversifying your real estate portfolio to use rental income for that, or are you expecting Bitcoin to keep pace in the long term?

                  [–]Meats10 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

                  Have you looked into more traditional investments with more stable returns? It seems like you have a propensity for highly speculative positions (gold/silver/bitcoin). That's definitely a risk to maintaining FIRE status.

                  [–]YorkieBabyDaddy 11ポイント12ポイント  (15子コメント)

                  Jesus, $150k + $30k bonus! I'm in Vancouver, Canada and they're barely paying $85k up here. Retirement matching? Bonuses? Hahaha, FUCK NO! And we have some of the highest real-estate prices outside of SFC. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. If only I could get a job with a US company T_T

                  Frankly I'm surprised you only have $750k. With the freebie you got from the Bitcoin/gold/silver, the fact you've been working 12 years already, means you should have been much further ahead with such high salaries.

                  I think $750K is fine if you intend to work on your own projects. I only have $40k but I'm still thinking of quitting and trying to launch a few of my own ideas as saas/ecommerce websites. It seems my skills are not perfect enough to get hired for $100k+ here in Vancouver, employers here only hire fucking unicorns. But I know enough to build a professional/enterprise product from scratch -- front, back, scalability, and even GUI-design. So yeah, fuck trying to impress employers, I really just want to run my own gig. I've seen enough start-ups fail to know how to build fast and fail quick if it doesn't work. Could be back working for someone within 6 months if anything.

                  I hate my job sooooo much right now. Everything about it pisses me off, including the low salary, long ass commute, and the incompetent idiots I'm working with. Oh yeah, and the product is terrible. We'll likely go bankrupt before I ever see a bonus.

                  P.S. your $750K is worth $975K CAD, so in Canada you would almost be a millionaire right now lol. Or you could learn Spanish and retire in South America. Buy a mansion in a gated community for $350K and live extremely cheaply for the rest of your life there.

                  [–]BumpitySnook 2ポイント3ポイント  (6子コメント)

                  Come over the border! My Seattle-area employer has hired 2-3 Canadians in the last year or two.

                  [–]Swelfie 8ポイント9ポイント  (3子コメント)

                  Or Amazon has Vancouver offices and I think they pay the same as in Seattle. Which is not $85k.

                  [–]YorkieBabyDaddy 3ポイント4ポイント  (2子コメント)

                  I interviewed with Amazon. The pay is shit here and the work-life balance is non-existent. They got destroyed on Glass Door for having a scorched-earth approach to software. The developers are constantly putting out fires created by bad software practices from previous years, including at 3am in the morning.

                  They paid like $100k, but if you consider all the hours you'll be working unpaid overtime, that comes out to less than the $85k places.

                  They also give you a bonus that you have to repay if you don't stay there for two years. But most people quit by the end of the first year.

                  [–]YorkieBabyDaddy 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

                  I would, but alas the border won't let me through without a degree. I'm self-taught so my only hope is to work remotely.

                  [–]tstorm004 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

                  Well... I feel like a schmuck for talking the 28k "career" I did out of college.

                  [–]YorkieBabyDaddy 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

                  Still double minimum wage. I worked at a shoe store early 20's, and didn't get my first professional software gig until 24. That started at $40k but barely went up from there. And again, if I ever leave Canada to live elsewhere, that money is only a fraction of what USD would get me.

                  You dun good, real good.

                  [–]Rfilsinger 1ポイント2ポイント  (3子コメント)

                  Come to maritimes.

                  We have some video game development jobs that pay similar rates to Vancouver, but the cost of living is a fraction, commutes are non existent (mine is 8 minutes) and it's a much slower pace of life.

                  There is a fairly large group of people who are starting to move this way because of all the Vancouver BS. I personally know 6 couples who have done this in the last year.

                  [–]imaginaryfiends 0ポイント1ポイント  (2子コメント)

                  Halifax?

                  [–]Rfilsinger 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

                  I'm in PEI. But there are about 5-6 studios in Halifax.

                  [–]imaginaryfiends 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                  I didn't realize PEI had a tech Scene! My wife and I occasionally consider moving east and slowing down. But can't really pull the plug.

                  I'm glad it's working for people though and I hope more people take that path.

                  [–]kabekew47, RE'd at 39 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

                  That's a myth about mansions and cost of living in developing countries. In the countries even willing to give residential visas to foreigners, supply of "western style" housing up to western standards is small, and demand and prices correspondingly high. Google pick-any-developing-country and real estate for sale and look at the cost of what's available.

                  Most countries also require your own health insurance, proof of regular income in the form of a pension or other income stream (investments usually aren't good enough), and things like requiring you to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars in local real estate or business investments. Hundreds of millions of conventional retirees around the world think "I'll just retire to (developing country) and live like a king on $10K a year," they start to descend on these small countries and prices shoot up. Living like a king for cheap is a myth.

                  [–]YorkieBabyDaddy 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

                  The houses are cheap because the property is cheap. The building materials are generally inexpensive too. And you get all cement construction, which is much better quality (water-proof, fire-proof, no termite damage), so it's nt just cheap framing and drywall. The only expensive parts are appliances because electronics have large import duties.

                  But it's actually really easy to get permanent residence. ie. one country all you need is to show that you have $50,000US in assets, OR that when you move you will continue to receive at least $900US/mo in income. So actually, it's very easy to migrate there. You apply for a landing permit, and you can enter the country with your shipping container full of furniture, electronics, even bring your cars.

                  Things like 4K TV's, laptops, smartphones, etc are expensive there because it's all imported and has high duties. Even cars sell for about 50% more than in North America (and they charge USD for items like houses and cars, because of how quickly the peso devalues). So it's cheaper to ship all that stuff from North America when you get a landing permit, because when you land you can bring all your things for free without paying duty.

                  [–]unibash 9ポイント10ポイント  (1子コメント)

                  Congrats on FIRE. Sounds like your journey made you grow up in a lot of ways and discover a lot about yourself in the process.

                  I had a question though, if it's not too personal, when you cashed out of bitcoin, how did you pay taxes on them (or did you)? Did you trade at all within the market or keep them in cold storage? I'm hodling at the moment, but would like some advice for the future

                  [–]barefooter[S] 15ポイント16ポイント  (0子コメント)

                  Yes, I paid taxes, I didn't want to take any chances with the IRS on such a large amount. I cashed out over the course of two years and paid capital gains as per a normal stock, as advised by my accountant.

                  I didn't really trade much, mostly just bought in at $6 and held up through the wild ride. Unfortunately, I sold most at $100-$250, just before it went up to $1000, which would have netted me a cool mil plus. I did buy back into more a year ago when prices were down.

                  HODL strong!

                  [–]papul1993 7ポイント8ポイント  (3子コメント)

                  And I will probably get my first job at 32.

                  Sometimes I just want to kill myself.

                  [–]DaffUCFFI by 2030 6ポイント7ポイント  (2子コメント)

                  Haha, don't do it, man! If we are healthy and able to support ourselves with that first job, we have it better than many people in the world.

                  I didn't finish college until I was 30. If I compare myself to kids who are millionaires in their early 20s, I'm like "daaaaaamn." But then I also remember I'm still doing very well compared to most people. At least I finished college. At least I have a good job now. Etc.

                  [–]di0spyr0s[NYC][28F][N00B] 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

                  Looking at going to college (remotely) and getting my first degree now. I'll be 30 when I start.

                  [–]quickadvic 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

                  Good luck. You're definitely going to need it.

                  [–]Yangoose 8ポイント9ポイント  (2子コメント)

                  A lot of this sounds like luck and good timing that he assumes will continue forever.

                  [–]barefooter[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                  Sure, there was a lot of good timing, but I don't expect that to continue forever. I made enormous gains on bitcoin, and now I'm only expecting to see modest gains in that investment. I made solid gains in RE, and I'm expecting to see smaller gains in the coming years that will still outpace inflation.

                  コメントをもっと表示する (1 返事)

                    [–]dson9 6ポイント7ポイント  (11子コメント)

                    As a software engineer myself who is just starting my career (with similar starting pay level as you when you started) any advice on advancing my career toward that $150k+ job down the road? West coast I'm assuming?

                    [–]barefooter[S] 15ポイント16ポイント  (8子コメント)

                    If your main goal is to retire early, yes, get to the west coast ASAP. If you're only making $60k, you're in a crappy market right now. I'm biased, but I recommend Seattle. Pay is nearly as good as the bay area, but living expenses are way way cheaper. I could have been making way more money, but I've been burned out for so long that I was just doing the minimum to get by. People with far less experience than me are making $200k+ if you include stock options, bonuses, etc. Some people at google with my level of experience are making $400k+ total comp.

                    Also, remember that switching jobs is generally the best way to get a big pay bump. Every time I thought I was making good money, I went on to get a new job and make 20%+ more. And remember the number one rule of negotiating, well maybe it's not really. No matter how much they offer, even if it's a shocking amount to you, ask for more.

                    [EDIT] for a bit more detail

                    If you want to maximize your pay. Get an interview practice book, and do drills out of it until you can confidently take on a tech interview at any company. Than interview at the big companies that pay super well (FB, amazon, MS, google, etc.), try to get multiple offers, so they're competing for you. Or, you can work for smaller companies and make less, which may allow you to keep your soul for a bit longer.

                    [–]YorkieBabyDaddy 9ポイント10ポイント  (2子コメント)

                    What was your specialization/stack, if you don't mind me asking...?

                    [–]barefooter[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

                    I didn't have a specific stack specialization, it changed a lot over my career. I did stay on the client side of things, and tended to work on desktop and mobile apps often with a lot of cross platform work. Most recently I was working with JS for apps on consumer devices and game consoles, but previously I spent the bulk of my career writing client side C++.

                    I much prefer working at the lower level and dealing with a clusterfuck of memory issues than working at a higher level and dealing with a clusterfuck of new frameworks and libs that come out every month. Towards the end of my career, it seems that I spent more time trying to use other peoples code than writing my own.

                    [–]YorkieBabyDaddy 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                    I'm front end and everything about JS in recent years has been a shit-show. I think ES15/16 and native JavaScript will be the way to go. But I'm not keen on how much reliance there is on JS today. It's terrible on slow devices, not browser compatibility friendly, and sucks for people with visual impairments. I don't think I'll be relying on it with the products I make myself. I'll still use APIs but I'll dedicated a separate server to act as a compiler that will just serve rendered views.

                    [–]DaffUCFFI by 2030 2ポイント3ポイント  (2子コメント)

                    Congrats on your success! Yeah, where I live on the East coast a starting salary of 55-60k is pretty normal. Way different than the West which seems to be 90-100+. However, you can also buy a nice starter home here for only 150k, so the low cost of living is nice.

                    I agree with you that if early retirement is the goal then West coast can make it happen faster, especially if you don't mind roommates or living in an apartment.

                    And thanks for the tips too. I'm a software engineer as well.

                    What's the average work week like on the West? I get the impression that 50-60 hour work weeks at the big companies (like Google) is the expectation.

                    [–]BumpitySnook 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

                    I think 40 hours is the expectation at my particular company, but plenty of people work more hours so it might be difficult to cut yourself off at 40 for social reasons.

                    [–]JLive23 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                    Plus you get to live on the Best Coast which is definitely a huge plus.

                    [–]Neckbeard-OG 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

                    Cost of living is nearing parity with the bay area. Look at housing prices. Everything going for full cash offers well over asking and getting in bidding wars.

                    Agree 60k is low, but 100k in Seattle is nearly equivalent unless you're commuting or have roommates. Rentals are brutal in Seattle proper.

                    [–]BigZen 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

                    ost of living is nearing parity with the bay area. Look at housing prices. Everything going for full cash offers well over asking and getting in bidding wars. Agree 60k is low, but 100k in Seattle is nearly equivalent unless you're commuting or have roommates. Rentals are brutal in Seattle proper.

                    I don't understand this argument. Where are going to spend an extra 35k (adjusted for tax increases) per year living in Seattle? If rent doubled from 1 thousand to 2 thousand per month you're only spending an extra 12k per year.

                    You aren't going to spend another 23k on food and clothing.

                    [–]sur_surly 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

                    FYI, he was just in a high cost of living city. In pdx, you'd be looking at 120k on the high side, but is also much cheaper than Seattle.

                    [–]BumpitySnook 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                    Get 3+ offers and negotiate them off each other. They'll raise at least once. Work for 2-3 years, do a good job, apply to another several places to get 3 more offers. Negotiate again. That'll quickly get you north of $150k if you're a decent worker.

                    [–]honeybadger1984 2ポイント3ポイント  (2子コメント)

                    I feel like that's not enough, especially with a bunch tied up in equity. But see how it goes in a few years and post here. You can always adjust and work on the side.

                    [–]barefooter[S] 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

                    I think it's very unlikely I've never make money again, as I'll probably pick up various odd jobs here and there that make money, or find new passions that make money.

                    [–]lonesomewhistle 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                    The problem is going back to work after spending a few years out, especially in tech. You may not have familiarity with the latest tech trends, much less experience, and your network goes from "yeah great dev I worked with them all the time" to "oh yeah I remember them."

                    [–]Logic_now 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

                    Congrats on doing well, but I would use caution in being full FIRE as you seem to have spending above your what you assets can kick off.

                    Well, your math is not adding up. Starting $60K/yr, Finishing $180/yr. To make it easy, say average of $120/yr for 10 years, to make the example easy. Taxes 33%, Spend 33%, Save 33%. So ~40K/yr savings and living expenses, so you should have saved an actual $400K.

                    Here is where the math seems to fail:

                    value is up $240k in the last two years, so it's a $600k loan on a house that's worth around $840k.

                    So 120K in real estate run up on one property and 450K in bit coin that you paid ~4-10K per your statements in the thread. So of 750K, 570K came from two investments that were less than 10 year rises of "boom" markets, which for this thread is gambling (i.e. high risk/high profit investments, but not sustainable or the next 50-60 years).

                    Also, 750 - 570 = 180K, that you actually saved over 10 years off those salaries. That means you expenses were more than 40K/yr. Additionally, 750K at a 4% safe withdraw is only 30K/yr, so you need to take a huge lifestyle cut to be FIRE.

                    Per my calculations you should have accumulated more wealth from savings if your expenses are as low as you claim. Most of your accumulation is from rises in assets (which is a good thing but isn't correcting for the other side of the equation).

                    [–]FrostyFire 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

                    I'm with you. This guy hasn't saved anything. Where do you think the $120k cash actually came from? Doubt savings, he said they just did a cash out refinance.

                    [–]lemonarium 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

                    I admire your ambition but just because you're ok on living in a group setting at 32 doesn't mean you will be at 64. You're making some sweeping assumptions about the deep future with no margin for error.

                    [–]myusernameranoutofsp 4ポイント5ポイント  (2子コメント)

                    Sell the bitcoin, the price finally started rising up so it's a good time compared to when it kept floating around $300, but it has been experiencing real technological issues. I think it's a safe time to get out especially if you have $150k in it. If you want, take $100k out and leave $50k in. Also don't tell anyone you have anywhere near that much in bitcoin because it's too easy to steal.

                    Edit: I'm assuming you got in early if you have that much bitcoin. If you got in early then you should sell a lot to actually realize your gains, if it crashes again and doesn't come back up then you lose them. If for example you actually made $500k and you sold a bunch so you now have $150k left then cool, but if you haven't sold any then I think it's good to sell a lot of it.

                    Edit 2: Nvm, I missed part of what you wrote, I stand by not telling people how much bitcoin you're holding though

                    [–]BumpitySnook 4ポイント5ポイント  (1子コメント)

                    He already cashed out $300k. I mean, I don't think bitcoin is a wise investment. But he has realized some gain there.

                    [–]mathdrug 1ポイント2ポイント  (3子コメント)

                    What is running start?

                    [–]NotMyTypesType 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

                    This is a program that allows certain students to take college courses in high school. You pay less so you can graduate earlier.

                    [–]mathdrug 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                    oh okay. Didn't know it was called that. We just call it post secondary, or dual enrollment.

                    thanks

                    [–]AtheistAgnostic 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

                    Dual enrollment program in WA

                    [–]throwaway99999324 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

                    Good on you mate! Very jealous! I am not even close but like reading stories of people handling their finances well.

                    Also a software engineer, netting about $115k now with only 3 years experience in Chicago suburbs with 4-8% bonus. Am also doing side freelance and should pull in another $30k extra this year. Married + 1 child and another on the way. Wife works two days a week making about $15k a year. No daycare costs or anything, lucky with parents on both sides. Just reached 20% equity in our house and am refinancing to 3.625% from 4.5%. We bought the house as $190k and it has gone up a bit, but I don't think of it as an asset. However I've been aggressive in getting to the 20% LtV in 2 years (we only put 10% down). I will probably keep my payments high after the refinance but try and max out 401ks.

                    I am curious if you built up any 401k with your companies over 12 years, didn't see that in your post. I am slowly getting that up to the maximum (at around $12k yearly now). I have $34k in cash, and $45k in investments (not including house), and owe $3k on one car and own our first. I have paid off mine and my wife's student loans, but my parents took out loans for me and I still owe them ~$40k. I have been paying them back $10-15k a year.

                    I also own 10 BTC and am up on that (not included in my assets). I was really interested in it as a technology when it was cheap, but I really had no money (on top of owing a lot for college). Biggest god damn regret of my life.

                    I am really interested in multiple income sources, but buying a rental unit seems over my head right now and I already work too many hours. Need more passive avenues... I am 28 and working on reaching FIRE by 40. However I have too many hobbies and am not frugal enough. I try and compensate for that by getting my hobbies to earn $.

                    [–]nokkieny 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

                    Congrats. I think you are taking a reasonable risk, I would normally say work a few more years, but if you had $1MM, I would say work a few more years, eventually you just have to go for it. The combo of living in and renting out bedrooms does mitigate your risk, assuming you are always able to cover the mortgage, then at the very least you have a roof over your head and some ramen noodles.

                    Solar is another long term play, but should pan out for you, If Seattle is one of those states where solar makes sense. I assume it is.

                    [–]barefooter[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                    Thanks. Living in and renting out on a per room basis works extremely well actually. I'd highly recommend it to anyone going down this path. I can bring in more money than just renting the entire house and have a vacancy rate that is close to 0% because only one or two rooms ever turn over at a time, and it's very easy to fill them.

                    [–][削除されました]  (3子コメント)

                    [deleted]

                      [–]spectralwolf 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

                      He needs to go get a vasectomy tomorrow and never get married.

                      [–]tstorm004 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

                      Yeah he said he was married for 2.5 years then divorced on fairly good terms.

                      [–]barefooter[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                      Single, but I was married once. If I were to get married again, it would most likely be to someone that shared my FI vision and could live as cheaply as me. At this point I have zero interest in having kids. I have lots of nieces and nephews and that's good enough. I'm somewhat non traditional in my values and desires in life, but people keep assuming I want to have the same things they do.

                      [–]gachimuchi4 1ポイント2ポイント  (2子コメント)

                      When did you start making big ass money like 150k?

                      Just trying to see how long it took you to get FI.

                      Congrats though.

                      [–]barefooter[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

                      I've only been making 150k for the past two years, but as I said I've been kinda a slacker in the industry and if you worked harder you could get to my salary level much sooner on the west coast. Especially if you worked for one of the big companies that pays well.

                      [–]gachimuchi4 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

                      Not on the west coast atm... I'm curious.. Is 150k on the west coast considered high or just normal?

                      [–]PlanetSmasherJ 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

                      Congrats! If you own those properties with no debt on them, I see nothing wrong with your plan. If the housing market completely tanks and you aren't able to fill most of the 15 bedrooms in the rentals all at once you will run into problems, but I think that is an extreme turn to happen so fast you couldn't adjust for it and get back to work if needed (not likely you would if you continue to play it smart and stay cheap). Good luck and enjoy your FIRE.

                      [–]barefooter[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                      Thanks! And, that's my thinking that it would have to be pretty drastic circumstances for my RE investments to tank, and in drastic times I'd just take drastic measures and go back to work. On the flip side, I think Seattle is going the way of SF in RE pricing, and given the strong economy, I can't foresee any issues renting rooms, but you never know.

                      The rooms in my houses are slightly below market while I tend to keep the places up pretty well and take good care of my tenants, so I'm selling to an underserved market of young people looking for cheap rent who don't want to rent an entire house with friends. If the economy tanks to shit, it's the fancy new buildings that will be vacant. I'll just pop another bedroom in my house, lower rents a bit, and we'll all have a big party while the world burns around use :).

                      [–]nerrdrager 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

                      I'm not going to lie, the envy is strong in me after reading this, but what I'm most jealous of is your timing. I'm a 26 year SW engineer in Seattle, who holds bitcoin. However I bought into bitcoin late in the game, I was trying to buy at $400 right before it shot up to over $1k but I used coinbase and it takes almost a month to verify your account to be able to make purchases so I missed that gain then bought a couple at $700 on the way down... but it kept going down. Fortunately I waited and bought the bulk of my bitcoin at around $250-300 and am now not feeling so stupid anymore! I wish I could buy (with a friend) a big bedroom house to live in and rent out the other rooms like you're doing but I also feel like I'm too late, since the Seattle market has already blasted off. Anyone think that is still a good idea in the Seattle market? Me and a friend would love to do this. Anyways this was mostly just a rant of me wishing I was born 6 years earlier, congrats on your FIRE

                      [–]barefooter[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                      First of all, if bitcoin really takes off you are still very early in the game, so don't feel like you missed out. And it sounds like you already made a solid return!

                      As far as buying a house in Seattle, I can't really say if it's a good idea, but I'll offer my opinions. First of all, it's going to be very difficult, as most houses are selling in a week with multiple offers, no contingencies from pre-inspection, etc. You'll either need to pay a premium or find a house others don't want.

                      It was even this way a couple years ago when I purchased, but my friend and I came across this 9 bedroom house that was selling at the price of a 6 bedroom house. It was very poorly advertised and almost impossible to get a showing as it was fully rented, so we were able to score it under asking price.

                      I'd say if you are looking, focus on finding a place that is somehow less desirable to others but has lots of bedrooms to bring in money. Houses with less bathrooms or no master are often less desirable to a family, but make for a perfect situation where you live in and rent out rooms.

                      Also, if you're handy look for houses that have the potential to add more bedrooms. You might find a 4 bedroom that you could finish the basement to add two or three rooms, and split a master into two rooms to make another one, or a garage that can be converted to living space.

                      In my bellingham house, I split the master down the middle to make a 5 bedroom house into a 6 bedroom. I did all the work except drywall myself, and probably spent around $1k, but then had another room I could rent out for $400/month.

                      As far as the RE market in Seattle, I think it's going to keep climbing for a good while (maybe even do what SF did), but who knows. There is still a large influx of money coming into the area with all the bay area SW companies opening up offices, and the economy seems like it will be booming for a long time.

                      Feel free to PM me if you'd like to discuss more.

                      [–]Guywalkes 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

                      Ah, OP needs to put Bitcoin and cash to work with Vanguard IMHO.

                      [–]TamerleeTax Accountant 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

                      Bitcoins are insanely over-inflated right now. I would bail.

                      [–]tsirolnik 3ポイント4ポイント  (5子コメント)

                      Let's say that you want to turn that Bitcoin into actually usable money, you know, cause you need to. How are you going to do that?

                      [–]hablamanos2 3ポイント4ポイント  (3子コメント)

                      You go sell it on an exchange.

                      [–]IcyTrumpet 2ポイント3ポイント  (2子コメント)

                      And when the transfer doesn't complete because of how unstable the block chain has become, then what?

                      [–]barefooter[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                      Easy, as I mentioned I've already done that with $300k worth in the past. I just transfer the bitcoin to an exchange like coinbase and sell straight into my checking account.

                      [–]woofThrowawaywoof 1ポイント2ポイント  (6子コメント)

                      Suppose you didn't get married and I presume, lose money from your divorce, what would you estimate your NW at? Awesome figures btw

                      [–]barefooter[S] 12ポイント13ポイント  (5子コメント)

                      The marriage wasn't really a huge setback, because we had an amicable divorce. We were only married 2.5 years, and I paid for her to be in school the entire time while she didn't work, so she was nice and didn't lawyer up and try to take me for half. I gave her $36k at the time of divorce, and we quit claimed the house into just my name. I'm glad she was cool, because some of her friends were trying to convince her she deserved half of what I had.

                      Considering I also paid her living expenses and school for 2.5 years, it might have set me back a total of $80k-$100k.

                      [–]dudehere976 3ポイント4ポイント  (3子コメント)

                      Don't forget alimony!

                      [–]barefooter[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

                      I didn't. There was no alimony in our settlement. I paid her a lump sum upon divorce.

                      [–]dudehere976 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                      so she was nice and didn't lawyer up and try to take me for half.

                      What I meant was, "don't forget she didn't try to take your for alimony." You're incredibly lucky. She basically stared down a winning lotto ticket for $375,000 she was "entitled" to and let you off the hook.

                      [–]supermanticore 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                      Isn't alimony a payment for forgoing career opportunities in order to raise children/take care of the house?

                      It seems like the fact that he financed her education would negate the possibility of alimony

                      コメントをもっと表示する (1 返事)

                        [–]compost_binning 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

                        Congrats on your success! Was it hard to leave the 180k job? At your level of assets, each additional year worked translates to a good deal more financial security. That said, if the job is killing your drive for life and you think you might need more money I could understand pulling the plug.

                        I make a similar amount of money and have wondered whether I'll be able to pull out near the $1M mark.

                        [–]barefooter[S] 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

                        Sure, it was hard. Especially with a high savings rate, it's really easy to say, "wow, if I just work one more year thats another 100k in the bank." And I did this for many years, until I could no longer bear it. I had gotten so far off from who I wanted to be, that I just couldn't keep going down that path, so I figured it was time to finally be free.

                        [–]ciabattabing16 1ポイント2ポイント  (2子コメント)

                        I'm somewhat surprised at the top comments here with everyone shitting on OP. Your poo flinging would have a bit more weight to it were OP not 32 years old and sitting a vag hair away from a million bucks debt free. Is bitcoin goofy? Maybe. Maybe he also owns 100k in Pez dispensers. But I'd say you have to hit his level of fucks not given before you have any credibility to judge. I certainly don't.

                        [–]barefooter[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

                        haha, thanks! Yeah, I give about zero fucks right now to the naysayers. I know what I'm doing, and I've been planning this for a very long time. I may be wrong about some things, I may be naive about some things, but I'll learn and adjust as I go. My resourcefulness (and some luck) got me here, and I can't see why it won't take me even higher.

                        Everyone on here just seems to be projecting their own desires/insecurities/etc. onto me. Sure, $750k may not be enough for you to retire on, but I don't live the same way you do and have different goals for my life.

                        Also, there is a certain crowd on reddit that thinks anyone who has money in bitcoin is a moron, so of course I was going to piss them off.

                        [–]ciabattabing16 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                        The real story here is that you managed to FIRE with a divorce. Unless she's on an island right now also with 750k.

                        [–]TheHeyTeam 2ポイント3ポイント  (6子コメント)

                        /u/barefooter, you didn't FIRE, you simply haven't thought enough ahead to realize it. All you've done is prematurely FIREd.......again. Unless you're planning to be a lonely, aging bachelor, you will eventually need to go back to work, b/c you cannot support a wife or children on what you've amassed. I'm 40 with a wife, 2 kids, and probably 2 more in the pipeline, with $3M, and I'm still 10 years away from being able to FIRE.

                        Honestly, I think you need to address some of the psychological/emotional issues you're dealing with. You mentioned that you've neglected your health & been miserable. That doesn't mean quitting your job to live in the basement of a house like a hermit is the solution. Where you work or what you do for a living does not prevent you from eating healthy or exercising. I own a sizable, international company, which has a great deal of demands (I'm actually working part of today, on Saturday). But, I still work out 15-45 minutes per day, go on relaxing walks, eat healthy foods free of sugar & moderately low on fat. You have to realize that happiness & joy come from within. They're not external. You can quit your job & have a momentary high that comes from the excitement of a new adventure. But, just like you felt that when you probably first started working in your field & learning it, eventually the newness and the adventure wears off, and you're right back where you started.

                        By FIREing early, you've robbed yourself of gaining TRUE financial independence earlier in life. No amount of work down the road will replace the lost earnings & compounding interest that you failed to capture each time you attempted to FIRE. If you're a natural loner and/or asexual, what you're doing very well may work. But, you're going to find, as you get older, that the buddies you have now will dedicate more & more time to wife/girlfriend/kids, and less time with you. The social interactions you have will dwindle. And, if you, like them, ever get married, you're going to have to go back to work, b/c 99.9% of girls are not going to want to live in a basement with a half dozen other people upstairs, or raise kids on peanuts.

                        My recommendation (not that you've asked) would be to find a job you can do part time, so you can continue making use of your skills. You know very well that it is E-A-S-Y to get left behind as a software engineer if you check out for too long. Or, look for a job that gives you fulfillment. They're out there. Regardless though, don't use circumstances as an excuse for neglecting your health. No one is responsible for you, but you. If you don't eat right. That's on you. If you don't exercise. That's on you. It's not on your boss. It's not on your job. So, don't use having a "desk job" as an excuse for why you didn't take care of you, or to justify FIREing early.

                        Good luck with whatever you do. Don't make short-sighted decisions b/c you're fed up though. They never turn out in your favor. And if you end up back at work down the road, you'll be significantly further behind, and have to work significantly more years, than if you'd simply taken care of yourself & found a job that better fit your temperament & needs.

                        [–]TxdoHawk 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

                        I think you are projecting your insecurities on this dude, to be honest. Maybe his goals in life don't involve a wife and 4 kids?

                        [–]barefooter[S] 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

                        Whoa dude, as the other guy said you are totally projecting your own insecurities onto me. When did I ever mention anything that gave the impression that I might be a hermit? In fact, the only thing I really mentioned was that I love living with lots of people, that doesn't really seem very hermit like. In fact, my first two weeks not working I've been incredibly social, and plan continue this as I really love people.

                        [–]ducksqueaker30F midwest 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                        99.9% of girls are not going to want to live in a basement with a half dozen other people upstairs, or raise kids on peanuts.

                        He said he doesn't want kids. Plus what 99% of people would do is irrelevant. 99% of people would be able to retire on 3M+ so why can't you?

                        [–]MishoPisho 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                        I miss my Geo Metro so much...

                        [–]Invictus50 0ポイント1ポイント  (4子コメント)

                        PM's welcome? Btw congrats on your FIRE achievement

                        [–]barefooter[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (3子コメント)

                        Thanks! Sure PMs are welcome.

                        [–]Invictus50 0ポイント1ポイント  (2子コメント)

                        Seems like we've had similar experiences in terms of not developing a materialistic mindset. Come from very humble beginnings. Always wanted to learn how to program, and or develop apps for Android or Apple devices.

                        Would it trouble you if I may ask:

                        Where do I start? What languages do I need to study?

                        Have no idea where to start.

                        [–]barefooter[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

                        It's really hard to tell someone where to start these days, because there are so many things you could learn. The general skills of programming are very transferable to any language, and languages are easy to learn once you can code, so really I'd just say dip your toes into something that interests you.

                        If you're self learning, you'll be best served if it really excites you, which will fuel your learning. I know it might not be the answer your looking for. Are you interested in mobile, web, desktop apps, robotics, games, embedded devices, etc.? Figure out where your interests lie and then learn those programming languages and technologies to build what you want to build.

                        [–]Invictus50 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                        Specifically mobile Android and Apple apps. Hope to achieve FIRE like you have, someday.

                        [–]ltwaldo 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                        I hope you paid cap gains taxes on your bitcoin sale. Also, what's your rental property cashflow?

                        [–]Laser45 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

                        You sound burnt out. I would take an extended vacation (perhaps a year), and then look at continuing to build your wealth.

                        Too long out of the workforce, and finding another job will be challenging. $750k likely won't get you through to old age. Another marriage, kids, health issues, etc. can drag down your net worth.

                        [–]yo_neighbor_totoro 1ポイント2ポイント  (2子コメント)

                        Congratulations! Haven't seen so many pessimistic responses to a RE post in a while. I think people are taking their jealousy out on you by upvoting posts that trash your plan...which is ironic given that most of them probably wish they were in your shoes right now having followed your plan.

                        IMO you'll be totally fine. Rental income is usually very stable if you know what you're doing and is a great way to ensure you have good cash flow on fewer $$$; all it takes is decent knowledge and staying on top of it. It's not a passive investment, it's affected by your skill with it and attention to it. You can definitely get back in the game if you need to...might take a few months but hey, you're FI or close, what's the rush?

                        You probably have at least as good a chance at doubling your NW in the next 10 years than halving it. We like to be pessimists here but them's be the numbers.

                        I would run the numbers carefully on the solar panels; generally they degrade quicker than those aggro sales people say (20-30 years). The numbers look great until you realize that your principal is disappearing as they break down...then the numbers don't look so great as you only have your energy savings in the bank after 30 years, rather than principal + energy savings.

                        Enjoy retirement!

                        Edit: learning how to splel.

                        [–]lonesomewhistle 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

                        Congratulations! Haven't seen so many pessimistic responses to a RE post in a while. I think people are taking their jealousy out on you by upvoting posts that trash your plan...which is ironic given that most of them probably wish they were in your shoes right now having followed your plan.

                        That's a bit unfair, and also wrong.

                        コメントをもっと表示する (1 返事)

                          [–]TxdoHawk 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

                          From one cryptocurrency enthusiast to another: Good for you, OP. Every new technology is a crazy madcap insane idea to naysayers until it permeates our entire lives. There are going to be a lot of feet inserted in mouths when you sell the rest of that stash for way more than it's worth now.

                          [–]barefooter[S] 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

                          Thanks! I think a lot of people just don't have the vision far out enough to get it. Bitcoin is not a replacement for credit cards and every day transactions for the masses. It's way bigger than that. Bitcoin is a new technology that can serve as the backbone of a whole financial industry, providing store of value, smart contracts, stock ownership, moving money between borders without friction, and a whole host of other things that are very difficult in the current system. If you just think of it as a payment system you really miss the boat. Bitcoin is like the TCP/IP of the new monetary system, and lots of consumer apps will be built on top of it.

                          [–]hablamanos2 -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

                          Glad to see people in bitcoin doing so well in terms of FI! Grats!

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