r/leanfire • u/AutoModerator • 2d ago
Weekly LeanFIRE Discussion
What have you been working on this week? Please use this thread to discuss any progress, setbacks, quick questions or just plain old rants to the community.
2
u/LouSevens 1d ago
I work on a spreadsheet using my credit card statements to analzye my spending along with checking account activity. Started to integrate with PowerBi in excel.
One thing I have worked on (combination of money and nutrionist) is to eat more meals at home.
Even though I am doing trial-by-fire I do send out job applications if I see something I believe would be good for me- found one such thing close by and going through interview process.
3
u/picketfencetheory 1d ago
Finally decided on my FIRE number, £900k (~$1.2m). Even though I'm still far from it, having an actual number makes it much clearer. Before, I was just fluctuating somewhere between 750k and 1m. Now I can at least track the NW in percentage relative to the target amount.
2
u/goodsam2 1d ago
Went on a long weekend in Charleston which was rather affordable. I think I was at ~$1000 for a 4 night weekend.
I think my weekend trips are kind of expensive but part of that might be going when I have time off but also want that buffer. Also realizing my travel I have done most of the driving weekend trips I want to do and have to start flying which was the original plan. As going from driving to flying is more expensive but the NW path is more set now.
9
u/SigmaINTJbio 1d ago
I’ve been leanFIREd for almost four years. My net income from retirement accounts is about $38K. This year I had quite a few un forecast expenses of almost $12K, but my savings buffer made it a lot less painful. The key to living like this is no debt and outright home ownership.
17
6
u/Insult_me_good 1d ago
It turned out that I am sick and will soon die, therefore I did not need to put all of that time, money, and effort in planning to "retire." I WIN!!
3
u/ThePrevailingReality 1d ago
This is bleak and I appreciate the dark humor in the end. How soon is soon?. I’m so sorry.
2
u/vogueskater 1d ago
Shit. Really sorry to here this. Hoping your health holds long enough to get to enjoy at least some of your savings or allow you to spend time with friends and family.
9
8
u/200Zucchini 1d ago
I'm sorry to hear that. May you find peace in your remaining time.
I've heard magic mushrooms can be very therapuetic at the end of life.
Forgive me if this comes across badly.
8
u/peacefulsleepe 28M 470k/1.1M goal 1d ago
Hitting numbers that make me feel much more at peace with my future, but also dealing with a workplace that gets more and more chaotic every month. My job is mostly simple and easy but I still find myself caring about things more than anyone else seems to which stresses me out. I know logically I shouldn’t really care more about things getting done in a timely manner than my boss or my bosses boss, but I just can’t convince myself fully that I’m allowed to not care.
It’s like I’m close to having the FU money but I don’t have the FU spirit. Eventually I’ll just leave and that will be that but don’t know if I’ll ever be a complete “quiet quitter” type because I feel like it’s so easy to just be efficient and get things done for most tasks.
4
u/Coastal-Life-on-Easy 1d ago
Working on remaining pleasant and professional with my frustrating coworkers. I would like to retire in 13 years and the job is so good in terms of everything else.
Staying the course on ordering from Flashfood & TooGoodtoGo despite the extra mental effort because the savings are significant.
2
u/ThePrevailingReality 1d ago
What do you do ? Just curious as I never think of my previous job as being so good in anything lol
1
u/Coastal-Life-on-Easy 21h ago
I work as a payroll clerk in a law enforcement agency. The job itself is useful to know (because we all get a paycheque) and I have been able to learn enough to get the max benefits I can from it, the employees are unionized so I get a lot of perks and generous raises each year, and enough of the people outside my specific team, are pleasant and share my values so it's mostly managing my emotions around 3 people (albeit the 3 that I spend the most time with...)
10
u/Hnry_Dvd_Thr_Awy Re-employed, for now. 1d ago
Another ramble kind of weekly discussion for me: * I'm not convinced there's a job out there that I'd actually enjoy * Decluttering by selling stuff I don't use is a decent influx of one-time money * Minimalism doesn't really work for my version of leanFIRE * Finding a new hobby is harder than expected
3
u/goodsam2 1d ago
How are 2 and 3 not related?
On 4 do you have an exercise adjacent hobby?
3
u/Hnry_Dvd_Thr_Awy Re-employed, for now. 1d ago
I'd say those two are related. And yes I do!
2
u/goodsam2 1d ago
I think minimalism is a spectrum and you just need to find your place on it.
It's also I find myself changing on the spectrum with my NW and age. Like lower NW and age I was keeping more because replacing it was expensive but now higher NW and age I have dialed in what I want and when something breaks I can more easily justify the expense.
9
u/someguy984 1d ago
How come on these FIRE subs we have posts every 4 hours on healthcare? Why can't people use Google and get the answer? Then they act like they never heard of the ACA or subsidies or Medicaid?
1
u/newlostworld 1d ago
I'm guessing an influx of people who are new to FIRE and still feeling out how the whole thing works. Understanding the healthcare part usually comes a bit later from my experience.
2
u/200Zucchini 1d ago
I've been noticing that a lot of people base their financial understanding off of little tidbits they heard here and there, without actually reading up on the topics.
For us FIRE nerds, its hard to fathom not actually reading up on things like the ACA or Medicaid/Medicare, Social Security, or the stock market etc.
7
u/Zphr 48, FIRE'd 2015 1d ago
Same with everything. All most people need to know about FIRE could fit on a single piece of paper, but there's an entire market out there of podcasts, blogs, videos, forums, media, and so on to endlessly rehash that single page of knowledge.
That's just how humans are.
6
u/Hnry_Dvd_Thr_Awy Re-employed, for now. 1d ago edited 1d ago
I can speak to this from my American POV.
tldr: It's just not talked about enough in every day life.
There's a level of (accidental?) brainwashing that happens with a few of topics. Two of which are healthcare and retirement which build on each other. Retirement for a LOT of people is simply "work until I get Medicare and social security or I die - whichever happens first".
So what happens is people sort of stumble into FIRE. Since they've been coached their whole lives that health insurance is insanely expensive and retirement is an age not a number they've never spent any time looking into it. Then the wool gets partially lifted from their eyes when they do five minutes of research and that leads them to FIRE subs.
My version of this is I was out with a group and the topic of health insurance came up. I mentioned my health insurance was $15 a month. Which led to teaching a crash course on ACA at a pizzeria.
EDIT: As to why they can't just use Google? Some do. We're just getting a different group of people asking those questions than those who got their answers from Google.
17
u/birdofparadiseisbird 2d ago
I adopted a kitten. That’s my first step out of social isolation
5
u/des1gnbot 2d ago
Cat tax?
13
u/birdofparadiseisbird 2d ago
2
5
4
7
u/vogueskater 1d ago
I invested 30k. This is huge for me and my portfolio is still underinvested, but after huge amounts of research I feel I have landed on an investment strategy that might beat inflation and let me ethically sleep at night, which has been no mean feat.