I had to post this update related to the COVID-19 virus as it seems to be required of everyone this week.

My inbox is bursting with notices from more email addresses than I could have imagined.  Here goes:

I implore you to take all sane precautions to protect yourself, your family, and those around you.  A list of precautions can be found everywhere online, but we are told to use the CDC homepage.

It’s been a while since my last post because we’ve been locked down in the bunker…no, actually because we’ve been scavenging for home goods and haven’t had time for unimportant typing/ramblings,… no, actually because we’ve been living a great life, trying to enjoy each day and be smart about our spacing and interactions with other human beings. 

(Note: speaking of home goods, my wife has been to HomeGoods and it was just normal decorating-people busy, no panic shopping there)

Lessons in Shopping:

I didn’t plan on writing this next section, but for my actual thoughts:  We went to Costco on Thu March 5^th as part of our normal “Costco run” and figured we’d grab a few household supplies.  I was shocked there were only about 10 cases (out of the normal 500?) on the floor.  WHOA, I thought.  I then pushed my large cart to the toilet paper and paper towel section only to find the shelves (and floor) totally empty.  There weren’t even any news stories or pictures of empty shelves yet.  People must listen to Radical Personal Finance. 

Continuing on, I thought I’d grab an “extra” bag of brown rice.  Turns out, there was no brown rice, no white rice, and no jasmine rice at all.  I did get my boxes of Quaker oats…hmm, people must not be thrilled by bland breakfast foods.

Here’s why I walked around with an “oh $h!t” feeling; I’ve never lived in a hurricane or tornado zone where the store can frequently go bare.  It was an unnerving feeling.  Much different than my past when shelves are kind of low in Alaska because the seasonal shipments have been sold out.  That’s more of an “oops, I should have grabbed that item at the time…oh well, next time.”

Of course, there were other plenty of other items available at Costco so we just topped off our existing home supply of those goods.  We had no major bulk purchases at the store.

I thought I would check out Amazon, and sure enough they had TP for sale, not priced too high, no worries, right?  The next day when I went back to my PC and the page had updated, most of the TP items stated “no longer in stock, or said “available on April ##date.”  This was VERY unnerving to say the least.  [Note: I’m writing this 10 days later and stores have been ravaged by our afraid peers]

I should be clear; I’m mostly surprised that toilet paper is such a panic/critical item.  I’m actually far more concerned at having input than worrying about the output factor.

Optimization = Preparation:

It turns out that the cost-saving practices I learned growing up of buying extra amounts when items go on sale, as well as always replenishing an item before I run low has helped me leading up to this craziness.

Give Around:

In the past few days we’ve started to be more considerate of those around us who may need assistance during these times.  Those who cannot work from home and lose pay, those who cannot leave home due to high risk factors and those who are just stressed out.

Improvement Time:

My wife mentioned that since we’re social distancing (introvert normal-ness) ourselves at home more, that we should plan to do more home projects.  I think that’s a great idea (except dealing with me more  hours sounds stressful for her) to  use some of this home-time to work on projects/tasks, learning new things, getting a little more zen and good “recovery” time.  Example: a little less body exhausting exercise for a few weeks, etc.

So, I plan to work on strengthening our home-life foundation to come out of this stronger (and zen-ner) than ever.

This too shall pass, and we’ll be wiser and stronger on the other side.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice.

As my blog post count nears the 100 post milestone, I am surprised that I hit another HUGE milestone last week. 

If you read me, or know me, it’s no surprise that I keep track of things.  I plan, I track, (I sometimes do nothing with the previous information), I fine-tune, I like to know how things have been going.

I tracked my weight loss when I was 29-30.  I’ve tracked my weight over the years—for a decade I tracked my calories throughout the day.  After I hit my goal weight, then after hitting my dream weight, I joined the neighborhood Gold’s Gym.  Did you catch that, “after” I hit my goal weight, I joined the gym.

Running Challenge

I don’t seem to do anything like other people.  I somehow, almost magically, hit my dream weight—actually beyond my craziest dreams.  I decided then to set a new goal, to run a 10k race.  I knew nothing about this but that seemed like a common distance people raced, according to all the flyers and advertisements.

So to learn how to run 10k—I figured out that was 6.2 miles—I made a plan to train for that distance.  The best way I could learn to run an actual mile was to use a treadmill to measure the distance.  Strangely, it never occurred to me to run around my neighborhood.  In retrospect, it seems like I needed the calculation function of the treadmill to make sure I was on track.  I’d never run a mile before so this was all new.  Yes, I played sports, but never ran anywhere…what for?

So the first day at the gym I did the run-a-minute, walk-a-minute until I hit 1 mile.  Then a couple of days later I did the run-two-minutes, walk-a-minute.  On the third day I was running my third minute and just decided not to stop until I hit 1 mile about 7 minutes later.  10 minutes wasn’t too crazy hard.  A couple of weeks later I ran two miles straight and was amazed.  Actually, I was beyond amazed.

One hour of running:  So here’s the most interesting part—I was able to work my way up to running 6.2 miles on the treadmill in about an hour.  Let’s be clear, running on a treadmill (in Arizona in Oct) for an hour makes almost no sense to me now.  Get outside and explore. 

So about a month after joining the gym—in Oct 2000, to learn how to run—I ran my 10k with maybe 10,000 people and met my goal of finishing in less than 1 hour.

The Start of the Series

Very early on with my gym membership (in the first couple of weeks) I started weight training at the gym.  I decided to do full-body “activation” workout two times per week.  My logic is simple, I want to engage all my muscles and let them know they need to move, strain, and be prepared for action.  Since I like keeping my heart rate up, I do supersets (push/pull, or legs/arms) and keep moving from exercise to exercise.

After a few months, I went back to the beginning of my membership and started tracking how many weeks I’d been going to the gym.  At the end of 52 weeks in a row, I was amazed.  At the end of 104 weeks in a row, I started thinking that I was on a good track. 

I’ve ALWAYS found a gym, or workout room, or exercise stations (South Beach Miami) no matter where I was in the world.  I recall so vividly the gyms in far-flung parts of the world (Chennai India strange, Luxembourg bathhouse/pool loft, Frankfurt Germany old school German hanger-warehouse type place, Cleveland basement, etc —have been very interesting).  There is not a single trip I’ve been on that I haven’t search out my workout options.  It’s usually right after I buy my plane tickets, and part of my hotel/location considerations. 

Surprising Enhanced Awareness

In addition to recalling strange gyms, I also recall my runs through different towns/cities in great detail.  It’s like my mind process the surroundings differently when I run than when I’m walking around with my wife.  Runs must allow some kind of heightened awareness or something.

Lessons Learned

The point of this post is twofold: one I accomplished an amazing amount of consistent fitness/health activity.  Two being a detailed tracking person sometimes provides you with unplanned validation rewards.  So back to the title of this post—I’ve completed 1000 weeks at the gym, twice a week, without missing a single week in 19+ years.  When I was logging weeks 984, 986, it didn’t occur to me that I was almost at 1000.  I think because I was looking back at my success (consistency) and not looking forward to having to go to the gym X more weeks to hit a goal.  The goal/success was in the past, not in the future.  The rewards should come in the future.

Don’t always look ahead at the goal/finish line, turn around and look at the path of success behind you and savor everything you’ve done to get to this exact moment.  This moment is temporary and only happens once…then it’s gone.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice.

I find I truly enjoy my extraordinary life.  I feel I’m lucky in so many ways.  It’s so simple, yet so satisfying.  “Find the Positive.”

There are people I know who always seem to have some mess of craziness (cluster*!@#) going on.  Their life seems to have so much turmoil and complication, just frequent stress-inducing drama.

The constant churn of turmoil must be overwhelming, exhausting, stressful, unbearable and not good for one’s health.  It’s entirely possible the overloaded person doesn’t even know they are in a state of churmoil—the constant churn of turmoil.

As people, we seem to adapt to the situations we are in at present.  For some of us, our life creeps up slowly and ongoing small changes set the basis of our level.  We adjust to the new basis and live the best we can.  I think of the poor frog in the pot of water example. 

The slow progressive increase in stress and turmoil is not much different than the hedonic treadmill lifestyle creep many households encounter.  I wonder if some of the lifestyle creep is related to the “I deserve this” for all the stress I have to deal with. 

What if you can remove some of the stress?  Can you then remove some of the lifestyle spending used to combat that stress…which may in turn cause additional stress from finances?

Let’s be clear, I have no answers for anyone.  I have a path that has worked well (so far) for my family and I’m conscientious to try and maintain that great path. 

What I think about is all the people who are in a constant grind.  Worse, I think about the people who should have a great life in many aspects: health, family, employment, home comfort, and their spiritual-self.

How can people recognize that their stress may not be forced upon them?  How can people who have constant life craziness resolve some of that overload?  Can some of these people remove the external stressors that are pulling them down and lighten themselves?

Is it in our nature to be bombarded with problems?  Does that go all the way back in our DNA to hunting/gathering/farming?  Is life so “easy” for many now relative to food and water, possibly shelter and health, that we find other reasons for churmoil?

I’ve asked so many questions above because I wonder why I try to avoid most turmoil, thereby avoiding the churmoil state.

I was listening to a podcast stating how poor people around the world, kids, in particular, seem to happy—smiling, laughing, playing—yet we struggle in the U.S.  Recently I was in Peru and saw relatively poor people smiling and looking happy.  Their concerns and stresses are far different from our own.

Is it probable that the people you surround yourself with—those with happy and joyous attitudes —can elevate your well being?  Do the stressed out, end-of-the-world type people drag you down into their stressful world?  If you do get locked in with the stressed-out people, can you help resolve their issues…for the long term, or are you just fighting an endless stream of churmoil?

My final contemplation:  Can increasing one’s gratitude level decrease one’s churmoil state, significantly?  in FIRE I have found an abundance of gratitude…see sentence one above.

Show me who you hang out with and I’ll show you your future.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice.

I think I’ve had it with this statement.  Oh yeah, life in retirement—kicking back, or go-going—will be amazing and you only have to plan on living off 80% of your pre-retirement salary.

Ok, I will concede that normal retirement after the long 9 to 5 to 65 work cycle, living paycheck to paycheck, keeping up with your neighbors/peers/etc may fall into this category.  However, I think that structure may cost normal folk more along the lines of the 90% plan—the 100% of income minus 7.65% to employment tax, save a few percent and spend the rest, living the way people feel they “deserve” to live.

But I write my random thoughts about LifeInFIRE.  I write to those reading who live a little different—or maybe drastically different—thought process than the common fold.  Those of us with the FIRE mentality do not have any concept of living off an entire paycheck—unless of course, we save the other paycheck that month (50% of income). 

Us FIRE folk instead seem to live life with intention of happiness and enjoyment and fiscal control.  We give serious consideration to the future—some are fully engrossed in the future—while enjoying today prudently.

Let’s say for example a dual professional household.  So in my time, these folks may have been called “yuppies.”  That sounds really strange to me now, and even stranger typing the word “yuppies.”  So anyway, these two professionals earn great incomes of $60k, or $75k each (maybe even more with wage inflation).  This household income could earn $150k+.

(Let’s ignore income taxes for now)

So I break out my mental calculator and find that 80% of $150k equals a $120,000 per year lifestyle.  That seems like a GREAT, $10k/month, lifestyle.  I’m thinking wow.  In retirement, that family can live an amazing life of spending.

Switch thoughts.

If you are a FIRE mental person (I think that phrase stands strong) earning $150k household income in a fair cost of living location, do you spend $120k or do you try and pack away $40-50k+ per year for an RE lifestyle?

Gee, if you’re in a position to earn so well, do you see the opportunities of changing your work structure in the future and using your financial wisdom (saving) to buy your life/time back for yourself?

Do you think there are FI planning households earning $150k/yr that live on $60-75k/yr while working in their careers?  Is $5-6k/mo feasible in a fair cost of living locations?  So roughly, what is that, living off 45-50% of their income?

I am 110% sure I believe the cost structure in retirement should be based on the amount of expenses your household incurs.  I don’t feel “income” has anything to do with how you will live in a wisely planned retirement.  Yes, it can be true that some people are required to live off just their pension (?) + social security income if they do not have savings.  But again, that has nothing to do with “80% of salary.”

Know what your lifestyle costs over time.  Build a retirement spending plan based on those historical, and future goals of spending.

One final thing, I stated “110% sure” above, it’s very possible you will spend more money in retirement than you do working since you have so much available time to live your dreams.  This is a very important concern to plan for.  A super great plan has you crushing your GoGo years instead of sitting around not able to afford any experiences.

Live your dreams, enjoy each day!

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice.

Many quotes are floating around the interweb—some of the quotes even come from actual books or speakers.  The main quote I hear is Jim Rohn’s “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”  That makes sense, you all get along, they are similar to you, etc etc.

The quote I heard recently was “show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.”  That shifted from Jim Rohn’s idea from the present to the future.  Or as I think of it, from the now to your future amazingness.

I wondered about my friends—the people I get to hang out with—and gave this idea a lot of thought last weekend when I went to money-nerds camps, i.e.  CampFI Joshua Tree California.  A special 3-day period where financially astute people—of many ages—join together to share life, stories, experiences, and learning.

I’ve written about this before 062  and 085 as I’ve been to three CampFI’s.  Each weekend offered an amazing look at life’s perspective and possibilities across such a diverse group.

In Joshua Tree—surrounded by natural desert beauty, high energy vortexes and zen zones—50+ people ranging in ages from late ’20s to late ’50s discussed

Topics:

• purpose
• goal
• vision
• interests/activities
• health, real estate
• side hustles
• tax planning
• life after FIRE
• beverages of choice
• family growth/support/enrichment

Some of my takeaways:   

• Be aware of the good/great things in your life and recognize them with a strong sense of gratitude. 
• I thought I made a mistake for years contributing to a Roth IRA instead of a traditional deductible IRA thereby  losing out on a 10% tax windfall after converting to a RothIRA in FIRE, but it turns out—thanks http://www.FItaxguy.com—that we were never eligible to contribute to a traditional deductible IRA because we had retirement” plans at our workplaces.
• I really doubled-down on understand my list of 10  favorite things to do each day/each week. 
• I know that I really should do a personal mission statement.   Yeah, I’ve heard this touchy-feely stuff that helps you focus, but I already know my strong opinions, desires, and plans.   After more thought, I realize I should create a succinct mission for my future.  
• The idea of using Warren Buffet’s “5/25 plan” to prioritize 5 items and discard the other 20 does not seem to compute in my brain.  I love having a list of many things to tackle in my future—of course, I prioritize my tasks/interest list, but I don’t see any reason to discard most of the list because some items are not the highest, immediate priorities. (?)
• I found the speaking style of a storytelling presentation-versus-a-topic/slide-driven presentation to be very interesting.  Painting a picture with a story and moving towards a lesson was quite interesting.  I want to try this someday, but it sure seems hard, and outside my natural experience—which is the exact reason I should do this.
• I thought the idea of identifying 10/14 target traits/words was quite interesting.  This sounds appealing to me as a challenge to fit it between my 10 favorite daily things and my overall personal mission statement. 
• I now seem to understand the rental real estate leveraged return through depreciation a little more, and I found that  chart showing it lessens over time  quite interesting.  
• I witnessed something that blew me away from a breakout session—which is not something that happens to me too often.  As the breakout was moving from person to person, one of the campers( #1) was sharing their story of future FI/FIRE and that their partner had a less healthful outlook for the future.  One of the more experienced campers (#2)  offered to share their phone number and be available any time camper 1 needed to talk through something.  I know camper 2 is a very busy person who must know hundreds and hundreds of FI people and the 1 to 1 offer struck me deeply.  The genuine giving of oneself to another (almost stranger) if needed.  That’s powerful.    

Over the weekend I was reflecting on the stages of the bonding period.  I could see how the  <8 hrs “hi, where are you from” grew into the   16-32 hrs “how do you tackle, what do you think about..”  to the 38+ hrs “I was thinking about our discussions, do you think I can, If you were me, if you are headed near my home… ”  I can’t even imagine what the future weeks/months/years will be like with dozens of friends who are sharing a similar life path all around the county.

So back to my original thought on this post— “show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.”  I can’t wait to stay in touch with people from the camp and see how their futures grow into an even more amazing life. 

As Doc G said, “bring a little piece of heaven to earth.”   Yes, bring some of your great future to your now by building amazing friendships today.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice.

I was riding my bike today and that entails listening to podcasts and a LOT of thinking/calculating.

Often I’m thinking so hard (and scanning the roadway) that I don’t pay attention to the podcast playing.  Do you ever find you are thinking and not paying attention to the sound of the TV or device playing? 

It occurred to me mid-hill as my legs were burning and my lungs were trying their best to refill my legs with oxygenated super-blood (well, actually normal Kevin blood) that this ride—this effort— is a payment toward my future health, to my future movement ability, to my future happiness.

It’s no secret from my writings that I’m very happy and find so much positive and gratitude in my life each and every day.  On the bike ride podcast in my ears, the interviewee said “say thank you each night and every morning and you will live a better life.  It’s that simple.”  It’s those two words, twice a day that can make a massive difference for everyone.  Yeah, zen-talk, blah blah blah.

I deeply believe in enjoying each day.  No matter what is going on, we are lucky to have each day.

Back to my ride: so I was thinking about the effort on my pedals, the burn and the “this hurts” thoughts, and I realized how I was trying to better myself, not only for the now but for the future.

In the next moment, I realized how my future events may be better because of today’s effort.  I thought about delayed gratification and the ability to do something now—changing something now—in an effort to receive something (better) in the future.

I believe so much in the ability to delay gratification to achieve goals.  Placing targets—even higher targets—in the future are much harder than getting little items in the immediate.  [for some reason building a skyscraper just came to mind—all that foundation work underground that nobody in the future will ever see]  Today’s concept is much more than the simple “you will save money if you wait to buy something until you have the money saved up, and/or you are really sure you want to purchase the item.”  Planning, preparing, and working towards the future in many different ways will be rewarding should we reach the future.  Most of us do not have unlimited resources and will have to invoke some level of delayed gratification.

At the extreme, when we travel and are killing time at night in a hotel room (boring people) and there’s no DVR so we are forced to let the commercials play.  We’ve found after nearly 20 years of time-shifting our viewing (see our first device UltimateTV) we have no patience for TV marketing of products, foods, medication or politicians.

I just haven’t grasped the “I see it, I want it-NOW” mentality.  Oh, I definitely buy things.  I definitely buy things I do not need.  I also spend too much time making sure it’s the correct/best item for me and the best price (usually a huge waste of time) but over that research time period I often weed out the unnecessary. 

So delayed gratification is built into me.  …I can wait.

I just realized my last post was about saving the best for last.  Note to self, enjoy now AND be prepared for better in the future…assuming the future comes.  Nothing is guaranteed, so balance is critical.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice.

Have you ever thought about your personality traits?

I’ve learned over time to understand how I think.  I’ve been placed in situations where I come across information that I’ve had to evaluate and make a decision from.

It makes me wonder how other people see situations, instances, information or crisis actions.

The general questions are:

• Good news or bad news first?
• Half full or Half Empty?
• The best: first or last?  

What kind of mindset do you possess? 

I’ll share how my brain/personality seems to work.  I’ll answer the question above (maybe just to learn more about myself).

Examples:

I always want the bad news first.  I want to know what is going wrong.  I find that I want to deal with the problem…now.  I want to see if I can resolve or start the process to eliminate the issue.  In a sense, I want to stop the bleeding.  Once resolved, or on track for (possible) resolution, I then feel free to look ahead and try to make things better.  Somewhere along this process, I want to “good news” to see how that fits into the current issue/process.

I generally find the glass half full, but only in the sense that I seem to have the drive to fill the glass back up.  I don’t believe I feel as though I’m missing the (top) half empty part of the glass.  Maybe I just feel there is half a glass to fill up.  Though, sometimes I also think, just because “a” glass is half full, that doesn’t necessarily mean the glass was ever, or ever will be full.  Not everything in life needs to be perfect/full.  I live by a life-calming statement of “everything has a ding.”  Nothing is perfect.  No need to try and make everything perfect.  I just try to enjoy the best of what I can do and accomplish.

No surprise to me, I tend to save the best for last.  I will get the bad stuff (work/tasks) out of the way so I can then enjoy the good stuff.  Thinking about the FI lifestyle, this is one form of delayed gratification.  I don’t believe waiting for the good stuff is required, but I do think the intentional decision in the selection process may be just as valuable.

My grandma would ALWAYS grab dessert first at any buffet.  She decided to start with what she enjoyed the most.  I always thought that was awesome.  She did something that was so far outside the norm (salad, entrée, dessert) without any regard for what others thought.  Also, she always a full selection of dessert choices.

Balance:

So I wonder, get the bad out of the way and save the best for last?  Take advantage of the best now since we never know what the future will bring, or if it will even arrive for us.

How do I balance my inherent nature for delay (wise) gratification with a life optimization mentality?

As a fairly risk-averse person, I guess I will try and continue to take care of the issues/planning and aim for the good stuff while keeping a very close eye on the future and making sure I’m not sacrificing future stability for immediate gratification.

See, nothing is easy when you try and break things down and really think about them.  Enjoy your life, enjoy your days.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice.