Another Young Dreamer

[panhead]

YUP! This is a good thing we've got here, we've got younger RE wannabe's, young RE's and older RE's and older RE wannabe's ! Quite the wealth of knowledge here, for sure, and I think most of us have been bouncing around boards since the TMF days at least. Many of us are too cheap to pay the TMF fee, that's for sure !

I am definitely in the mode of building the foundation for RE/FI. I've never been a big spender, most of my hobbies are either cheap, or make me money. I am a big DYI'er, so I did buy my own house, extremely cheap foreclosure house. Due to sweat equity, it's about doubled in value now. Not for everyone, but living in the NE, rents have been skyrocketing along with house prices. I pay about 1/2 what rent would cost me, plus I really need a garage for my hobbies. Of course, other costs have gone up, but I ain't gonna get in the rent vs buy debate, to each his own !

I have no debt except for about 60K of mortgage debt. Life is pretty easy and the nest egg has been growing lately. Of course, if I was married or had a live in girlfriend, much of what I have done would not have been possible. The house I bought was pretty bad at first, and I ripped out the one bathroom and the kitchen right away ! Don't ask how I lived there, it wasn't easy !

I've learned tons by the people here and from the other boards, and plan to keep on learning and give back when I can. I am especially interested in Dory's way of life, and would very much like to hear more about the lifestyle, costs involved, etc.

Good luck to all,

Panhead

 

[Mr._johngalt]

I too am envious of Dory's lifestyle. Alas, with 4 dogs
it would be a problem for us. I am reminded of what Ted Turner said about his having too many children. "Once they are here
you can't shoot 'em."

 

[panhead]

"you can't shoot em'" Ha Ha !!! That cracked me up ! I needed that as it's been one of those days for a (still) working stiff. Company had a massive layoff today. I didn't really care either way, but I didn't get hit. It sure stinks for morale though, everybody is depressed. Maybe if I did get hit I would sell the house and the rest of my assets and go buy a boat ! I think I'd go for a sailboat though ! Hope you're seeing this Dory, we all want more details on how you do it, how you got started, how long you've been boating, expenses, blah blah blah !

Panhead

 

[BigMoneyJim]

I think I'd go for a sailboat though !

I thought the same thing, but Dory said that the intercoastal waterway has too many turns and isn't well suited for sailing.

A lot of info about his adventures is in the Retirement Afloat thread in the "Lifestyles in Retirement" forum.

 

[dory36]

Hi everyone,

I've been offline a lot lately, and am in the process of rebuilding my computer after wiping it out a few weeks back when a windows update crashed mid-install. Today I am supposed to finally get access to a high speed line so I can get the 100+MB in updates I will need to restore everything to the way it was a few weeks ago. In the meantime, I'm working in "internet-challenged" mode!

BigMoneyJim included the link to a bunch of info on the boating lifestyle. I'll let that address the costs etc unless elaboration is needed.

Af for a new section -- sure. It's easy to do. "Young Dreamers" maybe?

Dory36

 

[panhead]

Hey dory !

Great to see ya ! Yup, more or less what I meant was that I follow the retirement afloat and the travels with dory threads, and really enjoy them. I was Extremely surprised at the $1000/month cost of this lifestyle. i figured it would be closer to twice that. I don't know enough about the boating lifestyle to ask specific questions (other than how am i going to get my Harley on and off the boat !) but I find it very interesting to read about it from someone actually doing it. Like I said before, I'm more interested in a sailboat, with all of it's complications and limitations, and I've got a lot to learn about em', but this sounds like an extremely enjoyable lifestyle that may get me out of being a working stiff years earlier !


John
(who, of course, is practicing the 3 for 1 rule, thanks Intercst !)

 

[BigMoneyJim]

Af for a new section -- sure. It's easy to do. "Young Dreamers" maybe?

D'OH! That's perfect, and I was staring at it while reading the thread and composing that message.

Young Dreamers
For those who are many years away from but building the foundation for early retirement. Warning: May contain "W" and "J" words!

Something like that?

 

[dory36]

New section added!

Dory36

 

[Liltime]

Hey Bongo, I hear ya! Sounds like u took a page right out of my lifestory. Read my post under Introduce yourself- title RE plans derailed. Only I am the stay at home parent. I don't always like it but it makes the most sense financially right now with the expense of daycare.

 

[Ed_B]

$15K per year? WOW - you got out of it CHEAP. Decent private schools are now easily twice that!

Maybe so but consider that this was for my son alone. A similar amount was spent getting his older sister through college. Both went to state schools. If they wanted to pay for it, they could have gone anywhere they wanted. Neither of them took me up on that offer.

I know any number of people who really got off cheap. They refused to pay for college for any of their kids. In some cases, they had not planned, others were just too cheap, and a few just didn't have the money regardless of their desire to help their kids. All of their kids who REALLY wanted to go to college found ways to do so, however.

Ed_B

 

[unclemick]

My sister drove the local politico's nuts and got all three of her kids thru the Naval Academy. The only time I ever felt sorry for politicians.

 

[Ed_B]

My sister drove the local politico's nuts and got all three of her kids thru the Naval Academy. The only time I ever felt sorry for politicians.

Well, good for her and good ON them!

 

[Jarhead*]

Retirement is selfish

Hi all! I've piped up a few times before, and I thought I'd introduce myself. I think I'm quite a bit younger than most of you (33) and still working with three young children (all under 5). I have a typical desk job, and my wife stays at home. I dream of FI/RE, but, like the typical family, saving money was a lot easier when it was Double Income No Kids, rather than Single Income Three Kids. With the wife and kids sending our expenses up rapidly, the dream seems farther and farther away each year. This year was particularly bad, with a move to a higher-priced neighborhood, and an almost endless stream of large expenses that went with it. In the next two years I hope to get back to saving significantly (something that I used to do easily, but haven’t been able to manage for the last two years).

Bongo2 on6-16-03

 

[Nords]

Good to have you back, Jarhead!

The fall golfing weather must've been unusually warm this year?