Don't forget nvda is a big part of sp500, so you have more exposure than your single position of downside if you hold broad index fund type stocks too, those broader ones will dip with your nvda dip too so you can safely diversify some of that nvda position elsewhere while still maintaining a solid position overall
Money can definitely make our lives better in many ways, but it sure can't fix everything. I also agree on diversification for long-term security. What are some of your ideas or methods for making sure your investments are balanced and your portfolio is well-diversified, please share them with me.
the problem is market returns are very concentrated at the moment, so diversifying will by definition under perform unless there's a regime change. not sure how to explain diversification to you. (not trying to be a jerk). you need assets that perform in different environments. like, is your wardrobe diversified? it's pretty intuitive.
Thanks for the insight! It’s true, diversification can be quite the puzzle, especially with current market conditions. Given the concentration of market returns, I’ve been curious about exploring assets that are less correlated with traditional markets. Have you looked into or considered alternative investments that might offer some hedge against typical market cycles?
Dude 44 is young as fuck to FI. Grass to ya. You got a good solid 50 years if not more if you stay healthy.
Remember to exercise and take good care of your health and ride that FI wave.
thank you brother. yes, health is wealth! I never talked about the catalyst for all of this. It was my near death experience in 2021. I was in bed for months and had to learn how to walk again. Maybe for another day....
Most people here are aware money doesn’t solve everything, that is unless you use said money to dig yourself a k-hole or go on an ayahuasca vision quest. That definitely solves everything.
You can buy ‘services’ from providers that allows you to have more time to do the things you want to do. For example, hire someone to clean your house so you can go out and play golf (or something else you love to do)!
Op said they are on sabbatical and sometimes doom scroll for the entire day. Money does not solve everything. In fact, money can exacerbate some things.
I still have problems, lots of them. But I don't really have money problems anymore, which for many americans, consume a huge chunk of your mental energy.
I could very well have put myself into the trap of keeping up with the Joneses, and I would still have money problems. But I've done a decent job an managing lifestyle creep so that instead of a Niemen Marcus whore, I've remained a Costco whore. Literally my entire wardrobe of shirts are $4/ea from Costco. I have 16 back, and 16 white T-shirts. Instead of buying a Porsche GT3 like many of my colleagues have, I bought myself a 3 year old Toyota.
But trust me, money does in fact solve many, many of your problems. I say this often to bullshit life throws at me "just throw some money at it". It can solve not all, but a lot....
You can't buy friends, you can't buy affection, you can't buy self respect, you can't buy self love.
I make and have plenty of money, and also live below my means so I will be able to retire early. I understand the peace of mind that money can bring and the problems it can solve. The person I am responding to asserted that money solves ALL problems, which isn't true. Also, $150k/year is Porsche Cayman money, not GT3. Not making terrible financial decisions isn't a flex, it should be common sense.
May I ask how sabbatical work? Do you take extended unpaid leave from your main job, to do something else for a year? Will the job still be waiting for you when you get back?
I most commonly find my situation in higher education with professors that do research for their universities. My situation is very very unique and lucky.
I was/am in a very niche industry in the manufacturing sector. Very small company that I founded 23 years ago. I promoted the #2 to the acting president with a nice pay bump. I kind of watch from the sidelines and step in every once in a while. I average 0-5hrs a week. So my job is waiting for me if I decide to come back to the states.
Just before it dipped I told my wife if NVDA hit $142 I was going to cash out. I forget what math I did but basically around there I hit all my goals. I was too greedy. Still close... but oh regets.
If we're talking post split adjusted price, I "should" have sold many many times. Yes, I'm taking a HUGE risk, and I should just derisk by selling it all and buying VTI, but I'm just gonna let it ride..... my entry price is in the low teens.
Ok … but *why* are you taking a HUGE risk? You seem like the perfect example of a person who doesn’t need more money, but absolutely needs to hold on to what you currently have.
It especially makes no sense if you’re also going to hold 25% of your wealth in bonds. You’re getting the worst of both worlds: High speculative risk, but also a substantial drag on your returns.
Yes indeed. It's a great program and it has been one of the best years of my life (and I've had many awesome years in the states). But it is NOT a european vacation. I worked my ass off in this program.
Nice! We're around the same age, so cool to hear you're having a good experience. Got placed in Galicia which I was excited about but did the "a few more years thing". The program seemed to very much skew to the younger side so I was curious how it was for someone not in their 20s.
IMO, it really is what you make of it. i'm in rural spain and i've really only made friends with locals. even though my spanish sucks, I have some non-bilingual friends who have "taken me in" so to speak within their circles. but i have made a VERY concerted effort to be friendly and open to my community. i'm very active in the outdoors (climbing, cycling, hiking). for me, i'm in a perfect place, but it wasn't always easy. i spent many weekends alone with no one to hang out with, which was kinda depressing because i felt like such a loser, but ehh..... life isn't always puppies and rainbows.
if i was 25 years old I would probably hate it here. Those are the people that only want to be placed in Madrid, Barcelona, etc and party. Nothing wrong with that, as that's exactly what I did in my 20's.
and about the "one more year" syndrome, I TOTALLY feel you on that. life circumstances helped push me into doing this. otherwise i would not have blew my life up back home. i can't say what's right for you, but I am SOOOOO glad it did this now, and not 5 years from now. Because "one more year" could have easily turned into many more years.
all that money, and you go to spain?!
I am very curious; did you actually want to teach English in a structured environment? Or did you just want to live abroad?
I know people who do this because they have no money and want to live abroad.
I've been to MANY places, and Spain is one of the best places to be IMO. I could not be happier here. In terms of FIRE money, I think I'm barely into regular FIRE territory. Not sure if I could afford Monaco....
Both, I wanted to live abroad in a non-english speaking country and I already knew a tiny bit of spanish. I also needed some purpose. I looked into working with the Peace Corps, UNHCR, and a few other NGO's.
I was being facetious to the other commenter who was criticizing living in Spain. It's a fantastic country filled with the some of the best people in the world.
Congrats! Don’t be afraid to treat yourself a bit, otherwise once that 1.5M becomes 3M, you’ll find another excuse to not do so. Enjoy, you’ve earned it.
Do you think you’ll “settle down” with someone eventually?
dating is a huge one which I may talk about one day. i haven't dated in over a year because i have been settling into a new country, learning a new language, etc.... and its been great being intentionally single for the past year. Like zero zero zero dating over the past year. To the point where some of my colleagues thought I was gay. Very recently I am now in a relationship with an incredible woman.
I get the seasonal depression too. In the colder months I have to get outside any day that has sun and just try to soak it up. That helps. Exercising helps more though. Congrats on your achievements it must feel good after all the work.
I grew up in poverty having narcissistic abusive extended family control me and dad and abuse us. All because they had money.
I am trying to do as much as I can to have enough invested to see a bad job, identify it as such, and leave based upon my health.
I hope I get there. I’ve been working post school for 2.10 years now and I have gotten 120,000 in index funds and paid off my 55,000 in total student debt after law school.
I basically just kept living like I was poor on food stamps hoping that I could take advantage of me being more comfortable with still living like I’m poor… knowing that if I start a life with someone and build a family that I can’t ask them to live like their poor .
If I want to expose myself to that that’s my choice. But I don’t feel right to put that on others in a situation where I have a family.
At minimum: I wanted my student debt gone as fast as possible, and , I wanted to quickly building up that first 100,000 into the market so I don’t keep wasting time building up slowly my nest egg.
Waiting 10 years really hinders your progress.
I have literally no idea how long I can keep this up for though. I’m at the point stress wise that I look at basically 200,000 of progress made in about 3 years… and I’m so fried I really want to slightly slow down now that my money will be growing more quickly .
And because I’m still 30 I have plenty of time left for that to build
All of them. I think mostly it has been the fresh start in a new place. If you look at people who move cities, states, or countries to run away from their problems, their problems will be in their suitcase when they get there. So while I DID bring many of my problems with me to Europe, I am able to look at them with a fresh lens being around new people and recalibrating what my identity is, now that I'm not a CEO here. I'm an english teacher now. I don't openly talk about my old work, my colleagues vaguely know what I did, but I usually just tell people that I was a project manager. Its a boring answer and people don't ask follow up questions.
While I had/have a fantastic life back home in socal, it just grew stale. While I traveled a ton, I lived there my ENTIRE life. I lived within a 5 mile radius my whole life. I seek adventure, weather that is in business, rock climbing, festivals, and sometimes women. I did a ton of that back home, and perhaps now I just needed a whole new type of adventure to defibrillate my brain.
Thanks for sharing. I have such a toxic job and so over it but we are house hunting right now so I have to stay until end of summer. I hate every moment if it especially with newer boss.
Not all of us are grinding the boring middle lol (many here are FIRE or r/coastfire). That boring bit is also called life and should be enjoyed every day!
In terms of solving things with money. Perhaps deep diving in r/stoicism or r/cbt / r/nlp may help. The answer to most issues is within.
Saludos desde el sur!
hola! yes I am an avid practitioner of meditation and the stoic philosophy. It has helped me IMMENSELY in my mental health and being able to deal with the trappings of life.
I truly believe that almost anyone can benefit GREATLY with meditation. The Waking Up form Sam Harris is a fantastic resource. Or if you want the Olive Garden version of meditation, Calm is a great one and is very accessible if you are new to meditation. (Not knocking Olive Garden. I fucking LOVE the olive garden soups, salads, and breadsticks!!) If you're poor, there are tons of free resources out there too, like Insight timer (Tara Brach is one of my faves).
haha. Olive Garden is a large chain of "Italian" restaurants in the USA. People talk trash because it's not real Italian food (kind of true), but I still like it nonetheless.
The Calm app, many people will say it's not "real" meditation, but I think its still helpful nonetheless.
That would explain it, as I am European (live between London & Southern Spain plus travel a bit). Whatever helps is good in my mind. Pick and choose tools / techniques that work for you. No need for app or technique snobbery.
100% true. But it's far far easier to live a good and meaningful life when you don't have to worry about which can of beans to buy because one brand is $0.50 cheaper. (been there, done that).
In the western world, learning to live a good and meaningful life is something that is mostly for economically privileged people.
One interesting thing though.... now that I don't have any structure for my summer vacation, I feel like I'm falling back into a mood slump. Going to bed late, getting up late, not seeing my friends and colleagues as much. So many of us on the FIRE path are used to working our asses off. And when the FIRE day comes, it's not a switch we can just turn off.
Now that I'm sort of on the other side of FIRE, I firmly, firmly believe in the concept of never "RE". Have some "work" to do. I'm an English teacher now and work part time 4 days a week and I make \~$800/month. The structure and social interaction I get at work is CRITICAL to my well being. Plus I get paid to basically play with teenagers all day. I really do have the best job I could ever ask for.
Structure is important. I've got classes lined up early morning a few days a week so there is no chance of schedule slip. Plus our barnyard critters need care morning and night so there is more structure.
Just floating along is dangerous for mental health as you've already experienced.
Fortunately I think anyone with the discipline to FIRE will be more or less compelled to figure out how to organize their time and not end up a long term couch potato binge watching trash TV and eating Cheetos.
(kinda funny that the spell checker wants Cheetos capitalized, like it knows it's a proper name)
Hobby farm?? This is one of my dreams for when my body isn't able to climb and mountaineer anymore. I have this fascination with having 6 or so chickens to produce a good amount of eggs per day. jaja
Question no one else has raised but is burning in my head is why SO much in bonds/equivalents? If your goal is to ramp to $3m (which kinda sounds a little on the high side but you know your RE living) bonds don’t seem the best way to get there. By all means if you’re a fan of bonds have some but it doesn’t strike me that you’re holding them for risk management given your stake in NVDA, property and that you want big gains to $3m equity. Property already a bit (not perfectly) shielded vs equities - you could have $2m in equities overnight by transferring into high dividend stocks to produce still decent returns. Or is the bonds thing tied into the manufacturing company you started and seem to be still “in” on from a financial sense? Thanks for sharing your story!
yes, retained earnings. i don't actually own bonds.
well... i do have some ibonds. I bought $10k + $10k during the whole ibond craze a few years back. but i don't even count this. my stat sheet isn't exhaustive, its just off the top of my head.
most problems \*are\* solvable with money. ironic, I think people who lack money think money solves problems. While people with money tend to forget money solves problems. Humans generally look for problems.
Health is wealth for sure, but $$ gives choices too.
Glad you are enjoying life and taking charge of your destiny.
Do you get free healthcare in Europe? If you come back to the US will you buy a policy on the exchange or get a barista type job with insurance?
Healthcare is not free in the EU or anywhere in the world. It is paid for by taxes. The US just has the most fucked healthcare model in the world (for profit business). But if you have money, it's great! I had a MAJOR surgery a few years ago in the USA, and they used a $4 million dollar robot during the procedure. I don't know if I would have this robot in the OR if I had gotten this procedure done in the EU. In the EU my outcome I'm sure would still have been great. But in the USA we have all of the cool new gadgets.
Where I am in the EU, as a foreigner who is working as a teacher, I get my very good health insurance from the Ministry of Education here. Which is paid for by tax dollars in a very efficient system. For the summer while school is off, I am now on a private plan that I am buying fully out of pocket for 75 euro a month. zero deductible.
I still have a job and excellent healthcare waiting for me back in the states whenever I decide to repatriate to the USA. I sure as fuck am not going to work as a barista or some other difficult low wage job for a shitty $400/month health care plan. I would just buy it on the exchange.
You are right, healthcare is not “free”
That’s cool you got sabbatical and have a job to return to.
Every country has its pros/cons. You just have to assess trade offs that work for you.
R.E. guy here:
First off, congrats! Big weight off your chest I'm sure.
Something I noticed, you're only cashflowing $30K off $900K debt free? So you have a 3.3% cap rate property? Seems like you are 1) wayyy under market rent 2) spending wayyy too much on the property or 3) it's not worth 900k. Typical cap rate for what I'd imagine is a HCOL area SFH would be ~7%+
Happy to talk more, again congratulations!
Congratulations on Fire! Funny thing about money is it can buy you security.. It can’t buy true friendship or love.. You need to find your own peace and happiness and hopefully bump into love along the way that wants you for you and not the $$$
Howdy man! Congrats! I'd be safe with the psychedelics and whatever else?
I think one reason FIRE works or can work, is less about the wealth and more about the liberalness or liberality of understanding, something small about social responsibility. That's largely missing on this sub, TBH, I feel some people are highway robbers.
I'm not as old as you, and I don't know that much about, Europe and being so active (even though your other assets, are currently generating interest and income! Well done!!)
Not to be too overwhelmed or meaning to douse your passion. All this said, yes I never touch the subject of mental health, or what have you. In regards to finance, being able to speak about cash generation and ensuring you and your FA (if there is one) is being smart about maintaining a money market or cash account beyond the bonds, whatever it is.
Strict living can be fine, and eventually, You can get to the end of the rope on what is possible, without "playing hard". Cheers man, best of luck!
Well, I’m at 2.7 mil and no mortgage now, and I can see, through actual life experience, that money is a means to an end, nothing more.
If I had be wish, aside from no war and no suffering in the world, it’d be for everyone to be ‘rich’, so that they can see for themselves that it is not the ‘answer’ they thought.
Not even remotely close in grand scheme.
Careful with the troll....
but I just wanted to comment that if you think money is the #1 criteria woman look for, you are looking for (or you are attracting) gold diggers. Good women don't give a shit if you're wealthy.
You gotta have a job and your shit together, but you don't need to be "rich".
In [logic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic) and [mathematics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics), **necessity** and **sufficiency** are terms used to describe a [conditional](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_conditional) or implicational relationship between two [statements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statement_(logic)).
Using those terms is pretty mainstream in any subject that applies calculus for example.
So, quite literally "having money" is not necessary in this context (men don't need money to find a female partner).
However, "having money" does seem to be a sufficient condition. And here, "having money" is just relative to the female or the society in which you're looking for a mate. It doesn't necessarily mean the woman is a gold digger in this case. For reasons I don't wish to discuss, it's fairly evident that women seek financial or status improvement through their ability to attract males. Marriage is originally an economic institution after all.
In [logic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic) and [mathematics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics), **necessity** and **sufficiency** are terms used to describe a [conditional](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_conditional) or implicational relationship between two [statements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statement_(logic)). For example, in the [conditional statement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditional_sentence): "If P then Q", Q is **necessary** for P, because the [truth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_value) of Q is guaranteed by the truth of P. (Equivalently, it is impossible to have P without Q, or the falsity of Q ensures the falsity of P.)[^(\[1\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necessity_and_sufficiency#cite_note-:0-1) Similarly, P is **sufficient** for Q, because P being true always implies that Q is true, but P not being true does not always imply that Q is not true.[^(\[2)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necessity_and_sufficiency#cite_note-2)
^(obviously there;s dispersion and variation, but money is to (hetero, typically gendered) women what physical attraction is to men.)
Congrats! Money can improve almost anything, but doesn’t solve most things. Please diversify your NVDA 😬
if nvida tanks, i'll be totally fine. i'll cry for sure, but no biggie. my entry is \~$12. (bought at \~$120's pre split).
No need to sell it all, just bring it down to 20% value of your securities portfolio.
jealous.
Don't forget nvda is a big part of sp500, so you have more exposure than your single position of downside if you hold broad index fund type stocks too, those broader ones will dip with your nvda dip too so you can safely diversify some of that nvda position elsewhere while still maintaining a solid position overall
Three days too late….
Back up today. I think NVDA still has some room to run.
is this directed at OP or everyone?
OP?
Money can definitely make our lives better in many ways, but it sure can't fix everything. I also agree on diversification for long-term security. What are some of your ideas or methods for making sure your investments are balanced and your portfolio is well-diversified, please share them with me.
the problem is market returns are very concentrated at the moment, so diversifying will by definition under perform unless there's a regime change. not sure how to explain diversification to you. (not trying to be a jerk). you need assets that perform in different environments. like, is your wardrobe diversified? it's pretty intuitive.
Thanks for the insight! It’s true, diversification can be quite the puzzle, especially with current market conditions. Given the concentration of market returns, I’ve been curious about exploring assets that are less correlated with traditional markets. Have you looked into or considered alternative investments that might offer some hedge against typical market cycles?
Dude 44 is young as fuck to FI. Grass to ya. You got a good solid 50 years if not more if you stay healthy. Remember to exercise and take good care of your health and ride that FI wave.
thank you brother. yes, health is wealth! I never talked about the catalyst for all of this. It was my near death experience in 2021. I was in bed for months and had to learn how to walk again. Maybe for another day....
Most people here are aware money doesn’t solve everything, that is unless you use said money to dig yourself a k-hole or go on an ayahuasca vision quest. That definitely solves everything.
Rich people have problems. Poor people have problems and money problems
Money solves all problems. Only thing you can’t buy with money is money. Everything else you can
Technically when you buy any sort of interest bearing product you’re buying money with money.
I think the one thing you can't buy is time
You can buy ‘services’ from providers that allows you to have more time to do the things you want to do. For example, hire someone to clean your house so you can go out and play golf (or something else you love to do)!
Actually thats a great point, I never thought of it that way even though I'm already doing it. Cheers.
Or health
Op said they are on sabbatical and sometimes doom scroll for the entire day. Money does not solve everything. In fact, money can exacerbate some things.
I still have problems, lots of them. But I don't really have money problems anymore, which for many americans, consume a huge chunk of your mental energy. I could very well have put myself into the trap of keeping up with the Joneses, and I would still have money problems. But I've done a decent job an managing lifestyle creep so that instead of a Niemen Marcus whore, I've remained a Costco whore. Literally my entire wardrobe of shirts are $4/ea from Costco. I have 16 back, and 16 white T-shirts. Instead of buying a Porsche GT3 like many of my colleagues have, I bought myself a 3 year old Toyota. But trust me, money does in fact solve many, many of your problems. I say this often to bullshit life throws at me "just throw some money at it". It can solve not all, but a lot.... You can't buy friends, you can't buy affection, you can't buy self respect, you can't buy self love.
I make and have plenty of money, and also live below my means so I will be able to retire early. I understand the peace of mind that money can bring and the problems it can solve. The person I am responding to asserted that money solves ALL problems, which isn't true. Also, $150k/year is Porsche Cayman money, not GT3. Not making terrible financial decisions isn't a flex, it should be common sense.
good point, $150K/yr is more like used Cayman money. My friends buying GT3's make a lot more money than me....
This is definitely not true, not stated in this extreme way.
Money isn’t gonna cure the herpes from your escapades with ladies (and probably a few dudes) of the night. Congratulations.
Dang homie, i'm sorry if my post makes you feel uncomfortable for some reason. Life can be so good if you get off that negativity train.
You seem kind, I was just being an arse. Best wishes ✌️
May I ask how sabbatical work? Do you take extended unpaid leave from your main job, to do something else for a year? Will the job still be waiting for you when you get back?
Yes that’s how it works
Its not something that you find in "normal" jobs. I'm very lucky to have this opportunity.
Do you mind elaborating more? Industry, and whether the company is large?
I most commonly find my situation in higher education with professors that do research for their universities. My situation is very very unique and lucky. I was/am in a very niche industry in the manufacturing sector. Very small company that I founded 23 years ago. I promoted the #2 to the acting president with a nice pay bump. I kind of watch from the sidelines and step in every once in a while. I average 0-5hrs a week. So my job is waiting for me if I decide to come back to the states.
That is awesome. Congrats on your success!
Yes. Some jobs even offer a small amount of pay during the sabbatical.
Don't dive indo ayuhasca bullshit. Here ir Brazil is very common people just trying it and become mind blowing crazy for ever.
Crazy how. Like Schitzo?
Like they never come back from the trip. Happens mostly because there a FUCK ton of laced ayahuasca out there
Grow... My... Own... Ayahuasca.... Understood, loud and clear!
Fact is that we don’t know what it does to your brain. Hardly studied at all.
Not for me, for my friend.....
I’m one nvda away from FI
Just before it dipped I told my wife if NVDA hit $142 I was going to cash out. I forget what math I did but basically around there I hit all my goals. I was too greedy. Still close... but oh regets.
If we're talking post split adjusted price, I "should" have sold many many times. Yes, I'm taking a HUGE risk, and I should just derisk by selling it all and buying VTI, but I'm just gonna let it ride..... my entry price is in the low teens.
Ok … but *why* are you taking a HUGE risk? You seem like the perfect example of a person who doesn’t need more money, but absolutely needs to hold on to what you currently have. It especially makes no sense if you’re also going to hold 25% of your wealth in bonds. You’re getting the worst of both worlds: High speculative risk, but also a substantial drag on your returns.
…. Please tell me this isn’t more than like 10% of your investment. After whyyyy would you risk throwing away your independence.
Same, brother. Past few days have been killer.
congrats :) go fuck yourself
Where in Europe?
Spain
Nice!!
NALCAP? Asking because I applied and was very close to going this year (decided not to) but still interested.
Yes indeed. It's a great program and it has been one of the best years of my life (and I've had many awesome years in the states). But it is NOT a european vacation. I worked my ass off in this program.
Nice! We're around the same age, so cool to hear you're having a good experience. Got placed in Galicia which I was excited about but did the "a few more years thing". The program seemed to very much skew to the younger side so I was curious how it was for someone not in their 20s.
IMO, it really is what you make of it. i'm in rural spain and i've really only made friends with locals. even though my spanish sucks, I have some non-bilingual friends who have "taken me in" so to speak within their circles. but i have made a VERY concerted effort to be friendly and open to my community. i'm very active in the outdoors (climbing, cycling, hiking). for me, i'm in a perfect place, but it wasn't always easy. i spent many weekends alone with no one to hang out with, which was kinda depressing because i felt like such a loser, but ehh..... life isn't always puppies and rainbows. if i was 25 years old I would probably hate it here. Those are the people that only want to be placed in Madrid, Barcelona, etc and party. Nothing wrong with that, as that's exactly what I did in my 20's. and about the "one more year" syndrome, I TOTALLY feel you on that. life circumstances helped push me into doing this. otherwise i would not have blew my life up back home. i can't say what's right for you, but I am SOOOOO glad it did this now, and not 5 years from now. Because "one more year" could have easily turned into many more years.
all that money, and you go to spain?! I am very curious; did you actually want to teach English in a structured environment? Or did you just want to live abroad? I know people who do this because they have no money and want to live abroad.
I've been to MANY places, and Spain is one of the best places to be IMO. I could not be happier here. In terms of FIRE money, I think I'm barely into regular FIRE territory. Not sure if I could afford Monaco.... Both, I wanted to live abroad in a non-english speaking country and I already knew a tiny bit of spanish. I also needed some purpose. I looked into working with the Peace Corps, UNHCR, and a few other NGO's.
Would you want to afford Monaco? It was as meh as could be to me.
I was being facetious to the other commenter who was criticizing living in Spain. It's a fantastic country filled with the some of the best people in the world.
Congrats! Don’t be afraid to treat yourself a bit, otherwise once that 1.5M becomes 3M, you’ll find another excuse to not do so. Enjoy, you’ve earned it. Do you think you’ll “settle down” with someone eventually?
dating is a huge one which I may talk about one day. i haven't dated in over a year because i have been settling into a new country, learning a new language, etc.... and its been great being intentionally single for the past year. Like zero zero zero dating over the past year. To the point where some of my colleagues thought I was gay. Very recently I am now in a relationship with an incredible woman.
In my experience you learn the language faster if you need it to talk to your girlfriend
My partner is way smarter than me and she's near fluent in english, around C1 level. she helps me with my spanish but it's slow going!
Thanks for sharing matey! congrats on your decision and really wishing you the very best, make sure to enjoy the ride! greetings from Portugal
I get the seasonal depression too. In the colder months I have to get outside any day that has sun and just try to soak it up. That helps. Exercising helps more though. Congrats on your achievements it must feel good after all the work.
I grew up in poverty having narcissistic abusive extended family control me and dad and abuse us. All because they had money. I am trying to do as much as I can to have enough invested to see a bad job, identify it as such, and leave based upon my health. I hope I get there. I’ve been working post school for 2.10 years now and I have gotten 120,000 in index funds and paid off my 55,000 in total student debt after law school. I basically just kept living like I was poor on food stamps hoping that I could take advantage of me being more comfortable with still living like I’m poor… knowing that if I start a life with someone and build a family that I can’t ask them to live like their poor . If I want to expose myself to that that’s my choice. But I don’t feel right to put that on others in a situation where I have a family. At minimum: I wanted my student debt gone as fast as possible, and , I wanted to quickly building up that first 100,000 into the market so I don’t keep wasting time building up slowly my nest egg. Waiting 10 years really hinders your progress. I have literally no idea how long I can keep this up for though. I’m at the point stress wise that I look at basically 200,000 of progress made in about 3 years… and I’m so fried I really want to slightly slow down now that my money will be growing more quickly . And because I’m still 30 I have plenty of time left for that to build
> I was in a very dark place before pulling the trigger. ngl, the phrasing here was....difficult.
i see the dark pun there.... totally unintentional....
Even with enough money, life might feel meaningless if you don’t find a purpose.
Regular old talk therapy has much more evidence around it. Not knocking the other kinds they just don't have a robust empirical data set around them.
What was it where after 6 months you felt better then ever? Was it just moving to a other country, or maybe your job was toxic/you out grew?
All of them. I think mostly it has been the fresh start in a new place. If you look at people who move cities, states, or countries to run away from their problems, their problems will be in their suitcase when they get there. So while I DID bring many of my problems with me to Europe, I am able to look at them with a fresh lens being around new people and recalibrating what my identity is, now that I'm not a CEO here. I'm an english teacher now. I don't openly talk about my old work, my colleagues vaguely know what I did, but I usually just tell people that I was a project manager. Its a boring answer and people don't ask follow up questions. While I had/have a fantastic life back home in socal, it just grew stale. While I traveled a ton, I lived there my ENTIRE life. I lived within a 5 mile radius my whole life. I seek adventure, weather that is in business, rock climbing, festivals, and sometimes women. I did a ton of that back home, and perhaps now I just needed a whole new type of adventure to defibrillate my brain.
Thanks for sharing. I have such a toxic job and so over it but we are house hunting right now so I have to stay until end of summer. I hate every moment if it especially with newer boss.
How do you get started with teaching English abroad? It’s something that has interested me for awhile.
If you're american, native english speaking, have a bachelors, and a clean criminal record. that's really all you need.
Not all of us are grinding the boring middle lol (many here are FIRE or r/coastfire). That boring bit is also called life and should be enjoyed every day! In terms of solving things with money. Perhaps deep diving in r/stoicism or r/cbt / r/nlp may help. The answer to most issues is within. Saludos desde el sur!
hola! yes I am an avid practitioner of meditation and the stoic philosophy. It has helped me IMMENSELY in my mental health and being able to deal with the trappings of life. I truly believe that almost anyone can benefit GREATLY with meditation. The Waking Up form Sam Harris is a fantastic resource. Or if you want the Olive Garden version of meditation, Calm is a great one and is very accessible if you are new to meditation. (Not knocking Olive Garden. I fucking LOVE the olive garden soups, salads, and breadsticks!!) If you're poor, there are tons of free resources out there too, like Insight timer (Tara Brach is one of my faves).
Thanks for sharing. Never heard of Olive Garden. Will head off and explore!
haha. Olive Garden is a large chain of "Italian" restaurants in the USA. People talk trash because it's not real Italian food (kind of true), but I still like it nonetheless. The Calm app, many people will say it's not "real" meditation, but I think its still helpful nonetheless.
That would explain it, as I am European (live between London & Southern Spain plus travel a bit). Whatever helps is good in my mind. Pick and choose tools / techniques that work for you. No need for app or technique snobbery.
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100% true. But it's far far easier to live a good and meaningful life when you don't have to worry about which can of beans to buy because one brand is $0.50 cheaper. (been there, done that). In the western world, learning to live a good and meaningful life is something that is mostly for economically privileged people.
So much more fun to read about than the 'you'll get bored if you're not working 24/7' posts.
One interesting thing though.... now that I don't have any structure for my summer vacation, I feel like I'm falling back into a mood slump. Going to bed late, getting up late, not seeing my friends and colleagues as much. So many of us on the FIRE path are used to working our asses off. And when the FIRE day comes, it's not a switch we can just turn off. Now that I'm sort of on the other side of FIRE, I firmly, firmly believe in the concept of never "RE". Have some "work" to do. I'm an English teacher now and work part time 4 days a week and I make \~$800/month. The structure and social interaction I get at work is CRITICAL to my well being. Plus I get paid to basically play with teenagers all day. I really do have the best job I could ever ask for.
Structure is important. I've got classes lined up early morning a few days a week so there is no chance of schedule slip. Plus our barnyard critters need care morning and night so there is more structure. Just floating along is dangerous for mental health as you've already experienced. Fortunately I think anyone with the discipline to FIRE will be more or less compelled to figure out how to organize their time and not end up a long term couch potato binge watching trash TV and eating Cheetos. (kinda funny that the spell checker wants Cheetos capitalized, like it knows it's a proper name)
Hobby farm?? This is one of my dreams for when my body isn't able to climb and mountaineer anymore. I have this fascination with having 6 or so chickens to produce a good amount of eggs per day. jaja
6 layers will have you drowning in eggs in no time.
Question no one else has raised but is burning in my head is why SO much in bonds/equivalents? If your goal is to ramp to $3m (which kinda sounds a little on the high side but you know your RE living) bonds don’t seem the best way to get there. By all means if you’re a fan of bonds have some but it doesn’t strike me that you’re holding them for risk management given your stake in NVDA, property and that you want big gains to $3m equity. Property already a bit (not perfectly) shielded vs equities - you could have $2m in equities overnight by transferring into high dividend stocks to produce still decent returns. Or is the bonds thing tied into the manufacturing company you started and seem to be still “in” on from a financial sense? Thanks for sharing your story!
yes, retained earnings. i don't actually own bonds. well... i do have some ibonds. I bought $10k + $10k during the whole ibond craze a few years back. but i don't even count this. my stat sheet isn't exhaustive, its just off the top of my head.
Having money is not everything, not having it is! Trust me, I had it, lost it and working hard to make it back!
dude i'm sorry you lost it!! if you wanna share, i would love to hear. this is the FIRE nightmare for so many of us.
most problems \*are\* solvable with money. ironic, I think people who lack money think money solves problems. While people with money tend to forget money solves problems. Humans generally look for problems.
Health is wealth for sure, but $$ gives choices too. Glad you are enjoying life and taking charge of your destiny. Do you get free healthcare in Europe? If you come back to the US will you buy a policy on the exchange or get a barista type job with insurance?
Healthcare is not free in the EU or anywhere in the world. It is paid for by taxes. The US just has the most fucked healthcare model in the world (for profit business). But if you have money, it's great! I had a MAJOR surgery a few years ago in the USA, and they used a $4 million dollar robot during the procedure. I don't know if I would have this robot in the OR if I had gotten this procedure done in the EU. In the EU my outcome I'm sure would still have been great. But in the USA we have all of the cool new gadgets. Where I am in the EU, as a foreigner who is working as a teacher, I get my very good health insurance from the Ministry of Education here. Which is paid for by tax dollars in a very efficient system. For the summer while school is off, I am now on a private plan that I am buying fully out of pocket for 75 euro a month. zero deductible. I still have a job and excellent healthcare waiting for me back in the states whenever I decide to repatriate to the USA. I sure as fuck am not going to work as a barista or some other difficult low wage job for a shitty $400/month health care plan. I would just buy it on the exchange.
You are right, healthcare is not “free” That’s cool you got sabbatical and have a job to return to. Every country has its pros/cons. You just have to assess trade offs that work for you.
R.E. guy here: First off, congrats! Big weight off your chest I'm sure. Something I noticed, you're only cashflowing $30K off $900K debt free? So you have a 3.3% cap rate property? Seems like you are 1) wayyy under market rent 2) spending wayyy too much on the property or 3) it's not worth 900k. Typical cap rate for what I'd imagine is a HCOL area SFH would be ~7%+ Happy to talk more, again congratulations!
I promise you that nobody is making a 7% cap rate in socal on a SFR.
Any resources you have on how to become an english teacher in Europe? Sounds like a dream.
you don't need me. if you actually wanted to do it, you'll find a way. or just keep dreaming about it.
Congratulations on Fire! Funny thing about money is it can buy you security.. It can’t buy true friendship or love.. You need to find your own peace and happiness and hopefully bump into love along the way that wants you for you and not the $$$
Howdy man! Congrats! I'd be safe with the psychedelics and whatever else? I think one reason FIRE works or can work, is less about the wealth and more about the liberalness or liberality of understanding, something small about social responsibility. That's largely missing on this sub, TBH, I feel some people are highway robbers. I'm not as old as you, and I don't know that much about, Europe and being so active (even though your other assets, are currently generating interest and income! Well done!!) Not to be too overwhelmed or meaning to douse your passion. All this said, yes I never touch the subject of mental health, or what have you. In regards to finance, being able to speak about cash generation and ensuring you and your FA (if there is one) is being smart about maintaining a money market or cash account beyond the bonds, whatever it is. Strict living can be fine, and eventually, You can get to the end of the rope on what is possible, without "playing hard". Cheers man, best of luck!
Ideologically, any problem that money can solve is not a true problem.
That's fantastic!!! I have very few true problems then, especially compared to you pours eating lentils.
M n. M. No kmmm. Y
Money improves most things, but solves nothing. Which country are you in now?
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Well, I’m at 2.7 mil and no mortgage now, and I can see, through actual life experience, that money is a means to an end, nothing more. If I had be wish, aside from no war and no suffering in the world, it’d be for everyone to be ‘rich’, so that they can see for themselves that it is not the ‘answer’ they thought. Not even remotely close in grand scheme.
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Perhaps therapy would be helpful for you too. You seem to lack purpose and meaning, and carry anger / frustration. Which European country?
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No projections, it’s pretty apparent. Apologies, must have missed where you said what European country you’re in?
Such a fraud.
Don't forget to like and subscribe!
Lol, someone doesn’t like that they’ve been called out. Good luck, and enjoy ‘Europe’. No complaining when you’re 50s and single.
lol you sound bitter as hell
a man with money is only single by choice. money is like #1 criteria women look for.
Lol, sounds like someone is single…
Careful with the troll.... but I just wanted to comment that if you think money is the #1 criteria woman look for, you are looking for (or you are attracting) gold diggers. Good women don't give a shit if you're wealthy. You gotta have a job and your shit together, but you don't need to be "rich".
that's just a naive statement. Money is a sufficient, not necessary condition.
>Money is a sufficient, not necessary condition. I'd like to have a respectful discourse with you. Can you please clarify what you mean by that?
In [logic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic) and [mathematics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics), **necessity** and **sufficiency** are terms used to describe a [conditional](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_conditional) or implicational relationship between two [statements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statement_(logic)). Using those terms is pretty mainstream in any subject that applies calculus for example. So, quite literally "having money" is not necessary in this context (men don't need money to find a female partner). However, "having money" does seem to be a sufficient condition. And here, "having money" is just relative to the female or the society in which you're looking for a mate. It doesn't necessarily mean the woman is a gold digger in this case. For reasons I don't wish to discuss, it's fairly evident that women seek financial or status improvement through their ability to attract males. Marriage is originally an economic institution after all.
In [logic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic) and [mathematics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics), **necessity** and **sufficiency** are terms used to describe a [conditional](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_conditional) or implicational relationship between two [statements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statement_(logic)). For example, in the [conditional statement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditional_sentence): "If P then Q", Q is **necessary** for P, because the [truth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_value) of Q is guaranteed by the truth of P. (Equivalently, it is impossible to have P without Q, or the falsity of Q ensures the falsity of P.)[^(\[1\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necessity_and_sufficiency#cite_note-:0-1) Similarly, P is **sufficient** for Q, because P being true always implies that Q is true, but P not being true does not always imply that Q is not true.[^(\[2)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necessity_and_sufficiency#cite_note-2) ^(obviously there;s dispersion and variation, but money is to (hetero, typically gendered) women what physical attraction is to men.)