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Welcome! Please introduce yourself

Started by Sam, August 04, 2018, 06:17:32 PM

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The Golden Shaman

Hi Sam and all.

Greetings from Southern California, where I live with my wife and 7-y.o. daughter.

I am Italian, 49 y.o. and we have been living in the USA for the last 8 years.

I am very late in the game, given that I started giving systematic attention to investing only three years ago. The trigger was deciding to leave my golden-caged job in Washington DC (with a modest severance) to become an independent executive leadership coach. I now work with clients all over the world, mostly via video and phone. My speciality is to help people navigate positive shifts in the life/career/organization, going through what holds them back and moving towards what they long for.

As a coach, I am aware that this work starts with me. I am the only provider in the family and since reinventing my/our life from scratch I have been living in the question of how to monetize my work with integrity, creativity, and balance to generate wealth short and long term. This is seldom easy, with fear, worry and risk aversion getting in the way.

Finance was never one of my favorite subjects, but I am now getting intrigued by the entrepreneurial side of personal finance. I have become painfully aware of how little I know,  and I am speeding up my learning. I have been reading Sam's blog for about a year now, and it has been invaluable to help me anchor my intention to be serious about money, and to focus on action.

I look forward to learning from and with you.

Stefano

Rdizzle

Hello, I'm Drew with my wife Holly. We are military family (her) while I do tunnel engineering. We move every so often but mostly have lived in Washington and Hawaii. I've been saving and investing since 13 so really enjoyed finding financial samurai which taught me a lot.
We now focus on not only early retirement but maximizing quality of life for the least amount of money and effort. My emphasis is travel while hers is day to day life. Can't wait to share what we know and learn from others!

Lynx

 Hi all,

I am Lynx a 38 year old island girl with a passion for finance. I am single with no children and live on a small island in the Caribbean. I am an avid small investor (markets and real estate) and enjoy gardening and hiking  in my down time. I am also thinking about starting a small business I have had in my mind for  a few years. I have been an avid Financial Samurai reader for many years and ejoy the perspective that he brings to the financial space.

I am looking forward to reading more financial perspectives from the wider Financial Samurai audience.

Cheers,

Lynx

Arcs

Hello,
I am a novice DIY (female/late in the game) investor in 30s and who is always looking for financial advice. I live and work in Bay area in a Science related field so I started off with almost zero investing knowledge 5 yrs ago. It was exciting to find this site ~2 years ago as it helps me keep my feet grounded. I find it interesting to see how people think while managing their investments, where do the ideas originate from and cross check if my strategy is unrealistic. So slowly yet surely I think I am moving forward and looking for all the information I can get to make better personal finance decisions. 
Thanks,
Arcs.

Derrick

Hi everyone, my name is Derrick. I am an investing junkie who has been in banking for 13 years.  Been enjoying the Financial Samurai blog for many years and excited to be here with like minded people.
My Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3AzxgdlhCn2aH6itXFR_5A?sub_confirmation=1

teeta

Hi everyone from Houston, TX.  I accidentally discovered Financial Samurai blog long time ago and a big fan since.  I've also shared the blog with many of my professional and personal friends since. I am an oil & gas professional for 13 years and counting but definitely do not want to be in the industry forever.  I am extremely glad that the forum is now available so it would be much easier to share, exchange and learn ideas, concepts with many like minded, ambitious folks across the world.

Thank you Financial Samurai for your hard work over the years to make this possible. 

Tim

Alex the stoic

Hi,
I'm Alex 43 year old, from Germany.  Financial Samurai Blog helped me to change my financial behaviour in a positive matter. My main goal is to get rid of my big debt and Mortgage loan + simultaneously grow my stock account from almost zero to 500k+. My time horizon is 12 years from now. I'm highly motivated and I will strictly follow Sam's financial advices and rules to achieve my goals.  :)

Bill

Hello everyone,

My name is Bill. I'm 47 years old, been married for 22 years and have a wonderful daughter in her freshman year at college. I'm a semi-retired business owner who is passionate about the stock market. I bought my first stock when I was 19 years old. It was a company called Alpnet. I had no idea what they do. My sisters boyfriend talked me into it. Paid .70 a share and sold at $1.30. I made $750.00 and have been hooked ever since.

I've been a reader of Financial Samurai since the beginning and tend to comment only when I disagree with Sam or the comments. Hmmm, maybe that says a lot about me. Regardless, I love the blog and have learned a lot, both from Sam, and from some of the commentators.  I look forward to learning and sharing more with community in the future.

Thanks, Bill

rluks

Hello there!

I'm 28yo Roman and I come from "the heart of Europe" - Czech Republic. I've started taking interest in investing in 2015. I was fascinated by compound interest so I started investing a couple of hundred CZK every month (just to participate). Back then I didn't realize one can achieve FI. Not long ago I've discovered all those famous blogs about FI including FS. I took my budgeting spreadsheet and started crunching numbers. If all goes according to the plan I could reach FI before I'm 50.

I'm glad to be part of this community and hope we can all help each other on our journey.

Cheers
Roman

Tej

Thank you Sam for launching this forum. Looking forward for some pro tips, great insights and user stories within this community.

toocold

Hi Folks, I'm in my late forties and have been looking at FS for quite awhile now.  I'm married with 2 kids, living in the upper midwest; thus, the name Toocold when I first created it.  Technically I'm FI about 100x target spending but I continue to work because I think I can meaningfully contribute through megacorp.   

If, however, things go awry and I were to separate from megacorp, I'd be pretty psyched to get some rest and do something new and interesting.  I'm glad to be on the forum.


hyperobjeckt

Hi all, I'm a nerd in my late 20s living in Seattle. Some things I like:

  • my wife & dogs (2 greyhounds)
  • synthesizers (http://youtube.com/hyperobjeckt)
  • talking about personal finance & investment
  • overthinking things at work as an analyst
  • overthinking things at home for fun
I got very lucky by finding out about FIRE early: my dad retired at 39, parents taught me to live below my means, and I happened to graduate college during a huge bull run. So of course I get excited about saving money & looking for new opportunities.

Enjoying the forum so far!

Jim4130

Hi everyone.  My name is Jim and I live in Southwest Florida.  I am 55, married and have 4 children (25, we, 15 and 12).  I am always interested in other opinions on investing strategies and retirement planning.  I originally came to the FS site years ago when searching out advice on negotiating a severance package. 

Tony

Hey guys. My name is Tony. I'm a professional poker player and live in Cincinnati. Im in my early 30's and recently stumbled upon this blog as I've become much more interested in finances and the prospects of retiring at an early age with the goal of traveling a bunch and being able to raise a kid (if i chose to have one) without having to work.

Old_Arpad

Hello all.  I've been reading the FS blog for a few years now but have never posted.  I got a late start with FIRE due to not paying attention to finances till i was 30, but am on target to quit my job in just over 4 more years.

I don't have a home town. I grew up in various places of the world, and continued to live and work in various countries as an adult. My birth citizenship is British but I haven't lived there in a very long time, not since leaving boarding-school. I currently live in the US, in the southeast. 

jdurham1463

Hi All,
I am new to the forum - I have been reading the blog for a few months now. 
I am a real estate developer by profession - I started working for local real estate development companies in my mid 20's after finishing grad school in Urban Planning. 
I launched out on my own at around 29.  I'm now 38 and have developed a number of projects which I continue to own and manage.  The projects have gotten larger over the years.  My first project was a vacant building in downtown that I purchased and converted to a bar & restaurant and 2 lofts.  I dabbled in building 2-3 families during the recession including some affordable housing.  Recent projects have included the conversion of a former school into 50 apartments, an old nursing home into 22 apartments, and I'm currently building a mixed use project with a grocery store and a 30 unit apartment building.
I've been lucky to have a great partner that has allowed me to hold properties for the long term instead of selling upon completion to fund the next one.

I just sold a building (really the first time I've sold anything) and put some nice $$ in my pocket.  I decided to sell it because I got a better price for it than I would pay for it today; and I have recently felt like too much of my NW is in real estate and not liquid enough; so this was a general diversification move. 

I now am sitting on cash and not sure where to deploy it..... also feeling a little seller's remorse. 

The stock market feels over priced and highly volatile right now.
I am not an expert in stocks so I would really hate to take a hard earned score and invest it only to see a 10-15% corruption wipe out significant equity overnight. 

I am more interested in the 'FI' part of FIRE - I love what I do way too much to think of retiring - ever.... but the nature of my work is always project based, and you can always set your role in a project to coincide with your work load goals (in my 30's I am the general contractor and developer... as I get older I will probably hire general contractors and just wear the 'developer hat' which is a much lighter work load than also being the GC...).

Look forward to discussing ideas that people are sharing for investment ideas and discussing and sharing my experience in real estate with others. 

Best,
J

DCSFNY

Greetings from NYC - I'm a 30yo mid-Level finance professional working at a large bank.  I stumbled into Financial Samurai earlier this year, initially intrigued because of the similarities of Sam's former profession & mine (along with the feelings), but have been hooked ever since as I look towards the "FI" portion of FIRE.  I've also chuckled at some of the posts walking through the budgets of NYC/SF families and exorbitant expenditures, as its quite common in the small bubble of the world that I work in for folks to be way over their skis to "keep up with the Joneses". 

My near-term FI plan involves the creation of a holding company for private investments that enables me to move away from being an employee to owning my own business.  My career earnings has fortunately enabled me to save quite a bit, and should provide the capital necessary to fund the investments without any 3rd party equity (at least initially). 

I look forward to interacting with the community!

AdamJane

#97
Hi All,

We are 54 and 53. We live in Queens, NYC.

In 2010, we started buying individual NY municipal tax free bonds (munis) to prepare for layoffs. We used our life savings to buy them. Each year we accumulated more bonds with our yearly savings and bonuses. We stopped consuming and reduced our yearly expenses from 56K to 40K. In 2012, our munis generated 40K which covered expenses except for medical. The company laidoff 350 IT workers in 2012. In 2014, we reached FI when our munis generated 66K which will cover expenses and medical.

In 2013, I discovered personal finance site RetireBy40 by Joe Udo. In Jan 2014, I contacted Joe and we did a case study and a followup on RB40's site to see if we can retire at age 49. As suggested by more than 50% of his readers, we continued working to boost up our pensions and to accumulate more money to cover 3% inflation for expenses and 8% yearly increases for medical cost.

Reader Case Study – Work 5 More Years to Collect Full Pension? 1/20/14
http://retireby40.org/early-retirement-municipal-bonds/

Reader's Story: Three More Years of Work for Adam.  7/25/16
http://retireby40.org/three-years-work-adam/

In 2013, I saw Sam's comments on RB40's site and I clicked on the link to his site. I recall reading Sam's passive income post and I was BLOWN AWAY by the income amount and by the many different income streams. Ever since, I have been reading RB40 and Financial Samurai's site multiple times everyday. I enjoy reading all comments for the different POVs.

In 2016, another 650-700 IT workers were laidoff including my wife, Jane. Many of our co-workers were in panic mode since they did not prepare. We had no financial stress due to the muni bond passive income covering our expenses.

Wife was forced retired in 2016 at age 51 and I will retire at age 55 in the 4th Qtr in 2019. Since we are risk averse, we only invest in individual NY municipal tax free bonds that pays 3.5 to 5%. We have NO money in the stock market. Our company 401Ks are invested in fixed dollar account. This fix interest rate changes every year and for 2019 it is 4.55%. With munis, pensions and 401K interest, it will cover 3x our current expenses.

Adam

djp

Hi! As a long-time reader, happy to be a part of this forum! I'm a 42 yr old business owner, with a 55 yr old husband/business partner and... two toddlers :-)  We're working toward "retirement" in 5 years so we can enjoy more family time.  Hoping this forum can continue to inspire us to get there!

thlayli

 8)

Hey everyone. I've been a reader of Sam's blog for going on five years now, and I've been slowly clawing my way to a better financial state for the last six years, or so. After leaving school with a pile of student loans, credit card debt, and many bad habits, I turned it all around and today I'm debt free (minus the mortgage) and starting to build a nice after tax safety blanket. The one area I didn't screw up before was my 401K.

Nearly two decades ago I started a new job out in California that offered a 401K plan. My brother-in-law told me, just set it up at 10% or so from day one... You'll never notice the difference and it will just start saving for you. It was good advice, and even though it would take another five years before I would max out my yearly contributions, and have every year since for the last fourteen years, I've stayed the course and have a very healthy 401K that is nearing seven digits.

So, while my numbers are a little flip flopped from what Sam and other bloggers recommend, and I hold a huge chunk of my savings in 401K funds, it keeps me focused and I'm inching up, month by month (well, ok, maybe not last month) to having a nice cushion after tax, and on a path to financial independence.

I'm inspired by Sam's example of not really retiring early, but getting to a point where you can work at what you truly love and make your best life possible. I'm a fiction writer, by hobby, and would love to make it a more full time gig. I also love 50% of my day-to-day real job, though I'll go into that situation more in the future.

Ideally, by the time I turn 45, I'd like to cut down the number of hours I work on other people's projects and focus more on my own. I'm hoping this blog will help me stay focused and help me find my way along that path over the next five and a half years.

Happy to meet you all, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the next several years takes us.