Author Topic: The Frugal Capitalist - a consumerist FI/RE stoory  (Read 1596 times)

FireDAD

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The Frugal Capitalist - a consumerist FI/RE stoory
« on: July 26, 2020, 05:49:09 PM »
I would like to think my FI journey has been unique. I’m a super spender in every sense of the word. I’m also pretty much in the middle of the FIRE journey and that isn’t something I see written about often. There are lots of stories of those in their last year, should I or shouldn’t I pull the trigger, those in their first few years of full retirement, and beginners. However, I’ve noticed a lack of those that are pretty much in the middle, maybe not even that serious about FIRE as a driving goal, but instead use the principles to be a better capitalist.
 
 
 My story has nothing out of the ordinary beyond some rational choices and being overly conservative with our money, and an overwhelming desire to build businesses. We may not make it to FIRE early in life; we are having children and FIRE is not our number one concern or priority. As I’ve earned more I’ve absolutely let lifestyle inflation happen and we are 100% ok with that.  The reason I wanted to tell my story was to tell the story of how these principals will always improve your situation at nearly every income level and I dream of a society (American) that can begin to see beyond the now.
 
*Before we begin, anytime I write something that shows I had/have extreme privilege, I promise I feel it and much as you see it. It would just be exhausting to call it out every time so consider this my one acknowledgement that I have had it WAY better than almost everyone in human history and I do feel guilty about that most of the time.
 
I’m 35 years old and my wife is 30 and as of today we are roughly 60% of the way to FI/RE with a baby on the way.
 
I grew up in a lower middle class household in the midwest in a town you’ve never heard of but you’ve seen dozens of them. Both my wife and my childhoods were pretty traditional for the time in middle America, but most of this post will be from my perspective. For middle America it didn’t feel like we had much, but we had enough at all times. We were absolutely paycheck to paycheck, but there was some excessive spending and a gambling addiction. Divorced Parents when I was young enough to have really vague memories, but all in all I would say it falls right at an average American childhood in the 80s-2000s
 
My exposure to money was basically watch and learn. I had a bank account setup when I was old enough and told to save some everytime I made money “pay yourself first”. Something my parents didn’t really do much of, but at least they knew enough to try and teach me that. From there I was on my own and learned some bad habits, even though I always knew I shouldn’t be spending I just did it anyway. No matter how insane a purchase I made felt, there were others out there doing it way stupider, but being praised for it more. I began to embrace the research process to get the best thing that’s also the best value. Cars had a sweet spot at 4 years old from lease turn ins. I learned I could buy a 4 year old, low mileage lease, drive it for a year and sell it private party a year later for what I paid. My average age for owning a car must be like 9 months, but I have only had 1 or 2 instances where I lost a lot on a car. I began applying these principals of Capitalism to everything from bikes, to lodging (sleeping in my car), to growing my own food vs buying it. Nothing was off limits in the pursuit of living a life of luxury that was outside my income. See I wasn’t trying to live frugally for the sake of living frugally. I was doing it for the purposes of getting all the best and most luxurious things cheaper than the average consumer pays for the ordinary.
 
Some perspective, because frugality is a spectrum and I’m on the extreme end (spendy).
When I’m into something I go for the absolute best, every time. Some examples of things I bought before I was 25 while never making more than $50,000 a year and sometimes way less:
Almost the best gaming computer you could buy at the time - pretty much didn’t hold back here. I wanted a VR racing sim and I got one, but I spent months researching all the most cost effective components for the money.
Between 8 and 11 different cars from age 16-25 - see description above
High end triathlon equipment - The sweet spot for bikes is pretty much anything other than new. I can’t think of any market that has a worse resale value than bikes. Buy it 1 year used from some dude on pinkbike and you’ll pay 40% of retail.
Registrations for races some at $500+ events, plus travel for 2-3 days, multiple times each year. - Slept in my car a lot before these races. Even would make sure and stick around to the end of each event and offer to take home the unused food. Each race I did I would average - 1 weeks worth of bananas, tons of granola bars, as much as I could carry of some sponsor that had a new product they wanted people to try. There are some races I did where I brought home more money in food than the entry fee of the race.
Designer furniture barely used (picked it up in my old van from the biggest house I’ve ever been in. My wife and I were terrified moving it for fear of breaking something we couldn’t afford to replace) The 2 couches we bought retailed for over $10,000. We paid $800….. In cash. Still have them in a rental unit today. They look great for their age as they are extremely well built.
 
 
I was starting to think that nothing made sense. For the most part, I knew what my friends made; most of the time it was more than I was making and somehow I always had more, newer and cooler stuff than them, but they were the ones struggling with money. I almost never struggled with money even for the years I was near the poverty line for my income while taking on student loan debt or during a 4 month stretch of job loss where I was denied unemployment. 
 
I really only saved for the short term. I would save for a goal, buy whatever that goal was depleting my savings or investments then repeat. I learned early on that having cash on hand would always get me the best deal and therefore made my meager salary go farther.
It wasn’t until I was around my mid 20s when a conservative and rich aunt told me about Dave Ramsey that I really started to embrace what FI/RE was and could be.
 It’s hard to explain my relationship to DR, but what he was saying was truly life changing, but not for the reason that most people say DR changes their life. DR didn’t teach me a new way to look at money, he was simply the first person to even think remotely similar about money as I did. That at almost every income level, spending less than you make is really all that matters. If you live by that principal and apply a loose plan you should at least be able to survive in our current society. Up until this point in my life I felt I was the only person who felt I was doing well with money and I didn’t think I was doing that well. I always felt my spending was out of control and I could be so much more frugal.  I actually remember the exact event that made me stop having debt when I was at my lowest NW.
I went to sign up for the Pigman triathlon short course, it was my favorite race and they did it twice a year. It was 90 minutes away from home so it was a perfect weekend trip for me. I went to register and didn’t have the $65 to write a check (yep, I’m old). I was going to put it on my credit card, but couldn’t find my wallet. I knew the number was printed on the statement so I went and opened the mail it was in. The amount of interest I was paying that month was something like $71. I got so pissed that if I had no debt I would have had the money to go do my race. I swore off debt at that moment and never looked back.
 
I was learning the FI and Dave Ramsey principals through an expensive trial and error process, but it was when  I read DR’s book that it gave me justification that my instincts had been right about money and this guy proved to me that it works. I felt he was wrong about a few things, namely his aversion to credit cards never made any sense to me; later his conflicts of interest with investing. I hate debt far more than is rational, but credit cards are not debt and making 2% on every purchase for no additional effort? That’s foolish because it requires no additional effort in my daily life and has an immediate return.
 
From there I went on to Mr Money Mustache.This was my guy. Not only did I  agree with him on a lot of stuff, but he was cool. Even if I was not making all the same choices he suggested I could at least follow his logic of thinking on nearly all of them. His suggestions always made me have an internal question of “Yeah, a minivan is the most logical vehicle for money savings” That’s how I ended up with a Honda Odyssey. However, I still was using these savings to be able to afford a more expensive lifestyle in the hobbies I loved and luxury is the rest of my life. From there I dove in deep into FI/RE blogs and knew that my next savings goal to add should be early retirement, and while it wouldn’t always be the number 1 goal or even a major priority, it would always be on the list. That was 9 years ago and is as close a start date as I can guess.
 
After digesting all the information I could I decided to go the “large income route” to achieve FI/RE. I love buying shit too much to lean fire so I knew the only shot I had was to get my income way up. It basically needed to double. When we decided to start my wife was still in college and I was working a lower paying accounting job and working part time at a running specialty store. I had also just started an additional part-time contract job timing races across the midwest. Between us we were making around $40,000 a year. Still living pretty large on that in our small, but insanely affordable condo.
 
Since I sorta had a gig economy work/life including one that was a 40 hour a week full time job I knew that going all in on working was my answer to FI/RE. I was not short on opportunities to make money, and I just needed time to do them all. I started with my accounting job. I was still pretty new to the accounting field with only 6 years of experience up to that point. Rather than try to earn more I took the gamble of working for a non-profit for $26,000 a year. In it for me was being 25 years old and having the title of Accounting Manager, managing a multi-million dollar budget, reporting to a board of directors, and having a small staff. From where I am today in my accountingcareer I can draw a direct line back to accepting that very low salary for a position I was under qualified for and figuring it out as I went.
 
The person I replaced was retiring so the systems were…..ancient to say the least. After learning the way the old guard did things I immediately began automating everything; tuition payments, contributions, tax documents to donors, reporting to the board, and anything else I could automate I did. This had the surprising effect of making me bored as hell most days.
It took me about 6 months to turn a 40 hour a week job done by hand into about 12 accomplishing even more tasks. In the beginning I fucked around but that gets old quick. Playing Hearthstone or Diablo for 6 hours a day in your office isn’t as fun as it sounds, trust me on that. I was working a couple part time jobs at this point, all of which were in my passion topic of racing, running, and outdoors. The problem was that I was so bored during the day that I wasn’t motivated to do much of anything the rest of the time.
 
It was important for me to always be in my office during business hours to help or answer questions, but as long as I met all my deadlines and my Board was happy with my performance, always made the non-profit the priority when I was there; then I felt comfortable spending the rest of my time there focusing on starting my own business. If it became too much I would drop the business before my boss even knew something was happening or off.
 
I applied all this additional time into focusing on Race Timing and Race Management. I had spent the last 7 years or so racing at these events any chance I got. It was one of my favorite places to be so the idea of being able to be PAID to be there? I was very entranced by this line of work. Through some connections I had made at events I started working for a guy who was kind of a prick but had the industry knowledge I needed. I worked for him for pretty cheap - $250 per event that I worked. This meant that I would leave after work on Friday, drive between 2-4 hours, sometimes stay overnight (slept in car), would work the event by myself and drive home to be back to work Monday morning. I was learning a lot and especially a lot of what NOT to do in business from the company owner. He was the definition of small business. It was just himself and sometimes he would hire friends or family to work these events with him. He hired me as a contractor on a per event basis and for the entire time I worked for him he only ever hired a couple of my friends when I said I needed help.
This guy was very smart and knew the technology better at the time than I do still almost 10 years later, but he was a fucking trainwreck. Here are some of my ‘favorite’ highlighted memories:
At a charity event for a Lung Cancer charity  he got into a screaming match with the Fire Chief who was the top fundraiser - he was never allowed to return and I still work this event to this day.
He would send out new “employees” with almost 0 training. This was at a time where learning to time a race was a very difficult process where you must follow precise instructions. My first event I worked for him I had a 1-30 minute training session at his house and was told to call him if I had any trouble. He was working a race that same day and had no cell service. Results should take minutes to produce - took me 2 hours that day and it was basically me stumbling through some very old help documents.
He would never invoice - eventually I took over this part for him as an accountant. He had some clients he hadn’t invoiced for 18 months.
He never responded to clients and would be SUPER rude. They would ask something simple in an email like “Will you be bringing a clock we can use?” His response would be some swearing and then a response like “NO, if you would read the contract we charge an additional $50 for a clock.” 
My tally of annual, good money,  contracts he lost for being a total dick was 11.
Likely the same contracts lost for not communicating or forgetting something the customer ordered or some other catastrophic failure (ex. Inflatable finish line, clock, equipment that would break because he didn’t maintain it, etc)
 
I learned almost everything I know about how to run a business and the way I operate today from watching him during this “apprenticeship”. I was taking races every weekend they were available cause $250 was a lot of money and working a bunch had the added benefit of not spending as much. Once I started to do his accounting I learned this guy is making FUCKING bank. This bumbling fool is making north of $200,000 a year in this business and he can’t even invoice people or just be polite. One event a year that we did together I was getting paid $250 and he was clearing $15,000.
This motivated me so much. I saw the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The curtain had been pulled back. I saw a hole in the marketplace and I was going to fill it.
 
I was saving as much of my timing money and running store money as I could. I went from saving $0 for retirement at 24ish to saving about $8,000 a year. I knew it wasn’t going to be enough and so I just kept committing to working more and more, and at this point I was just saving to start a business. FIRE principles applied to our life, but really only for the goal of investing in a business. After a few years of some job moves in Accounting to timing more events, to doing the finances for the running store I had gained a sizable amount of knowledge and set forth on a huge life change.
 
I was going to start my own race timing business and move to where the races are, where I’ve always wanted to be, Colorado.
 
We made the move happen in a frugal way, staying with family here while my wife stayed with my folks for 6 weeks (she’s a saint). This was the only way we could afford this move, and was to save every penny possible along the way. We sold our beautiful house in Iowa for $150,000, exactly what we paid and bought a $300,000 fixer up that when the wind blew made the whole house shake. Double the money and a way worse house.
I quickly found a full time job that would pay the bills; one I was also able to automate and optimize to give me more time throughout the day. From there I spent all my free time building another new race business. From everything I learned from my ‘mentor’ I knew everything I didn’t want to do so I decided to model the business around some basic principles:
We will not compete on price - we will never be the cheapest option
We will do anything a client asks, if I cannot do it, I will find them a referral I trust(within reason)
We pay our staff at least double the industry average
We are always available to help by phone, text, email (within reason)
We will do everything in our power to make your event as good as we possibly can
We only bid on events we want to do or believe in - Currently we only bid on about 50% of RFPs we receive

My theory was simple. If we charge way above the amount where everyone is fighting over margins, we can hire the best and afford to give each client a ton of attention to detail. An event planner is busy, they don’t want to think about the timer. If they are worrying about you then you fucked up.

We started slow, but my margins were strong enough that I was squeezing out around $50,000 a year my first year. I bought all my equipment for cash based on my hatred of debt. This allowed me a ton of freedom to pick and choose the work I wanted to do. It also started my reputation of “They are good, but you’ll pay for it.” A compliment I could not be more proud of.
 
All along the way I’ve always had an accounting job full-time to which I follow the same plan I’ve done for the last 12 years.
Find a full-time job and be open with them on expectations
I own a small business
This full-time job will always come first when I am here
I will never miss a deadline, appointment, or commitment for this job
I have avoided large companies for this reason. My accounting life has been in small businesses and nonprofits. I’ve found those to be the most understanding and flexible. If you find the right small business owner they won’t dislike you having a side business; they will respect you for being a motherfucking hustla.
I learn the job and then spend all my time automating and simplifying every task, down to small and seemingly insignificant.
Now with a reduced time load at this main source of income I focus on other money making pursuits.
 
All along the way I was still involved at the retail store I discussed earlier. Since I’m never one to turn down someone paying me for work I did accounting and consulting for this retail store. Through a series of circumstances I took full ownership of this company in November 2019. (I did pay for it, but it was the result of an untimely death of a close friend. A situation that I wasn’t planning on for many years to come.)
As of today FIRE principles have helped me build a very privileged life. My events business is 100% shut down, but it doesn’t matter. I was able to pay my employees a  sizable lump sum each for not working this year and since I run the business with no debt we only have $800 a month in liabilities. Compare this to some of my friends in the industry who have multiple leases on cargo vans,a  warehouse they rent, six figure debt on equipment; I don’t think many of them will survive this.
 
The Running Specialty store I now own is in the exact same situation. Our one competitor in town is struggling because they have very high rent and are part of a franchise. I purchased our building and we pay cash for our inventory. My fixed expenses are very low and since my front line staff is working during a pandemic I just gave raises to everyone, averaging about 20%.
 
As of today I’m about 50% of the way to FI. I could likely just quit my accounting job and live from my businesses but I see no reason to do that. I’m having too much fun and have really been enjoying my money. I think the uniqueness of my approach is that I embrace a lot of modern culture but just attempt to do it in a more frugal way. Like most 30somethings that get a taste of success I made sure to buy a sports car. I’ve been into cars my whole life and it’s my greatest weakness for sure. Rather than go to a dealership I bought an immaculate 2004 911. After fixing some mechanical issues which made the purchase price cheap I only have about $30,000 in the car. It’s worth about $35,000 now. I think Mr Money Mustache would beat the shit out of me for buying that, but I got the dream car I had on my wall as a kid AND it’s costing me very little compared to my income, net worth and the fact that I learned everything I could about the 911 market and bought something worth more than I paid.
 
The major changes that have happened in the last 6 months are really what motivated me to write all of this down, because so much of what I knew in FI/RE has changed, and it feels like it’s all for the better.
 
There is no denying I’m a workaholic. The only thing I can say is that I really do love the grind. I’m friends with most of my clients at this point and owning a running store is like the coolest thing in the world. What changed in the last few months was my approach to investing.
 
As my income has risen, and there have been no new businesses for me to start since my time was pretty optimizely spent; my investments just kept growing.
6 months ago I was sitting on $200,000 in pre tax and $300,000 in after tax and savings.
I always felt that I can quit my accounting job and focus on my businesses when I hit $1,000,000 net worth. The thing that doesn’t get discussed much is that $500,000 in investments is a super boring spot to be.
For a person like myself who likes to be in charge of his own destiny seeing that $300,000 in after tax move with the market was annoying. I wanted it to go faster, but also I just felt so not in control. COVID has proved to me that I’m comfortable with the market for long term goals, but it’s dog shit for an entrepreneur that likes to see their money work. I believe in the market 100% and I’ll always keep my pre-tax money in low cost index funds, but I also believe in myself and it turns out I believe in myself way more than I believe in the market.
 
I have had rental properties in the past and was very happy with how I did. Even had some major issues that I fixed, appliances broke, water heater flooded and I needed to replace the floor, etc. No big deal, YouTube these days and you can do almost anything and just hire a pro when it’s something critical like electrical work that I’m not comfortable with.
 
One of the reasons I avoided real estate for so long was the HCOL here in Northern CO. It’s stupid here and you won’t make money unless you get in the vacation rental business and that’s just not for me. I’m a lazy workaholic at my core- I look at maximum return for the least effort. At the time I was trying to solve this problem I had a new creeping problem. The running store I owned was 13 hours away in my hometown and I was getting tired of coming back to work staying at either of my parents. Not because we don’t get along, it’s just a lot to ask of older parents. Plus there is an obligation to do a lot of socializing when I’m there to work plus working remote for other jobs it’s just better to have some space of my own.
 
I do not make enough to afford a proper second home. Also, that would defeat the entire purpose of purchasing the running store in the first place. Why bother if there is a 3 year break even just to afford a place to stay when I’m there, doesn't make sense.
Looking at non-traditional options I found a cabin in the woods that was fully furnished for $55,000.  It was adorable, secluded, hard to access, right on the water and perfect. A house in my hometown at $55,000 would have been an absolute shit hole likely with bullet holes. This is in amazing shape, a 55 minute peaceful drive to my store and everything I love about nature.
The drive is not a big deal since I’m only there roughly 6 weeks a year. We also decided that is where we will spend 100% of our family vacations. I’ve spent the last decade travelling for work. Unlike most FI/RE folks I have little to no interest in travel to foreign lands. My own little slice of secluded land where I can hunt and fish is all I’ll ever need. Henry David Thoreau once wrote “I quite think I would enjoy a quiet life in the woods.” We paid cash.
 
Owning a property near my hometown and the location of my business opened up an opportunity to work my savings even better. I immediately started looking for rental properties. Applying my rules of least effort for my return and looking at many properties I settled on a beautifully remodeled 3 br condo, a $130 a month HOA fee to do all maintenance and made a cash offer of $122,500. Yes, it is mathematically better for me to leverage into a mortgage, trust me I know this I’m an accountant. My decision to pay cash is a risk aversion strategy to the max. Limiting how much I pay in interest goes back to that guy who couldn’t register for a race because I had to pay interest. Now, if it takes me a couple months to find a tenant at some point it doesn’t matter to me financially. That has value to me and it’s more valuable than the leverage a mortgage provides.
 
 A little digging found that when these do come available to rent from other investors they are getting $1,300-$1,400 a month in rent for ones that are not remodeled. I’m confident I’ll be able to get these amounts which will earn me almost a 4x return over the rental market where we live in CO. Sure, a conventional life wouldn’t be to live in the mountains full time and have your cabin in Western Illinois, but it’s the most cost effective way to have both. I’ve found most people have their vacation homes or second homes in the opposite scenario financially. They live in the less desirable places and spend big bucks on the vacation home.
 
 
6 months ago I would have never guessed all of that was the plan, but the power of saving money has opened up so many opportunities for success in my life. As of today I’m casually looking for rental property number #2 in that area and I may try to learn how commercial financing works by putting 50% or more down while keeping the entire amount in a bond fund to pay off if it gets uncomfortable for me.
 
FIRE is no longer my primary goal. It would be nice to be able to walk away from my CFO position at some point; for now I like the insurance, salary and it’s a super fun job, so why leave? My goal now is diversification as that is what has worked for me to survive this pandemic and in nearly every life situation I’ve experienced.
 
If I had only done my events business when it got very successful I would be in trouble today as we have 0 clients, 0 revenue and no horizon for when that ends. Instead, we ran the business with FI principles and that business can just be dormant.
 
Same thing happened when retail was shut down. The month of March is usually our 2nd best month of the year, and this year we only did orders over the phone and delivered them, we were down 90% for 8 weeks. However, since I operate with no debt, we own the building and pay for inventory in cash we bled far less than our competitors. In fact, it has allowed us to take advantage of savings on reduced price inventory.
 
The last 2 months has seen me getting heavily into real estate from my after tax brokerage account. We were able to get a beautiful cabin by being the buyer who offered cash. There were other offers, some for more, but they all needed financing. Being overly conservative and having a large cash cushion is such a large contributor to success. It allows you to act from a place of confidence and action. When the deal is available, whether it’s business or personal you will be able to act and act first.
 
From here we are back to our usual ways. Every month we max 401ks & 457s, and then save whatever we don’t spend to keep buying more rentals. At some point I’ll stop buying them, but I can’t tell you when.
Whatever is left we spend on whatever we feel like. I’ve gotten a little out of control on vehicles lately. I keep talking about how much we spend and while I really don’t keep track here is one example so you know i’m not lying:
Current cars - I don’t count these in my networth but totalled it’s around $120,000
2004 911 4s
2016 Tesla Model X P90D
1987 Volvo 760 turbo
2017 Toyota Sienna Limited
 
I’ll be honest, even listing those out on a FI forum is embarrassing, but before 2020 we have never made more than $100,000 in a year. I just always save up for what I want, pay cash whenever possible and put significant effort into getting the best value.
 
I’m not as frugal as most of the people here, and I’m very comfortable with that. As long as I’m maxing my retirement accounts and investing in my businesses then I enjoy buying luxuries, toys and conveniences all the time.
Since it’s my favorite buy on my FI track here was my process from  my “Should I buy a 911”  spreadsheet.
Buying an exotic sports car is unheard of in the FI community, but it shouldn’t be. If it’s truly a hobby you love then my 911 is a steal.
911s are the most practical sports car - back seats, total cost of ownership, community with the Porsche club of America, can be driven on track with no modifications
911s are very reliable compared to almost any other exotic
911s really hold their value after their initial depreciation
Mine (2004 the 996 generation) is the cheapest by far of any generation and the reason is pretty much only because the headlights are ugly. 50% off compared to all other generations because of headlights…..it’s a thing, google it.(ok maybe the IMS, but it’s also fixable)
The market bottomed out a few years ago and prices are steadily rising, making it worth even more than I paid for it
It’s not an investment, but some research and knowledge let me punch way above my income levels for my mid-life crisis-mobile
It’s awesome. In high school I had a picture of the 2002 Turbo 911 ripped out of a MotorTrend held up with a magnet in my locker.
 
I’ve owned that car for almost a year, and spent almost a year researching before purchasing it and as of today I could sell it for roughly $5,000 more than I paid. Along with that I’ve had a blast every time I drive it and spend a lot of free time enjoying it. In every purchase I make I feel it’s important to maximize your value. So far the 911 is a great example of excess American consumption done right.
 
If we just keep our investments on auto-pilot I shouldn’t need to work anywhere (other than rental properties) in 10 years or less, at age 45 and 40. We could do it much sooner if we really wanted to adjust our lifestyle but for now, that doesn’t seem necessary. To me that’s the beauty of the FI/RE movement. It’s personal and no matter how much or little you embrace, every little change you make will improve your financial life.
 
Reading individual stories is my favorite part of this community and I sincerely hope you enjoyed mine.
 
****I was  somewhat vague on details, but at some point I gave up and figure if someone wants to figure out who I am it won’t be tough****
 
 
TL;DR - Took FI/RE principles and applied them to become a very efficient spendy pants and will still finish early.

FireDAD

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Re: The Frugal Capitalist - a consumerist FI/RE stoory
« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2020, 05:51:00 PM »
Hey guys, I also posted this on reddit. I had trouble getting the formatting to work here so it's easier to read here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/hyhh6r/the_frugal_capitalist_a_consumerist_fire_story/

Bloop Bloop

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Re: The Frugal Capitalist - a consumerist FI/RE stoory
« Reply #2 on: July 26, 2020, 08:56:19 PM »
I think your post was too long to easily digest but one thing I detected was a sense that you have to justify your spending to others. I don't think you do. You don't have to justify your purchases to anyone other than yourself. If it makes you happy and you subjectively think it's a good allocation of resources and it's a good bargain then do it! If buying a used 911 makes you happy then do it! It's a small expense in the scheme of things. I want to buy a supercar before I'm retired and I still consider that very much within Mustachian principles as long as you are careful with price haggling, buy used, hitch it to your business so you can deduct running costs, etc. Your 911 I would put in the same camp.

I also agree with what you said about running a business - never compete on price. If you're in an industry where price competition is a Big Thing, that's probably a bad sign.

Congrats on coming so far along your FIRE journey.

NorCal

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Re: The Frugal Capitalist - a consumerist FI/RE stoory
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2020, 07:53:53 AM »
Sounds like you’ve had a great journey so far. Congratulations on being content where you are today!  That is the rarest and most sought out thing on these forums.

If you’re open to it, I’d love to pick your brain about accounting for small business. I’ve done finance work for large and mid size companies in the past, but am considering different paths.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!