Introduction

Chain of Wealth Podcast Interview!

Today, I’m featuring our podcast interview with Chain of Wealth. If you haven’t heard of them, you should check out their site. It is run by Denis and Katie and they set it up to document Katie’s debt payoff story while inspiring other folks to tackle their own PF issues. They blog about Katie’s debt payoff story and other personal finance related topics and they put out podcast interviews with other inspiring people on Mondays and Thursdays. Currently, their podcast has 58 episodes and includes names like Erin from Broke Millenial, Tanja from Our Next Life, Billy from Wealth Well Done, and Matt Lane from Optimize Your Life just to name a few.

This week, we were featured on the podcast in an interview that you can check out here. It was a lot of fun getting to chat with Denis and Katie about us, our new upcoming Lifestyle Change, the Fully Funded Lifestyle Concept, and more.

Give it a listen and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did making it.

 

Thanks again to Denis and Katie at Chain of Wealth for featuring us!

How we got FIRE’d Up!

Recently, Nick over at The Money Mine put out a challenge for people to describe how they got “FIRE’d Up” and what were the catalysts for your change in life to achieve that goal.

What if everyone in the Personal Finance community could write about how they found their goals? Maybe newcomers would relate to one of these stories and decide to make these goals their own? What if that could help someone FIRE?”

Since this blog has been around for a while now and we may have newcomers that haven’t read some of our initial stories, here’s our version of how we got “FIRE’d Up.”

Guest Post – FI for Noobs!

Happy Friday everybody! This is just a short post letting you know that we are featured in a guest post for Kara over at From Frugal to Free: Frugal adventures on the road to financial freedom. She’s another great example of paying off a lot of debt (~$25k) while only making ~$30k per year. You don’t need a 6 figure income to pay down debt, or start planning for your own FI (Financial Independence).

When I was younger, I mistakenly believed if I made more money, things would get easier/better, etc… I didn’t realize then what she already has, which is, if you manage your money correctly, it doesn’t really matter how much you make, you can still pay off debt and work towards FIRE (Financial Independence/Early Retirement). She has a lot of great advice, tips, and personal experiences shared on her blog so bounce over there and check it out. Thanks again Kara for having us on your blog!

Everybody have a great weekend, and we’ll see you back next week!

Filling our Bucket – List

Maggie from Northern Expenditure put out a post about a “Filling your Bucket” List a little while back, and I’ve compiled some things that have “Filled my Bucket” so far. The thought is that instead of obsessing about ticking off things on a Bucket List, you’ve probably already done some pretty cool things in your life, so take a moment to reflect on all those things that have already “Filled your Bucket”. Below are some things I’ve done that have been really fun and Filled my Bucket. Enjoy the pics, I tried to put in more than usual!

Mr. SSC: Hike most of the Appalachian Trail – While trying to figure out what I wanted to do in college or if I even wanted to remain in college, I decided hiking would be the best way to figure that out. So, I researched, planned, and then hiked from Maine down to Lower VA which was about 1700 miles. The hike worked and I figured out that I wanted to study Environmental Science which ultimately led me to my career in Geology.

Grandad and a much, much younger Mr. SSC. He got me started hiking though.
Grandad and a much, much younger Mr. SSC. He got me started hiking though.

Mr. SSC: I got to go hiking in a jungle in Belize. We hiked in for a few miles and then we got on tubes and floated back down a creek, and we went through a bunch of limestone caves. It was pretty awesome floating in darkness through a cave, and then you see the light and come back out in a jungle!

Back into the light!
Back into the light!

Mr. SSC: Sky dive! I was writing an article for a magazine in Denver – a sort of advertorial but it was a paying free-lance writing gig and I covered reviews for mountain biking trails, white water rafting, etc… Sky diving was one topic I was supposed to cover, and when interviewing one of the schools, he asked, “How can you write about it if you’ve never done it?” I told him I didn’t know, so he asked if I could be there at 7am the next day. I went and got my first jump in by stepping out onto the wing strut of a small Cessna! It was awesome!

Mr. SSC: I’ve gotten to throw beads from the Royal Sonesta balcony on Bourbon Street during Mardis Gras. If you live in or near New Orleans, Mardis Gras is a weeks’ long event culminating into revelry on Bourbon St. when Mardis Gras finally gets here. Most of the balconies on Bourbon St. are booked years in advance, and are not necessarily open to the public. You need passes and they even have security at the doors checking invites. BUT, I was able to get passes one year and it was a pretty awesome vantage point! No parades come down Bourbon St., but the people watching was some of the best I’ve ever seen.

The view from above - early on Mardis Gras
The view from above – early on Mardis Gras

Mr. SSC: Visit the “Goonies” house in Astoria, OR! Yep, the first real vacation Mrs. SSC and I took together we decided we’d visit the Portland, OR area. She asked, “What do you want to do around there?” I said, “OH!! We’re only a few hrs from the house where they filmed Goonies!! We could go see that!” And so we did, and I never got much more input on vacation itineraries after that, lol. I’ve seen that movie over 300 times easily and so it was really cool getting to see “the house”, even though I didn’t get to do the Truffle Shuffle on the stump.

Once a Goonie, always a Goonie...
Once a Goonie, always a Goonie…

Mr. SSC: Ride on a Mardis Gras Float – While we lived in LA I got a chance to join a Krewe and ride on a float. I did this for 3 years, and it was pretty awesome, but word of warning, it’s also expensive! You have to pay to join the Krewe, which covers float maintenance and all the costs associated with putting one of these things on. Plus, you buy everything you throw, so in essence, you are literally throwing money away. The first year was the worst, but following years, I stocked up on a lot of it through yard sales, where local kids would repackage beads and animals and trinkets caught, for $1/bag or less.

Mr. SSC: Climb 23 Colorado 14’ers, which are peaks at or over 14,000′ high. To be honest most of these were glorified hikes. Well, long hikes with some tough sections but still, I loved it! There were a few where we took some radical routes (like below) and probably should have had ropes, but it all ended well thank goodness!

Our rout to the peak on the right
Our route to the peak on the far right
The view from the Top!
The view from the Top!

Mrs. SSC: I’ve been to all of the contiguous 48 states so far in my life. I want to eventually visit them all, and so far, I’ve gotten to all of them except for Hawaii and Alaska.

Mr. SSC: Being a father. This might be cheesy, but there was a time when I was younger I didn’t want kids or see me ever having kids. As tiring, trying, challenging, and frustrating as they can be at times, there isn’t anything I’d do differently or trade to not spend time with them.

Mr. SSC: Go to France! I’ve always had a fascination with France, even studying French for 5 years from middle school to high school. I didn’t get to go on that class trip, but I did get to go on my grad school field trip to Le Mont St. Michel. I got to see some rare silicilastic reefs (most are carbonate), the Eiffel Tower, and even visit Normandy Beach, along with the memorials and cemeteries associated with that invasion. That was the saddest, and most inspiring part of that whole trip.

Normandy Beach, U.S. Cemetery, Eiffel tower, Le Mont St. Michel day and night, Siliciclastic reef - size 11.5 flip flop for scale.
Clockwise from top left: Normandy Beach, U.S. Cemetery, Eiffel tower, Le Mont St. Michel day and night, Siliciclastic reef – size 11.5 flip flop for scale.

Those are some of the things I’ve gotten to do that have filled my bucket. Thanks again to Maggie for putting that out there, this was fun getting to relive a lot of these memories!

Small Decisions, Big Outcomes; How I met Mrs. SSC

Have you ever read any of those choose your own adventure books? I’m probably dating myself, but when I was a kid there were books that let you make a choice at some point in the story. For instance, your character comes to a door in a castle and then you’re offered a choice. If you choose to go through the door, turn to page 109. If you choose to keep going down the hallway, turn to page 95. This would go on until you get to a resolution, typically I died a lot… However, I would usually go back and read all the different choices to see what various outcomes I had missed out on. Too bad you can’t do that in life, but it’s moving ever forward and ever onward. A favorite blog of mine Our Next Life wrote about this referring to it as “Sliding Doors”, while other folks may think of it as a butterfly effect.

Like those choose your own adventure books, have you ever looked back and identified key points in your life where a decision you made seemed to greatly affect your life’s trajectory from that point forward? I have a couple pretty significant ones, but I was reminded of one recently that put me where I am today in SO many ways. This one began on a Monday night, but not just any Monday night; a Monday Night Football (MNF) night.

I love watching football, especially at the beginning of the season, when you’ve been starved of football action for months, so I was excited there was a double header that night for MNF. I was in grad school and still working full-time as well, so I was pretty beat, because I’d been at work from 6am until 2, then school from 2-6 pm. As I was heading out of the building a friend asked if I was sticking around for a talk by a recruiter from one of the major oil companies. I told him, “Nope, I’m going to watch some MNF, have some beers, and relax.” He asked if I could help get it set up at least, since I was also a fellow officer in our American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) student chapter. Reluctantly I agreed, and set everything up and then ultimately decided to stick around for the talk. Little did I know how much that seemingly small decision would affect my life.

Afterwards, I noticed some people talking with him and another company rep about setting up interviews for the next day. I had looked at their online interview schedule previously, and it had been full, so I considered it “taken care of”. However, I went to stand in line to ask if I could get an interview spot, when I heard 3 different people in front of me mention the online scheduling system wasn’t working right for them and didn’t allow them to block out an empty spot. The recruiter said she would open some more interview spots to accommodate that, no big deal, so when I got to her, I also mentioned I couldn’t get a spot booked either. Of course, I didn’t mention it was because they were full, but I got an interview slot just the same.

Maybe I could work here?
Maybe I could work here?

The rest of the night was spent watching MNF in the background and totally reworking my resume. It was a nightmare because I hadn’t updated it in what seemed like years… Years! Plus I needed to get it in a good state to highlight how I could be an asset for this company even though I had zero Oil and Gas experience. I highlighted all my work experience with managing projects, drilling crews, reports, new bid proposals, and more to get it into decent shape for my “early” interview at 10am. The interview went well, and a few months later I got an internship offer for that summer which I accepted. Woohoo!!

We wandered around here a lot on the weekends.
We wandered around here a lot on the weekends.

My internship was in New Orleans, and they put us up in a hotel near the office since the company figured this was easier than having a bunch of interns in sketchy housing they found themselves. There were only 3 Geologists in the whole group of ~30 interns, and we were the oldest of the group by far. When we heard another geologist would be joining us in a few weeks, it was exciting to have the prospect of someone else older than 25 that we could hang out with. I remember the first time I saw this geologist, she walked into the lobby to meet us all for lunch, and I remember thinking, “Why can’t I be with someone like that?” Little did I know this was the future Mrs. SSC.

We hit it off that summer, and spent most of our free time together; at work, outside of work, duruing lunch at work, and we realized we wanted to be together. Then the internship was over and I returned to Denver and she returned to Chicago to finish up school. Booo, long-distance. We talked daily, and traveled as much as our schedules would allow, and I proposed to her that following Spring when she came to visit. She said yes, and we started our lives together that Fall. It was a pretty short engagement, and yes, we ultimately married within about 15 months of meeting each other – long distance no less, but I wouldn’t change anything for the world.

Us a few years later in Tahoe, with our oldest.
Us a few years later in Tahoe, with our oldest.

Just that small decision to not go watch MNF changed the whole trajectory of my life. Had I gone home, I wouldn’t have gotten that interview slot, nor would I have gotten that internship with that company and never met Mrs. SSC. All stemming from a decision of “Fine… I’ll stick around and listen to the talk.” I would’ve accepted a different intern offer, and I’m sure my life would be pretty different. Mrs. SSC helped me realize how to not spend all the money you have. She’s showed me how to be more financially responsible and the power of investing. She’s done a lot for me on the financial side of life that helped get us where we are today, but even more she’s showed me a lot about how to be a better person for her, for myself, and now for our kids as well. She’s been a great friend, supporter and confidant, and added so much positivity into my life, and it all started because I decided not to be lazy and go watch MNF. Amazing…

Looking back I had no idea of the power of that decision, even though now it reads like a choose your own adventure book type of decision point. I chose something atypical for me, and my life literally changed paths from what typical Mr. SSC would do. I can imagine had I not made that choice, I’d still have credit card debt, school loan debt, car loans, probably a boat loan, home loan, and wondering why I am still struggling with money even though my salary had more than doubled. I’d complain about how it’s tough to make ends meet, and be oblivious to the fact it starts with me and my spending habits, and has less to do with how much you make than how you allocate it in your life.

Wait, I need those dollars!
Wait, I need those dollars!

I learned that if you keep doing things the same way you’ve always done them, they will stay the same they’ve always been. I made another decision that night and that was to do something I typically don’t do. It’s like the Seinfeld episode where George decides his inner voice has been wrong his whole life, so he does the exact opposite of his inner voice. He becomes wildly successful, gets a hot girl, everything changes for the best starting from that decision. I made a similar choice, and that was if I wanted things to change, I needed to start making different decisions than I would normally do, and for me it all started on that night.

Have you had any seemingly small decision affect your life in a big way? I’d love to hear your stories!

“Our Next Life” Series – The SSC’s

We’re continuing the “Our Next Life Challenge” put out there by one of our favorite bloggers, our next life. The following is my take on it, and even a picture of me!

Mr. SSC
Mr. SSC

As you may have been following, we recently went through a drawn-out lay-off situation with Mrs. SSC. It was a blessing in disguise really, because while she didn’t get laid off, it really forced us to examine what would happen if she were let go. The short answer, is that our quality of life would most likely improve and we would end up a little better because of it. Schedules would get less hectic, we could focus more on family time, have more freedom, and less stress to get to better enjoy our downtime.

In short, that’s what we are looking for with “our next life”, is a more relaxed, less hurried pace of life that will allow us more time to spend with the kids and ourselves.

We’ve come to the realization that we aren’t seeking the typical Financial Independence Early Retirement (FIRE) situation, but rather a Fully Funded Lifestyle Change (FFLC). We feel it’s a distinction for us because Mrs. SSC really wants to teach, and while I would be happy not to work, if I came across a small Oil & Gas company, I’d definitely hit them up for some consulting and part time work. So, while we’re aiming for the FI part, we don’t really see it as early retirement, because we plan to be fairly busy with other projects, we just won’t have to depend on any income they may/may not provide. We see it as having the opportunity to pursue what we are passionate about – regardless of the paycheck, and to always have the freedom to put our family first.

Location:

Currently, we live in the great metropolis of Houston. While we love our neighborhood and immediate area, we would not want to retire here because we need four seasons, mountains to hike, and a smaller town that has a community feel to it. We’re currently looking at the Roanoke, VA area because it has a lot of amenities and a lot of small communities around it, while being nestled into the Appalachian Mountains. We haven’t ruled out North Carolina, or Eastern Tennessee, however the greater Roanoke area is close to some good colleges and universities that could fit Mrs. SSC’s teaching goal quite well. But, that could all change if she gets an offer to teach somewhere else that we hadn’t thought of yet.

Timing:

We’re looking at no earlier than Mid-year 2017. Unless we win the lottery, but I doubt the occasional $1-$2 ticket is going to make that happen, and yes, we will occasionally buy a lottery ticket. GASP!! Since we’re not counting on winning that, our financial models have us looking at 2017 for a few reasons. Mainly, I get fully vested with my company “retirement” plan then. It’s their version of a pension, so I’m not going to leave that on the table. I also have a golden handcuff bonus that hits mid-summer 2017, so I’m not leaving that either. Most likely it will be 2018, but if Mrs. SSC gets a good teaching job before then, and we can live off of that income, let our investments grow more, then we may pull the trigger on our Lifestyle Change in 2017.

What will we do:

We have no worries that our time will get filled up with activities. Beyond getting to have more home cooked from scratch style meals, just having free time to hang out with the kids will be awesome.

Mr. SSC: I like to play the banjo and guitar, and will spend a lot more time playing music. I also want to finally spend more time learning the dobro. Gardening is another way I plan to spend my time. Exercise. Something else I have to force into my schedule now to keep off the “office lbs” but can do for fun when I have free time. Blogging. Yep, I’ll spend some more time keeping posts coming out and updating you guys with how we’re doing. Volunteer/Part time work. I don’t know which of these will happen, but between the kids sports/activities, our local community or possibly church, I plan on doing some work with a few of these to keep socially active. Fishing, how could I have forgotten fishing? I like kayaking and fishing and plan to spend a lot of the time on the water doing one or both. Woodworking. I want to build a wood strip canoe, and maybe a wood strip kayak as well, along with other projects as they come along.

Mrs. SSC: Teaching. She will most likely have a teaching gig of some sort to keep her occupied. Photography is another hobby of hers that she doesn’t get to spend as much time with as she would like. Painting is something she enjoys but hasn’t had the time to enjoy recently. Reading. She longs for the days she can be “that girl” sitting somewhere for a few hours with a book/kindle in hand without a care in the world.

Travel:

We plan to travel during the summers or the kid’s school breaks. We want to take at least a month and road trip each summer across the US or maybe even Canada. We’ll just knock around camping and seeing the country. We also want to see a baseball game at every major park, and we can start knocking some more of those off of our list again. International travel is something we want to do, spending a few weeks or so in another country with the kids. I think it would be great cultural experience for everyone and a fun way to spend part of the summers. We’d like to live abroad at some point, but it will have to wait until Mrs. SSC’s parents are gone and the kids are out of the house. Camping and hiking whenever we have free time. With the Appalachians at our door, we are positioned well to be in the woods a lot.

I’m sure we will probably end up with a schedule where we will mix up time for kids, music, gardening, blogging, napping, exercise, and more once we get our rhythm established and get the pace of our lives turned down from 11 to a more respectable 3-4 level.

That’s what we see as “our next life”, at least as it is looking this month. It changes, but the overall goal is the same – more freedom, less stress, and enjoying life.

The “About Series” rolls on!

Welcome to today’s post where I’m continuing the “About Series” put out there by Steve at Think Save Retire. It’s essentially a challenge to other bloggers to write more about themselves, their blog, and what not so we can get more of a sense of who they are by giving more details than what is on their “about” page. I took our next life’s formatting and some questions from their  “About” post because I liked how it was structured, so thanks guys! Without further ado, here is About: Slowly Sipping Coffee.

Why did we start this blog

To be honest, we started it mainly to document what we were going to be doing. It was meant as a way to keep us focused on FIRE, now FFLC, and maybe connect with other people out there doing the same thing. We didn’t come across too many people trying to achieve FIRE with kids when we had been perusing the blogosphere, so we thought we would blog about our journey. It was also initially intended to be a side income deal  once we kick-off our FFLC, but now I don’t know that we will go that route. Who knows what the future may hold though, maybe there will be some ads in the future, and we’ll try to harvest those pennies, but until then, Meh….

What’s the point of SSC

Slowly Sipping Coffee is really our way to keep focused on our goals. I hadn’t been on board with this whole FIRE idea, because the few blogs that Mrs. SSC had sent me to were filled with uber extreme minimalists and ER folks. Everyone has their own idea of what is minimal and what is extravagant, and I didn’t see us being able to do this to our comfort level. When I did get on board with it, this blog seemed to be a good way to stay true to that, and put another FIRE perspective out there.

Won't you join us in our journey? It's less weird than this graffiti I promise!
Won’t you join us in our journey? It’s less weird than this graffiti I promise!

What do we get out of it

I get an outlet to write, and you guys get subjected to my drivel each week, HA! Seriously, though I get a lot out of it. Beyond getting to tap into my creative side by coming up with post ideas, I like getting to think about things, post work life, family life, and everything in between. It helps me to think about how this is all interconnected and how one little thing affects everything else. I mean, I went from reading exactly zero blogs  on personal finance, retirement, investing, and all that to being able to hold my own with a financial planner one-on-one in his office (that’s a whole separate post – maybe even two). I now read numerous blogs each week and like catching up with you guys out there in blog-ville. Seeing other people move their dates up, back, sideways, and reading about all the other motivations you guys have for wanting to FIRE has been great. Thanks to everyone out there that puts out good posts, and remind me each week that we’re actually doing this!

What’s the name all about

The name came up almost as organically as the blog idea did. We were literally sitting there sipping coffee on one of our Friday mornings off, when I said, “We should start a blog!” Once we decided we’d become bloggers, we had to pick a name. We had some interesting choices, most of which I forget now, so see, we chose wisely. Ultimately, we settled on the name Slowly Sipping Coffee, because except for our every other Friday’s off, we don’t get the luxury to sit and slowly sip anything.* With two toddlers running around, the weekends start at ~5-5:30 am and we can’t sit down and relax again until around 7-8 pm when they’re in bed, and actually staying there… We imagined our FIRE life being more of a, “get up, get the kids off to the bus stop, wave goodbye, and then head inside to get some coffee and go sit on the back deck or front porch and enjoy the view before we start our day.” Since we want the freedom and time to get to slowly sip anything, we thought it went hand in hand with what this blog is about. Plus, I’m a BIG coffee drinker, and that’s why it isn’t slowly sipping milkshakes, slowly sipping tea, or slowly sipping bourbon, which is really the only way it should be enjoyed.

What’s in our blog header

Our blog header is a picture the Mrs. took on a family trip out to Tahoe. It’s some beautiful country, and since we want to retire to mountains, we thought it was fitting. At the time, we were still scouring the Rockies for places, so it fit well with that. We may have to update it to some more Appalachian style views when we go visit out there. Until then, here’s one from a past trip.

We are hoping we will have a view like this from our porch!
We are hoping we will have a view like this from our porch!

Who writes our blog

It started off as a joint venture, but I do 98% of the writing now (that’s Mr. SSC). I like writing and except that I can tend to be really long winded even while typing, it comes easier for me than Mrs. SSC. She does make a good editor though, especially in the earlier days when I was still trying to find my voice and tended to blather on and on, and go on “shiny” mid-post tangents that make no sense but seemed to be important at the time, like this sentence. 🙂

Where do we think the blog is headed

I’m not too sure where the blog is headed, but we just hit our 1 year anniversary, so that’s pretty awesome! I like to think that it will be around when things get more interesting and we can be like Living AFI and post our actual FFLC experiences instead of our “working to get to FFLC” experiences.

Random fun facts about us we’ve never shared before

I am a big “Dead” head – enough so that I “burned out” Mrs. SSC on their music, she alleges. At least solo commuting I can crank it up on the way to and from work. That or bluegrass depending on the mood. But really, I like both kinds of music, Country and Western. 😉

Yep, that's my favorite mug to drink coffee from.
Yep, that’s my favorite mug to drink coffee from.

The Mrs. and I met as interns in New Orleans – yep, it’s an oil patch love story.

If money wasn’t an issue I’d be teaching and I wouldn’t be looking for oil. It was fun having an intern this year that knew nothing about petroleum geology or the industry and getting to teach her all of that stuff and see the “light bulb moment” when she got a new concept.

Pre FIRE Mr. SSC was horrible with money. Beyond my credit card and student loan boondoggles, I would buy musical instruments I didn’t know how to play thinking it would be a good idea to learn a new instrument. Ultimately, they would sit there and I would end up not playing them. I still occasionally find myself online thinking, “I’ve always wanted to play the cello….”

 

* – We work a 9-80 schedule where we work 9 hr days 4 days a week, and every other Friday is an 8 hr day. This leads to having every other Friday off, which is pretty dang awesome!

Sunshine Blogger Award!

sunshine-blogger-award-300x300
Our blog was nominated for the Sunshine Blogger award by the bloggers over at Ditching the Daily Grind! Thanks for the nomination guys, I’ve been enjoying reading your blog! It’s nice reading about other families out there on the same path, and how their kids have/have not affected their FIRE goals.  We really appreciate getting nominated for that award! Now, let’s get to the fun stuff!

The Rules:
Thank the person that nominated you
Answer the questions from the person that nominated you
Nominate some other bloggers for this award
Write the same amount of questions for the bloggers you have nominated
Notify the bloggers you have nominated.

The Responses to our set of questions:


When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

These are really different answers from Mrs. SSC and I. Our family dynamics and priorities were pretty different  growing up, as reflected in SO many ways in our lives. This is just one of those instances.

Mrs. SSC: She wanted to be a scientist or professor when she grew up. She’s done pretty well meeting those goals too, between being an actual rocket scientist for a bit, teaching some in grad school, and science-ing it up at her current career in the oil industry.
Mr. SSC: I wanted to be a long haul trucker. Yep, the guys on the road in the big-rigs hauling the 54’ trailers. I thought it would be fun, I’d get to travel a lot, see the country, and have a lot of freedom. Plus, you get to drive the biggest trucks out there! Woohoo! I’m a geologist instead and those dreams are in the rear-view mirror of life, and thankfully not the rear view mirror of my big rig.

What is the coolest/most memorable place you’ve visited

Aaahhh.....
Aaahhh…..

Mrs. SSC: Yosemite National Park. It was breathtaking and also one of the first times I ever went camping and hiking by myself. It was one of the first times I was able to take everything at my own pace, observe nature around me, and just get to be introspective and not have to deal with anyone else’s time table or schedule. It was awesome!


I really took this. It's so beautiful even at night.
I really took this. It’s so beautiful even at night.

Mr. SSC: Le Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, France. It’s an island commune and monastery that is just offshore, like ~600 meters. Besides being stunningly beautiful, an amazing thing is the tidal range of that part of the coast. When the tide goes out, it goes out 15 miles from the shore and drops nearly 40’!! When it comes in again, bam! The monastery is again an island surrounded by water. We got to take a 7 mile hike across the tidal flat at low tide, and it was awesome as a geologist, getting to see all those tidal features first hand. If you’ve never seen it, google it and check out the images, amazing! My picture doesn’t do it justice.


If money was not an issue and you could indulge in one thing, what would it be?

Mrs. SSC: My one thing would be land. I would want to buy an amazing plot of land with great views, mountains, fruit trees and more, and build a small but luxurious house. That and a Disney Cruise for the kids. Our friends say “it’s great!” and “the kids would love it!”, just like a 50’s tv ad, but it just seems SO expensive, so probably that too.

Mr. SSC: I’d go to the moon and spend a few hours bouncing around in my astronaut suit and riding one of those moon buggies around. That just seems like it would be a LOAD of fun, and it was literally the first thing that popped out of my mouth when I read this question. I mean, who could afford that nowadays? Not even NASA right, and you did say money was no issue. That would be my indulgence for sure.

What is the best compliment you’ve ever gotten?

Mrs. SSC: I don’t respond well to compliments, so I avoid them, and can’t think of a best compliment I’ve ever gotten. Sorry…

Mr. SSC: My best compliment was um, well, yeah I don’t know either really. I’ve been scouring my brain, but nothing jumps out. Sorry

What legacy would you like to leave?

Mrs. SSC: I feel that if I can get the kids to grow up and be true to themselves, that would be good for me. I want them to be who they want to be, and not try to be someone that they think they should be because someone else wants them to be that way.

Mr. SSC: My legacy – with visions of being a trucker, I can’t say I’ve thought too much about a legacy that I would like to leave. When I was hiking the Appalachian Trail, I decided that I wanted to do something that would help the environment and not just take, take, take. Ironically, I ended up switching from Environmental Science to Geology and ultimately landed in the oil industry. Since I’ve had kids, I’d like for them to be adults that aren’t self-centered and self-serving and are empathetic to helping those who need it. Like Louis C.K. put it, “You should never look into your neighbors to bowl to see if they have more than you, but rather to see if they have enough.” If I can raise my kids to have that mindset, I’d feel good about that.

What do you prefer: beach or mountains?

Mt. Hood. We need to get back out there soon.
Mt. Hood. We need to get back out there soon.

Both: Mountains for sure! Our relocation spot for our Fully Funded Lifestyle Change has to include a few things and mountains is one of them. We grew up near the Appalachians, so we like the feel of those mountains and are looking forward to being back there. I also love the Rockies, and could be there too, but as long as there are mountains and 4 seasons I’ll take it any day!

Our nominees for the Sunshine Blogger Award are (in no particular order):
Their questions:
        • What did you want to be when you grew up?
        • What is your favorite superhero and why? If you don’t have one, why not?
        • Who is your favorite author?
        • What person has had the biggest influence on your life?
        • What’s your favorite comfort food when it’s a chill night at the house?
Thanks again to Ditching the Daily Grind for the award nomination!

Bad Decisions 4: Budgets are a four letter word

IMG_9803When I was growing up I saw my family go through cycles of budgeting vs not budgeting. My dad saw budgets the way most people see diets, a means to an end, but nothing that is sustainable or pleasant. Essentially, mom would implement a budget, it might get stuck to for a few weeks, maybe even a few months, but inevitably dad would feel too shackled by the constraints of the budget and go back to spending as if he was made of money, which he wasn’t. I never saw budgets as something useful, but rather viewed them as negative and something that meant you weren’t doing it right and needed to be told how to spend your money. I kept that view for way too many years, and didn’t realize how helpful budgets and tracking finances could be.

Clearly, I was wrong about budgets and now I realize that the only thing a budget does is let you see where your money goes, and it helps you divvy it up so that the important things get covered before you spend on excess things like gym, boats, dinner out, etc… You can make your budget as strict or loose as you need. I viewed budgets as a fascist rule over my finances with strict lines I couldn’t cross, or I’d face consequences! Consequences! Therefore, I avoided implementing budgets in the real sense of the word, because who chooses to get ruled by anything? Let’s be honest, I still hate budgets. The word itself brings up negative memories associated with being broke as hell as a little kid, arguments associated with money issues, and the feeling I’m getting punished for something I did wrong financially. It’s no wonder I never had a budget or tried to stick to one.

I’m just fortunate I married someone financially minded, that is way better at money, finance management, saving, and has a hell of a lot more financial discipline than me. Even she implements budgets or tries to. Seriously, whenever Mrs. SSC mentions the word, I recoil and get edgy and defensive. It’s amazing what gets imprinted during our upbringing. Back to budgets. If you’re reading this you have some interest in finance management so let’s get to where I went wrong with mine. Straight out, I’ll tell you I still don’t have one. Never could get one implemented, stick to it, or even had the desire. I had the desire to get out of my situation, but it’s like dieting; I didn’t want to be fat, but I didn’t want to work to be skinny either.

Sooo – here’s was my  “budget strategy” from back in the bachelor days. Money in = ~$800 and money out = $737.50. Clearly this wasn’t sustainable, because I only had ~$30/week to “have fun with”. What a crock! And note there isn’t anything going to savings at all either. And honestly, the check would just get deposited and this was all “deducted” theoretically, not actually set aside in different accounts. Even when it jumped up a few hundred more a check after undergrad, it didn’t matter because my spending habits were to spend more than I made. Plus, I had more than that going out in student loan payments… Gah!

However, even this could have worked with a little mindful spending, but therein lies the flaw in my whole system – tracking spending! How did I track it you ask? I kept a running total in my head, money in vs what was in my account. Yeah, it worked great, that’s why I’m writing about it in the “bad decisions” posts. Remember, I’m not super great with numbers, plus, I have to remember everything and keep a ledger in my head and make sure what was spent was deducted and added up correctly. I have a pseudo-photographic memory so actually, this worked better than you’d think. The main flaw was when I would have “extra money”. My $ in and $ out would be totaled, and even if I accounted for auto-draft bills that were coming due, I’d think, “Yeah good job Mr. SSC, you’ve trimmed costs and done well, and you have some extra coin to spend!! We’re going out!” Inevitably, within a week or so, a bill would hit, something I forgot about and I’d be in the hole.

So, yeah, I never actually sat down and figured out money in/money out and saw the stark reality that I was broke! Always… Constantly… And there should NEVER be extra money, ever. Had I actually just sat down and figured out what bills I had, and then put my pay next to it, and could see how close they were, and maybe I could’ve saved myself a lot of trouble. BUT I never did this. I just “knew” what my rent was, my cell bill, car insurance every 3 months, credit cards were always something, utilities varied depending on season, and gas and groceries were background noise.

This didn’t ever really change until I met Mrs. SSC and saw you could live differently. It still hasn’t changed really, Mrs. SSC just holds me to an allowance that’s brilliant and evil! I’m forced to decide if I want or need something. That’s changed my spending habits more than anything. Being forced to be accountable might suck, but has ultimately been great.

Another positive is that I have seen the positive effects of budgeting and finance tracking. Essentially, without Mrs. SSC, I’d still be in the same boat even with my salary being pretty comfortable. I would have just spent it on a boat, a truck to pull the boat, a sweet semi-restored classic muscle car (dude, I sound pretty country when it comes out like that). Anyway, the point is, I’d just blow it on more expensive crap and not be able to retire in 4 years like we’re planning on. I totally understand how most people are in debt to their eyeballs or making 6 figures and broke as hell. It doesn’t matter whether you make $40k a yr or $140k a yr, if you don’t know how to live within your means, you’ll overspend regardless of your income. Just look at how many pro athletes making millions go bankrupt, actors too, musicians… Bad spending habits just mean you blow more money per purchase not that you have enough money to cover your dumb decisions. I just suck at managing finance. I try really hard, but ultimately I’d fail at managing it well, because I haven’t gotten there yet.

BUT, seeing the spreadsheet and last 6 yrs of finance tracking and our budget, I see the benefit of it. Because of Mrs. SSC doing that and her amazing skills, we can retire in 4-6 yrs. living the same lifestyle we do now. Because of budgets and finance tracking, we even have savings to bridge the gap between now and 60 when we can access our 401k. Our budget includes savings, investments, college for kids, and all those other things most people see as secondary. But shifting them into your budget forces you to save and account for that. Like pre-tax 401k contributions, suck it up and do it if you’re not already. I did it even when I was making $35k/yr. You’ll never notice it, except for when you get older and think to yourself, “Thank goodness I saved that money, I can retire now.”

Or, you can cash it out at some point like I did. I would never recommend cashing out your 401k. Read why I did, and what I did with it, from what I can remember, because yeah,it was that great I don’t even know where it all went except general frittering away….Let me know if and how you track your finances, and stay tuned to the next ” Bad decisions” post: Cashing out my 401k!

 

 

Mrs. SSC:  One tip I have for budgeting, is that I treat our savings as a bill. I set it up to get automatically invested every month, so I have to make sure our budget stays on track. If we need to cut corners on something make ends meet, we are forced to try and trim the grocery bill or other superfluous spending, and not our savings.

Bad Decisions Part 3: Easier credit, harder payments

So, when I left off in “Bad decisions Part 2: Easy credit, hard payments” recall, I had just started using my credit card how the credit card companies wanted me to use it. Racking up debt way beyond what I could pay off each month, and continually adding to it, to inevitably have a lifelong bill and interest payments to “the man”. Remember, they have all the loopholes and technicalities taken care of so a late payment, jump interest to 14%, another late payment, 16%, it rained today? 22%, haha! Okay that didn’t happen, but it sure seems like it could have with the ways the interest rate would keep increasing.  I didn’t really understand that higher interest rate means I’m paying way more for my borrowed money than it’s worth.

 I lived on the edge like that with no savings per se (recall the student loan post) but then, I broke my collarbone mountain biking. At the time, I had decent health coverage through work, but it didn’t cover the unpaid time-off that I had to take to heal. So, while I spent 12 weeks healing, my bills grew higher and higher since I no longer had any income. After that incident, I had a temporary glimpse of how bad the situation was.  I focused and was eventually able to catch up on rent and utility bills, and then I declared in earnest to pay off the credit card.  Well, I didn’t, and I kept using it like it would never have to get paid off. I’d get it close, but then the alternator would go out on the car, or I’d have to fly home for the holidays, or Widespread Panic was in town for a show… I blame myself, but also the company I kept. They lived by the “we can make more tomorrow” philosophy since they were mostly restaurant servers and could pick up extra shifts and have $100-$300 cash in hand at the end of the night. I was in the kitchen, paid hourly every 2 weeks and had no hope of earning extra cash…

What happened next, wasn’t me putting the card away and paying it off. Instead, I got ‘ smart’ and thought I’d go a different route and play the credit card game against them. Remember, I suck at good financial decisions, I can make bad ones all day long.  Anyway, I decided  that I’d get a NEW card and transfer the balance to that card for 0% interest for 12 months, and pay it off that way. I planned to take that extra $100 from interest on the old card that I was now saving, and use it to pay down the principle on the new card. Except, now I had TWO credit cards, and one was empty! I told myself that I would just use the old card a little bit. But next thing I knew, I was in a restaurant ordering microbrews and dinner and realizing, “I don’t have the cash for this, I should go before the tab gets too big.” I was constantly telling myself that this was the last time – tomorrow I would stop spending and pay down the bill…

But, the credit card didn’t get put away, and it became easier to use that card too. Except now, I have two cards, and I’m putting more and more on them. Enter Christmases, birthdays, Opening Day at Coors Field, subsequent ball games, plus music at Red Rocks, Filmore East, The Bluebird, and Boulder Theater! (Have I mentioned how much I love seeing live music?) I love it!  Denver has a great music scene and man did I revel in it. But it costs a lot. The best example of this was when Neil Young came to Red Rocks for a 3 day show. For the first time ever, I wistfully sat to the side and said “I don’t have enough $$ to go. I can’t afford it.” I was in school with some people that went to the first night and it sounded epic, a first set of all electric, then acoustic, then electric (did I mention Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders were there too?) So, come the third night after hearing stories of these epic shows, I decided this is it! I’ve had all I can stand, and I can’t stand no more! I’m going to the show! I marched downstairs after class, went straight to the ATM and it said Checking: $23…. damn…. Savings: $60…. double damn… Well, I get paid Friday (this was Wed) I’m working the rest of the week, what the hell. I emptied my savings and walked out to my car. I stopped at a store to get a sixer for the show, and headed out to Red Rocks. I hit the off-ramp and found many people willing to sell tickets, but I was down to $40. After some haggling I got my ticket for $40! It was an amazing show, one of my top 5 ever, but this was typical of most of most of my financial decisions. Impulse, impulse, impulse, and no thought to future.

Eventually, I set up a system to pay the cards down. I would always write a check towards the cards first thing when I got paid. This worked, but it took $750 off the top of each paycheck just to pay down debt. That’s ridiculous! That’s about  $9000/yr towards paying down debt, so why wasn’t it all paid off in a year? Well, I had a LOT of debt, and instead of “sniper-ing” one card at a time, I was paying $300 to Discover, $300 to Visa, and $150 to Target, yep I even got a Target card…. I mean for 5% off purchases? Yeah, it didn’t pay out for me at all. Plus, by splitting it up over 3 cards, I still spent close to the amount I paid for each card each month through dumb decisions. Maybe one month I’d spend $300 on Discover, then the next month on Visa, the next month on Target. This was not helping me pay down debt.  I at least had been at this a good year or so before I met Mrs. SSC, and when we joined financial forces, I still brought in almost $9,500 of credit card debt to the relationship alone.

Looking back, I realize I could’ve been more efficient with my attempts at paying the credit cards down. By going after the highest interest first, then the next I could’ve save us a year or more of work, but no…Spreading it around and paying a little toward each card just wasn’t effective. However, on the bright side, I was consciously working toward paying them off.

What do you notice that tends to be a recurring negative trend in your finances? What, you’re not tracking them? At ALL?! Whoa, right now, open an excel sheet and type “My money” in the upper cell, and start listing where your money goes each month. It’s that simple. Even starting with large categories like, credit card, mortgage, car payment, insurance, etc… can be eye opening as to where you can cut costs. You’ll probably be as amazed as I was when I actually started “budgeting”. In a few days, I’ll be posting about my relationship with budgets in my Bad Decisions Part 4: Budgets are a four letter word!