Retire by 35

Been a long while since I’ve posted anything here. A lot of stuff going on in both personal life and work. It’s crazy how some people can work 70-80 hrs per week… I’m already dying here just working 130 hr per biweekly pay period. It’s only been 3.5 months… I would definitely not be able to handle this full time with no weekends going on end. The days just kinda start bleeding together after a while and it wears you out both mentally and physically… I swear one of my co-workers is already starting to go off the deep end… I’m currently trying to avoid hanging around her cause misery loves company. Good thing that chatting and keeping up with friends and family help keep me sane. And also sleeping early so I can catch at least 7 hours a night is essential too! I can’t wait to head back to LA and take a few days off to recharge and relax.

Our location’s supervisor is changing like a carousel ride, we are already on our third one within a few months. They’re dropping like flies out here! But I’m not too surprised, being a supervisor in our agency is a thankless, stressful job. Don’t know why anyone would apply when the increase in pay isn’t that great. Also, in my own personal life I’ve screwed up and made mistakes, but life has to go on, there is no rewind or pause button. So I just gotta live with it and move on the best I can while at the same time, hoping for the best in the future.

In the meantime, I’ve been saving quite a bit of money and divesting it to various sources such as my Roth IRA, 401(k), more RMB, gold ETF, and them good ‘ol savings and checking accounts. However, I’m not making as much as I hoped to… so far the powers that be have changed our post differential (basically the increase in pay we get for coming to this godforsaken land) from the initial 20% to a paltry 10%!!! Had I known that they would have decreased it so much, I probably wouldn’t have come here. But nothing I can do now, I need to finish my TDY or get a black mark on my file. Anyways… at least this TDY should help me when I put in for a transfer.

So without further adieu, here is my asset listing so far, as of beginning of May 2010:

Assets:

• Checking & Savings Accounts – 10,600
• Internet Savings Account – 16,200
• Foreign Currencies – 6,600
• Stock Market – 13,700
• Roth IRA – 13,600
• 401k (current employee) – 35,300
• 401k (previous employee) – 17,000
• Property #1 – 500,000
• Property #2 – 490,000
• Property #3 – 147,000 (43,600 equity)

Total Assets: 1,250,000

Liabilities:

• Student Loans – 26,700
• Property #1 Mortgage – 135,000
• Property #2 Mortgage – 20,700
• Property #3 Mortgage – 103,400

Total Liabilities: 285,800

Net Worth: +964,200 (increase by 51,500 since last status update on 11/23/2009)

Just for fun and to compare apples to apples, let’s exclude Property #1 and Property #2 from the calculations then we get:

• Total Assets: 260,000
• Total Liabilities: 130,100
• Net Worth: +129,900 (increase by 37,200 since last status update on 11/23/2009)

Overall, either way you slice and dice it, the increase in net worth has been pretty good for just a five month period. I’m relatively pleased with the the current progress of asset accumulation.

Spent mostly on necessities this week:

• $35 – Internet Access for Month
• $30 – PX store (beef jerky and face lotion)

Total: $65

Not in the sense that I no longer want to save and instead want to go out and spend lots and lots of green. Instead it’s more that I am no longer interested in reading about finance and spending hours refining my budgeting/investing style.

Weird.

I think it is because I feel more isolated in Kuwait and I really don’t need to spend money here. No large weekend spending sprees. No unplanned emergency costs. I don’t even need to spend money at all if I didn’t go off base (or care about my looks I suppose). Everything from housing to food is covered. Guess when you take money out of the daily equation, it just loses significance.

I’ll admit that previously money encompassed a lot of my time, from reading about world business news to various personal finance blogs. But now it’s just kinda “eh” for me. Instead I am more focused on eating healthy and working out. I want to get in shape before I head back to Los Angeles.

It is an odd sensation, especially since money was such a focus for me before I landed in Kuwait. In a way it is kind of nice…feels like there is less stress. I wonder if this is how most people feel. Downside is I’m not motivated to post on anything else other than my weekly expenses and update my personal balance sheet/income statement.

Bad bad bad spending this week. Went out to eat in Kuwait City both times this week and regretted both times. Food was mediocre but the prices are sky high. I am going to stick to eating in the DFAC from now on (our FREE cafeteria). And if I need to eat outside due to work then I’ll just hit up the nearest Burger King or McDonalds.

• $30 – Sheraton’s Terrace Cafe (for some stupid chicken kabobs – 8.5 KD)
• $31.5 – The Butcher Shop (for a large beef kabob with rump, sirloin, fillet cuts… this was better than Sheraton’s atleast – 9 KD)
• $37 – Haircut and Eyebrow threading (including tax/tip)

Total: $98.50

Lower expenses this week… more than last two weeks.

• $7 – Eyebrow threading (including tip/tax)
• $12 – Alterations to three cargo pants - too long (including tip/tax)
• $12 – Coworker’s goingaway party contribution
• $3 – Skype monthly cost

Total: $34

I plan on spending money next week for a haircut and eyebrows (again). Maybe new headphones too because my iPod ones are falling apart (the rubber things are peeling off).

Lower expenses this week (compared to last week).

• $103 – Bae’s Bday fruit basket
• $2 – KFC small popcorn chicken

Total: $105

Large expense this week due to computer malfunctioning.

• $600 – Toshiba Satellite Model#L505D-S5992 (!!)
• $4 – two boxes of Kleenex tissues
• $4 – Portion for group Kuwaiti dinner

Total: $608

Didn’t spend much money on anything else. Now I just need to maintain this level of spending (ex-Laptop) and I would breakeven on my normal spending level in three more weeks.

It’s only been a few days and I have already started getting a good idea on the type of expenses I will accrue during TDY.

There are some biggies and small ones that will be free. They include:

• Lodging – Pretty nice one bedroom type hotel room with full-sized bed, tall cabinet, desk & chair, television w/ cable, three 4-drawer plastic dressers, rugs, mirror, sink, and air conditioner/heater. I have a bathroom that I share with one housing mate.
• Meals – Buffet style food basically throughout the day and at three different locations. Food is damn good compared to home. There is the classic meat and potatoes (sometimes steak and lobster), salad bar (sometimes avocados), soda/juice bar, milkshake bar, cereal post, ice cream section, other desserts section, fruits section (peaches, apples, oranges, etc…). Not only this, we get another $3.50 per diem everyday if we want to get something else to eat. Not a lot but an extra ~$100/month is nice.
• Utilities – Water and electricity at work and at my lodging. No gas since we don’t cook here.
• Transportation/Fuel – Get a leased car that can be gassed up at any free gas station.
• Laundry – Can drop it off with a TCN (third country national) and they will wash and iron for you! Just pick it up two days later. I was amazed by this service.

And there will be some expenses that I accrue:

• Calling Card – So I can call home when I am not available to Skype.
• Skype – So I can call home when I am not at work.
• Internet – Around $35 a month in order to get service in my lodging area.
• Personal Laptop – Sucks that the one I shipped broke down the second day I got here.
• Name Brand Food Stands – I’ll eventually get semi-sick of the meals they provide and get homesick for food back home. In that respect, I might spend some money on the Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Carl’s Jr., etc… stands they have sprinkled throughout the area I am staying.
• Misc. Junk and Useful Stuff – Though I try to save money I will more than likely spend some money on things that range from useful stuff (shampoo, power converter, tissue boxes) to misc. junk I might not even send home (mink rugs, iffy jewelry, shiny new things).

So far it looks pretty good. This TDY seems to agree with my checkbook. And making loads of money from overtime doesn’t hurt either.

Bad news. I’ve only been in Kuwait for a few days and the laptop I borrowed from my mom to use on this Kuwait TDY has already gone kapult on me. I ran some diagnostic tests and from what I can gather, the hard drive died. Unfortunately, any kind of hard drive replacement would take 30 to 45 days to ship because I am in Kuwait and they need to go through military mail handling procedures.

I know that I will go stir-crazy if I don’t have access to the Internet or can’t use my computer to play videos/music while I am here. Think about it — work 10+ hour days for thirteen days straight (just one day off every pay period) and when I come back to my lodgings I can’t even unwind on my computer??!! No. No way. I need to have a computer. And besides, I already spent $35 to buy one month of Internet service.

Thus, I started looking online to see if I could buy a replacement computer. Unfortunately, even websites such as Dell, Walmart, etc… state that shipment to APO locations would also take up to 30 to 45 days. Hence, my last recourse was to buy a laptop here at one of our onsite APO stores (basically like a very tiny itty bitty Walmart). So I went and browsed through the selection of laptops they sell (very limited quantity). Fortunately, their prices are comparable to online prices and the big plus is no sales tax!

I chose one of the cheapest laptops they had (I stayed away from the netbooks cause a ten inch screen is too small for me to watch movies on for the next six months) and got a Toshiba Satellite Model#L505D-S5992 for $600. Sucks to spend $600 all at once but it is a necessary expense to keep myself sane here. I’ll try to limit my spending for the next four weeks in order to minimize the impact of my spending in this week.

Arrived in Kuwait on January 16! Exciting week!

• $43 – Skype (unlimited calling to/from USA for 1 month; $10 credit; assigned phone number for 1 year)
• $37 – Groome Shuttle to Fort Benning (reimburseable from company)
• $16 – PX on Fort Benning, GA (Halls cough drops, cold medicine, Master Padlock, Vick’s VapoRub, tissue paper)
• $4 – PX (more Halls cough drops and tissue paper)
• $6 – Roach Coach (pizza and a bottle of water)
• $4 – Roach Coach (burrito)
• $11 – PX (ID card holder and more cold medicine)
• $3 – PX (more Halls cough drops and tissue paper)
• $2 – Starbucks (cheese croissant)
• $35 – Internet Access for one month

Total: $161 (but $37 is reimburseable so the money I spent personally is $124)

I did spend quite a bit of money this week mainly due to the Skype and internet access charges. However, on the upside I didn’t really spend money elsewhere because I was mostly eating @ the free cafeteria and staying at the free living quarters. Looking at this I can safely say I probably popped more than 100 Halls cough drops within one week. Might have been high on menthol for half the time I was at Fort Benning.