No shit here I am

Where to start; My life is currently full of ‘F’ words. I’m in my Forties feeling Fat Fed up and Frustrated with everything around me. I’m all for alliteration, but I feel it’s time for me to change.

So why am I here typing this for the whole world to see? I figure this is a way to hold myself accountable for my actions moving forward. Here I am 41 years old and still trying to learn how to be an adult. I have made a lot of stupid mistakes in my life, and they have set me back from where I would have hoped to be at this point in my life. Before I go any further please read this disclaimer:

I am not writing this to get rich or tell anyone what they should do. I’m not a financial advisor, I’m not trying to sell a product or get rich quick scheme. I am just trying to figure out my own life and recording where I am going from here. For me, this is the ground floor there.

Who am I writing this for? You. If there is any humor, ideas, or nuggets of wisdom you can find from my ramblings then I have at least succeeded in some small way. I am not an English major, nor a world-renowned author, so if my grammar is atrocious you will just have to deal with it.

That all being said let us get started. Hello, I’m Jason and I am addicted to studying the FIRE movement. I am still in my infancy of this and paying off my debt. I feel 1000 years behind, and I just can’t wait to get another taste of that sweet sweet ROI. For any of you not familiar with the term FIRE it stands for Financial Independence Retire Early. In further posts, I am sure I will share a plethora of references from people much more versed in the FIRE community.

As I said before I have made stupid mistakes, that is what landed me here in North Minneapolis. These mistakes had helped me accumulate about $50,000 dollars of debt, mostly credit cards and other miscellaneous high-interest debt. I felt there was no escaping it living paycheck to paycheck. I was 36 and living with my brother at the time when I decided I should join the adult work. So I decided I would buy a house. (Wait! What?) Yes, let’s go ahead and add to the debt with a mortgage. Don’t worry though I had a plan. I really did. It was simple to buy a house near the city closer to my job, that wasn’t out of my price range. This being just after the housing crisis definitely helped. Next step aggressively pay-down my debt for the next 5 years. (I will go into my strategy to pay down debt in a future post) Surprisingly my plan was quite successful.

Well with my plan I discussed earlier, I have changed my lifestyle. I have become more frugal, most people would say I have been a hermit. Compared to my life before this, I would agree. I don’t go out as much and spend frivolously to try to entertain myself. Although it has been worth it. With me paying off my debt, it feels as if I have been living like in poverty, still living paycheck to paycheck. The difference is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. So what does this have to do with FIRE? In 2018 my brother came to me and said, “Hey have you ever heard of FIRE?” I told him I haven’t. He said “I think you should listen to this podcast I heard, you probably would like it. You are sort of already doing this.”

The podcast was “#47 – Travis Shakespeare – Playing with FIRE” from the Mad Fientist podcast. (Which I recommend subscribing and listening to all of his content) After listening to this, I started to listen to other podcasts. I was hooked. My brother was right I was living the frugal lifestyle, but not by choice. The only thing I was missing from this lifestyle was saving and investing. These podcasts did show me that, hey even with the mistakes I have made, I can put myself back on track and still be a proper adult.

So for now, 2019 will be a great year, my debt will be paid off this year. I’m excited to invest in my future. I will continue to live frugally now not because I have to, but because I want to. I want to follow the flames of the people who have already set fires in front of me. I know I am late to the fire, but at least I showed up.

3 thoughts on “No shit here I am”

  1. Good luck, can’t wait to hear your climb from ground floor no debt to savings for your freedom.

Comments are closed.