I started the Late Starter to FI Series to highlight those of us who began our FI(RE) journeys later than the ‘traditional’ FIREes; specifically those who started in our 40s, 50s and 60s.
And if you know my back story, you already know that I started this blog because I didn’t find many late starters when I first discovered FIRE at 47. There were many in their 40s but they had either retired for many years or about to retire. No one was just starting out.
So I am eternally grateful to the 34 Late Starters who have so generously shared their stories. This proves that there are late starters out there. And the more we read each other’s stories, the less alone we feel; the more achievable our goals are when we see others like us accomplishing them.
We are a community and I want to also share our progress. Because being on the path to FI is not a get rich quick scheme 🙂 It really is like a journey – with setbacks, roadblocks and detours along the way. And we want to celebrate any wins along the way too, of course!
The first progress update was published last year.
This year, we’ll divide the progress update into several parts. We’ll feature 3 Late Starters in Part 1 – here are their original stories:
Late Starter to FI #6 – Fire For One
Late Starter to FI #21 – Vinnie
Late Starter to FI #27 – Pursuing Slow FI as a Late Starter
Do you have a Late Starter story to share? Please connect with me via email (info@latestarterfire.com), Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
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Inflation
Inflation hasn’t really affected my strategy, at least not yet. But who knows what will happen?
I do have some concerns about the rising cost of electricity, although a change of provider last year has actually reduced my bills from what they were.
But I do think it might be time to investigate solar options. I’d also like to get rid of my gas hot water and oven – it seems a bit pointless to be paying supply charges for both gas and electricity.
Any strategy changes?
Last year I changed my investment mix in my superannuation (retirement account) from the default settings to an all-equities mix. I just checked my super balance last night to discover it’s dropped by about $15000!
Thanks so much, Vladimir Putin, for your invasion of Ukraine and consequent market upheaval. Luckily I have at least 8 or more years until retirement, so I’m sitting tight for the moment on that.
It’s slightly uncomfortable to see the that drop though, and if I was just about to or had already retired, it would probably bother me more. But all the wonderful blogs I read that show clearly that the market recovers mean that I can watch this development without freaking out.
I suppose the other change I’ve made is that I was originally planning to pay out my home loan as soon as possible. But now that it’s fully offset, I’ve decided to just relax about that and start investing instead.
What can we celebrate?
I have been able to start investing in ETFs finally, now that the mortgage is fully offset.
On the path to Financial Independence ...
I’m still on the path to FI, although admittedly over this current financial year, I’ve been a bit slacker on the savings side and have loosened the purse strings a bit. I probably should rein it in a bit!
I think I got a bit bored and also, because I haven’t had a specific financial challenge for this year it’s also reduced my focus a lot. I do have some repairs that need doing around the house, so I’m focusing a bit more on saving up to have these done.
I’m still working. At this point, I have no idea what I will do in retirement but I’m sure there will be a lot of reading involved.
Any strategy changes?
I have the same strategy ie keep saving as much as possible and continuing to live frugally.
Stock market and housing prices have slumped in New Zealand. I put money in but I’m losing more than I’m putting in. Quite depressing. Having approximate $170-$180k of investments overall (including super) and here’s what has happened per calendar year (investment gains / losses):
Year 2019 $7991.13
Year 2020 $15236.32
Year 2021 $12603.29
Year 2022 -$15053.39
I started investing on April 30th 2018 but didn’t keep the stats at that point.
Side hustles
I started a YouTube channel ProjectFrugal on 28/12/20 – 427 subscribers so far with 110+ videos – hard work for no reward!
Also started a blog – Project Frugal a couple of weeks ago to attempt to drive some traffic to the YouTube channel which I’m hoping will eventually get monetised. But early days on that …
What can we celebrate?
Something we could celebrate is that I achieved a net worth of $1M NZD a few months ago. Then it dipped below $1M and is slightly above it again. It includes house value etc – it was a good milestone though.
On the path to Financial Independence ...
I’m still pursuing FIRE, charging ahead as much as possible and still knuckling down despite what’s happening in the market(s).
We were also looking to move to Portugal to hopefully become missionaries or semi retire but due to the recent downturns etc, we have put that on hold until the market recovers. Could be 1 to 3 years away yet.
Inflation
To be honest, inflation has not impacted my strategy much. Though I am really surprised by how quickly prices of goods have ballooned. For example, flour used to be RM1 per kg and now it’s RM3! That’s quite an increase! Also, recently the ringgit slid down against the US dollar, so this adds fuel to the fire.
I live a frugal lifestyle – I cook most of my food, bake my own bread and even grow my own leafy greens. I barely take overseas holidays (even local ones lol) and hardly drive (in 2021 I drove a grand total of 3000km), and my hobbies are simple and low cost – reading and gardening. Most importantly, I have no debt to service. So, I’ve not really felt the pinch of inflation nor has my lifestyle been impacted much.
So I’m currently just maintaining the same budget, though I expect my investing dollars to shrink thanks to the weak ringgit. Sniff.
Any strategy changes?
I spent most of Nov 2021 – April 2022 learning about investing. Before, my investing strategy was basically “throwing money at an investment asset and hoping for the best”. Then, frustrated that I kept hitting walls or unexpected pitfalls, I deep dived into every book and YouTube channel I could find on investing. I realised that my foundation was weak, so I was not able to evaluate which investment vehicle was right for me.
Sifting out the weeds was a challenge, however. There’s so much content out there that is written with an angle or ulterior motive, that it’s difficult to decipher what is “truth”. For example, in the Malaysian financial sphere, cryptocurrencies and roboadvisors are heavily promoted. I vaguely realise that there’s more than meets the eye and I don’t have the whole picture nor am I sure if they were right for me.
So I read books like Investing 101, A Random Walk Down Wall Street, The Elements of Investing, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing to finally understand what sound investing principles are about. Then, and only then, could I define my financial goals, investing style and even design my portfolio. I realised I should have done this before investing my money. Still, better late than never!
My current strategy: Besides contributing extra to my retirement accounts (called EPF in Malaysia), I’m also investing abut 30% of my salary each month into total stock market funds using the Boglehead method. As a Boglehead, I believe in low cost, widely diversified index funds. I also favour a passive investing strategy where I stick to a portfolio of 70% equities and 25% bonds (or bond-like instruments) and 5% REITs + stocks. No timing the market for me, though I do buy a selection of stocks and REITs on the side with “fun money”.
I’m currently busy rebalancing my very messy legacy investing portfolio to the new strategy. Untangling my legacy investments is probably going to take me the entire year or more. The process is painful but I’m glad I’m doing it now rather than at 65!
Any epiphanies?
Received a big a-ha moment a few months ago that made me realise that I really should stop being so hard on myself in terms of managing my finances. Gaining clarity about why I did what I did was healing, and I realise I’m doing quite well despite the mistakes I made in the past. And although I don’t know what the future has in store for me, I’m confident I can survive and figure out things in the future.
Side hustles
Currently, I have no side hustle, though my blog seems to be attracting attention from surprising places. I think it’ll benefit my career in the long run to be seen as someone who can write about financial topics!
Still, I’m currently hustling, writing numerous personal finance essays for the blog – for free, lol. My journey learning about investing has fuelled my desire to write something that can help people like me to make informed decisions about their finances.
As I said, there’s so much noise out there, and it was super hard for me to educate myself because a lot of content (at least in the Malaysian finance world) has an agenda. It frustrated me how tough it was to get the whole, unbiased picture of sound investing. A lot of times I feel like I’m pushed financial products without a solid reason WHY I should take it up in the first place.
Before this development, my website was just a place to record my financial journey, but now I feel more galvanised to write content that will help people. Wish me luck!
What can we celebrate?
I’ve gotten over my fear of investing!! That’s such a big deal for me. The last time you spoke to me, I was largely paralysed by indecision and confusion. Now I feel like I’m heading somewhere.
On the way to Financial Independence ...
I’m definitely still in pursuit of FI. I’m still aiming to retire at 55, which is the old retirement age in Malaysia. (It’s 60 now) I’m more confident, judging from my calculations, that I am on track.
Before, because investing felt like such a weird, complex subject, I felt like I was flailing in the dark and that retiring at 55 is a big “maybe, hopefully”. Now I am more confident of my strategy.
Technically, I’m Coast FIRE but I’d like to add more wood to the FIRE plan for now.
And I also hope to gain clarity on when I can stop worrying that I’m REALLY safe to Coast FIRE.
Back to Latestarterfire
Thank you Fire For One, Vinnie and Elizabeth for sharing your progress updates. It’s so exciting to read that you’ve all had wins in the last year from paying off your mortgage, getting to $1 million net worth to conquering the fear of investing.
I love that all our strategies are evolving and we’re all still on the path to Financial Independence even though the markets are volatile and inflation is affecting our cost of living.
It’s going to be an interesting year ahead! Looking forward to next year’s progress updates already, haha 🙂
Thank you for sharing my story here. So inspiring to see other latestarters on this journey. Vinnie, congrats on the 1mil net worth!! Woohoo! I’m putting your blog and Youtube on my Feedly so I’ll be visiting.
Fire For One, it’s a struggle to see your investment portfolios shrink, that’s for sure! I’m 10 years away from my retirement, and I’ve just started investing properly and hah, I have to do it the hard way by learning how to do this in very volatile markets. Great education, however!