Living with Parents to Save Money and Accelerate Financial Independence

I was watching the video below from the Techlead where he explains why he is moving back in with his parents. Most people think that poor losers live with their parents, but this guy is a millionaire, and he seems to be providing very logical reason why you should live with your parents. 

This video reminds me of me. I personally live in my mother basement even though I am in my thirties and earn a six figure salary. I continue to live in my mother's basement because I couldn't justify any reason to move out even though I can afford to move out. I currently own an investment property, and if I moved into this property, I will not be able to collect rent from the tenant, which will cost me more than if I rent. Rent costs about $1700 per month. Spending this much on rent seems like such a waste. My mother even wants me to live with her and I help out with paying the bills. 

I also don't believe that moving out increases independence. Rather, moving out decreases independence because it reduces your wealth. A reduction in wealth reduces financial independence. 

Nevertheless, I will admit that living in your mother's basement is terrible if you want people to respect you. People look down on me and no one wants to date me. Recently I was dumped by a woman, and although she didn't give me a reason for dumping me, I have a bunch that me living in my mother's basement strongly  influenced her decision. 

However, if I move out because I want others to like me or I want to get a date, I feel like this is no different to buying a Ferrari for the exact reasons. My logical brain tells me that moving out in order to gain respect and love is pure consumerism.

So I have a dilemma in that I would like to be loved,  but at the same time I don't want to be a conformist, I don't want to be a victim of consumerism, and I want to be authentic and true to myself and my values. It feel like such a disappointment that the price of love is conformity.

Lasting Happiness Depends on Ignorance of Atrocity

A few years ago, I made the decision to stop watching TV because it was filled with crap. There was nothing on TV other than silly renovation shows and other filthy reality TV shows like Big Brother or X Factor. So I decided to simply watch YouTube instead. I purchased a Chromecast and started streaming YouTube to my TV.

YouTube was addictive. One of the benefits of YouTube is that it learns what you like based on what you have previously watched, and it recommends videos to you based on your interests. I started to become very interested in certain topics, such as investing, veganism, digital nomadism, minimalism, and antinatalism. However, being exposed to and becoming obsessive with all of these non-mainstream ideas has somewhat alienated me from the mainstream. This is something I have realized today.

I have become so angry with the world and with other people. I cannot stop seething with anger over just about everything. When I go out to lunch with my dad and he eats meat, I cannot stop seeing in my mind graphic slaughter of animals. I see pigs having their throats slit and cows being shot in the head, and they fall to the ground flailing. When I am with a group of women who talk about weddings and relationships, I seethe with anger because of how superficial these women are when they are obsessive about what colour of clothing they should wear or how to arrange flowers at a wedding. When I see someone at work feeling superior and putting down his subordinates or when I see someone putting down others because he has some status symbol, e.g. trophy wife, luxury car, or large mansion, I can only think about debt or wage slavery, and I know that status anxiety is the primary fuel of the wage slavery system. I see the dark side of everything and it makes me really angry and also really depressed. I cannot stop thinking about everything that is wrong with everything. There is absolutely no positive thinking with me. I can only think negatively, but that is because I am convinced that I am viewing the world objectively. I am convinced that, in reality, we live in a negative world, and positive thinkers are deluded.

It’s not just YouTube. I admit it’s also other circumstances in my life that affect me such as my parents’ divorce as well as tensions with friends and colleagues at work. I have also experienced painful breakups with girls.

There’s not much I can do. One option is to conform to society. I can try to be normal. I can assimilate. But once you know something, you cannot fool yourself. Ignorance is bliss, but once you know the truth, you cannot forget it. If you drank a yellow liquid thinking it was a delicious soft drink, then all of a sudden you realize it is some guy’s urine, you cannot simply erase that knowledge from your mind and go back to pretending that you are drinking a delicious soft drink. The same applies with all the filth in society. Once you’ve seen the truth, you cannot unsee it.

There is no option then but escape. I need to retire and get out of the country where I can be alone and start a new life. I need to save up enough money to do this. While I am doing this, I need to be an urban hermit. I just go to work, come back home, watch YouTube and Netflix, and then go back to work again. It’s tough working and pretending to be normal when you’re not. It’s hard faking it, but it has to be done. I need to become a millionaire before I drop out of society and go ghost. I just hope I can do it before I turn 40. My goal is to be a millionaire in my thirties. Once I am a millionaire, I will quit and retire. I will start a new life. I am thinking I will buy websites off Empire Flippers and spend the rest of my life managing websites for a living. Even if I fail, it doesn’t matter because I am a millionaire who lives off dividends. I will try something else. Managing websites for a living will allow me to live anywhere, but I am sure there are other things I can do to make money online, and even if it doesn't worki, it doesn't matter because I live off dividends. I can travel to, say, Kuala Lumpur, rent a one-bedroom apartment there, and then spend all my time in co-working spaces there managing my websites, and if I feel lonely I can use the internet to meetup with fellow vegans there. I will be free to be with whomever I want. It will be beautiful. Even if things don’t work out, I can just leave and go to another country, such as Bangkok, and even if things don’t work out, I can just fly back home. The bottom line is I have freedom to do what I want.

Only Passive Income Can Break the Shackles of the 9-to-5

I am trying not to feel any emotion at work. I just need to remember that I am there only to make money. All I need to do is survive. I just need to do what they say. It will only be about five more years and then I think I will retire. My manager doesn’t seem to speak to me much, but this is nothing unusual. He is that sort of person. It doesn’t really bother me that much. If I get no work, I can always find things to do.

I don't want a promotion. It's more effort than it's worth. For the same reason, I won't try to change jobs. Going to interviews and writing up a resume is just too much for me. I will just go to work and avoid trouble. I will move where they move me. I will dedicate the rest of my years in this job trying to risk manage everything. That is, I will imagine every possible way things can go wrong and I will take action to make sure it doesn't happen. That's what everyone else seems to do anyway. There is definitely a risk-averse culture in my workplace.

For about a year now, I’ve been saving up cash because I figure I’d want to buy a house or maybe I’d want to run an online business. However, I’ve found recently that an online business is just hard. I think it’s because I work all full-time and when I’m not working I’m just tired, so it’s difficult. I will keep trying to find a way to make money online, but so far the only thing that has proven itself is investments in ETFs, so this week plowed about $35,000 into ETFs. In particular, I am investing in ETFs that pay very high income. I am going all in on passive income. I see passive income as the only reliable route to freedom, and there is nothing I want more than freedom right now. I have even borrowed money from my margin loan account into order to invest into these ETFs. I am not concerned about borrowing money to invest in ETFs. I figure that I have so much money in my superannuation fund (retirement fund) now that I can afford to carry around debt until I am sixty or whenever I get access to my superannuation. When I do get this superannuation money, it should be over $1 million, which will easily pay the $50k or so worth of margin loan debt I will have.

The bottom line is to keep doing what I’ve always been doing, which is to go to work, to work hard and avoid trouble. I will be thrifty. I have allowed myself to spend my passive income and a little bit of my salary (about 15%), but that is it. It will not be too hard now because I am producing quite a bit of passive income. Over time, as my passive income increases, it will get easier. I really have little to be concerned about. Everything will take care of itself if I follow the system.

If there is anything wrong with me it is that I am too polite, and I will need to be careful I don’t give away my money to others. I must not allow myself to be manipulated. I will need to be strong. I love to talk about investing. It really is my only passion. Of course, talking about money is dangerous.

Anyway, I have a purpose and a system now. I go all in passive income. As time goes by, my passive income rises and my life gets more comfortable. Once it starts getting really comfortable, then after about 2020 I will start to semi-retire, which I suppose will mean I will take longer holidays off from work. I will not be afraid of taking leave with half pay. Maybe by then I will hate my job so much I will just quit. I don’t know. We will see.

Cheap Houses (~$50,000) in South-East Asia

The Christmas and New Years holiday is coming to an end. I had some minor surgery yesterday and so had permission from the doctor to take today off to recover, but tomorrow I will need to go back to work. I am dissatisfied with my job at the moment. I'll try to fix this problem by finding a new job. I haven't been applying for job for about a year, so getting back into it is difficult, but I am motivated by the desire to leave my old life behind and try something new.

Most people think they need $1 million before they can retire. They base it on the assumption that they would need to earn about $50,000 a year to have a reasonable retirement. In order to generate $50,000 per year from an investment that provides 5% per year, you'd need $1 million. But saving $1 million could take decades. Assuming you earn the average $50,000 per year, and then assuming that after deducting taxes and living costs you can save $30,000, then it will take you 33 years to save up $1 million (assuming, for simplicity, your savings produces no interest). In other words, you need to slave away for 33 years! I have gone through only four years of full-time work and I'm ready to throw in the towel!

There needs to be a better way.

One solution is to retire in South-East Asia. A normal two-story house with three bedrooms in an east-coast city in Australia will cost about $500,000. With aggressive saving, this will take about 15 years to pay. With a mortgage that adds interest charges and other fees, it may take longer, say, 20 to 30 years to pay off your mortgage.

However, according to the YouTube video above, a normal two-story house with three bedrooms near Chiang Mai, Thailand costs around $30,000 to $50,000. That is ten times less! Therefore, instead of working 20 to 30 years before you can afford retirement, you can afford retirement after two or three years of aggressive saving!

According to JC, there may be laws in Thailand or other Asian countries that prevent foreigners from owning real estate. Another option may be, instead of using your savings to buy a house, to put it inside a savings account in Australia (or the US or Europe) and then transfer the interest income to Asia to pay for the rent. This will often work because interest income on savings accounts tend to more or less be the same as as rental yields. Renting may be a safer option because, if you live in Chiang Mai for a while and don't like it, renting provides you with flexibility to move away whereas buying real estate normally comes with massive moving costs. If you have equity in your home, you can convert that into an income stream by renting the house out. This rental income stream, in addition to stream of income from interest on savings, can be combined to fund living costs in Chiang Mai.

What this means is that, for me, I could retire right now, even though I am still in my late twenties. For those who don't have any money, all it takes it two or three years of aggressive savings before you can afford to retire in Asia. There is hope.

Why Work?

After submitting my resume for a job at KPMG, I was invited for an interview. However, a few days after the interview, KPMG rejected me, so I am feeling pretty down, especially since I thought I did well during that interview.

I hope I do get a full-time job this year because it is essential for my plan to become a millionaire. If I don't get one I will have to take drastic measures such as working at McDonald's. I am also thinking about working as one of those people who walk around stuffing junk mail into people's letterboxes. My dad laughed when I told him this. He said I didn't go to university for six years to be a burger flipper.

Sometimes I wish I were a burger flipper. I've realized based on calculations that it's not really the pay that matters but the number of hours you do per week. It's the quantity of the labor that matters. Furthermore, the fact that I've been in university for so long means I have wasted so much time. I know of a kid who dropped out of my high school, became a plumber, and now owns two houses and a brand new car. His net worth is probably $200,000 or so. He probably doesn't have the prestige but at least he has the security. I think that is the main problem. I honestly believe my parents pushed me into university so they can tell their friends about me. I get depressed when I think about this.

I work part-time at the moment, which is how I am able to get at least a positive net worth so far. This part-time work however is mere administration, clerical, or data entry work. It pays little and it's a night job. Most people might think I hate this job but I don't think it's that bad. It's pretty easy and the people with whom I work are very friendly. Even though I try to be modest and I always put myself down, everyone at my work knows I have two Bachelors degrees from an elite university and because of that they expect me to get a high-paying job after graduation, so I must admit there is quite a lot of peer pressure for me to perform. Of course, the fact that I work there instead of doing an internship at an investment bank probably suggests to everyone that there is something wrong with me. I know a friend who took a year off from university to work at UBS. After graduation he got a job at Macquarie Bank as an investment banker. His starting salary is $84,000. However, I also know another person who studied civil engineering. During university he worked at Safeway. He managed to get a job after graduation.

At my work, many people ask me about university. They ask, "How's university?" Since I hate university so much now, I try not to talk too much about it. Some students talk about university all the time. I get the feeling that university nowadays just doesn't matter because just about everyone goes to university. If you meet someone below 20, chances are he or she will have a degree.

With all the stress of job hunting getting to me, I decided seek the advice of the Divine Oracle, also known as Google. I asked, "Why Work?" and She replied with the site WhyWork.Org. It's a nice site, and I had a good read. The site encourages people to stop working. I must admit that if I had the choice between working or not working I'd rather not work. I also hate studying. I used to love going to university but now I really hate it. There is a way out. I can work intensely for a year or two and then put all my money into stocks or a savings account and then live off the interest. Some people say this is impossible because I would have to save too much. However, they don't realize how cheap living can be. I am confident I can get rent for a unit in a country town for less than $100 a week. I am confident I can eat for $3 a day. That's $6,295 per year in living expenses. Assume your savings account gives you 5 per cent. Then I need $125,900. I already have $21,000, so I just need to find $104,900. Of course, then there is the problem of inflation, not just the threat of food prices going up but the threat of rent going up as well, so I think I will need a little more than $125,900 to cover the inflation, maybe $150,000. With a normal wage of $20 an hour and working 80 hours a week I'd have to work for about 2 years. It's doable. I'll be able to retire at 26!

Hopefully I'll find a full-time job and hopefully I'll love it because I don't want to have to think about early, early retirement.

If I do retire by 26, I am sure many people would look down upon me. Of course, I will be living in a unit by myself in a country town, so I will be isolated from everyone and therefore nobody will even be able to see me. If they can't see me how can they look down upon me? Some people might call me lazy, but I don't really see what is wrong or evil about laziness. We all try to economize. We don't walk but drive to work. We buy food from the supermarket instead of growing our own food (most of us, at least). What's wrong with laziness? Why do more work than necessary?

Shop From Home for Food

I have found a site called Homeshop that allows you to have goods from Safeway delivered to your door. You have to pay extra for the delivery, but it may be worth it. When I retire I plan to spend most of my time indoors watching movies or reading books. I have a large list of movies and books that I would like to read in my life but because I have to work and study while I'm young I don't get an opportunity to watch these movies or read these books. So I postpone it to my retirement. One of the things I budgeted for during retirement was a car because I need to go to the shops to buy food, which I need if I don't want to starve to death. However, with Homeshop I will be able to sell my car, thereby saving me registration costs, insurance costs, and car depreciation costs. The total cost of the car I suspect will be much more than the Homeshop delivery costs. The exercise will be very cost-efficient if I order plenty of goods at once. I don't know whether Safeway will allow me to order tonnes of food at once. Obviously stockpiling on foods that quickly perish like most milk will be a bad idea. I will then have to bias my food towards long-lasting food such as tinned food. I will also have to balance the price of the food with how healthy it will be because health is important. Because I don't plan on having an extravagant retirement, there really is no need for me to save much. I suspect $100,000 to $200,000 will be enough to fund this retirement. Costs can change because of price inflation, so I'll keep an eye on that.

Ever since I've started measuring it, my net worth has been steadily increasing. I work part-time at the moment, so I don't earn much. Since this year is my last year of university I am looking for a full-time job. If I get this full-time job my savings rate should be much higher, which means my net worth will skyrocket. The difficult question is when I should retire. How much money is enough to retire? Some people suggest I should stop at $1,000,000, which would give me a very comfortable and luxurious lifestyle. However, $300,000 will give me a modest comfortable lifestyle, and I will be able to retire much earlier. I haven't made up my mind about when I should retire. The most important factor that will determine the time when I retire will be how much I enjoy working. Right now I don't mind doing my part-time job. It's not too stressful, and the people at my work are very kind, so working there is almost like hanging out with close friends. However, some professions are rumored to be highly stressful, such as investment banking. Once I have enough to retire, instead of retiring what I could do instead is simply change jobs and move into a job I might enjoy very much (perhaps teaching). When I was young, teachers tell me to do what I love, but that is not helpful because what I love to do is read. Unless I am a book reviewer, chances are I won't be able to produce an income from what I love so that I can feed myself. Other hobbies are even less profitable. If a teacher tells a student to do what he loves and if the student loves to do nothing (e.g. sleep all day and watch TV), then would the teacher still stick with the do-what-you-love recommendation? I believe it is important for an individual to do something highly profitable that is not too difficult or stressful and once his net worth is high enough to sustain a comfortable life he should then start doing what he loves.