Millionaire Librarian

I watched a great TED talk by Scott Galloway and something he said was eye opening. I am paraphrasing but he said the bailouts of the great financial crisis and during Covid was a transfer of wealth from the young to the old. His point was that only the old had assets and the stock market was being artificially propped up.

Stock prices falling, businesses going under, and recessions help pass wealth from those with assets to those willing to sweat. Young entrepreneurs cannot afford propped up prices. They need broken assets to rebuild and repair into something better.

The move and job didn’t turn out as expected. It is a shame and has been demoralizing and tragic. My mental health has suffered greatly. Its a shame being the primary bread winner, moving your family, and it not working out. However, there is a silver lining in that we have money working in the background if I do need to take some time off. My wife can also focus on her career because in Altus there wasn’t that possibility.

I find myself watching one of my favorite authors and financial thinkers, JL Collins. JL talks about several times he has had to take time away from work, but he had the freedom to do that because he lived cheaply and saved money when it was coming in.

Potentially leaving a career I have been in for nearly 11 years is scarey. Not being fully financially independent at the same time is scarey as well. I’m happy I have saved what I have. I think about the comfort of money not spent sitting in an account being much better than the comfort of spending money.

I found the above graphic in the wild and thought it was a fairly good prioritization of money priorites.

However, I would base the debt on interest rates but most people probably don’t know what their interest rates are on their debt. I really like the FOO by the Money Guys. However, they have caveats on it based on your risk tolerance, risk capacity, and how old you are. Personal finance is personal and nuanced.

There are competing priorities which can be based on a number of factors and winning with money doesn’t mean dieing with the most. I would argue at a certain point you should make less optimal money choices if it removes risk from the table. For example, if you have enough money to glide into a more than comfortable retirement then I would start paying off low interest debt like a mortgage so you never have to worry about not having a home.

I listened to a podcast with the author of “Die with Nothing.” He makes a similar argument and reminds the listener that at an earlier age than you think there will be a last time you can accomplish some tasks like skiiing, wakeboarding, flying, or traveling by living in hostels. Do those when you can so you have those memories in your old age and not regrets.

We were ready for major upheaval of our life. We were welcoming of it. However, my hiring agency has dragged their feet in providing me a firm offer. This could lead to losing our contract on our house and if this happens then we are back to the beginning. We do have an offer from the Army. There is a high probability we will be moving somewhere in the next few months.

However, the waiting game feels excruciating at times. Their lack of expendientcy makes you question your importance to their organization. WIll they treat me well when they refuse to onboard me well?

There is little sugguestion in this post but only the belief that little is guaranteed.

A few weeks ago I received a tentative offer for a VA position as a librarian. I accepted. The position is a promotion, in the heart of Appalachia, and non-supervisory. Each of those things are important but interpersonnel relations in my current organization have reached a boil and its time for me to go elsewhere. I told my Flight Chief that despite the issues I am proud I was able to keep everyone working together as long as I did. Hopefully new blood in my position will be what the organization needs.

Focusing on the future. We will be closer to home in GA. The area in WV looks gorgeous. The capital of Morgantown will be about an hour away. As Lauren mentioned we are currently not just rural but isolated and remote. The first weekend we are there we just bought tickets to a local festival and will be seeing, appropriately, Tyler Childers. I feel like I am reconnecting with the strongest modern voice representing my Appalachian ancestors.

A couple of weeks ago after viewing several poor quality houses we are under contract for a new house. As I have mentioned a few times already; we are fortunate to not have to have our purchase contingent on the current sale of our Oklahoma home.

A small town to the north, Fayette, looks like a great area to get some good food and talk to interesting people. Lewiston or something similar looks like a great resort town to the east. Our little neighborhood looks like a safe neighborhood and is conveniantly located near the VA hospital. I purchased a commuting bicycle with goals of commuting normally to work.

One area deserving attention is that Lauren does not currently have a job there. However, she has put in a dozen plus applications and has an interview with Kanawha Public Library which looks about 50 minutes away. They are flying her out which is a good sign she is near the top of their list.

Overall, we had 4 great opportunities for positions in the last few months. Aviano, Mildenhall, Fort Leonard Wood, and Beckley VA. We created a numerical assessment of each opportunity and Beckley came in first. Though exciting, the overseas positions would have been beyond stressful with the three dogs for both us and them.

Career wise since I have really increased my applications for quarterly awards almost a year ago I have won two Airmen of the Quarter Award and an Airman of the Year Award. Maj Lockett has been a huge supporter of me and I appreciate her.

However this is primarily a finance related blog but it may be more leaning towards a journal due to Tal’s recommendation. Our future finances will be tighter and the current projection is to pay off the mortgage faster due to an above 6% interest rate. 6% has historically been a high guaranteed rate of return and since debts work similar to investments then it makes sense to focus on a guaranteed high return. However houses are a leveraged asset and when paying them off you are deleveraging risk and adding principle. We could also refinance in the future. Investing in the higher paying stock market would probably have us ending in a higher net worth. Do we want to deleverage and remove risk from the equation or invest in stocks for the probably higher return? Fortunately we have a large snowball of assets rolling in the background to keep us on track for retirement and I believe in this new area we can expand out some lifestyle in more life enhancing ways.

Altus has been great for building assets for our family. The market has taken a couple of notable tumbles since 2020. Due to federal employment, I was consistently able to throw money into the market without fear of losing my position and we bought a share of these companies at discount prices . This is a true strength of federal employment. A previous coworker, Hwal Yi, was a great example of how low paying stable employment can be more important than high paying but unstable employment.

At the time of writing this I have an interview scheduled for a federal position in a culture rich and historical location in Europe. One of the primary reasons I decided to pursue federal employment was for the opportunity to live in Europe and have that experience. That was over 10 years ago.

The position I am being considered for is at a lower grade. I should be able to retain my current pay for a couple of years through a progam colloquially called save pay and then possibly apply for the director position when that is vacated. However all of this isn’t guaranteed, but I think it is likely.

I’ve been told that spouse positions at the location are somewhat rare. My wife is leaning towards not seeking employment and watching our daughter while we are there. All of these complexities mean that our income might dip temporarily or stay depressed for years. I am not worried.

I think if I am offered the position then this is too big of an oppurtunity to miss despite it not being financially optimal. We are coast fire. If we never add another dime to our retirement accounts and work until full retirement age then we will have more than enough. If we draw down on our non-retirement accounts to travel more then we will still be fine.

By pursuing financial independence I gave myself more options. By prioritizing finances early I can pay less attention to them now.

Update: I had my interview today. I think it went well and for better or worse I provided insight to my own stream of thought. I expounded on my professional military librarian philosophy, and gratefulness for the security that the military provides us. I have pride that we are at a point where I am able to choose lifestyle optimization over financial optimization regarding our family. I think we will find ourselves in Europe within the year.

Spend less than you make and invest the remainder. Simple but hard. It sounds easy but its not. It takes getting a lot of things right to get this one thing right.

You need to understand the power of investing. Without a good reason to artificially limit your lifestyle then you won’t. Without study and a lot of reflection on money and investing you will not see the need. Without tinkering with an investment calculator and seeing the power of investing then lifestyle inflation will eat any remainder until you get used to that.

You will need a philosophy of frugality, You need some philosophy and a mindset to not get wrapped up in consumerism. You need the knowledge that your freedom and financial independence is what you are purchasing by not purchasing other stuff. You need to be able to see others who make less than you living seemingly better than you. You will need to derive happiness from non-material things. This all takes philosophy.

It helps to have a strong locus of control and flexibiity. You have to be able to steer your life. If something is terrible then you have to make changes to change it. Move if you need to move. Change employers if you need to change employers. Get more education if you need it. Embrace change. If you act like a victim then the world will take advantage of your refusal to change.

You need to figure out these things early. If you wait too long, then you will miss the oppurtunity. Investing doubles money. Saving a little early beats saving a lot more later. Every 7.2 years your money will double if making the market return of 10%. This means you would have to invest twice as much 7 years later to get as far today.

A less important concept to understand than the above is understanding how to optimize your tax efficiency. The simplest way to optimize is to use retirement vehicles. One of the simplest and best is the Roth IRA. Exercise the muscle of investing. You don’t need to know everything about investing or a Roth IRA to do it. Make sure you are below the income requirements and you contribute less than the max. Once the money is in the Roth IRA then invest it in something simple like the S&P 500 or a total market fund. At the beginning always take advantage of tax benefited retirement accounts like your 401k or Roth IRA. Work the muscle until it strengthens and you begin enjoying making money with your money.

I like to brief young military on finances and the part I try to overstate is how important it is getting started. Young people are abundant in time and less abundant in income and financial knowledge. I try to help in increasing their financial knowledge and though they have little income it may be a time when they have the highest disposable income due to no children, a small rent, and a small car payment.

Over and over when playin with financial calculators you realize how important starting earlier and more definitively how those early dollars are extremely important. They are so important that after 10-15 years you can take your foot off the gas and coast the rest of the way in.

The dollars matter but the early dollars and the time invested REALLY matter.

Often when budgets and finances are talked about then the room becomes quiet and eyes divert from the source. Budgeting can be restraining, but the truth of is that it is liberating in the end.

A famous personality who I often disagree with promotes the idea of intentionality. This is the idea of telling your finances and resources what you want to do with them. I deliberately use the word resources because many of us spend 40 of our waking hours trying to accumalate them. The “I’m not a finance person” is absolutely effected by their finances. However, they probably do not know how to personalize them.

Make a concious effort to make sure that your finances are personalized for what you want in your future.