Lets Talk Jobs

 My relationship with employers usually allows me 3-5 years before I need to hand in a resignation. Not to toot my own horn, but after 3 years I am pretty good at most jobs. The movie theatre, T-Mobile in my early days. I'd say I was a very good JET by the end of my 3rd contract year. I was a great teacher by the end of my 4th year at Chuo. Most recently I left a job at Green River College after 5 years.

Mostly it has to do with challenge and pushing the envelope. Once a challenge leaves the job, and management stands in the way of doing new things, it is my signal to move on.

Employment was one of the reasons we left Japan back in 2015. I didn't want my future employment to be stuck in English teaching like a train track. I'd already taken English teaching as far as I could. I had the private contract, at a private school, created my own curriculum, felt the impact I had on students. Without getting a masters degree I wasn't going to be go much further, and teaching at University wasn't going to be much more money.

Moving back to the US it took some time (15 months to be exact) before I got the job at Green River College, and at first it was just part-time. After another 14 months, I finally landed the full-time employment I had been looking for. Had an office with a window I could call my own. The job (advising) was the best parts of education (teaching), without the dredge of education (tests, curriculum building, homework, grades, etc.) Not that it didn't have it's thorny bits, but at the end of the day it was very nice.

But I hit my 5 year mark. It was time to get a move on. I was starting to grow moss, and the challenge was waning. 

Enter IT.

While working at Green River College I completed my second bachelor's degree. This time in IT. With IT, I figured I could be in a new exciting challenge, hopefully great salary, AAANNNNDDDDD it's more portable to other countries.

I left Green River College in July for a contract position. It wasn't anything special, and was a significant pay hit. It was a night gig working from home. 4PM - 2:30AM. They would ship me the equipment and train me online. Long story short, I was good at the job. What I didn't realize however, was that I was worth more. 

Six weeks into this gig I received the first of what would become almost a daily occurrence. A recruiter reached out to me and said they had a position at Salesforce that they thought I'd be good for. I asked what it paid, and it was more than 50% more than my current contract gig. Another long story short, I didn't get that job, but it was a very clear sign that said "Hey! You are worth more than what you are doing!" 

From there I would wake up, update the resume, and apply for 2-3 jobs almost every day. I would almost always chat with a recruiter first, then chat with someone in IT, and then possibly more interview. this went on for about 6 weeks when I one of the businesses got back to me and actually had an offer! I was honestly stunned, but it met all of the conditions. Full-time, benefits, hybrid schedule, great pay (hourly, but with overtime), very cool company and culture, and lots more!

So that is the very short play of my career over the last few years. The big question might be: "What does this have to do with FI?"

Well, throughout all of the jobs I've mentioned here (Jet - New Job), I've taken almost half of each paycheck and invested it into low cost mutual funds, maxed out 401k, purchased rental properties, and even bought stocks!

I've hit one of my main milestones which was to be FI by the time I am 40, and truth be told... I AM! If I really wanted to, I could call in sick for the rest of my life and be just fine. Even better if we moved to a country with a low cost of living. 

Having said that I am still working, but brining the FI mentality to my new employment. I'm not afraid of the challenges, or not performing "to standards." I go in, do my best, work hard, and feel pretty good about it. If I was worried about money, rent, bills, car, mortgage, etc. I might try to fake it. I might not present my real self, which is unacceptable. 

I think this is what FI is about. It's not even about necessarily not working, although it is a great perk. But if you want to keep working to build a new career, learn new skills, and face new challenges, you an do so without the monkey on your back. I can be honest with my team and those I work with as I am not afraid of them or what they can do to me. 

6 Years Later

I've been trying to knock out this initial post and keep getting side tracked. It is humbling to look back and see how far a mountain we've climbed. In some ways it is also necessary to take stock and make steps for the future. So where are we?

Portfolio:

I haven't and will not be posting portfolio value. It has gotten to a very nice point, and I am hesitant to post any information about it's size. All I know is somewhere along the way I surpassed some of the other bloggers I used to follow. It is at an interesting point and this might be something worth blogging about later.

Investments:

One of the main goals I had for the portfolio when moving back to the US was to diversify more. We did just that. We now own 4 1-bedroom properties in Seattle. We rent out 3 and live in one. This has been far and away the absolute best use of money. It has allowed massive gains in the value of the properties and excellent cash flow that gets rolled into equities.

Career:

This has been great, but volatile as of recent. I obtained employment at a community college, where I advised international students. The pay was great, very good benefits, and it kept me in an industry I like. However, I have recently shifted my career leaving education to IT. I am in the early stages of this new career, but I hope for exciting developments soon.

Education:

While working at the community college I received a tuition waiver so I finished a second bachelors degree (Yay!). It was in Cybersecurity and Networking and that is the direction I hope to heading.

That covers some big wide areas, and I could probably write articles about each of them for months. Maybe I just will! :) Looking forward here is a sneak peak of the next year (hopefully).

-Continue to grow and feed the portfolio!

-Look for opportunities in IT.

-Prepare to move back to Japan! :)

Surreal

 It is in an interesting feeling going back and reading my blog. First I'm hit with the feeling that it wasn't as cringey as I thought it was. Second, I am so happy that I wrote it.

It has been almost five years since I even touched this space, and going on 10 years since I started the blog. Things have changed. Life has changed. I have changed. The portfolio has certainly changed!

I am happy to look on the 90 or so posts I wrote about living and investing while in Japan. I don't often keep a journal, so reading through this was the closest thing I found.

I'd like to start updating again. Knowing how I feel now, I'd like to be able to come back in another 10 years and check in on who I was, where I was, and see the great accomplishments.

These posts were times when I stopped and took stock of my accomplishments and challenges. Because of these flags staked in the ground, I can look back and fully understand really how far I've come. I didn't do it alone either.

That is all for now. I've said it before, but stay tuned... ☺☺

Still Here

Got control of the blog back in August, and silence until now.

I suppose a big reason for such actions is the lack of action in my investment account.  I only recently acquired a job that will allow me to start investing again.  I'd like to write a post up about it later.

One thing I will point out is that I am surprised at how my investments still increased in value over the last year despite my lack of adding huge sums of money like I was before.  In fact, my portfolio surpassed the six figure mark last month!  I took a screen shot of my Mint account on that day.

More to come...

I'm Back!

It seems I have gotten back control of this account!  Blogging will ensue.

Would you buy all your stuff again?

I opened the top closet in our apartment and took down my snowboard.  I had only just recently used my snowboard for the first time in a few years.  The padding on the bindings for some reason started to peel and got my snowboarding pants covered in black smears, like I’d walked through an ash pit.  “Well, these bindings have got to go,” I thought.  I unhooked them and put them in the Craigslist/Freecycle pile.

Then I got out my little luggage weigher and decided to check how much the snowboard and case weighed.  I hooked up the little device to the snowboard bag and suspended it in the air for a moment.  I was shocked when I saw the device read 5kg.  Wait!  5kg!?

I did the math quickly in my head.  “Okay, so it’s about 950 yen, at the cheapest, to send 1kg, and this is 5, so I’m looking at paying almost 5,000 yen (around $60) to bring my snowboard home.”  Or in other words, I am buying my snowboard again for $60. 

It’s already mine.  But, if I want to keep it, I have to pay for it.  That is how I am looking at all of my possessions as I get ready to move back to the US.  Each 1kg book, 10kg box of tools, or 10kg bike must be analyzed.

1kg book:  Would I pay $10 for the chance to read this again?  No, I wouldn’t.  Freecycle it is. 

15kg of Videogame stuff (including consoles, games, controllers, etc.  This estimate is probably high):  I do play a lot of games, and I could sell it for more than that back home.  Okay, it goes.  But I am very picky which games make the cut.

Bike:  This is a no brainer.  The bike has already paid for itself, plus.  It’s coming with me.

In the end weight is the most important, but still I’m having to buy my stuff again if I want to keep it.  I like looking at it as if I’m in a store and have a choice to buy or not.  If I really feel like I wouldn’t buy it in a store it goes into the Craigslist/Freecycle pile.

So far no DVDs, books, comic books, nor toys have made the cut.  It’s not looking good for the snowboard either.

Recent Sell/Buy

I've been meaning to update my portfolio for a while but just haven't gotten around to it.  Now seemed like a good time though, as I've done some pruning and building of my portfolio as of late.  My first move was a sell:

Sold 195.196 shares of ARCP @ $9.41

This completely cleared out my position in ARCP.  I have to be honest that this initial investment was a grab at a high yield REIT.  Then the news came out that they put out bogus numbers, just about very head honcho hit the chopping block, and they cut their dividend.  They did say that their underlying business is solid, which hey, I like that, and that's what had me holding on till now.  I was down about fifty percent on this position when it hit sevenish dollars per share.  I hung on till now as it recovered but, I need dividend income dang it!  This waiting around to see what happens does not bode well for me.  So, I'm taking my loss and moving forward.  My original investment in ARCP came in two waves totaling $2554.49 including fees, and I received $183.18 in dividends, for a grand total of  $2737.67.  I've ahold all of my position for $1836.79.  My total loss is -$900.87 or almost 33%.

This is not good of course, but it's also a good lesson for me to learn.  On the whole I'm still up, but sometimes you just need to cut your losses.  I'm out of the ARCP drama now.

I've also learned the value of investing in the old boring stall worts of the industry.  Which is why I turned around and used about half the capital from my ARCP sale to:

Buy 30 shares of AT&T @ $32.96

This is my second splash into T, and it's always treated me right.  Recent weakness made a great opportunity to add here.  Infact, I went to bed putting in the order and woke up richer as the stock had increased overnight!  You gotta like that!  Plus, I don't see AT&T going anywhere but up.  They have a great history of increasing their dividend, and people love their data.  I'm very comfortable with my position here.

The rest of the money I'll be putting to work elsewhere, but it won't be in my optionsxpress account.  I'll write about it later.