[Insert Title Here] AKA Blowing Off Some Steam

*** WARNING: What follows is a rant. This is just some raw emotion I'm letting out. I'm not usually this cynical, so please bear with me. ***

Oh, look at that...I didn't write any blog posts during January. Tsk tsk. Truth is, I'm getting burned out on writing these posts. It almost feels like an obligation I don't want to see through any longer. It's become a chore to think up something I think the world will be interested to read. I'm not sure if that makes me sound pretentious or what. For the record, I know "the world" isn't reading this little blog of mine. Hell, I'm delusional enough to even think readers out there are eagerly awaiting anything I've got to say. You know what? That's fine with me. Really. It is. Which is precisely why I find it hard to scrounge the motivation to yell into the void that is the internet. Why waste my effort?

Here's another truth: I do this for myself, mostly. For posterity's sake. I started out using this as a space to market my writing, to build a "platform" for when I became a professional novelist. Well, that was a few years ago and things definitely change. I mean, I can look back and see the optimism I had in the beginning. Of course, during the following years, my mindset changed. Reality set in. I no longer have those daydreams of becoming a full-time writer sitting at home working on my next book that hoards of adoring fans are clamoring for. Please! While I don't have those visions of grandeur any more, I do still spend time working on the next book. As a matter of fact, I received proofs today of my second anthology, Negative Spaces. More on that a little later (as well as a glimpse of the cover).

After learning the success rate of writers who go on to have lucrative careers as full-time novelists, I realized it ranked up there with becoming a rock star or winning the lottery. I know someone reading this might say, "Wait a minute; That's not true! I'm a writer who supports myself with just my writing. What've you got to say about that?" Here's what I say to that: How many books are you on the hook to write each year? How much are each of the advances you get? I'd be willing to wager money you've got to complete at least four novels a year, not including all the social media you've got to keep up with almost daily, such as blogging and tweeting to stay relevant to your fans. In other words, you're writing ALL THE DAMN TIME! What I envisioned when I started out writing was becoming the next King, Grisham, or [insert best-selling author here]. Writing one novel a year that would go on to sell thousands of copies that my publisher would market extensively. I learned that's not the case. Up-and-coming writers have to work their asses off to get those kinds of breaks. Also, since the digital revolution/self-publishing paradigm, things have changed even more. I know there're self-published authors out there who are making a living (some making fat cash, even) from their writing and I think that's awesome. However, there's still a lot of work involved in churning out content for voracious readers and blogging/tweeting/whatever-other-ways-to-stay-relevant that those authors must do. To be honest, I'm not good at marketing and networking. So, for me at least, I prefer to just keep writing at my own pace and publishing the stuff I like.

Since having the revelation that I'll never be some best-selling author and living the life I daydreamed about, I discovered the blogosphere of personal finances. I've stumbled upon people who've lived below their means, saved the excess, and (most of them) retired at an extremely early age. This opened my eyes to the fact that my daydream hadn't vanished like smoke in the wind. Sure, I'm 43 and squandered much of my income up to now. I was never very good with money, usually earning a dollar but spending two. That's the best way in the world to stay broke. However, I've since been getting my financial house in order. This has become my top priority. Writing, mask-making, blogging, etc has all taken a backseat to getting my finances in order so that I can increase my savings rate so I can invest as much money as possible.

Since I've become fascinated with financial independence and early retirement, my net worth has increased by $25,000. That's a rough figure. I've spent hours creating spreadsheets for a budget and to track monthly and annual net worth tracking so I can maximize my savings. Later, I plan to post more detailed accounts of my financial strategies and progress as well as any set backs. With that said, I think it's safe to say that this blog has stopped being strictly focused on my writing and thoughts on writing and the publishing industry. But, I guess I broke that rule back when I posted about making masks. Oh well, whatever. It is my blog after all. And I'm sure the four or five readers won't mind.

I feel like I've simply been rambling. I started out not knowing what to blog about and then just started saying whatever came to mind. Most of this has been me ranting aimlessly. I guess I just needed to get it out of my system. Mainly, what I felt when I started this post was uncertainly; I had no idea what I should say, yet felt compelled to say SOMETHING because I didn't want to neglect my responsibility to provide a post. In other words, I felt like not writing something would be letting myself down. After all, I made a promise to myself when I started this blog that I wouldn't be like so many others who start and soon fizzle out. I don't like to think of myself as a quitter, but I also don't want to waste my efforts doing something like this if there's no benefit to it. Then, I thought of a benefit I could be sure of: I could document my progress to financial independence so my future-self could look back on.

In a nutshell, I'm saying that if you come here to find out about my books, you'll still be able to do that. However, there are going to be more posts about finances, too. And, probably whatever else I'm excited about at the time. Also, I don't always feel encouraged to write posts at regular intervals. Of course, if you have been keeping up with this blog, then that probably comes as no surprise. If you keep coming back, then great! If this is your first time here and it's going to be your last, bye. Sorry I wasn't interesting enough for you. I'm getting older and trying to appease everyone isn't something I care about trying to do anymore.

Okay, I mentioned earlier that I am just about to release my second anthology and I would provide a glimpse of the cover. I keep my promises. So, this new collection has thirteen short stories and the book is called Negative Spaces. So far, I've got it formatted for paperback distribution only. I haven't published it yet, but I will do that soon. I have to create the digital version first so they release fairly close together. That means I also have to update my website so any visitors will know about it. The stories are either horror stories or weird tales, bordering on the bizarre. Before I show you the cover, though, let me also add that I'm running a giveaway on Goodreads to give ten lucky winners autographed copies of my mystery novel, Carniville. I'll do another post soon with more details on that along with a link to enter. Okay, enough of my aimless tirade. Here's the cover...

I hope you'll go buy a copy. Thanks for reading.

Financial Retrospective - First Steps to FI

With this post, I want to capture where I'm at financially for posterity's sake. I hope to fine tune my savings/investing strategies in 2016 to better achieve my goal of getting closer to financial independence within the next decade. I'd like to revisit this post in the following years to gauge my progress. So, let me lay out what I've done so far:

I didn't get serious about becoming FI/REd until August or September of this year. I discovered some subreddits of interest (Personal Finance & Financial Independence) and, from there, some blogs by individuals who had already reached FI and chose to write about it. Many of them tell how they did it and then there are some who tell about the psychological changes they experienced on their way to FI. This really helped to fire me up.

I already had a Roth IRA at Vanguard with a target retirement fund. I moved my money into a more aggressive fund and purchased another to better diversify my allocations. In addition, I opened an investment account with Betterment. I increased my 401k contributions at work, too. Previously, I was only contributing about 4% (without employer match--won't get that until 2016). Now, I'm contributing 10%. I exchanged the funds in my 401k to some that were more aggressive with lower expense ratios.

I attempted to make a budget and am still trying to fine tune it to maximize my savings rate. Initially, it looks like my savings rate was about 58%, but I'm not confident with the accuracy of that number. I managed to cut spending by switch car insurance to save about $1,500 annually. I reduced my budget in other areas to maximize savings. Mainly, I stopped eating out and cut my daily work commute to only 2 days a week, which helped cut costs. The biggest hurdle was my grocery budget, which was difficult to cut because I enjoy good food. I managed to slash it more by eating more left overs and buying stuff to make more sandwiches and soups.

Overall, I built an emergency fund of roughly $15-20k. I contributed to investment accounts (taxable and non-taxable) to increase my net worth, which has finally broken the $40k barrier (just barely).

Some set-backs I encountered:

• Got started late in the year
• Had to buy a car for my son
• Unexpected repairs on my vehicle

I'm not sure what else to document in this post. Like I said, I'm just starting out on the path to FI with the hope to reach my goal in 10 to 15 years. I plan to take what I've learned this year into 2016 and make more changes to get the greatest returns I can. I think having a full year's worth of data will better help pinpoint areas where I can make changes. However, knowing that I've finally opened my eyes to the fact that FI is definitely attainable within that time frame is like a breath of refreshing air. All I have to do is look back at the last 10 to 20 years to see how bad off I was financially. My only regret is that I didn't discover this way of life earlier, so I could be much closer to, if not already, financial independence.

As for my plans once achieving FI, I want to indulge more of my time in my hobbies: reading, writing, making masks, drawing, and piddling with my guitar and bass. I have a bunch of novels that could occupy much of my time. As a matter of fact, I have a second anthology due out in January 2016 called Negative Spaces. With more free time, I could publish more books faster. Time will tell what happens. If you're interested in following the path to FI, then I encourage you to come back and see my progress.

Return from Sabbatical

It's been a year since my last post. I won't offer any apologies because I just didn't feel the need to post anything. For me, blogging is not organic, it feels forced most of the time. I don't like to be forced to do anything. My job is something I'm forced to do, but that's different. Everyone needs money to pay bills and survive. My writing, however, is something I do out of passion. Even then, I only write when I feel the need to write. I don't force myself, which is a reason there is no book to publish this year (more on that a little later).

I've mentioned before that I have several hobbies. Mask-making, drawing, writing, etc. When I have news on any of these fronts, I like to share it. Well, I experimented with making a paper mache mask this year and it was quasi-successful. Enough so that I will take another stab at it now that I know what pitfalls to be aware of. That's not really why I'm writing this post though. During my break I found another interest. Something I was never passionate about before and, looking back, I kind of regret that. I discovered the world of Financial Independence and Early Retirement.

There's a lot of forums out there where people on the path to FI/RE discuss this subject and, as I read some of this stuff, I found myself intrigued. It's always been a dream of mine to be my own boss, not have to wake early to commute to a job where I sit in a cubicle and perform a task for someone else in exchange for money to get by on. This is one of the reasons I started writing years ago. However, I learned that supporting myself through writing was extremely competitive and a big gamble. For every one hundred writers, probably only a small group (enough to count on one--maybe two hands) will go on to make it a sustainable career. And by "sustainable career" I don't mean they're rolling in dough, living a life of luxury. They will, most likely, be writing day in, day out trying to hit multiple deadlines with several publishers in order to cobble together an annual income somewhere in the range of $30-$60k. I make way more than that now doing IT work and I have evenings and weekends free (time I use to pursue and indulge in my hobbies that bring me happiness). Not to mention, I'm fortunate enough to work for an employer who allows me to work from home three days a week, so I only commute twice a week. Win!

Still, I have to wake up early in order to join conference calls and do work I don't feel like doing. That may sound like a privileged person whining. I realize things could be worse for me. After all, I had worse jobs in my youth, so I am thankful for where I'm at. Yet I'm at a place in my life where I need to start planning for the future. Something I should've done when I was much younger. I don't want to do what I'm doing for the rest of my life. I'd like to have whole days free to indulge in activities I want to do. Not doing things dictated by others.

Enter FI/RE. I read many accounts of people who have managed to work hard for ten years or a slightly longer, socking away half or more of their net incomes in investment accounts, who were able to finally walk away from their jobs to enjoy early retirement. It was very much like reading the success stories of people who've managed to win the lottery but not fritter it away. For someone who hasn't been putting money away for retirement, this came as a revelation; a breath of refreshing air. So, I opened an investment account, started socking away money, changing my spending habits so I transition from consumer to saver. I've been watching my net worth rise and that builds momentum, much like the snowball effect, that keeps me on track to retire early.

So, that's what has consumed much of my year. And, since this blog is where I discuss things that interest me, I decided to write about it. Finances may or may not interest you. That's okay. I will warn you now, though: I will be writing more about my travels along the path to financial freedom in addition to my other interests: making masks, writing, etc.

As for my writing; I'm still very much plugging away at it. As a matter of fact, I've written numerous short stories this year as well as moved the progress needle on some novels I'm working on. I don't like to let a year pass without publishing something, but as I've stated many times before, I won't publish anything not up to my standards. I was hoping to publish my novel What Goes Around. Unfortunately, it hasn't met my standards, so I will need additional time to edit/rewrite it. With that being said, I decided to gather some of my shorts to produce a second anthology. I'm getting close to finishing, but I doubt I will be done before the end of the year like I'd hoped. So, it may not get published until January 2016. I already have the cover finished. It's called Negative Spaces. It contains 13 stories ranging from the bizarre to horrific. I hope you'll enjoy it when it hits virtual shelves soon. Here's a sneak peek of the cover. Also, I hope you'll return to see how I'm doing on the road to FI/RE and, most of all, I hope you get a lot of knowledge from my progress that will help you too.