I was talking to my friend Jen recently when she asked a fantastic question. It was posed to her about a year ago. Here is how it went down: Jen had just retired and was on a trip down to Oaxaca to celebrate. On the plane, she sat next to her friend Sean. Jen was […]
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Recent Posts
Can I Win The Warren Buffett Bet? (Year 5 Update)
In December of 2017, Dividend Growth Investor (DGI) asked me if I’d like to duplicate the famous Warren Buffett bet. For those unfamiliar, in 2008 Buffett famously challenged the hedge fund industry: Can you beat the S&P 500 over a 10 year period? Buffett won as the hedge fund got clobbered by the S&P 500. But, I like […]
Happiness With Mr. Money Mustache On Mile High FI
I like to think that life usually works out for the best. Even when there are incredibly tough times, we often end up in a better place than we would have otherwise. This is about one of my tough times. Inflection Points Back in October of 2012, I had awful stress at work. I remember […]
10 Years of 1500 Days
I published my first post on 1/1/2013. Here it is: https://www.1500days.com/start-here/ 10 years later, here we are. Crazy. Time flies by. So cliche, but so true. 10 years is most likely more than 10% of my life. And the past 10 years are certainly some of the best years. Some random facts: My Money Journey […]
Performance Update: November
My main goal* was to build an investment and cash portfolio of $1,120,000* ($1,000,000 to retire on and $120,000 to pay off the house) in 1500 days**, starting from 1/1/2013 and ending in February of 2017. I made my goal in 2016, my 1500 Days are over, and I’ve left my job. In the interest of openness, I’ll continue to share […]
VTSAX Won’t Go To Zero
If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know that I talk about Tesla frequently. I got lucky purchasing the stock on a whim in 2012 for $1.93 (split-adjusted). Tesla had a tremendous run up, but the stock hasn’t been doing so hot lately. The stock hit $407 back in November of […]
Is Now A Great Time To Retire?
It’s a strange time. War. Inflation. Recession. This is reflected in the stock market: However, I also think this is probably a great time to retire. Hear me out. Everything Is Cyclical Before I liberated myself from formal work back in 2017, I frequently had this thought: Now is not a good time to quit. […]
Thankful To Be Thankful
Oh crap, not another crappy-happy-sappy Thanksgiving post. Stay with me friends; this won’t be too mushy. It’s been over 5 years since I quit my job and I still haven’t quite adjusted to FI life. I was considering this the other day after cursing out the fingerprint reader on my phone. Fingerprint readers have been […]
Live Boldly
This post was inspired by this over at FI for the People. Thank you Bitches Get Riches for bringing it to my attention. Perhaps my most popular post is the one where I wrote about my death march to financial independence. It describes how I went a little nuts to get to FI. I worked […]
Performance Crapdate: August! September!! October!!! Oh My!!!!
My main goal* was to build an investment and cash portfolio of $1,120,000* ($1,000,000 to retire on and $120,000 to pay off the house) in 1500 days**, starting from 1/1/2013 and ending in February of 2017. I made my goal in 2016, my 1500 Days are over, and I’ve left my job. In the interest of openness, I’ll continue to share […]
Unicorns, The Easter Bunny, And Safe Passive Returns
I was perusing the Choose FI group on Facebook last week and someone posted something that went like this: I pulled all my investments out of VTSAX in 2020 and have been sitting on cash ever since. I don’t want to get back into VTSAX. I’m looking for something that is passive, has a good […]
How I Earned $75,000 By Dumping Health Insurance Without Losing Healthcare (or peace of mind)
Health care in America, is a big scary mess. We spend more on healthcare than most, but manage to have poorer outcomes. Not good. Mindy and I are fortunate to have had excellent health. We’re pushing 50, but only have to see the doctor for routine checkups. Same for our children. On top of this, […]
Project House Update 2: Better With Friends
Welcome to Update 2 on our project house remodel! See the first post here. With almost every home project I’ve done, I’ve worked alone. This is good and bad: The Good Quiet meditation time: I’m an introvert, so I don’t mind hanging out with myself all day. I get to build stuff and catch up […]
Oops I Did It Again
When Mindy and I first moved to Colorado, we spent $400,000 on a nice house. We had just completed a huge remodel and wanted a place that didn’t need any work. We’d enjoy Colorado life. But we weren’t happy with our new neighborhood. Many of our neighbors didn’t share our values. The high school kids […]
The Real You, Mile High FI, Orlando, And Dinosaurs
Hey, I’ll be in Orlando this week! Perhaps I’ll see you there? Read on! I started writing this blog to amuse myself. I never thought anyone would read it. I also didn’t care. I liked to write and this exercise would be a way to work through my thoughts on the journey to financial independence. […]
Performance Update (July): Dunno.
My main goal* was to build an investment and cash portfolio of $1,120,000* ($1,000,000 to retire on and $120,000 to pay off the house) in 1500 days**, starting from 1/1/2013 and ending in February of 2017. I made my goal in 2016, my 1500 Days are over, and I’ve left my job. In the interest of openness, I’ll continue to share […]