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 my numbers. For now…
In January, our net worth crept up from $4,792,750 to $4,832,901 for a gain of $40,151:
But it’s not as it seems…
Fun With Numbers!
I haven’t revalued our primary home in a while. It’s because it wasn’t finished, so I felt weird comping it against homes that were finished. So for years when I’ve written these updates, I’ve used these numbers:
- Home value: $550,000
- Money owed against mortgage*: $320,000
- Equity: $230,000
*With a rate of 2.75%, I’m not paying even an extra penny into the sucka!
Fast forward to today and the home is really, really close to being done. Really close. I found someone to fabricate a metal railing and he’s going to install it any day. After that, I have to put in some trim and wrap up a bunch of small projects. But the big projects are all f***ing done!
Our home is a cookie cutter model on a semi-custom block, so it’s easy to find comps. The best version of our home sold for $850,000. Our home is great, but the home market isn’t what it used to be when rates were super low. So I’m going with a little less. At the same time, we now owe less on the home. New numbers:
- Home value: $750,000
- Money owed on the mortgage: $300,000
- Equity: $450,000
Note that I also bumped up the value of our furnished rental $50,000 because it’s finally done:
So, I increased the equity in our homes by $270,000, but we only gained $40,000 in net worth. You ask:
WTF is going on dude?!??
I’m beginning to sound like a broken record:
Tesla **scratch scratch** Tesla **scratch scratch** Tesla **scratch scratch**
Tesla Dump
Tesla lost over 20% of its value in January. It started the month off at $250 and ended at $187. I still have 4,279 shares, so this cost my portfolio $270,000. #oof.
Tesla is having a difficult time selling cars. Perhaps all of the nerds (like me!) who wanted an EV have bought them already and now the company is waiting for its next phase of growth? I’m not sure how easy this will be. When I talk to most folks about EVs, I hear stuff like:
- They don’t work in the cold.
- I can’t road trip in them.
- They’re bad for the environment.
- RAV4! RAV4!! RAV4!!! -or- CRV! CRV!! CRV!!!
And then with Tesla, there is the Elon Musk factor:
- I HATE ELON AND WILL NEVER BUY A TESLA!!!
I was just in Las Vegas and there are commercials telling you why EVs suck. Sponsored by Big Oil:
At the same time, Tesla isn’t educating folks. Neither are other EV companies. Sigh…
In the meantime, I drove mine from Colorado to Las Vegas to Phoenix and then back to Colorado. It was glorious to sit in a quiet cockpit and hike around during charging stops:
Road-tripping in an EV takes a little longer. However, it’s more than made up by the time I don’t spend at gas stations in my daily life.
EVs will win out eventually. Driving one is an epiphany. It will just take a little longer for the United States to catch up with the rest of the world.
2024
I’m optimistic about the new year. Life is good over here in Colorado and I have a lot to look forward to including:
- EconoMe in March: This is a super fun time. And I get to have Skyline Chili!
- California trip in April: So this one makes me nervous because I’m going for a week of therapy. Oof maybe.
- Pacific Northwest: In June, we’re road tripping it out to Seattle for a cruise and then a drive down the Pacific Coast Highway in Oregon.
- Camp FI: I’m going to give a talk at Camp FI Rocky Mountain. Yay!
- Midwest!: In July, Older Daughter has a conference in Bloomington Indiana. We’re going to road trip it there and then head north to Michigan to see old friends. After that, we’ll take the ferry across Lake Michigan and head to Madison Wisconsin for a bit.
Wow. At times everything feels so great, I can’t process it. Shout out to FIRE life. It’s wonderful to work on fun projects around Longmont and then spend time in other corners of the world to break things up a bit.
Life is good.
More 1500 Days!!!
You can also find me (and the dinosaurs) at:
Mile High FI podcast:
MindyOnMoney podcast!
Also here:
- Facebook: Facebook group and page
- YouTube: My channel is mostly devoted to home improvement, but I have some other material coming up soon too.
- Instagram: Pretty pictures of dinosaurs, sunsets, and nail guns!
- Twitter: Spontaneous, often insane, ramblings
- Coworking space: On the surface, MMM HQ is a coworking space. Look a little deeper and you’ll see that we’re really building community. The members of MMM HQ are some of the finest people I know
- Buying a Tesla? Use my referral code to get some perks!
*My goal wasn’t to have $1,120,000 at the end of 1500 days, but at any time before the day count was up. Why? It all goes back to the 4% Rule. Remember that our little friend, Mr. 4%, is nothing more than the most conservative safe withdrawal rate. Since my investment portfolio now sits at $1,550,000, I can spend about $62,000 in my first year of retirement.
**My original goal was $1,000,000 and no debt, I later raised the goal by $120,000 to $1,120,000 because I will have debt in the form of a mortgage and I firmly believe in not paying it off (LOOK at the MONEY I’m MAKING!). My compromise was to have enough money put away to cover the mortgage at the time of retirement.
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There’s an active Mr. Money Mustache group in Madison, WI (including one member who loves to talk about Tesla). If you would enjoy meeting some more FIRE fans while you visit in July, I could plan an event for the group.
Super cool! Is it OK if I contact you via the email you used to create this comment? Thanks!
Yes ????
Oops, I posted a smile emoji but it turned into question marks
You are a smart guy so I am confused as to why you’d be invested in Tesla or any individual stock. Regardless of how well you may have done in the past all the research shows that its virtually impossible to consistently out perform the market by picking individual stocks. If the best fund managers can’t consistently do it why do you think you will be able to? Seems like a needless form of concentration risk when you’ve already won the game. But then again, part of winning the game is the ability to do what you want even if it isn’t optimum. EV’s are fun to drive, my son and a daughter in law both have had Tesla’s, but they don’t work for my lifestyle which involves towing my fishing boat and ATV all over remote areas and frequent four and a half hour drives to our mountain cabin in the middle of nowhere. I’m not sure they will ever be able to handle much more than commuter travel because batteries are already up against quantum constraints that likely can’t be resolved. But if you are only carrying passengers and don’t need the ability to tow a trailer then, yeah, they’ll be taking most of the market share.
Mr 1500 bought Tesla stock before becoming a disciple of passive investing. It’s pretty common. So someone is left with the following decision 1.) sell and take a huge cap gains hit, or 2.) continue to ride the wave, with the consequence of more single-stock exposure. The answer is not obvious to me on what the right path is. If he had access to ~0% LTCG rates, then the answer would be obvious.
Carl, I love red rocks. I take a rock climbing trip there most Decembers. Have you considered rock climbing? It’s a pretty great hobby for those of us who are aging but still want to be engaged in something relatively safe and low impact.
You beat me to it! Thanks for backing me up there!
I have never climbed, but would try it. Red Rocks is such a great place. Every time I’m in Vegas, I make it a point to spend as much time as I can there. So beautiful.
The stocks are a holdover to a time when I didn’t know what an index fund was, I’ve done very well with big tech (Google and Tesla are both 100 baggers), but I’m slowly getting rid of them anyway in favor of index funds: https://www.1500days.com/an-index-fund-in-reverse-facebook-insanity/
It sounds like an EV may not work for you unless you have a good way to charge at your cabin. But I’m more optimistic about the future. Solid state batteries have the potential to be about 2-4x higher in energy density than lithium ion. At that point, EVs become equal or better to their fuel-burning counterparts. Solid state in mass production is still a way off though.
I didn’t know your coming to Oregon in June that’s so cool. Would love to meet up with you if you have time I’m in Portland but if your going down the coast you maybe bypassing the Rose City but I can come to the coast hit me up if you want would love to meet you.
We are going go Portland! May I email you with the address you used to log this comment? Thanks!
How much cash do you keep around these days?
You raise the problem with individual stocks in taxable accounts. Can’t sell if stock is too high due to CG tax or it’s going to the moon and then I can Fat Fire or don’t want to sell either because we feel it’s priced to low and/or we don’t want to realize losses. Come to think about it that is the dilemma of being in the market to begin with is when to sell, The dilemma applies more to owners of individual stocks. Indexers just sell when needed to rebalance portfolio at year end. There are no emotions involved in owning boring index funds. I really like your new strategy to sell some individual stock and put that right back to work in index funds over time. Just don’t be tempted to buy individual stocks in the future. To borrow your expression, “OOF” I just did that today. Why? Because Rivian looks cheap and Apple will likely buy it because it has to shake things up and diversify away from the IPhone or Tesla will buy it because Tesla needs trucks people will actually buy that look like trucks. Thanks for your blog.
Rivian! I don’t blame you! I admit that I’m tempted too. The R2 and R3 both look great and have solid specs. Let’s just hope Rivian has the capital to survive. My guess is that they’ll be fine long term.
FWIW, my worst investing mistakes have always come as a result of getting out of a stock too early. For example, I sold Apple in 2016. The trailer part I bought with the proceeds beat the S&P 500, but fell waaaaay short of Apple.
EVs have their place as part of the solution. They are not the only solution. Just like a single stock holding could be part of your investment solution. But as Warren Buffett indicates in his will and in bets, the assortment of stocks in the S&P500 makes a better solution (lower cost, lower risk, lower complexity).
So many wonderful places to stop on the Oregon Coast! It really is the most amazing, beautiful place, and I am so blessed and fortunate to call it home! Make sure you visit Yachats on your travels!
Got it! The photos look amazing!
I’m a fan of carnivorous plants. Have you ever been here, right down the road? https://maps.app.goo.gl/mEMYFGvn8gGUfqC17
Carl, longtime reader form Germany here. We just confirmed our flight to Portland, OR end of June to visit my wife’s cousin there. Is there any chance to say hello to my favorite FI blogger? 😉
Marc! It would be great to meet! We’ll be in Portland around June 15th though, so the timing may not work. Feel free to shoot me an email: mr1500 @ 1500days . com
HI, we will be arriving in Portland on June 23rd. I suppose you will be gone by then.
Yeah, we’ll be back in Colorado then.
I am going to Stuttgart in early October. Are you anywhere near there?
I’m sorry, we are at the other end of the country, in Bremen in the north.
If you stop in St. Louis on your way to Indy, hit me up! I’d be glad to tell you the best places in STL.
Thanks so much! We’re staying two nights there and I think we’re even going to have a meetup. I’d love to hear your suggestions and maybe we’ll see you in St. Louis!