August Performance: Rhymes With August?!??

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…

I usually try to come up with clever titles. Alliteration works. Ridiculous words may or may not work. It ain’t no crime to rhyme. However, August is a hard word. I cheated and googled it:

I appreciate your efforts WordHippo, but those suggestions aren’t going to cut it.

August

August was a down month. Our net worth started the month $4,769,865 and ended at $4,698,622 for a loss of $71,423. Womp womp:

I’m not optimistic about the rest of 2023 because of Tesla:

• Tax-credit change: In 2024, the EV tax credit shifts to become a point of sale rebate instead of a tax credit.
• Model 3 refresh: The new Model 3 won’t be released in North American until 2024.
• Cybertruck: I’d be surprised if any Cybertrucks make it to non-Tesla employees in 2023 (remember that vehicles at delivery events go to employees).

So I see a lot of folks sitting on the sidelines waiting for the rebate or new models next year which may result in Tesla furthering discounting vehicles this year.

Note: I wrote a pessimistic post about Tesla recently. I’m still thinking about what to do with my Tesla holdings.

Time To Finish This Thing

We moved into our last house at the end of 2019 and I’ve been going, going, going ever since. The house needed a lot of work. Too much work. We probably should not have bought the house. But here we are and it’s almost done. Almost.

Here is what I’ve done so far:

Outside

• Built a fancy curved deck and pergola
• Installed solar panels
• Xeroscaped the entire yard (grass in painful in dry Colorado)

Inside

Our house is a ridiculous split-level from the 70s. It’s a crazy design split over 4 levels. If you like stairs, this is the house for you!

Level 1: Basement (unfinished when we moved in)

• Installed an egress window (lots of digging)
• Added a bathroom (breaking up concrete and more digging because there were no rough-ins)
• Finished off about 550 square feet

Level 2: Office, bathroom, family room

• Remodeled the bathroom
• New flooring and paint throughout
• Installed a fake, but large triceratops skull over the fireplace

Level 3: Kitchen, dining room, and living room

• Remodeled the kitchen including pushing a wall out to make room to accommodate an island
• New flooring and paint throughout

Level 4: Three bedrooms and two bathrooms

• Moved the washer and dryer to this level (they were in the basement)
• Installed an IKEA closet system in the master bedroom

Next 3 Months

We still have some projects left:

• Master bath: I gutted the space and rearranged all of the fixtures. I stopped working in June when the girls got out of school, but now it’s time to finish it up. The toilet and sinks are already back in business, but I need to complete the shower.
• Girls’ bath: This bathroom will get new shower hardware and tile, flooring, and vanity. I’m not rearranging anything, so this will be a lot easier than the last bath.
• Railing: I’ll replace our 1970s Brady Bunch railing with something modern.

I look forward to being done with these projects. If I could hire them out in a pain-free manner, I probably would.

More 1500 Days!!!

You can also find me (and the dinosaurs) at:

Mile High FI podcast:

• Listen on Apple, Google, YouTube, and Spotify

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.

*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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