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.
Have you ever heard of Punch Buggy? It’s a car game played by children. If a kid sees a Volkswagen Beetle, they yell “Punch Buggy!” and are then allowed to hit another kid in the car. Violent family fun!
Side note: Our car rides always end in sisterly violence, even if no Beetles are spotted.
Tesla Getcha
A couple of years ago, I invented a new game for the children called Tesla Getcha. It’s the same idea as Punch Buggy, but with Teslas. Seeing another opportunity to inflict pain on each other, the girls embraced the game enthusiastically.
I had a secret motivation in Tesla Getcha; market research. Since I own Tesla stock, I wanted to see if Teslas were catching on or not. At first, the game started out slow. Tesla sightings were few and far between. However, now we see them all over.
A year ago, I only ever noticed one in my small neighborhood, a lonely Model S. Fast forward to today and I count at least four (two Model 3s and a Model Y have joined the club). And this is in a neighborhood that has 40-year-old homes with many original owners still living in them. It’s a good sign for Tesla if conservative seniors are buying the vehicles.
If the Tesla uptake continues to accelerate, Tesla Getcha will be banned from the car lest the back seat become a nonstop fight. Which it kinda already is…
August
So why am I talking about Tesla anyway? The stock went nuts in August, soaring 74%. Despite our increasingly frequent Tesla spottings, this valuation is illogical, irrational, insane, and won’t end well, at least in the near term. But in the month of August, the stock blew up our portfolio.
Our egg started the month at $2,790,942 and ended at $3,102,689 for a gain of $311,747.
Benjamin Graham once famously said:
In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.
This means that in the short-term, the market is a popularity contest. Tesla is the popular kid at school that got voted Homecoming King. Its stock is really popular now, so investors are climbing over each other to buy it.
However, in the long-term, the fundamentals are what will determine the stock price. The homecoming king may have peaked in high school. He may end up working as an assistant manager. When not at work, he sits on the couch watching sports, chugging beer, and eating Cheetos. Tesla may go on to sell 10,000,000 cars in a year, be the first to market with Level 5 Autonomy, and becomes a major player in the energy industry. If so, its current stock price is more than justified. However, none of those things will happen for years, if they happen at all. So, the current stock price is speculation. And insanity.
I don’t play the market timing game and purchased most of my shares a long time ago, so I’m holding on for the long-term.
August Performance Update
The investment part of our portfolio (stocks, rental home, trailer park, private loans, syndication deals, and coworking space) grew $311,747 in August. Add in our $150,000 in primary home equity and our net worth comes out to $3,252,689:
Besides Tesla and related tech stock mania, a syndication deal we had in Florida through Praxis closed. We received our principal of $50,000 back along with a payment of $28,527 (this is in addition to the quarterly payments we had been receiving since the start of the investment). Since we hold this investment in a solo-401(k), the profits won’t be taxed at this time. We held the investment for about 30 months and our total payouts were $38,304. It looks like the S&P 500 returned about 27% during the same period of time, so chalk one up in the win column for us.
2020 (as of 8/31/2020)
- Days elapsed: 243
- Investment portfolio gains: $1,067,649 (Our gains are outsized because we took equity out of our home and invested it. The next number, net worth, which includes home equity, is more accurate.).
- Net worth gains: $852,649
Since the Start (1/1/2013)
- Days elapsed: 2799
- Investment portfolio gains: $2,204,899
Cash
If you’ve had a look at our investments page recently, you’ll notice that the Stash O’ Cash is piling up.
I am NOT a fan of cash. Those dollars are just sitting there doing nothing. And it’s actually worse than that. Those dollars are slowly eroding value courtesy of inflation. I like to immediately deploy dollars to the front line as soon as they come in.
However, we’re waiting on another real estate deal. This one is a self-storage facility, something I’ve always wanted to get into.
Be patient little dollars. Your time will come.
*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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****My 401(k) contributions include my own, Mrs. 1500’s, and the contributions from my corporation. Self-employment with a solo 401(k) is a very powerful savings tool. I should have done this years ago.
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Hi Carl,
First time poster here. Love the blog and have been a reader for at least 4 years now. It’s awesome to see the progress you and Mindy have made over the years.
Quick questions – relating to your syndication deal in Florida mentioned in the post, is the $38,304 total payout inclusive of the $28, 527 you just received?
The $38,304 was everything. Thank you for the kind comments!
That’s some big growth, congrats!
Hoping you make a dedicated self-storage post about any purchase (whether it goes through or not!).
Have you a set an “ok, it’s just too high” price for Tesla? In other words, would you get out at any unjustifiable price point even being a longterm investor?
We’re happily plugging away with our index funds, but the performance is nothing like that 🙂
Chris@TTL recently posted…Marginal Utility of Income and How to Build Wealth in Your 20s
I believe in Tesla long-term, so I’m holding on for now. I’d reconsider if the stock hit a 1t market cap though.
Really interesting about the Teslas! I was surprised at how many I saw when I traveled to the PNW in 2017, especially around the Seattle area. They were popping up in an area where Porches were like Buicks here in Wisconsin. Porches and Teslas were and are still rare here. I know one person (who owns a local ice cream chain) who has one and I rarely see them driving around. (Oh wait, I know two more people – my friends in Seattle.) I wonder if they will start creeping this direction next?
I think either a Tesla or some other electric vehicle will probably be my next vehicle. And probably an ebike before that. I have a theory they make bicycling safer by allowing people on bicycles to travel closer to traffic speeds, but I have no data to support that hypothesis.
BC | FrugalWheels recently posted…FIRE and the decision making process
I have an ebike and it’s pretty great. And you’re right, I’ve used the throttle on mine to get out of some gnarly situations.
I love the parenting style, I think the best adults had a “raised by wolves” childhood. I don’t love Tesla, they are a kick to drive, my daughter in law has a model S. But I can easily see them becoming the Osborne computers of the electric car industry. It’s extremely rare for pioneers in a developing industry to survive. And since only 2.5% of new car sales are EV’s it is hard to know who will be the survivors.
Tesla/ the electric car industry sure is fun to watch. Even if Tesla doesn’t win, I’ll be happy if cars pivot to electric.
sweet. you gotta love growth stocks. what you gonna buy with all that dough?
freddy smidlap recently posted…Malevolent Missy Stock Series #13: We Bought InterActive Corp. ($IAC)
I’m buying pretty much nothing! Life is good.
Certainly see more and more Tesla cars on the road nowadays. You’re certainly benefiting from more Tesla adoption.
Boom! There jumps your net worth. Amazing stuff Carl.
Haha, it’s all kinda fake now, at least for now. Tesla is waaaay overvalued.
Congrats on the monstrous Tesla performance. I trimmed my position for buying a rental property and missed 20% upside. Worst part is I am now negative in rental property.
Might just throw it in upcoming IPOs.
Financial Freedom Countdown recently posted…Why Rental Property Investment Is No Longer A Good Idea
Thanks FFC!
I have a question, do you ever get tired about bragging about how rich you are? I find your posts very offputting. They are not helpful at all. Instead, all you say is how much you’ve gained. I think you might need to take a course in social skills or social development.
I’m up over $2 million this year, but I’m not bragging and telling everybody how much I’m making during a global pandemic when millions of people are unemployed.
Honestly, do you have self-esteem issues?
“I’m up over $2 million this year, but I’m not bragging and telling everybody how much I’m making during a global pandemic when millions of people are unemployed.”
“…I’m not bragging and telling everybody how much I’m making…”
You just did. But, back to me.
What part of it was bragging? I’m just telling you what happened. Did you read the post? If you did, you would have read that I think that the gains are ridiculous and not justified with logic or reason. All hype.
That aside, how do I report my numbers are not come across as bragging? To you at least.
My goal was never to brag, just to be more open about money.
And I do this every month, regardless of how good or bad I do. If you’d like to read a shitty one where I lost 100K in a month, here you go: https://www.1500days.com/performance-update-day-2647-covid-crashes-the-party/
And, the job losses/ effects of COVID are horrible. During the Great Recession, my father lost his job and would never go back to work. It sent him into a tailspin that I believe contributed to his death two months ago.
I’ve thought a lot about my father and the others who struggle and it’s led me to believe the subject of financial independence is more important than ever. Even if you don’t want to retire at a young age, getting your financial house in order is incredibly important. If you have ideas for how I can help people here or would even like to work with me on something, do let me know.
Andy: You criticize for talking about money and then proceed to talk about your own money. What’s wrong with you?
1500 dude: Anyone rude like this who would rather hate on you than talk is a troll. Don’t feed the troll.
Unwarranted. Agree with 1500
Another great post, Carl. Thanks for keeping us in the loop on your investments (still can’t believe Tesla stock this year). Looking forward to seeing more Youtube vids when you’re able.
What a good way to do market research. Have your kids call out whenever they see a certain product (and then injure each other over it). I’ve read that Warren Buffet sent his managers out to count how many people visited a costco in a day, to gauge costco’s popularity, before investing with them. Sometimes the cool kids are viewed as cooler than they actually are- and its the boring ones that pump out the consistent school work. But must be fun owning some of the meteoric stock picks on the upswing.
I’m happy that your Tesla & real estate investments are paying off, Carl. A silver lining when so much else is not going well.
Best of luck with the storage units.
Done by Forty recently posted…FIRE Buys You Class…Whether You Want it or Not
Tesle Schmesla, lets cut to the chase and get to the most important part of the post:
The game is Slug Bug not Punch Buggy.
Slug Bug makes sense because it rhymes.
The rhyme is the origin story of the game.
Punch Buggy makes no sense.
It has no origin story.
I will fight to the death about Slug Bug over Punch Buggy.
In fact, I’ve come close to that with my wife and in-laws, who
insist on incorrectly calling the game Punch Buggy.
“I will fight to the death about Slug Bug over Punch Buggy.”
No need for that! I concede! 🙂
Three hundred k in a month?! That’s crazy town! Congrats.
Where I live only the overpaid tech-bro’s drive Tesla’s. They all work at Google, Facebook, or Microsoft (the big tech employers here). A few years back it used to be that BMW’s were the prestige car for those guys, but now they’ve all shifted to Tesla’s as their showoff car.
I’ve heard that in Silicon Valley they’re getting so common they’re now called the “California Camry”. It just goes to show, once they’re as common as cockroaches the show-offs will move on to the next cool car.
I’m hoping some day there will be sub $30k electric cars for the rest of us pleebs!
Mr. Tako recently posted…The Stock Sector I Like Best (Right Now)
Nicely done coming up with the game Tesla Getcha.
Any other game you are currently playing? I would like to get in early on a trade given how well Tesla did with your first game.
Sport of Money recently posted…8 Observations Of People’s Behavior In Personal Finance
Two words for you: Battery Day! Kidding. Not kidding.
I love Tesla. My tiny investment has given me so much excitement over the last couple of years, and it’s not over. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!
And there’s that small possibility that the company will surprise us all and live up to the hype.
Congrats on your gains, may they be everlasting!
The Darwinian Doctor recently posted…Blog update: Autumn 2020. 100k pageviews!
Hi Carl,
I just wanted to say that I really like your posts and your blog. I’m posting for first time, but have been following for a while now.
Although I invest differently than you (I’m mostly div growth oriented like Tawcan.), your situation has actually given me hope as to what is possible with compounding momentum. I also like reading about the family dynamics as you grow your nestegg, and make a better life for them. Thank you!
They do say the first $1M is the hardest. You’re proof of that! Good job!
Thesen2
Hi Thesen2!
Thank you for the kind comment!
Investing is a little bit about numbers and a lot about temperament. Whatever allows you to feel comfortable and to sleep well at night is what you should do!
It’s ridiculous. I’ve experienced, but still can’t really wrap my mind around it. The only thing I can do is be thankful.
What an unusual FIRE guy. I wonder what Collins would say about such risks on a FIRE portfolio when he only recomends VTSAX
It would be a risk if I depended on it. It if went to $0, I would be unhappy, but my retirement plans wouldn’t change.