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.
Here I am again with a super late performance update! We’re already into September and I’m just getting around to writing about July. Before I quit work, I was so worried about being bored. 4 years later, I have enough activity lined up to fill multiple lifetimes.
Now that the girls are back in school, I’ve pivoted back to home improvement. I’m currently building a fancy shed so all of the tools and bicycles have an organized home:
After that, I’m installing solar panels on the house:
And after that, I’ll remodel the kitchen. Oh, and I also have a basement bathroom to finish. Early retirement is a lot of things, but it sure isn’t boring.
July (The Beast)
July was another great month. Our net worth started the month at $4,100,516 and ended at $4,174,920 for a gain of $74,404:
Our portfolio is a beast that’s out of control. We’re up $655,174 this year or $93,596/month. $93,596 is slightly more than we’ll spend this entire year. Give compound interest enough time to work its magic and the numbers get big.
Normally our annual spending would be somewhere between $50,000 and $60,000, but we have some big home improvement jobs to complete and 2 x 4s don’t grow on trees. Well, they actually do, but you know what I mean! Here are rough estimates for our projects:
- solar panels: $10,000
- new kitchen cabinets and counters: $10,000
- flooring: $6,000
- shed: $4,000
- basement bathroom:$2,000
- Total: $32,000
We’re very thankful to be at the place we are. Unless we do something really ridiculous like buy a yacht or start collecting cars, our finances have reached a point where it would be hard to disrupt them. We don’t really want any big-ticket items since they wouldn’t increase our happiness. We like our house. Our cars work fine. Life is simple and enjoyable. More things would bring more complications which would result in unhappiness. No thanks.
However, it is nice to buy a burrito at Chipotle or visit a museum and not worry about spending the money. Life is good. And it’s a bit better with carefree burritos.
2021 (as of 7/31/2021)
- Days elapsed: 212
- Net worth gains: $655,174
Since the Start (1/1/2013)
- Days elapsed: 3133
- Net worth gains: $3,348,877
Austin?
Mindy and I head to Texas this weekend to hang out at the beach for a while and then attend FinCon in Austin. If you’re around, let me know if you’d like to meet up. I’ll have some Mile High FI swag with me. You can’t buy it, but if you ask nicely, I’ll give you a shirt.
More 1500 Days!!!
You can also find me (and the dinosaurs) at:
Mile High FI podcast:
Also here:
- EconoMe: Hey look, I’m speaking at EconoMe later this year!
- 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.
Other resources I like:
- Camp FIs are amazingly fun! I hope to attend Rocky Mountain and Joshua Tree this year. See you there?
- Need to learn how to invest? The Simple Path to Wealth is all you need.
- New to FIRE? Need some FIREy guidance? Check out Fiology and the accompanying workbook!
*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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Not sure how the beach trip will go with the rain/Tropical Storm/potential hurricane. Hopefully it’s this coming weekend as all of that should be moved out by then. It’s been amazing to follow y’all. And I can’t wait to get reach that point for ourselves. There’s so many things I’d love to work on but with work and 3 kids the time just isn’t there. Don’t think we can get rid of the kids especially since they’re awesome so we’re trying to get rid of that traditional work routine.
JC recently posted…Net Worth Update – August 2021
I saw that! Whoops! This was subpar planning on my part, but hopefully, it turns out OK.
Carefree burritos for the win, friend.
We’re flirting with the edge of what we’re comfortable with from a retirement number perspective, but Mrs. Done by Forty decided that she’d rather work than not when faced with the option of early retirement so I think that’s going to help things quite a bit. I think I’ll want to work part time as a substitute teacher (or something?) once both kiddos are in school, too.
All that said, I think I want to try to get to the point where we also don’t think or worry about the money. We’re lucky to be where we are and every little thing’s gonna be all right.
Life is good.
I was just thinking on how unbelievable the market is this year in particular. Most of it is just the bananas market this year but also because we finally have enough in the market for the supercharged market to do its thing. Our gains month to month are getting to the point where I can say: “that’s a single salary!” Not a HIGH salary, but a salary nonetheless.
I can’t go to Austin but save me a hat? 🙂
Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life recently posted…Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (67)
Everything is inflated or just plain stupid! NFTs? Come on! Enjoy the ride while it lasts!
You know the saying “money doesn’t grow on trees”? You guys are growing money on trees by literally doing nothing and letting compound interest work its magic 😉
Anyways, congrats! Would’ve loved to meet you in person in FinCon but decided not to attend this year 🙁 next time!
David @ Filled With Money recently posted…What is a Pay Cut and Should You Ever Do It?
There will be more FinCons or maybe you’ll make it to Colorado some day?
Can I please have a shirt? 😉 Oh, did you mean I had to ask in person? Nuts!
In all seriousness I love the logo! If they are as good quality as the Mad Fientist ones I’d def buy one when you do offer them for sale 👍
Sure! Send me your size and address with the Contact form!
Wow, you’ve really gone up in the world Mr. 1500! It’s Chipotle now, and not Taco Bell! You’re living the high life! 🙂
Mr. Tako recently posted…August 2021 Dividend Income And Expenses
Good luck on all your building projects. Solar looks like a fun project.
The portfolio beast out of control is easy when it’s going up!
What do you think your mindset would be if the beast was going the other direction and you lost $93,596 for multiple months in a row?
We had a small taste of a big loss in March at the start of the pandemic. I emptied my emergency cash account into the market during that downturn and was rewarded.*
If I was already FIRED and had a full year of down turns I wonder if my investment nerves of steel would start to bend?
I guess Tom above already tried asking nicely, for a shirt does it only work in person? Pretty please! 😉
* I would not recommend dumping one’s emergency cash into the market during a pandemic downturn. It made sense in my situation as my job was secure and I working more than ever. My expenses were down (since I only shopped for groceries and worked all the time) and overtime cheques were coming in.
“What do you think your mindset would be if the beast was going the other direction and you lost $93,596 for multiple months in a row?”
Well, this will definitely happen at some point. And it will probably be much worse. It won’t be gradual, but a massive 40% loss over the course of a couple of days. I’m sure I won’t be happy, but I won’t freak out either since it won’t change our life.
Shoot me your address and shirt size over over email (Contact page) and I’ll send you a shirt!
Compound interest = magical. Your numbers look amazing, congrats on a beast of a month!! love your blog and Mile High Fi podcast, love the shirt too, where do i buy one???? LIve on the east coast anf still not FI so work still owns me and hence will not be able to attend fincon!!! :X
Imagine it’s pretty great to finally get back to the home improvement projects now that the kids are back in school. I’m excited for the free time now, and ability extra free time to finally get some things done on our renovation and the blog. Still struggle to find the motivation some days, but it’s getting better. And it’s definitely not a bad problem to have.
I absolutely love the shirt design, and have been enjoying the podcast. Decided to pass on in-person conferences this year, but planning to attend FinCon and/or one of the Camp FI’s next year. I’ll follow the others lead with a “pretty pretty please can I have a T-shirt anyway”?
Congrats on another stellar month!
Mrs Richfrugallife recently posted…The Average American Household Spent $61,334 in 2020: How Do Your Expenses Compare?
Congrats on a great month!!! Love your podcast and shirt design, gonna go with the other posters and see if I can also score a tshirt??? Pleaaase 🙂 Keep up the great work, wish my husband was even half as handy and ambitious as you with the house projects, but he tries, sometimes!
Shoot me your address/shirt size with the contact form and I’ll send you a shirt!
Hate to break it to you but that shed (or any shed) is very unpractical to store bikes. You are going to have to move the bikes out of the way anytime you want access to the other stuff in the shed as the bikes will be smack in the middle of that shed. And if you put them to the side then you will quickly find out it is always the one against the wall you need …
What you want is wall mounted bike hanger hooks like these: https://dutch.alibaba.com/product-detail/steel-bicycle-display-stand-bike-storage-rack-wall-mounted-bike-hanger-hook-60521262645.html
and hang the bikes against the outer wall on the right side of that shed. Extending the roof of the shed by about 1,5 meters and putting up a back wall for that extension (perhaps also a front wall, but leave the side open for easy access to all the bikes) should protect your bikes from most of the rain.
financialfreedomsloth recently posted…The health report – September
Understood. What I haven’t built yet is the little roof and bike hangars on the right, outside wall. So, in the warm weather months, the bikes will hang on the outside of the shed like this. I have a fenced yard, but I’ll lock them up and have a security light out there too.
In the cold months, the bikes will be inside, but I won’t be going in and out of the shed, so their cumbersome footprint won’t matter.