There aren’t many negatives to FI life, but one of them may be this: It’s a lot easier to say Yes to all of the fun that comes your way. I’ve been home exactly one weekend this year.
The weekend of January 4th, I was messing around in NYC. I got to see Paul Rudolph’s studio:
The weekend of the January 18th, I stayed in a home in Breckenridge with friends.
The next weekend, Mindy and I flew to Los Angeles to see a friend perform:
The next two weekends, I bummed around Florida before going on Amberly Grant’s excellent FinTalks Cruise:
The weekend of 2/14, Mindy found a death trap car in Salt Lake City that she couldn’t live without. I flew out to pick it up and road-tripped back.
The next weekend, we stayed in a yurt and went snowboarding at Monarch.
And it’s not over yet.
- Someone did a horrible remodel on my mom’s house (“Why is it raining in the house?”), so I’ll be packing the tools and road-tripping to Las Vegas to fix it.
- Then I’ll head to San Diego to see friends David B and Jeremy S. Jeremy is a great human who recently launched Nectarine, a company that allows you to hire CFPs on an hourly basis.
- On the way to San Diego, I’m going to stop in Indian Wells and catch a tennis match with friends. If anyone is in Las Vegas or San Diego and would like to catch up, shoot me a note or leave a comment.
- And after I get back from all of this, it’s off to EconoMe.
Then I’m going to stay home for a while.
Down! Down? Down!?
Reader Alice wrote this in a comment:
It is really interesting to hear how things are going for you – especially right now with all the chaos right now.
Chaos is right! But before I get into it, I really HATE talking about politics. It’s bad enough in real life. People get mad and back into their corner. On the internet, it’s 100x worse. The nuance of in-person conversation is lost and people feel emboldened to hurl massive turds at each other. No thanks to any of that. And just to be absolutely clear to ex-reader Jane, my enthusiasm for some of the technology developed by Elon Musk’s companies is not an endorsement of anything else.
Most of us want the same thing; peace, friends, health, and wealth. We have different ideas on how to get there, but that shouldn’t be reason to hate on each other.
*sigh*
Anyway, back to Alice! How are we doing you ask? Well…. Our portfolio is down about $550,000 in the past 30 days. Random thoughts:
- That is a very big number. But it also won’t matter much long-term.
- None of this chaos matters to most of us. The folks in the most danger are those that recently retired because of sequence of returns risk. If this is you, I hope you have some cash to live on to ride out the storm. If you’re still in the accumulation phase, consider this an opportunity.
- We’re considering taking on a very big project. This project will require a big cash outlay and purchasing a lot of construction materials. A market downturn and tariffs could cause us to postpone it. Stay tuned.
I’m off to pack up my tools. I do love road trips. It’s fun to listen to podcasts or an audiobook while watching the world go by.
And perhaps I’ll see one of you on my West Coast adventures.
More 1500 Days!!!
You can also find me (and the dinosaurs) at:
- BiggerPockets: Hey look, I’m on a podcast again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DOFfBN7cxg
- 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!
Unfortunately, it’s impossible to talk about Tesla now without it coming off as political, one way or the other. That’s 100% Elon’s fault. He’s the one who’s made his name and his company’s name synonymous with all the awful things happening in the U.S. right now.
I like electric cars and autonomous driving. I want those technologies to succeed. But I no longer want Musk to be the one who does it. He’s either a fascist, or he doesn’t mind being perceived as one. Either way, I don’t think any ethical person should support him or endorse his companies.
Which awful things? Do you object to the elimination of government waste, the elimination of corruption, the curtailment of illegal immigration, or stemming the flow of illegal narcotics into the US?
Neither Trump nor Elon are eliminating government waste. They’re selling the seed corn that makes government work in the background. Let me give you an example–The five bullet email. My agency spent too many hours trying to figure out how to respond. Almost everything we do involves sensitive law-enforcement data. There’s no way most of our employees could respond without divulging this data to over unencrypted email to an inbox that no-doubt has been compromised by hostile actors. Instead of doing our jobs investigating and prosecuting people stealing from government, we dealt with this bullshit. And don’t get me started on accountability or fantom employees. We already have structures in place to hold poor performers to account and ensure no one is getting a paycheck without working. We all have supervisors.
If either Trump or Misk were actually concerned about waste, fraud, and abuse of government funds or the economy and efficiency of government programs, they would rehire the Inspectors General. These folks and their agencies are tasked by statute with preventing and deterring waste, fraud, and abuse of government funds and promoting economy and efficiency in government programs. Don’t take my word for it. Check out the Inspector General Act of 1978. 5 U.S.C. 402.
As far as politics go, abstaining from politics–particularly in a time like this–is just as much a political statement as any party platform.
> We already have structures in place to hold poor performers to account and ensure no one is getting a paycheck without working. We all have supervisors.
I suppose I worked in a different part of the federal government. Nearly every single day I saw people doing essentially nothing productive and yet still getting paid. Sure, there were and are dedicated people who worked really hard, but there were also a lot of deadweight employees, and essentially no way to get rid of them. So, they would get shoved over into a corner, given bogus projects, and continued to get paid and receive benefits. And don’t even get me started on outright abuses of power, which are sadly too common.
Working in government, especially in law enforcement and intelligence (which was my area) should be difficult. People especially in those areas wield tremendous power and the average citizen is utterly clueless as to just how much power and in what ways it can be exercised. When someone is handed such power there should come with it an expectation of regularly answering difficult questions and those questions need to come from outside that particular organization, or else it is too easy fudge things.
Absolutely true and doubly so if a member of a protected class.
Carl,
I remember seeing a MR2 when I was in high school and thinking, “I could definitely do with one of those.” The only car that I specifically recall liking more (among those which seemed reasonably obtainable as a high schooler) was the Supra. I liked the look of the wrap-around console that give it that sort of airplane cockpit vibe. I would wholeheartedly support a spending experiment where you buy a 3rd gen Supra.
Oh man, the Supra. What a legend. I might make an exception to my No more ICE car rule if I stumbled upon a Supra. However, they are super $$$$$ these days. Very few unmolested examples around.
I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for all the amazing and inspiring content! It’s so refreshing to see a community of kindred people who truly embrace life.
As a fellow fan of classic cars (a.k.a. “death traps”), I totally get the thrill they bring. We recently added a 1996 XJ Jeep to our collection, and honestly, it’s become my absolute favorite car to drive. When it comes to safety, it’s all about keeping a safe distance, driving defensively, and simply enjoying the ride.
Here’s to the love of vintage wheels and the freedom they give us on the open road!
Thanks for the kind comment!
I do admit that old cars are kinda fun. In small doses, for me at least…
Great choice with the MR2! Fun little car. Any more pics? How was the drive?
Separately, what do you think about investing strategies to hedge against a market collapse like buying Puts on the whole market? I’m remembering interviews with Mark Cuban who hedged his positions before the tech market crash. Granted I’m not Mark Cuban haha.
The drive back from Salt Lake City was through a blizzard and terrifying! We drove 20mph for a couple of hours. Thankfully the car had all-season tires. More photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6PYB3YKYmg6eLZto8
I don’t get into options or hedging strategies. However, I have dumped money into the market when we’ve had big drops. We paid cash for our house when we bought it in 2019, but did a cash-out refi in spring of 2020 (COVID!) and invested most of it. We got VERY lucky there.
Car looks awesome, good luck with it!
You’re not supposed to be taking on any big construction projects anymore Carl! But if you need a little taste of construction again, please come help me finish my basement!
Oooh, I did my basement a couple of years ago! We should trade labor. Half-serious.
Are you going to EconoMe?
Love the blog! Hope to have a similar lifestyle to yours 10-15 years from now, but life is pretty good right now!
This is key and I wish that I would have understood it: “…but life is pretty good right now!”
You have to enjoy the journey because goals are short and fleeting.
I love the Mk1 MR2… have owned a couple naturally aspirated versions and a supercharged version in the past (the NAs drive better IMO). And it’s the facelift Mk1 (’87-’89) in the best color, too! I’m a bit jealous… I hope Mindy enjoys the hell out of it!
Whoah, you had the supercharged one! Those are hard to find an $$$$$!
Good that you are still having fun,It seems Markets are giving an chance to buy .
I am down around 40k.
Yep, the store is going on sale. Stock up!
Carl, I love hearing about your day to day stuff. You really strike me as a warm soul and you inspire me. Keep it up.
Thanks for the kind comment! Look me up next time you make it to Colorado.
Keep on keeping on Carl! Like the MR2. Hope you enjoyed the road trip, love me some alone time in the car as well.
Hey friend! Any chance you’re going to EconoMe this year?
Hey Carl!
1. Do still snowboard? context: On my most recent snowboarding trip with a group of dads and daughters, I was the only dad snowboarding and when I looked around I noticed there were virtually no people over 45-50 snowboarding, so my thought was: I better learn to ski because there is no long-term future on this snowboard thing.
2. I didn’t know you were a tennis fan. Indian Wells should be a blast! I’m jealous (in a good way of course).
Now imagine a bolt-on autonomous kit for the MR-2…how sweet would that be?
Cruising down to the local T-bell, blasting some classic rock, and letting the MR-2 “take you home tonight” while crushing a baha blast and crunch wrap supreme.
One can dream:)
More than that, an EV one would be super cool!
OMG!!
The MR2 was my favorite car in my early 20s!
I even drove it from CA to Philly in 4 days once which was hilarious and not recommended.
I applaud your wife for going for it!