My main goal is to build a portfolio of $1,000,000 in 1500 days with no debt*, starting from 1/1/2013. Every month, I provide an update on my status. My goal for 2015 was to get my portfolio up to $874,353. Because we saw exceptional returns in 2013 and 2014, I have already accomplished this. Before we have a look at June, I need to tell you about the chaos in the lives of the 1500’s.
It’s been an interesting time to be living in the 1500 household. If you think that I’m using interesting as a euphemism for shitty, you’d be right! I apologize for the harsh language, but there is no other way to describe it. It all started with rain back in May:
- Sump pump takes a dump: It rained. Then it rained some more. And then it really started raining. On a hunch, I went down to the crawlspace to make sure that the sump pump was working. It wasn’t. I rigged something up to keep the water at bay. During this crawlspace adventure, I also discovered that water was pouring in near a sill plate because the yard isn’t graded properly.
- Shitty faucet #1 (fau-shit?): Shortly after that, Mrs. 1500 noticed water in a vanity that I just installed last year. Turns out that something in the faucet had broken (again, just a year old) and was leaking. This was in the same bathroom where I recently installed a shower fixture that didn’t work out of the box due to a faulty cartridge.
- Kid khaos: We installed all new windows in the home in 2014. The kids managed to damage one of them beyond repair by somehow bending the whole thing.
- Fried mower: While on vacation, a well meaning neighbor tried to mow our lawn with our electric mower. The grass was tall (see the first bullet point) and she pushed it too hard, burning out the rectifier.
- Faushit #2: I installed a new vanity and faucets in the girls room. A day or two later while brushing her teeth, big daughter goes, “Hey Dad, the faucet is spraying water in my face!” I go into the bathroom to investigate. Sure enough, the faucet is indeed spraying water out the top, right into her face.
- Garage door horror: Our garage door opener broke, refusing to go down. It teases, going down 1/3 or 2/3 or even 7/8 of the way, only to head back up. I can almost hear it laughing as I swear with abandon each time it reverses course. I realign the beam thing and readjust the torque settings. Neither helps.
- More drips: I was in the crawl space messing with something else and hear dripping. One of the soldering jobs on a spigot had gone bad and was leaking.
- Whole house fan joins the party: The first thing I did when I moved into this house 2 years ago is install a whole house fan. Lately, it has started making an subtle, but ominous squealing sound.
Now, I can’t make this next part up. I swear it is true. On Friday the 26th, Mrs. 1500 said:
Wow, I can’t believe it! Nothing has broken in a week.
Cue the ominous music now.
The next day, it was almost as hot as the surface of the Sun. In the early afternoon, the house was starting to warm up. Since we were having guests over in a couple hours, I turned the air conditioning on. Guess what didn’t turn on.
DING! DING!! DING!!! You’re a winner!
Our 1 year old AC unit was broken.
After four days and four visits from an AC guy who is stunningly incompetent, the thing is fixed. Actual words from this guy on the final visit:
Ooops, looks like I installed it upside down! Ha ha!!!
Yeah, hilarious! Screw you. Leave and don’t ever come back.
In the past 2 months, more things have broken in this house than have broken in my past 15 years of home ownership.
Which brings me to June 30th.
On top of all of this other crap, I got kicked out of the Double Comma Club (DCC). This is like the the 5th or 6th time, so I’m used to it. Thanks Greece! I don’t hate you as much as I hate my garage door and the AC guy, but you’re getting there:
Actually, out of all of the things that went wrong, getting tossed out of the DCC was the least painful. Since I’m still in money saving/investment buying mode, I was actually hoping for a 5 or 10 percent drop. Hell, make it 20 percent. Buy low, sell high, right? Maybe you’re not so bad after all Greece. What do you say Puerto Rico and Portugal?
June
I started the month at $1,036,272 and ended at $999,668 for an decrease of $36,604. I put $5,475 into my solo 401k. I also used $10,000 from my cash pile to pay off what should be the last home improvement bill. No more, I swear. So, my portfolio lost $21,129. Bummer:
$1,036,272 – $5,475 – $10,000 – $999,668 = $21,129
Here are the numbers as of 6/30/2015:
2015
- Days elapsed: 181
- Days remaining:184
- 2015 gains: $12,317
- 2015 401k contributions: $21,900
- Left to go (2015): Goal accomplished!
Since the start (1/1/2013)
- Days elapsed: 891
- Days remaining: 589
- Gains since 1/1/2013: $413,625
- Needed for $1,000,000 (investments and cash only): I’m there!
- Needed to retire ($1,120,000 in investments): $120,332
- Net worth***: $1,249,668
Shut up
Despite all of my whining, life is still pretty great. The garage door spontaneously started working again a couple weeks ago. Ikea replaced the “spray in your face” faucet without a hassle, despite my lack of a receipt. I’ve fixed the leaky spigot and the mower started working again after I replaced a rectifier that set me back $2.78 (shout out to the free [with coupon], Harbor Freight multimeter!). I’ll get around to fixing all of that other stuff soon enough.
I’ve come to see broken crap as an opportunity to learn. I now know how to test an AC compressor (I’m NEVER calling that guy again). I can now tell you the basics of how to test various things with a multimeter (shout out to Sparkfun). I know how to test and replace a rectifier.
Never, ever stop learning.
*I still owe something like $120,000 on my mortgage. Because I have a low rate, I firmly believe in not paying it off. My compromise is to have enough money put away to pay off the mortgage at time of retirement. So, to retire today, I would need about $1,120,000.
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***The numbers on the right side of the page only reflect my investments and cash. Net worth includes, but is not limited to:
- Home equity
- Cars
- Bicycles
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You just about summed up our month. Our AC broke, the garage door broke (with me out of town and Mr SSC’s car stuck in the garage – he couldn’t even get to a store, so he had to call an emergency repair place), our glass shower door broke, among some other more minor issues — we ended up having to spend about $3k on just stuff that broke. A very depressing month! I’m feeling more optimistic about July!!!
Mrs SSC recently posted…Personal Capital just saved me a gazillion dollars!
Yikes! Sometimes, home ownership is a drag…
Ah, the joys of home ownership. I’ve been there, actually I’m living there……but you guys actually get more repairs and remodeling done than I do.
I know we swap reading ideas. I published a review of The Outsiders (by Thorndike), which I really think you’ll like. It’s not about Charlie, but you’ll enjoy 🙂
-Bryan
Income Surfer recently posted…I Reviewed a Great Book
Yes, that book looks pretty great. I’ve been wanting to learn more about H. Singleton for a while and it looks like he is one of the guys profiled. Can’t wait!
We took a hit of around £1800 this month which seemed large in comparison to our portfolio size. Oh well 🙂
Just out of interest why did you subtract the 401k payment in your calculation? Does the 401k value not get included in your net worth?
theFIREstarter recently posted…early mortgage pay off vs extra investment strategies
I subtracted the 401k because I wanted to show my appreciation or depreciation for the month without factoring in contributions.
Ah I thought that may be the case.
Apologies in advance but I’m engaging mega pedant mode now then 🙂 … I think the actual sum you needed to do was:
Current month networth – last months net worth – contributions + spending
So :
$999,668 – $1,036,272 – $5,475 + $10,000 = $32,079
Alternatively you could have just added the 401k contributions in your equation instead to arrive at the same yet positive figure.
But I think written in the above form it makes more sense as you end up with a negative figure when the net worth goes down, and makes it more obvious that contributions should be subtracted while spending should be added when you want to find out exactly what the market did not including those two factors.
Hope that makes sense and sorry again, but I find it helpful when people point out any discrepancies in my figures (in fact I wish they did it more, I’ve made some right gaffs that have gone unnoticed so far!)
Cheers!
theFIREstarter recently posted…june income/expenses, net worth and savings rate report
I just realised I forgot to put the negative symbol in front of the $32,079. Should have been -$32,079 obviously.
That’ll teach me for being such a smart ass, and trying to write sums on a smart phone! 🙂
Yeah, it all makes sense and thanks for the suggestion. I admit that I confused myself when I was typing it out! 🙂
That’s a smart way to do it. I read another portfolio update from a blogger who was raving about getting to $200,000… but it was because he added money and didn’t want to point it out.
Gotta sell the dream!
Man, sounds like your resilience is being tested to the extreme! Sounds like you’re doing your best to find the positives in it all though. How unlucky to have what sounds like the most completely incompetent AC guy on the planet, just to rub in the pain.
And I wouldn’t worry too much about the double-comma club, your still sitting pretty. Anyway, surely they have a clause where if you dip 5% below the threshold million you still retain your membership?
Jason @ Islands of Investing recently posted…Freedom is so much bigger than just financial independence
The AC guy is an idiot of humongous proportions. It goes much deeper than this actually…
I had a similar issue with my garage door and it turned out one of the beam things was bad. Replaced it and everything worked fine.
I’m on the verge of tearing the whole thing out. Or, setting it on fire!!
Sounds like you have a torsion spring cable issue. Might need to replace the cable or pulley
http://ddmgaragedoors.com/diy-instructions/troubleshooting.php#problem-3
They also have the DIY for that on there. I used them when replacing some springs a few weeks back.
Thanks, much appreciated.
The joys of home ownership. We understand your pain. Our AC went on the fritz (turned out it was a short and it took 3 days and three different people to fix it), two faucet leaks, one pipe damaged in our bathroom sink (replaced by Mrs. ROB….she is a rockstar), dryer went on the fritz, and I spent three hours trying to get our lawn mower working……it finally worked. I love being a home owner. Hope nothing breaks this week.
Jason recently posted…Financial Tip Friday: Fourth of July Activities That Won’t Break the Bank
“Hope nothing breaks this week.”
Dah, you just cursed me! Ha, just kidding. Maybe.
Ouch! Knocking some wood for you as I type this. Based on that month you should be covered for the next several.
The DCC should like a new fall TV show. I know I’d watch it, I’m far from it, but working on it.
Brian @DebtDiscipline recently posted…What type of Shopper are you?
Lots of drama with the DCC! I’m beginning to thing 2015 may not be so hot. It’s all good though. Long term is what counts.
That sounds like a pretty not so fun homeownership month! I think we discovered that one of our thermostats is a bit faulty, when we tried to take it off the wall to paint, so that needs to be investigated.
We replaced all of the light bulbs with LEDs except for one that we haven’t figured out what to do with. The first batch of replacements, we got on sale at Costco and the break-even period was about 10-12 months, which was pretty sweet! Very helpful with the steep rate increases our electricity company has been putting on us.
Leigh recently posted…June 2015 net worth update (+0.3%)
LEDs are just awesome. I hope the world switches over to these very soon.
Costco is just great for them as well. I haven’t calculated my payback period, but I’d guess it’s at least double or triple yours. It’s all fine when your time frame is decades.
Man that’s a rough month when it comes to home repairs. Hopefully you won’t see as many crazy sh$tstorms in the future.
The markets have been pretty crazy lately, don’t believe we’ll see any calm soon.
Tawcan recently posted…Random Personal Finance Thoughts
Nope, no calm for a while. Greece is a mess. But so is Spain, Portugal…
Yeah, that’s a lot of DIY home repair. I kind of want to learn how to use a multimeter though: I can see how that’d be fantastic to track down which part of an electric circuit is to blame.
Done by Forty recently posted…A Defense of Price Optimization
Yeah, a multimeter is SUPER useful! Highly recommended!!
We averted disaster for the month of June. We had a pipe burst, but luckily caught it in time and no damage was done.
Mrs. Budgets @MrandMrsBudgets recently posted…Get Paid To Grocery Shop
Whoah, that is scary. Glad it didn’t get out of hand!
A few days back, I tried to convince my husband that we should dump all our cash into the market now. Fortunately, he reminded me that I want a new kitchen and bathrooms more. Blogging has obviously been bad for my ability to remember that I really want to live in a nice(ish) house.
Nice(ish), ha!
I like to say that I’m not a market timer and I’m still dumping $5,475 into the markets every month, but things are scary. I wish it would just correct down 20% and get it done with…
Wow this post and the comments make me happy I’m a renter. I usually get envious of home owners, but this will keep those thoughts at bay for a while 🙂 Hope July is less painful.
Fervent Finance recently posted…2015 Mid-Year Goals Review
Do you have a spare bedroom?
Man, my garage door went kaput too! It cost me $145 to repair. Sounds like a similar problem as yours. For ours, one of the cables came detached, so one side was dropping while the other was not.
Are you sure yours isn’t just a laser alignment problem? If the safety beam is just a bit off, it will go down part way and go back up–not every time, but intermittently. This happened to us as well. Hopefully it’s a simple repair, although it rarely is.
Eric
Retire29 recently posted…Question to Stay-At-Home-Parents: Are Two Incomes Really Better Than One?
You know what, it may be the laser. Even though it isn’t indicating that it is off by blinking, giving it a good kick seems to temporarily resolve the issue.
I had to get a new garage door opener too b/c mine would create violent thunder every time it would open and close. It also wouldn’t close straight!
But, when you buy a fixer, you just expect to replace everything eventually. Next up, windows!
Financial Samurai recently posted…The True Cost Of Building A Luxury Master Bathroom
Chuckling, only because we’ve been there. Within six months of moving into our not-that-old house, we had to replace *five* major appliances and fix the furnace. Just thinking about all of that is enough to make me feel nauseous! And that market correction/Greece reaction — mixed emotions. We’d love to buy more shares for cheaper, but it makes our overall portfolio go down, which makes us feel farther from our goals. So yay/boo. Glad you’ve still managed to keep a positive perspective on the whole thing.
Our Next Life recently posted…Why We’re Optimistic About Early Retirement
I’m barely positive, just a couple ticks above losing my mind!
That sounds like a crappy run in home repair. At least now (knock on wood) you have gotten it all out of the way.
Even know you lost your official DCC designation, you are a rounding error away and would still be considered an honorary member 🙂
Cheers!
Dominic @ Gen Y Finance Guy recently posted…June 2015 – Detailed Financial Report #6 – Net Worth $220,313 [+21.5% YTD]
A rounding error, yes… I look forward to the day when I stay above that line forever. I’d guess I’m still a couple years off…
I hear you on the random expenses, we have been hit hard lately too. Learning about AC compressors woudl have save me money last year, too. I have enjoyed learning more about washers, fridges, AC, etc in the last year or two. It makes me feel all grown up to fix it by myself.
I have had an LED bulb go bad (not one from Costco though). It was just after 3 months and I had gotten it on sale at Lowe’s. The manager finally gave in and exchanged it for a new one (I was not sending it in and waiting forever for a new one).
Vawt recently posted…Solar Power Update
Damn on the LED bulb! I hope that I have better luck with mine. They sure are not cheap and I suspect it will be at least a couple years before I earn my money back.
I should have added that I have close to 30 LED bulbs at this point, so 1 having issues in a year is not too bad. Even LEDs are going to have defects once in a while!
Vawt recently posted…Solar Power Update
Wow! It seems like when it rains, it pours! And I guess literally for you with all that rain. I’ve been getting pounded with rain also on my home front but luckily no damage.
Sorry to hear bout the negative month brother but im sure it will ride out!
Alexader @ Cash Flow Diaries recently posted…10 Must Have Traits Needed to Achieve Success
Thanks for the encouragement Alex. I’m really looking forward to nothing else breaking…
Something always breaks every month in our house. Right now our dishwasher is not working. It’s super old and probably needs to be replaced. But since we never use it, we wash our dishes by hands, we are not even worried by it. Our little garage door opener that opens the door broke. So waiting on it to arrive from Amazon. It was only a year old. Shower head broke too so had to replace.
Savvy Financial Latina recently posted…Automatic Saving Buckets
Yikes, are we all in the same sinking ship?!?
What a great opportunity to buy before you leave the workforce! Even if it means getting kicked out of the DCC. The numbers nerd in me was hoping it was $999,666. You were so close.
It’s sounds like you and water are on bad terms. Maybe stay away in July? Fingers crossed nothing break next month!!
Kate@GoodnightDebt recently posted…Drowning in Email
So far, so good!
Number nerd, eh? If the market keep their current trajectory, I may have a shot at $666,999!
Great site. Just wondering if you post the holdings in your portfolio anywhere?
Hey GGR-
Yeah, I need to do an update. Here are some posts I wrote on the topic last year:
https://www.1500days.com/1500-portfolio-part-1-rare-insights/
https://www.1500days.com/1500-portfolio-part-2-rare-leadership/
https://www.1500days.com/thursday-rant-1500-portfolio-part-3-no-empire-lasts-forever/
I hardly ever buy stocks, but when I do, I go pretty big.
LOL I love the go big or go home type of buying. It’s odd for me not to buy in lots of 100, but I think I may start to deviate from that and get a Loyal3 account. Not sure I like the fact I don’t get to specifically price the stock, but it definitely eliminates that $9.99 trading cost at TDameritrade and that will likely even it out.
Duncan’s Dividend’s recently posted…Driptasic June
LOYAL3 is awesome! I have used it for about a year now and love it.
Holy cow, I felt like I was reading my worst nightmare! I have an older home and we’ve saved quite the emergency fund in case we have a series of events such as yours.
Your change in market value was worth more than my market value, crazy! Congrats on your journey so far, I’m looking forward to catching up.
Red to Riches recently posted…June 2015 Net Worth Update
“Your change in market value was worth more than my market value, crazy!”
It’s all good. Start building that snowball up as fast as you can and before you know it, it will take care of itself!
Single family residential == idiosyncratic risk. Imagine the irritation if it was a rental! And it was the Nth time what my family refers to as a “zombie attack” had happened :-). This sort of thing is what finally got me to kick my “but rental property should be good” ideas and boot an SFR property out of my life. And then primary residence even! I will probably own a home again but I’m super happy not to have a rental unit and quite pleased not to have a primary house right now either. It’s all fun learning the first few times but once it’s repeats – ugh!!
Hey Mike-
I envy you at times like this! For the most part though, home ownership has been a good experience. I’m thankful that I can fix just about anything myself.
Made me feel better lol. I’ve had some things go wrong in June. Most of June was just replacing 60 year old galvanized pipes and such, gotta love PEX.
I did have a drain clog, ended up leaking water all over and flooding my basement pouring water right on my electrical panel and HVAC.
Didn’t cost me anything to temporarily fix, but I do have a new project on my list and some drain lines that need to be replaced.
I agree with Mike, I like owning a home but right now it’s too much time and money. If I went back in time I’d hang on to renting longer while I build up wealth. I might sell but I’m perfectionist and this house needs some serious work first. Oh well, guess It’ll set me back a year or two on FIRE.
Kyle recently posted…Hypermile with Road Etiquette
“Faushit,” awesome! Man, seems like you’ve been having a lot of bad luck with the construction. I’ve had the same w/ the custom mirror (Cracked first time installed), the closet didn’t fit right, neither did the vanity, etc.
It’s one thing to build a custom whatever in the shop, it’s another to install it in a bathroom b/c the walls or floors might not be perfect!
Here’s hoping the Greece resolution gets you back to triple commas!
I finally published my bathroom remodeling post. So glad it’s OVER!
Financial Samurai recently posted…The True Cost Of Building A Luxury Master Bathroom
Early summer tends to be our sweet spot for incurring disastrous emergency expenses. Last summer we had to get our heat pump replaced (one of the most expensive things in home maintenance for those regions that use them). In the past month my tower computer conked out and is currently in the shop, and my husband’s car keeps running into expensive trouble (last month it was 1500 in repairs, and now his clutch broke in the middle of his 10 hour trip to visit his parents in Indiana)…
Mika M recently posted…ups and downs
Heya 1500!
Found you via the comment you left on my blog. Thanks for reading! Totes jelly of your Alexa rank.
Hope you join me in FIRE soon.
Financial Velociraptor recently posted…Buy JPS for fixed income and preferred shares exposure
It’s the first time I visit your blog, I think it’s a fantastic idea to explain the different steps to achieving your goal. Motivation is the most significant factor to succeed, your results seem quite satisfying, keep going !
Similar things happen to us too, nothing goes wrong for the longest time, and suddenly everything seems to fail or break. Good luck with all the (remaining) repairs!
Oh, and I’m also hoping that the market crashes as well, have lots of proceeds from our home sale to invest 😉
Mr. FSF recently posted…It’s official: we are homeless, jobless and debtless (and loving it!)
Lots of things break in my rentals, I buy industrial strength, but cheap stuff. Use quality name brand plumbing stuff. It’s easier to install and lasts longer.
No Nonsense Landlord recently posted…June – July 2015 Rental Cash Flow