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. Let’s have a look at August.
Wow, what a month! In July, my investments peaked at $1,070,000. Then, August happened.
On the morning of Monday the 24th, I checked in with Personal Capital** to see that my portfolio was all the way down to $920K (-$150,000!!). The bouncers at the Club Double Comma didn’t ask me to leave nicely this time. Instead, they picked me up by the scruff of the neck and threw me out:
Don’t let the door hit your a$$ on the way out Mr. 1500!
I enjoyed getting tossed onto the trash pile though. I’m still working and therefore, still throwing money into the markets A pullback is nothing more than an opportunity to buy equities at a lower price. Who wants to pay more for anything? Not me. Here is how you should look at at:
If anything, the mini-pullback was a disappointment. I was hoping that the markets would stay low for a while longer.
Performance Update: August
I started the month out at $1,044,913 and ended at $992,150, for a loss of $52,763:
Here are the numbers as of 8/31/2015:
2015
- Days elapsed: 242
- Days remaining: 123
- 2015 gains: $4,799 ($31,650 of this is from 401k contributions. I’d be negative if it weren’t for this.)
- Left to go (2015 only): Goal accomplished!
Since the start (1/1/2013)
- Days elapsed: 972
- Days remaining: 528
- Gains since 1/1/2013: $406,107
- Needed for $1,000,000 (investments and cash only): $7,850
- Needed to retire ($1,120,000 in investments): $127,850
- Net worth***: $1,242,150
In other news that really isn’t news at all, I’ve been keeping myself extremely busy:
Remodeling
A couple weekends ago, Mrs. 1500 and the girls went to visit grandparents and I stayed behind to get some work done. My remodeling project, which started June of 2013, shows no sign of ending. I had planned to have it all wrapped up in June of 2015. Now, I hope to be done June of 2016. I just have no time.
However, there is progress. I put up about half of the trim during my work weekend. Finish carpentry is pure misery when the rough carpentry is substandard (I really should have fired this guy sooner). Tasks that should take ten minutes turn into an hour as you customize trim pieces with a router and planer to make them fit. Some of it is pure misery. However, all of the problem areas are done and the rest should be smooth sailing nail-pounding.
Playhouse and piranhas
I want my girls to know how to work with their brains and their hands. If you ever stop by, you’ll hear me talking about math and power tools. Sometimes, the girls are less than enthusiastic:
- Me: Hey daughter, want to learn how to change the spark plugs on the car today?
- Daughter (with great energy): NOOOO!!!!
However, I told them that if they wanted a playhouse, they would have to help build it. This has turned into a fun project. We designed it with Sketchup and are now almost done with the main part:
The deck that Older Daughter is standing on will be the landing pad for a zipline (I wasn’t kidding about that). If your eyes could see 30 feet north of that deck, you’d see a tree stump from which the zipline will start.
Here is a very poor drawing of the design (I have no artistic talent of any kind):
We won’t finish the playhouse until 2016 as I have to focus my energy on the real house for the rest of 2015.
In the meantime, does anyone know where I can source a Komodo dragon?
Komodo dragon fun fact: Juvenile dragons live in trees to avoid being eaten by the adults. And I thought it was bad when my parents spanked me!
*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.
**This is an affiliate link. If you sign up, the blog makes a little bit of money. Personal Capital is a totally free and superior way to keep watch over your investments. It’s worth it for the fee analyzer alone. I would never recommend anything that I don’t personally use and completely believe in, so give it a try. If you’ve already signed up through the link, please know that I an thankful will not send a Komodo dragon to your home.
***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
New Macbook Pro:My old Macbook was 7 or 8 years old and was starting to show its age. I bought this sweet machine a couple weeks ago. It has a flash based hard drive and 16GB of memory. I am blown away by its incredible speed. With any luck, I’ll be using it long past 2020. Apple stuff is expensive, but this thing is almost worth if for GarageBand alone. I can replicate any guitar sound with it. After discovering GarageBand, all of my guitar amps went on Craigslist.
Oh my goodness! Serious about the zipline!? My girls must never know about your girls or they will start asking about these elusive girls of similar ages that live in another place and have a PLAYHOUSE with a ZIPLINE?! “No girls… they are only in the computer. No girls are lucky enough to have all THAT!” 🙂
Maggie @ Northern Expenditure recently posted…The About Series: The Banks!
You are in Alaska! If any house should have a zipline, it is one in Alaska! You have moose and bears running around*. Come on, do it! (Yes, the zipline will happen; at least until the city shuts me down) You probably have more space than me, so you can do an epic one like 600′ high and over a couple glaciers or volcanoes.
*Colorado has moose and bears too, but I’ll bet yours are bigger.
Definitely bigger on the animal front (probably not true, but I’ll stick to it). Unfortunately our property doesn’t pass any glaciers.
Maggie @ Northern Expenditure recently posted…The About Series: The Banks!
No glaciers? A volcano then? Geyser?? Small mountain??? 🙂
An occasional moose. And a large rhubarb plant. That’s about as Alaskan as we can claim on our yard.
Maggie @ Northern Expenditure recently posted…The About Series: The Banks!
My friends elementary girls in Seward, Alaska, have a zip line from their tree house down to the ground. Dad put some slack in the line so they can slow down at the end. Hope your daughters don’t smack into the side of their playhouse…How are they going to slow down?
http://help.ziplinegear.com/entries/22964583-Zip-Line-Braking-Methods
It wasn’t the smartest move for me to dump $6500 last month into the stock market. But hindsight is 20/20. Like you I view this as a buying opportunity and tried to invest as much as I could this month. Nice to see your remolding projects coming along, looks like your girls’ playhouse is going to be sweet!
Mrs. Budgets @MrandMrsBudgets recently posted…FinCon 2015 Tips & How I’m Going for Free
In the long term, it will all even out. If you’re at least decade away from retirement, all of this will be but a blip some day.
Wowza, down $150,000! I was down about $15,000 at some point and recovered to my investments “only” being down $10,000. Whatevs. I have time on my side!
Leigh recently posted…How I Got My 800 Credit Score
It’s all good! I’m hoping I sink down to 800K (-$270K) before the whole thing is over.
I didn’t bother checking how much I was down by at the mini trough (but who knew it was the trough at that point etc…) But tried to chuck a little more money into some trackers than usual this month. We’ll see what happens over the next few months but I reckon it could be turbulent 😉
Tree house looking good already! I have no kids but am still jealous of your zip line! 🙂
theFIREstarter recently posted…step by step guide – how to register for and fill in your self assessment tax form
“Tree house looking good already! I have no kids but am still jealous of your zip line!”
It will be for adults too. Next time you’re in the states…
Hahaha your flow chart is great! I’m with you, I have plenty of cash on hand and lots of time to ride out the market, so I look at the correction as a way to buy low!
Ali @ Anything You Want recently posted…Online Dating on a Budget
I know, right? I just threw some of the cash I had into an investment account. If Berkshire hits a 2 year low, I’m buying!
Wow, awesome playhouse. I thought about trying to build a treehouse for my kids but I don’t think it will ever happen.
Thegoblinchief recently posted…August 2015 – Our First Time Camping!
Hmmm, if I ever make it out to WI for an extended period of time…
So how much weight is that zip line going to be rated for… Here’s hoping for a value >= Mrs PoP’s weight. =).
Just did our numbers for the month – down a couple of percent. Here’s hoping the dip lasts a little longer so we an buy even more shares on sale! (Greedy when others are scared….)
Mrs PoP @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…PoP Income Statement – August 2015
I want to line to support at least 250 pounds. I’m taking the safe route here. I know this weight is way more than double Mrs. PoP’s weight (safe route again)!
Yeah! If this week is any indication, I think we’ll have some more buying opportunities. Down, down, down!
No joking around with that playhouse. I’m just hoping stocks remain low for the month of September as it should be a higher income month. Love putting money to work on the “cheap”.
Fervent Finance recently posted…Why CPAs Are Terrible With Their Finances
Yeah, I hope the Fed hike happens and the result is that the markets get pounded. Bring it down, down, down!!!
The deck for the playhouse looks great. I also like the hickory steps. What are the white pieces for the risers? I tried using sketchup once to make a blueprint of my house and our renovations but I didn’t have the patience for it. It was probably because I didn’t know what I was doing. Any tips?
Thanks Mattattack!
The white pieces are made out of MDF board that I sliced up to fit. The rest of the house has white trim and I didn’t want the stairs to cost me $2000, so I went with this instead of hickory risers.
Regarding Sketchup, I’d do a couple of the video tutorials: http://www.sketchup.com/learn/videos/58 It really is super easy to use. Once you know just a few of the basics, you can crank stuff out in minutes. I designed my whole addition for the current house on it in under 10 minutes. It’s that fast and easy.
And, I use it all the time just to try to get an idea of what stuff will look like. For example, I am making fancy posts for the front of my house. With Sketchup, I can draw it all out to make sure the idea in my head will look good in real life.
I looked at the market dip the same way. A pullback is only an opportunity (as long as you stay in the game). You’ll be back up to 7 figures in no time!
Dane Hinson recently posted…Investing is a Long-Term Game
Exactly, an opportunity is all it is. And I had always hoped to quit working in a down market. I may just get my wish, although we still have a while to go. As of this writing, the S&P PE is still > 19, with 15.55 being the mean: http://www.multpl.com
Zipline? Boy you’re the coolest dad ever.
SSD is so amazing, have one for my work laptop and I’m never going to get the regular HD anymore.
Since we’re in accumulating phase still a market pullback is great for us.
Tawcan recently posted…Sunshine Blogger Award
SSD is just great! I never want to see another spinning disk again (except for the zipline pulley).
Looks like your wish is coming true today with the market tanking again. We are both lucky we have years to go. Our net worth took a big hit too, but I have cash waiting to buy as well. 😉
David of the Debt Free Guys recently posted…Monday Money Minute: Turning 100 Dollars into 3,000 Dollars
Yeah, down 500! Can I have another 500 please?
I feel your pain, my portfolio dropped by about $84k in August, not counting the backslide again today. But I’m not worried, I have about 5% of my portfolio in cash so I can live for many months on that without selling a thing and I have a bond position that I can go to if the cash runs out.
Nice job on the playhouse.
Steve Miller recently posted…5 Budgeting Tips for September
Totes jelly of that playhouse!
Financial Velociraptor recently posted…Sold Covered Call CVX
Yep. The market here in Aus has been exciting, too. Nowhere near as exciting as that playhouse though. A zipline?! That is just too cool.
diane @smartmoneysimplelife recently posted…How to Make the Most of the New Season
Yep. We all took a bit of a hit. I feel like if you had pulled the plug on the job, you’d have been instantly regretting it this month! You’ll be back into the double comma club in no time though.
Chris @ Flipping a Dollar recently posted…Mistakes on eBay – Not Just for New Sellers
Ok! I have located a Komodo Dragon… all we have to do… is…well first we need mustache disguises, a tranquilizer gun, an oriental rug, and 25 beers, a coat hanger and matches… Next, we have to… Well crap, I’ll PM you!
Fun fact: The Denver Zoo said Thursday that Castor, the offspring of a gift to former President George H.W. Bush, and one of the 10 oldest Komodo dragons in North American zoos, was euthanized following complications with arthritis.
WHAT!! BUSH HAS A KOMODO!?! Do you think it sleeps at the foot of the bed?
Mr. Crackin’ recently posted…August 2015 Spending Report
Nice work Mr. Crackin! I eagerly look forward to reviewing your plans!
Whoah, W has/had a Komodo? That might explain some things. Well, never mind…
Glad to see you come out on top when it comes to the flow chart 😉
I don’t think things in the stock market are going to get better during the remainder of 2015. Inside Europe we’ll just be glad when the chaos with Greece is all over.
Serious zip line envy.
Come on over and try the zipline! Next summer…
Rough end to the month. I was lucky enough to have some capital available to pump more in at the drops – but who’s to say the recovery is going to last. Going to be volatile for a while, to say the least. Liquidity is huge right now. There could be some massive opportunities available amongst all of the ups and downs, like the astute investor who was quick to pull the trigger on that 1,100 point Dow drop last week. Anyway, keep up the good work and good luck!
-DP
DP @ Someday Extraordinary recently posted…The Opportunity Cost of Fantasy Football
Go volatility! I love all of the drama. As long as the long term trend is up, it doesn’t really matter what happens in between.
“Welcome to Walmart!” = Awesome! I’ve been training with minimum wage job life with my hours driving for Uber. So far, so good. Lots of annoying instances and frustrations = good for writing some fun posts and appreciating what I have.
Nice steps! I pinged my contractor who “promised” me he’d get back to working on my house two weeks ago. Haven’t heard a peep! Amazing.
I think I’m just going to build a deck off the back and be done with it. Simplify life!
BTW: If the market gets really ugly, do you have a way/desire to deploy even more capital beyond the paycheck?
Sam
Financial Samurai recently posted…Spraying, Praying, And Missing! Analyzing A Failed Real Estate Offer
Hey Sam-
I’m going to drive for Uber too! I wonder how many millionaire drivers Uber has? I’ll bet there are more that most people think.
Yeah, I have a little cash on the sideline. I deployed 35K when that drop happened a couple Mondays ago. I have another 30K that will be put to work if indices hit a 2 year low.