My main goal is to build a portfolio of $1,000,000 in 1500 days, starting from 1/1/2013. Every month, I provide an update on my status. My goal for 2013 is to get my portfolio up to $672,750, from a starting point of $586,043. Time to look back on the month of June.
Hey, look at that! If you’ve been paying attention to my little updates on the right side of the page, you’ve noticed that I reached my goal for 2013. In June, my portfolio went from $636,661 to $685,926 for a gain of $49,265. Perhaps you’re thinking that I did some Enron-esque, creative accounting. Nope. I’ll get to the explanation in a moment. First, the numbers:
- Days elapsed: 179 (as of 6/29)
- Days remaining: 1321
- 2013 gains: $99,883 (including my contributions)
- Left to go (2013): Goal accomplished!
So, how did I jump such an incredible amount in June? We redeployed our money. We sold our $400,000 home and moved down to a $176,000* one. We had $90,000 in equity on the previous home and put put down 20% ($35,000) on the new home: $100,000 – $35,000 = $55,000 in new cash to play with!
Put in this perspective, June was actually a down month. If I don’t account for the new capital, I actually lost about $5,000. Some of this is attributed to Apple which once again terrorized my portfolio, dropping more than $50/share in the month of June alone.
Here is what I did with my new found wealth: 15K to VFINX, 15K to Berkshire Hathaway and the rest I’m keeping in cash. We’ll probably buy a rental home in the next year, so I want to keep plenty of cash ready to deploy.
Finally, I didn’t set my 2013 goal with the intention of selling our place. The $55,000 is a bonus, so I want to end the year with $727,750** ($672,750 + $55,000).
House Update
The home we bought is a fixer-upper and I have big plans for it. While moving in consumed most of our time in June, I did manage to complete a couple projects in fhe first week of owning the home:
I’m a fan of gable fans Gable fan: The ventilation in the attic was poor. Most people don’t realize that an attic should be about the same temperature as the outside. An overly hot attic in the summer will cause premature shingle failure. If you live in a cold place, a warm attic in the winter (usually caused by poor insulation) will result in ice dams. Ours was steaming hot, so I cut in more vents on one side of the home and installed a gable fan on the other.
The whole house fan explained Whole house fan: I have yet to meet another person who has one of these in their home, but I put them in every place I buy. A whole house fan draws air inside the home and blows it out through the roof vents (the picture explains it much better). What is the point of this? In our state of Colorado, often the daytime temps will exceed 90, but they drop into the 60s after the sun goes down. Instead of firing up the AC, we turn on the whole house fan and the home is cooled off in minutes and uses much less electricity.
The first half of 2013 is over and what a year its been. Markets are up over 10%. The second half of the year is going to be a bit rough if the US government starts tapering the bond buying program as expected. However, I am still optimistic, especially for the 4th quarter.
*We could have paid cash for this place, but no way I’m doing that with an interest rate of 3.25%, especially when my peer lending projects are earning more than 10%.
**The crazy dreamer in me imagines scenarios where I hit $800K*** this year.
***Now that I’ve written the above statement, I’ve probably doomed my portfolio to a lackluster 2013.
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Never heard of the whole house fans. Would they be effective in FL where we have significantly smaller day/night temperature differentials? Lately it’s been 86/76 for day/night. When it gets really steamy it’ll get to 95/85, but in the summer near the water, a 10 or 15 degree difference is MAX what we’ll get with all the humidity in the air. We get slightly bigger swings in winter when it’s drier, but definitely not the kind of day/night swings you can get out in the dry desert.
Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…Why We’re Hoping For a Net-Worth Drop (And You Probably Should Be Too!)
Oh and Congrats on booking the gain from selling the house. Well earned. =)
Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…Why We’re Hoping For a Net-Worth Drop (And You Probably Should Be Too!)
Thanks!
Nah, I don’t think a whole house fan would do you much good. In Colorado, they are awesome because often the difference between day and night is huge. Lately its 90 during the day, but will dip down to the 60s at night.
One of the first things we did in our current home was add a whole house fan, commonly known around here as an “attic fan” (not a gable fan, those are smaller than an attic fan). If you build about a six foot long box in the attic, and situate it above the fan, the fan will run much quieter with no loss of power or performance. There should be an opening in one side of the box that fits over the fan and that the fan blows up into, and the end of the box is open for the air movement ☺
Wendy recently posted…Save Money: Gas Mileage Tips That Work
Hi Wendy-
Thanks for the tip! The big disadvantage of a whole house fan is they are extremely noisy. I’ll implement your suggestion when the attic is no longer crazy hot!
Big fat congrats on that jump in funds, 1500! That has gotta increase the level of dreamy, comfy sleep, no? Also, we got our energy bill down to $54 and $70 for May/June this year which we thought was impossible in Houston, but perhaps we can do better with the whole house fan. Who the hell, besides you, would install one? This could be worth looking into, methinks! Have a cool, cool, big, blowing fan weekend!
cj recently posted…Walking Your Day Away
“That has gotta increase the level of dreamy, comfy sleep, no?”
Yes, nail on the head! Having a ton of money in a home just doesn’t sit well with me. I do like having a nice home, but not more that I dislike that big albatross around my neck.
“Who the hell, besides you, would install one? This could be worth looking into, methinks! Have a cool, cool, big, blowing fan weekend!”
Ha, probably no-one! I have yet to see someone else with one installed in their home.
Well done! Congrats on the gain and selling the house. We keep our house in our net worth low but if we sold it we would get lots more for it. The reason is to be safe just in case prices drop. That way our net worth doesn’t take too much of a hit. I hope you share your renovation posts with us as you go along. Cheers
Canadianbudgetbinder recently posted…The Saturday Weekend Review #27: Garage sailing without money in your pocket
CBB, I like your conservative approach. If we have another world financial meltdown (and we will at some point), home prices will probably take another dump.
Looking good! You’re on track.
Troy recently posted…6 Obstacles Every Successful Investor Must Overcome
How much are those whole house fans I could really use one of those right about now. I was thinking about get an air circulator fan but this sounds better. Great job with selling the home. Will it cost more to fix up the new home vs staying in the old? You are moving quickly on those goals. I got out of Apple but Pandora has been rocking for me.
Thomas | Your Daily Finance recently posted…Paying For College with Federal Student Loans
Whole house fans are only a couple 100 bucks. They are so much cheaper to run than air conditioning, I’d highly recommend it if you live in the right place.
We will come out way ahead in the new place. We went from a $2500 mortgage to an $1100 one. Also, water and electricity rates are much cheaper. While it will cost around $25,000 to fix the place up, since I’m doing it mostly myself, we’ll actually be increasing the home value much more.
Instead of VFINX, check out VFIAX, the Admiral shares for the same fund. Most Vanguard funds offer an Admiral version if you invest over $10k. The expense ratio drops to 0.05% for the Admiral shares. For people who don’t have $10k to start, you can build up over time and then transfer in after you hit $10k. Congrats on your progress!
Mike-
Thanks for the tip. I had no idea and will certainly look into this.
Yes, I second what CBB requests – please continue to share your updates. In addition to being mesmerized, I think we might actually be able to start implementing some of what you are doing. For now, our version of the whole house fan is having little fans all around the house. I wish it cooled down at night here, but it really doesn’t. It’s something that continues to amaze me even after living here for 15 years.
Thank you for continuing to share your financial successes and the links. It is so helpful as we are like little spring flower buds when it comes to finances. We have the potential to blossom, but we need lots of sun and water. That’s where our financial wizards come in! Thank you!
Tammy R recently posted…Walking Your Day Away
Oh wow, this project is going to consume my life for a while, so there is no way I wouldn’t post about it. I’ll also be posting all costs as well. Stay tuned.
Sounds like a whole house fan wouldn’t do you much good. I really can’t stand heat and can’t imagine what it would be like to live in your neck of the woods!
Wow – way to go, you guys!!!! Sounds like the house move was one of the best for you guys – congrats!
Laurie @thefrugalfarmer recently posted…Good Reads for the Week Ending 7-5-13: Farm Work is Hard Work!
Congratulations on the big month, and way to revise your goal upward!
I’m not entirely sure if what we have qualifies as a whole house fan. Our AC/heater combo has an option for us to simply turn on the fan (the other setting is auto, only running when heating or cooling). Anyway, when it’s advantageous to bring in air from the outside, we just turn the fan to “on”. Do I have a whole house fan, or am I way off base?
Done by Forty recently posted…We’re back, with Gratitude
Hi Done by Forty-
Usually the fan mode in a home’s air conditioning/heating recirculates the air that is already in the home, but doesn’t bring in air from outside.
Thanks for the kind comment! To 800K and beyond!!!
Unless you have an evaporative (swamp) cooler, I think. If you turn the fan of those on without the water pump, it sucks air in from outside and pushes it inside without doing anything to it.
Mrs PoP @ Planting our Pennies recently posted…Loving Where You Live
Hi Jake-
Thanks for the kind comments!
Yeah, one of the keys to my 800K dreams is Apple getting back up to at least 500. If it tanks down to $300, my exuberant dreams will evaporate.
Our newly built home does INDEED have a whole-house fan. Our utility bills are very, very reasonable, especially considering how hot and humid it is and the fact that my wife stays home with our two young children.
I will likely be retrofitting our next home with one, among other improvements including a radiant barrier (which kills cell reception unfortunately), and LED bulbs.
Now the Gable fan is not something I was familiar with and I will definitely be doing some research, thanks for posting this bonus information in your Performance Update.
No Waste recently posted…Why I’m A Boglehead (Part II)
Wow, I didn’t know about the radiant barrier. That would really cramp things for me.
Whole house fan lovers unite!
I love LEDs too. They are so much better than they were just a couple years ago.