Performance Update, January 2025: Big Market Farts

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. For now…

Another year, another performance update.

When I started this blog waaaay back in January of 2013, I thought that it would be a good idea to share my numbers. It would be silly to talk about my journey to financial independence without talking about finances. Money is the measuring stick of the goal of financial independence.

But Mindy and me have been FI for a while and we’ve far exceeded our goals. It seems kinda silly to continue with these updates, but I still enjoy keeping track of my numbers. And I mainly wrote on this site for myself, so I’ll keep at it for a while longer.

Money -> Time

Money was so important to me a couple of decades ago. It meant that I could buy food and shelter. With money, I was less vulnerable to unknown unknowns. Money was armor. As my money grew, I felt more secure:

The car is broken? No problem.

I need a new computer or phone? I have the money.

Cavity from too much Mountain Dew? I’ve got this.

I used to think/ worry/ obsess over money constantly. I had recurring nightmares where I’d lose my job and unable to get another one. My life would devolve into chaos. I don’t have this nightmare anymore.

One of the great things about having money is that it mostly frees you from having to think or worry about money. Thank you Nest Egg.

But how does one evolve effectively with money? Old habits, formed and reinforced over decades, don’t die easily. How do you break up with your past?

To start, I don’t want my values to ever change. No matter how much money I have, I never want to waste it. It’s the same as turning lights off when you leave a room and turning the thermostat down when you’re not at home. Resources should always be appreciated, never wasted.

But there should also be room for subtle improvements and refinements. And many of those should be around conserving the resource of time.

• I don’t want to wait in long lines at the airport. Thank you TSA PreCheck.
• I don’t want to sit on a city bus for 80 minutes when a rideshare service could get me there in under 30. Thank you Waymo.
• When I buy something from Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, if the item is not in my town, I’ll pay the seller to deliver the item to me.

When I was 24, I lived alone and didn’t have a lot going on. I’d get home from work at 5 and then have hours to waste on whatever. Now, minutes are much more precious.

Money, I’ll never stop appreciating you. However, when I can use you to buy some time back in my life, I will.

<foreshadowing alert>And perhaps there’s room for big things too.</foreshadowing alert>

January 2025

Our investments (not including primary home) started the month at $6,060,794 and ended at $6,147,861 for a gain of $87,067. Add in $400,000 in primary home equity and our net worth sits a little above $6.5m. Not bad:

This blog has now been alive for 12 years and it’s been a great run. 2022 wasn’t so hot, but it’s been awesome otherwise:

Big Market Farts

One thing I hear a lot of chatter about lately is market valuation. The mean valuation of the S&P 500 is 17.21 and it’s currently at 37.96 (!!!).

I have three thoughts:

• This doesn’t sit well with me. Perhaps there are reasons valuations should be high (increased market participation?). But the current numbers still seem lofty and excessive.
• I also don’t care that much. Mindy is still working, so we aren’t drawing down much. If she were to leave work, I’d sell assets so we’d have money to fund our lives for the next 2 years. I’d do this regardless of market valuations.
• The Big Bad Thing won’t matter much. If the market went down my 30% and we had to sell shares at a lesser price, most of our portfolio will still be intact. Zooming out and looking at the big picture, most of our money will most likely be invested for many decades. This year’s Big Market Fart won’t mean much. Just like a real fart, it may seem awful in the moment, but it will pass and life will go on.

Very Big Project

We had always planned to move post-kids. And they’re 18 (!) and 15, so it’s not that far away.

Our current home has 4 bedrooms and 4 baths. We don’t need a home this big after the baby birds flee. We had originally bought the Project House to move into later in life. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bathrooms ranch, so a good fit for us as we grow older. However, the home has a ridiculous floor plan, so we had always planned on doing some more work on it before moving in. Lately, we’ve been thinking bigger. And zooming out, it’s something I’ve thought about for most of my life. More soon.

More 1500 Days!!!

You can also find me (and the dinosaurs) at:

• 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!

*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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