My main goal* was to build an investment and cash portfolio of $1,120,000* 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.
September was a very, very busy month:
We sold the Acura NSX: We were bored with the car, but also wanted to cash out to raise money to buy another home. We sold it for the exact same amount that we bought it for, $45,000. Read the full story here.

We bought another home: We had been casually looking for a long time and finally found the right deal. The purchase price was $365,000. Here is how we paid for it:
- $199,000: HELOC from our first home.
- $45,000: NSX sale.
- $35,000: Cash that we had laying around.
- $86,000: Stock sales.
We’ll pay off half of the HELOC in January when we can sell stocks and avoid capital gains.

We’ll be fixing up this home over the next 2.5 years, maybe longer if I get lazy. If home-flipping/remodeling is your thing, check out my YouTube channel where I’ll be documenting the flip: https://www.youtube.com/1500days

For now, we’re keeping our first home. We’ll rent it to friends in the short-term and experiment with Airbnb after that. If renting the property doesn’t work out, we’ll sell it.
With all of that in mind, here is how we’re going to account for our homes in these Performance Updates:
- Home #1 ($260,000): I value my primary home at $550,000. Subtract the $200,000 we borrowed from the HELOC and the $90,000 we still owe on our mortgage and we’re left with $260,000.
- Home #2 ($365,000): I think that this home is worth a lot more than the $365,000 that we paid for it. We saw 3 models of this home sell in 2019 ($420,000, $500,000, and $600,000) but I’m going to wait until 2020 to reset the price. This will give me time to watch the market and come up with a more accurate valuation.
Current Financial Picture
Home Equity: $625,000
- Home #1: $260,000
- Home #2: $365,000
Real estate that isn’t houses in Longmont: $842,500
- Trailer park: $170,000
- Coworking space: $127,500
- Syndication deals: $375,000
- Private loans: $105,000 (we have two, one at $40,000 and another at $65,000)
- Mortgage notes: $65,000
Stock market (index funds and individual stocks): $773,507
Cash: $19,723
Two more things:
- In my sidebar, I’ve always separated out my home from the rest of our investments. Now that I have two, I’m accounting for my rental home as an investment.
- In past performance reports, I gave our two old cars, dinosaurs, and all of my possessions a value of $20,000. Our cars are old and for the sake of simplicity, I’m not going to include the value of personal property in my net worth anymore.
September Spending: $4,097.90
After our mortgage of $1,238.49, here were our three biggest expenses:
Household crap ($1,456.01): Mrs. 1500 goes through phones like I go through toilet paper. Instead of getting a budget phone, I bought her a new Pixel in hopes that it will last longer than a year. My Pixel 1 is three years old and still going strong.
Education ($351.34): We paid school fees and also donated money to our girls’ school.
Restaurants ($302.42): Life got busy and sometimes it’s just easier to eat out. #meh
Live-In Flip Spending: $2,180.27
I’m going to account for remodel spending separately. I’m doing this because these are one-time expenses that are not normal living costs.
We had some big wins:
- We discovered our town’s toilet replacement program which gives you a $100 rebate if you replace your old toilet with a dual-flush model. Conveniently, we found dual flush toilets at Sam’s Club for $100, so our new thrones are free.
- The pool had a leak in an underground line. A pool guy came out and told me it could cost up to $5,000 to fix. Luckily, I did some poking around on the internet and found a solution that set me back $80.
Home remodeling deserves a stand-alone post, so I’m going to stop here.
September Performance Update
September was a down month. We started at $2,286,717 and ended at $2,260,730 for a loss of $25,987. $20,000 of this loss is because I’m no longer valuing personal property in these reports (see above).

2019 (as of 9/30/2019)
- Days elapsed: 273
- September gains: -$25,987
- 2019 gains: $346,290 (including 401(k) and HSA contributions of $32,182****) Note that the 346K number is inflated because as I mentioned earlier in the post, we’re now accounting for one of our homes as an investment property.
Since the start (1/1/2013)
- Days elapsed: 2464
- Gains since 1/1/2013: $1,309,687
- Investment portfolio and cash value: $1,895,730
- Net worth (everything!): $2,260,730
Real Estate Income: $1,793.51
Just because of timing, this was a slow month for real estate income. The trailer park pays out quarterly and so do our syndication deals. It so happened that September was one of the months where none of them had a scheduled payment.
- Coworking space: $1,000
- Mortgage notes: $500
- Private loan: $293.51
New Challenges
The last home we remodeled was a tough one. For most of the remodel, I had a full-time job, so getting it done along while maintaining the blog and raising two children was insane.

The home we just bought doesn’t need nearly the amount of work that the last one did. Almost all of the remodel is cosmetic. Redoing kitchens and bathrooms is my specialty. Setting tile is fun. I love hanging cabinets and redoing plumbing.
I’ll redo this house at a much more reasonable pace. The earliest we’d sell it is spring of 2022, but if the neighborhood agrees with us, we’ll stay until our girls are out of the home.
Going slow isn’t my style. I like to get stuff done. But, life is too short to go crazy. I need to remember to stop and smell the roses gaze at the aspens. Going slow will be my biggest challenge by far.

*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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****My 401(k) contributions include my own, Mrs. 1500’s, and the contributions from my corporation. Self-employment with a solo 401(k) is a very powerful savings tool. I should have done this years ago.
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I understand the simplicity of removing your personal property from your data, but I do feel bad for the dinosaurs. I hope you had a good talk with them to instill confidence that it isn’t about them.
Financially Fit Mom recently posted…Check Your Arena
Real men sit to urinate.
Great going. It’s going to be a busy few years for you guys.
Your net worth looks great. Nice job.
How is the real estate market over there? It’s really slowing down in the Pacific Northwest.
I think you’ve got a fun project ahead of yourself the next couple of years with the remodel. Life has a tendency to get in the way, so I wonder if you can really go as fast as you’re predicting.
When I used to managed projects professionally, we’d always increase our time estimates by about 50% to account for “unforeseeable issues”. It worked pretty well because of course things always came up during a big project.
Like you Mr. 1500, I like to build things, so it’s going to be fun to follow along with your remodel! Good luck!
Hi Karl,
I do have a underwater leak in my pool. Can you let me know what is the cheap solution you found? tx
This stuff worked great: https://www.fixaleak.com/
How you use it depends on if your leak is in a line or the pool tub itself. Let me know and I can help!
Tx, read on the internet that it often doesn`t work. It certainly is worth a try because if I need to dig it will cost a fortune. .Will give it a try and let us know if it works for you!
So, it was successful for me. I used two bottles instead of one and had to pressurize the line per the directions on the bottle. It wasn’t hard though; just some PVC parts from the store. Total cost was less than $100.
Sometimes on a hike, I like to stop, close my eyes,
and listen to the aspens.
It is very peaceful to the soul.
I’m looking forward to more remodeling videos.
Good luck.
Just wondering why you are moving out of your old house after you put so much work into it fixing it up?
I believe he mentioned it in a previous post where he talks about buying the house. Basically all the neighbors they became friends with moved and they have some friends near where they bought the new house (I think).
Yep.
I also enjoy fixing up homes. I wouldn’t do it if I had a full-time job, but this will be my hobby for a while when the girls are in school.
Curious to know more about the syndication, private loan and mortgage note performance. Has it met expectations? Has it been 100% passive? How did you research the sponsor and borrowers? I ask b/c I feel like we have tapped out the number of properties we want to own (we have 11) and we have just one note, so that has been the direction we’re looking at. So far, I haven’t seen anything where the risk/ reward makes sense. The yields seem high (10% or more) but vetting the parties enough is where I hesitate..
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Caroline! My mortgage notes (8%), private loans (8% and 10%), and syndication deals are all doing perfectly with the exception of one of the latter. After the initial research, they are 100% passive.
With the private loans, we look at loan to value ratio and the purchase price. I also want to make sure the lendee has skin in the game.
Sponsors are hard to vet. The one that went south had a pretty great record until this one. I’ll write about it more when I have a free moment…
Carl,
Congratulations on the new home! Exciting on so many levels. I will be joining your YouTube channel to watch the progress in preparation for my great return to the Front Range…I want to see how a pro does it.
Alas, NSX or 1980’s interior? So much to say and arguments for both. Your commentary will keep me entertained.
Hey D-dog!
Whoah, returning to the Front Range? Look me up as soon as you get here!
And pro? My results are usually good, but that may be a stretch! 🙂
This blog is inspiring. I will read your earlier blogs to know your journey and maybe learn how to invest or save.
Thank you! Hit me up if you ever have questions!
When you retire, would you ever contemplate becoming a licensed contractor to supplement your income? It seems like you’re learning a lot from your experiences. It’s so sad though that you had to go through with that. I’m not a home owner but I’ve had plenty of terrible experiences with car repairs, especially at Ford dealerships (all across country too) so I’ve learned you can never trust a reputable name. True references from close acquaintances are the way to go for recommendations. https://nhadep.nguyenvanphung.com/xay-nha-tron-goi-phan-rang-ninh-thuan/