doityourself

You Don’t Have to Make $100,000 a Year to Retire Early

February 12, 2013 by Mr. 1500 Days 9 Comments

Mrs. 1500 here!When Mr. 1500 first talked to me about the concept of retiring early, I was intrigued. Having already "retired" myself (to stay at home with the little 1500's) I thought it was a good idea. He told me about some blogs he had been reading (Mr. Money Mustache, Retire by 40, Brave New Life, etc.) so I started reading them to see what they suggested. (I am not … [Read more...] about You Don’t Have to Make $100,000 a Year to Retire Early

YouTube your way to massive savings!

January 5, 2013 by Mr. 1500 Days 8 Comments

Last January, we signed a contract to sell our old home. The buyers had a home inspection done and some of the “findings” were minor plumbing issues. Fine I said, “I’ll take care of it.” I’ve always done this type of work myself. To set the buyers’ minds at ease, I offered them the opportunity to inspect it again when I was done. That wasn’t good enough. They wanted ‘their guy’ … [Read more...] about YouTube your way to massive savings!

My goal was to build a portfolio of $1,000,000 by February of 2017; 1500 days from the birth of this blog (January 1, 2013). And hey look, I’ve since retired!

Investments only (primary home excluded)
1/1/13 (The Start): $586,043
1/1/14 (1 Yr Later): $869,635
1/1/15 (2 Yrs Later): $987,351
1/1/16 (3 Yrs Later): $1,057,961
1/1/17 (4 Yrs Later): $1,257,128
1/1/18 (5 Yrs Later): $1,527,701
1/1/19 (6 Yrs Later): $1,549,440
1/1/20 (7 Yrs Later): $2,035,040*
1/1/21 (8 Yrs Later): $3,379,746**
1/1/22 (9 Yrs Later): $4,762,642
1/1/23 (10 Yrs Later): $3,112,821

2023: Investments only
1/1: $3,112,821
2/1: $3,582,368
3/1: $3,716,852
4/1: $3,861,599
5/1: $3,694,445
6/1: $4,089,141
7/1: $4,384,858
8/1: $4,539,865
9/1: $4,468,622

Gains: $1,355,801

Overall
Gains since 1/1/2013: $3,882,579
Net worth***: $4,698,622

* The big jump between 2019 and 2020 was partly because we bought another home, but kept the previous (much more expensive) one as a rental. We have since sold it.

** Tesla.

*** Includes our primary home equity in addition to our investment portfolio.

Finally, we still have about $290,000 in mortgage debt (which I love!). No regrets about the debts!