Russia is currently at war with Ukraine – Many are watching anxiously wondering what this is going to mean for international relations. Hoping it isn’t a precursor to WW3..
There are still lots of issues in the supply chain related to Covid and there may be some new ones related to exports that come out of Ukraine, such as Neon and the global semiconductor industry.
I recently got promoted at my job and got a raise to go with it. I’m excited for both.
Had a cavity and got my filling redone. The bill was pretty cheap thanks to my dental coverage, I think $35.
Down about 7 pounds thanks to some experimenting I’ve had with Intermittent Fasting and consuming a bit less calories than I used to.
My stepdad recently turned 70. I didn’t get to celebrate with him and my mom in person but I wished him well and ordered some dessert.
My friend’s father passed away on Monday. I met him once in July spoke briefly. He was in poor health but still friendly to me.
One of the bartenders at Round-Up a local bar here in Dallas passed away in a car accident on his way back from Oklahoma. I will miss seeing his friendly face around. I saw him less than a week before he died. R.I.P. Lee (https://dallasvoice.com/round-up-employee-lee-williams-killed-in-wreck/)
3/1/22: 401K $152,603.32 Roth IRA $20,323.80 M1 Acct $4,859.06 Crypto $1,397.33 Buffer Fund $1,375.27 HSA $1,408.55 Total $181,967.33
1/29/22: 401K $157,097.16 Roth IRA $20,788.63 M1 Acct $4,690.51 Crypto $1,360.29 Buffer Fund $1,000.27 HSA $1,408.55 Total $186,345.41
My overall net worth is down, but but but… It’s only down $4,378 or 2.3% Month-Over-Month. Including matching, $2,700 per month to that total. At the current rate I’ll hit $1M in 11 years or before I hit 50. Some upcoming larger expenses will be my portion of a rental in April, vet expenses, car maintenance (though I’m tempted to buy a new one you have no idea), starting to save for a wedding trip in August.
Here’s to the good life!
Drinking wine at a friend’s birthday party
Trying to excel in everyway possible and lot let myself down. Funny how much people freak out over what happens daily but today the market is up again 1.86% and AAPL is up 2.06%. Last night I watched a classic video by Mr. Money Mustache about staying the course. Perfect reminder to make decisions based on what will bring me the most happiness and thinking long term. Ok I better hurry up before I’m late to meet up with friends. 😀 How are you all doing?
I fixed my last posting, apologies for the formatting getting all janky…
Happy to report there have been some recent positive developments for me professionally. After several years of trying to get ahead I finally got a promotion! Random thoughts:
Money isn’t everything but it helps when you’re trying to retire early or reach some major financial-related milestones in life.
I was poor for many, many years. From my first job in 1999 all the way up to Sept. 30, 2016 when my last student loan was paid off. Looking back over the years I could’ve been a lot more aggressive about growing my salary but I didn’t want to choose money over my happiness. On some level I thought the two would be mutually exclusive.
My salary since I entered this industry many years ago is up several times. I was happy in the early stages since I knew this was a growing industry with potential. What a huge difference from working in banking as a head teller.
In terms of the numbers, my salary still doesn’t put me in the top 1%, or even the top 10% for that matter. However my cost of living is a lot lower than a lot of the more liberal cities my friends live in. SF, Boston, Chicago, NYC just to name a few. Everyone I talk to is in shock/envy when I tell them my rent is only $965/mo for a 1br. Yes it is but their place is new construction, recently remodeled and doesn’t feel like 1983 inside. If you want to look at annual rent as a % of overall net worth we’re talking like 6%. Recently rent.com said the average was $1700 for a 1bedroom in the DFW market.
Am I in the hood? Not quite, the area is working class. I see the occasional luxury vehicle. There aren’t people walking up and down the street selling drugs, homeless people sleeping outside my door, or loud music playing at all hours of the night or window security bars on every home. I still want more modern, and more natural light.
Taxes are inevitable. Going to max out my HSA contributions to help lessen my burden. Still on the way to maximizing my 401k and the Roth IRA of course.
Over the years I feel less and less connected to people with massive student loan or other debts. I still empathize and have offered advice when people ask. I guess like anything else if you haven’t had to deal with that situation in years, you kind of gravitate toward it and instead focus on the growth part. I am a PAW (Prodigious Accumulator of Wealth). -$50k to basically $200k in 10 years. Will the next 10 years put me at $400k? Assuming non-compounding 8% return a year that’s $16k x 10 or $160k. Then add the 401k / Roth IRA max for 10 years. That’s $25,500 x 10 or $255k. If my math is right we’re looking around $655k in 2032. I could do that and move into somewhere nicer with money to spare and upgrade to a nicer car at some point. Or tough it out a bit longer and hit my overall financial freedom number a lot more quickly.
I’m valuing my health more than money. My friend Ryan passed away one year ago due to Covid-19 complications. Losing him has made me a lot more aware of where I’m at right now in life. A reminder that tomorrow isn’t always guaranteed.
Well it’s late again and I should be sleeping. Cheers.
My portfolio was down at the end of the month due to the market fluctuations. Dropped $9,841 or 5%. No big deal though. A year ago my net worth was $126k, so still up 48% more than before. I also have my rent saved up for the next month, all $965 of it.
1/29/2022: 401K $157,097.16 Roth IRA $20,788.63 M1 Acct $4,690.51 Crypto $1,360.29 Buffer Fund $1,000.27 HSA $1,408.55 Total $186,345.41
12/31/2021: 401K $166,506.19 Roth IRA $21,327.59 M1 Acct $4,532.81 Crypto $2,070.36 Buffer Fund $250.16 HSA $1,499.50 Total $196,186.61
2/2/2021 Update: 401K $114,241 Roth IRA $9,447 M1 Acct $1,498 Crypto $168 HSA $687 Total Investments $126,041
Writing this one up in a rush. The market has been all over the place. Between what’s happening in the Ukraine, concerns about Omicron and a new varient, company earnings, crypto taking a big dump. Seems like no matter what the month is there is some type of catalysmic event causing uncertainty. Over the years i’ve learned ot play the game for the long term. Short term plays are nice and can give a quick dopamine hit but I’ve got targets to hit.
Similar to my post a year ago Texas Y’all Winter Cometh, we got more snow in the lonestar state. It was more ice and it’s still melting.
I’m working at getting promoted at my job, but I’m not sure what is going to happen. I look at the market rates for the title I’m looking at and that would be a huge jump from where I’m at now. I don’t think realistically they would offer me that. Likely half of the difference. I see others who have worked with me who got promoted and within months jumped ship. Or they stayed a year and went elsewhere for a promotion. My fear of change can seriously hold me back. Money isn’t everything but my adjusted gross income (after taxes, retirement, and other deductions) the last 3 years has been almost the same. Much love, I’m off to meet friends for lunch. Stay healthy, financially wise, and happy out there. 🙂
Keeping the renewed sense of optimism people have with a new year starting on this post. If you want to look Month-Over-Month I’m up $10,234 or 5.5%. Year-Over-Year I’m up $72k or 58%. I legitimately don’t think I could save much more and still have what I’d consider to be a comfortable lifestyle. Still it beats having a ton of debt and wondering how it’s all going to get paid. $200k by March I think is totally reasonable.
I was thankful to receive a monetary gift from my parents. It helped me be a little less stressed while waiting for my next paycheck to be direct deposited into my account. I ended up splurging on a Ridge wallet to replace my bulky wallet that has like 13 different cards in it. Really digging the minimalist look.
If I could earn an extra $20k a year I think that would be the sweet spot for me. I’d feel much more abundance, being able to upgrade my lifestyle a bit. Right now I’m still on track but the process feels slower than it should be. Maybe with the new year I should change up some things in my life. Everyday is an opportunity to learn something new, or try something and fail. No reason to overanalyze and never give anything a try. I might fight tooth and nail but also mindful I’m not that far from my 40s and I’m never going to be this young again.
Sharing a few pics from my recent “adventures”.
Virtuvian LightsSenior Citizen dog dressed up for the coldSelfie while on the Katy TrailWood bark on a tree at Arbor Hills Nature Preserve
I like to focus on my energy, cutting back more on Facebook and Instagram which have proven to be fairly easy. The dating apps are a little more challenging. Swiping, chatting, trading pictures. I got my first catfish of 2022. Red flags – Sounding too eager to find the love of his life. Wanting to chat on Google chat vs the platform he messaged me on. Having a story about the family being in the army and the UN. I asked him for a pic with a thumbs up. He responded ok one minute, then blocked me on the app we chatted on originally. Aside from that I’m trying to be a supportive son since my mom has Covid with moderate symptoms and we think my stepdad has it too. Glad they agreed to get vaccinated after many heated discussions. Oh and my dad would’ve turned 65 today, been 18 birthdays with him gone. You never fully forget the past, you take a deep breath and just keep on going despite it. Take care.
Knock knock knock… Who’s there? December? December who
So I splurged a little bit this month and ran up some credit card debt. I needed some new shoes, new jeans, dog food, a $36 Christmas tree, and some miscellaneous items. Two new pairs of higher quality shoes that work with my foot pronation were close to $170. A lot of DoorDash deliveries, a sushi date, cell phone payment & plan, electricity, sports team membership, gas, Netflix, iCloud, it all adds up… I have close to $1k in credit card debt racked up that will covered when I get paid tomorrow. The computer I paid off in *full* mid November.
A big chunk of my portfolio is in the stock market and lately that has been taking a beating. Yesterday the market was down about 1.18%. So as much as it pains me to say this my net worth is actually down a few hundred dollars since last month.
10/24/21 401K $157,626.00 Roth IRA $20,720.83 M1 Acct $3,692.75 Crypto $2,372.39 Buffer Fund $379.18 HSA $1,426.62 Total $186,217.77
I started going down the rabbit hole of what all my options are. The best option I decided is to do nothing for now. Even today 12/2 as I type this the market was up around 1.5%. That elusive $200k number is still attainable… in 2022. I find myself getting impatient with this process, having started working 22 years ago and potentially working a total of 40+. Not saying that to ask for pity but damn this process takes a long time!
I was doing a little bit of research at the prices of what I consider starter townhomes. One that is essentially the equivalent of where I used to live is going for about $315,000. In 2013 it listed for $113k…Pardon my language but that’s fucking insane. Definitely a big deterrent for single income potential first time homebuyers like myself. At this rate by the time I have enough saved for a downpayment without PMI prices will be up another 30% or pushing $400k. That would be $82k down for a place built almost 50 years ago. Then monthly payments of let’s say $1300+ for the next 30 years.
I did hear something called the 5% rule today. Basically take what you’re paying in rent per year, I’ll round it up to $1000, divide that by 5% and then the number ($240k) is the most a home can be valued at before renting is more worth it financially. I looked at what’s available for $240k or less and I might have nightmares.
Really thinking about what will make me the happiest over the coming years as 40s are just around the corner. Losing weight is the first one. I want to do a pound a week. Going on walks again, doing intermittent fasting, taking exogenous ketones, lifting weights when the gym isn’t crowded. Avoiding certain foods altogether. The second is picking up some new skills. The 3rd is upgrading my overall quality of life. That could include where I live but also what I wear, what I drive, where I live, what I eat. Crunching the numbers on every decision I make is both a blessing and a curse.
Well I’m not going to therapy, I am finding things that benefit me from a day-to-day standpoint. Environment is such a big part of mental health either up or down. That also means switching things up every once in a while. It’s good to have a grasp of who you are and what brings you joy. It doesn’t happen overnight. What is considered “normal” tends to make us unfulfilled. The grass isn’t always greener either. I was chatting with a guy recently in general conversation. He’s white, >6′, nice build, beard. I’m not a 4 ft tall morbidly obese troll but the dude definitely has natural traits that you’d think would make him more attractive in the market. He was telling me he still hasn’t had luck in the dating scene.
I put up a Christmas tree in my apartment for the first time. I could come up with every excuse in the book on why I shouldn’t put one up. I just decided to roll with it and was happy with the outcome. Sometimes it’s just the simple things that make life better.
Parked car near the airport
Well I do not see my family New York on Thanksgiving, I did enjoy a friends giving instead. I made a rather simple recipe for roasted brussel sprouts And everyone loved it. Definitely made me feel good about my cooking abilities. Not to mention who wants to be completely alone on a holiday? I sure as hell don’t. 🙂
So despite questioning some of my most recent investment choices, things have been going well on the whole. I’m running on 4 hours and 50 minutes of sleep, so I do feel like a bit of a zombie right now.I want to think bigger and start planting seeds that will lead to a very bright and prosperous future. I don’t know what will make me happy though. Will having the energy to do all the things I want to do help? Probably. Would more activity partners help? Sure. Part of why I joined two sports teams again starting next month. Gotta keep putting myself out there no matter what.
I just did all the math. Between taxes, insurance, 401k, Roth IRA, HSA, taxable investment account… That’s about $45k has out of my pocket for the year. Not even including rent, cell phone, cell phone plan, utilities, vet bills / dog food, car insurance, fuel, car maintenance, travelling, groceries. Combined thinking all those would roll up to another $15k. So $60k for the year and I’m not living in the lap luxury. I’m tired and think I need to celebrate or take a break soon. At least tomorrow is a half day at work. Thanks for reading my lengthy whinefest. Calling the whambulance now.
My last video got 1 view so click through the link to go to youtube.com. Still not sure if anyone is watching my content after 56 videos but that’s okay. Happy Halloween!
These are the roaring 20s, 2020s. I’m not even sure where to even begin.
After owning a 13 inch MacBook Pro M1 the past year, I decided to buy one of the 16″ 2021 models because of features that I would definitely use over the course of the next year. Originally I had ordered the higher price model which is $3,199 not including taxes, but in full transparency that was a bit of sticker shock for me. For the most part I don’t spend anything above $2500 for my computers which typically last me 1 to 2 years and then get traded in for roughly half the value. The way tech is advancing these days, that high end model from 1-2 years ago is now surpassed by a system half the price. My older system commanded me a trade in value of $900, so the splurge and spending additional $700 on the higher end model kind of seem like a bit of reckless spending. I also don’t use this system to make a living. Why did I buy one?
The processor is significantly faster, it has over double the memory bandwidth, double the performance cores, and literally twice the number of graphic cores at 16 vs 8. Certain legacy games I had would choke on the older system.
The screen is 16.2 inches versus 13.3 inches and it’s a mini LED display versus a more standard LCD. In the real world with that means is I can keep more windows open on one screen at a time, everything is a bit more legible to me since it’s brighter, and overall my eyes are less fatigued after looking at the screen for hours on end. When I bought the previous system I had a 16 inch model that I had traded in due to a number of issues including the system having a loud fan and overheating.
The SSD on the system is also significantly faster meaning everything is snappier from opening to copying, or if the system has to read/write to swap memory.
Ports. The previous system only had two USB4 Ports, one of which was used to supply power.A s a result, I often was unplugging one device and plugging in another device, I wasn’t able to plug in my tablet as a secondary screen and do a time machine back up, or connect to a device like my SD card reader or my USB microphone, or even just plug my phone into my computer to do a back up or to supply power.
Built in SD card reader. This one is definitely more of a want versus a need but it’s nice to be able to just slide the card into the computer versus looking for the USB reader and plugging that in. Cost = $2499 + $9 expedicted shipping + $206.91 tax = $2,714.91. Less $900 + Tax = $974.25. I also signed up for the Apple Card which offers me 3% cashback on all Apple purchases at a 0% interest rate. So that’s an additional $84.15 to take off. So $1,058.40 off the initial price leaves me with a cool or not so cool $1,656.51 out of pocket to pay. First payment is due November 30 and I can cashflow that in the next 45 days so not considering it part of my debt.
Roth IRA – I made a large contribution into the Roth IRA to max it out for 2021. It was $3,636 which to me was a significant amount of money, but I’m thinking in terms of the long-term growth of those dollars and how me at age 50 will appreciate the diligence turn my younger years. Pulled from my emergency fund account which with the high levels of inflation recently has been losing value in terms of purchasing power.
Crypto – In September I bought $1070 worth of Solana, October I purchased some Shiba Inu – $35, as well as Ethereum – $125, and Bitcoin for $371. I pulled most of the dollars out of my emergency fund to cover these purchases as well. The signals and my gut instinct were telling me to buy and stop sitting on the sidelines. So that’s exactly what I did. I do plan on building that account back up again soon. However these gains are freaking rediculous. No more than 5% of my portfolio will I invest in these speculative investments.
401k – Basically I’m staying the course with the 401(k), with my recent raise it looks like I may end up reaching my contribution limit for 2021 a little bit earlier than planned. Between my contributions the the market being up, I’m up about $10k since my last net worth update.
Guilt – I have a little bit of guilt with where I’m at right now versus where I see others in my circles or my distant family.The stories range the gamut, I know one person who is currently on disability and literally at or below the poverty line. I partially blame his ex partner who because of his reckless behavior lead my friend to health issues that eventually contributed to his depression. With family I know a few people who are either long-term unemployed or recently unemployed. One of my old neighbors developed kidney failure and is also on disability and unable to work. Then I know a few others still in the service industry. The pandemic has turned everything upside down for them, and in some cases they are still expected to help their parents make ends meet. Then just older people in general who don’t have enough saved in retirement and have to deal with a toxic workplace.
Literally this one benchmark puts my new machine at over 4x the one from 2019 and 89% faster than the system I got last year.
At my current contribution levels and an 8% rate of return by the time I’m 50 my net worth will be $1,056,000. By the time I’m 60 assuming the other same inputs it will be $2.78MM. If I were to literally 100% stop investing today I’d have $479k. The older I get the more I just see money as a tool and a way to be free. Shiny new things are nice but they also can trap you if you’re not smart about it. I’m literally tired a lot these days wondering how in the hell people work until their 60s. Then again I work from home and live alone.
I was watching a video from Matt D’Avela about Why your life feels like it’s flying by. Basically he hit the nail on the head, almost every single thing I do week in week out is part of a routine. Wanting to change that for the sake of having more variety in life feels foolish in a way. Yet I am human and keeping things status quo for a decade seems sort of like a prison sentence. Between dating, career, health,
+$11,772 Month-Over-Month or +6.76%. The HSA total is down because I had to get an annual physical and do some lab work. Also had some other health issues I’ve been working through but still have been a major inconvenience. Two years ago I had a net worth of $54,681 so more than 3x improvment since then
Don’t let me outlook come across as me being all doom and gloom, there have been some good things happening in October too. I got dressed up as Maverick for a Halloween party last week.
Maverick with a wrinkled unfirmHaving fun at Fair Park in Dallas for the State Fair
Ferris Wheel – Texas Fair Park
Close to bedtime. I may post a video this weekend if I feel up to it. Take care! ❤
Debt Free Alpha 