As I write this I’m in the middle of recovering from a cold that has lasted me the majority of the week. I’m working on healing my soul in addition to my body. I went on two dates last week with a gorgeous guy in his late 20s and he completely ghosted me the whole week. I’m going to say he probably had other things going on. Getting out of the marines, going to school for software engineering, moving back to the area, and getting a part-time job. I was a little hurt at first, but I’m getting better at not getting attached to people right away. Journaling has helped.

Some changes – Added contributions that will show next Tuesday for simplification purposes. I am also including my emergency fund as part of my investments going forward. I don’t plan on including my car which is worth about $17k today or any other possessions I may sell over the course of the year.

7/30/21 –
401K: $145,693
Roth IRA: $15,419
M1 Acct: $2,564
Crypto: $451
Buffer Fund: $5,013
HSA: $1,752
Total Investments: $170,893

6/28/21
401K: $139,579
Roth IRA: $14,842
M1 Acct: $2,283
Crypto: $400
HSA: $2,120
Total Investments: $159,225

Net worth is up 7.3% or $11,668 from a month ago. Compared to a year ago I’m still up 95%!! Vs July 2019 my net worth is up 368%. I haven’t purchased any more crypto after getting burned on DOGE, still down $126 or 63% as of this posting. My holdings in ETC, BTC, ADA, LTC are also down in value. My M1 portfolio is still up 25%. 401k 1 yr RoR is 44.12% / 17.89% YtD. Roth IRA is 43.79% 1 Yr RoR. I don’t know how long this is sustainable with the market hitting all-time highs. Have to research Fidelity’s High Dividend options again, but I think the higher fees were a big turnoff. Balancing with growth stocks I can access in a non-retirement account without penalty before 59 1/2 might make more sense if the market starts to go lukewarm.

7/28/2020:
401k: $81,450.93
Roth IRA: $4954.67
HSA: $661.87
M1: $485.98
July 2020 Total Retirement: $87,553

This month has been a real doozy health-wise. I had a blister the size of two grapes on the back of my heel. Have some slight scarring but mostly back to normal. Got a minor laser procedure done on my nose that I’m happy with. Then the latest sinus / ear infection that has left me congested and bitchy. Got tested for Covid as a precaution, at least that came back negative. I also re-injured myself by not wearing proper bike gear. Tsk Tsk.

There are some things professionally that have me a bit irked. I can’t control it though, I think all jobs have some element of crap you have to deal with. The question is would you rather put up with the known vs the unknown. Without going into too many details, I do think growth is important.

I took a staycation earlier in the month and on the last day decided to take a little road trip to Denison Texas. Less than 75 minutes from Dallas it was just far enough to get away from the big city, but not far enough where I felt like I needed to book an overnight stay. The pictures are a bit deceiving how high up I actually was. I’m going to say at least 100 feet up, my fear of heights kicked in immediately. It was a breathtaking view though, a reminder of how life isn’t all about work, hitting goals, and worrying about things.

I had the best time at a friend’s apartment last weekend. Outdoor barbecue, burgers, hotdogs, drinks, cornhole and fun conversations. I really value the friendships I have lately, even if we aren’t necessarily “best friends”. It’s nice to feel appreciated.

Earlier this month I also saw some rad fireworks pretty close up and posted them to my other YoutTube channel. A different friend invited me to a 4th of July party, the first one I’d been to in 3 years.

Even if things aren’t perfect I still am thankful for everything I have. I know someone from high school who has lupus, is on dialysis and also having serious complicatons with her pregnancy. Someone else I know from my home state just split up with his ex after being together for years. Another has his arm in a cast due to a fractured wrist and thumb after a sports accident. Another couple I know is getting a divorce. I have relatives who are on unemployment. I’m sure there are lots of people who wish they earned what I make now and had rent under $1000/mo.

That’s mostly it. I’ve spent way too much on food this week as I haven’t been in the mood to do any cooking and food shopping while you’re hacking up phlegm isn’t fun. Postive vibes, we are all going through something. Some people are open about it others not so much. It’s almost 3am, time for bed…

June 2021 – Net Worth Update

My alternate view of my last blog post. Cheers!

I always like to put things in context with my life when providing a net worth update. Some notable items:

1. Today marks 8 years since starting my investment portfolio began with my first job to break the $50k level. It definitely wasn’t easy to start adding funds a 401k when I was still saddled with approximately $40k of student loan debt. The 100% match on up to the first 5% of my income was too good of a deal to turn down. Then I started thinking about how much I was paying in taxes.
2. High School graduation was 20 years ago. I keep in touch with a select few, celebrating their milestones from afar but with life and distance comes losing touch with people.
3. I’ve had a series of mid-life crises the last couple of months. Between annoying health issues, a temporary lull in my social life, being super introspective about life. I wanted to see family in New York after having not seen them since November 2018. I wasn’t forceful about needing to see them but still to see my parents buy a $40k truck plus a $13k trailer… but still not have the Covid-19 vaccine and not be receptive to me traveling to see them. We’re talking almost 1000 days. That kinda hurt.
4. A friend I lost touch with over the last few years has his home listed for sale. The price is about $400k and he paid $255k for it. I know the housing market is starting to slow down bit, but am pretty confident he will get close to his asking price if not slightly above it. I literally have no idea where he is moving to. Not sure if he’s Is he sticking to the area, is he going to London. I think he’s single again, last time he started dating he kinda disappeared. I should stop caring so much since we haven’t seen each other in 3 years after kinda seeing each other monthly for almost 7. That’s how life is though, he was always swamped with work.
5. I have a week of vacation coming up after 4th of July and literally have made no plans to go anywhere. Every place I’ve looked at that is dog friendly has been super expensive. Kinda frustrating, but I also don’t want to pay $250+ a night for something that is the equivalent of a Motel 6 or other dumpy motel. Prices go crazy around this time of year, especially with more and more people wanting to travel now that quarantine is lifted.
6. Dating has been formidable to put it mildly. I wrote a few paragraphs on this topic but ended up deleting it. Have to focus on the areas I have control over…
7. I am recovering from a skin infection on my foot. On 2nd round antibiotics, it’s annoying as hell during the summertime. Hopefully everything I’m doing to help recover is going to pay off quickly. My next visit is in a week, really hoping it’s the last one….
8. I’ve been in Texas for a decade. I never thought I was going to stay here that long. I still question if I’m making the right choices. The cost of housing here is spiking with all the influx of residents from other states. What will the “next” Texas be? Nevada, Florida perhaps?
9. I dropped $900 on a vrbo with friends for a week in hot Seattle. I still need to book the flight which I plan to do later this week and am praying doesn’t get cancelled.

6/28/21
401K $139,579
Roth IRA $14,842
M1 Acct $2,283
Crypto $400
HSA $2,120
Total Investments: $159,225

5/22/21
401K: $132,481
Roth IRA: $14,276
M1 Acct $1,860
Crypto: $466
HSA $1,856
Total Investments: $150,939

I don’t quite have June 2020 numbers, so just going to roll with May
401k: $69,924.08
Roth IRA: $4,228.39
HSA: $770.42
M1: $144.88
May 2020 Total Retirement: $75,068

Month-Over-Month: Net Worth is up $8,286 or 5.4%.
Year-Over-Year my Net worth has increased by $84,157 or 212%.

On one hand I have the highest net worth of my entire life and think my high savings / investment rate will make things a lot easier in my 50s and 60s. In fact being 12 years away from age 50 I’ve basically reached the average 401k balance of someone in that age bracket already. This is without owning a home. What I have saved now is easily 5x the amount my parents had at this age. The market is up right now and I didn’t have the cash to make my usual Roth IRA contribution. Next paycheck I think I can afford to go back to the plan.

I had a chat with my stepdad over the weekend. The house his father bought in 1960 was $14,900. In terms of today’s dollars that is $135,507. However realistically that home now 61 years later would now sell on the market closer to $500k with some partial renovations.

I’m going to loosen up my savings a little bit starting with the HSA. Instead of $270/mo I’m dropping it to $50/mo. In a way that will be like giving myself a raise. I haven’t decided exactly what I’m doing with the $220/mo difference. I can think of some responsible options and some less responsible but more fun options as well.

Update – I got invited to a 4th of July party and also have friends visiting from Boston. Super glad to get some more personal interaction. I think I start sounding nutty after I go many days without seeing people. Hope you all have a great 4th of July and stay safe.

I previously put together a video like this but never uploaded since it was too personal. Still might make it private again but sharing for now in hopes it helps someone.

This weekend was rough for me. The combination of Juneteenth (yes I should be happy but thinking of all the recent video footage made me feel otherwise), knowing someone at a pride concert a few friends went to was ran over and killed, having someone I liked tell me he reconciled with his ex, father’s day when mine has been gone 17 years, not seeing my family in over 2.5 years, not seeing my grandfather in 12 years, dealing with a massive blister on my leg, gaining weight back. One day I will be able to look back and laugh at it.

I’m going to see if things start improving in the next two weeks. If not I think seeing a therapist again might be helpful. Also noticing that trying to get the attention of people who are uninterested is a massive waste of time. My personality is that of an INFP but being too in my feelings can really stifle me. I kind of felt like I’m falling behind in the game of life.

This is not a money related post. It’s a way of getting my thoughts out regarding a situation that could have potentially been life threating to me and two friends of mine.

This afternoon at 1:30 two of my friends and I were supposed to go see a movie at the AMC movie theater in North Park Mall in Dallas. I have been to the mall several times before and think of it fondly. I saw people of all ethnicities there both workers and shoppers. The area is considered affluent and far from being a crime hotspot. I was planning to get there 15 minutes early but both due to weather, getting ready last minute and other factors I got there about 1:26. A woman in her 30s pulled up about the same time as me and we both proceeded to the entrance at the same time.

A friend sent me this at 1:22PM, indicating where I was supposed to meet him. Right next to the Nordstrom building.

Great, I have a landmark to reference. I crossed the parking lot and proceeded to head to the door. I literally was less than 20 feet away and I hear sirens. My first thought…. Is it a fire alarm? Perhaps some unruly teenagers were bored. Wait a couple minutes and it will all be over. The people in front of my ignored the alarm and proceeded to walk in anyway. The woman in the Porsche Cayenne paused and waited outside with me. We both were processing.

Not even 15 seconds later we see people exiting the doors. Except the pace was not leisurely, they were running. Mothers, fathers, children. Someone shouted there’s a shooter in there. I started running with them, adrenaline kicking in… I had my sneakers on. Genetically I’m a sprinter and not a long distance runner. Except I’m 5’9 and 250 pounds. It’s just across two parking lots. I got this.

For context-I hear stories in the news about mass shootings at least weekly in America. It’s seemingly unavoidable. I’m a minority. Going back 100 years to Tulsa and how a group didn’t want to see Black Wallstreet succeed. A former classmate from my high school was stabbed and killed in New York City. Downtown Dallas 2016 had a mass shooting where 5 officers were killed. On the same street as my apartment two people were shot and killed in separate incidents. In my 20s I feared going to the wrong neighborhood at night because of the gangs. Then the stories of Pulse night club. I tried to block all that from memory but was unsuccessful..

Was this yet another unfortunately footnote in the decline of American society? Would they target me because I’m black? What about my two friends who I’m supposed to meet at this very moment? One is stuck on the 2nd floor and live streaming to facebook to let everyone know he’s okay. The other one was literally parking and I text him don’t go in. I try to call but the call wouldn’t connect. Was he okay? He is new to the area and it’s his first time at the mall. My mind starts racing… I send pictures of where I am to my friends and they both respond. Okay they’re fine.

My other friend drives an early 2000s Acura with a shit ton of miles. It overheats for any trips over 30 minutes, almost blew up on the cross country trip. He’s trying to get out of the parking garage but it’s a standstill. On a good day it would take all of 2 minutes. This time it was over 30 minutes. Eventually we were able to rendezvous and sort out everything that was going on. I had a moment of PTSD but had to quickly take a breath to assess the situation and try to move on from there.

Later on we found out it was a mentally disturbed man banging a skateboard and pretending he had a gun. What if it wasn’t though? I’m only 37 with so many years ahead of me god willing. I don’t want to get shot. Some people were trampled by the crowd requiring hospitalization.

I hadn’t done any travelling over the Memorial Day weekend and we didn’t get to see the movie we planned. Rain check… We instead had some friendly banter at a nearby restaurant in Park Lane. I didn’t drink and got a salad. Trying to keep up with my weight loss. If that didn’t drive me over the edge I think I’m doing pretty well. Down about 9 pounds from my all-time high where I felt like literally nothing I did worked. My addiction to food was ultimately the culprit. I still find myself lacking control around certain sugary delights. It’s in a box and I have money. I can grab this box, eat 1000 more calories than I should and feel short term pleasure. Rinse repeat. Only up 9 pounds now since Covid started.

I went on a 26 mile bike ride yesterday and feeling pretty good about that considering I hadn’t pushed myself that long in 259 days! Also want more color variety in my bike gear. The GCN Jerseys look pretty rad. Those Brits take cycling seriously. I do need to upload a new video to my other YouTube channel, but the last 2 got 0 views so.. My biggest takeaway is to get to the point. I have about a 20 minute video of my going on and on about random stuff. Decided not to upload since it put me to sleep…

Nothing in life is guaranteed. Try to be smart but also enjoy life. You never know what day might be your last. Living in a bubble all the time is not really living. It’s a big country and a big world out there. This day will never come again. Looking back the times when I said yes to life more I ended up having a blast and making more meaningful connections with people. Game on!

Also http://www.nomoreharvarddebt.com is down possibly permanently. His blog inspired my back when I launched this one in 2012. Joe hasn’t updated in about 5 years, was hoping for a several years later update. Still maybe that’s for the better though. Thanks for reading. Hope you all are doing well.

My next paycheck will be in early June so decided not to wait until the end of the month for an update.

As I type this, today May 23 marks 17 years since my father passed away. I’m thankful he was part of my life. Things were complicated at times, but honestly you can’t change the past. Just learn from it and try not to repeat the same mistakes.

Crypto:
Over the course of the month I purchased some cryptocurrency to diversify and potentially capture my slice of the pie. I was tempted to dump thousands into it but I didn’t. Just what I felt comfortable with. My Coinbase account is at $355, and I invested a total of $425 in it so I’m down about 16%.

I have some Dogecoin and BTC on the Voyager platform. I got $25 worth of BTC for “free” since I hit a deposit requirement. I own 356 Dogecoins. Did a little dollar cost averaging after some of the recent news stories betweeen Elon Musk’s SNL appearance, China cracking down on the purchase of crypto cryptocurency, Elon’s comments about how BTC is not good for the environment. It’s been a total shitshow.. . Currently I put about $200 into Doge and last I checked that was worth about $111 and BTC worth $15.55.

There was an issue with the app being inaccessable for some period of time:

I wasn’t in the mood to dollar cost average even lower, so I decided to buy two shares of AAPL in my Roth IRA at $125.885 and a little more FZROX. I will likely buy some more crypto again later this year. There is just so much volatility right now and market manipulation. Worst I can lose right now is $625. Not thousands of dollars like some people who might be overleveraged.

5/22/21
401K: $132,481
Roth IRA: $14,276
M1 Acct $1,860
Crypto: $466
HSA $1,856
Total Investments: $150,939

4/27/21
401K: $132,427
Roth IRA: $13,825
M1 Acct $1,818
Crypto: $122
HSA $1,505
Total Investments: $150,707

The market hasn’t been going up as much as it did previous months. Going by the Wall Street Journal SPX Historical Price Index. 5/21/21 Close was $4,155.86 4/27/21 was $4,186.72 so that’s -.73%. I’ve been around long enough to know the market goes up and down. The portfolio balance could be higher come the end of the week who really knows.

Pricing history of the townhouse I used to own. The taxes went up 75% in 5 years! The Zestimate is $275k. I don’t think I’m unreasonable in thinking the value shouldn’t go up 108% in 7 years. My salary hasn’t gone up that much in that time. For that reason I’m currently priced out of the DFW housing market and don’t forsee that changing anytime soon. Making the most of it anyway, I really haven’t had a strong urge to own again.

I’m feeling dramatic and vulnerable, but trying to keep things together. I had a good time at brunch with a friend earlier and managed to lift weights and bang out cardio at a completely empty gym. Yesterday I played kickball, had breakfast with a few team mates, and grabbed a drink. So I’m not totally isolated from people and that’s something to be thankful for.

• 

• 

In April I saw friends in Boston after not travelling for over 600 days. I was in need of a change of and drove to Rhode Island one day since it was less an an hour away. Here are a couple pictures from that trip.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

It made me think more about how life is not just about accumulating wealth. It’s about being healthy, and enjoying new experiences too. Whether that’s with someone or alone. So yes I plan to do more travelling over in some coming months. Definitely see a summer trip in my near future. I’m a little irked that my folks haven’t been vaccinated yet, nor are they pursuing it after the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine debacle.

The trips don’t have to be expensive either. My car rental from Tuesday – Friday was only $182, and gas was $25. I think I only ended up paying for 2 or 3 meals during the whole trip. I had a credit from American Airlines from my previously cancelled New York trip. I did have to pay extra fora checked in suitcase and to change my seats to main cabin extra but it was totally worth it.

4/27/21
401K: $132,427
Roth IRA: $13,825
M1 Acct $1,818
Crypto: $122
HSA $1,505
Total Investments: $150,707

3/27/21
401K: $123,653 (including pending contributions)
Roth IRA: $12,484
M1 Acct $1,566
Crypto: $0
HSA $1,303
Total Investments: $139,006

Total Net Worth is up $11.701 or 8.4% vs previous month. I’ve had a series of dividend payments on my 401k, the latest was $145.60. It’s nice to lock these in to offset fluctuations in the marke.. So far since 2018 the total is $3,760.

Going back to the dark period of April 2020… There was so much uncertainty about what was going on in the economy. This time last year my total only around $65,285. Almost one year ago I made the last payment on my car and became officially debt free! I would never make it to the Dave Ramsey show but this is fine….

Since then… I’ve been aggressively squirrelling my dollars away into investments. With my car payment at the time I would have spent $6,500 over 12 months. S&P 500 comparing April 23, 2021 is $4,180.17 vs May 1, 2020 was $2,919.61 or +43%. Between the payment and the appreciation I would have been down $9,295. That’s a lot of $$$.

Still thinking about my next steps. Things are kinda stagnant right now. Getting closer to 40, 9 years experience in my industry, almost 10 in this city… Texas population is very much still booming, we gained 2 congressional seats, and almost 4 million people from 2010 to 2020.

I hope after 9 years of this blog I can inspire other people to become debt free too. 2012 was a long time ago! My biggest takeaway is hard work and sticking to a plan pays off. I’ve always thought along the way how to get to the next level and now is no different.