Also known as every dollar I didn’t spend in 2018! One year ago I declared the following monetary goals for 2018:
It finally happened – 7 years out of college and I am finally getting my first 401k match! I’ve dreamed of this moment for so long (yes, I have weird dreams – deal with it). While working at all of my previous jobs, I never qualified for the 401(k) match (if they even had one). If they did have one, you were not eligible for it until you had been there 4 or so years, which is basically unheard of in ad agencies. Well played HR. Well played. Continue reading “My First 401(k) Match, An Updated Salary and Inching Closer to Early Retirement”
Continue reading “That Time I Laughed In A Financial Advisor’s Face”
It’s time to bring out my planning materials! *rubs hands together maniacally*
A reader requested that I post about my early retirement strategy. Thanks for the suggestion Palmetto Millennial!
First I’m going to set the stage. Continue reading “My Early Retirement Strategy”
It’s that time again: Dividend Season! I look forward to it like I imagine people look forward to Christmas, but this happens 4 times a year! Let’s see how we made out this quarter. I received $881.27, which is awesome. That’s 42% more than last year! Since I started investing in 2014 I’ve received $7,380.32 in dividends – that’s almost a full month of my current salary without having to work that’s just dropped into my lap. Insanity! Let’s see if we can top that next quarter (Spoiler: I think we can 😉 ).
This graph was made by the lovely Four Pillar Freedom.
We’ve reached the threshold. My monthly contributions to my investments are almost completely obscured by the market noise. I now add 2% of my current net worth to my investments each month and recent daily fluctuations have been more than that: Down 2.5%, Up 2% etc. I think I’ve reached what a new favorite blogger of mine Four Pillar Freedom describes as the point when the market makes a bigger impact than your contributions. Continue reading “Market Noise > Contributions”
The end of Q1 2018 has me at about 0% market gains for the year (while the S&P 500 is down -1.22%). This inspired me to do a thought experiment. What if the highly improbable happened and the market remains stagnant at a 0% gain until I retire? How long would that add to my working career? My initial thought was several years since the average of 7% would add $17,850 to my current portfolio so my savings for the year would be made of approximately 20% gains and 80% savings. Continue reading “A Flat Market = No Problem”
It’s the end of Q1, which means it’s once again DIVIDEND SEASON! I look forward to it every 3 months because even though I know this is a distribution from the 3,000+ businesses I partially own it still feels like it’s free money that’s dropped into my account.
So how did I make out this quarter? Like a bandit if I do say so myself! I made $787.04 from my investments. That’s a 43% increase from last year! Yes my investments have increased 56%, but that’s besides the point 🙂 . Just assuming an overall 43% increase from last year’s dividends of (even though it will be more) I’ll receive $3,916.04 in dividends in 2018. Woah. That’s like 2 weeks of salary! And I’ll receive it no matter what the market does (we’re down 1% for the year at the time I write this). An extra half a month’s salary no matter what. I like the sound of that. To next quarter!