I’ve made a decision. After a lot of thought, calculations and consulting with the people closest to me I have decided that I am going to retire on the eve of my 30th birthday in 3.5 years. I’ve made this decision for several reasons:
Why I Want to Retire
I want retire because my life is working (workdays) and recovering from working (weeknights and weekends). There is no room in that cycle for the life I want. And perhaps it is my fault for choosing a career where I interact with people all day that completely drains my introverted core – and at rare times invigorates me with creativity. But it’s also what I’m good at. It’s well paid work that doesn’t involve extra schooling or skills.
So I want to retire. I want to see what I can get up to when my life is not a cycle of drain and recovery. That’s all.
$100,000 in Assets
As of February 26, 2016 at 26 I now have $100,000 in assets. It seems like a special number and I’ve been excited for this milestone for a while. 1.5 years ago I was wandering aimlessly, spending money frivolously (I think), but not enough by American consumerist standards. I had accidentally accumulated $50,000 in assets – mostly in my 401K, which had been compounding behind the scenes.
Now I am here with $100,000 and I can’t even believe it. On to $1,000,000 :).
2015 Accomplishments
The human brain does not seem particularly adept at cataloging time: the uniqueness, the new experiences. Ever since I stopped journaling daily I have been recording my life through pictures and reviews that I upload to facebook, but I realized that there are a lot of things that mark my year that are not seen in pictures. So I started an annual list of accomplishments: what new experiences I had and how this year was different from any other. Let’s check it out! Continue reading “2015 Accomplishments”
2015 State of the Union
I fucking did it. I started this year with the goals to:
- Max my 401K
- Max my Traditional IRA
- Max my HSA
- Overall contribute $35,000 to investments
2015 Spending
Let’s look at the explosion that was my 2015 spending. Overall I spent about $30,000 which isn’t too bad since I was living the high life in NYC for half the year, but improvements can still be made. Removing the cost of our luxurious Fiji vacation and the costs of our cross country move would bring my 2015 spending to $21,840.
How Quickly We Forget
I was recently on vacation for Thanksgiving. I took a whopping two days off and tacked it onto the long weekend we were given for the holiday. Usually it takes me about a week to decompress from work – even not particularly stressful work (or as not particularly stressful as Ad Agencies can be anyway). In that time I have to remember how to relax and what I enjoy and by the time I do the vacation is over. Continue reading “How Quickly We Forget”
Frugality and Weight Management Part II
Something strange has happened. I was reading through my previous posts to see to help reminisce about the year and what I’ve accomplished and I read my post about “Frugality and Weight Management” and how it seemed they went hand in hand. I started laughing while reading it because I felt so differently now. Continue reading “Frugality and Weight Management Part II”