Okay, so it's been a year since this thread was started (or will be in a few weeks, at least, and I just finished my June NW update and thought of this thread).
How's everyone doing on the progress to their goals?
Here's my update - I posted the following about a year ago:
Here's my Net Worth Stretch Goals:
(Current - June 2013) 400k
1 Year (June 2014) - 525k
2 Years (June 2015) - 660k
3 Years (June 2016) - 800k
It turns out that having leveraged real estate that was purchased very low that shoots up a lot can give you ridiculous returns. I actually hit that three year goal (for June 2016) in one year. In other words, I more than doubled my net worth in a year. Of course, it's all paper value. And it felt ridiculous each month to see it shooting up and up, but no different, I suppose, than if the stock market were shooting up and you were leveraged (or even if not) and gaining a lot in paper net worth.
It doesn't change my FIRE date at all, as I'm planning on FIREing on cash flow from rentals, and the paper value of the properties is irrelevant to me (I think they were undervalued a year ago, I think they're about where they should be, perhaps slightly overvalued, now).
In other words, I'd be just as fine FIREing holding 20 rentals giving me 70k annual cash flow with a net worth of 500k as I would be if they were valued on paper at 1.5MM (assuming the same properties, rents, debt service, etc.). The higher paper value does have some benefits (in terms of refinancing and other options for being flexible), but ultimately it's not the driver of my FI date - regardless of the paper value, I have a number of rentals goal and a cash flow goal, not a net worth "number" goal that most have. So it doesn't affect my FIRE date, but it is still neat to see.
With that fact in mind, and the fact that I should hit 1MM within the next year (kind of excited about that, since now I'll hit it before I turn 30, which is meaningless, but for some reason I still am sort of excited about), I'm not going to bother to set new goals (beyond the ones I have for number of rentals owned and amount of annual cash flow). Mission accomplished, albeit in a weird way.
Hopefully my (stupid) results which had almost nothing to do with me won't discourage some of you from posting; I'm hoping to hear some of you hit your goals or are on your way! Sooo...? :D