Howdy 2020 crew! It's been fun to see a bit more activity in this cohort, as well as some new (to me) faces, so welcome to all!
One quarter down for 2019 ... we've had a lot of fun so far this year, and Mr. Market continues behaving after the Q4-2018 drawdown. I do expect sentiment to swing back down & back up for some time before ultimately grinding higher ... in the meantime, we take each month as it comes and stick to the process while enjoying the ride.
March Highlights:
- As discussed over the last few monthly entries, I've been positioning myself to be able to work remotely for 2-week chunks of time this year in order to be able to support my aging parents with health appointments and work around their property. This month was my first such trip (to the NE US), and I have to say it was really successful! I was able to conduct my business, help out on the property and balance some time for myself ... very thankful to have been helpful, and very thankful for the chance to show MegaCorp that productivity can exist away from the boundaries of an office. I will be doing this again in April and July ... TBD beyond that.
- Work-wise, this last couple of weeks has been my least favorite time of year - annual performance reviews! I'm nearly worn out from all of the reviews, but after next week I should be done with 95% of everything. Looking forward to that ending and some cool projects coming our team's way this summer.
- Health-wise this has been an up & down month. DW and I both finished March dealing with some crud but are back to good health now. Ready to resume my weight training and yoga ... again, this year has been so nice finding full relief from rehabbing that old back injury from a few years back. It's so nice to not have those worries about re-tweaking something again! Had to reschedule my annual physical for May, but I do look forward to those results.
- Financially we met all of our savings goals and the market continues moving in our favor. Q1-2019 was some of the best progress we've seen in quite a while. While I can't imagine this pace will continue, we are just going to keep on track. April savings will not be as green, as we got quite the surprise on our Fed taxes this year and will owe quite a bit. Ugh. Anyway, it's a huge blessing to have cash flow to handle those sorts of surprises (FIRE behaviors pay dividends via flexibility even pre-FIRE!) ... and wow it has been so nice being mortgage free these last couple of months (re: our future FIRE home)!!!
- Countdown: If you've been following along, our 'original' FIRE target was Q1-2021, but we've been pursuing a path toward Q2-2020. Current math tells us we could reach FI by Q3-2020. If so, we'd have lots of incentive to work two extra quarters into the original target date. Decisions around doing a new lease on our FIRE home and other pros / cons will definitely be part of our Summer 2019 conversation. Onward through the fog!
EOY 2015 = 53.8%
EOY 2016 = 67.8%
EOY 2017 = 75.5%
EOY 2018 = 81.6%
// FI target defined as 3.75% SWR, mortgage-free + giving/lump sum funded //
END OF MONTH PROGRESS:
JAN 2019 84.5%
FEB 2019 86.9%
MAR 2019 88.4%
Have a great weekend, happy Spring!
FIREby2021
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