Howdy team 2020!
April Highlights:
- Well, YTD I have now accumulated 4 weeks of working remotely. Very glad to report I was able to conduct my work business, help out my aging parents and still balance some time for myself. I won't go back until July, but glad to begin building a track record to show MegaCorp that productivity can exist away from the boundaries of an office. Hard to say whether A) I'll want to, or B) it will be an option, but at the very least C) I'm being helpful and reducing my # of office commute days NOW.
- Financially, this month was pretty dicey. Multiple HUGE expenses showed up at once, and the result is our extra after-tax savings contributions were $0 for April, and will be $0 for May! As mentioned last month, our Federal Tax bill was INSANE (mo money mo problems?), but then we had to 1) replace the 22-year old HVAC system in our FIRE location home (had planned to defer this until the 2021 remodel), 2) we bought international plane tickets for a 2020 trip (great fare sale, but sooner than planned), and 3) had a significant car repair to top it all off! Ugh, but it's a huge blessing to have cash flow to handle these sorts of surprises (FIRE behaviors pay dividends via flexibility even pre-FIRE!). Despite these big-ticket items, we maxed our pre-tax contributions and the market continues to cooperate.
- Countdown: Our 'original' FIRE target was Q1-2021, but we've been pursuing a path toward Q2-2020. Current math tells us we should reach FI by Q3-2020. If so, we'd have lots of incentive to work 2 extra quarters into our 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. At the most we are looking at 22 months left, wow!
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%
APR 2019 89.0%
Later!
FIREby2021