Financial Independence Here We Come

[yachi]

We're about 9 to 10 months away from minimum FI based on our savings rate.  Market gains have helped tremendously, so I feel incredulous sometimes.  Other times I have to remind myself to keep up my nose to the grindstone because I'm not there yet.  I've reduced how aggressively the accounts are invested when I realized how close we are, so the past gains won't be repeated.

[Rosy]

Wow - whatever did you do to get a 33% return?
I see that nothing much happened from 2009 to 2014, then it all exploded:)
CONGRATS may the markets be in your favvoohhh...

[Linea_Norway]

Good for you. Your big profits were made exactly during the time I sold my index funds and bought an expensive house, which is not increasing 33% in value. That was a very unwise decision of me.

[yachi]

In 2014 I started maximizing my Roth Contributions (5k-5.5k).  I also rolled over my 401(k), so there's a 100k contribution to start the period off.   I started buying options in this account when they seemed miss-priced.  I've sold most of them now and am back to just stocks.  At one point I looked at this account as not useful until it has enough value to support retirement.  That helped with the psychological impacts of any large moves.  Early this year I started realizing how close I was to FIRE, and thought I should tone down the risk.
It's a weird thought change where money in my accounts can be risked (a $1,000 loss is OK, if the investment reasoning was logical), but a loss outside an account is bad ($10 lost to buying name brand instead of generic groceries is bad).