I just reached $50k in after tax investments. It might not be much compared to some, but I feel like I should start celebrating smaller victories on my way to FI. What milestones do you celebrate? And how do you celebrate? I'm thinking I might celebrate with a cheap bottle of wine.
All of them!
When we hit net worth of zero (trust me, it was not easy to get to zero) we had a kid...you may not want to celebrate quite that hard....
Celebrated all things along the way generally with dinner out at the local pub ($40 meal and $20 of babysitting) as we dont care much for stuff, so that's our extravagance.
I still really remember these big celebratory purchases along the way...1) real early when I bought myself a $25 cheesecake, I mean, I still remember thinking, yeah, man , wtf, $25, wtf ....2) and then a bit later when I bought my father (who was a really really good photographer) a very early and his first DLSR camera with additional lenses for like $1K that I had just show up on his birthday. This man (who like me, doesnt really care for 'stuff') later told me one day he remembered two great presents in his life, the rifle his father gave him when he turned 18 and that camera...3) After we paid off the house we took the next $70k and did all the remodel we wanted to to make our 'starter' home our 'forever' home (heck, we loved our neighbors, our town, and our schools, we knew we'd be here until at least the nest was empty).... 4) At $500k I started a business (having this amount of money in the bank, plus a paid off house gave me the guts to do it...)....5) At $1M I bought my wife the next family car brand new. 6) At $2M I made sure to get EACH of my now 3 kids 529s up above $100k.... 7) At $3M we started spending, which is mainly giving away the money we made past that realizing we didn't 'need' it (I'm not like many on this site that can't figure out what to do with money past X amount....I can find ways to spend it...but in the end it seems weird and unfulfilling). The business I started due to not worrying about money anymore had 3 huge years during which to alleviate taxes I set up a DAF that goign forward I can make large donations from.
So these numbers may seem ridiculous (they still do to me) but its really about the beauty of 1) compounding Plus 2) gain from getting oneself into a place to be able to take a risk.
DO celebrate. DO spend money doing so in fulfilling ways (I really worry about those on this site I read that can't enjoy money, much more than I worry about how I can waste a little bit of what I have). You'll still come out way ahead.
DO IT!!