01-03-2020, 10:42 PM
Hey guys, sorry I've been lazy! Meant to post in this thread as soon as I saw it. I just love these little yearly reviews, both from the personal and financial side. It's great to see progress being made.
Big year for me.
Fender, maybe about a year ago I said that while I'm significantly younger, I'll race you to retirement. It wasn't a challenge of any sorts, just a way to show that we are very much in the same boat where we will be using our investment income for living expenses relatively soon.
Well.. I hit that milestone called financial independence, quit my job and for a couple of months now I've been living very happily "retired" in Asia, enjoying the year-round warm weather, amazing nature, friendly people and the overall feeling of freedom. Of course I'm not going to sit on my ass for the next 50 years, or however long I have left, but I consider this as my retirement as I've hit the point where I choose when and what work I do, if I do any.
It truly is a life changing feeling when I know that I don't have to work in order to have food on the table. If something interesting comes up, sure I'll take it. Or just work a month or two here or there to get some more money if I feel like I need it. Actually, I have found even myself in a couple of job interviews these past months but it's a different ball game when it's all on your own terms. Also seriously considering starting some sort of business in a few years, I always wanted to give it a try and I do know that I need something productive to keep my brain busy.
But long story short, life is great!
And then to the financial side:
I still have a pretty nice pile of cash that I saved up during the recent years in order to buy an apartment/house for myself. Still no apartment/house, so it definitely looks like I would have been way better off just investing that money too. But now the cash is not only serving for it's original purpose, but also as a buffer just in case things go wrong and I'm currently taking my living expenses out of there so the dividends can keep compounding. And I'm also keeping up my previous amount of monthly deposits to my investment account, so while I'm obviously still waiting for the inevitable correction, I'm still also pouring in a pretty significant amount each month so that dividend stream keeps growing.
I don't really need much from the financial markets in 2020. I'll be super happy if I see average dividend raises of about 10% for my portfolio. I still do meddle around with options a little, so it would also be nice not to get absolutely trashed with those. :p
Big year for me.
Fender, maybe about a year ago I said that while I'm significantly younger, I'll race you to retirement. It wasn't a challenge of any sorts, just a way to show that we are very much in the same boat where we will be using our investment income for living expenses relatively soon.
Well.. I hit that milestone called financial independence, quit my job and for a couple of months now I've been living very happily "retired" in Asia, enjoying the year-round warm weather, amazing nature, friendly people and the overall feeling of freedom. Of course I'm not going to sit on my ass for the next 50 years, or however long I have left, but I consider this as my retirement as I've hit the point where I choose when and what work I do, if I do any.
It truly is a life changing feeling when I know that I don't have to work in order to have food on the table. If something interesting comes up, sure I'll take it. Or just work a month or two here or there to get some more money if I feel like I need it. Actually, I have found even myself in a couple of job interviews these past months but it's a different ball game when it's all on your own terms. Also seriously considering starting some sort of business in a few years, I always wanted to give it a try and I do know that I need something productive to keep my brain busy.
But long story short, life is great!
And then to the financial side:
I still have a pretty nice pile of cash that I saved up during the recent years in order to buy an apartment/house for myself. Still no apartment/house, so it definitely looks like I would have been way better off just investing that money too. But now the cash is not only serving for it's original purpose, but also as a buffer just in case things go wrong and I'm currently taking my living expenses out of there so the dividends can keep compounding. And I'm also keeping up my previous amount of monthly deposits to my investment account, so while I'm obviously still waiting for the inevitable correction, I'm still also pouring in a pretty significant amount each month so that dividend stream keeps growing.
I don't really need much from the financial markets in 2020. I'll be super happy if I see average dividend raises of about 10% for my portfolio. I still do meddle around with options a little, so it would also be nice not to get absolutely trashed with those. :p