You can also track my all-time progress on the aptly-named Current Progress page.
Another month gone! Maybe it's just the season, but time really seems to be flying by lately. Been very busy at work so the days and weeks have started to blur together. Nothing super exciting to report out for this month, other than the stock markets continuing their great performance for the year. It's weird having months where capital appreciation is actually more than how much I spent during that month. I guess that will be the norm once I am fully FI and the market isn't crashing. I sometimes find myself wondering how much longer the markets can keep it up until the inevitable downturn for which we are "overdue," historically speaking. Nobody can predict it with precision, but it is almost certain that it will happen eventually. Or maybe not. Who knows? Nothing to do except to keep on investing!
Oh, yeah. I got a small raise at work this month! Higher salary goes into effect next pay period!
On a sidenote, supposedly the Republicans are due to release their tax "overhaul" proposal very soon (as in, probably by the time you are reading this). I was thinking of maybe writing a post about what they propose and how it would affect different groups of people, but it's hard to write posts about current events since they quickly become outdated as things seem to be changing ever more rapidly in the political sphere. If there is something especially egregious in there that has a decent shot of becoming law, I'll try to put up a post detailing it so you will know what may be at stake. On the off-chance that they actually pass a bill, I'll likely do an overview detailing the changes. But I'm not making any promises, so don't hold me to it!
On with this month's spending report:
Another month gone! Maybe it's just the season, but time really seems to be flying by lately. Been very busy at work so the days and weeks have started to blur together. Nothing super exciting to report out for this month, other than the stock markets continuing their great performance for the year. It's weird having months where capital appreciation is actually more than how much I spent during that month. I guess that will be the norm once I am fully FI and the market isn't crashing. I sometimes find myself wondering how much longer the markets can keep it up until the inevitable downturn for which we are "overdue," historically speaking. Nobody can predict it with precision, but it is almost certain that it will happen eventually. Or maybe not. Who knows? Nothing to do except to keep on investing!
Oh, yeah. I got a small raise at work this month! Higher salary goes into effect next pay period!
On a sidenote, supposedly the Republicans are due to release their tax "overhaul" proposal very soon (as in, probably by the time you are reading this). I was thinking of maybe writing a post about what they propose and how it would affect different groups of people, but it's hard to write posts about current events since they quickly become outdated as things seem to be changing ever more rapidly in the political sphere. If there is something especially egregious in there that has a decent shot of becoming law, I'll try to put up a post detailing it so you will know what may be at stake. On the off-chance that they actually pass a bill, I'll likely do an overview detailing the changes. But I'm not making any promises, so don't hold me to it!
On with this month's spending report:
Projected time to FI (assuming 6% growth and 4% withdrawal rate): 5 years, 11 months!
I would definitely love an overview of the tax overhaul IF it goes into law great idea! Also for taxable accounts do you like using the robo advisors?
ReplyDeleteLike I said in the post, the bill keeps changing every few days and I don't really have enough time to do in-depth research/analysis and write a post about it before it changes again. There are other blogs (such as this one: https://www.kitces.com/blog/tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-2018-house-gop-tax-reform-proposal/) who have covered the changes in more depth than I ever could, so if you are looking for solid analysis, please read those. If it actually gets passes, I might write a post giving my opinions on it if I feel inspired enough to do so.
DeleteAs for robo-advisers, I think they have very limited utility compared to managing a brokerage account yourself. It's not hard for even a complete beginner to come up with a sensible, low-cost index fund portfolio allocation that fits one's risk profile after only a couple of hours of research. From there, all it takes is discipline to maintain regular contributions and ignoring the noise of the market and the media. I don't see any additional value the robo-advisers offer for the vast majority of investors in exchange for their management fees. Other FI bloggers have written about them in more depth (see https://gocurrycracker.com/why-betterment-has-zero-of-our-dollars/ , https://earlyretirementnow.com/2016/04/03/why-we-dont-use-robo-advisers/ , https://earlyretirementnow.com/2016/08/24/we-just-saved-a-ton-of-money-by-not-switching-to-betterment/ ). Bottom line is they probably aren't worth it.