Performance Update: Q1 2025 – 1500 Days to Freedom

My main goal* was to build an investment and cash portfolio of $1,120,000* ($1,000,000 to retire on and $120,000 to pay off the house) in 1500 days**, starting from 1/1/2013 and ending in February of 2017. I made my goal in 2016, my 1500 Days are over, and I’ve left my job. In the interest of openness, I’ll continue to share my numbers. For now…

Whoah, what a difference a couple of months make. Our net worth peaked in February and since then, it’s been down, down, down. More on that in a moment…

Quarterly Updates

From here on out, I’m going to be providing quarterly performance updates instead of monthly. Here’s why:

• It’s tedious. I have to drag myself to the keyboard to write these posts. I like keeping track of the $$$$, but writing about it monthly is bor-ing.
• It’s never felt right. You should buy investments and then not pay attention to them. Writing about them monthly reinforces and promotes bad behavior.
• These updates are irrelevant. Long-term matters. Not gyrations. Especially now. I don’t really care about 1 week or 1 month from now. I really care about 10 years+.

For those who still like to keep track, I’ll continue to update my numbers on the sidebar monthly.

Performance: Q1 2025

Out net worth hit an all-time high of close to 7m earlier this year. Just a couple of months later we’re down close to $1,000,000. Oof!

Some of it is due to holding Tesla which was (and still is) frothy.

I try to consider everything that could to right or wrong with the stocks that I hold. However, the Trump-Musk Team is something that never crossed my mind. A true Black (Orange?) Swan event.

If Tesla solves autonomy soon, it may be OK. If not, there is plenty more room to fall.

I took a 2,500 road trip from Longmont, to Las Vegas, San Diego, and back to Longmont in my Model Y. I used Tesla’s autonomous software (FSD) for the entire trip and had to disengage three times. The first two were in rural Utah and the 3rd was in Las Vegas. It was incredibly impressive to see the Y navigate complex scenarios surrounded by aggressive drivers in southern California. It navigated San Diego rush hour perfectly. And it was equally unimpressive to see the car mess up two extremely simple scenarios in Utah.

Will Tesla actually pull off a robotaxi soon? I have no clue. Perhaps we’ll start to find out in June.

The markets haven’t been doing so hot either:

Down, Down Down

Here are our net worth numbers, down $702,485 since the start of the year:

• 1/1: $6,460,794
• 2/1: $6,547,861
• 3/1: $6,129,518
• 4/1: $5,758,309

Zooming out, it’s just a blip:

Where does this all stop? Dunno.

What To Do?

We’re all in for some interesting times. Mr. Market doesn’t like uncertainty. The only thing I’m certain of is that there is a lot of uncertainty.

Times like this are what FI was built for. It’s fun to be able to travel and hike on a Monday afternoon. It’s vital to be able to sustain severe economic trauma like the loss of a job or 30% decline in your net worth and still have a roof above and food in front of you. Thank you FI.

As for us: Mindy makes enough money for us to mostly get by, so we’re OK. However, the Very Big Project that I alluded to here may be dead on arrival. I am OK taking a lot of risk with a portion of my investments. I’m not comfortable with spending a lot of money with so much uncertainty. We’ll need to make a decision in about 2 months and will reassess at that time.

Stay sane y’all!

More 1500 Days!!!

You can also find me (and the dinosaurs) at:

*My goal wasn’t to have $1,120,000 at the end of 1500 days, but at any time before the day count was up. Why? It all goes back to the 4% Rule. Remember that our little friend, Mr. 4%, is nothing more than the most conservative safe withdrawal rate. Since my investment portfolio now sits at $1,550,000, I can spend about $62,000 in my first year of retirement.

**My original goal was $1,000,000 and no debt, I later raised the goal by $120,000 to $1,120,000 because I will have debt in the form of a mortgage and I firmly believe in not paying it off (LOOK at the MONEY I’m MAKING!). My compromise was to have enough money put away to cover the mortgage at the time of retirement.

***This is an affiliate link. If you sign up, the blog (me) makes some cold, hard, beautiful, cash. Personal Capital is a totally free and awesome way to keep watch over your investments. It’s worth it for the fee analyzer alone. I would never recommend anything that I don’t personally use and completely believe in, so give it a try. If you’ve already signed up through the link, please know that you are a fine person of above-average intelligence.