1500 Days to Freedom

like you to ponder the $50,000,000 question… A couple of weekends ago, I was hanging out with my good friend Jake. I thought Jake had a great answer, but before I get to that, let’s discuss the question a little more. I ask this question frequently and the answer is usually fascinating because it gives a little window into the other human’s soul. * Give more than you get Jake’s response to the $50,000,000 question was this: I’d buy an apartment complex and move all of my family to Colorado.

Here is how the S&P 500 performed: $140,800 invested in the S&P 500 would have grown to $378,081. Another way to think about it is that we made $237,281 in exchange for paying $27,382 in interest. By this, I mean a policy that has a crazy high deductible (>$50,000) that you’d only really exercise if the home was totally destroyed. This doesn’t apply to us because we oversaved and Mindy still works, but I can understand the peace of mind that sailing into retirement with no debt would bring.

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 Just because I think the stock market will have a lesser year doesn’t mean that I’m changing what I invest in or that I’ll try to time the markets. If our home sale closes, the money will go into index funds and the ~$500,000 in proceeds will go to index funds. 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.

We recently completed a load of work on the basement and installed about 1,500 square feet of luxury vinyl plank flooring: I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but at the same time, the work has consumed my life. In the meantime, I’ll mention a couple of random appearances on the internet and some other things I’ve been reading lately. Listen to my chat with Doug where among other things, you’ll learn why there are dinosaur bones on the moon (it’s crazy, but true!).