This is my first post. I don’t know what I’m doing. So I’ll start with who I am and why I’m doing it.
I’m a quitter, but this quitter has decided he’s going to have a million dollars in his index fund by his 40th birthday!
I don’t trust that I’ll stick to this goal as it’s hard. I’m even embarrassed writing it but this is my burning the ships moment. I latch onto new ideas all the time but I usually just fizzle out, but I think this is a good one. I think future me will be really pleased if I row in. So this blog is me rowing in.
I turned 32 this month and it’s mad to think I’m THIS old. I don’t feel old but my 20 something self would say I’m ancient. So 32 year old responsible me thought it would be wise to plaster his financials across the internet to get myself in line and ensure my 40 year old self doesn’t get shafted the same way my 20 year old self shafted me.
Why Now?
About four years ago I became sick of my behaviour and my dumb mistakes. At 28 it was no longer cute to be making the same f*^k ups I was making in my early 20s. So after a series of letting down people who loved me and landing in fragile financial positions I started looking for help.
Around about that time I participated in Jordan Peterson’s Future Authoring Program. It’s a writing program that helps people understand how life is full of of suffering, so people must make sure to create a life worth the inevitable suffering. The program is built around the idea that people are more motivated by fear than gain, so the program leverages this primal reality by making participants write about a future version of their life that would be worth all the suffering and the necessary steps towards building that life. This exercise is completed in conjunction with a similar exercise, except instead of writing about a life worth being proud of it makes participants detail a version of their future life they would resent, including outlining all the bad decisions and behaviors that would lead to that horrid life.
I loved this idea and agree with Peterson. As a human I’m more motivated to run away from a monster out of fear of being eaten then I am to climb a mountain for the view. So this is me saying that $1,000,000 in liquid assets is my mountain and being bald, broke and full of excuses at 40 years old is the monster!
My Financial Closet
- Vanguard VTSAX Index Fund: $119,068.09
- Capital One Checking (For taxes, I’m a 1099): $1850.65
- Chase Checking Account: $390.73
- No debt (No student loans/dropped out of college)
- No mortgage (I’m a renter)
- No emergency fund (I use my tax account for emergencies which is dumb)
- No car payment (I paid off my German money pit last year)
- Current Salary: $117-120k (100k base & 20k bonus)
- Investment Goal: 70k per year (58% of gross pay)
A million dollars feels like yonks away so I broke my milestones into bi-annual targets to keep me on track. My next milestone is $150k, a goal I hoped to hit this month on my 32nd birthday but the markets tanked. I set this goal last December but the markets have been on a continuous slide. In December, my balance was $123,609 but now it’s $119,068.09 despite me investing $18,860.
I’m trying to embrace my inner Buffett and not be sad about my “on paper” momentum stoppage. This is all part of the plan they said. Pffttttt. Stay tuned to watch me crumble….