| Half a million dollars, ladies and gentlemen. 15 years to get there (starting from May 2002 with just $100 to my name). It's also been 7 years since that NY Times article, when I broke the $200K mark. Crazy to think how I arrived here, and just on the brink of turning 40 years old to boot.
But in the words of marathon-enthusiast Forrest Gump: "Since I made it this far, I might as well keep on going." As long as house/stock market values continue to hold or swell (no guarantees in that department) the upward momentum has a chance to persevere.
I did recalibrate property values for personal assets, with most things receding in price, knocking $1K off the total. Good 'ol depreciation at work! And while I did have to pay a little federal tax, the state tax refund put me back up into green territory, a total of around $400. Got those taxes down to a science!
Hawaii trip is bought and paid for, so that's out of the way. Another trip for August has also been reserved, but we're using a separate family roadtrip fund (thanks to the roommate) making that possible, so it's likely I'll be spending very little of my own cash.
What's next? Just keep doing what I'm doing for now. If IRA contribution limits are adjusted for 2018, I'll max that out. Plus with the extra money being made from all these side jobs, I may open a Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) to make up for the lack of 401k options. Half of my retirement fund is sitting in an old 401k not doing anything (except for year-end dividend reinvestments) so I may roll that for 2018 and get that part of the retirement fund flowing, as it is much behind where it should be. |