Well, first of all, if you haven’t updated your 401k contributions for the new $24.5k limits, now is the time!
My goals are pretty simple, I think. Max the 401k, and add at least $60k to brokerage. I’m going to remodel the guest bath, and tackle some landscaping, it’ll cost a bit but my years of spending $40k+ every year are over.
I’ll go in with the max 401k and +100k new money on the brokerage. I feel like I could easily miss that by 50% though.
My focus over the last year has shifted from FIRE (financial independence; retire early) being a distant possibility, to FIRE being my goal.
Realistically, I’m probably looking at about 10 years left. We won’t continue getting 15% market returns in perpetuity.
So basically,
Dialing in around $2.8M for FIRE.
Yeah, I used to feel conservative assuming 4.5% real returns, back when I was 100% in equities. Now I’m bang on 25% bonds, and I’ve dialed it back to a 4% real return. Assuming ~3% inflation that’s 7% nominal. Which… if you assume 10% average S&P and 4% bonds, would put me at 5.5% real returns, but given how hot the markets are, I’ve dialed it back to 4% real returns. I’m tempted to dial it down more but that feels at least sane.
I really need to start a spreadsheet and figure out my number, based on some really crude mental math I think $3M is probably enough, but I think I’ll push through to like $3.3M or $3.5M.
Our credit card spending is probably 95% of our expenses, except for some ACH transactions like my mortgage.
So, I found it relatively easy to go through each card’s history and total my expenses off that. By going through my 12MTD bank statements I was able to get a pretty good set of assumptions for things like my scheduled mortgage and other large unscheduled checks written. This gave a decent lower bound for my history. Then going forward, I just make sure any significant non-CC expenditures are properly recorded, and record the monthly CC payments.
I should be able to do this in 2026, my prior spend is inflated by home improvement spending. I can back out the really big checks easily enough (hello, fifty thousand dollar porch) but I spend a lot on my CC buying materials, fixtures, and I sometimes pay contractors with a CC so that’s many thousands of dollars hidden somewhere in my CC history.
I added a tab to my retirement spreadsheet and started sketching things out. I know I’m missing a lot because the number is too low but it’s a start!
So, getting your retirement Sheet together???
As we’re looking at FIRE, and early last year we took in our now 21-yo “kid”, we’ve also started thinking about caring for them. We spend perhaps $4k on them per year right now.
But - she is truly family. Partner and I are on the same page here. We still plan to adopt, and questions of inheritance will become meaningful. If we die when we’re in our 80s, inheritance hopefully would matter little for Godkid. But if we die with a minor child and Godkid an adult, it matters much more. If we knew that Godkid will or will not get any inheritance money from their parents, it would help our thinking. Ultimately, I think their mother will run their finances into the ground and they’ll end up destitute, despite their prior wealth. However, this doesn’t greatly matter today. TBD.
We aren’t looking to “die with zero” and provide nothing to our kids after a nice, long retirement. Neither do we plan to leave enough that our kids don’t need to work - but ideally could, with work, choose to FIRE themselves.
Partner and I - completely separate from Godkid - have also been talking about contribution to a potential wedding, and maybe even down payment assistance on a home. Future things that will get discussed more if they become more real.
Today I sold off $44K of the gold I bought in an investment account in December 2024 after just realizing my year-long wait was over, at a gain of 75%. I’m certainly not the best buy and hold investor out there, but I’m learning to be a bit more patient and not pay taxes on short-term gains..
posting my goals are on hold for a bit. too much shit going on to focus on this