My Journey

I have been a journey since my late 20’s. A journey that at times I have been very successful and at other times I have failed miserably. This journey has been partly one of minimalism towards achieving financial independence. I am not part of the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) Movement, but some of those concepts do resonate with me. I began this journey because I wanted to focus on those things in my life that were important to me, to include those potentially expensive things. I wanted to be able to do and purchase what I wanted when I wanted. I also wanted to impart certain values onto my young children. I did not want them to be overtaken by the hyper consumerism of American culture. I wanted to demonstrate that living simply with those you love was where they would find the most happiness and meaning in life. People enrich the human experience, not things.

So where am I currently at along this journey? I am about to turn 40. I have served in the military for 22 years. I am old enough to retire (from service) and have a pension. Over the roughly 12 previous years since I started my journey, I have saved the majority of my income. I own two rental properties, a home in Florida in which my mother-in-law lives, and I live in an RV. The rental properties are paid for, between rents paid and allocating all my additional income to paying off mortgages. The home in Florida is also paid for through income from my rental property and extra from my my and my wife’s salaries. I have contributed off and on to my government Thrift Savings Plan (401k for government employees), I have a Roth IRA that I have maxed out for the last two years, and a brokerage account where I now invest my additional income. My net worth which is quickly nearing $750,000 and if you include the value of my pension I have $1.2 million. Why do I tell you this? It is not to brag but to show it is possible starting later in life to reach the $1 million milestone and because personally I believe $1 million is not enough to retire on anymore so I must continue along this path. The message here is that I wish I would have started earlier, had I done so life may have been much easier. As an example, had I invested just $100 in a S&P 500 index fund (mutual fund or ETF) starting when I got my first job at 14 years old I could easily have $1 million at retirement. Since I started at 28, I literally invest roughly 60% of my income each month to catch up. This is a lesson I am trying to impart on my teenage nieces and my two young children (4 y/o and 2 y/o). 

For my children, my wife and I have started custodial accounts where we contribute, you guessed it $100 a month in, again you guessed it broad market index funds. Also, for my 4 y/o I have already started her financial education. Financial literacy, in my opinion, has been the single largest failing of our education system. I also demonstrate minimalist principles because they offer me several benefits. First, they help me live below my means and demonstrate to my children that consumerism won’t bring you happiness but quality time with loved ones will. Second, clutter causes me stress. Minimalism allows me emotional relief from by keeping gross excess out of my life. Finally, I find not having to clean up and keep organized tons of things saves a lot of time and energy.

Here are a few things I do (and don’t do) that I will discuss in upcoming posts to support my goals. In those posts I will discuss things that have worked well for me and areas where I have struggled and why. Things I do. I hand wash and hang dry my clothes. As you have read I live in an RV, so using the laundromat can be expensive. Living in a RV is like living in a tiny house, but renting a space is cheap and utilities are included. I use a T-Mobile unlimited data plan so I don’t have WiFi or cable. I do not subscribe to multiple streaming services. My wife and I have Amazon Prime Student and Disney+. We do rely on YouTube. There is over 500 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute and it accounts for 21% of U.S. streamed content, second to only Netflix at 26%, except YouTube is free! Also, I cook large meals in my crockpot every weekend that last all week. My family uses national parks for adventures. This is a benefit of living in the RV, we can literally pick up and leave on an adventure anytime we want. We don’t need to pack a suitcase, we take everything with us. If you haven’t been, Wyoming will take your breathe away. Family vacations don’t require expensive hotel stays and eating out. We glamp! Our children play outside and at public parks for entertainment. We do stay physically active, we do not have gym memberships. Finally, and most important to my journey is I maintain a budget. Maintaining a budget keeps me honest on my spending and helps me align my spending with my goals. Combined, these all help my family to align our financial goals with our values.

For the majority of the things I do, I have a system. I am always looking to improve these systems and thereby improve our short time in this world. I will close this post by sharing a quote from one of my favorite books, Atomic Habits by James Clear. “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” “You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.” I invite you to come share and my journey and maybe even be inspired to start you own.

I know this first one was long so thank you for hanging in there and hopefully you will subscribe and come back to see what’s next in my journey.