gofi

I accepted a new job a week into our new home. It was a though call – leaving a comfortable job (and a good manager). But I’d been with the old job for over five years, and not having any managerial aspirations meant that there wasn’t any place higher to go. I was also not […]

We closed on our new home in March, after a two years search, a hundred plus home tours. We saw prices swell, rates increase and buyers go berserk, shelling out tens of thousands over asking, snapping homes sometimes without seeing them. If a Tesla passed a home we’d just seen, we knew it was lost. […]

Year end targets for the S&P 500 from top Wall Street strategists posted on cnbc. For reference, the S&P 500 ended 2021 at 4766. That’s a 5.3% gain if the market does end at 5024 by year end. 2 of the 15 strategists have a negative forecast (<4766) for the year.

We trailed the S&P500 24.09% to 26.89% in 2021. Take our cash positions out, and the gap shrinks further. 2021 was an incredible year to be in the market. Our net worth increased a whopping 42% (savings rate + market gains). Market returns exceeded our savings. Our strategy is simple and has worked for us. […]

A few weeks back, my mother sent me a family picture that included an uncle I hadn’t seen since 2011. My uncle struggled for many years before he became prosperous, enough to build a sense of entitlement, and even strain ties when they didn’t suit him. I’ve seen fortune change many close relatives over the […]

“Tomorrow’s my day off,” Alberto mentions as he serves me my morning coffee. So in case I was leaving that weekend, he was most likely indicating, may be leave him a good tip. We were at an all inclusive resort in Cancun last week. Our first. Cancun is a hot and humid place. But if […]

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck – Dalai Lama One of my favorite pastimes is browsing through resumes of college professors. Somewhere in my subconscious still dwells dreams I once had of becoming a college professor – of the prestige and recognition (of being smart). Now I’m […]

I’ve started walking again. But more then the walking, I enjoy daydreaming during these walks – on how my world would’ve changed if – and lately it’s been all about AMC – if we had all our emergency fund in AMC when the year began. Especially after we’d already seen GameStop earlier. Our $40K would’ve […]

The 2021 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting is on Yahoo Finance. For those uninterested in SEC filings, annual reports and the likes, or like me are without financial wiz/acumen/moat, Buffett recommends buying the S&P 500 Index fund, and staying put. He shows the zero overlap between the largest 20 companies now and in 1989 (30 […]

How disconcerting is the market? I’d take 12% gains for the year, any year. But the same in the first quarter is something to think about. I’m hoping I’m mentally prepared when the next fall comes. I held on last march – in fact, I’m surprised how little it bothered me. Much of that has […]

I was pleasantly surprised to find an additional $3,500 in my bank account this morning. Just last week, we had guests from NY who told us they didn’t get any stimulus checks. And here we were, getting most it. Were we poor? It turns out that because we maxed out 401ks, our taxable income lowered […]

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times … it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” – who else but Dickens. One reason why I’m a history fan is because it helps put things into perspective. It helps us understand ourselves as human beings, and appreciate […]

Years ago, an incredibly successful friend, I’d met after many years, revealed to me how he thought I’d have reached much higher grounds by then. He meant well. I had meandered in my ways. Many years on, I still take the easier, less risky path. Much of it has to do with my upbringing. My […]

I’ve seen a few promotions at work this month. They’re all driven and friendly people – able to maneuver through the politics. There’s some grind, but their focus is partial – a lot of it self serving . I say as I see it. Your experience may be different. Their projects are promising but incomplete, […]

I had to post this. How about this, eh? Thrilling. I took almost all the opponent’s pieces at a loss of a pawn and a bishop. I’ve been playing chess (the blitz games) on lichess  (awsome app, no ads) for many years now. I am not a trained player. I do not study games. I […]

How things turn, from the lows in March to new heights, and the recent corrections. We can make guesses as to why these happen but if you ignored the noise and kept chipping in, you’d still be on the up. That’s been our story since we pursued FI in 2016. We buy the market with […]

We’re down 3.04% for the year which isn’t so bad considering we were down 22% in Q1. That was a quick recovery – one I thought would take two years. It’s almost as though it never happened. So in my head, I’m thinking that a recession is still overdue. We’re not conservative in anyway – […]

Our daughter turned two weeks yesterday. For two weeks, I woke up at 6, having woken up at least twice during the night, to begin a daily grind – prepare breakfast, store dry dishes, wash everything in the sink, tidy the place, help wife feed baby, prepare lunch, run around trying to find something, move […]

We’re down 22%. That would’ve paid half our mortgage – fifteen years of payments. But I’ve been surprisingly calm. I’ve inundated myself with the FI tenet of staying the course for so long that this has yet to unnerve us. I’m not sure it will. After all, what can anyone do? The only way to […]

My awesome camera skills aside, how cool is this?

I am a podcast addict. In fact, I could probably do without a smart phone if not for my podcasts. I know this because on weekends, when I’m home, my phone usually does not get any love. I use a $15 Panasonic ear phones. I’ve used the same kind for years. The one I have […]

Over Christmas dinner, a friend asked me what I feared the most. I could think of many things, but most were beyond my control – my parent’s health for example. Seeing me stumped, he went ahead – being broke, I fear being broke the most, he said. He was speaking from experience. He’d moved to […]

Perseverance, guts because anything worth doing is worth doing well I’ll keep learning, because the summit will never be in sight. And that’s ok – I’d like to be smart, in all ways, in the best of ways. I’d like to be healthier cut down on sugar and chips, fast intermittently sleep enough, salads and […]

Happy New Year, Friends. If you didn’t make good last year, you probably did something horribly wrong. Reflect back on the gaps that need filling, and understand where you erred, and why. We trailed the S&P 500 – 22.44% to 28.88%. For the first time, we made more from the market than we saved. The […]

One of my goals this year was to run a mile without break.  I was always fast. I played soccer growing up. But running came to me in burst. I could never do distance or time. I’d spend an hour on the steps or the elliptical easily but on the treadmill, I’d just walk. I […]

We’re still decent YTD – up 13% to S&P’s 18.82%. Our stock to bonds splits at 80% to 7%. Our holdings continue to be in index funds – VTSAX/VTI for our non-retirement/taxable accounts and US Stock Index Funds provided by our 401K providers – these will not change. We increased our cash reserves (VMMXX) to a […]

Our YTD numbers look good. We rode the market that’s up a magnificent 18.25% YTD. While our 13.57% YTD increase still trails by 4+%, we’ll take what we got and carry on with our Bogle ways. Our stock to bond split stands at an aggressive 83.18% to 7.91%. Almost all our stock holdings are in […]

If you’re a Boglehead, you’re probably up 10-13% YTD. We continue to track the S&P 500 through both our retirement and non-retirement accounts. We trail the market by 3% — 10% to the S&P 500s 13%. Our stock to bond split stands at 79% to 8.81%. The rest sit in VMMXX that we call our […]

Happy New Year, Friends. We hope you had a wonderful 2018 (despite the recent slip) and hope future years are steadier. As for us, we were diligent savers this year. We lived on one income and saved the other (more or less). We maxed both our Roth IRA and 401K accounts, and while we don’t […]

A sharp mind and a healthy body, in short. I’ll walk, read and write. In 2019, I want to be able to run a mile without break, be leaner than I am We’ll hike, the Mrs. and I – 3 14er’s the goal We need to learn to love the outdoors. In 2019, I want […]

The remedy, Mrs. Gofi exclaimed, is that I give it a shot. For all our growing years, most of us know what it is about us that makes us, us. Few fortunate folks are tall and slender. A few look intelligent, which is a real tragedy when they’re not. Few look scarred, in a raggedly […]

We are in our mid 30s and we’re thinking of kids. In many ways, it’s looking like writing a paper a day before it’s due. This is the year to have one if we want one, my wife tells me. I’m not sure about next year, she says. She would know. She’s a neonatal nurse. […]

We are a two income household. We try to live on my income and save my wife’s income. We’re looking to max our individual retirement accounts for the first time this year. We maxed our Roth accounts early this year, and will max our 401K next month. In all fairness, this is only the third year […]

Jeff’s obviously frugal, but the guy’s bright in the best of ways – rooted to the ground, and fully aware of where he stands and where he can be. Jeff confirms the basic FI tenets – always be investing, in low cost index funds, keep them there especially in the worst of time and be […]

This one’s wonderful – NPR’s Hidden Brain on BullShit jobs.  May be why we have open offices, and hypocritical (of me) to post it on a Tuesday morning. But I actually wrote this yesterday 🙂 I’m all for efficiency – and I’m learning to space my work a bit. Weather it does anyone any good […]

This list will grow. Not much I can say on these – listen: Bucky, the mailman  Jeff, the millionaire custodian

My themes these last few days have been rather serious – Passion Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai Aging Dr. Una Kroll I came across Ernest Shackleton last week. I spent the entire weekend reading on the heroic age of Antarctic Exploration. And how incredibly they lived – then Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott. Their struggles, and […]

A small town could steal a life. Dennis is a small town man. He’s lived in one all his life. He’s been to Florida a few times. New York is just a day away, but he hasn’t really felt a need to see it. He tells me that he’s never been on a plane. Dennis is […]

Exhibiting FI qualities, by circumstance and design, circa winter 2012. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck – Dalai Lama. ****** This is what I have On a hard floor lifted by air a sock here, a sock there and three bananas on a red bag In the […]

I made this list a few years ago. Here’s where these stand today: No podcast at work: I listen all day. They keep me in line with all that’s there, or was, and stirs the mind. I’ll list my favorites on a separate post soon. Some of the FI podcasts I like are here. Low […]

Some random quotes saved as draft many years back.  Edna O’Brien: I think by nature I am lonely, in that I wouldn’t be a writer if I were not lonely. I think most writers [are], if you read their letters and sometimes read some of their lives. I’m not recommending it, but I know one […]

Our stocks to bonds split stands at an aggressive 81% to 11%. We started an emergency fund (VMMXX) late in the quarter. We will continue building it up until it equals a few months our expenses. This has temporarily halted our non-retirement investments. We continue to contribute towards our 401K and should max those by year end. We […]

I drove Uber for a few days last year – just for kicks, and quickly realized my time was better spent elsewhere. I drove for 8 hours, spread across 4 days and made $151. Shockingly, only 3 of the 17 riders tipped.  The tippers included a nice lady from New Mexico, a younger woman from […]

Asset Allocation, Q1 2018  (as of Apr 18) The spread between our taxable and tax-adv accounts currently stand at 61% and 39% respectively. Since we will not be accessing our tax-adv accounts until later in life, we are comfortable with this mix at the moment. Our stocks to bonds split stands at a moderately aggressive […]

Do you want to go the mall tomorrow? Sure, it’s been a while. Great, it’ll be fun. But lets not buy anything. I know. Next time don’t say it before we go. (We actually don’t keep it too tight. Just in case you’re curious, out clothing expenses are included in HomeExp. We averaged $434 a […]

   My wife had a conference call with her sisters a few days back. Someone they know had recently made good on Bitcoin and was celebrating in Hawaii. We could’ve been in Hawaii, she tells me. We could’ve paid off the house. Looking back, I’m not sure if missing the bull was all that […]

I read of Huntington Hartford of the now defunct A&P supermarket this weekend. Leading me to Hartford was an article that implied how inheritance and windfalls generally make less overall good to the inheritor (and by extension to the world) than to those who’ve accumulated their wealth over a long period of time. The grind and […]

My sisters are visiting us over thanksgiving. How long are they staying with us? Three days. Can they sleep on the floor? ** Earlier this week, we documented our $72 K savings goal for next year. Our plan is to max our retirement accounts early, then hit our taxable accounts. We’ll be on a tight […]

Would you do this if you had a million dollars?, asked my wife as she came home from work this morning. Yes I would, I tell her. How about ten million? Yes, I would. I’m going to sleep now, you incorrigible boy. But this, the official money map chain gang, is a wonderful exercise. Thank you Apathy […]

A surge of articles on “middle class” hit my Feedly yesterday. I grew up in a middle class family, without quite knowing what it was. My father made sure I had everything I needed – but that was probably because I didn’t ask for much. I remember asking my Economics teacher back in high school […]

Our lifestyle shapes our financials. We like our space light and airy. Our room is all space and a mattress. Welcome to our Crib! Our clothes dry in the sun. We’ll slip those in the dryer now that winter’s near. For vacuuming, we use this. Fellow readers, if you can show me how I can become an affiliate […]