2024 Financial Review & 2025 Outlook

[kork13]

Looking ahead to 2025 ... The new financial goals are a bit simpler, and both basically aim for a ~13% increase in our investments, between new money contributions & asset growth.
- $1.3M in non-retirement investments by Dec'25
- $2.5M+ invested assets by Dec'25
I'm projecting that we'll add ~$75k to our investments throughout 2025, which means our investments only really need to earn ~8% to meet these goals.

Looking a little further to my next big step (retirement eligibility in June 2028), we're well on track to hitting our mid-term goals to make that an easy transition (whenever we actually decide to pull the trigger):
- Buy 2nd/3rd rentals ($150k-$200k each, cash) by 2027 --->> I think I'm moving away from this approach ... I'm in the early stages still, so much is TBD, but I think I may actually continue to build our exposure to RELP syndications, rather than picking up individual rental properties to manage. As long as these first 2 RELP deals appear to be performing well, I'll likely stay on this track. But we'll see.
- $500k taxable, $500k Inv. RE, $1.5M retirement by 2028 --->> We're already most of the way here. $350k in non-retirement stock investments, $770k in RE investments, and $1.1M in retirement.
- $3M total net worth by military retirement --->> Likewise, we're already most of the way here too ... only ~$750k to go until we cross the $3M target, and 3.5 years to get there. I expect we'll actually do it within 2-3 years.

I'm dredging this thread back up for my semi-annual check-in & status update. We're 6 months into 2025, and in spite of everything dipping dramatically between ~Feb-Apr, our investments have slowly recovered & are now firmly in the green again (certainly helped by a new S&P500 record-high a few days ago). Total NW: just shy of $2.4M ($2500 below ... a mere rounding error!)

Because of the losses & subsequent recovery, the total increase during the last 6 months was somewhat muted -- just $130k (+5.8%) in total NW growth ..... and over $40k of that NW increase has been new contributions to our savings/investments. The good news in that fact is that I was able to continue aggressively buying shares all the way down, and all the way up ... so our overall returns have nevertheless beaten the market thanks to the consistent & aggressive DCA (~$6.5k/mo into investments).

Looking at our short-term financial goals from January:
- $1.3M in non-retirement investments by Dec'25: Not sure if this will happen. Depends on market returns the second half of the year ... currently at $1.17M vs. $1.13M in January ... I need ~18% returns to meet this one. That seems unlikely.
- $2.5M+ invested assets by Dec'25: I think we're on track to potentially make this target ... currently at $2.34M vs. $2.21M in January, would need ~10% returns now-to-then to make it.
Overall ... stay the course & see how it goes.

The slightly-longer-term goals (for 2028 & beyond) should still be well in hand. The big goal is $3M in total NW by Jun'28 (when I'm eligible to retire from the military), so I've got 3 years to accumulate another $600k. I think that's doable, as long as the markets continue with reasonably steady growth ... Including our continuing contributions, we should only need a 5% annualized return to get there.

I'm not sure if anyone else follows a similar schedule for periodic financial updates. But if you do, happy to hear how it's going for you.

[disneysteve]

As of market close yesterday (7/1/25), our portfolio is up about $230,000 year to date. That sounds great but it really just takes us back to where we were in January when we first topped the $4 million mark. So in reality, our portfolio has been flat for the past 5+ months. There was a huge dip and then a recovery back to the starting point. I'm certainly not complaining though. To be up over 200K halfway through my first full year of retirement is a beautiful thing.

It's also important to note that we are now living on our portfolio (and the relatively small amount I earn from my reselling business). Plus we're in the midst of our kitchen remodel. To date, we have spent about $18,000 for that along with all of our normal living expenses, and our our portfolio is still up 230K YTD.

I figure if we can end 2025 even or better than we started, that would be a big win.

[ua_guy]

We're meeting with a CFP next week. It's been a few years since we did a basic check in (free thing through work), and this time it's about baselining an end game and finding someone we can check in with regularly. We've done planning already to some extent and I think we've identified what we want to do in retirement, but DH and I disagree significantly on the "how much". We want to get some additional perspective and data.

The market hit its previous high in January, we shifted a giant chunk of assets to CD's March/April, and now the market is back where it was, my CD's have matured, and we need to decide what to do next. I'm not mad that I was earning 4.3% through that time, most people in the stock market did not. I also do not expect the market to stay near its present high for long. Perhaps after next week's meeting I'll have some specific goals and actions to complete as we dive into the 2nd half of the year.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

We added around $500k in gains to our portfolio. And our portfolio went up more because we added to it. I'm not sure where to say we stand since we added about 20% to it from our earnings. Only thing happening right now is deciding to fund our 529 more or not. I've figured out that we are short a bit.

But what we are short on is mostly if we are covering the living expenses out of the 529. If we aren't then we aren't short. I don't know whsether to fund more or not because I don't necessarily want excess in the 529 since i think we have enough to cover the $35k roth and tuition but not quite enough for living expenses.

[disneysteve]

Only thing happening right now is deciding to fund our 529 more or not. I've figured out that we are short a bit.

But what we are short on is mostly if we are covering the living expenses out of the 529. If we aren't then we aren't short. I don't know whsether to fund more or not because I don't necessarily want excess in the 529 since i think we have enough to cover the $35k roth and tuition but not quite enough for living expenses.

I think you're in a situation where it really doesn't matter. You can afford to pay out of pocket for college expenses that exceed what's in the 529s. As you said, you don't want to overfund them.

If one or both kids gets scholarship money, that can throw off the whole calculation, which is only a best guess anyway. Our daughter got awarded a 3K/yr scholarship starting 2nd year so that was 9K of extra money we hadn't expected. That was on top of her 19K/yr merit scholarship.

Also, keep in mind that you don't have to stop contributing to the 529 when child 1 starts college. You can keep running money through that account which can be great if you get a state tax deduction. Even if you don't you can benefit from a year or two of tax-free growth for dollars put in during sophomore or junior years, by which time you'll have a solid amount you're going to need.