Category: Mission

Now that we enter a new year it is always good to go back and look at everything I was able to accomplish this year. Below are the highlights of my path to Financial Independence:

• Opened a Vanguard account and transferred $70,000 I had sitting in my bank account. Setup two auto investments to purchase $1,550 every two weeks in VTSAX
• Started this blog to document my journey to Financial Independence: theyoungretireeby33.com
• Started an Instagram account to supplement the blog. IG: theyoungretireeby33
• Decreased my car insurance monthly payment by $100/month by negotiating terms
• Cut the cord for cable saving $60/month
• Stayed 100% rented out in the two additional bedrooms in my home renting one for $1,000 and the other for $900. My mortgage payment will drop to $1,750 beginning in February 1st, 2019.
• Created a Personal Capital account to track my Net Worth in a very simple one stop shop
• Created a detailed expense tracking spreadsheet that will project out net worth by the pay check. This spreadsheet even goes as detailed as to outline when I will place money into my 401k, HSA, and Roth.
• Maxed out my 401k for the first time ever in my working career
• Wrote out my goals both personally and professionally
• Homestead my property to reduce taxes by approximately $700/year
• Enrolled in a HSA plan at work so I can take advantage of what people in the FI community say is one of the best kept secret tax advantaged accounts
• Received $1,700 in travel credit through taking later flights on busy days from Delta
• Put a heavy focus on excelling at work and I was able to increase my total compensation from $119,165 to $177,424. Increasing my income continues to be a focus in my life so I can speed up my path to FI
• Used tax loss harvesting to save over $10k in taxes in the next 5 years

What can I say, I took the idea of FI and took it to the next level based off what I learned at the time. Now it is time to 10x again! Let’s go 2019!

DANG, it has been a little over 3 months now since I first found the Financial Independence community (around July of 2018). I cannot believe that I am finally doing this. We are actually about to go on this journey together and I cannot be more ecstatic about it! I have come so far, yet I have just started on my path to true financial independence. I would like to set the stage for this blog and start the first post with a little background about myself and what I hope to get out of this blog.

Who am I? I am just your everyday average Joe who is 26 and currently living a great life. To be clear to anyone who stumbles across this blog, I am not retired at this point in my life. I wanted to create the name TheYoungReitreeBy33 as it is catchy and it outlines my goal to be financially independent by 33. I grew up in a very nice household having two amazing parents who were hardworking and always taught my older brother and I the core values of respect, hard work, and above all else to always give back to others. I have had a crazy and eventful life up to this point. I will go into much more detail in a later blog post, but for the time being, I have had the opportunity to live across the US from Dallas to Buffalo to Fayetteville, AR to Bethlehem (the holy land 😉), PA to Orlando. My career and schooling have given me this great blessing and I wouldn’t change anything for where I am currently at in my life.

Why Create a Blog? The question that I have continued to ask myself now for a few months. I have been debating on whether to create a blog to track my journey or just continue down the path without sharing anything. I think the main reason I am going to take a leap out and do this is because I want to hold myself accountable. Whether nobody ever reads any of my posts or I have the privilege to reach hundreds of readers, I am excited to follow-through with this. There have been too many times in my past where I would start something but never finish it. Time to see where this path to FI will take me and to document all my steps along the way.

What I Plan to Share? The main point of this blog will be to document my path from knowing absolutely nothing about the Financial Independence community to working my way to Financial Independence Optional Retirement (FIOR). I heard this term on a podcast I listened to a while back and it really resonated with me. There are a ton of people who are all about the FIRE movement (and I love that they are all about it!!) but I want to ensure people understand exactly what I am going after.

What Are My Goals? I have so many different goals it is hard to write them all down here in a concise condensed down version, but I will write out what I currently read every morning during my Miracle Mornings.

1. I commit to becoming financially independent where my investments will be able to sustain my spending levels by the age of 33 no matter what. There is no other option.
2. I commit to save 75% of my take-home pay each month no matter what. There is no other option.
3. I commit to engage in more conversations with random strangers to learn about all the unique people there are in this world no matter what. There is no other option.
4. I commit to engage in random conversations with girls I have never met no matter what. There is no other option.
5. I commit to work out twice a day no matter what. There is no other option.
6. I commit to eat healthy foods in which keep me energized and alert no matter what. There is no other option.
7. I commit to read 2 Mr. Money Mustache articles each day no matter what. There is no other option.
8. I commit to read 2 books per month no matter what. There is no other option.
9. I commit to listen to 1 Impact Theory or related video every day no matter what. There is no other option.
10. I commit to use the counting down from 5 method once a day no matter what. There is no other option.
11. I commit to track my finances at the end of every month no matter what. There is no other option.
12. I commit to empty my mind of negative thoughts no matter what. There is no other option.
13. I commit to meditating at least once a day no matter what. There is no other option.
14. I commit to doing a Miracle Morning each morning no matter what. There is no other option.

I feel this is a good starting point for setting the stage for this blog and I am very excited and grateful that you have read up till the end of this post! There is a lot more to come on this journey.

Please also follow me on my Instagram account to see when I started tracking my path to FIOR at : TheYoungRetireeBy33

I could not have asked for a better end to 2018! Peak performance of my company increased 40% YoY and I was able to lead the charge ensuring the company didn’t have operational challenges preventing us from driving online sales. All in all, it was a wild end to the year and I forgot I haven’t put together a blog post quickly detailing out what my goals are for this year! I posted this on my Instagram a few weeks back but thought I would also supplement it with a blog post!

Believe it or not, this is the first time I have ever written out my goals and had to sit down to think about them in detail. I reflected on how 2018 went and now it is time to drive results for 2019! I have decided to break my goals out this year into three different categories: Financial, Personal/Relationships, and Health/Spiritual. At this moment in my life, these are the things that are important to me and I want to try to push myself to be the best version of myself I can be. Here we go!

Financial Goals for 2019:

• Max out my 401k at $19,000 by 3/31
• Max out HAS of $3,000 by 3/31
• Max out Traditional IRA by 3/31 Having to remove this goal as I no longer qualify to invest money into either a Traditional or ROTH IRA due to my income. I didn’t realize this last year, but after speaking the firm doing my taxes this year, I am happy to take this off the list.
• Keep both rooms in my home rented out for 90% of the year. One bedroom renting for $1,000/month and the second renting for $900/month.
• Increase my W2 total compensation to $250,000+
• Increase savings rate to 80%
• Optimize taxes through tax loss harvesting, and payroll deductions for HSA
• Invest $100k in my cousins bar, Whiskey Row, in Denver
• Purchase a second house hack

Personal/Relationships

• Spend $100 per month going out with friends with the focus being to create more deep and meaningful relationships
• Be open and outgoing to others. Seek to make a new connection with at least one person per week.
• Randomly perform one act of kindness each week and keep a journal of each
• Document my path to financial independence through blogging and Instagram
• Grow traffic to theyoungretireeby33.com to 100 unique visitors per week

Health/Spiritual

• Find a new diet to get on that will help with inflammation of my arthritis
• Meditate twice per day for at least 10 minutes each.
• Calm the mind, become less stressed and always kill Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANT’s)
• Perform a S.A.V.E.R.S. Miracle Morning at least 5 days per week. Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, Scribing
• Each morning wake up and write 3 things I am grateful for

I am sure this might seem like a task that shouldn’t take long to perform and really think out, but I can tell you from going through this exercise I am not good at getting this down on paper.

Actions: I plan to read this at least twice per week and keep myself in check to see if I can stick to these goals this year! Will be very interesting to see how everything ends up going.

Let me know what you think and as always don’t forget to add me on Instagram @TheYoungRetireeBy33.