I’m actually quite proud of myself… The old Joel 10 years ago would have given them $100 as a moving present, instead of just $40. So breaking even is actually something to celebrate :) Cheers to a good year IF!!

Interesting! I’ll be honest – I had to google what the Buffet Indicator was! :) Can’t blame you for trying to preserve capital, it’s more and more important as you come closer to your retirement date. Most people find it hard to give up good returns for less risk, so I’m glad you’re doing what’s right for your personal situation!

Good work David! 50% is awesome, congrats! I too am looking forward to this covid stuff being more under control so we can get out and start being comfortable around stranger again :) We’ve got it pretty bad here in LA right now, apparently 1 in 5 testing pos. :(

I’m roughly 5 years away from retirement. The current valuations are lofty enough that it makes me too nervous to stay in the market and risk a significant drop which would require me to delay my retirement until the market had largely recovered.

I can miss out on some additional growth and still retire on schedule. But if the market were to crater me, I would have to wait it out.

I’ve considered the possibility that the recovering economy may bring GDP up and therefore make the market valuations more attractive to me without a “crash”. And if GDP recovers while equities remain steady, at some point I’ll start getting back in. Maybe when the Buffet Indicator drops back down to about 120%.

It may be splitting hairs, but I’m trying to value the market vs “time” it. I took the last installment out of the market when the Buffet Indicator pushed past 150%. I didn’t start reducing my positions until it had gone over 130%. The only time it was over 130% prior to that in my lifetime was just before the 2000 crash. Currently it is over 190% Yikes!

If I miss out on some growth, so be it. And I’m even ok with that. I consider that “loss” the same as paying insurance that ensures I won’t have to delay my retirement plans past my “sell by” date.

My 2020 was OK.. when I started the year I was on track to increase my NW by 100 – 200% but then the pandemic ended and I only increased my NW by 50%. Smaller numbers such as my NW have an easier time climbing up than higher numbers like yours, ha.

I am hoping 2021 will be the year everyone can safely socialize and actually do stuff. But then a new strand of COVID could happen so who knows.. We shall see!

Awesome, Michael! That’s one of my goals this year – to set up a donor advised fund. I’ll have to hit you up and pick your brain about the process. I was just gonna transfer cash, then invest it. But now that I think about it, appreciated lots of stock is a way better move. I’m still scratching the surface of researching this stuff!

Congrats on the Net Worth gain my friend! And exiting the rental in a hot market!! :)

Congrats Ben! You are a smart investor. I do know of a secret crypto fund that I just heard about… Super small right now, but it’s gonna blow up massively this coming year. It’s called Joelcoin – let me know if you want to invest and I’ll give you the account number to transfer all your money to. :)

Try this Steve… Break your wealth down into pennies… 100 x pennies is longer than 1 dollar bill, but the same value. Each penny is .75 inches, so 1 dollar is 75 inches. I’m too tired right now to compute into feet and miles, but you’ll find you’ll go probably 10x the distance your bills will take you? :)

PS. holy moly 23,000 miles!!!? You’ve nearly circled planet earth?

2020 was a good year for net worth. We ended up ~13% year over year in December.

We did, however, decide to give away a chunk of the gains by funding our first donor-advised fund. This allowed us to donate appreciated equities and also realize a nice tax deduction for the year (which is welcomed since we also sold off an appreciated rental property too).

Wishing you a healthy and prosperous year ahead. :)