Why, look at me. I’ve worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.
Groucho Marx
About two years ago, I started measuring my investment portfolio separately to my total net financial worth. The reason was to have a more stable measure to look at, in my progress towards my goal, one unaffected by the monthly flow of major house or other expenses.
The concept worked, and I noticed this past week that I sailed past an important milestone, of a $1,000,000 portfolio. As other FI bloggers have experienced, the feeling on looking at the excel spreadsheet and joining the so-called ‘double comma’ club was a little unreal. My first thought was not large cigars, scenes from The Great Gatsby, or luxury pools. Instead, very little seemed different. I had work to do, a schedule to keep up with, and the ordinary business of life.
Part of the feeling of unreality was the knowledge of how fragile and arbitrary the measure was. A downward gust of equity markets, a slight movement in bond markets, either would be enough to push the portfolio back down under this measure. Also, the inevitable march of inflation means that the concept of one million dollar is simply not what is used to be.
What has been more noticeable over the past year is the feeling of momentum building. The feeling of being able to look up from time to time and notice the goal, once so distant and theoretical, is now plausibly within reach over the next four years.
Congratulations on the accomplishment and on the blog.
I feel about the same, kind of “so what now?”. Maybe because I feel I am still transitioning into FI. Like the dog that cought the car.
Thanks for the visit and the comment! I looked at KindofLost this morning, and really liked its design, and sense of openness. Will be checking it out regularly. I think some of the same FI bloggers have inspired at first wobbly steps (at roughly the same time!).
Great job! I think monumental is the right word. Most of my net worth is my house which I own outright. Living in a major city of Australia, that value is substantial but in the scheme of income producing investments, it has left me way behind where I would like to be.
Thank you, and thanks for your comment! It is a challenging time to investing for income, isn’t it, in a few asset classes. I’m really curious how your own experience with Acorns has been going as well! Love to hear from you. 🙂
Congratulations FI Explorer. Seeing double commas must be exciting. Even though it may be temporarily fragile, you know it’s likely to become permanent in the not too distant future. I too find myself in a kind of time warp, where I think “Wow! A million dollars!” Then… “Oh – that’s about the average price of a house in Sydney now, isn’t it?”
Wow – wonderful job! That’s a great milestone, here’s to many more 🙂
I love you’re feeling the momentum, you’re unstoppable.
Tristan
Same feeling hit me at double commas. Now it’s more of a ‘build a safety cushion’ so that normal swings won’t take me back down below this important mental threshold.