Freed by 50

For the first time since celebrating being debt free, I was looking forward to hitting a big milestone. I have had February 12th written on my whiteboard to be ready to celebrate. And then yesterday I realized when I did my initial calculation of our accounts, I forgot my wife’s 403b. So I had the wrong date and I missed it. 

On February 7th 2024 I went from “net worth millionaire” to “liquid asset millionaire.”

Thanks to a booming stock market and February being a huge month for RSU’s, my ESPP payout and my bonus, my combined investment and savings accounts crossed over one million dollars!

I know that I’ve said before this is a difficult thing to celebrate because it will probably drop a bit and then go back and drop again several times in the coming months, but this is still a massive win. 

This represents ten years of expenses saved. Put another way, if I could never earn money again beginning tomorrow, I could still pay for my house and all of its associated expenses in perpetuity. 

On a morbidly funny note, if I were to die tomorrow when my life insurance paid out my wife and kids would actually be at our FIRE number. I guess that actually makes me feel a little more secure knowing that they’d never want for anything…except me (one would hope). 

I am well on track to be freed by 50 (he said it again!) at this point, and if I choose to work and contribute to my retirement at this rate until my youngest son graduates from high school I will overshoot my goal number by 100%. 

At least I can say I’m not doing this while eating rice and beans and walking around my house in a winter coat to pinch pennies. We just got a new car and I’m not exactly happy about the payments on this thing. I also decided to mark the milestone by buying a new watch. Back when I got promoted last year I decided to celebrate the years of hard work by buying an Omega Seamaster. This time I wanted something a little lower on the bling scale and bought a Seiko Prospex Alpinist. I’ve had my eye on the thing for almost a year and I got it at the lowest price I was ever going to see. Just like the Omega, when I wear it others may see a watch, but I see everything that went into making that watch possible. Every time I strap that watch on I’ll think about how fifteen years ago I was single and struggling to make ends meet, how hard I worked to get better jobs at better companies, how I fought to build a team and a product at my current company, and how it all lead to this awesome milestone…

…and so many more to come!