Freed by 50

Here we are with two weeks remaining in 2024 and I can’t believe how little I posted this year. In my defense, I was out enjoying life for most of the year, and then for the rest of the year I was suffering the fallout of reorg hell.

Each year I try to set out major and minor goals for myself, and then like a good little goal setter I come back at the end of the year to see how I did.

There are some things of note for 2024 outside of the goals. The most amazing thing to me is that my net worth increased just under $285k this year (not factoring in any increase to the value of my home). It’s even more amazing because I went against all of Dave Ramsey’s advice and took out a $70k loan on a brand new BMW X5. Had I not made that crazy decision I would have been up over $350k this year!

About the car…

I needed a car to replace one coming off of a lease. I wanted to set myself up to finally eliminate a car payment, so I was going to purchase a car no matter what. The used car market still sucks, and auto loans were pretty terrible up until very recently. I’m not crazy enough to buy a car outright, so I was definitely financing.

I have been driving fairly boring, financially responsible SUV’s for nearly 10 years. I decided that this time, this time I was going to have some fun. After setting a budget, and agreeing with my wife that no matter what we got we were paying it off in a single year, we narrowed it down to the BMW X5 and Land Rover Defender. The Land Rover is a fine car, but not for little kids. The X5 is comfortable, overengineered but easy to understand, and most of all incredibly fun to drive.

Is this my mid-life crisis car? Nope. That’s going to have to be a late life crisis car.

My reasoning is simple. Making the dangerous assumption that I’ll continue to be employed for the next year, I can pay the car off in four quarterly chunks. I’m currently 45 years old, I’m on track to reach my goal of being FI by 50, I make a lot of money, I only drive 5000 miles a year, and I’m on the cusp of being a multi-millionaire. When else does it make sense for me to do this and still enjoy it?

Ok, stupid car decisions aside…

This year featured a serious gut punch at my well paying job. After the SVP who really helped my career flourish, we rapidly went through two more SVP’s and that was immediately followed up by a reorg that dismantled my team. As if that wasn’t enough, then there were more leadership changes. And then they stuck my entire department in a multi-month holding pattern where we are still just waiting to hear what our jobs will look like in 2025.

I’ve had to wrestle with a lot of issues from this. People I still consider friends left or were asked to leave the company. My team’s morale was crushed along with my own. My job security went from rock solid to very shaky. And the career path that I’d been following for years completely blew up. I lost 100% of my motivation to do anything of importance for my department, and I think irreparable damage was done in the last few months. I’ve started looking for jobs internally, but I haven’t had any traction. It’s been disheartening and has hurt my personal life and my all around motivation.

So, that dark topic aside, lets get into the goal review!

Major Goals

Reach the next stage of FI – FAILED – Although I saw my net worth increase by nearly $285k, it was spread across multiple accounts, and mainly in my 401k. I needed my individual investment account alone to increase by $275k. I am happy to report that between investing and great market conditions in 2024 I am now $160k from this goal. This was really hamstrung by taking on two renovations, a trip to Disney, and putting 20% down on a new car.

Complete the final major home renovation – SUCCESS – My master bathroom had been trying to kill itself for years, and in 2023 it was just death by a thousand cuts. We finally pulled the trigger on this project in March and I couldn’t be happier with the results.

Some of my favorite features are:

• The heated floor and toilet seat – We didn’t really get to enjoy these when the project ended in April, since it was already warm out, but hooboy do we appreciate them now that it’s in the 20’s at night.
• The tailor made shower – One of the major catalysts for our remodel was the stall shower and me being sick of banging my elbows off the walls of it. The contractor had me stand with my arms out and measured me from elbow to elbow to decide the width of the shower.
• The overall aesthetic of the room – Previously the room screamed 90’s with its huge, non-functional Jacuzzi tub, tiny shower, crappy cabinets and Formica countertops. Now I get to walk into a high end hotel bathroom every day.

*Bonus renovation! – Over the summer I noticed both of my boys bedroom windows were leaking. Although we had already replaced most of the old windows in the house, there were still quite a few from 2007. We decided to have all of the remaining windows replaced and I hope to never buy another window for the rest of my life.

Get in shape…again – Meh – I will never accept the fact that I’m getting older, but damn if it’s not harder to lose fat than it was ten years ago. I’m pretty much exactly where I was when I wrote my goals. The only upside is that I have built some really great habits around what I eat and how much I work out. We’ll see what I can do in 2025.

Minor Goals

Learn, learn, learn – SUCCESS – This year I earned two professional certifications with a third in progress. I also took a ton of MasterClass courses, read a pile of books, and spent a fair amount of time learning from people way smarter than I am on YouTube. My Duolingo streak is currently 290 days.

Establish a new multi-year plan – SUCCESS-ISH – While my career plan was blown up in spectacular fashion this year, I realized that much like the characters in The Wizard of Oz I’ve had the new plan right here all along. You’ve been reading it. I’m about to turn 46 and this site is called Freed by 50. The plan is to be financially free, by 50. It was so far off when I started this thing I forgot it was right around the corner.

Start a new business or side hustle – FAILED – Not gonna lie, I did absolutely nothing to get closer to this goal. I did “write” a satirical business book with ChatGPT. I also outlined and wrote a few dozen pages of a personal finance book. Neither are ready for consumption or even completed to a point where I’d call them a first draft. I’m hopeful to make something of this in 2025.

Insane Stretch Goals

I had created three goals that were basically moonshots that I could work towards if I thought my other goals were a little too light. They were Pay off my mortgage, Buy a car in cash, and Double my income. Suffice it to say I did none of these things. As mentioned above, I came close to the idea of buying a car in cash, but while I may be crazy, I’m not crazy enough to pay for a luxury car in cash. The car will be paid off on or before November 15th 2025.

As for my mortgage, we’ll see what happens after I pay off the car, but I’m not anxious to part with my 2.625% rate and the payment is well within the affordable range.

I still think it would be fun to double my income, but I think in 2025 I’m going to change course and start looking for a meaningful project to work on. I know that when I can get fully immersed in a project that I really love the money tends to follow. I guess we’ll see what the next reorg brings.

That’s all for my 2024 goals. It was a mixed bag this year, but if you find you’re always hitting all of your goals you need to set harder goals. We’ll see what I come up with for 2025 some time in the next few weeks while I’m off for Christmas vacation!