Starting Anew

Hello there! It’s been awhile since we have posted a blog. It’s been even longer since we posted a blog that wasn’t a financial update of some sort. Over eleven months as a matter of fact. In that blog we wrote about buying our property in Texas and being excited to start building our home. Little did we know at the time we were in for a wild ride.

As we started our home building journey it quickly became clear that our original plan was not going to work out. The builder we had at that time was becoming very difficult to deal with. After discovering some questionable line items on our build budget that relationship came to a very abrupt and contentious end.

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July 2024 Financial Update

Welcome to our July 2024 financial update! It’s only been a couple of weeks since we posted our June 2024 financial update blog, but a lot has happened in that time.

It looks like we really getting down to the nitty gritty with our Texas home build. Last we saw the interior pieces are starting to come together. And as far as we can tell, at least through FaceTime, everything appears to be working out as planned. That’s a little weight off our shoulders. Not being on site to see everything person had us second guessing some things.

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January 2024 Dividend Portfolio Update

And just like that we are off and running in 2024! Welcome to our first dividend portfolio update of the new year!

At the end of 2023 we set a lofty goal of trying to hit $1,000 in PADI by the end of 2024. We finished 2023 at $837 so we will need to add $163 this year to reach our year end goal. This might prove difficult as most months we add less than $10 to our total. We are also trying to be more selective with where we put what little funds we do have.

For the most part we have done pretty well in our portfolio. But, like most investors we have made some mistakes and that has cost us. We don’t fret over it too much because mistakes are a part of investing. The important thing is to learn from those mistakes and make better decisions going forward.

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December 2023 Financial Update

Welcome to our December 2023 financial update blog! We are a little late getting this blog published. The new year has started off with a bang and there hasn’t been any spare time to dedicate to writing. 

Our first task of the new year was a planned trip back to California. This trip had been planned for awhile but turned into a dual purpose trip. The main objective was to visit Mrs. RVF’s side of the family as we haven’t seen them in quite a long time. However, in light of our purchase of a nice plot of acreage in Texas we also needed to break the news to them. Yes, we really meant it when we said we are not going back to live in California…….EVER! The conversation went much better than we expected. It’s great to have support from family and friends when big decisions are made.

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Can’t Buy It? Build It!

Now we are cooking with fire, figuratively and financially! Looking for our forever home has been a bit of a grueling process. We are happy to say that things are now progressing as we have changed direction from buying to building. If you are new to our blog and need to catch up on the developments then start here and here.

In short, we discovered a great home in a very nice area. One that checked off all of the boxes and then some. So we decided to put in an offer despite it being out of our price range.

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November 2023 Financial Update

Welcome to our November 2023 financial update blog! There have been so many ups and downs this month it’s hard to know where to start. So let’s just jump on in and let it rip.

If you have been keeping up with our adventure you know that we thought that we found our forever home here in Texas. Read about it here if you need a refresher. You also know that after some negotiations it became clear that we were not going to be able to make a deal. So we walked away. That really sucked, but it was definitely for the better.

After losing out on the bidding we had resigned ourselves to just enjoying what we have. Maybe taking a break from the grind of looking and researching was what we needed to do. The whole thing was just stressing us out anyway. That’s not what we live this lifestyle to do so we stepped back. Well, that lasted about a week.

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September 2023 Financial Update

We are back with our September 2023 financial update! The months are flying by and before you know it we will be heading to the great state of Texas for the winter. We have enjoyed our time on the lake in Oklahoma, but like all great things it will soon come to an end.

As much as we love lake life we are getting to the point where we are ready to move on. The downside to being in this area is that there just isn’t much to do. Aside from walking around the campground or sitting outside looking at the water not much is going on. As such, we have been pretty stagnant for that last month. After a rough couple of months camping in a remote area was a relaxing change. Now we are itching to get somewhere we can be more active and do some sight seeing.

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