We have been financially independent for 5 years! In this blog we reflect on our journey and offer some encouragement to those seeking to set themselves free and reclaim their lives.
Q3 2025 Financial Update
It’s been a couple of months since our last financial update and there is no better time than now.
The markets have been on fire! But, we might be getting to that point where a pullback could be inevitable. We have certainly enjoyed watching our portfolio rebound to our pre home build levels. However, the reality is that the markets can’t go up forever. At some point there needs to be a pullback or even a correction. No one wants it to happen, but that’s what healthy markets do.
This year end could be similar to 2024. We had a good run until end of year profit taking started and the market fell pretty good. That would be ok though as it would set up nicely for 2026. But, what might keep the ball rolling this year are rate cuts.
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Dividend Portfolio Update
Welcome back for another dividend portfolio update!
Since our last update we have continued to execute on our plan of making regularly scheduled contributions. The markets continue to hit all time highs so it’s been slim pickings for individual stocks. However, there are some opportunities out there. With the current environment we have mostly stuck to adding shares to our ETF positions in SCHD, JEPI and JEPQ.
We do have a couple of positions that haven’t participated in the run up. Normally this is where we would direct our available funds. However, most of these positions are also the same ones we have identified and put on the chopping block. This is because they no long fit our investment strategy. The fact that they are having bad year is just an annoying inconvenience for the time being.
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Dividend Portfolio Update
Yes, we still have our dividend portfolio. It’s been over 10 months since we last gave an update on our dividend portfolio. Like everything else during that time it just wasn’t top of mind and took a back seat. However, we never stopped investing and our portfolio continues to grow.
With the change in our lifestyle we needed to make some adjustments to our approach to this portfolio. When we started our dividend portfolio we were committed to only using funds generated by our blog, and related affiliate programs, as a financing source to grow our account. Essentially we wanted to use passive income to generate more passive income. We also wanted to show people that you can build a nice portfolio even with limited funds. It just takes patience.
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Mid Year Financial Update
Sitting on a flight to Washington seems like a good time to write our mid-year financial update blog. Might as well take advantage of the boredom and pass the time in a constructive way.
In January we gave our year end financial update of our portfolio. You can find that blog here if you are interested in a recap. The most amazing part of that update was that despite the outflow of cash and expense of building a home our portfolio still managed to end the year up $41,039 or 2.87%! It was perfect timing for the markets to have a nice year with everything we had going on. December could have gone better, but that’s how it goes.
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Getting Back On Track
Hello there! Yep, we are still here! It has been so long since we have had a moment to even think about this blog. We don’t even know where to start so let’s just dive in and see where we go.
Ever since we moved back into a house it has been one thing after another. But, not in a bad way. We have just been preoccupied with the seemingly endless amount of chores and maintenance of our property. Until now, this blog isn’t something we haven’t even thought about this year. To be honest, the only thing that reminded us of it was having to pay for it.
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Sorting It Out
Howdy y’all!! It’s a new year and things are getting back to normal. It’s a new normal and a new routine, but we sure are loving every minute.
It’s getting downright cold here in north central Texas! It’s moments like this where we do not miss living in our RV. Plywood and fiberglass was never conducive to a warm environment in freezing temperatures. The only thing worse than a full shitter would have been a frozen shitter. Yuck!! Thank god that never happened to us!
When we published our last blog our financial situation was clear as mud. We didn’t know how much we were paying for the house we built and already living in! We knew the cost of the construction, but that was only the starting point. None of the details had been finalized and they kept changing which made a frustrating situation even worse.
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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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