We are only half way through 2020 but it feels like it’s been a decade packed into six months. The ups and downs of the first half of this year have been scary, unprecedented, opportunistic, disappointing and in some instances just flat out crazy.

A year that was supposed to be filled with excitement, anticipation and special once in a lifetime moments has instead become one of uncertainty, frustration and disappointment. Instead of mapping out and reserving spots for our new full time rv life we have had to cancel all of our plans and take a wait and see approach. Instead of our son experiencing senior prom, varsity baseball, graduation and a job he loves he stays home playing games online while preparing for his first semester in college. This is not what we envisioned life would be like heading into the second half of this year.

I am not always the optimist when it comes to things outside the world of finance. I typically take a pessimistic or skeptical viewpoint and get easily frustrated when things don’t go well or as planned. As our plans have been blown up over the last couple of months it has been very difficult watching the goalposts get moved when we are so close to achieving our dream.

It’s at this point I usually need to take a step back followed by a few deep breaths. The reality is all is not lost, just postponed. Our son is still going off to college which he is very excited about. We are still planning and going on our road trip to get him there. And we are still taking a couple few weeks to enjoy life on they way back home. It’s just when we get back home will be there a lot longer than we had hoped we would.

The other side of this is of course the financial side. We had planned on only having double payments through October. Now we are looking at somewhere between February and April as a best case scenario. That’s four to six months of additional expenses we didn’t plan on having which is also four to six months less of the higher savings rate we we looking to achieve. It’s hard to even be optimistic on this best case scenario when COVID-19 cases continue to increase. I can’t help feeling we are going to be stuck in this house much longer.

On the bright side business is good. We had another record month in June and all indications point to another record month in July. This is good for us financially and it’s good timing because College Road Trip 2020 is turning into a month long adventure and I will not be working for awhile. Talk about a great perk of business ownership and not being tied down to a company office chair.

Here is where we ended the month of June 2020:

Portfolio = $1,021,265

Portfolio Goal = $1,500,000

Amount needed to reach goal = $478,735

Our portfolio increased by $19,952 or 1.99% from the end of May

Year-to-date our portfolio is down 2.51%

Net Worth = $1,239,290

This is an increase of $25,126 or 2.07% from the end of May

Year-to-date our Net Worth is down 0.93%

It’s great to post another positive month. For a few days in June our portfolio actually turned positive on the year. The markets pulled back a little and a few expenses dropped our investments and cash on hand at month end but I’ll take a positive month anytime.

Our net worth is slowly tracking back to positive as the business continues to do well and our receivables continue to grow. As payments roll in this will convert to more cash. Of course we will also have a drop at some point because instead of working and generating revenue we will be taking a month long road trip. So we will inevitably have a income gap month at some point.

This is usually the point in our update blog where I give my opinion of the markets and my thoughts on their direction. But this month I don’t really have a sense of direction on the markets. I’ve said in the past there will come a time where market optimism has to meet reality and the markets will move from there. I still feel this way and the second half of the year is where I feel this will happen.

That’s not to say the markets are going down or going up in the second half. It’s more of a wait and see approach. There are too many unknowns right now even though the markets seems very optimistic. But until we see the impact of a reopening economy we don’t know the true optics at work. The best case is unemployment drops, corporate earnings are not as bad as everyone thought they would be and there is a clear direction forward. Worst case is unemployment increases or even remains the same and corporate earnings are horrible with no sign of recovering in the near future.

That’s a very wide gap of unknowns in my opinion and not something I would attempt to speculate on. Good thing we are long term investors and none of this short term stuff really matters!

Instead we will focus on our massive road trip. Have you seen the map we put out? If not here it is.

And this is the scaled back version. We had to cut out a couple of states from our original 6100 mile plan. It turned out to be a little overly ambitious.

Thank you for following us and reading our blog. Please make sure to follow us on Instagram by clicking the button to the right. We will be sharing photos our adventures and stops as they happen. It’s going to be our best trip yet!

Until next time…………………

Joe