And exhale! It’s finally here, the end of the month and the end of the most chaotic year of our lives. We referred to 2020 as the year of change as we had big plans and big goals, but we had no idea what was in store.

In 2020 everything that was supposed to change didn’t. We are still living in our house. Our son went off to college, but he came back home and he is still here. Our RV is still sitting in a storage yard. We are still paying for bills that were supposed to be gone with our new and improved nomadic lifestyle.

In the end it feels like nothing changed except the calendar. Like Groundhog Day we are starting 2021 with the same goals and plans we had at the start of 2020.

Financially the year was a roller coaster. We started off strong and then the covid crash happened. We experienced losing over $100k in a single month for the first time which wasn’t very fun. Having experienced down turns and extremely volatile markets in the past we knew panicking was the worst thing to do. We stuck with our plan and even tapped into our cash savings to buy a market on sale. It paid off a lot faster than expected and we recovered all of our losses and then some. We even experienced gaining $100k in a single month for the first time.

Here is where we ended the month of December 2020:

Portfolio = $1,231,656

Portfolio Goal = $1,500,000

Amount needed to reach goal = $268,344

Our portfolio increased by $49,154 or 4.16% from the end of November

Year-to-date our portfolio is up 17.58%

Net Worth = $1,439,960

This is an increase of $46,093 or 3.30% from the end of November

Year-to-date our Net Worth is up 15.29%

If you would have told me our portfolio would be up over 17% after all that happened in 2020 I would have told you to get your head examined. But here we are not only closing out 2020 great gains but also within $275k of reaching our financial goal. A goal that is now within reach once we finally sell our house and figure out how much cash is left after paying for our son’s college tuition. What a remarkable way to end a crazy year.

January will probably be a volatile month for the markets. It feels like every bit of possible good news is already priced in which means any sliver of bad news will push the markets lower. The first catalyst event comes with the runoff races in Georgia. After that it’s all about vaccines, recovery and reopening. Any negative headlines regarding these items will impact the markets.

We will be busy in January as we will be putting our house on the market barring and unforeseen issues. We have narrowed our selling options down to two and will decide based on which one gives us the most bang for our buck financially. We will also try to time the closing with getting or son back to school.

During the last couple weeks we have really picked up the pace of selling possessions. As of now we have sold or disposed of everything in our garage and most almost everything except furniture and necessities inside the house. Our family is generously letting us store a few boxes of personal items in their garage and everything that we are taking in the RV is already there except clothes and some kitchen items.

In the next couple of weeks we have some expenses coming up that are planned for and are part of the transition to our RV life. First is getting the annual maintenance done on the RV and generator which is expensive in and of itself. But while it’s in the shop we decided to do get some other things checked out to make sure everything is in good working order. It will cost us a little money now but could save us a lot of money later.

Additionally we are making an upgrade inside the RV by removing the sofa sleeper and replacing it with some theater seating. It’s an expensive upgrade but we will be able to sell the sofa and also remove and sell a separate recliner to help offset some of the cost. Plus it’s better to do this and incur the expense while we are still working. Another benefit, aside from the increased comfort level, is that we will gain some floor space which is always at a premium in the RV lifestyle.

If all goes well we hope to be living full time in the RV sometime in February. 🤞🏻🤞🏻

Thank you as always for reading our blog. We are excited to start the next chapter of our lives and are just as excited to share it with everyone. Once we get through this transition we have some ideas for the blog that will give people insight and information on the full time RV lifestyle as well as our continued focus on FIRE and finances in general.

Until next time………………………..

Joe