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.

Another point we disclosed in that blog was that we were moving into a new phase of our early retirement. That phase involved using IRS Rule 72(t) to start drawing from pretax accounts. As we said, the downside was that we will be locked into withdrawals, no matter what, for a number of years.

We know this is probably not a popular thing for the FIRE crowd given our age. However, part of our early retirement dilemma has always been that we saved almost exclusively in pretax accounts for most of our working lives. That’s just how it was done back then.

Eventually we opened a Roth IRA and did some rollovers and we also have a couple of brokerage accounts. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to live off or to bridge the gap to 59 1/2. So sooner or later this was the route we were going to have to go. Buying land and building a house just made that day come a little earlier than we originally planned.

As we said before, this is our plan and what works for us. Some folks might not like it and that’s fine. You do you 🙂

Let’s check out some numbers………….

Our Portfolio Month Ending June 2025:

Portfolio = $1,521,323

Portfolio Increased By $51,931 or 3.53% From The End of 2024

Net Worth = $1,753,049

Net Worth Increased By $53,945 or 3.17% From The End Of 2024

Halfway through the first year of our new withdrawal plan and we are looking good. We have the benefit of a steady income and our portfolio is currently growing more than we are taking out. This could of course change at anytime with market volatility, but so far so good.

As for the markets, it seems there is a lot of positives that could keep pushing it higher. Permanent tax cuts, little to no inflation, and stronger than expected job growth.

Of course, the “experts” were wrong on tariffs being inflationary. Just like they were wrong in Trumps first term. And the biggest roadblock is the moron fed chairman Jerome Powell. He is either data driven and doesn’t know how to read the data or he is a political hack. Hint: it’s the latter.

*Political rant incoming*

If you read this blog you know I’ve disliked him for years. Well before it became popular to hate on him like it is now. He’s is an idiot, he’s always wrong, he’s NOT an economist and he IS political and it shows.

People like Powell and other “experts” should just spare us the bullshit and be honest. At least that would save them from always having to admit to being wrong. The truth is that they hate Trump. Therefore, they must oppose anything and everything he says and does so they can keep getting invited to DC cocktail parties. It doesn’t matter what the data or anything else says.

It’s just more of what we got for the past four years only in the opposite direction. Don’t believe your lying eyes. Ignore how far gas, egg and other prices have dropped. Ignore how many jobs are created, how many billions we collect in tariffs with no inflationary pressure and how many countries are making better trade deals. Ignore how secure the border is, how many peace deals are done or that the nuclear proliferation of the largest sponsor of terrorism was completely blown to shit.

Anything is an excuse for the fed morons to hold rates higher. Not because that what’s needed, because they have a severe case of TDS. That’s Trump Derangement Syndrome for those out of the loop, and it’s a legitimate medical condition at this point.

All these brainwashed muppets know is “orange man bad, must oppose.” It’s pathetic and it shows that being in power is more important than making any real progress to these allegedly smart people. Otherwise explain the shocking 50 basis point cut when there was much worse inflation and the data didn’t support it? You can’t, it was all political theater.

Now before some of y’all go getting all offended, know this. I don’t care who is President as long they are doing what’s best for our country. If mashed potato brain was actually effective he might of got some support. But, he wasn’t!

He abdicated his responsibility for our country to a bunch of unelected auto pen Marxists. The reality is he should have never been office to begin with. You know it, I know it and every asshole in Washington D.C. knows it too.

Jerome Powell knew it and still decided to lower rates despite actual high inflation and phony employment numbers. Which, by the way, were eventually all revised downward once nimrod was out of office. It was a political ploy to try and save his job and get reappointed for another four years.

If you’re offended, sorry, not sorry. I’m an equal opportunity politician and government employee hater. I call it like I see it and there is plenty of hate for both sides to go around. One side is now openly anti-American and rabidly power hungry. The other side is a group of incompetent gutless cowards.

So yeah, I support the outsider who pisses all of them off. I love it because they fear him, he can’t be bought and he will publicly call bullshit on people if necessary. Shouldn’t that be what everyone wants from the CEO of our country? I know that’s what we voted for and there is ZERO regret on our part.

Anyway, that’s where we are at and that’s our option on the state of the economy and country. You don’t have to agree, but you should believe what you see with your own eyes and not what the corrupt parrots in the media spew out on a nightly basis.

Until next time……. 

Happy Trails!

Joe 

Check out our online store StuckonCamping where you can get some of our designs on stickers, magnets, shirts, hats, tote bags and more! Check it out for camping, hiking, RV and other outdoor designs! Help support our blog by checking out our affiliates page for some great products and services or by clicking through one of our Amazon Affiliate product links before you make a purchase. We will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.