Mid-Way Point in Our Journey to Financial Freedom

I recently celebrated my 10yr anniversary at my employer and I realized we are roughly halfway through our journey to financial freedom (10 years into a 20 year plan). With our $2 million net worth goal as a guidepost and a 20 year financial benchmark that suggests we are still reasonably on target for 2021-2022 I guess it is full speed ahead.

I feel like we are in relatively good shape. In my mind the first million is much harder to accumulate than the 2nd. Once we hit the million net worth mark in my mind it should be only a matter of time until we hit $2 million. It might take us 7 years if we are hitting on all cylinders in asset accumulation, 10 years if there are some minor bumps in the row, or worser case maybe 15yrs if there are some significant unexpected events that come our way that we are able to work through.

Now-a-days it seems like our financial decisions and strategies are more of the “don’t rock the boat” nature. Whatever we have been doing over the past 10 years seems to be working from a net worth growth perspective and I’ve been mainly focused on trying to keep us on the same trajectory. Regardless of the plan there are like to be bends, turns, shortcuts, and detours along the way.

Not too long ago I spelled out a bit more of our plan for how we would translate our future balance sheet into cash flow to support our financial independence. I think the next 10 years will have a lot of focus on filling in those areas of our balance sheet that are currently short and perhaps beginning to shift our focus from our financial goals to other areas of importance to us as our financial goals become closer to reality.

How we shift out of the rat race and into financial independence while ensuring that our financial house stays in order (rather than excessive depletion) I expect will be a significant challenge.

Related in Financial Goals:

Financial Freedom Plan - 2015 Update (Apr 30, 2015) I finally sat down to get an updated view of our progress towards our financial freedom plan that I laid out a few years go in terms of asset allocation. Some notes: Our asset allocation to fixed income (interest) will...

Financial Freedom Plan (Aug 25, 2013) Almost two years ago I laid out a plan for the net asset allocation I thought we needed for our financial freedom plan. It was a rough guide for asset allocation that I believe could generate enough income to cover...

2012 Passive Income: Dividends (Jan 27, 2013) Here is a summary of our 2012 dividend income. All this income comes from our taxable stock portfolio that is included in our monthly investment review. All retirement investment holdings are excluded from this dividend income summary. This passive income...

Comments (4)

I agree with you that not only the 1st million is harder to make but also difficult to maintain/retain. Congratulations on your journey.

If I may ask, when you mention about your assets and net worth, is it for you alone or is it for you and your wife together?

Posted by Anonymous | November 12, 2011 8:50 AM

Anonymous, it's for them together.

Posted by Steve | November 12, 2011 9:55 PM

This is no doubt great achievemet. I do not take into account value of my properties ( I have no liabilities on them either), if I would we are roughtly in the same place.

Have you taken into account inflation and administration cost? Recently I did it and as it pans out - saving $ 40, 000 a year over next 35 years at moderate inflation of 2% and administration cost 1-2% will take you nowhere, at the current stock market performance.

See for yourself. I would value your opinion on that.

Posted by Financial Independence | November 21, 2011 1:03 AM

Congratulations, it's an achievement already! And as someone who just starting on the same path (just slightly different approach), can't wait to dig into your archives to learn

Posted by David K. | November 24, 2011 8:29 AM