Whats Working Well in our Path to Financial Freedom

I've been slammed at work here recently and unfortunately not been able to make regular updates on the site. I've been eating, sleeping, and living for work. A bit unplanned, but peak periods every once and a while aren't always a terrible thing. The intensity at work has had me thinking more about how important it is for us stay focused on our financial freedom plan and not get too comfortable with our current situation.

I've done some reflection on our financial freedom journey and what I have thought has worked well for us and what areas we might need to put more focus on:

Whats Worked Well:

Financial Goals Are On Track - Our financial freedom goals are by and large on track with our original net worth goals. I really do think that is an indication that we have been focusing by and large on the right things to meet our goals. However my employment picture appears increasingly risky which could lead to major changes on tracking to our financial goals.
Happy & Healthy Family - Overall our family is good with some chronic, but stable conditions. Its important for me not to overlook our family's health and well-being and I'm very mindful and grateful that we are in an overall pretty good place. We are expecting our second child in September and excited that our family will be growing. The biggest area of concern for us is my overall ability to contribute time and energy to our family. Its not yet clear to me if this can significantly change until we reach our financial freedom goal. Being a slave to "the man" does limit what you can do.
Side Income - Multiple Streams of Income has been an area were we have continued to invest our energy and made decent progress. This site as well as other web sites that I have created continue to grow and have been a very rewarding experience. Our rental properties have also continued to grow and generate cash flow, although at a rate of return that is perhaps less than exciting. My wife has established her own side income while a full time stay at home parent which has been a measurable benefit to us. At this point I think we are only limited by the amount of time and energy we can put into these income streams.

What Areas Could We Improve:

Career Plans - Change is constant. The future is definitely cloudy for me and Im struggling to figure out what I should do next career/employment wise. Sitting in my current job isn't likely a long term option - I've been in this role over 3 years and have plateaued a bit. However we currently depend on my employment for the bulk of our income. Fear of major income loss has held me back a bit so far. I do foresee change in the next 1-3 years and potential disruption to our earned income levels which could have significant impacts on our ability to continue our current progress towards our financial freedom goal. I need to be investing more energy in figuring out my next career steps.
Investing Strategy - I always assumed that I would get better at investing with experience. My investments have been chronicled on this site for nearly a decade and would describe as about average at best. My investing approach hasn't delivered yet and perhaps a critical component to reaching our goal. Obviously consistantly higher investment returns yield quicker net worth growth and less net worth needed to reach our financial freedom.
Time Management - I struggle with balancing my time between my family, my employment, and my other priorities. My family doesn't get enough of my time or energy, but everything seems to be suffering from a lack of my time or energy recently.
Carpe Diem - I have to believe a lot of people struggle with this. With so many priorities, making each day special and memorable is a challenge. One day blends into the next. My wife and I don't travel as much as we'd prefer, although we had a really fantastic transatlantic trip last year. I don't anticipate doing any big travel for quite some time, but we also don't have any smaller things planned either.

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 (2)

Hey 2million,

You are doing very well. About your investing, I don't think it has been bad. Just that the last decade the stock market has generally 'sucked' with a net close to zero return. It's not your fault just that stock valuations in the 90s got so high with P/E well into the 20s that it has taken us a decade or more to come back to normal valuations. The market now seems fairly priced overall relative to historical standards though is not "cheap". As such, I believe we'll have better returns going forward than we did the last decade though still not the returns we saw in the 80s-90s. Of course, I still believe having some bonds is always a good diversification just in case.

Posted by Steve | April 10, 2012 8:12 AM

2Million, I have read nearly every post you've written. You're journey is amazing. WHat I think is most impressive is the consistency you've shown over the years. I have no doubt you'll get there. You inspired me to start my own blog.

Posted by BusyExecutiveMoneyBlog | April 11, 2012 9:01 AM