Years like this will make you feel like you will NEVER get to 10 Million net worth but in fact these are the years when your ticket to building future wealth presents itself! In the past, losing money left me nervous and uncertain about my future. Today, losing money only feels temporary as my sights are far out into the future.

Experience and time in the markets helped me overtime to reduce making bad decisions during the worst times. Buying high and selling low. In fact, if you remove the selling low part, most people would do quite well over the long term.

As for myself, I try to buy MORE during the lows as I continue to buy in the “highs” as well. Why? Because no one really knows how long a bull market will actually last. My strategy is to never sell if i don’t have to. The plan is to maintain a strict strategy in line with something like buy 100 sell 5. That means my initial buys must be in assets with strong long term runways. But why such strategy? Because I am in what I consider the “accumulation phase” in my investment stage.

So with that said, let’s get this final quarter in the books shall we?  🤠

 

My Baby Steps Towards $10 Million

Investments Goals

• 2023-1: Add 500 shares of QQQ to LBF Dividend Portfolio (NEW GOAL)
• 2020-3: Invest at minimum $1,500 per month into the dividend portfolio.
• 2020-3: Reach a $50,000 Fundrise Portfolio.
• 2020-5: Maintain steady portfolio growth between 6% to 12%
• 2021-9: Invest $200 per month into M1 Growth Pie.
• 2020-3 to 2022-11: Generate $10,000 in dividend income
• 2020-6 to 2021-9: Invest $100 per month into M1 Growth Pie.

Income, Cash Flow, & Saving Goals

• 2020-3: Achieve positive cash flow every month of the year.
• 2020-5: Increase annual income by 6% every year.
• 2020-6: Maintain long term average savings rate at or above 30%.

Net Worth Goals

• 2020-6: Maintain Beyond FIRE Net Worth Average above 6%.

 

Generate $10,000 in Dividend Income (Mission Complete!)

Mission complete! Started in late 2018 and finally 10k in dividend has been generated by November of 2022! 🫡

This portfolio has been doing better than I expected in terms of income generation. Moving forward I expect dividend growth to be somewhat subdued. I will be lowering my projections for income growth on this portfolio. If the macro environment is what I expect it to be for the next few years, I will likely be focused on accumulation of tech stocks I am long on. However, the focus for this portfolio will always be tilted income. I do plan on trying to maintain at minimum of 8% annual dividend growth rate.

 

Add 500 shares of QQQ to LBF Dividend Portfolio

Let the journey begin! 3 shares in and 497 more to go! 🤺

 

Invest at Minimum $1,500 per Month Into The Dividend Portfolio

I like to give portfolio’s a salary. The LBF Dividend Portfolio had a total net inflow of $38,950.97 YTD ($3,245.91 per month average) by the end of Q4.

The portfolio has taken in more than I had expected. This is usually common for me during times when stocks turn south.

 

Reach a $50,000 Fundrise Portfolio

• No updates to the Fundrise iPO share pricing for the month.
• Total combined value of Fundrise investments comes to $46,645.53. (Slightly down since last quarter.)

I believe the current valuations Fundrise states for their assets is not accurate. Likely will be lower than what they claim. I expect a negative to very moderate return next year. I do not have any plans to invest more into this portfolio for now. I will keep my eyes out to see if there are better opportunities to invest more perhaps towards the end of this year. I likely will not complete this goal next year due to market conditions. However, I am still a long term investor on this platform.

Interested in Fundrise? Sign up using my referral link and get started!

 

Maintain steady portfolio growth between 6% to 12%

Total investments are down -31.6% this year. Nasdaq has returned -33.4%. S&P 500 at -19.6. Dow at -9.5%. I was hoping to perform better than this but META really put a wrench into my portfolio this year. Bought the dip big and ended up selling towards the end of this year for tax purposes. I hate when I have to do this.

Since the pandemic, markets have completely lost its mind. Things are coming back down to earth now. Valuations are reverting to the mean and deals are popping up here and there.

There has only been 3 years in my lifetime where my investment returns suffered over 30%. Everytime this has happened, it has resulted to a nice entry point for many of my core positions. The recovery from this macro backdrop is likely to be different than my past experience so my expectations for the next few years are low single digit returns. I consider this moment in time a window of opportunity to accumulate for a few years for the long term investors.

 

Invest $200 per Month into M1 Growth Pie

Minor updates to the portfolio has been made. Here is the updated link to the portfolio.

The LBF Growth portfolio had a total net inflow of $3,771.77 YTD ($314.31 per month average) by the end of Q4.

Sign up free and get $10 free! Sign up with M1 Finance!

 

Achieve positive cash flow every month of the year

This month resulted to 4 months with negative cash flows. Spent quite a bit on the house and still expected to be spending a few months into the next. How nice would it be to see a year with straight positive cash flowing months. Likely not next year but we shall see!

 

Increase annual income by 6% every year

Since FIRE, my average income growth is currently resting at 11.9%. The long term average figure is more important to me than any single year. With inflation as high as it is, my hopes are to keep the long term averages at minimum 6%.

 

Maintain long term average savings rate at or above 30%

Target not met this year! It was expected. Life happens and sometimes money must be spent. That is what it is earned for isn’t it? My expectations for savings rate for the year was about 10% but came out better than expected. I’m content with the results for the year.

 

Maintain Beyond FIRE Net Worth Average above 6%

Net worth YTD: -13.1%

In the last 15 years, there has been 3 years with negative net worth growth. In 2009 (-16.4%), 2018 (-12.4%), and 2022 (-13.1). Reflecting back to those years, I have made plenty of mistakes. As bad as this year has been, I feel I have made fewer mistakes I know I may regret. Could I have done better? Yes, but my situation is far different than the past years. Many things mold my decision making but taxes now play a larger role than ever.

 

ETA 10 Million

Based on current trends, projections and expectations for future growth, my best to worst case scenario towards a $10 million net worth will be the following:

How many years will it take to reach $10 Million net worth?

18 to 35 years 

By what age?

Between 60 and 77

 

Goodbye 2022!

For every bad year comes good. The best times to buy stocks are when many are uncertain. Luckily, the market concerns of today are not one with no solutions. We have the tools to address the issues of inflation. There really is nothing we can do about the concerns of geo-politics. So long as humans make the greater decisions in our world, I believe war will always be a risk investors will have to factor. But do we stop investing due to the fears of war? History states otherwise. If a nuclear war breaks, the last thing we would worry about is our investment returns.

I am mostly a realist today but it’s important to learn to have the optimist tilt to become a successful investor in the long run. Looking forward to what is possible and shifting towards the trends that bring society prosperity is important. Let’s take the lessons the two years have provided us and move forward as more experienced investors in hopes we make better decisions.

Happy New Years to all my friends and family! I love you all. 2023 here we come! 🎉🎉🎉