Originally Posted by
TED74
My side “hustle” for 2021 was just to enjoy the family and some new hobbies, all of which only lost money. But a steady stream of dollar cost averaging into effortless 401ks (dual income household) and keeping spending under control saw our net worth increase 37.9% and retirement accounts are up 34.5% YOY. I keep wondering if I’m missing out by not actively investing in stocks or other vehicles, but I’m not sure what I’d stop doing to make time for the active monitoring/research that must be required to make all that activity worthwhile.
The slow and steady approach of investing in retirement accounts will create a big pile of money. The beauty of a venture into real estate and to a lesser extent, dividend stocks is that it creates income today that buys back time. You don't have to wait for 59 1/2 to start reaping the benefits. Knowing the bills are (partially) paid from a side hustle before you even go to work for the month is much more liberating than having a fat emergency fund.
Originally Posted by
mispoken
Astute observations and thoughts. I’m also on this vision quest as well, “how much is enough”. Often people try to boil this down to a single number. For me, that has not worked. So now the question is shifting from “how much” to “what”. I’ll let you know when I reach this moment of clarity. Don’t hold your breath.
I spent a majority of 2021 on the vision quest you mentioned and came up with a couple revelations that directed some significant actions. Estimating the longevity of a pile of cash comes with lots of uncertainty. Predicting future rates of return, inflation and calculating a draw down rate you won't outlive is stressful and leads in some cases to overaccumulation. How much becomes an ever-increasing number to deal with the range of uncertainty. Turning that pile of cash into a predictable income stream really helps shift the mind from "how much" to "what".