We got our tree up right before Thanksgiving this year. With family coming over for Thanksgiving we wanted to have the festive spirit alive in the house. Our fake tree has proved to be a worthwhile purchase. I remember for years I resisted against the idea of a fake Christmas tree; images of Charlie Brown’s Christmas coming to my mind as I rejected the idea. But my wife eventually talked me into getting a fake one a few years back…and now I love my fake tree.

No more cleaning up needles. No more watering the tree and potential fire hazard. No worrying about getting rid of it. And the biggest benefit, obviously, no more paying for one each year. I don’t even know the going price for a decent live tree these days, since it’s been a few years. But I remember paying a good $75 in my area for a tree. I’m sure inflation has sent the price upwards of a $100.

With family coming over for Thanksgiving I was tasked with making the turkey. For me, there’s only two options if the turkey cooking is up to me: smoked or fried. This year I went the smoked route and I’m happy I did. Overnight brine bath and healthy injections of melted butter and mixed seasonings ended up producing quite a tasty and juicy treat.

The smoke itself lasted a rough 4 hours. I used cherry wood for my Smokey Mountain Weber smoker. In the below pic you can see the injected butter oozing out from where I took the temperature of the cooked bird. I also rotisserie cooked a chicken in my regular weber bbq in case the turkey wasn’t enough.

Overall, winter has been welcomed by the Happily Disengaged family. I really can’t believe we’re nearing mid-decade of the twenties, but I’m grateful for it all. Things have been going well both financially and non-financially for me. My health has improved quite a bit since my leg movement scare. I’d say I’m back to 90%. I still feel pain once in a while in my right leg, and I’ll get an occasional tightness–nothing that impedes my movement like before though. I can run and move around like normal. Something I’d never thought I’d be grateful for. The cause of what happened to my leg is still a mystery, but having run through a medical testing gauntlet, and recovered from symptoms, I’m not going to dwell on it unless it comes back. I’ve found that there is nothing more miserable and stressful in life than having something wrong health wise with doctors not being able to find the cause or give a diagnosis.

I’m happier than I’ve been for some time.

A lot of that has to do with my work situation, where I’ve been given control to run things how I see fit. The trust that my company gives me feels good. And they trust me a lot. I still don’t have any love for my company, but I do respect and am loyal to my bosses and those who I work around. I just want to do a good job. I strive with every morsel of my being to run successful profitable and safe projects. I just don’t love my company, and I never will. I’ve seen how cold and heartless it can be–not just my company, but all construction companies. I’ll forever be a mercenary.

A bunch of other things have contributed to my current well being.

I’ve been working in the east bay lately. It’s better than driving to San Francisco. I’ve lessened up a bit on my strict regiment of saving, nothing substantial, but we eat out a bit more. I’ll buy a book on Amazon with no hesitations. I also don’t feel so locked into my goal of early retirement in 2025–this in itself has received a bunch of stress. The project I’m slated to run next is supposed to end in fall of 2026, and I don’t see myself quitting in the middle of the project (can’t burn bridges if I can help it), so that would have me working till the year 2026…potentially.

Also, drinking has made me a bit happier. Since I started drinking again in September of this year, I’ve probably had no more than 12 drinks. But it sure is nice to have a beer while out with friends or at a nice dinner or ball game. After having such discipline in this department, the change is quite welcomed. I do notice my spending has gone up while out due to this change…alcohol is expensive. At a recent 49er game I went to tall cans were going like hotcakes for $21 dollars! Incredible.

Things appear to be slowing down economically here in the Bay Area, as far as new private construction goes. This had led to some layoff rounds within the company. In talking with friends who are also in the industry here, it’s getting tough. Public work is the lifeline for a lot of companies these days, as private developers are waiting out interest rates to start building again. If you look at the skyline of San Francisco you won’t see a single tower crane; which is a stark change from the last decade, and scarily reminiscent of the Great Recession.

Having that financial cushion helps me sleep better at night. If I were to be laid off I’d hate to have to use my savings to keep things afloat, but at least I have a savings to rely on.

All the more reason to keep course on my financial journey towards freedom from the work place. And speaking of financial journey…

Finances

As the year closes out, I like to look back over the year to assess my portfolio, and my investing strategy for ‘next year’. December is my rebalance month. I like December because I can start fresh in January to gauge performance.

I don’t like things to get too out of whack; I’m 100% US equities at the moment, and I like a range of 10%-20% international. I’m not too strict with it. I set it once a year and let it do its thing. Last time I rebalanced I went 15% international.

After reviewing my allocations, and checking my gut feeling for the intangible, completely unpredictable vibe of the markets, I’m not going to touch my portfolio. I can live with 7% international. I won’t be selling any VTSAX to buy VFWAX to get my balance back up in the range I’d set for myself. Not this year anyway.

I do check my net worth a handful of times a week. I use Empower (formerly Personal Capital and link is an affiliate) to keep track of my finances. I can’t recommend this site enough, it’s done wonders to be able to track both my net worth, and my monthly budgeting and cash flow. Though I will say that keeping an excel sheet, as time consuming as it is, helped me the most to save money and know where every single dollar is going. I just don’t have time like I used to, to fill in an excel sheet for all my expenses; so I use an app to do it for me.

Portfolio Allocations

As of 12/23, here’s how I’m allocated by asset type.

US Stocks are comprised of VTSAX (taxable), VFIAX (401k), and FXAIX (401k). The latter two being S&P 500 funds through 401k programs. I’d prefer all total stock funds, but these 401k programs don’t have that option. How I wish employers would let individuals set up their own 401ks with any brokerage firm of their choosing.

International is VFWAX and VXUS (the ETF equivalent) in both my taxable and IRA account from a rolled over 401k.

Alternatives are just the breakout of what my index funds hold through REITS.

Cash. I keep a month’s expense worth of cash on hand just in case, and then money set aside for property taxes and home insurance. In total this ranges around $5k-$12k in my savings account depending on time of year. Again, I don’t believe in keeping an emergency fund, I keep extra cash solely to help my auto investing stay steady.

Cash Savings– I also have a high yield savings account that is spitting out around 4.3% (yes, I know VMFXX yields 5.3%). I use this high yield account as a ‘save and forget’ account that is separate from the monthly grind of my main banking and investing. No, this account isn’t ‘dry powder’, but I do use it for spur of the moment activities with the family, if needed, like there is talk of a potential January Disneyland trip that might drain some of this bad boy. In reality, my overall goal of this high yield account is to fund my first year of retirement- so I’m looking to have a cash balance in the range of $70k-$90k when I pull the trigger.

2023 Expenses

Here’s a breakdown of what we spent so far this year. I’m doing this one a little early, two more weeks left in the year, so December will be slightly off, but not much.

Expense	2023 Cost	2022 Cost
Mortgage (P&I only)	$19,655	$19,629
Groceries	$19,140	$19,566
Travel	$9,425	$9,516
Taxes	$8,705	$11,799
General Merchandise	$6,495	$5,986
Gas/Fuel	$6,639	$8,293
Restaurants	$6,600	$6,296
Automotive	$5,553	$2,200
Entertainment	$5,497	$4,342
Insurance	$3,630	$4,039
Hobbies(sailing)	$3,418	$3,300
Utilities	$3,374	$3,436
Clothing	$2,500	$1,486
Personal Care-Gym/Haircuts etc	$2,230	$2,951
Home Improvement	$1,630	$1,136
Marijuana	$1,331	$1,065
Streaming/WiFi	$1,339	$1,282
Union Dues/Credit Fees	$740	$770
New Computer & Accessories		$3,068
Student Loan		$4,067
TOTAL	$107,901	$114,227

2023- $107,901 (to date).

2022-$114,374.

2021-$96,382

2020-$123,090

For a guy who’s pursuing FIRE, my expenses might seem a bit high to you. And they are for a family of four. I can probably chop a good $30k off my expenses if I stopped traveling, eating out, sailing, going to sporting events, and drove an extra ten miles to Walmart to shop for groceries instead of Safeway down the street.

But what kind of life would that be? Would I be living solely for an ever fluctuating number on a screen that I can’t touch? A number isn’t happiness for me. Doing things I like with people I like is happiness.

When I do retire early, I project us spending around $60k-$70k annually, but no, my “FI Number” is not based on my projected spending but my actual spending.

Here’s a quick rundown on my expenses:

Groceries: Yikes! $19k annually is pretty damn high. That’s $4,750 a person a year in my 4 person household or $395 a month or $98 a week per person. The main reason this is so high is that I go to a local Safeway instead of driving to a Walmart type store for groceries. Reason being convenience.

Automotive: $5k. This is higher than normal due to a bunch of car related issues I had to deal with this year. New tires–off road tires. Car breaking down and associated costs of getting it towed. New windshield. We bought tires for my mother in law.

Travel: $9k. This is pure luxury. Would I be better off not spending $9k a year on travel? Hell no. My purpose in this life is to travel as far and wide as I can, if money allows. We do our best to cut costs here, for example my flight to Europe was paid for with credit card points. We cook in while traveling and take lunch with us.

The region I live in is somewhat more expensive than the national average. Below is a snip from the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics for San Francisco Metro area vs the national average expense for 2022/21.

Usually I go into a deeper breakdown of my expenditures. You can reference my 2021 breakdown, it’s pretty much the same sentiment and expenses.

2024 Strategy

I don’t see any immediate changes to how I’m investing. I currently invest weekly into a taxable Vanguard with 80% going to VTSAX and 20% buying VXUS. Both our 401k’s are maxed out and 100% allocated to S&P funds. Eventually I will be buying bonds to fund a “bond tent”, but this will likely be done through an exchange of existing funds in late 2025. I have started to save cash, which I’m hoping to save enough to fund my first year in retirement, so I’m looking at a rough $100k+ cash goal saved when I do quit work.

I’m where I want to be at this stage in my journey towards financial independence. If the markets can hit new highs next year, I’ll be much better than I’m forecasting, and can potentially pull the plug sooner than later. As I type this my net worth is higher than it’s ever been. I’m super close to a huge saving milestone.

As far as non-finance 2024 ambitions, I plan on keeping on with my morning meditation routine. This has helped me a ton over the previous year. For travel, we’ve yet to pick a place out to visit next year, but it will be somewhere tropical and low cost-hopefully Mexico or south east Asia. And writing goals; I will be writing more fiction, so the tradeoff to that is less blogging, but I hope to keep my once a month posting the same.

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Here’s to our goals, both financial and personal for the coming year.