It’s summer and my favorite time of year in the Happily Disengaged household.

Summer is an easier time to do things outdoors while spending less money, and in general, is the most frugal time of year for us. Backyard grilling is cheap. Biking and hiking don’t cost much (except for the gasoline consumption). Next weekend we’re going camping. Yesterday I went rafting down the American River. I’m intermittently fixing things around my house, last week for example a toilet began leaking upstairs, leading to me opening a hole in our living room ceiling—ok, fixing stuff isn’t cheap, but doing it myself is cheaper than paying someone to do it for me. There’s never not something to fix at my house, something I realize I’ll never fully accept despite my profound understanding as a 7 year homeowner.

The only inkling of stormy weather this California summer is in my brokerage account, where my account value is rising and falling (mostly falling) like a ship barreling forth in heavy seas. Filling up my gas tank costs over $6 a gallon at my regular local gas station. Which influences how far I can drive into those mountains this summer for camping.

I’ve truly noticed second guessing trips around town due to these gas prices. I just spent $500 bucks for the first time in my life at the grocery store in a single trip. And I worry that I shouldn’t wait to buy things I need, for fear the price will go up the next time I go out.

So goes life in a time of high inflation.

The news headlines are hard to ignore when one has their dreams rooted in the success of the markets.

So what does someone like me, who is intent on retiring in their forties, do in a situation like this? By this, I mean the bear market. $100 gas refills. The melancholic feeling of an impending recession.

Double down.

That’s right. I’m upping my savings rate to get in on these killer index fund deals.

I may be a lazy index fund investor, but this is undeniably when index fund investing gets exciting, for all the wrong scary reasons of course. There’s that chill that I get when I buy shares each week, only to see my money instantly shrivel up with market drops, while my everyday expenses become greater as inflation eats away the value of my paycheck.

In the moment, it feels as if I can do nothing right with my money.

Nonetheless, I keep shoveling money into the market, like throwing rocks into the sea. With each toss into the churning water, the rocks disappear from sight and sink. Falling to an unknown bottom. I’m grateful I don’t need any of invested money at the moment. Grateful that as much as I’d like to retire in 2025, I can keep plugging away at work and let time do its thing if it came to that.

There’s no rush.

Only weekly purchases of my beloved VTSAX and the underperforming VSGAX.

While it hurts at the moment, it’s looking like this bear market is occurring at the most opportune time for me. If it doesn’t drag on of course. But to have a bear market occur 3 years before retirement, might be a blessing in disguise. If I can forget that a bear market occurs on average every 3 years.

I’m down 20% for the year. But I’m buying like crazy right now, upping my normal weekly purchases by a third when I can. The S&P 500’s strongest days over the last 20 years have occurred during a bear market and 34% of the market’s best days have occurred during the first 2 months of a bull market.

And so this is my summer in 2022, Year 2 of FIRE, in three words: Investing. Outdoors. Family.

Short post, no pics, but its nice to get some blog writing in. My first time publishing the same day I started a post.

Happy 4th of July!

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Here is my affiliate link to Personal Capital . I use them to track all of my expenses and my net worth. It’s so easy to use. I highly recommend them if you are on your FIRE journey.