Exciting times ahead, I’m heading to Japan in a few short weeks. While I’ve been budgeting carefully, this spring has been an expensive one. I bought the airline tickets back in December for around $4500 roundtrip, and have been sporadically booking and paying for accommodations every few weeks. Since we’re timing vacations with our kids’ school breaks, our options were either April or waiting until June. We’ll be there for around 2 weeks with stops in the tourist triangle of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. And a few days in an onsen town in the forests outside of Kyoto.

I’ve been to Japan once before in 2010 for a week. I’m sure it’s changed quite a bit since then. One of the things I do remember from that time was how expensive it was. I’d just come from China and Russia, and so was used to lower cost of travel, and our US dollar was a lot weaker then. Those two combined made Japan feel super expensive, so expensive that we were severely limited on what we did back then. I’ll never forget paying $90 bucks in 2010 for a fifteen minute ride in Tokyo from an internet cafe to our hotel.

To be fair, back then I was of the edgy nature to wait till I got to a city to book a hotel…something I could never do now. I remember wandering around Tokyo at night, dead tired, in the drizzling rain, searching for wi-fi so I could book a hotel. The neon lights buzzing, overpasses twisted over one another, I felt I was in some cyber punk city. We finally found a Starbucks and latched onto their wi-fi. I remember a man seeing us outside and giving ups his seat inside for us so we could come in. In the end that didn’t work and we walked over to a ‘love hotel’ for better internet.

I had no idea what a love hotel was at the time. I just remember climbing down several sets of stairs in a dark corridor and ending up in a dim room lit up with neon lights, full of little stalls. Each stall had a tv, video games, and a couch. We booked our hotel from one of those stalls and played a quick video game.

The hotel we ended up finding was across town in the Asakusa neighborhood. Which led to the long $90 ride.

We also couldn’t afford to take the bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo–something I’d been looking forward to, and ended up traveling by bus. That wasn’t too bad either. We got front row seats on the double decker bus and the road into Tokyo wound through the mountains with random snow flurries and gorgeous greenery.

We were young broke backpackers, so not having money to do the fun things was part of the fun. I always told myself back then I’d be back when I had more money. Well, here I am, I’m coming back.

This time around things have changed. We have a bit more money and the dollar is looking good compared to the Yen. And we have kids who love anime and Japanese food. We hope to catch a Tokyo Giants game, Studio Ghibli, and eat. Over all, I’m very excited and will have a full report when we return.

To add to this vacation splurge, my property taxes were paid in February $2700, and this month I paid both my state and federal taxes $9600. Of course, I save over the year for these expenses, but my cash flow is usually running pretty low around the time taxes are due. With all of this, quite a few more dollars are going out than usual in my household to start the year. To pay for my trip and taxes, I’ve reduced my after tax investments, the amount I invest each week, by 75% for five weeks.

Correction or Bear? Does It Even Matter?

Watching the markets drop makes a small part of me wish I’d been investing my regular amount per week. I’m not a market timer or emotional investor. I have a plan and stick to it, but I can’t ignore that this is the best time to buy, when stocks are on sale.

We haven’t had a market correction in over a year. And we’ve had two straight years of gains of over 20%. Which has boosted my advance along the path to FIRE significantly. In my view a correction is quite healthy to purge some steam and froth from the top.

Other than objectively looking at the relief the markets are getting from a few down weeks, the cause of the correction is a bit unsettling–tariffs, world order, destruction of our bureaucracy–kinda stuff. It’s almost as chaotic as the unknown of covid, without the lockdowns and deaths. But most corrections are a bit concerning for anyone watching the markets on the daily or a few years in or near retirement. All corrections are uncertain and “feel different” this time. I’ve lived through a few, and recognize that down the road, I will be grateful for the downturn; each correction or bear market has accelerated my momentum towards FI.

I feel really good about my portfolio during this downturn–and that’s thanks to my re-evaluation of my asset allocation that I wrote about back in January. A commenter on this January post asked about my bond allocation and this spurred me to take a longer look what I really wanted out of these ‘extra’ years of saving. Then the all time highs neared in early February–so I rebalanced with my mind, not my heart, to align with the Boglehead strategy I’m a huge fan of. It’s a step in the right direction of where I want to be in retirement. And I’ve reaped the rewards already, with this downturn reinforcing the value of diversification.

In early February I rebalanced to: 75% US total stock, 15% International, 10% bonds.

In no way do I advocate emotional investing or timing the market. In my case this just happened to work out, I had no idea a correction was around the corner.

This plan had been in the back of my mind for a long, long time. It’s much harder to emotionally make this move at all time highs, than when the market is falling and the fear is that emotion is driving you. Additionally, selling when stocks are down is bad for any portfolio: buy low sell high, not the opposite.

When you are a DIY investor you don’t really have anyone to talk to or bounce ideas off of, it’s all an internal debate. Lots of reading, hoping you’re making the right decision. In sharing my investing journey I hope to inspire others or have others learn from my mistakes or successes, I appreciate its a two way street and I can re-assess from people reading my blog. So in this regards, thanks, Brian, for spurring me to take a harder look at my goals.

From here the market has a decision to make, we’re either halfway to a bear market or a small relief before going higher.

In the above chart we can see that, based on history, it’s likely that this correction will be simply that. A dip in an otherwise upward march to the promised land.

Here’s another chart to reinforce the unlikelihood that a bear market is rearing its ugly head.

I know for me, I like to look at charts like these to see the big picture. On Reddit, there’s plenty of fear mongering posts and comments to go around for all. Same with financial news articles. There’s that old saying, ‘when in doubt, zoom out’.

Whether it’s a bear market or a simple correction, I will keep on buying index funds each week. I can’t help but think to myself that this year, 2025, was the year I was supposed to retire early. This would have been a tough time to have just quit work and then endure the uncertainty of this market condition and changing of the guard of the world order.

By deciding to keep working for another two years, to save more and to finish up my project, it’s looking like a better and better decision. If a bear market does indeed arrive, coupled with a contraction of the economy, my hope is that in 2 years we’d be coming out of it.

Jack Bogle has a fantastic quote that applies to bull markets and bear markets: “Don’t do something. Just stand there.”

Still Investing But Saving Less…

Next week my investments will return to what I consider normal levels for 2025. I’m more than happy to catch some of these index funds while they are on sale.

This investment amount will be down a bit from last year by 20%. The decrease in my savings is funding a few things that have popped up this year and making for a fuller life.

Here’s a couple life items right off the bat that are now absorbing this 20%.

Sailing Club– $375 a month. And to put it simply, I just love sailing. I quit the club last year to save more money, but I really missed having a hobby than challenged me constantly. I love getting out on the bay and sailing around Angel Island, under the bridges, and around the city. I have no car payments and so I see this as a reward for not having that extra few hundred going out per month. Will it slow my date to FI goal down? Yes, a bit, but I’m okay with that.

Wife’s Gym – $150 a month. It’s a cross fit gym that she loves. Happy wife happy life.

Math Program– $1200 total for my two daughters. I’ve decided to enroll my kids into an after school program for advanced math. My oldest daughter has been asking me for a while about it. She’s already doing math that I’m struggling to remember how to do, let alone teach or help her. She has lofty goals of getting into a prestigious university one day, so I will do what I can to help her. It’s a summer program, three days a week for two hours. If they like it I’ll keep on for the next semester.

Personally, I struggled in math in school. I feel like I missed a few basic steps in elementary and middle school and it was a huge struggle for me all through high school–with my high school deciding to put me in business math instead of algebra and geometry or any other advanced classes.

Kid’s College– Bumping up % amount I contribute. I’ve been investing token amounts for each of my daughters in a UTMA account- each has a decent amount saved up for their age. This is for school or any other thing they will need as a young adult. Ideally, I’d like for them to not sell, but that will be their choice not mine. I realize now is the time to up this amount; my oldest will be applying to college in 6 years! Sadly, CA doesn’t offer any tax benefits for funding a 529 plan, but there are benefits to having a 529 plan. Things like tax free qualified withdrawals, favorable financial aid treatment (university will not take into account this account value). So this year I’m opening up 529’s for my kids and will let the UTMA grow on its own accord.

I’ve had a really high savings rate for a number of years, in sacrificing up front, this has allowed me to spend more. The question is: now that I’m spending more, doesn’t that change my FI number? It does.

This is the one thing I’ve always questioned about those who are doing a “Coast FIRE” strategy.

I’m allowing lifestyle creep into my life and it’s a dangerous thing. What counterbalances this problem is that I’m upping my liquid net worth at the same time by investing.

Looking back over the first months of 2025, it’s certainly been a balancing act: saving diligently, adjusting investments, and making room for the things that matter more than a net worth balance. But when is personal finance not balancing? And I don’t feel constrained to thinking that if I’m not investing in the markets, then I’m not ‘investing’. Yes I’m not saving as much in a literal sense, but I see it as investing in my family, my goals, and future–the return cannot be measured in solely dollars and cents.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over my FIRE journey, it’s that financial freedom isn’t just about hitting a number — it’s about creating a life you’re excited to live. And right now, I can’t wait to experience Japan with my family, knowing I’m still on track for my long term goals.

---

What are your thoughts? 

You can now buy me a coffee if the blog brings you any kind of value. This will help offset the bluehost fees of running the blog. Also, this is how I track my net worth and spending all in one app* (affiliate link).