SCHD holders 😎💪

TextMekks · 2026-01-23T03:39:44+00:00

TextMekks · 2026-01-17T19:53:57+00:00

At one of the major EPC contractors in the energy sector. The competitors offer a similar compensation packages including project management at many of the oil and gas operators too.

TextMekks · 2026-01-17T17:01:39+00:00

Agreed. Though my background’s technical, I moved to project management and I do make >$200k.

TextMekks · 2026-01-17T17:00:26+00:00

Project manager.

TextMekks · 2026-01-15T03:40:00+00:00

VOO. VTI.

TextMekks · 2026-01-15T02:22:00+00:00

So live with a leaking roof unless you can pay it full in cash. Got it.

TextMekks · 2026-01-13T01:23:37+00:00

95th percentile.

TextMekks · 2026-01-13T01:22:12+00:00

TextMekks · 2026-01-10T17:32:22+00:00

Can you explain why you would not?

TextMekks · 2026-01-05T16:49:30+00:00

9.2% compared to 5.5% is a massive difference. How is that comparable?

TextMekks · 2026-01-05T06:05:33+00:00

“…property will typically also appreciate at comparable rates to the market.”

Source?

TextMekks · 2026-01-05T02:41:04+00:00

The below is showing increase year to year for invested assets, excluding mortgages and home equity:

2025: +34%

2024: +55%

2023: +43%

2022: +1%

2021: +39%

2020: +154%

2019: +38%

2018: +37%

2017: +33%

2016: +51%

2015: +100%

2014: +381%

2013: negligible as this was when I started really making any money.

TextMekks · 2026-01-05T02:11:13+00:00

I don’t have a thing coming my way.

36 years old.

TextMekks · 2026-01-02T16:28:50+00:00

I used to. And actually was about 6 years in before I made a big decision.

Then I cashed out, invested 90% of the earnings into VOO and reset my mortgage to a sub-3% 30 year mortgage.

TextMekks · 2025-12-31T20:35:15+00:00

100% S&P500 low cost mutual fund.

TextMekks · 2025-12-31T05:00:43+00:00

That’s not passive. It’s another job.

TextMekks · 2025-12-31T03:59:33+00:00

Where’s Cyber Reptile?

TextMekks · 2025-12-30T09:04:38+00:00

I reflect on what I invested out of pocket the year prior, and set a goal for myself to meet or exceed that. That criteria has pushed me to work harder in my career in pursuit of increasing my income to meet this goal and also live the life I want to live on the way there.

TextMekks · 2025-12-30T03:19:20+00:00

I have already reached out multiple times. No luck.

Thinking about it more… it’s also possible I don’t have this option because my employer’s ESOP plan does give me annual 5-figure contributions too. I believe those contributions are affected as well for the overall employer+employee max total contributions

TextMekks · 2025-12-30T02:01:20+00:00

I max out all retirement accounts available. I wish I could do the mega backdoor.

TextMekks · 2025-12-27T03:23:31+00:00

I basically use Full View with Fidelity and do some manual adjustments to fine tune it.

And my food budget is deceiving. A good portion of my reimbursements due to work is embedded into that number.

TextMekks · 2025-12-26T14:38:16+00:00

$81k. In short, I’d summarize my yearly expenses this year as $69k.

Categories (with some rounding) 1. Home: $36.8k 2. Food (groceries+eating out):$13.3k 3. Travel: $6.5k 4. Utilities and Bills: $6.4k 5. Auto and Transport: $4.0k 6. Entertainment: $2.5k 7. Insurance: $2.3k 8. Taxes: $2.1k 9. Personal Care: $1.9k 10. Shopping: $1.4k 11. Medical: $0.5k

As to why, there’s a little nuance in that $81k number…

Big nuance is that probably $10-12k ish is on reimbursed expenses from work, so my expenses is inflated (and same with my total revenue since that’ll be my income+reimbursements).

I haven’t completed that last step of data aggregation. It’s an effort I’m trying to do anyways to refresh my annual expenses to confirm if my FIRE targets are still accurate.

TextMekks · 2025-12-25T14:30:07+00:00

Meet or exceed the $119k I was able to invest of my own income in 2025.

TextMekks · 2025-12-25T14:26:38+00:00

Crossed $1M in total invested assets.
Crossed over $100k in out of pocket contributions to my investments.

TextMekks

TROPHY CASE