Net-worth:
$533k (Up $20k)
$470k (Down $63k)
That is another record because I own a large stake in MU, and AMD, and with the crypto crash came the semi-conductor crash. We're now reminded that this industry is treated as a cyclical by Wall-street though I believe the long-term outlook is always on the upside. Regardless, we're no longer half-millionaires and will have to wait for recovery. For MU, this is a company with fantastic financials and we should expect continued buybacks and maybe even raised dividends in the future. I started adding after-tax money to BNDW. My plan has not changed - we will continue to sell individual stocks on breakeven by cost-basis (which may be a long time) and continue to sell covered calls when I can and use the proceeds to reallocate. I'm upping my overall bond allocation from 10% to 30% as I predict in the future once recovery happens and we continue to save and invest in the equity indexes, I should be just about ready for leaving the workforce and I would like to reduce portfolio risk. Lastly, still buying SOFI as deposits increase and I'm in this one long-term anyway.
I will reiterate again that I don't lose any sleep over market conditions. With ERE, returns don't matter as much as overall savings rate is. Even when running the numbers...4% of $470k is still $18k annual and while our spending is above this, we're close. These things just don't matter when you know you're still going to be working anyway for the next couple of years with a fairly high savings rate.
Physical Health / Diet: Gained 1 pound from 171 to 172. End goal is still 165 pounds. I still tracked calories and hit my walking steps and all that good stuff but I've been non-stop dieting for a few months now so I took a few weeks off to stabilize. We went on a small vacation to a beach and I stuffed myself for 4 days. It was glorious. But now I'm refreshed and ready to tackle this in July.
Mental Health: Still awesome. Also totally random but on the topic of free will....I don't believe we've that. A few months ago, I wouldn't have believed anyone if they told me that but now I'm starting to believe that free will does not exist. Sounds "crazy" to type that out...and I still have much more to read on the subject. I can't even remember what prompted me to look into that. But anyway, this has not caused any sort of existential dread or anything like that. I'm not a fatalist by any means. Quite the opposite - it is sort of relieving to believe that we don't have free will. It gives me more empathy and more respect for the brain.
I'll be short and sweet and let me know if this is a logical fallacy but generally we consider that a computer does not have free will because it takes input from its operator. It is not aware of itself. It doesn't have a concept of a "self" like we do. But just because we've a a concept of a self does not mean we've free will! Take animals for instance - we also don't believe animals have free will either; they run on pre-programmed brain scripts (called instincts). But we're animals. Just ones aware of their own consciousness...but like computers and animals we also take input from an operator (the environment) and update our code (brain) based on the feedback that we receive. The neurocircuitry itself and the processes of how memory is stored can just be thought of as stored data. How do we've free will when every thought or action is based on these memory stores that precipitate behavior and all other biological/chemical precursors that ultimately originate in the brain that create behavior? Where is the "free will" in these actions?
I want to steelman my own thoughts here eventually to see if I can support compatibilism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatibilism but I'm still very humble here.
Job: Too easy but we've a team lead leaving and work being distributed among everyone. So I asked to take some of that to alleviate boredom.
Gardening: Watermelons, Peppers continue to grow. I am prepping another plot to plant squash/cucumbers.
Reading / Other: I've some books on my to do list coming in:
- The Worm at the Core - Sheldon Solomon
- How to be Free in an Unfree World - Harry Browne (I've seen this referenced too many times here so figured I would pick this up)
- Alexandria - Paul KingsNorth - On my to-do list for FAR too long.
Goals: Just keeping the systems running. I don't really believe now I've achiever like goals anymore...Especially when it comes to career/jobs. For that, I just want to keep the money inflows coming in during this crappy macroenvironment. It is more like I've a list of things I want to do and read and learn about. My health goal of 165lbs is more of an ego thing at this point. I'm already at a real healthy BMI. I just wanna prove that one to myself.