Well hello Spring! Interested in how we’ve started off 2024? Read on for the details!
You can check the latest and greatest info on the Track Our Progress page.
First, the numbers:
Net Worth:
- End of Quarter 1 Balance: $1,478,293 Up $146,455 from Quarter 4.
- Year to Date (YTD): Up 146,455 (11%)
- Since January 2018 (this is when I started tracking our net worth): Up $1,173,293
Portfolio:
- End of Quarter 1 Balance: $1,150,774 Up $113,588 from Quarter 4
- YTD: Up $113,588 (10.95%)*
- Since January 2018: Up $910,774*
*This total value as opposed to an internal rate of return.
A hot start to the year for sure!
What We’ve Been Doing
You Boys Like Mexico?!
A tragedy occurred in March… but it had a silver lining.
The tragedy: I turned 40. I am still struggling to wrap my head around it. 30 felt like it was just a little while again.
The silver lining? We traveled with a bunch of friends down to Mexico!
One of our closest friends turned 40 the day after me, so we made a whole trip of celebrating our obsolescence into old age. (just kidding… I/we have big plans for our 40s.) We stayed at the Valentin Imperial Riviera Maya in Playa del Carmen. This resort is basically nestled into a tropical rainforest with one of the largest pools I’ve ever seen. The grounds are simply beautiful and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to others interested in an all-inclusive.
Working Up a Sweat
As I mentioned in prior posts, I got into a jogging habit last year. Like, jogging a 5k five to six days a week kind of habit. I was hooked. Unfortunately, my knees weren’t as in love with jogging as I was and come September the wheels fell off and I developed a severe case (to me) of running knee in both knees. I had to shut down jogging for most of the rest of the year.
In the place of jogging, I took up walking on the treadmill and some rucking with a weighted pack… and finally got back into lifting weights again. (I used to lift with some regularity until tennis elbow stopped that habit).
Finally, in January I was able to start jogging a little bit. I settled into a habit of lifting 3 days a week and jogging 2 to 3 days a week. It has been a little over 3 months now and I feel like this routine is working well. My 5k times are nearly back to my fastest from last year and my knees feel a lot better (maybe 90 to 95%, but manageable). Also, I am seeing good strength gains while keeping tennis elbow mostly at bay.
Additionally, I feel like I’m making some headway managing my calorie intake and starting to see some positive results on the scale. If I can keep this up throughout the year without hurting myself again, then I should be in much better shape by the end of the year. So far, so good!
Sweat Equity or Insanity?
Every winter, when the cabin fever has it’s tightest grip on us, we jump into a DIY home improvement project. Q1 this year was no exception. We’ve long wanted to replace the carpet throughout the house, and our stairs to the second story were hideous and borderline unsafe, with the wobbly handrail that we inherited when we bought the place.
While we subbed out the carpet to the pros, we did tackle refinishing the stairs, replacing the newell posts and balusters ourselves. Oh, and we tacked on repainting our dining room and living room. All of which had to happen prior to carpet coming in.
The stairs were challenging, but turned out well and went relatively smoothly. The unforeseen pain in the ass (every DIY project has one) was our last minute decision to remove the chair rail in dining and living rooms. The chair rail was original to the house and after 30+ years the walls above and below have seen multiple coats of paint. None of which made it behind the chair rail. Enter lots of dry wall mudding, sanding, and applied texture. Barf. In the end, it looks… fine.
The stairs and new carpet, on the other hand, are a big improvement:
RV There Yet?
One of the best parts of Quarter 1 is that it’s end corresponds to the beginning of spring. Which in turn is tied to the return of RV camping season! Whoohoo!
Our first trip of the year was Easter weekend. We made the very short drive to Defiance, Missouri and enjoyed camping at Beyond the Trail… which is conveniently located adjacent to Good News Brewing, which also serves great pizza. Beer and Pizza? Yes, please.
Of course, the first trip of the year is always a shake down cruise. Problems are to be expected. This year, the auto leveling appears to have lost its mind (or at least any semblance of what level actually is). A lot of resetting and manually retracting jacks and I am hopeful this one is put to bed. We also forgot to bring certain items necessary for sustainable camping, such as the water pressure regulator. Doh! Much like the RV, we have some rust to knock off.
Coming Up in 2024 Q2
We have A lot of RV adventures planned in Q2. Highlights include:
- Onondaga Cave State Park
- Hermann, Missouri
- Mark Twain Lake
- Maramec Springs
Beyond the camping, Q2 represents the end of the school year for the kids. Our oldest is moving into middle school after this, our youngest and her won’t be in the same school again until her senior year of high school. That is going to take some getting use to.
There is another project coming up in Q2. I have an old dirt bike that hasn’t ran in several years. In my “spare time” I am going to try to get it up and running again and ready for sale. This should be a different kind of challenge. Wish me luck!
Thanks for reading!