Picture of pie chart showing total of beach house fund $6,461.35 — June 2024 Update

Introduction

Welcome to the Monthly Update of the Blind Luck Beach House Project!! Where I walk you thru starting with ZERO to making your first $100K

They say making your first $100K is the hardest because it requires your to change your money habits and build systems to accumulate wealth. and

Once you’ve done it you’re 1/3 the way to a million because the compounding effect of just getting started is huge!!

For a detailed write up on why the first $100K is so important plus a some handy calculator tools showing you how long it will take check out this months post How Long Will It Take To Make Your First $100K?

My Goals

It’s always good to be specific when you set out on a new project or journey so you know what success looks like, so let’s refresh ourselves on what my goals are here. I outlined this process in my S.M.A.R.T. Goals What They Are & How To Use Them post. You can also find a good example of goal setting in my 2024 New Years Goals update where I write down and break down the details for my top 5 goals for 2024. (Which include this The Beach House Fund of course!)

So lets revisit the Beach House goal

Goal - High Level

Buy a beach house or have enough invested so I can rent a beach house whenever I want anywhere I want without thinking about money.

Specific Goals (The How):

Have $100,000 Invested
Within 5 years (by end of 2028)
Monthly Updates for accountability
Show others how to start from $0 and become financially independent

What I want to do is encourage anyone who has $0 to get started, and make a life changing amount of money

In 2024 the main focus is going to be to save $10,000 by the end of the year.

Now you might be scratching your head. $100,000/ 5 years is $20,000/ per year. Why isn’t that my number? well 2 reasons

Well that’s actually a good question.

The math says I should have by the end of 2024 $15,984.50 or roughly $1,384.48 / month moving forward. (This assumes a consistent 8% return.

I did this math in my Milestone #1 Check-In Post you should check it out I have a nifty monthly contribution web calculator you can use for your own planning purposes.

I’m going to update my 2024 with a stretch goal that matches what the math says I should have saved by the end of 2024. Now since I’m not sure if I can hit the full amount I’m going to add it as a “stretch goal” so I can keep it in focus but acknowledge it’s going to be a challenge for me this year to hit.

Updated 2024 Goals:

Goal: $10,000 by end of 2024
Stretch Goal: $15,984.50 end of 2024

Progress Update

In July 2024 I made the following contribution. .

July 2024 Contributions:

$200 Regular Income
$33.80 CC Cash Back
$74.57 X Ads Revenue
$308.3 Total

Fund Total: $6,461.35

Slowly but surely we are getting there!

The Details

Over all the first 11 months of the Beach House Fund Have been fantastic! We are making meaningful progress toward our goal.

Let’s review the numbers so far.

$5,923.28 Total Cash Contributions

$538.07 Market Gains (Including Dividends)

Portfolio Total $6,461.35

Good progress to our $10,000 milestone. Of the current portfolio total only 8.33% of the total has been from market returns. now as time passes this will become larger but in the beginning you have to get your portfolio big enough to actually start generating meaningful returns. We aren’t quite there yet but we are making good progress!

Investment Allocations

In my original post for this project I outline the strategy behind my allocations, you can use whatever you’re comfortable with. Personally I feel safest with a well diversified index portfolio. I talk about what risks I’m trying to manage in My Simple 3 Fund Strategy article. Do your own research everyone’s life situation and finances are different. I’m a slow and steady kind of guy when it comes to investing but I also have healthy emergency fund reserves so I can tolerate some volatility.

As a quick reminder here are my target allocations.