Hey all! It’s been a minute… or several. But, we’re back! Step on inside and see how the rest of 2025 went for us and what’s on tap for 2026.
You can check the latest and greatest info on the Track Our Progress page.
First, the numbers:
Net Worth:
- End of Quarter 4 Balance: $2,006,211 Up $79,921 from Quarter 3.
- Year to Date (YTD): Up $303,346 (17.8%)
- Since January 2018 (this is when I started tracking our net worth): Up $1,701,211
Portfolio:
- End of Quarter 3 Balance: $1,544,935 Up $78,633 from Quarter 3.
- YTD: Up $156,796 (11.3%)
- Since January 2018: Up $1,304,935*
*This is total value as opposed to an internal rate of return.
Aaaaaaannnnd We’re Back!
If you’ve been following along you can tell that this blog got off track last year. As busy as I was, writing got pushed to the back burner. So little attention was paid to it that the website actually went down between Q2 and Q3. With several irons in the fire (crazy workload and projects at the property), I didn’t have the bandwidth to try to get it up and running.
I also realized that I am finally at that age where technology is starting to pass me by. Well thank goodness for the support folks at Bluehost, we’re finally back up and running.
Property Update
A big portion of my mental bandwidth and certainly a lot of dollars were tied up in improvements to the property we purchased last year. The effort topped out in Q3 with a lot happening:
- The shed was delivered and constructed, which allows us to safely store equipment, supplies, and to get out of the elements when we are up there.
- I designed, purchased, and installed a solar power solution. This was a huge effort. Financially, mentally, and logistically.
- This included tons of research into capacity needs, wire sizing, proper grounding, and a ton of other rabbit holes.
- In the end we installed 12 solar panels, on a custom ground mount, 31kW of batteries, and a beefy inverter.
- Many thanks to family and friends that helped with this effort (as it was far larger than I expected).
- A bunch of smaller tasks to get everything functioning in time for deer season.
Happy to say, it all came together in time and ran smoothly during deer season. The solar/battery system powered 2 RVs during unseasonably hot weather, which saw us running ACs in November.
There is a never ending to do list up there, but I look back on what we accomplished over the year and I feel satisfied.
2025, the Year of the Spend
This past year was one of, if not the most, expensive years of our lives. There were a lot of big planned purchases and several more unplanned ones. The highlights:
- I bought in as a shareholder at my company
- We purchased the property
- A litany of property related purchases
- Grading
- Gravel
- A gate
- A shed
- Water service
- The solar/battery system
- A UTV
- A tractor
- A brush hog
- Other misc. tools and equipment
- We had the huge tree in our yard trimmed to get it off the house
- The garage door spring broke, needing an expensive repair
- We reconfigured/painted our basement and replaced the basement bathroom vanity, flooring, and toilet
- We got our oldest braces
- New tires for the RV
- New couches
- Travel, travel, travel
- Long RV trip to Colorado
- About a dozen smaller RV trips
- A Caribbean cruise
- A weeklong trip to Disney World in October
We Came. We Saw. We Spent.
Despite all of that (which is a lot) we had decent growth in both our net worth and portfolio. While I don’t want to string multiple years of similar spending together, it is reassuring that we didn’t break the bank.
2026 Here We Come!
Newton’s third law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The significant spending of 2025 has spurred in us a strong desire to tighten up on purchases and save, save, save.
We kicked off the year doing a postmortem of last year’s spending and to no one’s surprise, the data revealed an Amazon addiction. It’s just too damn convenient. But the important thing is that we recognize this and are taking steps to get a handle on this. Namely, we’ve set a monthly Amazon spending budget and the delta (difference) between our 2025 monthly average and the budget is all being transferred to savings.
I mentioned in the last post that Mrs. HoF changed jobs last year. Unfortunately, as part of that transition, the new job would not allow her to participate in their 401k until December. It feels good to get those contributions back up and running. We are also looking into potentially rolling her old 401k into her IRA. Stay tuned.
Truck Loan Balance in the Crosshairs
When we upgraded the RV in 2023, we also up-sized our tow vehicle. The bigger truck came with an even bigger price tag. While we absolutely hate having debt outside of a mortgage, the truck was too much for us to quickly pay off, given the other expensive things that were on the horizon (buying in to my company’s ownership and eventually purchasing the property). So, we still are making monthly payments on it.
That will end in 2026.
If all goes well, we figure we will have it paid off by August.
Gentlemen, Start Your Chainsaws!
Now that we have the major infrastructure in place at the property, its time to start to shaping the land. I have an ambitious goal of making the property a kind of wildlife sanctuary. And if you are in the habitat improvement business, you know that winter is chainsaw season. In Q1, I’m hoping to blaze some new trails for better site access and clear a food plot or two.
Thanks for reading! Let’s see if I can get the Q2 post out in early April this time around!