It was 2013. We had just come back from two and a half years in Europe – graduate school in Sweden, a stint in Lisbon, an adventure with very little money and even less certainty about what came next. We were leaner than we had ever been. We knew how to live on almost nothing. And when we landed back in Washington, DC, we made a quiet decision, not dramatic, not declared out loud to the world: we were going to build something that would give us our time back.
That was thirteen years ago.
This post isn’t a net worth update in the traditional sense. I’m not going to lay out a table that says “we started with X and want to get to Y by 20XX.” We’ve done that math a thousand times. What I want to do instead is something harder and more honest: take the actual numbers from where we are right now, in May 2026, and ask a different question.
Not how much do we have. But how much do we need? And are we already there?
The Machine We Built, One Gear At A Time
When we got back from Europe in 2013, we moved into a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom condo in Montgomery County, Maryland. A family of three, soon to become five. We had one car. We spent less than almost anyone we knew. And for a few years, we just saved. No investing system yet. No VTSAX. No Roth IRAs loaded with index funds. Just the discipline of not spending more than we made, and stockpiling the difference.
The earliest version of this goes back further than 2013, actually. Around 2006, on a combined income of just over $85,000, we started tucking away 10% – roughly $8,500 per year. That was the seed. Not glamorous. Not optimized. Just consistent.
By 2013, back in DC on a single income of $70,000, the approach got more serious and more structured. We started maximizing every tax-advantaged account available: maxed the HSA, maxed the ESPP, maxed the Roth 401(k), maxed both Roth IRAs, and started Roth IRAs for the kids – each earning a modest $588 per year in reported household income to keep their contributions legal and their tax burden at zero. Every dollar of their earnings was invested. Every dollar.
We also started making cuts that compounded over time. Monthly groceries went from $1,100 down to ~$600, a $500/month shift just by switching from Safeway and Giant to Aldi and Costco and buying less overall. Gas, metro cards, subscriptions – every category got a deliberate reduction. Not deprivation. Just deciding to spend enough instead of all of it.
In 2015, everything accelerated. On a commute, I read a Forbes article about a couple who had retired in their 30s to travel the world. That sent me to Vicki Robin’s Your Money or Your Life. Which sent me to JL Collins and the Stock Series. Which sent us to Vanguard. The machine started turning with a system behind it.
The Savings Rate: The Real Scorecard
If there’s one number that tells the story of the last thirteen years more than any other, it’s the savings rate. Not income. Not net worth. The savings rate is what you actually control.
Here’s how ours has moved:
| Year | Savings Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | ~10% | Combined income ~$85K, saving $8,500/yr |
| 2013 | Growing | Single income $70K, maxing all tax-adv. accounts |
| 2019 | 60% | All accounts on autopilot, FIRE framework in place |
| 2020 | 82% | Up 22 percent year-over-year, income increased |
| Goal | 100% | Still 18% short as of 2020 |
At a 60% savings rate, MMM’s math says you need 12.5 years to retire. We crossed 60% in 2019. That means, mechanically, the clock was already running. At 82% in 2020, that runway shortens further.
The reason 2020 jumped 22 points in a single year wasn’t a raise it was that the automated contributions we’d already set up didn’t scale up with lifestyle expenses when income grew. Most of the investment accounts were already maxed except the Roth 401(k). When income increased, the savings rate climbed automatically because we didn’t change our spending.
That’s the whole play. Automate savings first. Let lifestyle stay flat. Pocket the delta.
Where The Savings Rate Stands Today
Now let’s run the current numbers honestly. Annual income is $160,000 ($13,333/month). Here’s every bucket, what goes in, and what it costs per month:
| Account | Type | Monthly | Annual | % of $160K |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HSA – Family | Pre-tax | $625 | $7,500 | 4.7% |
| ESPP | After-tax | $2,000 | $24,000 | 15.0% |
| Roth 401(k) | After-tax | $1,958 | $23,500 | 14.7% |
| His Roth IRA | After-tax | $625 | $7,500 | 4.7% |
| Her Roth IRA | After-tax | $717 | $8,600 | 5.4% |
| Kids Roth IRA – Lessie | After-tax | $200 | $2,400 | 1.5% |
| Kids Roth IRA -MG | After-tax | $200 | $2,400 | 1.5% |
| Kids Roth IRA – Niko | After-tax | $200 | $2,400 | 1.5% |
| Fundrise – Personal | After-tax | $100 | $1,200 | 0.75% |
| Fundrise – OVI Realty LLC | After-tax | $100 | $1,200 | 0.75% |
| Fundrise – OVI Consulting LLC | After-tax | $100 | $1,200 | 0.75% |
| Total | $6,825 | $81,900 | ~51% |
The current savings rate is approximately 51% – down from 60% in 2019, even though the absolute dollar amount being invested annually ($81,900) is considerably higher in real terms than 60% of the 2013 starting income of $70,000 would have been ($42,000).
This is the tax-advantaged ceiling problem in action. IRS contribution limits on the HSA, Roth 401(k), and Roth IRAs are fixed regardless of how much your income grows. As income climbs, those fixed buckets represent a shrinking slice of your gross – so the rate can fall even while you’re saving more dollars than ever. To get back to 60% on $160K income requires saving $96,000/year – meaning an additional $14,100/year ($1,175/month) into a taxable brokerage account on top of what’s already automated.
The lesson: once tax-advantaged buckets are maxed, every percentage point above the natural ceiling is a conscious, active decision to push more capital into taxable accounts. The system doesn’t do that part on its own.
A few things worth naming in this breakdown:
HSA – $625/month, pre-tax. This reduces taxable income by $7,500 before anything else. At a $160K gross, that’s a meaningful reduction. Money grows tax-free, withdraws tax-free for medical expenses, and after 65 can be used for anything at ordinary income rates making it one of the most structurally efficient accounts available.
Her Roth IRA – $8,600/year. Slightly above the standard $7,000 limit, the additional $1,600 reflects the catch-up contribution available once you hit 50, which takes the annual maximum to $8,000. The $8,600 figure suggests an additional $600 above even that, which may reflect a prior-year backdoor contribution or a rounding difference in contribution timing.
Three kids, $200/month each – $7,200/year total. Each of these accounts is a time machine. A child contributing $2,400/year from an early age, invested in VTSAX at a historical average of ~10%, becomes something extraordinary by retirement age – not because of the $2,400, but because of the decades of compounding ahead of it. The contribution matters far less than the clock it starts.
Three Fundrise accounts – $300/month total, $3,600/year. Personal, OVI Realty LLC, and OVI Consulting LLC each running $100/month. Structuring real estate exposure across separate entities keeps liability clean and gives each LLC its own capital base and reinvestment track. Not a large number individually but three parallel streams compounding quietly, adding real estate exposure to a portfolio otherwise concentrated in equities and a single rental property.
The Vanguard Engine (VTSAX + VBTLX): The Core
Our Vanguard Roth IRA accounts are the heart of the whole system. What started as a scattered mix of VTI, VXUS, and BND ETFs has now been simplified fully into two funds:
90% VTSAX – Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares, expense ratio 0.04% 10% VBTLX – Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Admiral Shares, expense ratio 0.05%
That’s it. Held in Roth IRA accounts, meaning every dollar of growth, every dividend, every capital gain tax-free at withdrawal. We started with an 80/20 allocation, shifted to 90/10 when we examined our time horizon honestly. The 10% in VBTLX isn’t there to generate returns it’s a psychological anchor. When markets drop 30-40%, that cushion keeps you from doing something irrational. And staying rational not timing the market, not reacting to headlines is the single most important variable in long-term wealth building.
At 0.04% you’re paying roughly $4 per year on every $10,000 invested. That’s not a rounding error, it’s a structural advantage that compounds over decades against the 1%+ the financial industry typically charges.
The RV? When we sold the Dutch Star at the end of 2025, we walked away with $37,000 net. It went straight into VTSAX. No ceremony. No second-guessing. That’s what automatic looks like in practice.
ACN: The Employer Equity Piece
One leg of the portfolio that doesn’t get much airtime here is the employer stock position, equity that has been accumulating through the ESPP over years of full-time employment. This isn’t index-fund money. It’s a single-stock concentration, which means it carries more risk than VTSAX and sits in a different mental bucket.
The strategic question we always hold with employer equity is the same: at what point does concentration risk outweigh the upside, and when does it make sense to diversify it into the broader portfolio? Single-company equity is simultaneously a gift and a liability. We treat it as a bonus accelerant not a foundation and watch it accordingly.
The Rental: $2,500 In, $300 Net, $194K On The Clock
When we hit the road in December 2020, we had a choice to make about the condo. Sell it and pocket the profit. Or become landlords.
The setup cost almost nothing. A single-member Wyoming LLC: $150. A real estate agent to find the right tenant fast: $1,500. County inspection and landlord registration: ~$400. Total barrier to entry: under $2,100 to create a legally protected, income-generating real estate entity.
Our tenants deposit $2,500 per month into the LLC. After the mortgage payment of $1,416.76, the HOA, repairs, and incidentals, we net approximately $300/month.
Three hundred dollars. On its face, not impressive.
But here’s what we actually did with those $300 months: we didn’t spend them. We put every dollar back toward the principal. As of early 2024, we owed $194,109.26 on the condo. That extra $300/month toward principal cuts 6 years and 7 months off the payoff timeline and saves $34,972.83 in interest. The condo also continues to appreciate in value in the Maryland market while someone else services the mortgage.
Worth noting: we also stash gear in the building’s own storage unit for $20/month — versus $200 at a public facility. That $180/month delta on just one line item is a useful reminder that the math is everywhere if you’re looking for it.
The rental isn’t cash-flow-rich today. It’s cash-flow-strategic. There’s a difference, and time is what turns the latter into the former.
The Side Gig: Ski Instructor, Park City, Utah
When the RV parked itself in Utah, I picked up a part-time ski instructor position in Park City and dedicated two full seasons to it. I became a certified member of the Professional Ski Instructors of America.
This wasn’t passive income. It was active, physical, joyful work the kind of work that doesn’t feel like work. Lessie, MG, and Niko skied Deer Valley, Canyon Village, Brighton, and Park City on weekdays. We had Tuesday afternoons in fresh powder.
The ski instructor gig was proof of concept for the whole model: when you build financial cushion beneath you, you can choose how you work, not just whether you work. That’s a different kind of freedom than the number-chasing version of FIRE promises.
The Business Investment: Honeycomb P2P
In early 2025, we started deploying cash into Honeycomb, a peer-to-peer lending platform connecting investors with locally owned small businesses. Interest rates range from 6% to 12%, with a 1% annual management fee. Loan terms run 36 months.
The mechanics: invest $10,000 at a given rate, receive regular interest payments monthly or quarterly, collect principal at maturity. On a hypothetical $10,000 at 23% over 36 months, that’s $2,300 in interest returned alongside the full principal at a 1% management fee on the invested amount.
This is the “small business investment” layer of the stack. Not equity. Not passive. A deliberate deployment of capital into the real economy with a predictable return horizon, and the ability to reinvest interest payments into new loans as they cycle back.
What Five Years On The Road Actually Cost
Here’s a number most people don’t talk about when they romanticize RV life: what it costs to run.
During the second year of the RV journey: 562 days on the road, 46 states, ~39,637 miles driven our four main spending categories broke down like this:
| Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Gas | $10,746.44 |
| Accommodation | $13,398.65 |
| Food | $15,227.94 |
| Total (year 2) | ~$39,373 |
That’s roughly $70/day for a family of five including fuel, camping fees, and all meals to live, work, travel, and road-school three kids across North America. Compare that to what a comparable stationary life in the DC suburbs would cost, and the math for geographic flexibility becomes very clear.
It’s worth mentioning, in years 3, 4, and 5, the RV spent six months of the year in storage at $262/month. ($1,572) and the remaining six months on the lot for full time use at the cost of $7,189. Gas cost us nothing.
Geographical Arbitrage: Still In The Deck
Here’s the card we haven’t played yet.
I grew up in Aerodrom, Skopje, Macedonia. We’ve lived in DC, Sweden, Portugal, and crossed 45+ US states in a motorhome. We know from direct experience that the cost of a full, rich, well-resourced life varies dramatically depending on where you plant the flag.
The same Vanguard portfolio, the same Maryland rental income, the same accumulated equity converted to euros or denars and spent in southern Europe or the Balkans funds a materially different lifestyle than it does in Houston or suburban DC. This isn’t a retirement fantasy. It’s a real lever we know how to pull, because we’ve already lived the low-overhead version of life in a 350-square-foot motorhome for nearly five years.
The Full Cashflow Picture
| Income Stream | Status | Monthly Cash Flow |
|---|---|---|
| W-2 Full-Time (Ata) | Active | Primary engine |
| Part-Time Variable (Leslie) | Active | 70%+ invested |
| Rental Net (LLC) | Active | ~$300 |
| VTSAX/VBTLX Dividends | Reinvesting | Growing, not drawn |
| Employer Stock (ESPP) | Accumulating | Periodic, variable |
| Honeycomb P2P | Active | 6–12% on deployed capital |
| Fundrise (Real Estate) | Active | Reinvesting / growing |
| Ski Instructor (seasonal) | Episodic | Active when skiing |
We are still in accumulation. Dividends are reinvested. The rental margin is thin. The W-2 is still the primary engine. But the difference between 2013 and today isn’t the size of any single stream it’s that eight streams exist where one used to. If one pauses, the rest continue. That redundancy is the architecture of financial resilience, and it took about a decade of small decisions to build.
Where Are We On The Path Since 2013?
Let’s actually put the timeline in order:
2006 – 10% savings rate on $85K combined income. The seed is planted.
2011-2013 – Graduate school in Sweden, living abroad on a shoestring. We learn that we need far less than we thought.
2013 – Back in DC on $70K single income. Maxing HSA, ESPP, Roth 401(k), all Roth IRAs including kids’ accounts at $588/year each.
2015 – Your Money or Your Life > JL Collins > Vanguard. The framework arrives. Investing begins.
2019 – 60% savings rate. All accounts on autopilot. According to MMM’s math: 12.5 years to retirement from this point.
2020 – 82% savings rate, up 22 points. Groceries cut from $1,100/mo to $600. RV life begins. Condo becomes a rental for $2,500/month while costing us $1,416.76 in mortgage payments.
2021–2025 – 943 days on the road. 45+ states. Alaska. Canada. Ski instructor certification in Park City. $39,373 spent in year two of the RV across 562 days — or $70/day for five people.
2024 – Landlord LLC established for $150. Mortgage balance: $194,109.26. Extra $300/month toward principal saves $34,972 in interest and cuts 6 years 7 months off the payoff.
2025 – Dutch Star sold. $37,000 net invested in VTSAX. Honeycomb P2P lending begun.
2026 – 90/10 VTSAX/VBTLX, all Roth IRA, fully consolidated. Income $160K, monthly savings $6,825, annual savings $81,900, savings rate ~51%. Eight income streams across three Fundrise entities, two LLCs, and a Wyoming landlord structure. Geographical arbitrage unplayed.
Thirteen years. The investing clock, by MMM’s formula, started ticking for real around 2019 when we crossed 60% savings. That means, mechanically, we’re already 7 years into what MMM called a 12.5-year runway.
Are we financially independent today? By the most rigid definition, not yet. The W-2 is still running. The mortgage is still outstanding. But here’s what I actually believe: we crossed a threshold somewhere in those thirteen years that most people never reach, not because of the balance, but because of the options. The question is no longer “can we survive if something goes wrong?” It’s “what do we actually want our life to look like?”
That’s not a minor shift. That’s everything.
On The Definition Of Enough
When we started this blog, the framing was financial independence. The number. The target. The year. But somewhere along the tens of thousands of miles in the Dutch Star, somewhere between a glacier in the Chugach Mountains and a campfire outside Moab, the framing quietly changed.
Your Money or Your Life gave us the first piece: every dollar is a unit of life energy. You trade hours for dollars. The question is what you trade them for.
JL Collins gave us the second piece: the stock market, left alone and added to consistently, does the compounding for you. 0.04% expense ratio. Set it. Don’t touch it.
But the third piece, the one nobody writes about is this: enough is not a number. Enough is a relationship with your own desires.
We still have one car. We live in a Houston townhouse that costs a fraction of a comparable DC home. Our kids go to school, eat well, and have been educated in tide pools and visitor centers and campfire conversations as much as classrooms. We’re not deprived. We’re not anxious about money. We’re not waiting for a future permission slip to live fully.
The path to financial freedom didn’t lead us to a beach somewhere, done forever. It led us to a life where the work we choose to do is work we’d choose anyway. Where a bad day at the office doesn’t cascade into a financial crisis. Where the ski instructor job was possible because we’d built the cushion. Where the ROLLINGOVIS could roll because we’d done the math years before.
You don’t need everything optimized before you begin. You need to start, automate it, spend less than you earn, and keep going. The bamboo grows underground for five years before you see it. Ours has been growing since at least 2006 and the shoots have been visible for a while now.
That’s what thirteen years looks like from the inside. Not a finish line. A different kind of starting line.