6 Months Into Early Retirement! - The Numbers

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:01]I made it 6 months.

[00:00:04]First off, I want to say happy Mother's Day to all the good moms out there, especially my mom, Jan, and Gail's mom, Donna.

[00:00:12]We love you guys, and happy Mother's Day.

[00:00:16]Just so happens that my 6-month anniversary of being retired falls on Mother's Day.

[00:00:22]If you're new here, my name is Troy, and I retired last fall, last November 10th, at the age of 58.

[00:00:28]And we are going to take a look at my 6-month numbers to see how I've fared so far.

[00:00:33]So, my goal was to retire when I hit 500k, and I finally hit that number last year, and I got out.

[00:00:41]So, when I retired last November 10th, in all my accounts combined, I had a total of $539,392.

[00:00:51]We're going to compare that to what we have today.

[00:00:53]So, last November 10th, when I retired, I had in my Fidelity 401k from my employer, I had $267,129.

[00:01:06]Today, that number, well, yesterday, I took these numbers last night on uh May 9th.

[00:01:12]Today, my 401k sits at $290,795.

[00:01:19]My IRA from the employer before I took my 401k and put it into an IRA, last November, I was at 209,167.

[00:01:29]Today, I'm at 223,903.

[00:01:33]I've also got a Schwab IRA that this was uh when they did away with my pension, I had some money sitting there that I had to do something with, so I moved it into an IRA.

[00:01:45]Uh last November, it was 33,360.

[00:01:50]Today, it sits at 35,607.

[00:01:54]I've also got a Vanguard Roth IRA. Last fall, it was at 5408. Today it sits at $6,040.

[00:02:03]So, even though the market's been kind of up and down, right now I'm sitting pretty good.

[00:02:08]And I've got a few other accounts that I play around with. You got Robinhood and Coinbase and Binance and Groundfloor and I mean there's not that much in there and it's hasn't changed a whole lot. It's actually gone down from last fall. Like the Robinhood, there's uh $3,700 in it right now and last fall there was almost $4,600. So, it's I haven't messed with that. I've just whatever's in there I've just been letting it ride. Now, my cash when I retired last fall I was sitting at $17,000, but that number is a little skewed because I hadn't received my last paycheck yet and I cashed in I can't remember how many hours vacation I still had, maybe 80 hours or something like that of vacation that I hadn't used yet that I got paid out.

[00:02:56]But, at the time of retirement I had 17,000 cash and right now I've got 21,336.

[00:03:05]Now, last month in April I was only at 19,000 cash, but I got my tax return Friday. That's probably the last tax refund I'll ever get.

[00:03:17]>> [laughter] >> And that was like $2,700.

[00:03:20]And I actually worked one day in April.

[00:03:22]I uh delivered something for somebody to Columbia, Missouri and I got paid $250.

[00:03:28]But, you take away about $100 in gas and I only made about 150.

[00:03:34]And my YouTube for March that I got paid in April, it was I think 1190. I'm not sure I it was something like that.

[00:03:44]It's kind of crazy to me that I still have over 20K in cash because that's about what I retired on and that's what I'm living off of. So, I thought I would be getting into my 401k via the rule of 55 to help me live. And I haven't had to do that yet. I'm still hanging on to that that money I started out with. And I know I get this question every time I post one of these updates, like how are you living on so little?

[00:04:15]And I'll I'm keeping track of everything I'm spending and I'm going to show you how we do it.

[00:04:21]I mean, we have no debt at all. So, it's I mean, it's just boring basic stuff, but I mean, it can be done. I mean, it's just utilities, insurance, all that crap. But I mean, it can be done.

[00:04:34]So, anyhow, you add in the cash, everything together as of yesterday last night, I said at $583,260.

[00:04:45]That's up from, like I said, $539,392.

[00:04:50]And that's up $30,000 from just last month cuz I said at 553,524 just a month ago in April.

[00:04:59]So, yeah, I haven't worked in 6 months and I've got more money than I started out with. So, I mean, I I can't ask for any more than that.

[00:05:07]Now, I know >> [sighs] >> the time is nearing when I'll have to start making some withdrawals because the the YouTube money has slowed down quite a bit, I think.

[00:05:21]After earning like around 1,200 for March, my April earnings was only 300 and something. So, that's slowing down and there won't be any more tax refunds.

[00:05:35]>> [laughter] >> So, eventually I will have to start withdrawing out of that 401k, but I'm just going to stretch it out as long as I can without touching it. And I might decide to start doing some of the side hustles I've talked about. I know I we've still got so much stuff we need to go through and get rid of, whether that's auction or marketplace. Oh, I hate marketplace, but I mean I'll do it, but man, oh man, just dealing with the people on there drives you nuts.

[00:06:07]Still got the eBay thing. I still haven't listed anything cuz I've still been busy around the house here just getting things done that I've been wanting to do for years now.

[00:06:19]So, yeah, I'm I'm pretty happy with how things are going.

[00:06:23]>> [laughter] >> I mean no complaints at all.

[00:06:29]Yeah, if you'd told me back when I retired that you're going to be 6 months in and have more than you started out with and haven't touched it yet.

[00:06:41]Well, I'd be pretty thrilled and don't think I'd been near as worried as I was.

[00:06:51]Man, there's some big old bluegill down there.

[00:06:56]Well, guys, I've got a little bit of daylight left, so I think I'm going to make this a short one and go grab a fishing pole.

[00:07:04]Thanks again for watching and if you haven't done so, hit that subscribe button. It really helped the channel out.

[00:07:11]And we'll catch you later.

[00:07:37]Look at them peaches.

[00:07:46]>> Hey.