July was awesome! I had a three week break from work and the weather cooperated beautifully. And because I had refrained from planning any trips I could submerge myself in vacation bliss from the very first moment after leaving the office. No suitcases to pack, no rushing to airports, standing in line at check-in counters and no delayed flights. Did you know that research shows that only a very relaxed holiday boosts vacationers’ happiness? Verifying this with a minimal sample of one vacationer (myself) is not concluding anything. But I sure felt happy!
But let’s see whether July also made me happy as far as aiming for FIRE is concerned…
Highlights
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My net worth reached $580,291.73, which is a 2.4% increase compared to June.
The increase could have been higher were it not for last week’s rather steep decline due to the trade war between the US and China. When is it going to end??
Anyway, I am not complaining. Things are progressing nicely.
July 2019
Deposits and withdrawals
- Deposited around $1K in my pension fund.
- Set aside $1.5K for future (December 2019) purchase of company shares (this fund stands at appr. $3K).
Income/gain
The income/gain looks like this:
Company shares
July saw only a minor capital gain. But as long as it’s positive I’m not complaining!
Crowdlending
My Mintos investments live their own life. I haven’t invested more funds in this asset for a number of months now, but the return keeps accumulating (and is automatically re-invested using Mintos’ auto-invest feature).
Livepeer
Livepeer is the latest addition to my portfolio. I will soon post an article that explains more about how it works, but I’m essentially earning interest on my investment. In cryptotokens that is.
In short, I purchased a specific cryptotoken for fiat currency and bonded this to a transcoder in the Livepeer video streaming network. By doing this I get a portion of newly minted tokens (roughly once a day). It is like earning interest by putting money in the bank.
To be clear, this is a high-risk investment. Some of the risks include:
- Volatility of the cryptotoken. Most crypto currency is notoriously volatile.
- Liquidity of the token. This is low at the moment.
Why did I make this investment?
- I am interested in the technology. Blockchain and decentralization in general, and Livepeer, a decentalized video streaming network in particular.
- I believe in the future of decentralized applications (Dapps).
- I think that Livepeer will play an important role in the technology stack of future decentralized, disruptive solutions.
- I like to have a bit of fun with my money 😉
The income in July was a mind-boggling $337.50. Note that income is a result of a) new tokens that I received (the interest) and b) the increase/decrease in value of the Livepeer token. The former is pretty stable (around 45 tokens a month), while the latter (the value) is volatile.
Keep in mind that all numbers are unrealized. I keep everything invested in the cryptotokens.
Portfolio
Net worth
| Mortgage-free home | $330K |
| Company shares | $114,762.24 |
| Crowdlending | $2,214.69 |
| Pension | $153,728.00 |
| Cryptoassets | $3,586.80 |
| Cash | $6,000.00 |
| Liabilities | $30K |
| Net worth | $580,291.73 |
Plans for August
My plans for August:
- New micro fiction writing challenge. Promise!
- More writing for the blog as I haven’t been so active lately
- Keep the ESPP program running
- Participate in the mini triathlon I have been training for 🙂
That’s all for this time!
earlyretirementplanning.wordpress.com 
Nice update! It’s interesting to read about your adventures in crypto-currency space, as it’s not that common. I somehow resisted the temptation to enter it and I am not sure if it’s good or bad 🙂
Good luck in your triathlon if it hasn’t happened yet! Looking forward to hear your thoughts about it! 🙂
BI
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Nice! Keep on going!
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Hey yo, bozo?! You failed at #2: More writing for the blog as I haven’t been so active lately – AGAIN! 😛
Hoping you are out enjoying yourself somewhere – just wanted to check in 😉
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