My employer recently went through a round of layoffs. While my job was safe, many of my colleagues, and millions of Americans, have lost their jobs over the past several months. COVID-19 cases continue climbing in many parts of the country, massive social changes are taking place, and what seems like one of the most important presidential elections of my lifetime is just four months away.

The world has changed a lot in 2020, which has caused us to rethink our plans around our pursuit of early retirement and financial independence.

Part of me has been tempted to use the massive uncertainty as the impetus to walk away and focus on what’s most important to us.

But the more rational part of me thinks it would be crazy to abandon a good paycheck until we have a much better idea what life in the United States might look like in 2021, 2022, and beyond.

When we last reported on our finances at the beginning of the year, the results were not good. The worst quarter for the stock market in almost seven years resulted in our net worth moving in the wrong direction for the first time since we started posting our Quarterly Financial Scorecards here at Retiring On My Terms.

Fast forward three months, however, and we seem to be back on track.

The S&P 500 Index returned more than 13% during Q1 2019 – it’s best quarter in nearly a decade! While the U.S. stock market is still a bit below the all-time high set last September, the strong returns so far this year have been great for the ROMT family. We made progress over the past quarter on all three of the metrics we are tracking on our path towards early retirement and financial independence – net worth, 529 account funding, and passive income.