For the first day of the new year the first thing we did was our semi-annual financial review. 2021 was another good year for us with our net worth growing over 9% after expenses. Despite all the money we spent over the course of 2021 our total financial net worth has continued to increase. I took our new net worth, subtracting out the value of our RV (as it does not generate any money and is a depreciating asset) and calculated out a 4% withdrawal rate set our budget for the next 6 months.
After the financial review we went to Cox Science Center and Aquarium in West Palm Beach. This was part of our science museum membership so it was free and that is a good thing since it is a smaller science museum but that was OK since it was free and I figure Olivia learns a least a little bit from every museum she visits.
Since we wanted to avoid Miami during a holiday weekend, we just drove a little bit further south and stopped by a State Park to dump and refill our water before going to a Barnes and Noble for a few hours. For a change of pace we went to a Bass Pro Shop for the evening. It is amazing how far Olivia’s reading has come. She can now sit and read a book with no pictures for a couple of hours before wanting to do something else. Meanwhile Holly was making a new video about her birthday party from last year.
The next day, Monday we drove into Miami. We found rather expensive $4 an hour parking spot right on Miami’s South Beach. We took a walk along the famous beach and it is striking that the people on the beach seemed to be younger and fitter than most beaches. There were some families including us and a few older people but by and large it was fit, young people. We stopped to have lunch on Ocean Drive in the Art Deco district at an Irish Bar before heading back to Rover. We found that we did not really like Miami that much. The parking was difficult and expensive and it just felt a little claustrophobic to us. This was kind of strange since we liked New York a lot. Perhaps it was the lack of setbacks for parking lots. Anyway, we left early and drove a while to a Cracker Barrel in Homestead to spend the night.
