Today is the day-- a cold and wet and dreary July 4th, when I should be Celebrating the birth of our nation by sunning myself and eating hot dogs but am instead huddled indoors catching up on my finances. And because today is the day I decided to pay attention to 6 months' worth of investment transactions, today is the day I became a millionaire. In truth, it probably happened on a different day, but today is the day I first saw it in my net worth report in Quicken:

So I am celebrating financial independence today. Of course, by "financial independence" I don't mean I never have to work again, or that I can stop saving money, or even stop worrying about money. One million dollars is an arbitrary number, but there is something symbolic about it. To me, it symbolizes having succeeded in one of my financial goals, and it means that I'm on the right track. I have about 20 years to go before I hit retirement age, so if I'm lucky enough to keep myself in a good job, keep my expenses in line, stay healthy, and not have any major catastrophes in my personal finances or in the stock market and economy as a whole, I should be able to be financially independent for the rest of my life, in terms of not needing to be a burden on anyone else in my old age.

It looks like the sky is starting to lighten up a bit, so maybe it's finally time to turn off the laptop and start celebrating July 4th in a more typical way! Happy Independence Day, everyone!