May 2026: The Month I Decided to Go Back to the Office

Hello friends, how are you?

This month I've decided that I want to tell you more about my FIRE journey when it comes to wealth growth, how much I've managed to save and also share a bit about life and its hardships.

I think it will be nice for you to know more behind-the-scenes details too, since depending on what happens in my life, it can have an impact on how much I'm able to save/invest. These blogs will always come out at the beginning of the following month, so I can share how much I've actually managed to invest, as well as what's happened over the course of the month.

I hope you enjoy this new series. The goal is to bring you closer, following behind the scenes and seeing how changes in the financial market impact my journey.

I'll start by telling you about the backstage, which was a quite rough month. The weather really affects my mood and as fate has its ironies, I live in a state that has a very cold and long winter. However, in May I already expect to be walking outside without needing to wear a jacket. But, as my friend says, "the expectation is the mother of disappointment" and so it was this month. Cold enough that the heater was still on. Cold enough for the streets to still be empty and for my homesickness kicked in hard. This makes me restless and in many cases I simply buy a ticket to São Paulo, rent an apartment in Santos and go. But this year I decided to do things differently - I decided that if I live here, my life has to be interesting here. And it was because of the effect the weather had on my month of May that I decided to return to the office.

I'll try to tell you briefly how working remotely came about:

• In 2019 I joined the company I work for today.
• In 2020 we had the pandemic and the company became a company where being remote was an option.
• We bought a house on the coast, which made a lot of sense to us.
• Since then I've been working from home and on very rare occasions I go into the office.

One of the reasons my appearances were rare was because the people who always go have their own group of friends and I felt excluded - yes, I'm being vulnerable here too. And of course that only my more constant presence can change that.

Another reason is that parking costs at least $22 a day and since I moved to the shore, I have to drive at least an hour and a bit to get to work.

But even with all these drawbacks, I've decided that the best way to see my colleagues and make my life more sociable and interesting is to go back to the office at least once a week and I've decided that day will be Thursday because there's always a happy hour afterwards.

It's amazing how doing this twice has improved my mood so much. We have expenses with this move, of course. At least $130 a month between gas and parking, but I see a lot of benefit in having my colleagues around again and also getting out of the house a bit more.

Now that you know what's been going on behind the scenes, I'll tell you a bit about how much I've managed to invest this month.

Today I invest in three different ways, which I've listed in the table below:

The 401k money comes directly out of my salary, even before taxes are deducted.

The ESPP also comes out of my paycheck, but after taxes. The advantage here is twofold: as an employee I get a 15% discount, and the company also buys the stock on the day it was cheapest during the period - in other words, the gain starts even before any market appreciation.

The money I invest in ETFs, I invest myself every time the money comes into my account. As I always say, I pay myself first.

Apart from my investments, I also put part of my commission towards trips for the following year, gifts I want to give during the year and an emergency fund.

I know that all of this is a privilege, both from the growth of my career and from the change in behavior I've implemented over the last few years.

By now you know that I invest 50% of my salary and also put a portion aside for short-term expenses, so let's talk about May in terms of investments and here's a spoiler : it was a great month.

In terms of spending, it was an expensive month, as I bought everything I needed for a trip that's coming up soon. But it's worth remembering that it was "Débora from 2025" who paid for it. I also spent on other things, like some presents and stationery, which is something I love.

Even with the extra expenses, I kept my commitment listed in the table above, and here's the little help the market gave me this month, combined with my investments: A growth in total assets of 4.3%.

It was such a good month that in it I've already reached the FIRE target that was listed in my plan for the whole year. 🙌

I'm very happy with this and will continue to be more intentional with my social life. I'll also continue to invest at the same rate, meaning, buying more time. The more I invest, the sooner I can reach my goal.

That's it for today. I hope you've enjoyed my updates and if you have any questions or comments about my process, please leave them here!

Hugs from me,

- Débora