Happy New Year!
I hope you made it through the holidays happy and healthy and took some time to reflect on the dumpster fire that was 2020. Here’s hoping the world can figure their shit out in 2021. Now let’s talk about money!
In our inaugural blog post, I briefly introduced you to our goal of achieving financial independence (“FI”) by the age of 35 and shared that we are already (finally?) halfway to our target net worth of $1,250,000! Here’s last month’s update in case you missed it.
This post is the latest in what has become a regular series of monthly financial updates to track our progress to FI and beyond. Bear with me – I’m a little obsessed with spreadsheets and track every penny we make and spend in excruciating detail. I’ll do my best to summarize that activity in a way that gives enough insight into our financial maneuverings without boring you to tears.
With that, here’s where our net worth is at through December 2020:
| BALANCE | CHANGE FROM PRIOR MONTH | |
| ASSETS | ||
| Cash, Checking, Savings | $16,752 | $4,725 |
| Investments | $666,610 | $23,447 |
| Home Equity | $100,834 | $554 |
| LIABILITIES | ||
| Credit Cards | ($4,199) | ($2,151) |
| Misc. Other Debts | $0 | $120 |
| NET WORTH | $779,997 | $26,695 |
Cash, Checking, Savings
Consists mostly of our $9,000 emergency fund held in a high-yield online savings account at Ally Bank. The rest is held in a “big bank” for depositing our paychecks and paying bills.
Investments
Another stellar month of investment activity to end the year on a positive note – let’s keep that money train rolling. Several different accounts are included here, most of which are true “retirement” accounts. It also includes our taxable brokerage account at Schwab.
Home Equity
Purchase price of our home, less the outstanding mortgage balance. I don’t worry about adjusting the value to whatever our Zestimate is on a particular day because it doesn’t matter until we sell.
Credit Cards
Just the balance on our various credit cards (future post on our travel hacking exploits to come) as of the end of the month. We pay these off on time and in full each month, so the change in this balance will usually manifest itself in the expenses below.
Misc. Other Debts
Usually just my administrative accounting of who owes what for various fantasy sports leagues – all paid up at year-end!
Here’s a look at our expenses for the month:
| EXPENSES | |
| Home (mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, etc.) | $1,993.49 |
| Utilities | $193.06 |
| Automotive | $539.89 |
| Groceries | $438.91 |
| Dining Out | ($49.30) |
| Health & Beauty | $946.89 |
| Cell Phones | ($24.34) |
| Travel & Entertainment | $60.41 |
| Pets | $5.22 |
| Work-related | $158.60 |
| Merchandise (furniture, decorations, clothes, etc.) | $16.19 |
| Other Expenses | $69.00 |
| Total Expenses | $4,348.02 |
Another large increase in our net worth AND spending under budget?! That’s what (my) dreams are made of.
Notes
Without giving away too many details as to our identities, this month includes about $440 to insure a vehicle for 12 months. Maybe someday when I’m no longer writing anonymously I can spill the beans on that one.
Groceries were a little higher than normal, as we had to restock the pantry after our Mexican vacation. Add in hosting a small family gathering on Christmas Eve, and the damage wasn’t too bad all considered.
How in the world did we manage to spend a negative amount on dining out??? We occasionally do some secret shopping as a means of dining out for free/nearly free. In December, we received the reimbursements for a couple outings from previous months.
Under health & beauty, Mrs. FIby35’s diagnostics bills continue to flow in at what I would consider more than just a trickle, despite being prepared for this back in November. Fortunately, the results indicated no major issues, so we’ll chalk this up to the cost of maintaining good health.
Cell phone expenses in December were a credit of $24.34, as I received reimbursement from my employer for October and November. We both own our phones outright, and pay Mint Mobile for service once a year (~$200 each for 3GB of 4G LTE data and unlimited talk/text). I had a couple referral credits on my last renewal, so for 12 months it came out to $146.02. Divided by 12 = $12.17/month. No need for outrageously high phone bills when we are connected to wi-fi more often than not and receive adequate service elsewhere.
Conclusion
In the intro to this post, I was a little harsh on 2020. To be honest, we were fortunate enough to maintain our jobs, our health, the health of our loved ones, and most of our sanity through the entire year. Our net worth skyrocketed thanks to positive market returns and (mostly) sticking to our budget. I know that was not the case for everyone, so I do not mean to gloat – as you know, this blog’s purpose is merely to report our results along the way.
Here’s to a happy, healthy, successful year ahead!
I think a lot of 2020 was related to how a person was able to choose their attitude and look at their circumstances…. I was furloughed and then laid off, but chose to view it as a mini retirement and see what that might look like. It was an eye opening year for sure, but definitely a net positive in my book!
I think a lot of people found out how financially prepared (or unprepared) they were in 2020. The ones that had set themselves up well before this probably came out of this with a lot more information about themselves and what they want to do going forward. Glad you have been able to turn a negative into a positive.