It doesn’t take much time perusing the Spreadsheets to know April 2022 was a bad month financially. End of story. Move along, nothing to see here. As much as I’d like to bury my head in the Minnesota permafrost and pretend this month never happened, my neuroticism over numbers won’t allow me to. So I might as well share my misery with you readers in my April 2022 financial update!
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 over halfway to our target net worth of $1,250,000! Since that time, our net worth has climbed to over 90% of our goal…or at least it was over 90%. Here’s last month’s update in case you missed it, and here’s how we fared last year in total.
This post is the latest in 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.
Net Worth
Here’s where our net worth ended up through April 2022:
| BALANCE | CHANGE FROM PRIOR MONTH |
ASSETS | | |
Cash, Checking, Savings | $14,946 | ($4,227) |
Investments | $950,108 | ($77,063) |
Home Equity | $109,910 | $580 |
LIABILITIES | | |
Credit Cards | ($4,328) | $545 |
Misc. Other Debts | $0 | $0 |
NET WORTH | $1,070,636 | ($80,165) |
Not much to say, except that hurts. Let’s check out each individual category:
Cash, Checking, Savings
This consists mostly of our 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. As we get closer to our FI number, I’ve built this up to be able to accomplish some other goals in the first few months of 2022. Since Mrs. FIby35 quit her job in early April, we have started to deplete our savings a bit.
Investments
Several different accounts are included here, most of which are true “retirement” accounts. It also includes our taxable brokerage account at Schwab. Even though we contributed $10,200 of our hard-earned dollars, April saw the stock market tumble, and we “lost” $87,200. I put “lost” in quotes because we didn’t actually sell any investments – just paper losses. Such is life when your entire investment portfolio tracks the S&P 500.
Home Equity
This is the purchase price of our home, less the outstanding mortgage balance. I’ve noted before that 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. Well, that time is almost here. We will likely see the results of the “investment” in our home sometime in May when we close the sale.
Credit Cards
Just the balance on our various credit cards (we use these extensively to fund our travel hacking exploits) 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. I’m clear of all debts at this time.
Expenses
Here’s a look at our expenses for the month of April:
EXPENSES | Budget | Actual | (Over)/Under |
Home (mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, etc.) | $1,114.27 | $1,546.92 | ($432.65) |
Utilities | $122.50 | $282.98 | ($160.48) |
Automotive | $350.77 | $245.59 | $105.18 |
Groceries | $300.00 | $442.61 | ($142.61) |
Dining Out | $116.67 | $386.43 | ($269.76) |
Health & Beauty | $337.50 | $341.11 | ($3.61) |
Cell Phones | $41.67 | $159.68 | ($118.01) |
Travel & Entertainment | $1,386.67 | $1,800.09 | ($413.42) |
Pets | $110.83 | $0.00 | $110.83 |
Merchandise | $141.12 | $712.23 | ($571.11) |
Other Expenses | $561.33 | $4,122.00 | ($3,560.67) |
Total Expenses | $4,583.33 | $10,039.64 | ($5,456.31) |
Well, we more than doubled our budgeted spending in April. At least our dog can control his spending. Let’s take a look at some individual categories:
Home Expenses & Utilities
This year’s budget is built differently than in the past…previously, I averaged all expected costs over the course of the year so that most months we should come in under budget, while in May and October we would be over when our property tax payments were due.
However, 2022 will likely see lots of fluctuation in this category. Since we are selling our house and spending more time traveling later in the year, we’ve significantly decreased our housing budget for the year. This spending is also obviously frontloaded towards the beginning of the year. So for now, we’re likely to overspend the budget by a few hundred dollars each month (as was the case in April). This month included just our mortgage.
Utilities continue to exceed the budget as well. I expect this category to be a bit over budget for the first several months of the year. Fortunately, the weather warmed up to a more respectable temperature (though still unseasonably cold) and our heat bill returned closer to normal.
Groceries & Dining Out
In addition to buying enough groceries to last until closing our home sale in May, we ended up doing several food/drink outings with friends before our big move. I’m hoping we’re able to rein this spending in as we transition to our new semi-nomadic lifestyle.
Cell Phones
As I’ve explained previously, we both have cell phone plans through Mint Mobile that only cost about $15 each per month for unlimited talk, text, and 4GB of 4G LTE data. I receive reimbursement from my employer every few months as well, so my cell phone is basically free for another couple months while I am working. In April, I renewed my plan for the next 12 months at about $200 ($180 + taxes & fees) and received reimbursement for January-March.
We love Mint Mobile and highly recommend their services for a much more affordable option than some of the big names out there. I’d be thrilled if you used this referral link and signed up with them. You’ll get $15 (basically a month free!) added to your account and I’ll get a small referral bonus as well. Mr. Rebates is also running a $10 cash back deal that you could use to stack your savings, and Rakuten is offering $5 cash back if that’s more your style.
Travel & Entertainment
We didn’t go anywhere in March, but we booked some travel for 2023 – an entire month in Hawaii! I’m still working out how to account for this in this year’s budget when it’s actually for next year’s living expenses. Accountant problems.
Merchandise
Mrs. FIby35 continues to search for clothes and other items needed for upcoming travel, so there’s some buying and returning baked into this month’s activity. We also returned items purchased to stage our home for listing in March. Overall, this category is a hot mess until final decisions are made on what to keep.
Other Expenses
Other expenses this month included paying in to the IRS as part of filing our 2021 income taxes. This is a hefty bill to pay, but I plan for it throughout the year so it’s not an issue. We would rather hold onto more of our paychecks throughout the year (instead of increasing our withholdings) and then cut a big check to the IRS and State of Minnesota in April. Going forward, our tax bill should be significantly lower in Funemployment.
Conclusion
Overall, our spending can best be described as erratic in April. There are purchases and returns all over the place, a big chunk of taxes due, and a general transition away from homeownership all wrapped up in one. To cap it off, the stock market took a big bite out of our net worth. That’s not fun to see, but it’s out of our control.
At the time of this writing, we’ve sold/donated/trashed a large portion of our possessions and we close on the sale of our home shortly. It was tough to turn over the keys to a home we loved, but we’re looking forward to a fat check to fund our upcoming adventures. More updates to come!
Was your April as chaotic as ours? Any suggestions for living a semi-nomadic life? Leave a comment below!