April was a month on the road for us, traveling through 10 different US states. Starting in Florida, we drove through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois to then spend time with family and friends in Wisconsin. Our most recent (and possibly last) major trip commenced, resulting in a drive to Minnesota and flights to Colorado, California, and Hawaii. Get the details below in my April 2023 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. 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 2023:
| | BALANCE | CHANGE FROM PRIOR MONTH |
| ASSETS | | |
| Cash, Checking, Savings | $75,430 | ($5,240) |
| Investments | $1,131,069 | $14,044 |
| LIABILITIES | | |
| Credit Cards | ($4,253) | $913 |
| Car Loan | ($29,694) | $274 |
| Misc. Other Debts | ($140) | ($40) |
| NET WORTH | $1,172,412 | $9,951 |
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 and Series I savings bonds. The rest is held in a “big bank” for depositing our paychecks and paying bills. After the sale of our home, we decided to keep about 2 years worth of living expenses in some form of savings. We’re spending out of that balance now while the market is down instead of selling investments.
We anticipate having a baseline budget of about $50,000 for the next few years, so we stashed $80,000 in savings and purchased $10,000 each in Series I savings bonds in 2022. The Treasury announced I-Bond rates of 6.89% in November and 4.30% starting in May, still above what we would earn in a savings account so we bought $10,000 more for each of us in January. The interest rate is tied to inflation, so as long as inflation stays high we will continue to buy and hold these, building a sort of I-bond ladder. If the interest rate continues to drop we will likely cash these bonds out and keeping them in our more easily-accessible savings account, currently earning 3.75%.
Investments
Most of our investments track the S&P 500, which climbed a modest 1.5% in April. With our cash buffer there’s no need to actually sell any investments any time soon, giving the market time to continue its recovery. The only real reason for me to track market performance is for these monthly updates.
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.
Car Loan
We were hoping to run our 2009 Toyota RAV-4 into the ground someday in the distant future, but that day came sooner than expected. In January we purchased a shiny new Subaru Forester and *gasp* financed it all, with payments beginning in March. The plan is to likely pay off the loan in full during our next stage of employment before leaving the workforce again, whenever that may be.
Misc. Other Debts
Usually just my administrative accounting of who owes what for various fantasy sports leagues. Baseball season is upon us!
Expenses
Here’s a look at our expenses for the month of April:
| EXPENSES | Budget | Actual | (Over)/Under |
| Home (mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, etc.) | $1,128.25 | $0.00 | $1,128.25 |
| Utilities | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Automotive | $449.75 | $895.54 | ($445.79) |
| Groceries | $308.33 | $146.87 | $161.46 |
| Dining Out | $135.42 | $283.46 | ($148.04) |
| Health & Beauty | $568.33 | $487.86 | $80.47 |
| Cell Phones | $33.33 | $200.99 | ($167.66) |
| Travel & Entertainment | $1,235.00 | $1,085.32 | $149.68 |
| Pets | $87.50 | $0.00 | $87.50 |
| Merchandise | $135.67 | $240.15 | ($104.48) |
| Other Expenses | $293.42 | $1,500.25 | ($1,206.83) |
| Total Expenses | $4,375.00 | $4,840.44 | ($465.44) |
April was another relatively expensive month. Let’s take a look at individual categories:
Home Expenses & Utilities
No home = no home expenses. We do anticipate returning to work and (likely) renting a place of our own later in the year. Until then we will continue traveling and staying with family.
Automotive
Payments on our new car began in March to the tune of $471/month. We drove from Florida to Wisconsin before setting off on our latest adventure, so most of the remaining spending is gas.
I budgeted conservatively for insurance this year and also had a pretty good chunk budgeted for maintenance. But with the new car, most of that budgeted maintenance will be shifted to paying the loan instead. All in all, the new car shouldn’t cost us much more out of pocket this year than the old one would have.
Groceries & Dining Out
We spent a bit more on meet-ups with friends and family before leaving for Hawaii mid-month. That was offset by a lower cost of groceries (I’ve accounted for our groceries while traveling in the Travel & Entertainment category).
Health & Beauty
This category includes our monthly health insurance premium (~$435) and a haircut each this month.
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 5GB of 4G LTE data (an increase from 4GB after they were bought out by T-Mobile).
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. Right now, you can sign up for 3 months of service just to try it out before committing to a full year. Mr. Rebates is also running a $5 cash back deal that you could use to stack your savings, and Rakuten is offering $5 cash back as well if that’s more your style.
My plan was renewed in April at $180 + taxes. Hopefully with the transition to T-Mobile the pricing won’t change significantly in the future.
Travel & Entertainment
Our last hurrah of travel before returning to a somewhat “normal” life is underway. In mid-April, we flew to San Diego to spend a weekend with my aunt before continuing on to Hawaii. We’re spending 4 weeks in an AirBnb on the Big Island, which was paid for in previous months. Despite visiting two pretty expensive places, we were able to keep costs pretty reasonable for at least the first 2 weeks of the trip.
When our time in Hawaii comes to an end, we’ll jet off to Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Alaska. After our fantastic experience in Southeast Asia this January-February, I’m really looking forward to another trip to the continent.
Pets
Fortunately, our dog didn’t request any premium food or spa days this month. He’s currently being spoiled with family while we’re away.
Merchandise
Mostly gifts for family, minimal actual merchandise purchased here.
Other Expenses
Since we’re planning on showing taxable income on our 2023 tax return but are obviously not withholding any taxes through payroll at the moment, I made a quarterly estimated tax payment to the IRS. Normally I abhor the thought of paying fees, but in this case we paid the 1.87% fee to use a credit card since we were in the midst of spending towards the bonus on a new Chase Ink Business Unlimited credit card.
I’ll reevaluate this strategy each quarter; the next estimated payment is coming quickly on June 15.
Conclusion
As I write, I’m privately celebrating the one-year anniversary of my last day of employment from the lanai of our Hawaii rental. The concept of time has become increasingly difficult to grasp over the past year – has it been 3 months or 3 years? More often than not, we don’t know what day of the week it is off the top of our heads. Oddly, that hasn’t bothered me much. Every day has been a new opportunity to see, learn, or just relax.
Our globetrotting ways will likely be put on pause after this trip finishes, but not before we experience Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Alaska. Did I think any of those destinations would have been likely for me to visit in the near future a year ago? Not a chance. I’ll have to write a post summarizing our year or so since we left work.
Speaking of work, the small consulting contract I started in March was completed before we left for Hawaii in April. I enjoyed the work much more than I expected and it seemed to be beneficial for both sides. The client has also offered a second contract for twice as many hours to commence after we return in June. While it’s not a sustainable amount of money (yet), it certainly helps buy us more time until more permanent employment is found. It’s great to have options in life!
That’s all for April!
Any trips coming up or big plans for the summer? Leave a comment below!
