Remember back in November when I wrote, “the chaos never stops”? Despite the holidays, the chaos slowed a little in December thanks to some relatively peaceful time with family back in Florida. It didn’t fully stop though, as December included a weeklong cruise to several beautiful places in the Caribbean. Did it inflict chaos on our budget as well? Let’s dig into the December 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. 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 December 2022:
| | BALANCE | CHANGE FROM PRIOR MONTH |
| ASSETS | | |
| Cash, Checking, Savings | $88,201 | ($4,731) |
| Investments | $1,040,599 | ($64,606) |
| LIABILITIES | | |
| Credit Cards | ($2,997) | $4,691 |
| Misc. Other Debts | $0 | $0 |
| NET WORTH | $1,125,803 | ($64,646) |
The S&P 500 concluded its yearlong warpath on our investment balances with another big slap in the face. Unfortunately, that means our net worth ended the year on a sour note. 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. 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. The Treasury announced new I-Bond rates of 6.89% in November, still well above what we would earn in a savings account. The interest rate is tied to inflation, so as long as inflation stays high we will buy more of these in January, building a sort of I-bond ladder.
Investments
The S&P 500 dropped nearly 6% in December, wiping out our November gains and then some. With our cash buffer there’s no need to actually sell any investments any time soon, giving the market time to recover. 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.
Misc. Other Debts
Usually just my administrative accounting of who owes what for various fantasy sports leagues.
Expenses
Here’s a look at our expenses for the month of December:
| EXPENSES | Budget | Actual | (Over)/Under |
| Home (mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, etc.) | $1,114.27 | ($12.24) | $1,126.51 |
| Utilities | $122.50 | $0.00 | $122.50 |
| Automotive | $350.77 | $626.47 | ($275.70) |
| Groceries | $300.00 | $72.57 | $227.43 |
| Dining Out | $116.67 | $53.62 | $63.05 |
| Health & Beauty | $337.50 | $481.56 | ($144.06) |
| Cell Phones | $41.67 | $0.00 | $41.67 |
| Travel & Entertainment | $1,386.67 | $261.63 | $1,125.04 |
| Pets | $110.83 | $0.00 | $110.83 |
| Merchandise | $141.12 | $58.34 | $82.78 |
| Other Expenses | $561.33 | $102.00 | $459.33 |
| Total Expenses | $4,583.33 | $1,643.95 | $2,939.38 |
A fantastic month budget-wise, as we slammed the brakes on spending through the end of the year. Don’t worry, it appears we will make up for it in early January… Let’s take a look at individual categories:
Home Expenses & Utilities
This year’s budget was heavily front-loaded in anticipation of selling our house in Spring. No more home = no more home expenses. We received a small credit for reducing our personal articles insurance coverage, which was renewed in November.
Automotive
Car insurance was up for renewal so I shopped around – I typically do this once a year. Our previous insurer wanted to raise our premiums by over 40% so we said sayonara. Now we’re paying a shade under $500 for the next 6 months of coverage. In this day and age, it pays to lack brand loyalty. The rest of the spending was for an oil change and gas, particularly to and from Miami for our cruise.
Groceries & Dining Out
We chipped in for groceries now that we’re living with family for the foreseeable future. Dining out was minimal (for once).
Health & Beauty
This category includes our monthly health insurance premium (~$435 prepaid for January) and is therefore a little over budget. Fortunately, our ACA plan premium increased only minimally for next year.
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.
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 and get 3 months free! 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
The only travel in December was a 7-day Caribbean cruise from Miami aboard the Virgin Voyages Valiant Lady, which was mostly paid for in previous months. Ports included:
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
- St. Croix, US Virgin Islands
- Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
- Bimini, Bahamas
The ship itself was gorgeous and nearly new, and the ports were stunning as well. We spent some time exploring historical Old Town San Juan, did an exhilarating waterfall excursion in the DR, and relaxed on the beaches of St. Croix and Bimini. That’s 4 more new countries/territories for me!
Expenses during the trip included just a couple drinks in port and on the ship, Ubers to and from the cruise terminal, and parking. We booked parking through Way.com and paid just $53 for the week to park at a nearby hotel, plus $46 total in Ubers – much cheaper than parking at the cruise terminal.
We also booked more flights in advance of our Southeast Asia trip:
- $60 for one-way flights from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur
- $34 for one-way flights from Kuala Lumpur to Denpasar, Bali
- $172 for one-way flights from Denpasar to Singapore
I still haven’t even posted recaps of our Europe trip…so far behind…
Pets
Fully stocked on treats, no spending this month.
Merchandise
Christmas gifts for our nephews (money, not toys) and some new walking shoes for Mrs. FIby35, minus a bunch of returns of items bought in November.
Other Expenses
The lone expense this month was to renew my CPA license through 2023. Though I’m not working, I had accumulated enough credits to be able to renew it another year. Given that we will likely return to the workforce sometime in 2023, this seemed prudent.
Conclusion
Anybody else feel like 2022 blazed right on past? I suppose we had inordinately more chaos this year than usual, but what a whirlwind. December capped a year of quitting our jobs, selling our house, moving to Florida, and spending 3 whole months in Europe…just to name the highlights. Thankfully, we have some time to recuperate in the Florida sunshine before setting off on our next travel adventure.
I hit the library pretty hard in December, though my reading list somehow continues to grow. Titles included:
- The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
- Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
- Inferno by Dan Brown
- The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War by Malcolm Gladwell
- Origin by Dan Brown
- Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers by Jo Boaler
- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- 1984 by George Orwell
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma: a Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
How did your year end up? Any “new year, new me” resolutions for January? Leave a comment below!
