Wow, February flew by! To be honest, I didn’t have much time to track the progress of our finances throughout the month so I was anxious (and a little nervous) to tally it up. Mrs. FIby35 spent the last 2 weeks of February visiting her parents in Florida (jealous), and we tacked on a last minute birthday celebration trip to Phoenix for yours truly over the last few days of the month and the first couple days of March…and tacked on to that a 2 day jaunt to Las Vegas. The full financial effect of the trip won’t be recapped until March, but trust me, February took its fair share.
Let’s see what the Spreadsheets have to say about all this spontaneity.
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! 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
With that, here’s where our net worth is at through February 2021:
| BALANCE | CHANGE FROM PRIOR MONTH | |
| ASSETS | ||
| Cash, Checking, Savings | $16,195 | ($1,301) |
| Investments | $706,214 | $31,899 |
| Home Equity | $101,945 | $556 |
| LIABILITIES | ||
| Credit Cards | ($4,917) | ($725) |
| Misc. Other Debts | ($120) | ($20) |
| NET WORTH | $819,317 | $30,409 |
Not too bad for only 28 days!
Cash, Checking, Savings
This 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
Several different accounts are included here, most of which are true “retirement” accounts. It also includes our taxable brokerage account at Schwab. February was a little rocky from a day-to-day perspective, but the market provided some really nice returns overall. We contributed over $12,000 across all of our accounts, and we were rewarded with over $19,000 in gains. We’re getting to used to these relatively large swings in our balances from month to month, but it’s still exciting (and a little terrifying) that we could fund nearly 40% of our annual retirement budget with just the results we experienced in February. Oh yeah, we invested a little bit of play money in Bitcoin, too.
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 (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. Due to our payment date falling on the weekend, February’s balances weren’t paid until March 1 so this looks a little high this month.
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:
| EXPENSES | Budget | Actual | Over/Under |
| Home (mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, etc.) | $2,259.05 | $1,546.92 | $712.13 |
| Utilities | $218.41 | $327.63 | ($109.22) |
| Automotive | $480.21 | $92.48 | $387.73 |
| Groceries | $375.00 | $257.25 | $117.75 |
| Dining Out | $116.67 | $127.55 | ($10.88) |
| Health & Beauty | $266.96 | $216.55 | $50.41 |
| Cell Phones | $16.67 | $0.00 | $16.67 |
| Travel & Entertainment | $369.32 | $745.35 | ($376.03) |
| Pets | $119.17 | $70.70 | $48.47 |
| Work-related | $8.50 | $736.71 | ($728.21) |
| Merchandise (furniture, decorations, clothes, etc.) | $250.30 | $75.03 | $175.27 |
| Other Expenses | $269.75 | $13.00 | $256.75 |
| Total Expenses | $4,750.00 | $4,209.17 | $540.83 |
It could have been a little better, but I’ll take a month under budget any day. As I noted in the intro, we got a little travel crazy and jetted off to Phoenix (you only turn 31 once, right?), but the rest of the categories look pretty reasonable to me.
Home Expenses & Utilities
I have to comment on home expenses because it may the first and last time we go an entire month without spending a single penny on our home outside of the mortgage and utilities. Utilities were a little higher this month (winter in Minnesota), but that usually evens out throughout the year.
Cell Phones
You’ve heard the spiel by now – we both have cell phone plans through Mint Mobile that only cost about $15 each per month. I’m fortunate to have my bill reimbursed by my employer, so this is a relatively miniscule cost for us during the year. 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 won’t regret it!
Travel & Entertainment
As previously mentioned, Mrs. FIby35 spent some time in Florida during February but those costs were minimal. We also celebrated my 31st birthday with a trip to Phoenix, which included Lyft rides across town to see my favorite baseball team’s Spring Training opener – it wasn’t in the budget, but well worth it to finally see some live baseball again. The rest of our time was spent eating and drinking our way through Tempe and Scottsdale while enjoying some warmer weather. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we decided on our last morning in Phoenix to fly to Las Vegas instead of going home…who said accountants can’t be spontaneous?
Work-Related
This month’s expenses aren’t actually related to our jobs, but again due to Mrs. FIby35 helping a friend unload some extra stuff. These represent the selling and shipping costs, which were more than covered by the money made on the sales. No profit taken here, just the cost of friendship.
Conclusion
The sunnier skies, happiness, and financial success I wished for in last month’s update all came to pass in February, though we had to temporarily relocate ourselves for the sunnier skies. Even with some unexpected travel costs, we still ended up over $500 under budget. As I write, most of our snow has melted and the weather forecast calls for 50s and 60s the next few days. Life is good!
How did your February spending end up? Did any last-minute travel plans derail your budget?
