Another busy month of spending and saving! Lots of moving parts in our lives right now so I haven’t been able to post as often as I’d like, though the monthly financial update is a must. Without further ado, let’s check out the details below in our February 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 85% 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 February 2022:
| | BALANCE | CHANGE FROM PRIOR MONTH |
| ASSETS | | |
| Cash, Checking, Savings | $16,181 | ($2,012) |
| Investments | $952,951 | ($10,384) |
| Home Equity | $108,752 | $577 |
| LIABILITIES | | |
| Credit Cards | ($3,816) | $669 |
| Misc. Other Debts | $0 | $0 |
| NET WORTH | $1,074,068 | ($11,150) |
Not as bad as January’s big market sell-off, but our net worth still ended up decreasing in February. The S&P 500, which most of our investments track, shed another 3% from where it ended in January. Kind of a bummer, but we try not to worry about things we can’t control. On the plus side, the contributions we continue to make to our retirement accounts are snapping up shares at a bit of a discount, which will only benefit us in the long run.
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.
Investments
Several different accounts are included here, most of which are true “retirement” accounts. It also includes our taxable brokerage account at Schwab. We contributed almost $12,900 to our various accounts this month but Mr. Market took back $23,300. I’ve noted before that when your entire portfolio is subject to the whims of the stock market, these kinds of months happen from time to time. Unfortunately, March isn’t looking too promising either as I write.
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. Having said that, new homes are being built and others are being sold in our neighborhood for well over what we paid for ours, so this is likely a conservative number.
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 until (if?) baseball season starts back up in the Spring.
Expenses
Here’s a look at our expenses for the month of February:
| EXPENSES | Budget | Actual | (Over)/Under |
| Home (mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, etc.) | $1,114.27 | $1,594.14 | ($479.87) |
| Utilities | $122.50 | $382.29 | ($259.79) |
| Automotive | $350.77 | $86.10 | $264.67 |
| Groceries | $300.00 | $567.98 | ($267.98) |
| Dining Out | $116.67 | $96.05 | $20.62 |
| Health & Beauty | $337.50 | $168.12 | $169.38 |
| Cell Phones | $41.67 | $0.00 | $41.67 |
| Travel & Entertainment | $1,386.67 | $1,726.14 | ($339.47) |
| Pets | $110.83 | $95.23 | $15.60 |
| Merchandise | $141.12 | $361.86 | ($220.74) |
| Other Expenses | $561.33 | $619.11 | ($57.78) |
| Total Expenses | $4,583.33 | $5,697.02 | ($1,113.69) |
Despite the short month, we were a little more spendy in February after ending January under budget. 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. We’ve significantly decreased our housing budget in anticipation of more travel later in the year. So for now, we’re likely to overspend the budget by a few hundred dollars each month (as was the case in February). This month included our mortgage and a replacement light fixture.
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, but we were also hammered by our December electric/gas bill coming due in February. Looking forward to warmer temperatures so we can stop the bleeding here.
Automotive
Thankfully no maintenance this month, and Mrs. FIby35’s last month working from home full-time resulted in minimal gas usage. We will happily pocket those savings in anticipation of higher expenses in this category going forward.
Groceries
Hectic times sometimes call for a change in strategy, and that’s what we did at the end of February. Normally, we put together a meal plan each week and go grocery shopping each weekend, carrying very minimal excess in our fridge and pantry. But with some busy work and life schedules coming up, we shifted to a meal plan with larger batches and fewer different meals overall, hopefully saving us time and effort along the way. This necessitated a bigger grocery run right before the end of the month, but that should last us for a good chunk of March as well.
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 as long as I am still working.
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 actually didn’t do much traveling in February, with the only trip being Mrs. FIby35 returning from Florida after spending the first few days of the month with family.
We did, however, do a bulk of the booking for our travel accommodations for later in the year (more details to come). Overall, we’ve stuck pretty close to the budget we had set specifically for those plans, so I feel pretty good about it financially.
These accommodations were booked through a combination of Booking.com and AirBnb, the latter of which were booked using discounted gift cards to help defray the cost a bit. With any luck, we won’t have to deviate much from our plans as long as Europe doesn’t break out into all-out war.
Merchandise, Other Expenses
Mrs. FIby35 continues to search for clothes and other items needed for upcoming travel, hence the big spending here. Some of it will be returned in March, so I’m not too concerned. Other expenses this month included the annual fee for my new Chase Hyatt Business credit card and $410 of work expenses that will be reimbursed in March.
Conclusion
Overall, our spending wasn’t too bad in February and a good chunk of it will be reimbursed in the near future. I’m hopeful that some of it will even out over the course of the year, as we frontloaded the spending in the first half of the year and (thankfully) haven’t hit any major unexpected expenses yet.
We’ll continue to plug away at our plans (I’d be lost without our monthly to-do list) and hope that the market cooperates along the way. Definitely looking forward to warmer days and hopefully some better financial times ahead!
Is it just me, or did February fly by faster than usual? Any big financial news or future plans to share? Feel free to comment below!
