Remember back on New Year’s Eve when everyone couldn’t wait to kick 2020 to the curb and ring in the new year? There were dreams that turning over the calendar would result in a fresh start: less pandemic, more healing; fewer presidential tweets, more positivity; less market volatility, more stimulus checks.
Well, at least we got the stimulus checks. But 2021 also graced us with the terms “insurrection” and “GameStop” now at the top of our minds – unfathomable just 6 weeks ago. The pandemic rages on, somewhat curtailed by vaccine distribution, but still a viable threat to public health. If only there was something that could provide comfort during these turbulent times…ah, yes. The Spreadsheets!
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 January 2021:
| BALANCE | CHANGE FROM PRIOR MONTH | |
| ASSETS | ||
| Cash, Checking, Savings | $17,496 | $744 |
| Investments | $674,315 | $7,705 |
| Home Equity | $101,389 | $555 |
| LIABILITIES | ||
| Credit Cards | ($4,192) | $7 |
| Misc. Other Debts | ($100) | ($100) |
| NET WORTH | $788,908 | $8,911 |
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. As mentioned in the intro, market volatility did a number on these accounts in January. We contributed nearly $12,000 across all of our accounts, but saw only a $7,700 increase. The first few days in February have shown promising returns, so hopefully that will continue.
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 (future post on our travel hacking exploits to come) 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:
| EXPENSES | Budget | Actual | Over/Under |
| Home (mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, etc.) | $2,259.05 | $1,551.60 | $707.45 |
| Utilities | $218.41 | $154.73 | $63.68 |
| Automotive | $480.21 | $74.75 | $405.46 |
| Groceries | $375.00 | $430.53 | ($55.53) |
| Dining Out | $116.67 | $133.73 | ($17.06) |
| Health & Beauty | $266.96 | $615.20 | ($348.24) |
| Cell Phones | $16.67 | ($12.17) | 28.84 |
| Travel & Entertainment | $369.32 | $503.78 | ($134.46) |
| Pets | $119.17 | $64.99 | $54.18 |
| Work-related | $8.50 | $1,198.49 | ($1,189.99) |
| Merchandise (furniture, decorations, clothes, etc.) | $250.30 | $963.05 | ($712.75) |
| Other Expenses | $269.75 | $99.00 | $170.75 |
| Total Expenses | $4,750.00 | $5,777.68 | ($1,027.68) |
Things were shaping up pretty nicely until the bottom half of that table. Home expenses were minimal outside of our mortgage, no surprise car maintenance bills, and our food costs were pretty reasonable. Let’s see what other insights The Spreadsheets can provide!
Health & Beauty
This includes the last bills related to Mrs. FIby35’s diagnostic tests from way back in November (gotta love insurance processing). We both got haircuts in January, with the remainder being some beauty necessities. Not too bad.
Travel & Entertainment
We took an awesome trip to Las Vegas to celebrate Mrs. FIby35’s 30th birthday at the end of the month, which makes up the entirety of this line item. Considering the value of the activities, this was a HUGE bargain. The expenses were mainly from food, highlighted by dinner at Din Tai Fung, an amazing Taiwanese restaurant located in the Aria hotel. If you haven’t had Xiao Long Bao before, you’re missing out. Now I know why Millennial Revolution can’t get enough.
Outside of stuffing ourselves with soup dumplings and pork buns, the rest of the spending on the trip is mostly from somebody getting a little too loose on the slot machines. When in Vegas…
Work-Related
This month’s expenses aren’t actually related to our jobs, but rather 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, but we do owe our friend a couple hundred bucks from sales near the end of the month.
Merchandise
Early on in the month, we hopped on the January fitness bandwagon and bought a treadmill to combat the frigid cold of winter in Minnesota from the relative comfort of our basement. It wasn’t an anticipated (at least not by me), but I have to admit it’s a pretty sweet machine.
Conclusion
All in all, January was a pretty decent month money-wise. If you take out the $1,200 spent on reselling items for a friend, we would have came in just under budget – always a success in my mind, especially considering the treadmill purchase and the trip to Las Vegas. Hopefully sunnier skies are on their way and February results in continued happiness and financial success!
How did your January spending end up? Still sticking to those New Year’s resolutions?
