July breezed past in a flurry of travel bookings and trips to the local drinking establishments. After spending most of June in Florida, we road-tripped north to Central Wisconsin and spent almost the entire month of July there. Did we blow the budget at the bar? Read on for my July 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 July 2022:
| | BALANCE | CHANGE FROM PRIOR MONTH |
| ASSETS | | |
| Cash, Checking, Savings | $105,589 | $764 |
| Investments | $1,114,165 | $88,321 |
| LIABILITIES | | |
| Credit Cards | ($6,304) | ($2,784) |
| Misc. Other Debts | ($40) | $0 |
| NET WORTH | $1,213,410 | $86,301 |
The Spreadsheets are much happier after the S&P 500 climbed 9% in July. 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 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. At a current interest rate of 9.62%, that was a no-brainer. The interest rate is tied to inflation, so as long as inflation stays high we will likely buy more of these when we are able to in 2023, building a sort of I-bond ladder.
Investments
The S&P 500 grew and so did our investment account balances. The market is still down from its early January high, but we won’t have 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.
Misc. Other Debts
Usually just my administrative accounting of who owes what for various fantasy sports leagues. I’ve started to collect entry fees for fantasy baseball, which will be paid out to the winners after the season.
Expenses
Here’s a look at our expenses for the month of July:
| EXPENSES | Budget | Actual | (Over)/Under |
| Home (mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, etc.) | $1,114.27 | $0.00 | $1,114.27 |
| Utilities | $122.50 | $0.00 | $122.50 |
| Automotive | $350.77 | $139.03 | $211.74 |
| Groceries | $300.00 | $193.13 | $106.87 |
| Dining Out | $116.67 | $360.45 | ($243.78) |
| Health & Beauty | $337.50 | $544.26 | ($206.76) |
| Cell Phones | $41.67 | $0.00 | $41.67 |
| Travel & Entertainment | $1,386.67 | $2,209.14 | ($822.47) |
| Pets | $110.83 | $35.91 | $74.92 |
| Merchandise | $141.12 | $229.89 | ($88.77) |
| Other Expenses | $561.33 | $275.00 | $286.33 |
| Total Expenses | $4,583.33 | $3,986.81 | $596.52 |
That’s more like it. No homeownership expenses for the foreseeable future and the bulk of our spending was on travel. 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.
Automotive
Most of July was spent with my family in Central Wisconsin with minimal driving. Near the end of the month, we trekked to the cabin in Northwest Minnesota, so the only expenses here were for gas.
Groceries & Dining Out
We chipped in for groceries while staying with family so we’re not total deadbeats. However, Wisconsinites have a tendency to go to the bar from time to time…
Health & Beauty
This category now includes our monthly health insurance premium (~$415) and should therefore be a little over budget each month the rest of the year. The rest of our health & beauty needs in July consisted of some final stocking up before our upcoming trip.
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.
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Travel & Entertainment
Two main culprits in this category in July: Las Vegas and Europe. We spent 4 days/3 nights with friends in Las Vegas to the tune of $958 ($435 of which was in June). There wasn’t any real travel hacking going on, other than leveraging Mrs. FIby35’s casino statuses with Caesar’s and MGM to book the 2 hotel rooms at a steep discount.
The remainder of our travel expenses this month were to continue booking some things for our upcoming Europe trip. Most of these expenses were to reserve activities – admission fees, guided tours, etc. Oh yeah, and a good chunk of change for tickets to see my beloved Green Bay Packers play in London(!). Those certainly weren’t included in the budget for the trip, but we were able to cover most of the cost with savings in other areas.
Our Europe trip will span 89 days/88 nights exploring 34 different cities in 18 countries. Needless to say, this is a dream vacation that we would not have been able to take without setting ourselves up financially to quit our jobs.
Pets
One last booster for our dog, so he should be all set to spend 3 months with Grandma while we’re gone.
Merchandise & Other Expenses
Mostly last-minute items in preparation for Europe, along with the $250 annual fee for Mrs. FIby35’s newest credit card, the American Express Gold card. It’s a bit pricey for my liking, but we should be able to glean enough value to make it worth it.
Conclusion
July was another wonderful month of Funemployment spent with family and friends. The weather in Wisconsin was gorgeous (and much more tolerable for long walks than Florida in June) and the stock market made a rebound, if only temporary.
Just two books completed this month, both in the spirit of our upcoming European adventure:
- Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
We’re getting excited (and a bit nervous) for our trip – I’ve never even been outside of the U.S. and Mexico. Even though we’ve spent dozens of hours researching and planning, I’m sure it won’t all go completely as anticipated. Such is life on the road. Hopefully the main details (flights, hotels, must-see attractions) go off without major issues and we can adapt to any other disruptions along the way.
How was your July? Any last-minute tips for traveling in Europe? Leave a comment below!
Living the dream!!