Just like that, 2021 is half over! After May turned into a spending spree, I was definitely looking forward to a less eventful June and hoping to give The Spreadsheets some time to recover. How did we do? Check it out below in our June 2021 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! 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 June 2021:
| | BALANCE | CHANGE FROM PRIOR MONTH |
| ASSETS | | |
| Cash, Checking, Savings | $13,405 | $1,556 |
| Investments | $856,361 | $33,139 |
| Home Equity | $104,188 | $563 |
| LIABILITIES | | |
| Credit Cards | ($2,327) | $336 |
| Misc. Other Debts | ($100) | $0 |
| NET WORTH | $971,527 | $35,594 |
Positive results all around, and the market returned to its winning ways after a brief hiatus in May.
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.
Investments
Several different accounts are included here, most of which are true “retirement” accounts. It also includes our taxable brokerage account at Schwab. We were able to sock away $13,300 in contributions this month, with another $19,800 coming from market gains. It’s pretty exciting in the months where our investment returns outpace our paychecks, which they did here.
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.
Expenses
Here’s a look at our expenses for the month of June:
| EXPENSES | Budget | Actual | Over/Under |
| Home (mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, etc.) | $2,259.05 | $1,555.92 | $703.13 |
| Utilities | $218.41 | $173.69 | $44.72 |
| Automotive | $480.21 | $966.49 | ($486.28) |
| Groceries | $375.00 | $338.07 | $36.93 |
| Dining Out | $116.67 | $357.82 | ($241.15) |
| Health & Beauty | $266.96 | $197.65 | $69.31 |
| Cell Phones | $16.67 | $0.00 | $16.67 |
| Travel & Entertainment | $369.32 | $539.58 | ($170.26) |
| Pets | $119.17 | $310.16 | ($190.99) |
| Work-related | $8.50 | ($348.81) | $357.31 |
| Merchandise (furniture, decorations, clothes, etc.) | $250.30 | $17.34 | $232.96 |
| Other Expenses | $269.75 | $0.00 | $269.75 |
| Total Expenses | $4,750.00 | $4,107.91 | $642.09 |
Any month under budget is a good month in my book. I’ll admit, I was hoping for even more drastic savings, but the explanations below will provide some more context.
Some analysis on individual categories:
Home Expenses & Utilities
After paying our semi-annual property tax bill in May, June expenses returned back to normal. The budget is built to average the cost of property taxes over the year, so in all months other than May and October, we should be under budget. It feels like full-on summer here in Minnesota with several days reaching highs in the 90s, so the cost of cooling our home increased a bit as well.
Automotive
It may not look like it, but we actually saved a lot of money here. In previous months, I’ve lamented the fact that my car, despite being driven sparingly, always seemed to end up in the shop. Well with the price of used cars what they are, we decided to cut bait and capitalize in early June.
Though you can often get a better deal when selling to a private buyer, I decided I didn’t want to deal with the time and energy of listing the car myself. After an afternoon of low-ball offers from the first several dealerships we visited, we got a reasonable one: $4,500, or $500 over the Kelley Blue Book cash offer. We took the offer on the spot.
Selling at a premium is all fine and dandy unless you also have to pay a premium to replace it. Luckily, my dad had an old truck he’s been looking to pawn off on me for some time and this was the perfect opportunity to take him up on it. Purchase price: the cost of registration and a new set of tires. Everybody wins.
Dining Out
This category looks bad, and it is. Though we do have about $100 in credits coming, as a decent chunk of this spending was done as part of secret shops.
If you’re not familiar with the concept, secret shops are organized by third parties on behalf of a restaurant (or other type of business) looking to gain anonymous reviews of their product and service quality. Usually, the shopper signs up for a specific day and time, places a specific order, and then evaluates the food quality and service based on a list of pre-determined questions. Submit the receipt along with the evaluation and get reimbursed up to a certain dollar amount. We often use these as an opportunity for date night at little or no cost to us.
Cell Phones
As I’ve explained previously, we both have cell phone plans through Mint Mobile that only cost about $15 each per month. 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
Mrs. FIby35 booked her flights for an upcoming trip with a friend. Nothing else of note here.
Pets
Our dog was due for his annual exam and shots, so these were expected costs. It was actually about $100 less than anticipated, so he remains the only one in this household that can stick to a budget.
Work-Related
Mostly the result of a new way Mrs. FIby35 found to make some extra money. Similar to a secret shop, she purchased an item for $284 in May and then returned it, getting fully reimbursed for that cost and making an additional $25 for writing a review. We received the refund in June but we’re still waiting on the $25 payment, so I’m not sure if this is worth it or not. I’ll write a post on this new little income source once we have a better idea how it works.
Conclusion
I went into more detail on the spending aspect of our June finances, but let me take a second to revisit our net worth. We crossed $971,000, which is almost 78% of our target for retirement. Just one year ago, we crossed the 50% threshold. The power of compounding interest (and better-than-expected market returns) continues to amaze me. It’s also a bit scary…our plan is coming together, but at a much faster rate than we anticipated. It’s probably time to start putting together some actual logistics of what our potential early retirement will look like.
How did your June spending end up? Feel free to comment below!
