Happy Independence Day! Hard to believe it’s already July but I guess time flies when you’re traversing the globe. June brought an end to our sampler platter of Northeast-ish Asia, having visited Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Upon returning stateside we spent a few days in Minnesota and the rest of our time in Central Wisconsin visiting family and friends. So much fun and beautiful weather – I even dusted off my golf clubs! Check out the financial details below in my June 2023 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 June 2023:
| | BALANCE | CHANGE FROM PRIOR MONTH |
| ASSETS | | |
| Cash, Checking, Savings | $70,313 | ($844) |
| Investments | $1,211,559 | $75,720 |
| LIABILITIES | | |
| Credit Cards | ($4,398) | $814 |
| Car Loan | ($29,153) | $271 |
| Misc. Other Debts | ($140) | $0 |
| NET WORTH | $1,248,181 | $75,961 |
So close to our target net worth of $1,250,000! 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 and Series I savings bonds. 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’re spending out of that balance now while the market is down instead of selling investments.
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 in 2022. The Treasury announced I-Bond rates of 4.30% starting in May, still slightly above what we would earn in a savings account. The interest rate is tied to inflation, so as long as inflation stays high we will buy and hold these, building a sort of I-bond ladder. If the interest rate continues to drop we will likely cash these bonds out and move them to our more easily-accessible savings account, currently earning 4%.
Investments
Most of our investments track the S&P 500, which had a phenomenal month of June. That’s way more fun to see than a down month, though we know our gains can just as easily evaporate. With our cash buffer there’s no need 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.
Car Loan
We were hoping to run our 2009 Toyota RAV-4 into the ground someday in the distant future, but that day came sooner than expected. In January we purchased a shiny new Subaru Forester and *gasp* financed it all, with payments beginning in March. The plan is to likely pay off the loan in full during our next stage of employment before leaving the workforce again, whenever that may be.
Misc. Other Debts
Usually just my administrative accounting of who owes what for various fantasy sports leagues. Baseball season is upon us!
Expenses
Here’s a look at our expenses for the month of June:
| EXPENSES | Budget | Actual | (Over)/Under |
| Home (mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, etc.) | $1,128.25 | $0.00 | $1,128.25 |
| Utilities | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Automotive | $449.75 | $768.27 | ($318.52) |
| Groceries | $308.33 | $248.18 | $60.15 |
| Dining Out | $135.42 | $246.35 | ($110.93) |
| Health & Beauty | $568.33 | $852.88 | ($284.55) |
| Cell Phones | $33.33 | $0.00 | $33.33 |
| Travel & Entertainment | $1,235.00 | $192.68 | $1,042.32 |
| Pets | $87.50 | $399.05 | ($311.55) |
| Merchandise | $135.67 | $142.31 | ($6.64) |
| Other Expenses | $293.42 | $1,500.25 | ($1,206.83) |
| Total Expenses | $4,375.00 | $4,349.97 | $25.03 |
Quite a mixed bag by category, but overall we came in just under budget. I think I would’ve liked that number to be higher though since we finished our main bit of traveling for the year and still have no home expenses. Let’s take a look at individual categories:
Home Expenses & Utilities
No home = no home expenses. We do anticipate returning to work and (likely) renting a place of our own later in the year. Until then we will continue traveling and staying with family.
Automotive
Payments on our new car began in March to the tune of $471/month. Additional expenses were to reinstate our regular insurance coverage now that we’re back in the country and some gas.
I budgeted conservatively for insurance this year and also had a pretty good chunk budgeted for maintenance. But with the new car, most of that budgeted maintenance will be shifted to paying the loan instead. All in all, the new car shouldn’t cost us much more out of pocket this year than the old one would have.
Groceries & Dining Out
We chipped in for groceries while staying with family upon our arrival back in the states, but reuniting with friends and family led to a hefty dining out total. We’ll try to temper the spending in July, but I don’t have high hopes.
Health & Beauty
This category includes our monthly health insurance premium (~$435), a small dental bill, some minor beauty items, and a bit of pampering. I got a fresh new haircut and Mrs. FIby35 treated herself to a facial.
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 5GB of 4G LTE data (an increase from 4GB after they were bought out by T-Mobile).
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. Right now, you can sign up for 3 months of service just to try it out before committing to a full year. All of their plans are just $15 a month right now! Mr. Rebates is also running a $5 cash back deal that you could use to stack your savings, and Rakuten is offering $5 cash back as well if that’s more your style.
Travel & Entertainment
The first few days of June represented the tail end of our Hawaii/Asia extravaganza and our trek back to the Midwest. Mrs. FIby35 also booked flights ($11.20 total) to visit a friend in Texas in July, while I was busy golfing for a total of almost $100.
Unfortunately, the 3 days/2 nights we were supposed to spend in Alaska were cancelled last-minute, though we received a full refund for the glacier cruise we had booked. Hopefully we can still make it to the 49th State in the near future.
Pets
Our dog had his annual vet exam and shots, receiving a clean bill of health. We also ordered a full year supply of flea/tick and heartworm medicine, so he should be set on health-related items for a while. Lastly, a grooming touch-up rounded out the pet spending for June.
Merchandise
A baby gift, a graduation gift, and some replacement sunglasses for the pair that broke in Hawaii. There will be credits for returns in July since I kept just one new pair.
Other Expenses
Quarterly estimated income taxes were due on June 15, so we paid another $1,500 in to the IRS. That includes the 1.85% credit card fee. I normally hate paying unnecessary fees, but the charge helped us achieve a 90,000 American Express point bonus so I think it was worth it.
Between the 2 estimated tax payments we’ve made so far in 2023, we’ve already exceeded that budget and dipped into the $2,500 contingency budget line item for the year. Hopefully we can avoid any expensive surprises for at least the next 6 months.
Conclusion
Yet another fantastic month of Funemployment and we still ended up just a stone’s throw away from our target net worth for Financial Independence. While we were stuffing our faces with Taiwanese soup dumplings and American beer, the stock market rampaged upward. At this point, short of winning the lottery that we don’t play, the stock market is far more powerful in driving our investment balances than we are on our own. That’s the beauty of compound interest!
In the meantime, we will continue our attempt to jump back into the world of employment – though a few more months like this and we may never go back!
That’s all for June!
What should we do when we finally hit our FI number? Leave a comment below!
