After a month of mostly domestic travel in April, we turned our sights globally in May. From Hawaii, we set out on a relatively brief sampler platter of Northeast-ish Asia, visiting Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Each of those places were special in their own way and I’m so thankful to have been able to experience them. But would the cost of all that sushi and dim sum topple our budget? Get the details below in my May 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 May 2023:
| | BALANCE | CHANGE FROM PRIOR MONTH |
| ASSETS | | |
| Cash, Checking, Savings | $71,157 | ($4,273) |
| Investments | $1,135,839 | $4,770 |
| LIABILITIES | | |
| Credit Cards | ($5,212) | ($959) |
| Car Loan | ($29,424) | $270 |
| Misc. Other Debts | ($140) | $0 |
| NET WORTH | $1,172,220 | ($192) |
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 continue to 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 was nearly flat in May. 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 May:
| 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 | $471.22 | ($21.47) |
| Groceries | $308.33 | $0.00 | $308.33 |
| Dining Out | $135.42 | ($83.81) | $219.23 |
| Health & Beauty | $568.33 | $486.36 | $81.97 |
| Cell Phones | $33.33 | $200.99 | ($167.66) |
| Travel & Entertainment | $1,235.00 | $4,270.80 | ($3,035.80) |
| Pets | $87.50 | $53.05 | $34.45 |
| Merchandise | $135.67 | $197.98 | ($62.31) |
| Other Expenses | $293.42 | $147.97 | $145.45 |
| Total Expenses | $4,375.00 | $5,744.56 | ($1,369.56) |
May was another relatively expensive month. 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. No other expenses this month while we were traveling (rental car expenses are included in the Travel & Entertainment category).
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
All groceries and dining out is included in the Travel & Entertainment category this month, as we were traveling for the duration of the month. We received reimbursement for secret shops performed in April, hence the negative amount.
Health & Beauty
This category includes our monthly health insurance premium (~$435 minus a $25 credit in May), a small medical bill, and some minor beauty items along the way.
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. 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.
Mrs. FIby35’s plan was renewed in May at $180 + taxes. Hopefully with the transition to T-Mobile the pricing won’t change significantly in the future.
Travel & Entertainment
The first half of May included the back end of our 4-week stay on the Big Island of Hawaii. We had a fantastic time with several friends and family that came to visit during our stay there and the weeks went much faster than we would’ve hoped. Fortunately (financially speaking), expenses for the trip came in slightly under what we had set aside for it.
From Hawaii we continued on to Japan, visiting several of the large cities within a 10 day period. For our first time in Japan, we were left with a very positive impression of the culture (and food!) and have already discussed plans to go back someday soon.
After Japan we spent 4 days in Hong Kong, which included a day trip to Macau, and 3 days in Taipei before making the long trek back to the Midwest US where we will spend most of the summer. All in all, we finished that leg of our travels slightly under budget as well. Spending on travel should decrease considerably for the rest of the year.
Pets
Just a refill on food and treats while we were away. We’ll be lucky if our dog even wants to live with us anymore after all the love and care he’s received from his grandparents this past year.
Merchandise
Mrs. FIby35’s trusty Birkenstocks finally bit the dust and were replaced in Hawaii. No other major items here this month.
Other Expenses
I signed up for a new credit card (the American Express Gold card if you’re curious), which came with a $250 annual fee. However, that was partially offset by $200 in statement credits. We renewed another credit card at $95 for the year, with the remaining amount here representing the net amount charged in ATM fees while in Asia. Our Schwab Investor Checking account rebates those fees each month, but sometimes we lose out depending on the exchange rate at the time.
Conclusion
This month I crossed the one year mark since I’ve been gainfully employed (not including a brief consulting contract) and completed yet another international vacation. The experiences from this past year are a little overwhelming when I think about them in totality, but I have tons of fond memories and photos to look back on for a while. While we typically came in favorably budget-wise on each of these trips, I don’t think you can put a price on the value of experiencing all the sights, sounds, and tastes we have all around the world.
Looking forward, we plan on spending most of the summer with family and friends in Wisconsin and Minnesota before shifting our focus to “real life” – back to work and likely finding some sort of residence of our own in Florida. I think we’re both looking forward to a little more stability in our lives, so this represents a welcome new challenge.
That’s all for May!
Any big plans for the summer or recommendations for future travel ideas? Leave a comment below!
