September 2020 Financial Update

Another month has flown by! 

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 (finally?) halfway to our target net worth of $1,250,000!  Here’s last month’s update in case you missed it.

This post is the latest in what is becoming 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.

With that, here’s where we are at through September 2020:

	BALANCE	CHANGE FROM PRIOR MONTH
ASSETS
Cash, Checking, Savings	$16,047	$884
Investments	$571,790	($13,564)
Home Equity	$99,179	$549
LIABILITIES
Credit Cards	($1,674)	$1,734
Misc. Other Debts	($100)	($60)
NET WORTH	$685,242	($10,547)

Cash, Checking, Savings

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

The market giveth, and the market taketh away.  After a fantastic August, September wasn’t nearly as kind.  Several different accounts are included here, most of which are true “retirement” accounts.  It also includes our taxable brokerage account at Schwab.

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.

Here’s a look at our expenses for the month:

EXPENSES
Home (mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, etc.)	$1,751.47
Utilities	$211.99
Automotive	$264.67
Groceries	$255.92
Dining Out	$72.02
Health & Beauty	$309.65
Cell Phones	($12.17)
Travel & Entertainment	$510.18
Pets	$118.70
Work-related	($265.00)
Merchandise (furniture, decorations, clothes, etc.)	$358.20
Other Expenses	$285.00
Total Expenses	$3,860.63

Hallelujah!  Finally a month of spending comfortably under our average monthly budget of $5,000.  Sweet, sweet savings.

Notes

Cell phones:  September actually included a $12.17 credit in this category, as I received reimbursement for July cell phone usage through work.  We both own our phones outright, and pay Mint Mobile for service once a year (~$200 each for 3GB of 4G LTE data and unlimited talk/text).  I had a couple referral credits on my last renewal, so for 12 months it came out to $146.02.  Divided by 12 = $12.17/month.  No need for outrageously high phone bills when we are connected to wi-fi more often than not and receive adequate service elsewhere.

Travel & Entertainment actually included travel this month!  After nearly 8 full months of agonizingly cancelling trips, we flew to Denver, rented a car, and roamed around Colorado for a couple days.  The first day of that trip was September 30, so look for a full recap next month.  Included in this figure is a downtown Denver food tour that we booked ahead of time for about $160 (we love food tours!).  Under the entertainment category, I made my annual donation for my fantasy football leagues.

Under work-related expenses, I was reimbursed the $305 for professional org dues that I paid back in July.

Merchandise purchases included some decorations to hopefully complete the office “remodel” (because a new desk and chair isn’t enough), as well as a new suitcase for Mrs FIby35.

Conclusion

Nice to see our spending back under control, though the stock market had different ideas this month so our net worth plummeted.  We’ll try again in October!

*Technically, The Almighty Spreadsheets project we could reach FI sometime during 2024 if the market cooperates, which would put me at age 34 and Mrs. at age 33.  But in the interest of being conservative, we’ll stick with “by 35.”  It also provides this blog with a more succinct name than “FI by 34 and a half.”