There’s no sugarcoating it, this month was ugly on the financial side of things for the FIby35 household. No major catastrophes at least, just some poor market performance coupled with a little bit of overspending the budget. Check out the details below in our September 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
Here’s where our net worth ended up through September 2021:
| | BALANCE | CHANGE FROM PRIOR MONTH |
| ASSETS | | |
| Cash, Checking, Savings | $13,280 | ($142) |
| Investments | $896,048 | ($28,478) |
| Home Equity | $105,887 | $568 |
| LIABILITIES | | |
| Credit Cards | ($6,044) | ($4,141) |
| Misc. Other Debts | ($160) | ($20) |
| NET WORTH | $1,009,011 | ($32,213) |
Not a lot to be thrilled about there. Let’s dig right into the details.
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. Luckily, we were able to make $12,500 in contributions this month or the carnage would’ve been a lot worse. Mr. Market took $41,000 back in September. This is the downside of compounding interest – when the stock market decides to go down, our balances go really down. A little disheartening after such incredible growth, but considering this was the first month we experienced a decrease in net worth since October 2020, I think we’ll survive.
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 (paid out in October, I promise!).
Expenses
Here’s a look at our expenses for the month of September:
| EXPENSES | Budget | Actual | Over/Under |
| Home (mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, etc.) | $2,259.05 | $2,085.60 | $173.45 |
| Utilities | $218.41 | $215.69 | $2.72 |
| Automotive | $480.21 | $183.50 | $296.71 |
| Groceries | $375.00 | $422.36 | ($47.36) |
| Dining Out | $116.67 | $280.98 | ($164.31) |
| Health & Beauty | $266.96 | $260.94 | $6.02 |
| Cell Phones | $16.67 | $0.00 | $16.67 |
| Travel & Entertainment | $369.32 | $2,546.26 | ($2,176.94) |
| Pets | $119.17 | $100.27 | $18.90 |
| Work-related | $8.50 | ($37.21) | $45.71 |
| Merchandise (furniture, decorations, clothes, etc.) | $250.30 | $242.56 | $7.74 |
| Other Expenses | $269.75 | $380.00 | ($110.25) |
| Total Expenses | $4,750.00 | $6,680.95 | ($1,930.95) |
Almost $2,000 over budget and it seems pretty obvious which category is the culprit…
Some analysis on individual categories:
Home Expenses & Utilities
No property taxes, insurance, association dues, or major repairs this month, though we did spend about $150 on a new circuit board for our dryer. 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.
Dining Out
We got a little crazy here, but for the purpose of events that only come around once in a while: the Minnesota State Fair, and some friends visiting from out of town. I can stomach that (see what I did there?).
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. I receive reimbursement from my employer every few months as well, so my cell phone is basically free.
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
The aforementioned State Fair extravaganza, fantasy football entry fees, and a $2,000 girls’ trip to Cancun…….(record scratch). Wait, what? That’s not travel hacking!
Well, yes and no. Mrs. FIby35 wanted to go on vacation with her friend who had just graduated from med school. Since we’re a bit down on points and free award nights at the moment as well as wanting to start accumulating them for a potential BIG trip in 2022, the decision was made to pay cash. They stayed 5 nights at the Hyatt Ziva Cancun and used her Chase The World of Hyatt credit card to earn big-time Hyatt points that will come in handy for us down the road.
Sure, they could have gone a little cheaper on the flights and accommodations, but who am I to tell a Future Doctor of America what to do?
Other expenses
Several of our credit cards were up for renewal, so this is the total annual fee for four cards – definitely not cheap, but well worth the value we receive from them.
Conclusion
After nearly a year straight of monthly net worth increases, we were probably due for the pullback we experienced in September. It builds character, or something like that. Luckily, we’re still shoveling piles of cash into our accounts and snapping up those stock index fund shares at discounted prices, so it will only benefit us in the long run.
How did your September spending end up? Any big vacations taken or in the works? Feel free to comment below!
Sure, they could have gone a little cheaper on the flights and accommodations, but who am I to tell a Future Doctor of America what to do?
wonder who that could be