September 2022 Financial Update

Still catching up on monthly financial updates after returning from three months in Europe and a week-long Caribbean cruise. Without further ado, let’s get right into the September 2022 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 September 2022:

	BALANCE	CHANGE FROM PRIOR MONTH
ASSETS		
Cash, Checking, Savings	$98,271	($2,297)
Investments	$969,197	($98,560)
LIABILITIES		
Credit Cards	($4,441)	($1,119)
Misc. Other Debts	($140)	$30
NET WORTH	$1,062,887	($101.946)

Market returns were dreadful in September as the S&P 500 decreased over 9%. Luckily we were so busy traipsing around Europe we didn’t notice at the time. 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.  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. At a current interest rate of 9.62%, that was a no-brainer. The interest rate is tied to inflation, so as long as inflation stays high we will likely buy more of these when we are able to in 2023, building a sort of I-bond ladder.

Investments

The S&P 500 fell again and so did our investment account balances. With our cash buffer there’s no need to actually sell any investments any time soon, giving the market time to continue (or start) 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.

Misc. Other Debts

Usually just my administrative accounting of who owes what for various fantasy sports leagues. Most of this is entry fees for fantasy baseball, which will be paid out to the winners after the season.

Expenses

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

EXPENSES	Budget	Actual	(Over)/Under
Home (mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, etc.)	$1,114.27	$0.00	$1,114.27
Utilities	$122.50	($68.47)	$190.97
Automotive	$350.77	$0.00	$350.77
Groceries	$300.00	$5.20	$294.80
Dining Out	$116.67	$0.00	$116.67
Health & Beauty	$337.50	$423.72	($86.22)
Cell Phones	$41.67	$0.00	$41.67
Travel & Entertainment	$1,386.67	$2,989.73	($1,603.06)
Pets	$110.83	$0.00	$110.83
Merchandise	$141.12	$0.00	$141.12
Other Expenses	$561.33	$375.53	$185.80
Total Expenses	$4,583.33	$3,725.71	$857.62

Not quite as low as August, but still under budget. No homeownership expenses for the foreseeable future and the bulk of our spending was on travel. Let’s take a look at individual categories:

Home Expenses & Utilities

This year’s budget was heavily front-loaded in anticipation of selling our house in Spring. No more home = no more home expenses. We actually received a refund for utilities in September.

Automotive

It turns out cars are super inexpensive if you don’t actually use them.

Groceries & Dining Out

Minimal here since most of the food consumed is included in the travel category. The $5 here included items we would have bought whether we were traveling or not, like toothpaste.

Health & Beauty

This category now includes our monthly health insurance premium (~$415) and should therefore be a little over budget each month the rest of the year.

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.

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Travel & Entertainment

Another relatively large sum spent in Europe, though still cheaper than our “regular” lifestyle we left back in Minnesota. This leg of the trip included several high-cost cities, so we did our best to manage expenses along the way:

• Returned from our Baltic cruise to Dover, England
• London, England (4 nights)
• Edinburgh, Scotland (3 nights)
• Dublin, Ireland (3 nights)
• Paris, France (5 nights), including a day trip to Versailles
• Brussels, Belgium (3 nights)
• Amsterdam, Netherlands (3 nights)
• Stuttgart, Germany (3 nights)
• Munich, Germany (5 nights), including day trips to Neuschwanstein Castle and Salzburg, Austria

So many amazing experiences in September that it’s impossible to list them all. Enchanting castles, ornate cathedrals, extravagant palaces, and Oktoberfest!

Since most of the admission fees were pre-booked in previous months, the majority of our expenses this month were for local transportation or food & drink along the way. All of our accommodations in September were hotels, many of which we used loyalty status for perks like free breakfast or happy hours. This allowed us to save considerable money while also getting to experience some fantastic local eats.

This month of the trip included 12 cities in 8 different countries. I plan on posting more details on the specifics of our trip separately.

We also booked some future travel – just $456 for an 8-day Caribbean cruise aboard the Virgin Voyages Valiant Lady. More on that in December.

Pets

No expenses this month while he stayed with Grandma.

Merchandise

Nothing in September…I wish we could replicate that more often.

Other Expenses

$380 in credit card annual fees, minus a miscellaneous refund of some sort. September is apparently a big month for us in credit card renewals. We will be scrutinizing our accounts after we return from Europe to determine which of those are worth keeping open.

Conclusion

September was a blur while it was happening and even more so now looking back. I was probably most excited for this leg of the trip, as I have developed a fascination with the British monarchy and all of the history that part of the world has experienced. And having studied German for 10 years throughout high school and college, I was anxious to finally put my language skills to use in Germany. While far from perfect, it was passable enough to allow for several conversations along the way. Truly an incredible month of experiences.

How was your September? Have you ever been to any of the cities we visited, and what were your impressions? Leave a comment below!