Increase of $42k in NW last month. And we breached the $1.5m mark.

I started to type this out as “Modest increase …” but then thought, “Hold on! Even in our prime earning years, it would have taken both of us about 4 months to bring in that net income. That’s substantial!!”

Summer has slowed down for us. Which is a good thing! After the helter skelter of early summer activities, the period of mid-July to mid-August is typically the time for us to relax and travel. We’re going on a 10-day long trip in a couple of days.

Spending in July

Both groceries and eating out continue to rise. We’ve had a few times when we had friends come over to dinner and we like to cook with good ingredients. Just one meat dish for 13 people costs $75 in the price of meat alone.

Activities is another big one with some summer camps and classes.

Three of weeks and then – poof – summer’s gone!

So sit back, relax (or go about your travels) and enjoy. Cheers!

It took 18 months but we’ve breached a new high water mark in NW last month.

The last time NW was in the $1.4m was back in December ’21. The stock market has been on a tear in the past few months and it shows in our numbers. At the half-way mark in 2023, the S&P500 is up 15.6%. Up 6.4% in June alone. NW jumped by ~$78k, the most ever in a single month. Talks of recessions seems like a distant dream …or is it? Who knows?! We’ll take what is given and leave the prognosticators to fight it out, you know, with their telling of the future.

June is typically a great month for us, just for the fact that summer’s here, school is out, and outdoor activities are on in full swing. Market movements, at least the positive ones, are just the icing on the cake.

Here’s to two more months of summer – Cheers!

A tiny increase of $1.5k last month. This is the lowest change MoM, in either direction, since we have tracked our numbers.

We are building up the cash buffer and will try to get close to $100k before we close on our new place end of year (or early next year). Retirement balance dipped a bit.

Spending for May

Groceries is at a new normal while eating out is probably a bit higher. Overall spending is a right around the average of $3.5k.

Summer is going swimmingly for us. Schools are over. Outdoor activities fill our days. We enjoy the fleeting summer in our part of the world. Though it does get too hot (close to and over 90°F) some days.

Hope you are getting to enjoy the summer as much as we do. Cheers!

Net worth fell even when the markets rose last month. How did that happen?!

Read on, faithful reader(s?).

Pretty much as all investment buckets rose. Debt fell. But, cash reserve fell by a whopping $22k.

$18k went towards a down payment of a new home we are starting to build. $3k went towards taxes as Tax Day went by. $5k went towards flights, rental car, and accommodations for a summer vacation coming up. So yeah!

Wait …? What …? Rewind!

The past month and a half have been kind of a roller coaster ride with some wild swing of emotions from exhilaration and excitement to bouts of decision fatigue and frustration. We’re not complaining though. We went down this path very knowingly and we’ll take the highs and lows of the journey. The most optimistic estimate of us moving into the new place is end of the year but likely the beginning of next year. We’ll have updates over the course of the project.

Taxes – we already had this accounted for.

Vacation – After a couple of months of closely following flight prices we finally pulled the trigger and got us tickets for an European vacation, to an expensive country. There’s about $1k more in expenses before the trip will even begin with another $2k anticipated when we are actually on vacation.

That’s about it. Wraps up a PRICEY month. Almost certainly the most outflow of cash in one month.

Weather here is getting summer-y. I type this knowing that this weekend’s weather forecast has a lot of rain and low 60s. We’ll take it.

Cheers!

Net Worth increased by ~$45k in March. The wild ride continues …

We’ve had a record breaking winter this year. Top 5 snowiest winter of all time. As I type this out on April 16, snow still continues to fall. The end is not in sight.

Here is a breakdown of March expenses.

A below average month, in terms of spending. (Which we are making up for in April – details in next month’s post).

Hope you are in nice and warm weather as you read this. Cheers!

Net Worth in February dropped by ~$24k.

Nothing good ever happens in February – the darkest and sullenest of months.

Let’s just keep it at that.

Hoping to a better March. (Though with SVB collapse that’s not going to happen. At least …we have sunshine! Before being hit by ANOTHER round of snow, to propel us to the top-5 snowiest winter – for our metro area – on record.)

All is well. Cheers!

If the first month of the new year is anything to go by (it’s not), then we have a good year in the making!

Our NW rose by almost $77k.

January around our neck of the woods has been …grey. Yep, that’s the word. The weather is cold; very little sun; and we’ve had different kinds of precipitation – snow, sleet, and rain – sometimes all in the same day! After the year end festivities, January is always a sobering month. Just looking forward to Spring.

Here is our January spending.

We spent a substantial amount in eating out and ordering takeout in January. I’m blaming it on the weather. The car category is just the yearly insurance premium for both our vehicles. We used to pay over $1,600 in two semi-annual payments but got onto a new insurance product, from the same place, which is cheaper!

Here’s hoping less grey weather for all. Cheers!

December, thankfully, brought close to a dismal year. Our NW dropped by almost $47k last month.

The weather in our part of the world has been, to put it politely, f**king insane. Record snow, blizzard conditions, icy roads, plummeting temps has made an awful start to winter. We traveled over the holidays but though we are all safe, conditions were frightful.

The new year apparently is going much like the past one. January already have had 3 school closures due to bad weather! Hopefully this will get better.

Life has been, otherwise, good around here. We’re engaged in activities that mentally and physically keep us in shape. We’re eating well. We aren’t worried about finances. We’re watching a lot of movies.

The year end review should be out before this month ends.

Hope your holidays were special. Cheers!