Typing out the heading for this post made me wonder, “Where did the month go by??”

With this update we’re introducing a change in how we report numbers. Our Retirement bucket is by far our largest asset. We’ve decided to expand this by splitting up into 401(k) and R/T IRAs by individuals.

With the uptick in markets in January, our Net Worth is at an all-time high. Starting in January, we’re sending $3,100 in extra principal towards the mortgage. That’s a guaranteed 3.875% return! This will ensure that we’re mortgage free in 53 more months. (Possibly quicker when you factor in one-time payoffs from bonuses)

Major expense for the month was semi-annual $836 for car insurance, for both our vehicles.

With the markets having the worst December since the Great Depression it is not a surprise that we posted a loss in net worth. Valuation of assets are down almost $22k since November. A couple of factors prevented us from being more in the red than the $18.7k you see here.

a) Debt reduced by ~$3.2k

b) In addition to what we put in the markets in a regular month, we pumped in $1.5k more into our taxable brokerage accounts

When the markets rose the day after Christmas, we were able to ride the wave.

The big ticket expense for December was $1.2k that was spent on purchasing an international round trip flight tickets that we’ll be using to attend a wedding.

I’m looking forward to the next couple of posts, which have been in the works for sometime now, in which we will review the year, look at what we invest in, and one philosophical/opinion post on why Americans don’t save more.

November was a three paycheck month for M and we paid little more than a full extra payment to our mortgage. Other than that nothing major for the month. The markets seems to have stabilized. Or not. We’re still putting in our usual for the month.

Ah, a real beauty of a month! Months such as this one show that the going is not always smooth. We’ve been in the midst of such a bull market that dips (not even correction) are sort of necessary to show people who joined the party in 2009 or later that the markets can fluctuate quite a bit in the short term.

We lost a tad over $14k in net worth last month. Because our retirement accounts are by far the largest asset bucket it’s no surprise these are the accounts that took the largest hit. Taxable investment accounts and 529 account are down as well. Cash reserves grew. We put in about $3k into our debt obligations.

All will be well. We’re still pumping in the same rate into our retirement and taxable accounts.

Surprisingly, the major expense of last month was ….clothes and shoes, $570 worth of them! Astounding – I know. A pair of real nice work shoes, a belt, a sport coat, a winter coat, and alterations. All of these should last for years to come.

Another solid month. The key highlight to this month was stated in the last post. Another highlight was that M started on a new job. This job was lined up almost 10 months ago but the start was purposely chosen to be after the unofficial end of summer (Labor Day). We had one domestic and one international trip, each a week long, during the time M was enjoying time off between jobs.

One more thing of note. With the job change, and the corresponding change in salary, our combined annual income has gone past $250k. We will put up an income post for 2019 when we have the full year number.

The next near-term goal is to get the total assets up to a $1M by end of the year. Of course, a lot depends on the markets. As we have said in numerous posts, and will continue to reiterate, we fully acknowledge the huge role the bull market has played on our current state of affairs. We know the bears are bound to come at some point. We will ride those periods out.

Posts that give more context:

Who we are

Our income

Our Assets and Liabilities

Another month where the trifecta of a) Socking money in retirement account, b) Paying down debt, and, c) Stock markets continuing in their upward trajectory – helped us in pushing our net worth close to $700k, notwithstanding the fact that we’ve been on one income for the whole month of August!

There were a couple of big expenses in August, all paid for by credit cards, which will be reconciled by cash this month and reflect in the next update. One of the expenses relate to travel (food and incidental; major categories such as flight and hotels were already paid for earlier); the other relate to a party we threw in August.

September heralds in a new job with a substantial greater income. Also, the outstanding student loan (~$8k) will be paid off by end of the end of this month (from the signing bonus of the new job).

Here’s what goes into our Assets and Liabilities.

Big ticket expenses for July:

• $816 for semi-annual vehicle insurance premium. We have a stand-alone checking account for vehicle and home insurance premiums, in which we sock away monthly amounts
• $260 for a bed that we bought on Amazon. We’ve been following this item for months now. The highest it has been was $640.
• Took a extended-weekend long trip to Canada which cost about $350, including gas, hotel, and meals

Another solid and stable month. Retirement and investment accounts continue to rise, buoyed by the markets and us systematically setting money aside. Debts went down by $3.1k.

Last day at my old job was in the last week of July. It’s almost 2 weeks now and I’m loving it. I won’t be starting at the new gig till September. Now that we are temporarily down to one income, the post on August will have some screwy numbers.

Big ticket expenses for June:

• $2,915.62 on airfare, lodging, and day tours for our upcoming trip to Iceland. Exciting! We have a standalone savings account for big trips and all of the expenses were paid from this account.
• $680.06 on patio and porch furniture. We have a standalone savings account for big household expenses and the furniture were paid from this account.

Our retirement accounts crossed over half a million dollars in June, for the first time. Debts reduced by $3.3k.

Other than that, nothing much to write home about. Haven’t changed what we put into our retirement or taxable accounts. Markets have been doing their thing. By end of this month, we go down to one income! More on that in next month’s update.

Buoyed by the markets, and us continually pumping in money into our retirement accounts, our assets grew by around $17k in May. Almost $3k debt was slayed in the same period. Resulting in our highest Net Worth yet in our journey.

There were a couple of big ticket expenses in May:

• $1,687.32 for Lasik eye correction surgery for one of us. The money for this got taken out of the HSA account
• $1,175.51 for an international flight we booked for one of our mom. This kind of expense is not a common occurrence, more like once in a year (or two). This expense came from general savings

June will be interesting as there are a few high profile expenses coming up.