Missed October’s post but this post will include those numbers.
After a minor blip in October, November had a massive upside. $95k addition to our net worth, which is a 5% increase from the last month. Biggest gain this year.
We had (another) international trip in November. For those who are counting, this was our third such trip this year! This trip was planned in summer to take advantage of discounted international flights during the Thanksgiving period. Round trip tickets to an expensive part of Europe were about $550 apiece. We met up with family – who live there and who visited from another part of the world to be there with us.
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Spending for November
The expenses for the vacation in November was a tad over $2k and this included food, gas, entry tickets, tolls, merchandise, and incidentals. Flights, car, and lodging were already paid for earlier.
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And yes – the US elections happened. We are all very sad.
But here is to looking ahead and hoping for the best.
At this juncture – exactly two weeks before Americans go to the polls to elect the 47th President of the country – we would be amiss to mention what is at stake.
A convicted felon vs a prosecutor.
An adjudicated rapist vs a normal human being.
A con man who only works to enrich himself vs someone who has devoted her life to public service.
An openly racist and xenophobic individual vs someone who isn’t either.
A hateful, pitiful, angry man vs a big hearted, joyous woman.
An almost senile, almost octogenarian vs a sharp sexagenarian.
A misogynist who is on a spree to end access to women’s healthcare vs an advocate of women’s health.
A man who claims to be devoutly religious while peddling $60 bibles. A man who has cheated on each of his three wives; the current one with a pornstar when their child was a 3 months old.
A traitor who holds other dictators in high regard vs a senator and vice-president who works for the country.
Since we started this blog in February of 2017, last month – July 2024 – was the first time we did not publish a monthly update. 89 consecutive months of posting came to a crashing end.
One of our parents passed away in late July. A variety of health issues, combined with old age, had made the writing on the wall fairly clear. But nothing really prepares you for the 4 am phone call. Then leaving the country 7 hours later. Thirty-two hours of travel.
Anyway ….
We’re back into our school reopening mode now. I love September. The promise of new beginnings. Cool down. Fall sports. We actually went for our first kayak ride of the year yesterday.
Financially, ATH are everywhere. Markets are doing good.
The numbers would have been even higher if we hadn’t refinanced our mortgage. Let me explain.
When we bought our home last year, the best rate we got was 7.25%. Talks of multiple rate cuts by the Feds had us thinking that we’d refinance anyway in the not too distant future. In May, all murmur of rate cuts had died down. We shopped around for refinance rates. Got offered 5.875% by paying a bunch of points, with a lower monthly payment. But the math worked out – that is, we end up paying a lot less in overall interest, if we made the same monthly payment with the 7.25% rate.
So with closing costs and points baked into the new mortgage, the loan stood at $370k, up from the $355k at end of May.
We also paid the last tranche of payments to contractors for work around the house. This concludes all the big work that we had planned and budgeted for this year. Some of it was mandated by city code, some we wanted done. Since we moved, we have spent around $28k on material and labor, and countless other hours of sweat and wait.
Life in our neck of the woods has been pretty good. Mostly a mild summer, with lots of rain. We decided to not do extended summer travels as we’re going on (another) international trip later this year.
Hope you all are doing well, wherever you’re reading this from. Cheers!
Growth of 3.9% MoM, matching the increase in February.
Spending in May
Major category was Household, where we “splashed” out $2k on a new dining set that we’d ordered, but it was back-ordered, 6 months ago! We also purchased some art from a local art fair – encouraging local artists and filling up blank walls at our new place.
June’s numbers will be …different. We have completed a couple of major projects around the house – already budgeted for. We also refinanced our mortgage. Details coming.
It has been a summer of …rain. After droughts in the past couple of years, this year precipitation has more than made up for it. Numerous outdoor activities have been cancelled due to standing water and thunderstorms. Hoping for more familiar last 2 months of summer.
Spring/summer sports are in full swing. But the weather has been playing spoilsport. A lot. We’ve had about 4 days of outdoor activities cancelled due to rain. Things are looking good for this weekend forward though.
Till next month. Hope you all are enjoying spring, wherever you are. Cheers!
We went on an international trip straddling March and April. Travel, flights (9 in total, plus a helicopter ride!), time zone changes, pre-travel stress, post-travel jet lag ….all have contributed to our lives turned haywire for a number of weeks.
Spring has been quite wet here. Another 2 inches of rain in forecast over this weekend.
Hope you’re staying nice and warm, wherever you are. Cheers!
After one of the mildest winter on record – probably the warmest, by the time it ends – at the end of March we are in the midst of a 2-prong snow storm. Schools are likely to be cancelled for tomorrow and kids are rejoicing!
Lots going on for us. Spring activities season is starting up. We are going on an international trip for spring break.
March has shaped up nicely, in terms of the market gains.
Hope you’re having a good start to spring, wherever you are. Cheers!
Spending was probably at an all time monthly high. We got a lot of stuff for the house and bought round trip airfares for an upcoming international trip.
Spring has made an early entry here. We’ve had 50°F days in January! That’s unheard of. A 70°F day is apparently in the forecast next week 😲
We are settling in at the new place. Hope you all are having mild winter wherever you are. Cheers!
We ended last year with our highest NW and the greatest increase, ~$300k, in NW in one year. Nice!
Since we started tracking and documenting our journey towards FIRE from beginning of 2017, we’re amazed how far we’ve come. In January 2017, our net worth stood at $458k. In 7 full years, we are over $1.6m. Incredible!
We made the following contributions to our investment accounts last year:
401(k) – $19,221 (only for W) – $440 less than in 2022
IRAs – $13k (combined for both) – hit goal of max limit; as we did in 2022
Brokerage – $2,700 – waaay below the $14.4k from 2022
529 – $2,200 – $200 more from 2022
HSA – $6,750 – $1k paid by employer, so we put in the max allowed
In all, we contributed $43,871 to our investments in 2023.
We took an international trip in 2023 – a 10 day long, utterly fabulous journey through one of the Scandinavian countries, bang in the middle of their glorious summer.
That trip, obviously, burned through cash. As did the little thing we did at the end of the year – bought a home! We have spent over $10k since we moved and a slew of known expenses lined up this year. That is the reason we are hoarding cash, more than we usually do. Liquid reserves of $102k at the end of the year has about $25k earmarked for travel (an international trip) and projects around the house, all before we hit the middle of the year. All this on top of a monthly mortgage payment that doubled from $1,200 to $2,400! But no complaints – we went into this knowing very well what the numbers were going to look like. We had been looking to move for almost 4 years and had given ourselves the end of 2023 to make it happen.
Goal for 2024:
IRA: Hit max limit of $7k individually; $14k for both
HSA: Hit max limit of $8,300 for families. W’s employer chips in with $1k, so out of pocket for us would be $7.3k
401(k): Hit $15k. It is likely we will go beyond this.
529: Minimum of $2,400. $3k would be a stretch goal.
……anything else would be just gravy
After our international trip in spring, we’re not sure how much we’ll travel this year. Maybe one more vacation during summer. A couple of road trips here and there. Setting up the new home will be the forefront this year.
Net Worth, Anon 