I spent a lot of time in May planning for my financial future, which included things like making massive spreadsheets to track all of my remaining debts, big financial goals, all the way through my eventual planned retirement date – tentatively scheduled for April 2036, that is, unless I can retire even earlier than 55!
A part of that was setting some goals and trajectory projections, which also means I reset my end of year Net Worth goal to be a more exact $363,621.
I realized I made a mistake last month in my “401k loan” values in the table, and had overstated my net worth last month. I went back and fixed that.
This month, my total net worth grew by about $12,851.39 bringing me up to $344,423.86. Most of that, about $10,000 was growth within my 401k, including earnings and new contributions.
May 2020 Financial Statement
| Account Name | Previous Balance | Balance | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | $180.00 | $0.00 | -$180.00 |
| Savings - Personal | $5,102.29 | $5,502.29 | $400.00 |
| Savings - Personal (CU) | $916.64 | $933.37 | $16.73 |
| Checking - Personal | $3,860.25 | $3,467.32 | -$392.93 |
| Checking - Business | $10,334.72 | $9525.34 | -$891.38 |
| Credit Card - Business | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Credit Cards | -$56.80 | $0.00 | $56.80 |
| Retirement - 401k | $233,845.60 | $243,954.70 | $10,109.10 |
| Retirement - 401k Loan | -$7,649.48 | -$6,401.13 | $1,248.35 |
| IRA | $7.62 | $7.62 | $0.00 |
| Retirement - Pension | $32,996.00 | $32,996.00 | $0.00 |
| Retirement - HSA (Investments) | $10,577.64 | $11,360.51 | $782.87 |
| Retirement - HSA (Cash) | $3,168.67 | $3,016.37 | -$152.30 |
| Asset - Vehicle 1 | $35,000 | $34,700 | -$300.00 |
| Loan - Vehicle 1 | -$34,735.54 | -$34,241.88 | $493.66 |
| Asset - Vehicle 2 | $6,000.00 | $6,000.00 | $0.00 |
| Asset - Precious Metals | $3,210.81 | $4,110.38 | $899.57 |
| Asset - Home | $156,302.00 | $156,716.00 | $414.00 |
| Mortgage - Home | -$129,275.04 | -$128,363.83 | $911.21 |
| Options Account | $1,787.09 | $0.00 | -$1,787.09 |
| Investment Account (Boat Fund) | $0.00 | $1,140.80 | $1,140.80 |
| Net Worth | $331,572.47.95 | $344,423.86 | $12,851.39 |
A few things to note this update:
- I kept my credit cards paid off for two months in a row now. That might be a new record for this recovering Spendaholic!
- I started what I’m calling “The Boat Fund” which will eventually fund my purchase of a cruising catamaran, so whenever I retire, I can set sail around the world!
Side Business Income
The business is hurting. We had our worst month since December 2018. CODIV-19 has really thrown a wrench into the market for our customers, but I have hopes everything will come back really strong and we’ll be back to record setting months in no time.
I also have two other potential side-hustle websites in the works, but they are ways off of being ready for release / customers.
Retirement
May was very good to my retirement account, growing by $10,109.10, and that was after I pulled some back into cash again on the fears of a 2nd COVID wave coming up.
With retirement accounts totaling $276,950.70 and using a 3.5% safe withdrawal rate (SWR), that would allow me to take $807.77 as income each month. I feel like it’s now a mistake to include my side hustle money of $1000 a month in here given current economic woes, so I’ll just leave it at that. My goal is to get this to be $5,000+ a month.
Safe Withdrawal Rate (3.5%) monthly income: $807.77
Spendaholic Ways
I did pretty good in April with my spending, though I’m noticing myself starting to eat out a bit more (drive-throughs), and I should cut that down again…. working from home, and working a lot, the drives to get food is a bit of a reprieve in my day, and it’s allowing that bad habit to form again.
I spent some money signing up for SCUBA classes, which aren’t cheap – but it’s a hobby I’ve wanted to pursue for a long time, and it’s really making me happy – so to me that’s a worth it expense.
I’m finding myself almost obsessing over these spreadsheets I’ve built showing “the future”, and wanting to make sure I make the right decisions to make the dream come true!
Emergency Fund
My personal and credit union savings is now at around $6,500. However, if you count some precious metals I have saved up, I’m over $10,000. I try not to include those in my “emergency fund” but in reality, if I needed to it’s a fairly liquid asset I can sell quickly if needed.
Looking Ahead
Here’s my order of priority of debts to pay off:
- Keep credit cards paid off / as close to $0 as possible each month.
- Get the 401k loan paid off.
- Pay down my house to the point I can remove PMI.
- Get the emergency Fund to $12,000
- Pay off 2 out of 3 of my ex’s student loans, she agreed to refinance the 3rd and take my name off once it gets to that point. (10% interest)
- Pay off my house. (4.5% interest)
- Pay off my car (3.14% interest)
My parents let me know they plan to gift me about $10,000 from my grandmother’s inheritance, which will go immediately to paying off the 401k loan, and then towards the townhouse PMI threshold. having the 401k Loan paid off should put about $600 more a month in my pocket, after taxes. My goal with that is to throw an additional $500 a month towards the above list of debts / goals.
And a short prediction for next month…. I’m going to predict a $20,000 increase in Net Worth, which will include that inheritance money (Thanks Grandma, RIP)