Wow, It’s been over a year since I’ve posted. I got married in September of 2018 and it all sort of spun out of control from there. There were 3 major reasons that sort of all combined that allowed me to slip away from keeping the site updated.
- My real job got extremely busy.
- Marriage life was, and is…. taxing.
- My website has been growing a lot in 2019 and looking even better for 2020!
Now, my net worth stands at $281,533.24, an increase of only $14,651.87 in 14 months. There’s a few key positive and negative reasons that affected this I will get into later.
November 2019 Financial Statement
| Account Name | Previous Balance | Balance | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | $2.00 | $0.00 | -$2.00 |
| Savings - Personal | $1,000.48 | $3,801.88 | $2,801.40 |
| Savings - Personal (CU) | $10,009.75 | $1,179.09 | -$8,830.66 |
| Checking - Personal | $2,940.95 | $3,695.26 | $754.31 |
| Checking - Business | $3,076.22 | $14,115.53 | $11,039.31 |
| Credit Card - Business | -$2,222.73 | -$104.41 | $2,118.32 |
| Credit Cards | -$13,004.35 | -$5,285.45 | $7,718.90 |
| Retirement - 401k | $195,661.33 | $199,203.61 | $3,542.29 |
| Retirement - 401k Loan | $0.00 | -11,336.99 | -11,336.99 |
| IRA | $344.06 | $7.62 | -$336.44 |
| Retirement - Pension | $29,047.74 | $32,199.03 | $2,151.29 |
| Retirement - HSA (Investements) | $8,237.10 | $8,953.83 | $716.73 |
| Retirement - HSA (Cash) | $3,732.62 | $3,510.14 | -$222.48 |
| Asset - Vehicle 1 | $12,250.00 | $9,675.00 | -$2,575.00 |
| Auto Loan 1 | -$12,820.90 | -$7,628.81 | $5,192.09 |
| Asset - Vehicle 2 | $8,500.00 | $6,500.00 | -$2,000 |
| Asset - Precious Metals | $500.00 | $500.00 | $0.00 |
| Asset - Home | $156,729.00 | $153,871.00 | -$2,858.00 |
| Mortgage - Home | -$136,181.92 | -$131,323.09 | $4,858.73 |
| Net Worth | $266,901.37 | $281,553.24 | $14,651.87 |
A few things to note this update:
- You will see my business checking account grew significantly, while also significantly paying down the business credit card debt. Business is good!
- Just after my last post, I took out a 401k loan to pay off credit card date and help get the family settled in after the move. I;ve got 13 more months to pay on that, unless I pay it off early.
- I adjusted the value down of one of cars, because I don’t think I can sell it for the previous value listed.
Side Business Income
The side business has continued an upward growth trend all year, and in 2019 I start paying myself! At first $500.00 a month, and now $1,000 a month. That’s significant progress! In addition, we’re sitting at about $91,000 in gross sales for the year, and just had our first $10,000+ month! All signs are positive that 2020 is going to knock it out of the park! I am confident soon the income from this website will cover my mortgage payment!
Retirement
I did a bad thing, a very bad thing. On December 24, 2018 – the absolute worst day, I reallocated 100% of my investments to cash. The market of course recovered, my funds have not. They are still sitting in cash as I write this, because I do worry about an impending recession. I need to do something about that. The gains in my retirement account have come solely from my contributions + employer match + pension additive they put in the 401k instead of funding the actual pension.
With retirement accounts totaling $231,402.64 and using a 3.5% safe withdrawal rate (SWR), that would allow me to take $674.92 as income each month. Add on to that my $1,000.00 a month draw from my website, and I’m at $1674.94. That’s starting to become a livable figure in some areas of the world like Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, and some other sporadic cities throughout the worth.
I really like to use the website The Earth Awaits to search cities of the world I could live on, for this amount – check them out!
Safe Withdrawal Rate (3.5%) monthly income: $674.92 + Website income = $1,674.92
Spendaholic Ways
So what all happened? I brought my fiance and her daughter to the USA, we got married, and started to get settled in. Lots and lots of expenses. From government forms, to household items, to clothing since they came with practically nothing, to family outings… I’ve spent A LOT this year, and I’m the only earner. Another brutal truth is that I’ve been unhappy and depressed all year, and depression can be killer on the spending habits as you seek to buy happiness, or at least distract yourself. The good news is, is that I recognize this, especially now that I am back to the blog and will hopefully do better and better each month going forward.
Emergency Fund
My personal and credit union savings is now at around $5,000, and down a lot from last post. That means I’ve been spending way too much and saving way too little. I’m only got just a month of expenses saved up, and I need to reign it in!
Looking Ahead
We have the holiday’s coming up, though we aren’t planning on spending too much. I’ll get a reimbursement from work for unused vacation days, that should take care about 50% of the current credit card debt. The website loos like it will grow in 2020 and I’m hoping the amount I am able to draw will increase as well!