Better late than never

What happened this last month?

The markets were down a lot in April, which negatively affected a lot of our numbers, except for the “number of times our annual expenses we’ll have when we reach our goal number”. That’s mainly due to the fact that our expenses from doing the kitchen last year are starting to roll off after 12 months.

This month we went on Spring Break to the Gatlinburg area. If you’ve never been, the driveways are sometimes very steep and can have sharp turns. One of the days it had rained in the morning. When we got back in the evening, we struggled to get up the hill because it was still wet. The next day of our trip, we went and got new tires and it was much easier the rest of the trip. That was an unexpected expense, but we knew we’d have to do it later this year anyhow.

In April, we moved our emergency fund to I Bonds this month. Since I Bonds are tied to inflation, they’re hitting crazy interest rates of over 7% for 6 months and then over 9% for another 6 months. There’s no guarantee what they’ll do in the future, but they should beat a savings account for a long time to come. Since we haven’t need to tapped into it in a while, having our emergency fund keep up with inflation seems like a great plan.

We had to pay taxes this month, but we’re not including those in our expenses anymore because if we had withheld the right amount, we wouldn’t owe anything. We made some adjustments which should help next year on the tax front.

If you’re wondering what I use to track our numbers monthly, we use both Mint and Personal Capital. Personal Capital has a lot of cool planning tools that I haven’t seen anywhere else. You can check them out and we both get $20: https://pcap.rocks/adam4058

Where did we spend the most?

Our monthly expenses increased compared to last month. They were considerably lower than last April though. We should see our expenses drop considerably compared to last year since we’re no longer remodeling the kitchen over the next several months. It’s already improving our expense related numbers below.

• $1255 – Spring Break expenses
• $776 – Van tires
• $577 – Boost emergency fund to a round number
• $336 – Gifts
• $300 – Tax preparation
• $288 – Brake fixes and alignment
• $279 – Special meals

The Money Related Numbers

50.20% to target number (previously 55.41%)

This is our invested assets/target number. Our invested assets span across a variety of investment vehicles such as 401k, HSA, IRA, Roth IRA, ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase Program) and standard taxable mutual funds.

75 months (previously 76)

The number of months until my 45th birthday and our finish date.

47.12 months (previously 41.75)

The number of expected months until we reach our target number based on our current expected monthly contributions, assuming a 10% annual return.

The Expense Related Numbers

8.96 times annual spending (previously 9.31)

This is how many multiples of our annual spending we have saved up towards our goal. For example, if this value was 9.1 and we spent $10,000 annually, we would have $91,000 saved up.

35.83% to minimum FIRE (previously 37.23%)

The minimum number to achieve FIRE is 25 times our annual spending. This number shows how close we are to the absolute minimum.

17.84 times annual spending at goal number (previously 16.80)

We have a goal amount that we’d like to reach. Given our current annual spending, this is how many times our annual spending we’ll have saved when we reach our goal number.

How Much We Invested

20.16% Month to Month Change In How Much Saved (previously -4.10%)

This number shows the change in what we saved this month compared to the prior month in things like 401k, Roth IRA, taxable accounts, and Employee Stock Purchase Program.

21.97% Month to Month Change in How Much Saved With Employer Contributions (previously -2.19%)

Same as the prior number, but with employer contributions counted.

3.03% Month to Month Change in 12 Month Savings Average (previously 1.69%)

This number show the change in what we saved this month compared to the prior month, but on a 12 month rolling average. This helps to smooth out months over time and shows a more general trend.

3.62% of 12 Month Average Net Income Invested With Employer Contributions (previously 2.52%)

Same as the prior number, but with employer contributions counted.