Time to spring clean the finances

What happened this last month?

After a mostly up month, we’re back to a mostly down month. However, the numbers are holding reasonably steady as we continue to contribute to investments.

Since we’ve been focused on saving up for the siding project in the April/May timeframe, we haven’t been investing as much over the past couple of months. However, that is due to change starting in April. At that point, the siding should be saved for and we’ll begin the process of investing heavily again.

We were able to get our taxes completed in February and to our surprise, we found out were getting a very large refund. (Last year we owed quite a bit.) This was allocated to go to the siding project.

Once the siding is done on the house, we’ll refocus our efforts again on investing. Income from the side business has been really good this year and I’m projecting it will continue to be good for the next few months. This means that we’ll have the ability to “catch up” on some of the investing we didn’t do while saving for the house siding.

Expenses over the next few months will be pretty high, but in a year’s time, they’ll fall off the expenses since we only track them for a rolling 12 months.

Where did we spend the most?

Our monthly expenses were considerably less than last month. However, they were quite a bit more than last February. Much of this was to pay for the rest of my wife’s Christmas gift and the down payment on our siding project.

• $362 Gifts
• $350 Tax Preparation
• $247 Dance Competition Fees
• $266 Orthodontics

The Money Related Numbers

58.07% to target number (previously 59.06%)

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.

65 months (previously 66)

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

30.22 months (previously 29.32)

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

11.14 times annual spending (previously 11.54)

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.

44.57% to minimum FIRE (previously 46.16%)

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

19.19 times annual spending at goal number (previously 19.54)

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

-30.79% Month to Month Change In How Much Saved (previously 14.52%)

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.

-30.91% Month to Month Change in How Much Saved With Employer Contributions (previously 22.88%)

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

-0.58% Month to Month Change in 12 Month Savings Average (previously 0.05%)

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.

-0.48% of 12 Month Average Net Income Invested With Employer Contributions (previously 0.42%)

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

How we track the numbers

If you’re wondering what I use to track our numbers monthly, we use both Mint and Personal Capital. I use Mint to grab the numbers each month because they do a great job of consistently pulling them and then I put them into a spreadsheet that calculates the numbers you see above. I use Empower (formerly Personal Capital) for their planning and forecasting tools.