Milestones reached!

What happened this last month?

We finally did it! We’ve reached a major milestone in our journey. We’ve finally saved the goal amount that we had set back in July of 2018, and later revised up in May of 2023. We reached the goal 44 months earlier than we had anticipated. A lot has happened since we started that has helped us to achieve this goal early, but it doesn’t mean we’re done yet.

I had fully planned on working until the end of the 10 year timeline, and I’ll probably work for some period of time beyond that even. We still have some work to do to get our expenses into alignment. We can either save more to accommodate higher expenses, or try to trim them to be a more realistic number. We’ll likely do a combination of both.

Given that we’ve reached a couple milestones, I haven’t decided how I want to track it going forward. There is always a chance that a down month in the markets will make us cross below our goal threshold, but we know it’ll always be within reach and likely recover. I could just mark those categories as complete and stop reporting them, or continue to show how far we’ve went past them. I guess that will be a problem for next month though.

Even though we had some expenses that added up, we managed to stay below our monthly target amount overall for expenses. We had several horse related expenses (will they ever end). We also started doing some Christmas shopping and bought Christmas horse pictures. In addition, we had some regular maintenance done on our vehicles.

Finally, we paid our annual cell phone bills for 3 lines. That being said, if you’re paying more than $210 a year for cell phone service for one line, you may want to consider alternatives. That amount includes taxes and fees! I know, you’re probably thinking “but then I won’t have my Verizon, T-Mobile, or AT&T service!” Fortunately, you’re wrong! We have all of our lines on T-Mobile’s towers (because it works better where we live), and we pay a small fraction of what it would cost if we were using T-Mobile directly. We’re using US Mobile (referral link), and have been for a while. I’d highly recommend giving them a try. You can activate on any of the big 3 wireless networks and even move your number to a different one if you want to see how a different carrier works in your area.

Where did we spend the most?

Our monthly expenses were down considerably compared to last month. Annually, they’re also down quite a bit from last November.

• $1160 Horse related things (farrier, clipping, outdoor lights)
• $630 Annual cell phone plans (3 lines)
• $445 Christmas presents and pictures (that we’ll use for some presents)
• $344 Oil change and brake work

The Money Related Numbers

Completed! – 105.62% to target number (previously 98.20%)

This is our invested assets (401k, HSA, IRA, brokerage, etc.) divided by our target goal number.

44 months until original FI date (previously 45)

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

Completed! – 0 months until calculated FI date (previously 1.16)

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

The Expense Related Numbers

13.91 times annual spending (previously 12.87)

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.

55.62% to minimum FIRE (previously 51.47%)

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

13.17 times annual spending at goal number (previously 13.10)

We’d like to save 25 times our annual spending. This is how many times our annual spending we’ll have saved when we reach our goal number. If it’s 25 or greater, than our goal number will be enough to cover our expenses. If it’s lower than 25, we’ll need to either cut our expenses or increase our goal number.

How Much We Invested

167.90% Month to Month Change In How Much Saved (previously -1.62%)

This number shows the change in what we saved in our investment accounts this month compared to the prior month.

153.68% Month to Month Change in How Much Saved With Employer Contributions (previously -0.07%)

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

3.33% Month to Month Change in 12 Month Savings Average (previously 0.67%)

This number shows the change in our 12 month rolling average. This helps to smooth out months over time.

3.23% of 12 Month Average Net Income Invested With Employer Contributions (previously 0.75%)

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

How we track the numbers

I’ve been using Empower (referral link) to track our numbers. I put them into a spreadsheet that calculates the numbers you see above.