Net Worth Update: April 2019

Welcome to another monthly Net Worth update! This time its Net Worth April 2019 edition:

For those that are new, I will be posting these on a monthly basis to show my progress towards Financial Independence.  The purpose of these is not to brag, or show off what I have, merely to show that little by little, even over the course of just 28-31 days, much progress can be made.

In addition, by tracking and posting this on the blog where everyone can see, I’m hoping this helps to hold me accountable to my goals. Where slip ups and unchecked spending can easily be passed off by keeping it to myself, with other people watching it should help to keep me in line! (Nothing like trying to avoid public humiliation to keep you motivated!)

If you haven’t already, check out last month’s report from March.

April

Like March, April also started off fairly slowly, and I found myself sticking around DC the first couple weekends. Movie watching was a big part of this month.

My girlfriend has only seen a couple of the marvel movies, so in anticipation of The Avengers: Endgame, we have been going through and watching all the movies in chronological order. It sure has taken a while! We still have a couple left to watch before going to see the movie, so no spoilers!

Michelle from Frugality and Freedom was visiting DC one weekend, so it was nice to meet up with her and go on a distillery tour as well!

Other than this the big event of the month was heading back home to my parents house for Easter weekend. We also got to go see my little brother play a college lacrosse game again, which is always a fun time (except when they lose :/ ).

The last weekend was again held around DC, but at least this one had a little adventure involved!

Any month that has some needed outdoors time is a good month in my book 🙂

Net Worth

April breaks down as follows:

For the second month in a row it was all green again! The car again is very puzzling, though I’m sure it will correct itself soon enough.

While I had thought there would be a lot of volatility in the market this year, it’s proven anything but so far. It’s tough to complain when you see your accounts gaining like this though!

Cash: $22,999 – $1,721

Due to my above average salary I have a lot of excess cash coming in. In addition, I’ve got a side hustle charging electric scooters that helps to bring in extra cash too. See the income section below to view what I bring in.

Due to a lower spending month in March, my cash account gained by a significant amount. It’s certainly nice to see this getting bigger and bigger!

Side note: I don’t usually keep my cash this high, but I’m currently saving up for a rental property for my next big investment. There was some movement on this front recently, but sadly still searching.

401K: $81,654 – $4,237

Contributions this month totaled $1,752 (Employer Matching included).

The market was up big this month. It’s been nothing but up so far this year. Does that mean a correction is in order? Who knows, certainly not me. Instead of worrying about it I’ll just keep investing as usual. In the long run I know it’ll work out just fine!

I take the simple approach to investing and have about 90% of this account in stocks (70/30 Domestic/International), and 10% in bonds.

Roth IRA: $13,439 – $514

No contributions this month so this is just market gains. I’ve contributed $1,000 so far this year, so still a ways to go to max this out.

This account is invested 100% in VTSAX (Vanguard Total Stock Market).

Brokerage: $14,701 – $444

No contributions here, and there probably won’t be any for quite some time. I’m holding off on future contributions here until after I purchase a rental property.

A new high for this account. It’s pretty crazy to think that this account has grown by $2,700 in less than two years with me doing absolutely nothing. Set it and forget can be a great method when investing!

I originally invested $12K into the account, $10K in the low fee VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF) and $2K in a high yield dividend paying stock.

HSA: $5,692 – $194

$212 of this was my own contributions with the rest just the market doing it’s thing. While the overall stock market went up, this one actually decreased slightly.

All my funds here are invested into a REIT.

Auto Value: $8,032 – $252

KBB value for my 2014 Ford Fusion with 79,500 miles on it.

Despite putting nearly 2,000 miles on my car in the last month, the value went up again? This is a strange one for sure. The only thing I can think of is that this type of car is selling for more in my area at the moment.

I keep waiting for the month when I see a huge drop to correct for this. Perhaps that will come when I surpass the 100,000 mile mark. I guess we’ll wait and see.

Credit Cards: $(638) – $131

I pay off my credit cards in full every month so this is just the monthly balance. By doing this I build credit and get free travel rewards and cash back while paying the credit card companies nothing in interest!

Just regular spending this month, nothing out of the ordinary to report.

As always, see below for the full breakout of spending to see how I did against my budget.

Monthly Expenses:

Finally a month below budget! It felt nice to get my spending back in line after a few months of being higher than I’d prefer.

I know month to month spending can vary, which is why I prefer to look at the year as a whole, but I have to admit it does feel good when you have a (relatively) low spending month and still feel like you did a lot and had fun!

Here are the details:

Monthly Rent $1,185:

This is for a 2 BR apartment in which I split the cost with a roommate. We could have found a place a little bit cheaper, however it would have been much further away from where we wanted to be (leading to an even longer commute), and with much less perks than what we have now.

Utilities/Internet $104:

I decided to combine my utilities and internet lines as the internet was not going to really be changing all year so there wouldn’t be much to say on that front.

Fairly normal month here on the utilities front as well.

Groceries $129 / Restaurants $81:

Groceries were fairly close to where my normal monthly average is. Check out how I keep my grocery spending fairly low!

Restaurants were slightly below normal, but this fluctuates often depending on the month.

Auto Insurance $0 / Fuel $202 / Other $0:

I’m covered through July on my Auto Insurance after paying for 6 months up front.

Fuel wise, I filled up a whopping six times last month. The trip home and out to see my brothers game, combined with still training up my coworker and needing to do my longer commute more often meant putting nearly 2,000 miles on my car. Yikes.

No “Other” costs this month which is always a win.

Cell Phone $0:

I’m still under my parents plan so this is my portion of the bill. I pay my parents directly up front for 6 months at a time.

I’m now covered through the end of June after paying in January.

Medical $0:

No medical costs this month.

Entertainment $95:

It was refreshing to see this months entertainment back down again after last months spending.

$12 for a ticket to a distillery tour. Included in this price was a tasting of 4 of the spirits (read: four shots 🙂 ) and a free cocktail. So I’d say the price was more than worth it!

$28 for a bottle of my favorite whiskey I tasted there (the ticket also got me $10 off this bottle… which was already discounted since I knew someone that worked there… double win!). Planning to bring this to Camp FI Mid-Atlantic at the end of May to share with friends!

$25 for drinks out another night with my girlfriend celebrating both of our recent raises!

Lastly, $15 for Spotify and $15 for HBO Now. I needed to purchase to watch the final season of Game of Thrones! I plan to cancel right after the series ends.

Travel $0:

No travel costs this month either.

Gifts/Donations $0:

No gifts or donations this month. I’ve decided to just do two big donations this year. This will certainly help me as I try to meet future minimum spends on credit cards I open.

Ideally in the future I’ll be able to open up a donor advised fund so I don’t have to make donations via credit cards, but at this moment in my life that isn’t the main priority.

Misc $67:

$27 for my quarterly haircut, $20 for monthly laundry, and $20 for my first fill up on my metro card since June of last year (whew, that $50 lasted a while!)

Savings Rate

Here’s the overall picture:

The low expenses led to a fantastic month for savings rate! The YTD rate is inching up to my 65% goal, so it’ll be interesting to see how I end up.

Side Hustle earnings were again not very good. I have not had much motivation to keep this up given the issues with the apps I’ve been having, as well as a general putting more focus and time into my health and other pursuits.

Here were my side hustle earnings:

I have a feeling my days of this side hustle are numbered, but we’ll see what the nicer weather brings.

In the meantime, I’ll be busy trudging along and focusing on that savings rate!

If you want to see how I’ve done in past months, check out my Net Worth Updates page to see over a year’s worth of reports.

How did your April turn out!?