Net Worth Update: July 2019

Welcome to another monthly Net Worth update! This time its Net Worth July 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 June.

July

First off, good to be back! While I certainly did not intend to skip three weeks in a row of posting, that’s just the way things worked out, as I’ll get into a bit below. Simply put, life has been absolutely chaotic since returning from vacation three weeks ago (coincidence?). But before we get into that, lets recap how the early parts of July went!

The first week of the month was fairly busy as I prepped for heading out of the office for two weeks in a row of vacation. I tried to get as much work stuff done as possible and planned a couple weeks in advance to prepare my boss and team for my absence. I did not want to be bothered by work at all on my vacation!

At the time I also wanted to keep my post per week goal alive on the blog, so I wrote my two July tandem posts (Living the FI Life: The Good and The Struggles) in advance (that’s a first!). I really wanted this vacation to be a total unplug from work, the blog and life in general. And I can’t really complain as that’s exactly what I got!

Week 1 of vacation was in Park City, UT with my family and s/o. It was a week full of relaxation by the pool, hiking and exploring the mountains, and touring the Olympic venue from the 2002 Salt Lake City games! It was a blast exploring a new place and enjoying some quality time with my family.

Week 2 of vacation was on the other coast at a beach just south of Wilmington, NC with my s/o and her family (back to back family vacations, I know, right!?!) This one was pure relaxation as my days consisted of long walks on the beach, lounging on the beach, biking on the beach, stargazing on the beach, I think you get the point… It was an absolutely glorious time relaxing and getting to know my s/o’s family better!

Sadly, it all had to come to an end at some point, and reality was waiting to smack me square on in the face. You see, the week we returned, my s/o and I had to deal with moving in to our new apartment.

While I was extremely excited to start this new phase of our relationship, I was not looking forward to this move and the logistics involved for moving two people who each have an apartment worth of things, together into one smaller space. With so many different moving parts for this move, we knew it would take a while before we were fully settled in (which has proved to be true as we still aren’t done!) and mostly explains why I just haven’t had the time or energy to write on here.

I’m hoping to get back to my weekly posting as we slowly finish up the moving process, but we’ll see.

Anyways, that’s enough of the personal life update, let’s get to why you all are really here!

Net Worth

July breaks down as follows:

July seemed to be a ho hum month where the market stayed relatively flat. That’s ok, they can’t all be big winners (and based on what we are seeing midway through August, I’d rather have it flat!)

Despite this though my Net Worth is still growing at a nice pace just strictly from my savings and investing. It’s all about the long game!

Cash: $27,384 – $2,099

Due to my above average salary I have a lot of excess cash coming in. See the income section below to view what I bring in.

My new raise went into effect this month so this certainly helped my cash account grow! Otherwise is was a fairly routine month for savings.

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.

401K: $87,427 – $2,034

Contributions this month totaled $1,800 (Employer Matching included).

The market was relatively flat this month which explains the lack of gains outside of my contributions.

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: $13,647 – $193

No contributions this month so this is just the market doing its thing. 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: $15,018 – $140

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.

New high again for this account, and the first time crossing $15K! It’s just trudging along here, and I’m still amazed to see how it’s growth without any contributions in close to two years.

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: $6,481 – $311

$212 of this was my own contributions with the rest just the market doing it’s thing.

All my funds here are invested into a REIT.

Auto Value: $7,411 – ($227)

KBB value for my 2014 Ford Fusion with 82,500 miles on it.

Finally a depreciation hit! Perhaps that’s cause I technically moved area codes so the calculation came across differently. Who knows!

Credit Cards: $(967) – ($235)

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:

There were a few big one time expenses this month but otherwise it was a fairly standard month.

Here are the details:

Monthly Rent $1,369:

One of the complications of moving in with my girlfriend is that the apartment we found had a move in date which overlapped both of our current leases. This meant that we both paid double rent for 6 days in July which is a bummer.

Even more of a bummer is that my old lease doesn’t technically end until mid August, so there will be another month of increased rent costs. It definitely sucks, but was a situation that couldn’t be avoided unfortunately.

Utilities/Internet $110:

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 $216 / Restaurants $133:

Despite being gone for two weeks of the month, my Groceries expense was way above average. This is because my s/o and I helped out by buying groceries/booze on both vacations (since our families were extremely gracious and covered the lodging). It’s a bit misleading as a lot of this expense could have been separated out into Entertainment, but I’m too lazy to go through each receipt and sort items haha!

Restaurant spending was also slightly up. This was mostly due to all the travel this month, but also partly due to the fact that my dad drove down to help us move some of our big furniture items (so we didn’t have to hire movers), so the least I could do was buy all his meals while he was down here.

Auto Insurance $365 / Fuel $47 / Other $215:

The move lined up perfectly with my time for new auto insurance. Since I was moving across state lines, (from Virginia into DC), I had to get all new quotes and insurance. Luckily a found a rate that goes for roughly $60/month with the exact same coverage I currently have so I was pleased it was very close to what I was already paying!

Given all the time away from DC, not much driving was required which was nice to keep the fuel costs low.

Unfortunately with the move from VA to DC, comes all the paperwork and costs associated with that… A new drivers license, vehicle title, registration, inspection and street parking permit ran me $215… *sigh*

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’ll be paying my parents next month for the last 6 months of the year so I’ll be all caught up.

Medical $0:

No medical costs this month.

Entertainment $70:

It was a light month entertainment wise. $24 for a couple drinks at a bar one night with my partner.

$25 for a lift ticket up the Utah mountain to get to the alpine lake in the photos above.

Lastly, $15 for monthly Spotify, $4 for parking in Salt Lake City during a day trip while we toured around, and $2 to tip the valet at the resort we stayed at in Utah as they grabbed the car for us.

Travel $0:

Despite all the Travel this month, there were no costs associated with it. As I mentioned, my parents and my s/o’s parent graciously covered the lodging costs for both weeks.

My Utah flights were paid for in February, and my girlfriend was the best and drove down to NC (as I had just taken a red eye back from Utah and needed some rest!)

Gifts/Donations $0:

No gifts given this month. All my donations will be given in December.

Misc $60:

$50 for a new dresser and nightstand for the new apartment. The dresser I had for the last couple years probably would not have fit great in our new apt, so I offered it up to my sister who is moving into her own apt after recently graduating college.

$10 for a fill up on my metro card (so I could get to the airport!)

Savings Rate

Here’s the overall picture:

$410 of extra income this month which was nice. $250 came from my employer who gives out a wellness reward when you hit certain milestones. This month I completed the goals for the entire year so I received the full amount!

The rest was from simply selling the big things in my apartment I did not need anymore due to the move. $65 for my coffee table, two end tables, two lamps, and a large picture, $55 for a tall table with 3 stools and $40 for my dining table and chairs.

Despite the extra costs this month, I still hit a 60% savings rate (rounded up of course 🙂 ) which is pretty awesome!

The additional rent costs this year are going to be a major drag on this savings rate goal (and keeping my expenses under budget) but I’ll still be giving it my best shot!

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 July turn out!?