Net Worth Update: May 2019

Welcome to another monthly Net Worth update! This time its Net Worth May 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 April.

May

May started off with a bang as I traveled down to Georgia to go attend my sisters college graduation ceremony. It was a fun weekend with family and it was great to tour the college she attended which was absolutely gorgeous!

We also had the chance to go on a hike while there, which unfortunately was the only hike I went on during the month, but it did not disappoint!

The next couple weekends were around DC, one of which was filled with real estate prospects (more on that in the expenses section) and the other was more laid back.

The last weekend was amazing as I attended Camp FI Mid-Atlantic in Virginia. It was my second Camp FI after going to Camp FI Midwest last year.

It was an absolute blast as I saw some familiar faces again, while making many new friends and connections. The best part of the FI movement is the community and being able to meet people who share a similar goal and vision is a great experience. I would recommend these camps to anyone!

Net Worth

May breaks down as follows:

For the first time all year we saw a negative month for the stock market, and boy was it a doozy with the S&P 500 dropping by 6.5%.

We’ll take these losses in stride seeing as this is just the market doing it’s thing. At least my car value finally went back down again! 🙂

Cash: $24,553 – $1,554

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.

This is just the leftover amount after my normal monthly spending, so this kind of increase has been fairly normal the past few months.

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: $78,968 – ($2,685)

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

Finally a down month. Ho hum, I suppose they can’t always be good ones. It hurts to see the values go down, but I know in the long run I’ll be 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: $12,575 – ($864)

No contributions this month so this is just market losses. 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: $13,953 – ($748)

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.

Coming off my highest total this took a significant dive. We’ll see if the market can rebound to bring it back up again.

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: $5,884 – $192

$212 of this was my own contributions with the rest just the market doing it’s thing. The market bump didn’t effect my REIT nearly as badly, thus still in the green here.

All my funds here are invested into a REIT.

Auto Value: $7,646 – ($386)

KBB value for my 2014 Ford Fusion with 80,500 miles on it.

Finally the negative value again after two months in the green. I’ve been waiting for this as this car is supposed to be a depreciating asset!

Credit Cards: $(560) – $78

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:

Another good month without any big surprises, aside from those miscellaneous costs (story below).

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 $103:

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 $175 / Restaurants $54:

Groceries were higher than average due to a 5 week shopping month. In addition I had to buy some laundry supplies which are pricier, but only happen a couple times per year. Check out how I keep my grocery spending fairly low!

Restaurants were much below normal. My significant other and I didn’t eat out nearly as much as we typically do, and my parents were nice enough to cover a couple of the meals down in Georgia (despite my tossing of credit cards their way to try and pay my own).

Auto Insurance $0 / Fuel $63 / Other $0:

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

Fuel wise I only filled up twice last month. Much more walking to work last month now that my new coworker is pretty much all trained up!

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 $98:

$20 for a 12 pack of beer to bring to Camp FI. Entertainment at its finest!

$16 for movie tickets to see Avengers: Endgame and $23 to see the screening of the Playing With FIRE documentary when it comes to DC in June! It was $9 to Uber home from the movie after it unexpectedly started pouring and none of us had umbrellas…

Lastly, $15 for Spotify and $15 for HBO Now. Game of Thrones is now over so this was the last month of HBO. It was worth the cost!

Travel $63:

$50 for two days of a rental car for my trip to Georgia and $14 for gas from the trip.

I got a great deal on the rental car through my employee discount program. Many big companies have something like this so be sure to check out whether you have hidden employer benefits!

Gifts/Donations $90:

Two gifts bought, one for my Mom for Mother’s Day, and another for my Dad for Father’s Day (I was thinking ahead for once!).

Misc $270:

$20 for monthly laundry and $250 for a pre-inspection fee I had on a property offer.

We last left off the real estate update with a failed offer. Around mid-May we found a place that looked like it would be a great fit and the numbers all worked.

After working with our realtor he suggested that if we were really serious on this property we’d need to get a pre-inspection (so we could waive that contingency with our final offer).

So we did. After submitting a final offer at $10K above asking price and removing virtually all contingencies, we felt pretty good about it. Little did we know that this property was extremely popular, and our offer didn’t even make the top 3 🙁 (we found out later it sold for $35K above asking price…).

It was certainly a bummer to essentially throw away the $250, but one of those where you live and you learn. The DC market is just too crazy right now and purchasing a property is looking less and less likely.

Savings Rate

Here’s the overall picture:

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

Side Hustle earnings were non-existent this month. It’s been trending this way the last couple months and the motivation is just not there anymore. I always said I’d keep doing this as long as it made sense and wasn’t too much of a hassle, but it’s certainly become that. It looks like this ship may have sailed.

While this side hustle may be over, that doesn’t mean I’m done with side hustling for good! I still have some other ideas I’m mulling around, so we’ll see what comes of them!

Until next time that is 🙂

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 May turn out!?