February was a busy month. I attempted to study for and then postponed my Professional Engineering Exam. Frankly, I’m pretty burned out of studying while working full time and doing all of the things adults do like cooking dinner. I’m trying to be better about listening to what I need and not just pushing through to the end.
In February, I spent a magnificent day skiing with a friend, spent time with family, played Wingspan, lead a photography meetup at a local park, and started sewing again. I’ve been really enjoying my hobbies and even though they are expensive, I’d like to keep pursuing them.
Part of FIRE is finding joy in life now while saving and investing for the future. Without that joy and my hobbies, life feels pretty flat. I think that I’m solidly out of my depression after failing the first Profession Engineering Exam in January and now, I’m just stable, enjoying life, and doing what I can to find purpose and joy.
WE ALSO BOUGHT OUR FLIGHTS TO EUROPE THIS MONTH FOR OUR TRIP THIS FALL AND I COULDN’T BE MORE EXCITED!
How We Track Our Money and Budget
We use a budget template that I created over the year in Excel to track our monthly expenses. We track our paychecks, our spending, and our overall net worth (including our retirement funds). But, we don’t track what is traditionally thought of as net worth, instead, we track all of our cash (savings accounts, checking accounts, and high yield savings accounts), all of our retirement accounts, and all of our brokerage accounts. We don’t include the worth of our house or car and we don’t subtract the mortgage or the car loan. Instead, our net worth is what we consider to be our FI net worth.
We track so much because it gives us a wholistic view of what we’re bring home, what we’re spending each month, and if we’re living within our means. Even though the stock market contributes to the ups and downs of our FI net worth, we try to increase our net worth every month. This is proving to be more difficult as our investments take on a bigger percentage of our net worth.
We budget with last month’s money meaning that if our budget is for February, the money in it is from our January paychecks. This gives us one month’s buffer in case something happens and allows us to know exactly how much money we’re budgeting for. Mr. Fipolar has a variable paycheck and every amount is different. Mine on the other hand is the same every month. We operate a zero-based budget so every dollar has a home and a purpose. Even though not every month is perfect, this method works for us.
How we Spend
We spend almost entirely with credit cards and we use them responsibly. We pay off the balance at the end of each month after we input all of our expenses into the monthly budget.
We use credit cards to take advantage of travel rewards and cash back.
Right now we have:
- 2 Alaska Air Credit Cards
- 1 United Airlines Credit Card
- 2 Delta Airlines Credit Cards
- 1 Chase Sapphire Credit Card
- 2 Fidelity Cash Back Credit Cards
Yes, it can get complicated to track but we make sure to log into each account every month and pay the balance in full.
Our Incomes for February
We brought in $9,536 last month which means we have $9536 to save, spend, and invest in February 2023.
Our expenses:
| Mortgage | $1740 |
| Groceries | $676 |
| Car Payment | $311 |
| Bills (Insurance, Internet, & Utilities) | $772 |
| Cell Phones | $80 |
| Subscriptions | $14 |
| Mrs. Fipolar Spending | $159 |
| Mr. Fipolar Spending | $20 |
| Combined Misc Spending | $343 |
| Dog | $229 |
| Eating Out | $183 |
| House Improvement Spending | $248 |
| Car Maintenance Spending | $0 |
| Medical Spending | $0 |
| Travel Spending | $1806 |
We live in a medium to high cost of living mountain town (undisclosed) and currently our household is comprised of 2 adults and 1 spoiled dog.
We stayed under budget in a few key categories like our grocery spending but went over in our dining out and misc spending categories. Overall, we managed to stay under budget and that allowed us to send extra to our emergency fund.
Our Savings and Investments:
| Emergency Fund | $1211 |
| Mrs. Fipolar IRA | $422 |
| Mr. Fipolar IRA | $422 |
| Mrs. Fipolar Brokerage | $100 |
| Mr. Fipolar Brokerage | $100 |
Additionally, I invest 15% into my 457b and Mr. Fipolar invests 8% into his 401k. We do not keep track of these numbers but combined it’s somewhere in the range of $1,350.
All of our saving and investing put us at a 39% saving rate for February. It’s down from our 49% savings rate in January but we’re still really happy with it.
Our FI Net Worth:
Our FI net worth increased just a tad with current market fluctuations and we’re sitting at around $244,00. This includes all of our checking accounts, savings accounts, HSA’s, retirement accounts, and individual brokerage accounts.
Last month our net worth increased by a staggering $18,000 which helped us get back on track with our FIRE goals. With the current economic scene, we continue to expect large market fluctuations. Maybe eventually we’ll see another good market run but for now, we’ll continue to dollar cost average every month.