April had both ups and downs. I got carried away designing quilt patterns to sell on Etsy (hypomania) and burned out of sewing, we spent time with my family before they left for the season, and the weather finally warmed up and we got to soak in some sun!
We also booked all of the lodging and accommodations for our Europe trip this fall which we’re really excited for.
How We track my Money and Budget
We use a budget template that I created over the years 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 April 2023
We brought in $9,717.96 in March 2023 which means we had $9,717.96 to save, spend, and invest in April 2023.
Our expenses:
| Mortgage | $1740.27 |
| Groceries | $785.27 |
| Car Payment | $311.24 |
| Bills (Insurance, Internet, & Utilities) | $758.45 |
| Subscriptions | $24.29 |
| Mrs. Fipolar Spending | $17.99 |
| Mr. Fipolar Spending | $501.56 |
| Combined Misc Spending | $468.50 |
| Dog | $231.68 |
| Eating Out | $249.34 |
| House Improvement Spending | $248.50 |
| Travel | $1134.17 |
We live in a medium to high cost of living mountain town (undisclosed) and currently our household is comprised of 2 adults and 1 slightly spoiled dog.
We spent a lot in April but we knew we would. There are also a few caveats. The few places we went over budget like in the travel fund and my spending money, those have sinking funds behind them. Other than that, we stayed under budget and that allowed us to contribute more towards our emergency fund!
Our Savings and Investments:
| Emergency Fund | $2,039.61 |
| Mrs. Fipolar IRA | $500.00 |
| Mr. Fipolar IRA | $500.00 |
| Mrs. Fipolar Brokerage | $100.00 |
| Mr. Fipolar Brokerage | $100.00 |
Additionally, I invest 7% 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 $880.
I recently decreased my 457b contributions from 15% to 7% because we realized that we have almost $30,000 going towards retirement per year and we are CoastFI. While we do want to retire early, we also want to achieve our short term goals and live life now. This bumps up my paychecks to be higher at the expense that I am not contributing as much as I was. We’ll see how this goes and bump it back up as needed.
Our FI Net Worth:
Our FI net worth increased quite a bit with the current market fluctuations and we’re sitting at just above $256,00. This includes all of our checking accounts, savings accounts, HSA’s, retirement accounts, and individual brokerage accounts.
We’re happy because this number is going up again and we’ve reach quarter millionaire status! Not every 28 year old can say that. Our next goal is to hit $300,000 but that largely depends on what the stock market does. We continue to expect large market fluctuations with the debt ceiling issue coming up and regional banks collapsing. So, we’ll continue to dollar cost average, save up our emergency fund, and keep on trucking towards our goals.