March 2023 Financial and Life Update

 I was surprisingly dreading updating my Google Sheet this time around. I think because it felt like I was either mentally or actually manipulating my numbers all month.  Plus my budget app gives me the easy update I need in terms of expenses and net worth. Which is awesome. So it feels less urgent to update my spreadsheets.

Also after 4 years of doing this, all the main stuff is on auto-pilot. There's no real goals I'm trying to hit in terms of trying to lower a certain expense or raise a certain savings goal. I'm mostly on cruise control with minor optimizations. 

For example, I read on Doctor of Credit you can ask Discover for a 0% intro apr period. I did easily on chat and they said yes! It took less than 5 minutes! I love the internet specifically for these reasons. 

It takes the burden off a little bit of planning future travel but my credit limit is a little low so I can only charge tickets. Which helps. I want about $5k credit limit since I'm cash flowing lifestyle expenses in real time. 

For example, I booked a Philly apartment last night with a debit card and that wiped out all the funds in my Lifestyle Fund. Womp, womp! I'm still not feeling super confident of my approval odds if I decide to apply for a credit card later this month. Oh well. 

Anyway, before I go completely off track, here are the updates:

NET WORTH/ASSETS ONLY: $560k

This is pretty awesome. Also, my investments alone are about $492k which is the highest it's ever been. That plus my iBonds means my leanFIRE fund is fully funded outside of regular everyday cash. It just feels like that chapter is finally closed. My leanFIRE life is fully funded and work is officially optional. That feels awesome and has definitely helped fuel me to figure out what I want my life to look like. In a way it's freeing, but also limiting. My leanFIRE fund frees me from work but also makes me feel trapped in this current lifestyle. Twist, right?!  

INCOME: YTD

Gross pay: ~$68k

Net pay: ~$28k 

Bank bonuses: $1200

Nothing new here. This is just regular W2 income plus a fat $30k gross bonus. That was nice! Some people get 100% of their regular pay but at the lowest at the call center I got $800, so I'll take $30k obviously!! The net pay is shockingly low because I maxed out my 401k by March 15 paycheck. But moving forward this means my net pay will be closer to $3k/pay period which will be nice. For the last 7 years it's been $2500/pp or less so this is a change I can appreciate. Also, I was reading some random blog and they pointed out it might make more sense to have your FIRE money more accessible, ie in taxable accounts vs retirement accounts when you're close to retiring. Since I reached leanFIRE and don't have a clear date of when I'm leaving work (ie, between now and 5 years), I decided to try shuffling extra money to taxable instead of the aftertax 401k option available at work. It took some hemming and hawing since the 401k is the easiest way to save, but I'll try it for now and see how I feel. Look at MERJ being flexible! 

So the logistics meant figuring out the dollar amount and setting up direct deposit straight to my brokerage. At the brokerage, setting up auto-investments. See, more clicks! But I did it. I'll probably stick with it for the year. Honestly, after the clicks were done I didn't think about it again until now. 

Also, speaking of random things on a blog. I think harvesting tax losses for no reason was not a great move. First I was mad at myself last year for not doing it knowing I had so many gains. Then when I did a little this year, it didn't seem right. So I only did a small amount and let it sit. Then I read more about it, and you should really only do it if it's part of your balancing strategy. I don't have a balancing strategy! I'm heading towards simple so all index funds and no bonds (except iBonds and CDs). So kind of a mistake but okay as an exercise. Suffice to say I'm not as knee deep in personal finance knowledge as I used to be. 

EXPENSES: YTD

~10.5k

Your Spending

	$5,497.80
	$2,226.87
	$841.20
	$599.97
	$466.11
	$391.23
	$150.00
	$120.32
	$84.92
	$77.10
	$75.00
	$3.18
	$0.00
Total	$10,533.70

EXPENSES - $10,533

So travel is high. But planned for. My lifestyle fund for this year, which includes travel, is around $20k. So this tracks. I semi-randomly booked a trip to Philly for late April to late May. Not sure how this affects my planned trip to Seattle at end of May, but I'm going with it. I even had to practice flexibility and booked it 2 whole weeks in advance vs 2 days in advance (so I don't freak out and dread going). So we shall see. I did learn after booking that I had a 24 hour window to cancel. So that helped feel like it was less of an impulse. Oh, feelings. 

And there was the nearly 2 week trip to Nashville after a harrowing winter hibernation of sickness and tons of work. 

Everything else - nothing out of the ordinary. It's regular mortgage payments, regular utilities, car insurance, gas, groceries and eating out. The personal care item was a wash and blow dry with 5 hours of tangles. It was a mess! I paid H&R Block and Turbo Tax to file my taxes. Groan. I love paying double for stuff- said no one ever. Health and Fitness is for some ankle weights and a therapy session or two. (This is supplemental therapy because I prepaid for a year of therapy on my FSA card). I also donated $75 for a family member's mission trip. Which is pretty cool.

Even though I was dreading it, it's still nice to know I'm mostly on track and doing well. 

And that's all folks! Something is making my tummy squashy so the plan is to get some pizza for dinner and rest of week.