Lifestyle

January 2021 Early Retirement Update

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Y’all still having fun out there? At this point of the year we are officially more than half way through winter. Spring is just around the corner! Here in North Carolina, January was more wet than cold for us. Although we did get a light dusting of snow that lasted for a few hours. I know my readers from the northern states laugh at our snow, but hey, it’s all we got. 

When it wasn’t wet and rainy, we managed to get outside a little and do some yard work, ride bikes, and go for walks. But we mostly stayed close to home and enjoyed a lot of inside activities. For me that means reading, video games, and Netflix. 

In financial terms, January was another great month. Our net worth went up $39,000 to end the month at $2,544,000. Income of $3,224 slightly exceeded our spending of $2,577 for all of January.

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

Income

Investment income totaled $143 in January. Our equity index funds and ETFs pay dividends quarterly at the end of March, June, September, and December. As a result, we didn’t receive hardly any investment income during the month of January. However, our dividend income in December 2020 was over $15,000. Here’s more on our dividend investments.

Blog income totaled $1,547 for the month which was almost exactly the same as December 2020 blog income.

My early retirement lifestyle consulting income (“consulting”) was $819 for the month of January which represents six hours of consulting sessions. These days I’m getting just as much work from repeat clients as new clients. February is also off to a strong start. I decided to give myself an inflation raise for 2021 by adding $5 per hour to my rates. The 2021 rates are approximately 3.5% higher than 2020 rates.

Tradeline sales income was $350 in January. I ramped up my tradeline sales and discussed it in a bit more detail in my October 2020 monthly post

The “deposit income” totaled $311 in January. I signed up for the new Google Pay app and got a few referrals plus completed a bonus offer ($21 cash back on a $50+ Target purchase). The total received from Google Pay promos/referrals was $110.  If you want to sign up and see what promos and bonuses they’re offering, here’s my referral link (and you might get $1-5 for joining right now). 

Another $100 in deposit income came from redeeming $100 in cash back rewards on a credit card.

Also included in the deposit income was a $94 refund check from our dentist. We had dental insurance in 2020 and that was the amount reimbursed for an office visit in late 2020 that we paid out of pocket. 

The final $7 in deposit income came from cash back and incentive bonuses from the Ebates.com and Mrrebates.com online shopping portals (some of which was earned from you readers signing up through these links). 

If you sign up for Ebates/Rakuten through this link and make a qualifying $20 purchase through Ebates/Rakuten, you’ll get a $20 sign up bonus (limited time only; normal bonus is $10 after a $25 purchase). 

Closing out the January income was a $52 sale on ebay. I sold an old copy of the Quake II computer game. That’s pretty amazing since I bought it for $10 back in 1990-something and definitely played it enough to get my initial $10 investment back! Get in touch with me if you want to pay way too much for any other junk collecting dust in my house. I’ll cut you a really sweet deal! 

If you’re interested in tracking your income and expenses like I do, then check out Personal Capital (it’s free!). All of our savings and spending accounts (including checking, money market, and five credit cards) are all linked and updated in real time through Personal Capital. We have accounts all over the place, and Personal Capital makes it really easy to check on everything at one time.

Personal Capital is also a solid tool for investment management. Keeping track of our entire investment portfolio takes two clicks. If you haven’t signed up for the free Personal Capital service, check it out today (review here).

Tracking spending was one of the critical steps I took that allowed me to retire at 33. And it’s now easier than ever with Personal Capital.

I bet this guy in our backyard watches his spending… like a hawk!

Expenses

Now let’s take a look at January expenses:

In total, we spent $2,577 during January which is almost $800 less than our regularly budgeted $3,333 per month (or $40,000 per year). Taxes and groceries topped the spending categories for the month.

Detailed breakdown of spending:

Taxes – $1,385:

In the first few days of January, I paid the remainder of our 2020 property taxes which was $1,085. Our total property tax bill for 2020 was just under $2,000 (with the other ~$900 of the bill paid previously in 2020). 

I also paid $300 as a quarterly payment for our 2020 North Carolina estimated taxes. 

Groceries – $588:

Grocery expenses of $588 are pretty typical since we usually spend about $500 to $600 per month on groceries. 

I’m still using Walmart Grocery pick up service several times per month along with visits to Aldi, Lidl, and Food Lion.

The Walmart grocery pickers put together your order for you and you just drive up and click a button on the Walmart app to get them to bring the order out to you. The best part is you pay the same low prices as they offer in-store to all their customers and there is no delivery fee.

If you want to try Walmart Grocery, you can take $10 off your first $50+ order with my referral link. Enjoy! 

 

Homemade pizza. Okay, I cheat and buy the $1 bags of pre-made pizza dough from Walmart because I can’t be bothered to make the dough from scratch.
Wrapping up those egg rolls!

 

General Merchandise – $246:

I spent $246 for a $250 Walmart gift card purchased through the discount gift card reseller Raise.com (referral link for $5 off your first purchase at Raise). We spend a lot at Walmart so it makes sense to save a few bucks on all those transactions. I also got a few more dollars in cash back by completing the purchase using an online shopping portal. 

We spent a good bit of the Walmart gift card during January, including $39 for this 22 inch electric skillet. Since restaurants aren’t the best place to hang out these days, we decided to recreate the restaurant experience at home and do some communal hot plate cooking. 

 

Marinated pork, steak, shrimp, bok choy, enoki mushrooms, green onions, and other veggies with some mi goreng noodles on the side. Git in ma belly!

Utilities – $140:

The water/sewer/trash bill was $130 but I only had to pay $64 of that. I used a prepaid debit card loaded with cash rewards from our health insurance company to pay the other $66. 

Our electricity bill was $76 for the month. 

The natural gas bill, which we covers our heating and hot water, was $78 in January but I used the prepaid rewards card from our health insurance company to pay that bill, too.  

Our new health insurance company already gave us $400 of rewards so far in January so the good times keep on rolling! 

Healthcare/Medical/Dental – $135:

Our 2021 healthcare premiums are $135 per month thanks to very generous Affordable Care Act subsidies that we receive due to our low ~$45,000 per year Adjusted Gross Income. The benefit of being “poor” on our tax return.

We decided not to renew our dental insurance for 2021, so there are no recurring monthly dental insurance payments. Instead, we’ll just pay cash for our routine cleanings and exams throughout the year and hope for no cavities or root canals! 

Restaurants – $22:

I spent $22 to get four plates of pad thai take out (using a buy one, get one free coupon). 

Electronics – $41:

We got two new batteries for Mrs. Root of Good’s DSLR camera for $11 from ebay. They are the generic batteries instead of the name brand batteries that cost $20+ each. So far they are performing very well! 

I’ve been slowly upgrading all our wireless USB mice for our laptops. I found a good basic model that lasts 6-12 months on a single AA battery even with heavy use and leaving it turned on all the time. It’s the M325 mouse from Logitech. I got it on sale at Best Buy for $9 after applying a $5 promotional gift card they sent me. 

The last electronics purchase in January was $22 for 4 GB of new RAM memory for a laptop. Mrs. Root of Good spent the last year trying to figure out why her internet was so slow. I was shocked to see the laptop only had 4 GB of RAM. I bought it new from Costco a couple years ago. Apparently that mediocre spec slipped my mind when I was troubleshooting her laptop’s performance issues. So far the extra RAM upgrade seems like the magic trick required to accelerate her computer into 2021! 

The installation went pretty well thanks to a good DIY youtube video I found. I also cleaned out a bunch of dust from the fan and heat sink while I had the laptop disassembled. 

Cable/Satellite – $18:

We pay $18 per month for a local reduced rate package due to having a lower income and having kids. 30 mbit/s download, 4 mbit/s upload.

Travel – $6:

I used a credit card to pay our quarterly estimated state income taxes. The State of North Carolina charged a $6 convenience fee to use a credit card. Since I’m always accumulating credit card points and miles, it was a worthwhile fee to pay to bank even more free travel (whenever that becomes more feasible!). 

If you want to score free travel or big cash back from credit cards, there are several cards currently offering 50,000 points or more. These points can be redeemed for $500 cash or $500+ in free flights or hotel stays. Compare travel and cash back credit card deals

And if you have a business, you can get $750+ in cash back bonus with a new Chase Ink business card

Gas – $0:

Another month of no gas purchases. We are below a half tank of gas so I feel like we’ll be buying another tank of gas in February or March.

My two feet and my bicycle require no gas. But I will have to buy new shoes and new bike tires eventually. 

These deer were trying to sneak by the backyard unnoticed. We noticed them.

Total Spending for Seven Full Years of Early Retirement

Here are the spending summaries for each month of last year for the curious minds:

Monthly Expense Summary for 2020:

And here is what we spent in previous years. This includes all the multi-month international vacations, a new (used) car, new roof, new siding, new windows, and a bunch of other “one time” expenses (that recur with surprising regularity).

Amazingly, we’ve never actually spent more than our $40,000 annual budget in any of the years of early retirement! 

Summary of annual spending from all years of early retirement:

Net Worth: $2,544,000 (+$39,000)

Another month of zoom zoom zoom upward in the stock market. This thing only goes up, right?

I jest…

After gaining a quarter million dollars in 2020, it looks like 2021 is continuing this strong upward trend so far. Like many of you, I watched the January GME/Gamestop/meme-stonk fun and games from the sidelines. What crazy times we live in! Fortunately the stock market isn’t GameStop. 

Life update

Optimism abounds right now. Virus infections keep dropping. Number vaccinated keeps rising. We are rapidly approaching herd immunity as a country, but we can’t quite celebrate victory yet.

So that leaves our household in a holding pattern. We want to plan a big summer road trip across the USA. But we also don’t want to invest the time, energy, and money in something that we end up cancelling or radically altering. And we don’t want to deal with patchwork closures, travel restrictions, and public health precautions across the country that would sap the fun away from our trip. 

For now, we aren’t spending too much time planning this summer’s trip. Fortunately it’s a road trip, so it’s somewhat easy to wait till the last minute and book hotels as we go. Or scratch the whole thing if it’s logistically too difficult. 

Focus on appreciating the beauty in the mundane

I don’t like the unpredictability, but we’re kind of stuck. I am sure I am not alone in this feeling! 

I’d rather scramble and plan things last minute than undertake a big effort to plan everything now without the certainty that we would be able to travel. 

So holding pattern it is (for now). But the big summer vacation is just one part of our early retired lifestyle. 

We can still do almost all of the things we enjoy while we are “stuck” in Raleigh. So we live life now, and don’t fret over the potential of missed opportunities in the future. If summer 2021 doesn’t work out, there’s always the fall or winter. Or 2022. 

Eventually we’ll get our vaccinations and hit the road again. Until then, all we can do is make the most out of each day as it comes. 

Anybody done with winter and ready for spring?

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