January 2022 FIRE Update

Hey, everyone! How is 2022 treating you so far? It has been great for me. I escaped rainy and cold Portland to visit my parents in Chiang Mai for 3 months. The weather here is perfect right now. It’s cool in the morning and heat up nicely in the afternoon. I think I’ll try to do this every year. Let me check with Mrs. RB40 and Junior and see what they think. Heh heh. I’m having a great time in Thailand. The cost of living here is so cheap compared to the United States. I can eat out every day and enjoy all the delicious food I’ve been missing. I’ll work on a post about this for next time.

As for personal finance, January was a good month. Our income was solid and our expense was quite low. I didn’t spend much because I mostly stayed with my parents. Mrs. RB40 and Junior didn’t spend much in Portland either. They were both busy with work and school. Our net worth dropped quite a bit in January due to the stock market, but I think that’s okay. The stock market needed a little breather. It’s a good opportunity to invest more.

Today, I’ll share how I’m doing on my New Year goals (badly) and update our monthly cash flow. Here are the details.

2022 Goals

Here is my 2022 goal sheet. It works really well. Try it out if you can’t keep up with your New Year goals. The key is to go over the spreadsheet at least once a month to track your progress. That way, you can see which goals need extra attention.

Heh, I’m not doing so well on my goals this year. It’s only been one month and I already failed 3 of them. See the reason below.

Financial Goals

• Real Estate Crowdfunding $200,000. This goal was a bit too ambitious. I need to extend the timeline to 2023. This year, I’ll just try to hit $160,000, that’s about half way. Recently, the projects on CrowdStreet completed funding very quickly. Investors are taking profit from the stock market and diversifying. It’s a great way to passively invest in real estate.
• FI Ratio > 110%. This is my main goal for 2022. The FI ratio is passive income divided by expense. In January, our FI ratio was 132%. That’s really good because we didn’t spend much money. See the cash flow section below.
• Sell rental condo. Our tenant decided to stay for another year. He’s a great tenant so I’m okay with it. The price isn’t great in that area anyway. Portland is still struggling with a lot of issues. Hopefully, the city will improve in a year. Anyway, I failed on this goal.
• Speculate crypto $10,000. This is actually going well. Crypto followed the stock market down in January and it gave me a chance to buy at a somewhat affordable price. Cryptocurrency will be very volatile in the short term so hang on if you have a lot of money invested. I’m in it for the long haul and I’m happy to see a big correction, especially since I didn’t have much invested previously.

Health Goals

• Unfortunately, I lost my fitness tracker in Bangkok. I have no idea how it happened. It might have just popped off my wrist or else someone took it. It’s ridiculous because you need the charger to make this thing useful. Oh well, I’ll see if I can pick up another tracker when I get home. But I lost all motivation for now. I’m eating like crazy in Thailand because the food is so cheap and delicious. I’ll lose weight later. Well, I’m walking a lot too so I’m burning calories.

Fun Goals

• Travel 180 days – I got 20 days in the bag. It would be more fun if my family was here, but Mrs. RB40 is busy with work and RB40Jr is busy with school. She could retire if she wants, but she chooses to work. I’ll just solo travel when I can. We’ll travel together in the summer.

• 1,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel. Currently, we have 461 subscribers on our YouTube channel. I’m publishing several clips per week so I hope to gain more traction this year.
• Hot air balloon ride, zip line, and Disneyland. I’ll work on this when I get back to Portland. Hot air balloon ride near Portland. Zip line in Thailand in the summer. Disneyland in the fall.
• Happiness level > 8. I’m having a great time in Thailand and I’m not even spending much money. In January, I give it a 9. I got to see my parents and relatives. I ate a ton of delicious food. Life is good. The only problem is my mom. Her dementia is deteriorating. She’ll have to go to a nursing home soon. It’s sad. I’ll look for a nice place while I’m here.

Net Worth (-4.2% YTD)

I’ve been tracking our net worth since 2006. It is very motivating to see our progress. The power of compounding is unbelievable. Our net worth increases more than we earn almost every year. Although, 2022 might break the trend. The stock market dropped quite a bit in January. Our net worth followed the market down and dropped about 4%. I think that’s all right, though. The stock market increased so much last year. It needs to calm down a bit. This is a good opportunity for investors to invest more.

Here is a chart of our net worth from Personal Capital.

*Sign up for a free account at Personal Capital to help manage your net worth and investment accounts. I log in almost every day to check on our accounts. It’s a great site for DIY investors.

2022 Passive Income ($3,716 YTD)

Here is a quick summary of our passive income. You can see all the details on my Passive Income page.

January was a slow month for passive income. The first month of the quarter is always a bit slow. Although, real estate crowdfunding was quite good. Fortunately, we didn’t spend much so our FI ratio turned out nice.  

*FI ratio = passive income/expense

January 2022 Cash Flow

Our cash flow was good in January. Our income was solid on all fronts. Oh, my side hustle income was very small in January because I’m traveling. However, I got an extra refund from the government. That was helpful. We also didn’t spend much. Overall, it was a good month.

Here is the Sankey diagram. You can get a quick overview from the diagram and see the details below.

Gross Income: $15,263

Our gross income will be lower than usual this year. We plan to work less and travel more. January was okay,

• Mrs. RB40’s job: $9,192.  
• Blog income: $1,473. Blog income was lower than usual last month.
• Real estate crowdfunding: $1,473. The first month of the quarter is good with crowdfunding. You can read more at the RE Crowdfunding Passive Income page.
• Rental income: $747. A nice month at the rental. Read more at the Rental Property Passive Income page.
• Dividend Income: $515. See more details on my Dividend Passive Income page.
• Interest Income: $7.
• Side hustle & Misc: $1,975. I made just $123 from charging scooters. The rest was from tax refund.

Monthly Spending: $2,816

This year, I plan to spend about $50,000. Our monthly spending budget is $4,166/month. In January, we were well under budget. We didn’t have any big expense. My travel doesn’t cost that much so that was good. Here are the details.

• Housing: $1,262. This category includes mortgage, home insurance, HOA fees, property taxes, utilities, home improvement, repair, and furnishing.
• Parents: $356. My brothers and I each sent $250/month to my parents. They don’t have much retirement savings. Fortunately, they live in Thailand so it is enough. I also own the condo they live in so their housing expense is minimal. This month I also got my dad a round trip ticket to Bangkok and paid his credit card bill (very small amount).
• Groceries: $263. Usually, we spend about $500/month on groceries. I guess Mrs. RB40 was using up all the stuff in the pantry. She didn’t spend much since I left.
• Bills: $23. (This is just life insurance. Water, gas, and electric bills are included in the housing category.)

• Transportation: $135. This was for gasoline, insurance, public transportation, and maintenance.
• Entertainment: $70. Mrs. RB40 and Junior got takeout a few times.
• Kid: $105. Junior signed up for soccer in the spring. This also includes some school supplies.

• Travel: $548. This is how much I withdrew since I came to Thailand. That is about how much I’ll spend each month here unless I take a trip somewhere.   
• Health: $0.   
• Clothing: $52. Mrs. RB40 purchased some stuff online. Actually, I purchased a few things too, but they were included in the travel section.
• Misc: $0.

Others

I don’t count these as personal spending.

• Taxes and deductions: $2,380. 

2022 Savings ($10,066 YTD)

I don’t think we’ll save as much as usual this year. We’ll travel more and relax a bit. We’ve been saving for so long. I think we deserve a break.

• Joe’s 401k: $1,800.
• Mrs. RB40’s 401k: $1,500. She contributes $750 every paycheck. She’ll need to increase it this year, though. I’ll send her a message.
• Roth IRAs: $0.
• 529 College Savings: $0.
• Extra savings: $6,766

YTD 2022 saving rate = 66%

January 2022 wrap up

January was a rough month for many people, but we did fine. Our net worth decreased along with the stock market, but I’m not worried. We’ll keep investing as usual and it’ll be fine in 20 years. Our cash flow was good so we don’t have to worry about money. We spend modestly and our income is still pretty steady. Let’s keep calm and invest more.

How was January for you? Did you have a nice 2022 so far?

*Sign up for a free account at Personal Capital to help manage your net worth and investment accounts. I log in almost every day to check on our accounts. It’s a great site for DIY investors.

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Joe started Retire by 40 in 2010 to figure out how to retire early. After 16 years of investing and saving, he achieved financial independence and retired at 38.

Passive income is the key to early retirement. This year, Joe is investing in commercial real estate with CrowdStreet. They have many projects across the USA so check them out!

Joe also highly recommends Personal Capital for DIY investors. They have many useful tools that will help you reach financial independence.

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