November 2022 FIRE Update

Hey everyone! Oh wow, it’s December already. We are in the home stretch now. This year, we are having a low-key holiday season. We spent Thanksgiving with friends then I flew to Thailand to see my parents. Mrs. RB40 and Junior will go see her family for Christmas. This year is so low-key, we didn’t even bother putting up the Christmas tree. Oh well. Next year, we’ll have a better family Christmas.  

On the personal finance side, things were good in November. Inflation seems to be moderating and the stock market performed well. As a result, our net worth recovered a bit. I’m getting more optimistic about 2023. We might get into a recession, but I think our investments will do quite well by the end of 2023.

Our cash flow for November didn’t look great, but it is still good for the year. Actually, I can’t wait to do the year-end wrap and see how it all works out. We spent more money than usual this year due to travel and unexpected expenses, but our investments also generate good income. It should all work out okay.

Today, I’ll share how I’m doing on my New Year goals. Then, I’ll show you our monthly cash flow. Here are the details.

2022 Goals

Here is my 2022 goal spreadsheet. 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.

I’m not doing so well on my goals this year. The progress is very uneven. I guess next year I’ll have to set better goals.

Financial Goals

• Real Estate Crowdfunding $200,000. I invested in an apartment renovation in North Carolina so we’re slowly getting there. These days, the projects on CrowdStreet finish their funding phase very quickly. Many investors are taking money off the stock market to diversify. Real estate is doing much better than the stock market this year. It’s a great way to generate passive income.
• FI Ratio > 110%. This is my main goal for 2022. The FI ratio is passive income divided by expense. So far, our FI ratio is 128%. This is pretty good.
• 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. Anyway, this goal got a fail.
• Speculate crypto $10,000. I sold off my Crypto in November. The craziness is too scary for me. All in all, I lost about $1,000. I might get back in next year.

Health Goals

• I got a new fitness tracker! Next year, I’ll set an achievable monthly step goal.

Fun Goals

• Travel 180 days – I spent 162 days traveling this year and I am exhausted. We spent the whole summer on the road while Mrs. RB40 was on a sabbatical. She could retire if she wants, but she is back at work.

• 1,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel. Currently, we have 1,445 subscribers on our YouTube channel. I don’t think I’m cut out to be a YouTuber. I just don’t have the personality for it. But we gained some subscribers this year so I met my goal.
• Hot air balloon ride, zipline, and Disneyland. Terrible. We didn’t do any of these activities in 2022. I’ll try to get at least 2 out of 3 next year.

• Happiness > 8. My happiness level recovered a bit in November. We had a good month and no more surprises. I’m also happy to see my mom.

Net Worth (-10.3% YTD)

Wow, the stock market did pretty well in November! Our net worth recovered quite a bit. We might get into a recession in 2023, but it seems like the market is poised to make a turnaround. There will be more volatility, but I’m optimistic we’ll see a new high by the end of next year.

I’ve been tracking our net worth since 2006. It is very motivating to see the progress. The power of compounding is unbelievable. Our net worth usually increases more than we earn almost every year. However, 2022 is turning out to be a terrible year. The stock market crashed and dragged our net worth down significantly. We diversified with real estate and other holdings so our portfolio is a bit more stable than the stock market. The decrease in our net worth isn’t fun, but we will continue to invest for the future.  

***Important*** My best advice is to stay the course. Do not stop investing. You need to keep investing when the stock market is down. Eventually, the stock market will recover and you will do very well as long as you keep investing through the downturn.

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: $65,006 YTD

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

Our passive income is strong this year. In particular, real estate crowdfunding did quite well. Also, our rentals are performing much better than the last few years. It’s nice to be diversified.

*FI ratio = passive income/expense

Nov 2022 Cash Flow

Mrs. RB40 is back to work now, but I’ll exclude her income from our monthly cash flow. It’ll give us a better picture of how things will be when she retires. Honestly, it hasn’t been great. We need to draw from savings almost every month. However, passive income is a bit lumpy. We’ll have a better picture at the end of the year.

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

Gross Income: $2,756

Our gross income was lower than usual last month. We had to draw from our savings to make the numbers work. Passive income can be lumpy. Our cash flow is fine for 2022, but there are several months that we need to borrow from savings. This is a good lesson to learn now. We probably need a larger cash cushion after Mrs. RB40 retires.

• Blog income: $1,259. My blog income was quite low last month. Blogging income is 50% passive, at best. If I work less, my income drops too.
• Real estate crowdfunding: $0. No payout from real estate crowdfunding last month. You can read more on the RE Crowdfunding Passive Income page.
• Rental income: $719. We had a nice month at the rental. I think we’ll have a good year with rental income. Things are much smoother than the previous years.
• Dividend Income: $765. Good month with dividends.
• Interest Income: $13
• Side hustle & Misc: $0.

Monthly Spending: $3,431

This year, I plan to spend about $50,000. So our monthly spending budget is $4,166. In November, we came in under budget.

Here are the details. Actually, I’ll only focus on a few categories to keep it simpler.  

• Housing: $1,240. This category includes mortgage, home insurance, HOA fees, property taxes, utilities, home improvement, repair, and furnishing. The price of utilities increased a little this year.
• Parent/travel: $250. I send $250 to my parents every month to help with their living expenses. 
• Groceries: $546. Not bad for a family of three.
• Health: $809. Mrs. RB40 had some health expenses in November.
• Entertainment: $173. We spent a bit more than usual on entertainment last month. I found a neat wine bar near RB40Jr’s martial art class. It was fun to hang out with Mrs. RB40 more often. Also, I’m in Thailand now and I’m eating out a lot. The food here is quite affordable, though.

Grilled chicken, papaya salad, and sticky rice for about $4. The grilled chicken was so smokey and tender. Thai restaurants in the US don’t make anything this delicious.

Fried noodles with chicken and egg for $1.50. Inflation is high in Thailand, but street food is still very affordable.

Taxes and deductions

I don’t count these as personal spending.

• Taxes and deductions: $450 

November 2022 wrap up

November was a better month for us. Our cash flow wasn’t great, but we didn’t spend that much money. Everything should be fine when I do the annual wrap up. I’m looking forward to a new year. 2022 was good, but there were too many bad surprises. Let’s hope 2023 will be a normal boring year.

All right, that’s it today. How was November for you?

Passive income is the key to early retirement. These days, I’m investing in commercial properties with CrowdStreet. They have many projects across the United States. Go check them out!

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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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