May 2023 FIRE Update

Hey everyone! Oh wow, it’s almost summer and school will be out soon. May went by pretty quickly. Did you have a good month? It was a pretty normal month for us. RB40Jr went to school and attended his activities. Mrs. RB40 worked from home. I delivered lunches and got better at it. By avoiding bad orders, I drove less and made more money. However, I was wrecked emotionally. My mom passed away about a month ago and it took me a while to come to terms with it. I’m better now, though. We visited the Thai temple to pray for her and that helped me through the grieving process.  

On the financial side, we had a great month. Our income streams were strong. We also didn’t spend too much. It was a good positive cash flow month. Our net worth also increased quite a bit. The market did quite well due to the AI craze and the resilient economy.

Alright, I’ll share how I’m doing with my 2023 New Year goals. Then, I’ll go over our net worth and cash flow. Let’s go!

2023 Goals

Here is my 2023 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 once a month to track your progress. That way, you can see which goals need extra attention and work on them.

Things are looking okay…

Financial Goals

• Invest in Real Estate Crowdfunding. I plan to invest in at least one RE crowdfunding project this year. In January, there was a capital call and I sent in $3,000. That’s a start. I’ll invest more as we accumulate more cash. My projects on CrowdStreet are doing quite well so I plan to invest more over the next few years. It’s a great way to generate passive income.
• FI Ratio > 120%. This is my main goal for 2023. The FI ratio is passive income divided by expense. This shows us we can maintain our lifestyle with our passive income. It isn’t going well this year. Our FI ratio is at 83% after 5 months. We spent a lot of money early this year. However, the rest of the year should be relatively cheap. I’m pretty sure our passive income will catch up soon.
• Net worth back to all-time high. This one is entirely dependent on our investment. I don’t have much control over it, but let’s get back to ATH! Things are looking good so far in 2023. Our net worth has recovered 79% already. Our lowest point was in October 2022.

Health Goals

• 7,500 steps per day. Wow, this goal is tough to accomplish. My steps per day dropped like a rock after I came back from Thailand. It was cold in Portland and I had a tough time leaving the house. My average is 6,062 steps per day. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’ll get much better than this.
• Cook 1 vegetarian/fish per week. I want to cook a healthier meal at least once per week. So far I have cooked 29 healthy meals. That’s great progress.

Personal Goals

• Disneyland, zipline, or hot air balloon ride. We visited Disneyland in March. It was great. We enjoyed the trip tremendously. RB40Jr wasn’t impressed with the classic rides, but he loved the newer more thrilling rides. I’m glad we went. Done!
• Happiness > 8. May was a bit rough for me. My mom passed away in April and I was weighted down for the whole month. It’s tough when you see the end game. I’m getting better, though. I give May 7 points. Summer is almost here so things are looking up.

• Get rid of Awebber. WIP. This is one of my biggest business expenses and it doesn’t seem that useful. I’ll move to a cheaper alternative this year. It’s hard to get going on this front.

Net Worth (+10.1%)

The stock market did very well in May. Artificial Intelligent stocks were on a tear and they drove the index higher. I sold some NVDA and META to take a little money off the table. It was a great month to be an investor.

I’ve been tracking our net worth since 2006. Usually, it is very motivating to see the progress. The power of compounding is unbelievable. However, 2022 was demoralizing. Our net worth dropped along with the stock market. Hopefully, we can get back to our all-time high this year. The important thing is to keep investing even when the market goes down.

***Important*** My best advice is to stay the course. Do not stop investing. You have 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 Empower. (Personal Capital is now Empower.) Sign up for a free account at Empower to help manage your net worth and investment accounts. I log in to check our net worth and use their free tools. It’s a great site for DIY investors.

May 2023 FIRE Cash Flow

This FIRE cash flow chart includes my online income, side gigs, and taxable passive income. Mrs. RB40’s income isn’t here because I verify that we will be fine after she retires. May was a good month. Cash flow was positive and we saved over $2,000.

May 2023 FIRE Income: $6,019

Our FIRE income was great in May. Real estate crowdfunding came through with a couple of nice payouts. The extra income from delivering food was helpful too.

• Real estate crowdfunding: $1,850. Our real estate crowdfunding income is doing quite well. You can read more on the RE Crowdfunding Passive Income page.
• Dividend Income: $1,216. Good dividends.   
• Rental income: $592. I power-washed the decks at the duplex and stained them. I also purchased some plants for landscaping.
• Blog income: $1,290. Blog income is slowing down.
• Odd jobs: I made $1,050 from being a delivery driver. But I also spent more than usual on gas. I’ll keep driving for a while to see if I can improve my efficiency.  
• Interest: $20.

Spending: $3,795

In 2023, I plan to spend about $50,000. That’s the same budget as last year. May was pretty good. We spent more than usual on eating out and clothing, but the rest was good.

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

• Housing: $1,297. This includes mortgage, utilities, furniture, repair, and maintenance. Our housing expense is pretty low because we live in a duplex. We split many expenses with our tenant.   
• Clothing: $404. Mrs. RB40 said she’d done being cheap. She got some clothes and accessories. I think this is fine. She should spend some money on herself.   
• Entertainment: $385. We ordered out more than usual last month. Mrs. RB40 was stressed out at work so we needed an outlet.
• Groceries: $641. My target for grocery expenses was $500 per month. That probably isn’t realistic now due to inflation. I will increase our grocery budget to $600/month.    
• Kid: $263. RB40Jr’s activities – Wushu class.  
• Parent: $250. My brothers and I send $250/month to our parents to help with expenses. They live in Thailand so their cost of living is much lower.
• Transportation: $279. This was much higher than usual. Normally, I spend around $50 on gas. This category will be around $300/month as long as I continue being a delivery driver.  

Saving: $2,226

Finally, we have a good month with savings. This should help us catch up with previous negative cash flow months.  

May 2023 wrap up

May was a good month for me. Life was rolling along at a normal clip at the RB40 household. I was a bit emotional, but I’m almost back to normal now. It just takes time.

The stock market performed very well and we benefited. Investing is the best way to grow your passive income. I’m optimistic for the rest of 2023. The economy might have a soft landing and avoid a recession after all.

Alright, I’m ready for summer. Bring on the hot weather!

That’s it today. Did you have a good month? School is almost out and we’re looking forward to a great summer. I hope life is good for you as well.

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!

Disclosure: We may receive a referral fee if you signup for a service through the links on this page.

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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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