Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Thrifty gets it. I try to never rent cars on vacation; it's expensive and stressful.

Monthly update:

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Fiancee loans
Car loan at fixed 1.9% = $6000
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $69,000

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $205,000

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $276,171
Travel fund: $4200

Monthly update:

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Fiancee loans
Car loan at fixed 1.9% = $3110
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $63,532

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $203,789

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $275,948
Travel fund: $4600

March Update:

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Fiancee loans
Car loan at fixed 1.9% = $2767
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $62,323

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $200,502

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $296,276
Travel fund: $5000

Net:

+$35,684.

You're killing those loans - nice!

April Update:

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Fiancee loans
Car loan at fixed 1.9% = $2421
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $60,210

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $197,158

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $297,435
Travel fund: $4000

Net:

+$40,067

May Update:

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Fiancee loans
Car loan at fixed 1.9% = $2075
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $60,186

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $193,629

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $307,585
Travel fund: $1000

Net:

+$54,400

June Update:

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Fiancee loans
Car loan at fixed 1.9% = $1,729
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $60,781

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $189,933

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $352,173
Travel fund: $1000

Net:+$101,459

July Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Fiancee loans
Car loan at fixed 1.9% = $1,382
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $57,929

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $186,881

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $366,577
Travel fund: $1000

Net:+$120,385

August Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Fiancee loans
Car loan at fixed 1.9% = $1,034
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $56,728

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $183,418

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $374,733
Travel fund: $2000

Net:+$133,564

September Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Fiancee loans
Car loan at fixed 1.9% = $698
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $55,662

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $180,028

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $388,469
Travel fund: $2000

Net:+$152,081

October Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Fiancee loans
Car loan at fixed 1.9% = $0 - Yey! Paid off the car.
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $54,457

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $176,626

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $396,350
Travel fund: $4000

Net:+$165,267

November Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Fiancee loans
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $53,380

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $173,232

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $409,906
Travel fund: $1000

Net:+$183,294

Wowsa, you're making good progress! Keep it up!

Annual Update

Well, it has almost been one full year since we started tracking all of these numbers in earnest. How have we done?

MedSaver gross income 2016: $302,997 (2015: $176,000), up 72%.
Net income 2016: $188,695 (2015: $101,456), up 86%.
Monthly net: $15,725

MedSaver Fiancee gross income 2016: $157,529 (2015: $151,148), up 4%.
Net income 2016: $106,729 (2015: $96,326), up 11%.
Monthly net: $8,294

Spending breakdown (monthly):
Food: $550
Rent: $1750
MedSaver disability insurance: $500
Fiancee disability insurance: $80
MedSaver student loan: $4030
Fiancee student loan: $1300
Utilities: $270
Gas: $225
Internet/cable: $145
Cleaning service: $80
Cell phone: $65
Travel: $1700

Total 2016: $10,695 (2015: $10,560), up 1.3%.

There is also definitely some “leakage” each month for unaccounted expenses like gifts, emergencies, medical expenses, shopping, credit card fees, etc. I also paid off one of my smaller private student loans that had a variable rate, which was rising. So the numbers above are our bare minimum spend.

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Fiancee loans
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $52,176 (Jan 2016 $70,000)

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $168,200 (Jan 2016 $209,000)

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $427,817 (Jan 2016: $256,796)
Travel fund: $1500

Net: $207,441 (Jan 2015: -$28,204), which is +$19,637/month

At this rate of growth and savings, we will reach the lower margin of our financial independence goal in about 9 years. Obviously the stock market growth rate this past year is probably unsustainable, but once our loans are paid off we can offset lower returns (or even losses) with higher savings. We have started saving slightly more cash for a house downpayment, but are not currently in any hurry to buy a house (timeline 1-2 years).

MedSaver wrote:There is also definitely some “leakage” each month for unaccounted expenses like gifts, emergencies, medical expenses, shopping, credit card fees, etc. I also paid off one of my smaller private student loans that had a variable rate, which was rising. So the numbers above are our bare minimum spend.

Capture the leakage and put it in your budget. It's not a case of you have to spend it, rather one of anticipating what could happen.

How do you even spend this much money? crazy

January Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Fiancee loans
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $51,032

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $164,789

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $438,413
Travel fund: $3000

Net:+$222,592

February 2017 Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Fiancee loans
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $49,933

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $161,321

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $462,343
Travel fund: $3000

Net:+$251,089

Given that your net worth was -$20k in January 2016, I'd say the two of you are doing great. Difference of $240k or so in one year, on $295k of net income, meaning you saved 82% of your net income. (And yes, I am counting debt payments as savings).

If income would stay the same, that would mean you'd reach your financial independence ($3M in net worth) in roughly eight years or so.

By the way, you're apparently living on roughly $50k/year now. Would it be so bad to continue to live on $50k/year in retirement? If so, you'd seriously reduce the amount of time you'd need to get to that status. You'd only need $1.6 million to take out $50k/year at a withdrawal rate of 3%, and continuing like you're doing now, that would only take 4.5 years from now.

...perhaps that's something to consider 4.5 years from now