MedSaver's Journal

[MedSaver]

July 2017 Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Mrs. MedSaver loans
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $44,134

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $144,003

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $568,509
Travel fund: $4000

Net:+$380,372

*edit - some of the numbers were a little off.

[DutchGirl]

Good to read in your June-update that there are more good days now. I hope that trend continued, anyway?

You guys are doing pretty well financially. Keep going!

[MedSaver]

August 2017 Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Mrs. MedSaver loans
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $42,920

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $140,561

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $576,093
Travel fund: $2500

Net:+$392,612

[MedSaver]

September 2017 Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Mrs. MedSaver loans
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $41,750

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $137,052

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $605,512
Travel fund: $2500

Net:+$426,710

[DutchGirl]

Keep it up!

[MedSaver]

October 2017 Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Mrs. MedSaver loans
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $40,620

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $133,548

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $620,228
Travel fund: $3500

Net:+$446,060

[wolf]

Wow MedSaver! You have an impressive change in your net worth from September to Oktober. Things look very positive financially. Take care and keep it up.

[MedSaver]

November 2017 Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Mrs. MedSaver loans
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $39,402

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $130,031

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $642,937

Net:+$473,504

[MedSaver]

Annual Update

Another year down. This is the first full year of completely tracked expenses for both me and Mrs. MedSaver. So, how did we do?

MedSaver gross income 2017: $345,448 (2016: $302,997), up 14%.
Net income 2017: $212,622 (2016: $188,695), up 13%.
Monthly net: $17,719

MedSaver Fiancee gross income 2017: $160,633 (2016: $157,529), up 2%.
Net income 2017: $87,121 (this number is low because we are maxing her pretax retirement accounts)
Monthly net: $7,260

This year was weird for cash flow because we paid for a wedding at $20k (hopefully a one-time endeavor) and received about $8k in wedding gifts. Additionally, we had fairly significant dividend income from our investments at $8k. Previously this was negligible. We are also apparently going to get pounded by the marriage penalty to the tune of about $20k, based on my back-of-the-napkin calculations, but that will be considered a 2018 expense.

Spending breakdown (monthly):
Food: $1000
Rent: $1850
Insurance: $735
MedSaver student loan: $4030
Fiancee student loan: $1300
Utilities: $180
Gas: $180
Internet/cable: $127
Cleaning service: $80
Cell phone: $65
Travel: $2500
Other: $4700

Total 2017: $16,747

The "Other" category is obviously enormous and includes additional taxes, wedding expenses, gifts, cash withdrawals, entertainment, family support, professional expenses, car maintenance, financial planner fees, investment fees, healthcare expenses, clothing, home maintenance, charitable giving, etc. Hopefully this falls next year, but it's hard to compare with last year since I wasn't closely tracking my wife's expenses.

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Mrs. MedSaver loans
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $38,217 (Jan 2017 $52,176)

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $126,507 (Jan 2017 $168,200)

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $673,387 (Jan 2017: $427,817)

Net: $508,663 (Jan 2017: $207,441), which is +$25,102/month

Assuming moderate 5% growth and continued similar savings, we can expect to reach the lower margin of our FI number in about 7 years. However, I expect greater wage growth for 2018. Additionally, I am now eligible for company profit sharing which is substantial. Our federal taxes are predicted to drop significantly as the marriage penalty and AMT have essentially been eliminated. This is in spite of our inability to deduct SALT. I'll let you all know how our paychecks fared come the end of January. Best wishes to everyone in the New Year.

[Fish]

Congratulations on getting married MedSaver! (So subtle there between your May and June updates!) And congrats on another fantastic year and breaking 500k NW! That hard work in your 20s is now paying off in a very big way.

Do you plan to continue renting your home, or will you buy one eventually? I'm impressed that you've managed to keep expenses reasonable (by my standards anyway) all this time. Do you feel any peer pressure from your more spendy colleagues? (Or from us here?)

[MedSaver]

Hi Fish,

Sorry my reply is tardy. I haven't checked back in for a long time. Thanks for your encouragement. I'm surprised you think our expenses are reasonable. Compared to most people on here my numbers seem reckless. My colleagues vary from very spendy to very frugal so I fit in ok. Most of them do seem surprised that we haven't bought a house, but then again, they don't really know we are planning on FIRE within a decade... We plan to purchase a house within 5 years in the location we want to eventually end up. We plan on keeping that home for a long time.

[MedSaver]

January 2018 Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Mrs. MedSaver loans
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $37,037

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $122,977

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $715,653

Net:+$555,639

[Fish]

I'm surprised you think our expenses are reasonable. Compared to most people on here my numbers seem reckless.

I think it's important to take things in context. If you count debt repayment as savings and subtract out the 20k for the wedding, your 2017 expenses add up to 117k. Compared to your household net income of 300k (which doesn't even include pretax retirement savings?), that's a savings rate of 61% which I find respectable even if the denominator is high. The core expenses (everything except student loans, travel, and the ominous "other") add up to 51k. While this isn't going to win you any frugal awards, it shows that you haven't overextended yourself in your lifestyle relative to income. There are lots of ways to earn 51k besides doctoring. For 300k you only have one option. Assuming you can cut the travel and "other" completely in a hardship situation, you even have 10+ years saved up if you were both to lose your jobs. And still have money in the budget to pay someone else to do the cleaning.

If reducing expenses is a goal, you can try what Scott 2 is doing in his journal and track the categories you're trying to cut. Quantifying what is going into "other" would be a start.

[MedSaver]

I appreciate your insights Fish. We can certainly cut expenses if required in a hardship situation. As far as the "other" category, it is fully quantified but would be tedious to report (and read) e.g. Spotify $10, newspaper $15,etc.

[MedSaver]

February 2018 Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Mrs. MedSaver loans
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $35,893

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $119,441

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $698,752

Net:+$543,418

Took a little hit from the stock market correction.

[DutchGirl]

You're doing great. Nice progress on paying down the student loans.
And yes, unfortunately as far as the stock market is concerned, stock values are roughly back where they were at the beginning of January. Oh well... At some point, that will recover.

[MedSaver]

March 2018 Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Mrs. MedSaver loans
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $34,655

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $115,883

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $678,871

Net:+$528,333

Losses in the stock market continue to mount. Additionally, our tax bill was almost an additional $20k (the marriage penalty is real)...

[DutchGirl]

I hope you're okay with the turbulent market? I know I am, but I do have a bit less skin in the game than you do.

[MedSaver]

I'm ok with turbulence or even a recession. If anything, it's time to buy more. It's a weird feeling having swings of tens of thousands of dollars every day though.

[MedSaver]

April 2018 Update

Liabilities:

Credit cards = $0

Mrs. MedSaver loans
Total student loans (5 year fixed 3.5%) = $33,465

MedSaver loans
Student loans blended (5 year ~3.5% fixed) = $112,308

Assets:
IRA/Brokerage/403b/457/cash: $706,942

Net:+$561,169