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Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 1:22 am
by 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.
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 7:57 am
by 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!
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:54 pm
by 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
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 9:27 pm
by 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
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2017 3:15 pm
by DutchGirl
Keep it up!
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2017 11:19 pm
by 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
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 1:44 am
by 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.
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2017 11:27 pm
by 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
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 12:43 am
by 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.
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 3:33 am
by 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?)
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 1:11 am
by 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.
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 1:13 am
by 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
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 5:43 am
by Fish
MedSaver wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2018 1:11 am
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.
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 11:53 am
by 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.
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2018 3:53 pm
by 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.
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 1:10 pm
by 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.
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 8:11 pm
by 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)...
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 12:33 am
by 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.
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:48 pm
by 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.
Re: MedSaver's Journal
Posted: Sat May 05, 2018 6:20 pm
by 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