A Mountain Vacation, Bears, and October 2021 Financial Results

Before we dive into our October 2021 financial results, let’s talk about the highlights.

The RFL family goes on vacation!

We finally went on a real vacation… a pack up the whole family, get on an airplane, and go somewhere far away vacation. 

Although I had some serious anxiety leading up to it, especially since we would have an unvaccinated 5-year-old in tow, everything went smoothly.  Plus, the trip allowed us to spend time with close family members that we hadn’t seen in person for 2-3 years (or ever, for the new additions).   

The primary reason for this trip was a family wedding that we couldn’t miss.  And since the wedding was taking place in Eastern Tennessee with no direct flights from Phoenix, we decided to swing through our old hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina first. This allowed us to visit a few of our favorite places and spend extra time with family before making the 5-hour drive into the Great Smoky Mountains. We also used the road trip to explore a couple mountain towns which are on our list for potential future hometowns.

Mountains, a wedding, and bears, oh my!

The wedding was a low-key outdoor affair, much like our own mountain wedding 6+ years earlier.

Each family rented a large cabin for the 3-day weekend, and ours was the party cabin.  It was huge and pretty amazing, with million-dollar views, multiple covered decks, and a great fire pit area.  The location was perfect for hosting the rehearsal and wedding dinners, and enjoying the great outdoors.  

I love the mountains.  In my opinion, few things beat sitting in a rocking chair and watching the sunrise or sunset over the mountains on a crisp Fall day.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to explore Smoky Mountain National Park this time. However, we’ve been before and recommend it if you enjoy hiking.  

We did attempt one walk near our cabin after the rain let up on our “free” day. It ended up being a very short walk, since we spotted three bears in the woods who then proceeded to follow us back to the cabin.  Luckily, no bears or children were harmed during this encounter!

Total cost for the trip

Here’s a break-out of the costs for our 7- day (6-night) trip to North Carolina and Tennessee:

Since we stayed with family in Charlotte, and the cost of the wedding cabin was covered for guests, we didn’t have any lodging costs for this trip.  We did provide breakfasts for everyone staying at the cabin though, which is where the grocery money was spent.  Additionally, we visited quite a few restaurants and breweries on the trip, but I have no guilt about spending that money.

Overall, it was an awesome trip and well worth every penny we spent!

Without further ado, here are our October 2021 financial results, with all the juicy details of this month’s spending, passive income, savings rate, investments, and changes in net worth.

Why share the details of our spending and finances?

Because I’m nosey and enjoy reading about other people’s spending habits and net worth.  Maybe you do, too.

Everyone’s financial situation is unique.  However, I do believe there is value in sharing information to normalize the discussion of money and provide context.

Seeing other people in the FI community embrace simpler lives gave us the confidence to begin our own journey to financial independence and a lifestyle we believe will be healthier, happier, and more fulfilling.  I’m just trying to pay it forward.  Sharing our finances each month also helps us stay accountable.

If you’re looking for the frugalist of the frugal, you won’t find that here.  Life is short and we have no problem splurging on things that make us happy.  Although we spend freely in these value areas, we’re trying to ruthlessly cut back everywhere else.

Other information useful in reading our October financial results

Did we just buy a money pit?

We took a risk and bought a complete fixer upper in late 2018… with a toddler.  When we moved across the country for Mr. RFL’s job, we found housing costs much higher than we were used to.  So, when we found a great deal on a fixer upper, we decided to go for it.

We’ve been working on projects ever since, trying to do as much as we can ourselves to learn some new skills and save money.  Since the costs of a whole home renovation are significant and non-recurring, we don’t include them in our monthly expense budget.  However, we do share renovation costs each month for full transparency.  

How we define an “expense”

The table below shows all expenses for the month, excluding renovation costs.  Principal payments on debt are not included.  As a former accountant, I don’t view principal payments as “expenses,” since they directly reduce debt and increase net worth.  We don’t anticipate having any debt in retirement. 

October 2021 Financial Results

Net Worth

We calculate net worth by subtracting debt & other liabilities from total assets. Total assets include cash, investments, home equity, and an immaterial amount of other assets.

After a brief dip in September, our net worth is up 4.2% this month and 36% from a year ago.

Investments

Our Financial Independence portfolio, which consists of cash and investments, excluding our daughter’s 529 Plan, is up by 33.7% year-to-date.

We invested $7,383 this month, with just a small portion coming from existing cash. The net addition to our Financial Independence (“FI”) portfolio during the month was $6,743.

Thanks to a much better market performance in October, our portfolio recovered it’s previous losses, and we ended the month at 93.5% of our FIRE goal (or $935,300).

Debt

We ended the month with $196,400 in debt, the majority of which relates to our mortgage.

For the most part, we no longer make additional principal payments to our mortgage during the year. We shifted our priorities to investing excess cash once we got the mortgage balance below $200,000 and refinanced to a rate of 2.5%.  Although I’m now rethinking that strategy, given the lower market returns being projected for the next 10 years.

Savings Rate

Our after-tax savings rate was 68.2% for the month, which is well above our budgeted rate for the month.

October 2021 Financial Results: Monthly spending

Ok, full disclosure time! The table below shows our expenses for the month, along with some additional thoughts (or excuses).

*Does not include monthly spending for home renovation of $347, or charitable contributions made (which we don’t share publicly).

Housing-Related – $862

Housing-related costs include mortgage interest paid, and a monthly allocation for property taxes, insurance, and HOA dues. 

Insurance – $627

This category includes our monthly premiums for auto, term life, personal liability, and health insurance.

Health insurance premiums are withheld from Mr. RFL’s paycheck, but all our other insurance plans are paid annually or biannually.  We allocate an amount for auto insurance each month since the cost is high, but other insurance premiums are included here only when they’re actually paid.   October payments also included my annual term life insurance premium.

Food – $636

Spending was pretty reasonable during the month of October, although we were on vacation for one of the weeks.  We usually put food purchased while on vacation in the “travel” category.

Most of our grocery spending this month (nearly $400) was for a massive Butcher Box order, which will cover our meat and seafood needs for the next several months.  I’ve been really happy with their quality so far, but in order to get my money’s worth and secure the best deals, I stack up deals and only order a couple times a year.  I’ll write a post on this eventually. 

In the meantime, if you’re interested in giving Butcher Box a try, please consider using this Butcher Box referral link.  This referral link will get you $30 off your first box and a free product, which frequently changes).  For full transparency, I’ll also get a $30 credit on my next order, so thank you in advance for anyone who decides to use my link.

Alcohol – $104

Picked up several bottles of wine during Fry’s 25% off wine & spirits sale.  Once again scored some great deals, and our wine fridge is now completely full.

Household Consumables – $4

This category includes most of the non-food consumables used in our household, such as toilet paper, shampoo, skincare, laundry detergent, cleaning products, batteries, etc. 

Utilities (incl. internet) – $356

Utilities includes electric, water, gas, security, and internet.

Mobile phone – $33

This is for my Verizon prepaid plan, which is currently $30 + tax per month. 

Home maintenance – $0

Surprisingly, we had no maintenance costs this month!  It helps that we’ve now replaced and painted pretty much everything in our home, so these costs shouldn’t be too bad over the next few years.

Medical – $77

Several home-based COVID tests and some OTC meds.

Entertainment – $11

This category is for television, streaming music, books, games, concerts, and happy hours.  Just Spotify this month.  Our Hulu promotional offer of $2.99/month expired, so I cancelled the subscription.  I’m hoping for another black Friday promotion this year so we can sign up again at a discount.

Travel – $401

See above for a breakout of our travel costs for our vacation this month. These costs exclude airfare and the rental car, since they were purchased earlier this year.

While in Charlotte, we made time to indulge in a few of our local favorites, including Midwood Smokehouse and Noda Brewing Co.

Clothes – $0

Still going strong on my no spend clothing challenge (16 months and counting).  

Child Activities & Other purchases – $109

This month we paid for swim lessons and a couple books during the elementary school’s bookfair.

Other Shopping – $0

What?!  Yep, that’s right.  No random purchases this month for the first time in … forever!

Credit Card and membership fees – $160

We had two fees hit this month.  The first was the annual fee for our Amex Blue Cash Preferred card, which gives us 6% back on groceries and 3% on streaming and transportation.  Every year I perform a review to determine if the annual fees on our credit cards are worth it, and once again my analysis showed that this card’s benefits exceeded the costs.

Our Costco membership also renewed this month.  I’m not really sure if we get our money’s worth out of this membership, since we didn’t use it much during the pandemic. But at the rate I spend money when I go in that store, Costco should probably be paying me.

October 2021 Financial Results: Other Income

While the majority of our income comes from W-2 wages and related employee benefits (i.e. 401k match), we continue to build on our passive and other income streams.

The total non-employer related income either earned (or gifted to us) this month was $516.

Interest

We earned $91 in interest this month, primarily from our high-yield savings account and interest earned on Mr. RFL’s deferred compensation investments.  

Dividends

We received $307 in dividends this month, which pales in comparison to the $1,545 we received in September.  But any passive income is better than no passive income.

Reselling

Eh.  While we continue to declutter and sell unwanted clothes and kid gear on the secondhand market, I only made $19 through Poshmark (referral link) this month.

Cash Back Rewards

We earned $99 in cash back rewards this month, primarily from our credit cards.  We charge everything we can on our cards to maximize cash back, but always pay the full balance off each month.

Those are our financial results for October. How did your month go?

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