July 2016 Update

Another month is behind us, which means...time for a monthly update. This was a good month. According to my spreadsheets, I surpassed my projected amount by several thousand dollars. Woohoo! As of today, my net worth has crept up to:

$62,263

One month ago, my net worth was $56,411. That's a difference of $5,852! Probably the best month I've had by far. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how I managed to save so much in this month alone. Some contributing factors: my wife and son have been away for most of the time this month, leaving me at home by myself; I telecommute quite a bit, which saves gas; I've only eaten at home and gone grocery shopping a couple of times, buying things that I could stretch out over several days.

I've definitely lived well below my means this month. I feel quite hermit-ish, to be truthful. With temperatures well into the 90s (hovering close to 100), I haven't gone out much. Instead, preferring to lounge around in the AC. I mowed the grass yesterday and it nearly gave me a heat stroke. I took 2 breaks to stand under the ceiling fan drinking cold water.

Several times this month, the market rallied and finished with gains (although I see it's down today), so that helped. I usually don't count capital gains, just to see how I'm doing strictly by my own effort to save, which I track in a separate spreadsheet. According to that information, the amount of money I squirreled away this month was $4,745, which is a $1,100 difference in what Personal Capital is reporting. Still, not too bad.

Hopefully, I can keep adhering to strict budgets to maximize my savings. This month was comfortable despite keeping back so much. I doubt I could squeeze any more out of my spending to save without feeling like I was depriving myself. I feel good with where I'm at though. If I can keep up this pace, I'll hit my next milestone of 100k sooner than I anticipated. Fortunately, I didn't have any unexpected major expenses this month and that always helps. Let's see if that trend will continue.

Now for a look at my assets.

(Note: I know this post isn't very informative as far as what I did to save the amount that I did. I haven't had a chance to dig in and really analyze where I was more efficient aside from not going anywhere that led to not spending much money, which is an important key aspect to reaching FI. If I identify anything of importance, I'll come back with to post an update.)