$124,533
Last month, I had achieved $119,475. That's a difference of $5,058!!! That feels good. What is equally good is not only being in triple digits, but reaching a quarter of the way to my next goal of 200k. If I can keep up this pace, I should get to that goal sometime next year.
Here's how things shook out this month: I deposited the last amount into my HYSA to bring them up to the predesignated amount of $20,500 and started focusing on dumping money into my brokerage. I received 2 bonuses, totaling $2,879. All of that was invested. My wife and I took a relaxing vacation where I spent $1,089 just on gas and restaurants (we drove our own car to visit Canada). It was worth every penny!
I already paid off the vacation expenses, which were put on my credit card. As a matter of fact, there's still a balance showing (which you'll see in my screen shot; I try to post screen shots without CC balances, but this one hasn't cleared yet. Besides, it's only $37).
I went through each of my credit cards and requested an increase in the line of credit for a few of them. Across all of them, my previous total line of credit was 52k. Now it's 69k, a difference of 17k. Not too bad. Now I just need to sit back and hope my score continues to climb. My goal is to get my credit score up above 800. I currently have a score of 761 (Transunion) and 751 (Equifax). NOTE: I know there are some out there that don't care about credit, but I do because I was terrible with credit when I was younger and ended up filing bankruptcy. So, I want to achieve the best credit standing I can. Just like FI, I believe having outstanding credit allows for more opportunities down the road should I need it.
The market was up slightly on Friday, but was down overall for the week. There were a couple of drops this month that brought my NW down below 125k, so I'll "officially" surpass that amount next week or so (hopefully; unless the market corrects). And, yes, I'm one of those people who check the market daily...just because. I like to watch it although I don't react emotionally by pulling out any money if the market drops. I'm always confident that it'll eventually climb higher than it was.
I think that basically covers the highlights, but now that I'm able to focus on my brokerage account there is a decision I'm wrestling with. When it comes to my finances, I tend to be a goal-oriented person. I like to set small goals along the way that I can work toward because it focuses me more. Here's what I'm trying to decide:
Currently, I have a 100% stock allocation and I believe there is a big market correction looming. I'd like to buy a bond fund to help mitigate a significant market drop, so I was looking at purchasing one of 2 tax-exempt muni funds. Right now, I've got my eye on either Vanguard's High-Yield Tax-Exempt fund (VWAHX) or Vanguard's New York Long-Term Tax-Exempt fund (VNYTX). I'm leaning more toward VWAHX but deciding between the two is only part of my conundrum.
Additionally, I'm torn about how/when to buy this fund.
I was thinking about purchasing the fund with 10k from my largest HYSA since that money is essentially losing value to inflation. I figured it would be more beneficial to put that money to work instead of drawing the 1.5% interest it currently gets. However, it's nice to have that peace of mind that, should I lose my job (for whatever reason), I've got enough cash to cover my expenses for a year.
If I went this route, I could focus on building the HYSA back up slowly since I've still got roughly 10k while also putting some money into VGTSX, which is almost at the point where I can convert it to Admiral shares, lowering the fund's expense ratio.
An alternative would be to bring VGTSX up to Admiral share (and possibly get it to 15k total), then focus on bringing VTSAX up to 20k (currently at ~12k; for a total of ~35k in my brokerage), then buy the tax-exempt muni fund for 5k and alternate future deposits between the 3 funds. The 5k I use to buy the muni fund would come from my largest HYSA, minimizing the hit to my EF. Afterward, I can replenish the HYSA and focus on the brokerage funds as outlined.
Either way, I would like to get that muni fund into my portfolio. How I do it might seem like splitting hairs since I could technically pull the trigger today. If anything catastrophic were to happen (such as losing my job), I could float on my largest credit card and the remainder of my HYSAs for several months. I just don't like the thought of utilizing a credit card that way or having significantly less cash.
I hope to have made a decision and acted on it before next month's update. Time will tell. Until then, I'll continue accumulating money in my brokerage.
 |
| June 2018 net worth |
 |
| June 2018 credit score(s). Just because |
No comments:
Post a Comment