August 2019 Update

This update is extremely late, but truth is, I'm getting really tired of writing update these posts. I like the idea of keeping track of my monthly progress, but writing a post every first of the month becomes tedious after a while. Also, I've been at this a while and it's beginning to lose its excitement. I don't mean I'm growing tired of pursuing financial independence. I just mean I'm growing tired of trying to remember all the monetary details of the prior month when I write one of these posts. But I said in the beginning I'd do this for posterity's sake, so I guess I need to just suck it up and keep at it. Let's get down to it then; at the end of August, my net worth was...

$193,548

My net worth at the end of July was $187,285, a difference of $6,263. That's really good, but since I'm posting this very late, honestly, I can't remember if that's due to me being aggressive with savings or whether the markets were doing really well. Still, I'm happy with it.

You'll notice there is a credit card balance I owe of $247. That's what's left of a much larger balance I was in the process of paying off. The full balance was $1,947, which is for a trip to Milan in November for my wife, daughter, and me that we found on Groupon. It was a great deal of round trip tickets, accommodations in a nice hotel for 4 nights, and includes meals. It was $649 for each of us. How could I pass up that deal?! I couldn't, so there you go. As I write this post, our trip is just over a month away and I'm very excited about it.

I believe I reported in July that I gifted my wife $5k toward her credit card debt. I managed to sock away $2k this month into my HYSA to replenish some of that money. The remainder of the money I accumulated went into my 401k.

Since this post is so late, I can tell you my net worth today, while higher than this, isn't much higher. I'll try to give more details in the September update (which is the one I'll create once I save this one--like I said, I'm way behind and have to play catch up).

Here's the obligatory net worth screen shot from Personal Capital.

August 2019 net worth

Note: As I was rereading this post before publishing it, it dawned on me that, to the casual reader, it may seem like I'm tossing around thousands of dollars like it was nothing (e.g. spending 1.9k on an impulsive European trip, and just giving my wife 5k, etc.). I realize someone not used to saving like I do might think I'm rich or get paid an astronomical amount. I wanted to state for the record that I make good money ($98,836/yr), but not over six-figures like a lot of other people who work in IT. The reason I can look at this kind of money as disposable income is because:

1. I don't have any debt, other than what I accumulate on my credit card, which I pay off monthly.
2. My expenses are very low. I don't spend money frivolously, but instead save much of it.
3. A lot of these thousands come out of my savings, which I have to replenish so it just seems like I've got money coming out of my ears. (Truth is, I don't; other than what I report here.)

I'm just an average person like everyone else. Before I started saving money aggressively, I would've read these numbers in disbelief. However, now that I've accumulated a nice stash and my lifestyle has changed to prioritize saving, these numbers don't seem as outrageous to me any more. It's a matter of perspective. When you don't have much, these numbers seem like a lot. But when you amass a certain amount, your perspective on what constitutes a lot shifts. That's all.