Welcome to another Dr. PayItBack monthly quarterly checkup! I use this space to remain accountable to our expenses and goals, track net worth and debt, and muse on what was done well and what can be improved.
Especially now that Twitter has imploded, I’m going to keep the blog up for the foreseeable future. If you want to connect more directly I can be found via the contact form or at Bluesky.
Budget/Cash Flow
We had an easy go of it in the past 90 days, with few substantial consumption outlays and thereafter the opportunity keep out savings high. Our only major expenses since March have been a new computer ($1,700) and new tires ($1,000). Overall our spending was within our soft target of $9-10k/month.
We have funded our boys’ 529s for the year and have finally started trickling money into the taxable brokerage again. I expect to be able to increase these contributions consistently paycheck by paycheck until they are back in a goal ~$10k/month range. Otherwise we continue to fund my pre-tax work accounts every 2 weeks and build up our emergency fund.
Our savings rate remained consistent from Q1 at 57%, somewhat shy of our goal 2/3 of net pay.
Mortgage
I have gone back to updating our home value every 6 months to smooth volatility. The estimate on Zillow will swing by large 5 figure amounts week to week, but suffice to say our area has *not* seen housing prices roll over like in other parts of the country. We remain very grateful that we were able to get it at the price and interest rate that we did.
Net Worth
Buoyed by the strong market, we are back to consistently hitting new high water marks in our assets. If we can at least avoid another large correction, it seems possible that we may hit a net worth of $1m by the end of the year.
Financial Independence
This graph has started to diverge a bit from my own calculations which have been pretty consistently centered around January 2035, but it sure is nice to see a number less than 10 years.
Financial Goals for 2023
1) Max out 403b: $11,770 of $22,500 (52.3% done)
2) Max out 457b: $11,370 of $22,500 (50.5% done)
3) Max out backdoor Roth IRAs: $13,000 of $13,000 (100% done) ✅
4) Use taxable brokerage and Mrs. PIB’s solo 401k in addition to goals 1, 2, and 3 to save $178,000 total for retirement: $4,700 of $120,000 (3.9% done)
5) Contribute to 529s and get state tax deduction: $16,000 of $16,000 (100% done) ✅
6) Rebuild emergency fund to 3 months of spending: $23,000 of $30,000 (76.7% done)