November 2024 Early Retirement Replace – Dwelling for the Holidays Version

Welcome again to a different month-to-month replace from Root of Good! We’re again house in Raleigh for a two month interval to have fun Thanksgiving and Christmas with our households. 

After a busy journey season from April to November, the place we spent 5 months on trip, it’s time for a break. A trip from vacationing (ha ha ha!).

I’ve a rising to-do listing of deferred upkeep duties round the home to maintain me busy over the vacations. On prime of that, I must deal with the abnormal finish of 12 months monetary and administrative chores similar to tax optimizing, monetary recordkeeping, and enrolling in an ACA medical insurance plan. 

December and January received’t be all work and no play, nonetheless. I count on to have numerous lazy days round the home having fun with the quiet of winter as properly. 

On to our monetary progress. November was a blended month for our funds. Our internet value elevated by $102,000 to finish the month at $3,376,000. Our earnings of $3,675 was considerably decrease than our spending of $11,184 for the month of November.  

Let’s leap into the main points from final month.

 

Earnings

Funding earnings totaled $544 in November. Our fairness index funds and ETFs pay dividends quarterly on the finish of March, June, September, and December. Because of this, we had a smaller than regular quantity of funding earnings final month. Nonetheless, December is all the time the most important month for dividends so our payday isn’t very distant at this level within the 12 months. Right here’s extra on our dividend investments.

Weblog earnings totaled $846 for the month. This represents a barely above common month of weblog earnings. 

My early retirement life-style consulting earnings (“consulting”) was $0 final month. I used to be out of city most of November however picked up a number of new consulting shoppers throughout final month whereas I used to be on my cruise. Their funds all posted in December so I’ll have a fantastic month to report subsequent month.

Since I by no means pay for the usuriously costly web plans on the cruise ships ($20+ per day sometimes), I depend on grabbing some information whereas in port to investigate cross-check issues. I take advantage of Google Fi for worldwide cell information or a free wifi spot on the port constructing or a neighborhood enterprise. My regular replies to shopper inquiries are fast and quick. Only a fast word to allow them to know I obtained their consulting inquiry and that I’ll reply intimately as soon as I’m again on land. This technique appears to work properly sufficient for these shoppers genuinely fascinated by establishing a consulting session. 

Tradeline gross sales earnings totaled $475 in November. One other good month. I ramped up my tradeline gross sales a number of years in the past and mentioned it in a bit extra element in my October 2020 month-to-month put up and in my July 2021 month-to-month put up. Throughout 2024 I’ve remodeled $6,000 in alternate for lending out my stellar credit score historical past from half a dozen bank cards. 

For final month, my “deposit earnings” was $30. This got here from money again and incentive bonuses from the Rakuten.com and Mrrebates.com on-line procuring portals (a few of which was earned from you readers signing up by way of these hyperlinks).

If you happen to join Rakuten by way of this hyperlink and make a qualifying $25 buy by way of Rakuten, you’ll get a $10 join bonus (or extra!). 

My financial institution and bank card bonuses totaled $1,779 final month. This quantity comes from the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s “Pay Your self Again” characteristic. I get a 25% bonus after I redeem the Chase Final Rewards factors to reimburse for my purchases in choose classes like utilities and insurance coverage. Since I’ve a TON of Chase factors, I’ve began cashing them out by inserting my utility and insurance coverage funds on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card and utilizing the 25% bonus Pay Your self Again redemptions. 

 

 

If you happen to’re fascinated by monitoring your earnings and bills like I do, then take a look at Empower Private Dashboard, previously generally known as Private Capital (it’s free!). All of our financial savings and spending accounts (together with checking, cash market, and greater than half a dozen bank cards) are all linked and up to date in actual time by way of Empower Private Dashboard. We’ve got accounts in every single place, and Empower Private Dashboard makes it very easy to examine on every little thing at one time.

Empower Private Dashboard can be a strong instrument for funding administration. Retaining observe of our whole funding portfolio takes two clicks. If you happen to haven’t signed up for the free Empower Private Dashboard service, test it out at this time (assessment right here).

Monitoring spending was one of many vital steps I took that allowed me to retire at 33. And it’s now simpler than ever with Empower Private Dashboard.

 

 

Bills

Now let’s check out November bills:

 

 

In complete, we spent $11,184 in the course of the month of November which is about $8,000 greater than our usually budgeted $3,333 per thirty days (or $40,000 per 12 months). Healthcare/Dental and Insurance coverage have been the 2 largest classes from final month. 

 

Detailed breakdown of spending:

 

Healthcare/Medical/Dental – $8,670:

Our present 2024 medical insurance is free, because of very beneficiant Reasonably priced Care Act subsidies that we obtain because of our low ~$48,000 per 12 months Adjusted Gross Earnings. 

Our 2024 dental insurance coverage plan prices $37 in premiums per thirty days. We picked a plan from Truassure by way of the healthcare.gov alternate. The dental insurance coverage does job of overlaying routine cleanings, exams, and x-rays plus most of the price of primary procedures like fillings. 

The most important portion of our healthcare spending for November got here from a dental process that price $8,633 and wasn’t lined by our primary dental insurance coverage. This expense is much more than our typical annual healthcare/dental spending, however one thing to be anticipated often over the course of many years of early retirement. 2024 might be an costly 12 months for healthcare/dental spending however each different 12 months of the previous decade has seen comparatively modest spending on this class. 

On a aspect word, this lumpy healthcare/dental spending is absolutely reimbursable from our six-figure Well being Financial savings Account. I don’t know whether or not I’ll reimburse myself instantly or go away the funds within the HSA to proceed rising tax free for some time. I can save the receipt and reimburse myself at any level sooner or later at any time when I need a money infusion. 

 

Insurance coverage – $1,355:

Our six-month auto insurance coverage invoice got here due in November. That works out to $225 per thirty days. I don’t know what others are paying, however that quantity feels fairly affordable for insuring two teen drivers and two skilled grownup drivers. About 80% of the premium comes from the 2 teen drivers as a result of a lot greater danger profile.

Long run, these auto insurance coverage premiums will decline. In two years, each teen drivers might be skilled drivers and the charges will drop considerably. And the expectation is that these teen drivers will graduate school and get nice jobs to allow them to cowl their very own insurance coverage.

Over a decade in the past when planning for early retirement with three children, I had budgeted much more for the “costly teen years” partly because of excessive auto insurance coverage premiums. In hindsight, the auto insurance coverage wasn’t as a lot as I used to be anticipating. 

 

 

 

Groceries – $562:

The entire we spent on groceries for November was $562. We have been gone for over half of the month on our cruise so we simply weren’t right here to buy as a lot. And naturally we didn’t have to purchase our personal groceries to feed ourselves for 16 days whereas we have been eating on the cruise ship. 

 

Utilities – $229:

We spent $139 on our water/sewer/trash invoice final month. 

The electrical invoice was $90 final month. That in all probability features a few days of utilizing the air conditioner in the course of the billing interval, however AC utilization ought to drop to virtually zero for the subsequent few months because it’s wintertime now. In fact we all the time have a few swampy heat and humid days in the midst of winter the place we now have to crank the AC a bit to knock out some humidity inside the home. 

No pure gasoline invoice in November since I paid it twice throughout October. 

 

 

 

Journey – $193:

We spent $56 on our cruise in November. $38 for the Ubers to the port and again to the airport. $18 for spherical journey bus fares for 2 whereas in Bermuda for the day. Every thing else was pre-paid in early 2024. 

To assist us in our quite a few journeys yearly, we purchased a brand new carry-on bag for $42 on a Black Friday sale. 

The remaining journey spending of $95 was an annual payment on the Wyndham Enterprise bank card. In alternate for the payment, we get 15,000 Wyndham lodge factors and Diamond standing. Up to now, I used this standing to match to Caesars Diamond standing after which match to different casinos and cruise strains totally free cruises and comps. In 2025 the Caesars Diamond match goes away, so the utility of this card drops fairly a bit.

I’ll hold the Wyndham Enterprise card for yet another 12 months, then re-evaluate its worth. The annual 15,000 Wyndham factors are value greater than the $95 annual payment. We routinely booked $300+ lodge rooms for 13,5000 Wyndham factors throughout 2024. In impact, we’re shopping for a $300 lodge evening for $95. 

 

 

 

Get free journey like us

If you’re fascinated by getting free journey out of your bank card like I do, take into account the Chase Ink Most popular enterprise card (my referral hyperlink). Proper now, the Chase Ink Most popular enterprise card gives an above common $900 value of Chase Final Rewards factors that may be redeemed immediately for $900 in money (or much more for journey!). I simply signed up for one more new Ink card to snag one in all these nice bonus gives.

Chase is fairly liberal relating to “what’s a enterprise”. If you happen to promote stuff on eBay or Craigslist or do some odd jobs often then you’ve gotten a enterprise and will get a bank card as a “sole proprietor”. 

I take advantage of the 90,000 Chase Final Rewards factors by transferring them to my Chase Sapphire Reserve card (additionally providing a 60,000 level join bonus proper now). With the Sapphire Reserve card, I can get 1.5x the factors worth by reserving cruises, flights, resorts, or rental automobiles by way of their journey portal. For instance, I used 165,000 Chase Final Reward factors to pay for the $2,475 in taxes, charges, and gratuities on two of my cruises. Or I can switch these Final rewards factors to over a dozen journey companions’ airline/lodge applications like United, Southwest, or Hyatt. 

 

Capital One VentureX card

One other favourite journey card in my pockets is the Capital One Enterprise X card. The Enterprise X card is a “keeper” for me. First off, it comes with a $750 join bonus after spending $4,000 within the first three months. The bonus is paid within the type of 75,000 bonus factors that you would be able to redeem towards any journey purchases from anyplace. You then earn a strong 2 factors per greenback spent eternally! The opposite huge perk is airport lounge entry. You will get your self plus limitless friends into Precedence Go lounges. And also you and two of your friends can get into Plaza Premium community lounges and Capital One Lounges. 

The Capital One Enterprise X card does have one catch – a $395 annual payment. However they reward you yearly with a simple to make use of $300 journey low cost plus $100 value of factors. Collectively, that makes $400 they provide you yearly which fully offsets the annual payment. One other profit value mentioning: you’ll be able to add as much as 4 licensed customers totally free, and so they additionally get all the advantages of the Enterprise X card together with the dear airport lounge entry. We used this perk to “reward” a pair of Enterprise X playing cards with airport lounge entry to my brother in legislation and his spouse to make use of on their household journey again house to Cambodia final April with their two younger kids. 

For the reason that annual payment is offset in full by journey credit annually, I personally plan on protecting the Enterprise X card eternally for the reason that card advantages are so nice.

 

 

 

Items – $84:

Christmas presents. A few of our reward spending will get lumped into “groceries” or “common merchandise” expense classes as a result of I generally neglect to interrupt out the spending into distinct classes for purchases at Amazon and Walmart (for instance). 

 

Electronics – $49:

I purchased myself a brand new Motorola Edge 2024 cellphone at a steeply discounted value of $49. It’s a pleasant light-weight mid-range cellphone that may usually be $200-300. 

I didn’t actually need a brand new telephone but however finally I’ll. Why not improve when it’s low cost to take action? Ultimately my outdated telephone received’t get working system updates and safety updates. This was extra of a software program obsolescence problem than the {hardware} or battery failing me on the outdated telephone. I already needed to sideload an app on my outdated telephone as a result of the OS was too dated, so it was time to improve for comfort’s sake. And for safety functions as properly.

 

Cable/Satellite tv for pc/Web – $25:

We often pay $25 per thirty days for a neighborhood decreased price package deal because of having a decrease earnings and having children. 50 mbit/s obtain, 10 mbit/s add. 

 

 

 

 

Gasoline – $21:

A tank of gasoline for our Hyundai Accent for $21. Gotta love low cost gasoline in a automotive that sips gas. Our daughter drives 13 miles spherical journey to her college 4 days per week. Because of this, we now have to refuel as soon as per thirty days or generally extra typically.

 

Eating places – $0:

No restaurant spending in November.

 

 

 

 

 

Spending for 2024 – 12 months to Date

 

 

We spent $38,185 for the primary eleven months of 2024. This annual spending is about $1,500 greater than the budgeted $36,667 for eleven months per our $40,000 annual early retirement price range. I haven’t elevated our annual price range for inflation in a decade, so in some unspecified time in the future I must revisit the price range numbers. 

We’re barely above goal for our budgeted 12 months so far spending and December is rapidly drawing to a detailed. We don’t have loads of spending deliberate for the top of the 12 months apart from a $3,000 annual property tax invoice. If I find yourself paying it throughout December that may push us over the $40,000 price range quantity for the total 12 months.

Perhaps 2025 is the 12 months I revisit our annual price range and provides us a elevate. Inflation has been a major pressure over the past decade, with every little thing 35% dearer than it was in 2013 after I retired. 

 

Month-to-month Expense Abstract for 2024:

• January – $1,828
• February – $1,746
• March – $3,525
• April – $1,719
• Might – $1,875
• June – $5,889
• July – $3,735
• August – $3,348
• September – $1,768
• October – $1,570
• November – $11,184

 

Abstract of annual spending from greater than a decade of my early retirement:

• 2014 – $34,352
• 2015 – $23,802
• 2016 – $38,991
• 2017 – $31,708
• 2018 – $29,058
• 2019 – $25,630
• 2020 – $28,466
• 2021 – $31,740
• 2022 – $29,449
• 2023 – $37,865
• 2024 – $38,185 (by way of 11/30/2024)

 

 

Web Value: $3,376,000 (+$102,000)

After watching our internet value drop $92,000 in October then recuperate by $102,000 in November, we hit one other all time excessive final month. Our internet value ended the month of November at $3,376,000. And December is trying good to this point. 

I really like watching these six determine month-to-month swings whereas not worrying about them. It goes up, it goes down. I principally examine in as soon as per thirty days for the needs of my month-to-month replace posts. Dropping $100,000 in a month doesn’t trouble me a bit as a result of I do know the month-to-month fluctuations don’t matter practically as a lot as the long run common positive aspects do. 

 

 

For the curious, our internet value reported above consists of our house worth (which is absolutely paid off). I worth the home at $300,000, which might be what we’d internet after gross sales bills. Nonetheless, please word that I don’t take into account my house worth as a part of my portfolio for “4% rule” calculation functions. I understand people ask me about that each month so I simply wished to state that right here for readability.

 

 

Closing ideas

Whereas I’m on cruises, I all the time take pleasure in speaking to the varied crew and officers from around the globe.  On the final two cruises I spoke to a number of guys from the Philippines. 

Throughout a quiet night, our stateroom attendant chatted with us for half-hour about life on board, his life again house within the Philippines, and his future objectives. He stated he loved the chance to apply his English with us People (who he likes loads!). 

Our stateroom attendant was pursuing Monetary Independence with out actually calling it that. He used his outsized earnings from cruise ship work to fund the development of an 8 unit residence constructing again house. His objective is to finally get sufficient earnings from investments so he received’t must work any extra. Thus far his residence constructing supplies $600 USD in revenue per thirty days. This doesn’t sound like loads however it’s roughly double the minimal wage within the Philippines. 

I didn’t ask how a lot he makes on the cruise ship however from my analysis, I believe many of the ship’s crew earn about 5 occasions as a lot as they may again within the Philippines. These outsized earnings generate a major surplus above residing bills that may then be invested in earnings producing belongings. Fairly wonderful that this man is doing the identical factor that acquired us to monetary independence. Work, save, make investments, retire. 

The draw back to engaged on the ship is the sacrifice of being away from house. Our stateroom attendant didn’t have a spouse or children (but) however he stated these are each future objectives of his as soon as he’s in a position to return house to the Philippines and cool down for good. 

 

 

One other crewmember on our more moderen cruise informed us his story. He stated he had a spouse and two children, age 7 and 11, again house within the Philippines. We initially met him in our lodge in Boston the evening earlier than we set sail. He had simply arrived to Boston from the Philippines, about to begin his seven month contract on the Holland America ship we have been on. That’s laborious to think about leaving your loved ones for seven months straight. And on prime of being away from house for prolonged intervals, these guys must work 10-12 hours per day, seven days per week with hardly a time without work for many of their contract. 

However the sacrifice have to be value it as a result of there are tons of crewmembers which have spent a decade or two engaged on cruises. I suppose that is analogous to engaged on an oil rig within the USA. You’re gone for lengthy stretches of time and dealing laborious for 12 hour days however you make two to 4 occasions what you may make at house. 

After I see these guys working laborious and saving for his or her futures, I’m reminded how lucky we’re at this time. These years of laborious work are behind us. Now we get to money within the rewards of all that tough work. Whether or not it’s propping our toes up on a chilly winter’s day or heading out for yet one more tropical cruise, we now have the monetary flexibility and free time to take pleasure in a slower tempo of life at this time. 

Properly people, that’s it for me this month. See you in January! 

 

It’s virtually 2025, are you prepared for the brand new 12 months?! 

 

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