September 2024 Early Retirement Replace – Alaska Cruise Version

Welcome again to a different month-to-month replace from Root of Good! We simply obtained again to Raleigh after a two week cruise to Alaska over the last half of September. Alaska actually exceeded expectations with its pure magnificence and landscapes. 

After a busy summer season, now we have an equally busy fall journey season as nicely. We’ve got a pair extra days in Raleigh after which we head to the Caribbean for one more roughly two week cruise. Climate allowing, in fact.

Proper now I’m enjoying the journey agent attempting to maintain up with rebooking flights, motels, and probably cruises as we get hurricane-related cancellations and notifications this week. That is our first actual cruise journey hiccup associated to a hurricane. I believe we’ll find yourself doing okay with out lacking out on a lot of our journey. 

On to our monetary progress. September was one other nice month for our funds. Our internet value shot up by $54,000 to finish the month at $3,366,000. Our earnings of $10,109 was considerably greater than our spending of $1,768 for the month of September.  

Let’s bounce into the small print from final month.

 

Revenue

Funding earnings totaled $8,265 in September. Our fairness index funds and ETFs pay dividends quarterly on the finish of March, June, September, and December. Consequently, we had a bigger than regular quantity of funding earnings final month. Right here’s extra on our dividend investments.

Weblog earnings totaled $687 for the month. This represents a beneath common month of weblog earnings. 

My early retirement life-style consulting earnings (“consulting”) was $584 final month. This represents three hours of consulting work. I’m attempting to squeeze in consulting classes whereas I’m at dwelling in Raleigh in between cruises. 

 

 

Tradeline gross sales earnings totaled $475 in September. One other good month however not fairly as excessive as August. 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 submit and in my July 2021 month-to-month submit. Most years I make round $4,000 to $6,000 in trade for lending out my stellar credit score historical past from half a dozen bank cards. 

For final month, my “deposit earnings” was $0. Throughout most months I get $10 or $20 from money again and incentive bonuses from the Rakuten.com and Mrrebates.com on-line purchasing portals (a few of which was earned from you readers signing up by way of these hyperlinks).

Should you 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 $97 final month. These funds have been sitting in my Citibank bank card money again account for fairly some time and I lastly cashed them out. 

 

 

Should you’re fascinated about 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 all the pieces at one time.

Empower Private Dashboard can be a strong device for funding administration. Retaining observe of our whole funding portfolio takes two clicks. Should you 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 essential 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 September bills:

 

 

In complete, we spent $1,768 through the month of September which is about $1,500 lower than our frequently budgeted $3,333 per thirty days (or $40,000 per yr). Healthcare and groceries have been the 2 largest classes from final month. 

 

Detailed breakdown of spending:

 

Healthcare/Medical/Dental – $773:

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

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 trade. The dental insurance coverage does an excellent job of overlaying routine cleanings, exams, and x-rays plus most of the price of primary procedures like fillings. 

The rest of our healthcare/dental spending was a $736 expense for a dental process final month. We anticipate to have some extra dental bills developing quickly. 

 

 

 

 

 

Groceries – $391:

We have been solely dwelling 13 days throughout September so our grocery spending was comparatively modest. We did come again dwelling and restock our fridge, freezer, and pantry in very early October so maybe our spending in October can be somewhat increased in consequence. 

Once we are gone on cruises we don’t spend something on groceries. So we’re “saving” cash once we are touring for reasonable or free on cruises. That’s what I inform myself.

 

 

 

Taxes – $300

Our quarterly estimated state earnings tax got here due throughout September. $300 went to the State of North Carolina. 

 

 

 

Utilities – $169:

We spent $169 on our water/sewer/trash invoice final month. I paid our pure gasoline invoice twice in August so we spent $0 on pure gasoline throughout September. I paid our electrical invoice originally of October as soon as we have been dwelling, so we spent $0 on electrical energy through the month of September. 

 

Automotive – $61:

A $61 oil change for our minivan. Our Toyota Sienna is 15 years outdated at this level. The auto store really helpful $7,700 (!!) in advised repairs for the automotive however none of them are crucial any time quickly. Ultimately I’ll have to exchange 2 or 4 tires within the subsequent few months or years and the brakes will want changing in some unspecified time in the future.

I used to be blown away at their capability to seek out all these recommendations and at their audacity to suggest them for a 15 yr outdated car not even value $7,700 any longer. In different information, I is perhaps looking for a brand new auto store that’s extra in tune with my want to maintain this automotive buzzing alongside for a number of extra years with out spending virtually 5 figures to take action. Sorry, gross sales supervisor! 

 

 

 

 

Phone – $33:

We use Redpocket Cellular’s annual plan that prices $33 for the annual renewal. After paying for renewals on 2 strains in August, a 3rd line’s renewal got here due in September. These are very gentle on information at solely 200 MB per thirty days however we will add additional MB’s of information for a small price on an as-needed foundation. Up to now these are working nicely for primary communication round city. 

 

Fuel – $27:

My daughter refueled our Hyundai for $27 earlier than selecting us up from the airport. Concierge service at its most interesting! 

 

 

 

Journey – $16:

We spent $6 on the comfort price to pay our $300 quarterly estimated tax invoice utilizing a bank card. I get a variety of factors and miles from bank card spending so I deal with charges like this $6 as a “journey” expense because it earns us a lot “free” journey. 

The opposite $10 in journey spending was for two pairs of native transit tickets in Vancouver, Canada to get from our airport resort to the downtown cruise port, then return from the cruise port to the airport two weeks later. Their transit costs have been very cheap given the prolonged experience we took on the practice. 

That’s all of the spending we did on the cruise. All the things was pay as you go many months in the past. I used factors for the resort and flights aside from about $110 in complete for the flight taxes. The 2 week Alaska cruise aboard the Holland America Noordam was about $1,000 out of pocket for us with a “free” on line casino promo fee, together with gratuities. I managed to pay the $1,000 taxes, charges, and gratuities utilizing my Chase Final Rewards factors by way of my Chase Sapphire Reserve card. 

A roughly $10,000 trip ended up costing us solely $120 in money. That’s superb! 

Whereas en-route to and from the cruise, we managed to dine in a number of airport lounges alongside the best way so we didn’t want to purchase any meals or drinks on our journey. The Capital One Lounge in Denver even had to-go baggage particularly designed to permit lounge company to pack a snack for later. Very handy and frugal! 

 

 

 

Get free journey like us

In case you are fascinated about getting free journey out of your bank card like I do, take into account the Chase Ink Limitless enterprise playing cards (my referral hyperlink). Proper now, the Chase Ink Limitless 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 considered one of these nice bonus gives.

Chase is fairly liberal in terms of “what’s a enterprise”. Should you promote stuff on eBay or Craigslist or do some odd jobs sometimes then you might have a enterprise and will get a bank card as a “sole proprietor”. 

I exploit 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, motels, or rental vehicles 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/resort packages 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 you could redeem towards any journey purchases from wherever. Then you definately earn a strong 2 factors per greenback spent without end! The opposite huge perk is airport lounge entry. You will get your self plus limitless company into Precedence Move lounges. And also you and two of your company can get into Plaza Premium community lounges and Capital One Lounges. 

The Capital One Enterprise X card does have one catch – a $395 annual price. However they reward you yearly with a straightforward 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 price. 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 “present” a pair of Enterprise X playing cards with airport lounge entry to my brother in regulation and his spouse to make use of on their household journey again dwelling to Cambodia final April with their two younger kids. 

Because the annual price is offset in full by journey credit annually, I personally plan on holding the Enterprise X card without end for the reason that card advantages are so nice.

 

 

 

Cable/Satellite tv for pc/Web – $0:

We often pay $25 per thirty days for an area diminished fee package deal attributable to having a decrease earnings and having youngsters. 50 mbit/s obtain, 10 mbit/s add. I didn’t pay the September invoice till early October so there can be 2 months’ value of prices of web on my subsequent month-to-month replace.

 

 

Spending for 2024 – 12 months to Date

 

 
We spent $25,432 for the primary 9 months of 2024. This annual spending is about $4,500 lower than the budgeted $30,000 for 9 months per our $40,000 annual early retirement funds. I haven’t elevated our annual funds for inflation in a decade, so in some unspecified time in the future I have to revisit the funds numbers. Up to now, so good! No want to present ourselves a elevate if we’re managing simply fantastic inside the present funds. 

We’re operating underneath funds for the yr thus far. Nonetheless now we have some upcoming dental bills that would enhance our bills as much as or past our annual spending goal. The excellent news is that our HSA has grown over time to a gift worth simply over $100,000. So if we have to, we will cowl a big dental or medical invoice out of the HSA account with out paying any taxes on the withdrawal.

The remainder of 2024 will see comparatively modest baseline spending aside from the annual property tax invoice that went up considerably this yr. Maybe we’ll begin reserving some extra journey for the spring and summer season earlier than yr finish as nicely. 

 

 

 

Month-to-month Expense Abstract for 2024:

 

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 – $25,432 (by way of 9/30/2024)

 

 

Internet Value: $3,366,000 (+$54,000)

Our internet value shot up by $54,000 to finish the month at $3,366,000. This marks a brand new all time excessive internet value for us. I’m all the time anticipating a giant drop after an enormous runup like this, however thus far we’ve been fortunate. Who is aware of how excessive it’ll go? 

We’ve been on the highway so much so I don’t actually take note of the portfolio daily. Fortuitously index funds do rather well on their very own if you happen to simply allow them to sit there for a decade or two. The truth that you’ll be able to completely ignore your investments and journey all over the world and nonetheless become profitable long run is unimaginable.

 

 

For the curious, our internet value reported above contains our dwelling 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 dwelling worth as a part of my portfolio for “4% rule” calculation functions. I understand of us ask me about that each month so I simply needed to state that right here for readability.

 

 

Closing ideas

First off, because of all of you who realized I’m positioned in North Carolina and reached out to examine on me after seeing {that a} huge nasty hurricane rolled by way of our state. We’re all fantastic right here in Raleigh since we’re a pair hundred miles east of the place all the main harm occurred. 

Nearly two weeks later and it’s nonetheless fairly ugly within the mountainous western portion of our state, however happily the central and japanese components of our state have been principally unaffected. Nonetheless, within the western a part of the state, crews can be working for months to get all of the water, sewer, electrical energy, telecoms, roads, and bridges rebuilt. As an instance simply how dangerous it’s, the main freeway between North Carolina and Tennessee, Interstate 40, gained’t reopen for a full yr! 

 

 

Pure disasters assist put your struggles in perspective.

This week now we have been scrambling to rearrange our journey round Hurricane Milton. The hurricane is on the verge of blowing throughout the state of Florida as this submit goes stay and all reviews point out the harm can be extreme.

In some unspecified time in the future I spotted that I used to be extra involved about discovering a flight to Florida to get on my cruise whereas thousands and thousands of individuals within the direct path of the storm are far more apprehensive in regards to the lack of their properties, companies, and even their lives.

So I took a step again and mentioned “nicely, it might be good to go on this cruise we have been wanting ahead to however the losses we face from this storm are nothing in comparison with what the residents of Florida are dealing with”.

And that’s the place we’re. Hoping we nonetheless get to journey to Florida later this week to get on a cruise. However nicely conscious that if we don’t make it, then we’ll nonetheless be far more lucky than a variety of others which might be dealing with a lot larger losses. 

That’s it for me this month. See you in November! 

 

Who’s prepared for some cooler climate heading into fall? I can’t imagine Halloween is sort of right here! 

 

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