February 2021 Update

I turned 30! It was less exciting than you'd think.

As an introvert, I never throw parties. Add in a pandemic and my birthday slid by without anyone noticing. Except for my mother, who took me out for the usual steak dinner.

But as I write this I realise it means I'm just five years out from the targeted "FIRE By Thirty-Five" I named this blog after. I started writing this blog in December 2016 and I've come a long way. Looking back, when I started I had a net worth of $190k but most of it was paper money. It came from home equity from the property I was living in - so it wasn't generating any return. 

Now - despite the pandemic - my net worth has more than doubled. If it doubles again by my 35th birthday, I might be a little short of FIRE, but I'll be well-positioned to reduce work, move to the country, or even change careers to something that pays less, but I enjoy more.

The other interesting number is passive income. At the start, I had one investment property, and now I have two. One is borderline positively geared. My monthly safe withdrawal from my investment accounts has risen from a measly $3 a month to over $300. I'd love to increase my investment income by 100x, but I doubt that's mathematically possible 😂 According to the trendlines on my graph, my investment income is likely to sit somewhere between $600 and $1,000 per month. It was looking better before the pandemic, but that's life.

Goals For 2021

The exact same as 2020. Can we all just agree to write off 2020?

Goal #1: 50% Savings

Yet again, the actual goal is for this 12 month period to sit comfortably above 50%. Ideally, I'd like to bring the 3year rate up as well, but we'll see how that actually goes.

February Rate: 39%

2021 Average: 48%

Three-Year Average: 33% 

Goal #2 Reduce Average Spending by 10%

The goal is to reduce my average spend by 10% from January 2019 - bringing it down below $4,400 (a nice rounded number).

February Spend: $4,436.12
2021 Average Spend: $4,282.96

Goal Spend: $4,400 (or less)

Spending

Here's what I spent in February, which includes the save-to-spend amounts.  

Category	Spent	Budgeted	12 Month Average
Home	$700	$954.17	$962.07 (down $29.17)
Under Budget. 2 rents and nothing else.
Investment Property 1	$1,100	$1,145.83	$1,262.46 (up $36.31)
Under Budget. The mortgage, water bill and $60 set aside for later.
Home turned IP2	$750	$833.33	$714.28 (down $13.68)
Under Budget. The mortgage, and $200 aside for later repairs.
Personal Bills	$130.74	$130.83	$128.71 (up $0.29)
Under Budget. Trucking along
Groceries	$109.16	$200	$217.46 (down $8.46)
Under Budget. I think this is just low because my partner did most of the shopping? We also got a free Marley Spoon box, but that's only 3 nights of dinners.
Pets	$300	$300	$298.99 (up $25.25)
On Budget. I've made $300 the budget, and any time I'm under I'm saving the difference. I'll reassess this in 12months, but that saving is in place of pet insurance. This month I put aside $35.
Roller Derby	$308.48	$166.67	$143.95 (down $25.61)
Over Budget. I paid dues for February, annual insurance, plus camp fees, snacks and more. One of those months.
Travelling	$50	$105	$45.83 (up $4.16)
Under Budget. Just putting aside money for the future
Comfort Food	$21.70	$50	$30.35 (up 31c)
Under Budget. These are mostly snacks I bought for a quiz night. That no one wanted, so I took them home and ate them myself
Car	$284.51	$200	$720.01 (up $23.71)
Over Budget. A tank of petrol and half the cost of getting my license renewed for 10 years.
Donations	$0		$1.25 (no change)
None. I need to start thinking again about this though.
Other	$655.44	$183.33	$212.97 (up $38.30)
Over Budget. Two big-ticket items, the other half the cost of my license, and finally doing my tax return (I pay for mine, and my partners). Yes, the 2019-2020 tax return. It took ages for my paperwork to come in, and then I had a baby puppy and... it just got put aside.
Total	$4,410.45	$4,119.17	$4,745.41 (up $58.81)
Total ex. Donations	$4,410.45		$4,744.16 (up $58.81)
Over Budget. Just a little bit over, with big-ticket items like my tax return and drivers license, it's not too painful to see this slight blowout.