Financially, nothing interesting happened in April. Everything chugged along as it normally would - all my automated investments continued, and the markets gave me more money again.It was an expensive month as the bills came due for my house renovations, but now it's on the market and waiting for a tenant! As soon as someone moves in I can offer up a summary of the costs, both for set up and ongoing.
April Goals Update
Investing Goal: $110,000 in Vanguard
The goal is to have $110,000 in my Vanguard account by the end of the year. I started with $78,424, which means I want to gain just over $31,500. I hope that $5,500 will come from growth and dividends, and the remaining $25,000 will be investments.
Full year
Opening Balance: $78,424.57
Deposit: $5,175
Dividends: $1,564.26
Market Gains: $8,752.67
Dividends: $1,564.26
Market Gains: $8,752.67
March
Opening Balance: $90,084.95
Deposit: $1,475
Dividends: $349.41
Market Gains: $2,007.15
Current Balance: $93,916.51
This growth is wonderful, I'm wondering when it will stop? Surely this can't keep going. I'm up 20% on the start of the year (including deposits, which is about a third of the growth) and if we keep going at this pace, it would come out to a 40% + growth in a year, which is crazy. Surely this sort of growth needs to be followed by a crash, or at least a stall.
Dividends: $349.41
Market Gains: $2,007.15
Current Balance: $93,916.51
This growth is wonderful, I'm wondering when it will stop? Surely this can't keep going. I'm up 20% on the start of the year (including deposits, which is about a third of the growth) and if we keep going at this pace, it would come out to a 40% + growth in a year, which is crazy. Surely this sort of growth needs to be followed by a crash, or at least a stall.
Spending Goal: Under Control!
The goal is simply to have my spending under control, and for April... Look, I paid for painting, lawn, and a professional exit clean. I'm allowed to have spent a lot!!
Here's what I spent in April, which includes the (very small) save-to-spend amounts.
Category | Spent | Budgeted | 12 Month Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home | $817.30 | $938.17 | $306.38 (up $79.77) |
| Under Budget! This is great low spend, which is great because the other houses weren't so nice... All I paid for at home this month was rent and buying us a clothes line. Details post over here about how we bought a house, but I'm paying rent. Also, the 12 Month Average will climb over the next year because I've never had to calculate rent before. | |||
| OG Investment Property | $1,636.84 | $1,190.83 | $1,324.57 (up $0.34) |
| Over Budget! Oh hey bills :( This month was the water and council rates - pretty consistent on the average though. | |||
| Home turned Investment Property | $3,971.64 | $1,042.33 | $1,464.81 (up $238.30) |
| Over Budget! Ouch - except not really. I had the entire property professionally painted and cleaned, replaced the clothes line and installed a new lawn. Plus paying the mortgage - which all came in under $4,000. Not that I love spending this much money, but it was planned for. | |||
| Personal Bills | $127.26 | $127.33 | $134.99 (down $2.03) |
| Under Budget Technically under budget... because I increased the budget :p My annual health insurance premiums went up for the year, by less than a dollar. | |||
| Groceries | $237.01 | $190 | $189.26 (down $13.64) |
| Over Budget. I'm not sure how this is over again, but I'm mad about it :( I've started to shift to pasta for lunches instead of sandwiches and I think that helps. As much as sandwiches should be a cheap option I like a well loaded sandwich, and it comes out much pricier than pasta. | |||
| Pets | $128.69 | $50 | $72.82 (up $10.54) |
| Over Budget. I bought food for everyone in April. And I restocked on Kitty Litter. And I started transitioning my cat from a Raw Food diet to high quality dry food because I can't get the variety of meats anymore to put together a full diet. Oh, and the neighbourhood birds figured out how to rob my chicken feeder and went through 2 weeks of food in 2 days :( | |||
| Roller Derby | $175 | $175 | $227.07 (down $12.32) |
| On Budget. Whaaaat? Madness! I under spent this month, so I put all the extra aside to replace my skate boots - they're six years old and I've started patching the toes with duct-tape. | |||
| Travelling | $110 | $122.50 | $85 (up $9.17) |
| Under Budget. Still trucking along saving for a future holiday. It's entirely possible I'll be trekking to the States later this year to play roller derby!! The downside to this is we won't know if we get a tournament invite until June / July at best. Which means paying stupid amounts for flights :( | |||
| Comfort Food | $40 | $40 | $47.85 (up $0.08) |
| On Budget. It was Easter, and I hosted a breakfast, and kept this spending on track. Wonderful! | |||
| Other | $106.49 | $187.00 | $266.26 (down $9.77) |
| Under Budget. Nothing thrilling, we went on a dinner date, I bought a new book, and I found my favourite shoes on sale and bought three pairs :) | |||
| Total | $7,350.23 | $4,063.17 | $4.105.40 (up $302.45) |
| Over budget overall, with only 4 out of 10 categories over. So yeah, unsurprisingly shelling out for the house renovations has meant an expensive month. I'm not happy that it has pushed my overall average above my target average. Beyond that my real frustration is the expenses of groceries, settling into the new house has thrown all my routines out. | |||
Bonus Goal, if we can: $10,000 worth of an Asia focused ETF
My savings took a massive hit in April, so there is no good news here. We haven't found a tenant for our old house yet so saving is a challenge. Fingers crossed for tenancy soon.
