July 2019 Wrap-Up

This post is super late because I didnt get it finished before going to the States for a month. Woopsie!

July 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 hoped at the start that $5,500 would come from growth and dividends, and the remaining $25,000 would be from investments. Halfway through he year, I've cracked the hundred thousand mark!!

Full year

Opening Balance: $78,424.57

Deposit: $7,075
Dividends: $5,615.30
Market Gains: $10,235.79

July

Opening Balance: $98,829.35

Deposit: $0
Dividends: $4,051.04
Market Gains: -$1,529.72

Current Balance: $101,350.67

I love July dividends. As usual paying dividends its generally a bit more than the market gains, but more units owned means more payments next time. Finally cracking the $100k mark is such an exciting thing as well. It finally truly feels like my money is working hard for me.

Spending Goal: Under Control!

The goal is simply to have my spending under control, and for July (with the exception of travel spend) I think we did pretty okay.

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

Category	Spent	Budgeted	12 Month Average
Home	$822.06	$938.17	$361.53 (up $62.67)
Under Budget! Paid the gas bill and still under budget :) I don't expect the average to settle down until we've lived here for a year, which means April-ish next year.
OG Investment Property	$1,559.23	$1,190.83	$1,366.64 (up 39.61)
Over Budget Had to pay the water bill and the council rates. Standard practice when you own a property.
Home turned Investment Property	$669.24	$1,042.33	$1,520.49 (down $26.41)
Under Budget! Just the mortgage. As part of my contract with my agent all my bills are sent to them, and all bill paid before the rent makes it to me. Once I'm back from Utah I'll need to reassess how much is budgeted, because I originally set the budget based on paying my own bills from my own pocket.
Personal Bills	$127.26	$127.33	$128.90 (down $2.03)
Under Budget Down down, averages down. I decided not to get a new phone till I'm back from the States.
Groceries	$142.61	$190	$182.73 (down $7.70)
Under Budget. Down again :) I made an effort to clean out the cupboard before going to Utah, but it turns out I have lots of condiments, and not much real food. Nice to know I'm not wasting things.
Pets	-$10	$50	$64.75 (down $3.86)
Under Budget. No, that's not a typo. I didn't spend anything this month, but I did sell two dozen eggs, so my 'expense' really is negative $10
Roller Derby	$1,199.87	$175	$301.23 (up $91.53)
Over Budget! UTAH! I'm so so excited that we qualified for a tournament in the States. It's expensive but it's such an amazing opportunity.
Travelling	$1,882.56	$122.50	$271.05 (up $152.72)
Over Budget. Utah, then Las Vegas, then San Francisco. We fly out on Tuesday.
Comfort Food	$50	$40	$44.68 (down $4.06)
On Budget. I pushed all the money in this category into a 'Save to Spend' for the trip. My actual spend was zero.
Other	$192.89	$187.00	$247.35 (up $2.72)
Over Budget. Most of the spending was Utah prep, including buying new contact lenses so I can, umm, see. I'm kinda a fan of seeing.
Total	$6,675.71	$4,063.17	$4,489.35 (up $305.20)
Over budget overall, with 4 out of 10 categories over. Did you know international trips are expensive? What a shocker. $1,100 of it this spend passing money to my partner to put on our Global Currency Card, so I've kinda pre-paid for parts of the trip.

Bonus Goal, if we can: $10,000 worth of an Asian Markets focused ETF

I've just discovered the Raiz has doubled their fees, and for me that's enough to show them the door. There will be a blog incoming, once I'm back from my travels - but in the meantime you can check out my two posts containing my original review of Raiz (then Acorns) and 12 month wrap-up - both of those posts note that their fees were a big negative, and it's just gotten bigger. I've pulled $5,200 out to close my account and that will sit in my bank account while I'm away in Utah.

Once I come back I'll be making a decision about how to best deploy that money - I'm still keen to purchase an Asian Markets focussed ETF such as Vanguard FTSE Asia ex Japan Shares Index ETF (VAE), though I'm also looking closely at BetaShares Australian Sustainability Leaders ETF (FAIR).

I'll probably end up investing into both, it's just a question of which one first.