July 2020 Goals & Financial Update - Retire by 40 (2024)

Hey everyone, July is done! That’s another month out of the way. 2020 has been a difficult year for all of us. At this point, I just want to survive with minimum damage. Many of my New Year goals are way behind. That’s all right. Some years, you just have to get through the best you can.

July was actually a very good month for us. We took a vacation and got out of town on two road trips. It was great. I was getting antsy with staying home all the time. Now, I’m a lot more relaxed and I can hunker down for the rest of 2020. I also went on a DIY spree and fixed up several things around the duplex. I replaced our bathroom sink, got new shades, and refinished the balcony. It felt fantastic to accomplish some things. These projects cost about $1,000 total. However, I get to split that between the rental and housing expenses. That’s the nice thing about having a duplex. You can charge some of the expenses to the rental business. I’ll write more about this later.

On the personal finance side, we did okay last month. My online income decreased again. That’s not good and I hope it bottoms out soon. Fortunately, our spending was low. Our vacation and home improvement projects weren’t that expensive. Oh, good news. Our net worth is up for the year. The stock market did pretty well in July and our portfolio put us in the green. All in all, it was a very good month.

Okay, I’ll go over my goals first and then share the details of our net worth, cash flow, and savings.

2020 Goals

Here is my goal scheduling spreadsheet. It works really well. Try it out if you can’t keep up with your New Year goals. The key is to go over the spreadsheet at least once a month to track your progress. That way, you’ll see which goals need extra attention.

Many of my goals are not going well this year. I started out with reasonable goals and I won’t be able to accomplish many of them. That’s life, though. There will be setbacks and some years will be harder than others. We need to survive 2020 and hope for better days ahead. It’s okay to have lower expectations for 2020. At this point, I just want to get to 2021 with my sanity intact.

Financial Goals

• Real Estate Crowdfunding $150,000. Earlier this year, I added $25,000 to our RE crowdfunding investment withCrowdStreet. We have some extra cash after not spending much this year so I’m looking for a good project to invest in.
• FI Ratio > 110%.This is my main goal for 2020. TheFI ratio is passive income divided by expense. Once we reach 100% consistently, then we’ll be set to retire in style. This goal is good so far. Our expenses were low so it isn’t too hard. We’re at 118% for 2020 so far. I think we’ll be okay with this one.
• Saving rate > 50%. This one is really tough because I use gross income. If you make a lot of money, your tax rate is higher. If you don’t, then your expenses overwhelm the income. Only a few households can reach 50% saving rate. We’re at 60% this year! That’s really good. Let’s hope it holds up for the rest of 2020.
• Side hustle income > $5,000. Side hustling income is way down this year. Scooter sharing companies are shuttered and I don’t want to do it anyway. A lot of people need extra income more than we do. We’ll put off all side hustles until the COVID-19 pandemic is done. Last month, I got $1,512 tax refund! That counts, right?

Branding (by 40)

• Content creation > 178 blog posts and videos. This is a huge amount, but we’re ahead of the pace. In July, I posted 9 blog posts and 0 videos. We’re slowing down because it’s hard to create content in the summer.
• Refresh RB40. This one is on hold for now. I’ll get back to it when things are better.
• 1,000 subscribers on Eat by 40! Currently, we have 94 subscribers. This is a slow process that will take way more than one year. We’ll keep working on it.

Personal Goals

• Visit Thailand. I wanted to visit my parents this summer, but that got canceled. We’ll try to go in December.
• Travel hack 200,000 points. My Alaska Airlines points came in. I’ll probably apply for a new card in a few months. I don’t think we’ll accomplish this goal in 2020. There are too many other problems to deal with this year.

• Update our Will. I purchased Quicken WillMaker & Trust and made a Will. We’ll talk to a lawyer when things are back to normal. This will have to do for now.
• Happiness level > 9. My happiness level was excellent in July. We took a couple of short vacations and unplugged from everything. Also, the school will be online in September. That removed a lot of uncertainties. So I’m very relaxed right now. Life is great.

Net Worth (+1.4%YTD)

I’ve beentracking our net worthsince 2006 and it is very motivating to see the progress we made. 2020 is a strange year. The stock market crashed in March, but it’s back to pre-COVID level. I don’t understand how it can come back so quickly with millions of workers unemployed. But I’m very glad I’m an investor. For 2020, our net worth is up 1.4%! Woohoo! It’s positive.

Personally, I think it will end badly. This feels like 2000. The stock market valuation is unrealistic. It will revert to mean at some point. So brace yourself. It will be a bumpy ride. 2020 isn’t over yet.

Here is a chart of our investment from Personal Capital. *Sign up for a free account at Personal Capital to help manage your investment accounts and track your net worth. I log in almost every day to check on our accounts. It’s a great site for DIY investors.

2020 Passive Income ($20,867 YTD)

Here is a quick summary of our passive income. You can see all the details on myPassive Income page.

Surprisingly, our passive income is holding up quite well. The payout lags the economy a bit so we will have to wait and see.

• Real Estate Crowdfunding– RE crowdfunding is great this year. You can read more detail here on ourRE crowdfunding income page.
• Rentals– We have two rental units and both our tenants have solid jobs. For now, they are both paying rent on time.
• Dividend– This one looks good so far, but I’m sure companies will cut dividends if this pandemic sticks around much longer.

Our FI ratio looks great so far at 118%. We didn’t spend much and our passive income was good.

*FI ratio = passive income/expense

July 2020 Cash Flow

Our cash flow was good in July. Income was pretty good and our spending was low. This was unexpected because we took a summer vacation. All the other categories were much lower than normal so it worked out.

This is the Sankey diagram for July. You can get a quick overview here and see the details below.

Gross Income (target > $13,000/month)

This year, our gross income target increased to $13,000/month. If we make this much every month, we’ll be able to save around 50%. Unfortunately, our income dipped below $13,000 since May. Our gross income was $12,721 in July. My blog income has been dropping and it hasn’t bottomed out yet. Fortunately, Mrs. RB40 is still working so we are doing okay. Also, our spending is way lower than usual. Here is a chart of my online income. I hope it picks up soon.

• Blog Income: $947. You can read more at my blog income page.
• Real estate crowdfunding:$1,072. RE crowdfunding was great last month. We got a big payout and that gave it a big boost. Most projects are performing well. You can see how we’re doing at theRE Crowdfunding Passive Income page.
• Rental Income:$7. I fixed a few things at the duplex so the income was much lower than usual. At least, we’re in the green this month. Read more at theRental Property Passive Income page.
• Dividend Income:$712. Our dividend income was slow in July. See more details at myDividend Passive Income page.
• Interest Income:$13.
• Side hustle:$1512. No side hustling for a while due to COVID-19. However, I got a big tax refund check. I think this is a mistake, but I deposited it anyway. The OR Department of Revenue will figure it out…

Monthly Spending (target < $4,166/month)

This year, I plan to spend about $50,000 so ourmonthly spending budgetis $4,166/month. For now, we are way under budget due to the lockdown. Like many families, we’re only spending money on housing and essential goods. Actually, we took a vacation and fixed a few things around the duplex.

In July, we spent $3,064. That’s not bad at all.

• Housing: $1,766. This category includes mortgage, home insurance, HOA fees, property taxes, utilities, home improvement, and furnishing. I got new shades, replaced the bathroom sink, and resurfaced the balcony. Next month should be better.
• Parents: $10. My parents didn’t need extra money in July. I changed the auto-transfer amount to $10 so I don’t have to set it up again.
• Groceries: $91. Wow! That’s way lower than usual. We went on vacation, but that doesn’t explain it. I guess we stocked up too much over the last few months. It’ll probably go back to around $500 soon.
• Travel: $1,011. We took 2 road trips around Oregon. It was great to unplug and get out of town for a few days.
• Entertainment: $0. Nothing other than our vacation.
• Health: $0.
• Bills: $23. My term life insurance payment.
• Transportation: $86. Car insurance and gas. This doesn’t include our road trip.
• Kid: $54. I got 2 better badminton rackets. The cheap ones from Walmart fell apart.
• Pet: $0.
• Clothing: $0.
• Misc: $26. Mrs. RB40 got a gift for her dad.

Others

I don’t count these as personal spending.

• Taxes and deductions: $2,480.
• 401k savings: $1,520. Mrs. RB40 contributed $1,520 to her 401k. I didn’t make a contribution.
• Roth IRAs: $1,000. We contributed $500 each to our Roth IRAs.
• 529 College Savings plan: $0. We contributed $4,000 earlier this year. We’re done for 2020.
• Extra Savings: $4,657.

2020 Savings ($63,021 YTD)

So far, we saved $63,021. This part is going very well for us. Our expenses are much lower than normal and we were able to save a huge percentage of our income, 60%. That’s really good.

• Joe’s 401k: $20,125.
• Mrs. RB40’s 401k: $11,380
• Roth IRAs: $7,000
• 529 College Savings: $4,000
• Extra savings: $20,516

YTD 2020 saving rate = 60%

July 2020 Wrap Up

Overall, July was a great month for us. Our net worth turned positive and our cash flow was good as well. More importantly, I feel good about life today. I’m not stressed out about everything in the news. Eventually, it’ll get better so there is no use getting aggravated about all this stuff. We’ll just focus on our family for now.

How about you? Did you have a good month? I hope you enjoy the last few weeks of summer. And good luck school if you have kids.