Just like that, half the year is gone! Triple digit heat indices are once again the norm and the garden is bursting with veggies. So, how did things shake out for the Heartland on FIRE household in June?
As always, you can check the latest and greatest info on the Track Our Progress page.
First, the numbers:
Net Worth:
- End of May Balance: $361,629 Up $15,149 (4.38%)
- Year to Date (YTD): Up $56,329 (18.47%)
Portfolio:
- End of May Balance: $261,811 Up $3,482 (1.35%)
- YTD: Up $21,811 (9.09%)
Monthly Contributions: $1,700 Same as last month
Positive gains for the 3rd consecutive month. Most of the increase is due to savings and contributions. The market hasn’t really done much since recovering from the correction earlier this year. Oh well.
Our allocation is currently sitting at about 89% stocks (almost entirely S&P 500 Index Funds) and 11% Bonds. As such, our portfolio performance from now on will be a near mirror image of the S&P 500.
June Recap
Back to Zero – We paid off my new car mid-June. This brings us back to having zero consumer debt again! (We do charge everything to our credit card, but we pay off the balance in full every month). It’s a great feeling, and one I am not apt to give up any time soon. Now that the car payment is out of the picture it’s time to give some much needed attention to increasing our 401k contributions.
And then there was one – we’ve just sent in the last paperwork to move our taxable joint investment account from Edward Jones to Vanguard. Once the account settles, then our Great Financial Migration (See Parts I and II) will be complete. Just in time too… as Vanguard announced this week that they will no longer be charging commissions on ETFs!
Switching up Insurance – A big win for the month of June was that we switched the insurance on our house, rental house and vehicles. We switched from State Farm to AAA and as a result we will be saving about $700 per year in premium costs. This makes me feel like doing a Happy Dance!
On the Horizon in July
Raise? (Part II)– Silly me… apparently our annual reviews are in July, not June as I stated last month. I’ve got my review scheduled in about a week and any raise will go into effect the first week of August.
Ramping Up the 401k Contributions – With the car paid off, the plan is to start increasing our contributions. We have quite a ways to go to max out both of our 401k’s and I am hoping to make a substantial jump in this area. Ideally, I would like to set our paycheck deductions to an amount that over the course of a full year we would max out our annual contributions. That way, next year we max them out without feeling the impact. Check back next month to see how we did.
2018 First Half Review – I am going to run down our spending for the first six months of the year and compare back to our 2017 spending and our original 2018 goals to see how we are doing and where we have ground to make up.
Have a Happy Independence Day! Hopefully you’re making progress on your own paths toward Financial Independence. Thanks for reading and check back in next week!