Between the start of school and two vacations, August was a whirlwind month. The moving and shaking also carried over into our finances. So what happened?
There were a lot of moving pieces in August. However, at the end of the month we found ourselves down a bit from July. So let’s dig into it.
As always, you can check the latest and greatest info on the Track Our Progress page.
First, the numbers:
Net Worth:
- End of August Balance: $494,388 Down $10,310 (2.04%)
- Year to Date (YTD): Up $102,550 (26.17%)
- Since January 2018 (this is when I started tracking our net worth): Up $189,388
Portfolio:
- End of August Balance: $351,509 Up $137 (0.04%)
- YTD: Up $87,972 (33.38%)
- Since January 2018: Up $111,509
Monthly Contributions: -$5,498
Yep, that’s a big fat negative.
That number is a bit misleading, as we still made most of our normal monthly contributions. However, we did withdraw about $11,000 from our high yield savings account. Why, do you say? Read on.
August Highlights
We Paid Off Our Car Loan
I mentioned this last month, but we we’ve had an itch to ditch our last remaining (non-mortgage) debt. A feat we previously achieved around this time last year when we paid off our other car. However, we jumped back into the debt pool when we bought a new car for my wife back in March this year. The idea was to get a vehicle optimized for our driving habits and to defer some impending large maintenance costs.
To be clear, our net worth didn’t drop the full amount of the car loan payoff, as the car is worth something. However, I haven’t tracked vehicle worth in my net worth calculations and I don’t intend to start now.
Paying off the car frees up a good chunk of cash flow each month… more than offsetting the increase in our mortgage payment due to refinancing our house into a 15-year mortgage in July.
I Got a Raise!
My raise went into effect the first week of August. While nothing to right home about, the raise was more than I expected based on our company’s performance this year. A pleasant surprise, indeed!
Mrs. HoF Started Her New Working Hours
My wife negotiated with her employer in July to reduce her office hours. The new schedule began at the start of the new school year for our oldest daughter. By adjusting her office hours, my wife has been able to get our daughter to the bus in the morning. Previously, we had to take her to “before care” hours before the other kids showed up for school. We had to pay for the before care to boot, so the new hours are a win for our daughter, my wife, and our budget.
Coming Up in September
Back to Stashing Cash
I still have a potential opportunity to buy in at work. This might happen in 2020. So, we plan to return to setting aside as much as we can into our high yield savings account to ensure adequate funds are in place if (when?) this opportunity knocks.
Credit Card Strategery
2019 marks the first year we tried our hand at travel rewards and it’s been quite the success. We traveled to San Francisco, Sonoma, and Napa in August, mostly using Ultimate Rewards Points.
We are due to close one of our credit cards in the next month or so to avoid the annual fee. This provides an opportunity to open a new card and pursue a sign up bonus! The trick will be for us to figure out which credit card strategy to choose from. This decision will be heavily dictated by what our next trip will be. So we gotta figure that part out first, but these are the best sort of decisions to struggle with.
Thanks for reading!
