Hello all! Oh my God, summer is almost here and school will be over soon. It may pass very quickly. Did you have a good month? It was a very normal month for us. RB40Jr went to school and attended his activities. Ms. RB40 worked from home. I delivered lunches and got better at it. By avoiding bad orders, you drive less and make more money. However, I was emotionally devastated. My mom passed away about a month ago, and it took me a while to come to terms with it. I’m better now, though. We visited a Thai temple to pray for her and this helped me through the grieving process.
Financially, we had a great month. Our income streams have been strong. We also didn’t spend much. It was a good positive cash flow month. Our net worth has also increased slightly. The market has been doing well due to the craze of artificial intelligence and the elastic economy.
Well, I’m going to share how I’m doing with my New Year’s goals for 2023. Next, I’m going to go over our net worth and cash flow. Let’s go!
2023 goals
This is my goal spreadsheet for 2023. It works really well. Give it a try if you can’t keep up with your New Year’s goals. The key is to review your spreadsheet once a month to track your progress. This way, you can see which goals need more attention and work on them.
Things are looking fine…
financial goals
- Investing in real estate crowdfunding. I plan to invest in at least one risk learning crowdfunding project this year. In January there was a capital call and I sent $3,000. This is a start. I will invest more because we raise more cash. My CrowdStreet projects are doing well, so I plan to invest more over the next few years. It’s a great way to generate passive income.
- FI > 120%. This is my main goal for 2023. The FI ratio It is passive income divided by expenses. This shows us that we can maintain our lifestyle with our passive income. Things are not going well this year. Our FI is 83% after 5 months. We spent a lot of money early this year. However, the rest of the year should be relatively cheap. I’m sure our passive income will catch up soon.
- net worth of high at all. This one totally depends on our investment. I don’t have much control over it, but let’s get back to ATH! Things are looking good so far in 2023. Our net worth has already recovered by 79%. Our lowest point was in October 2022.
Health goals
- 7,500 steps a day. Wow, that goal is hard to achieve. Every day my steps fell like a rock after I came back from Thailand. It was cold in Portland and I had a hard time leaving the house. My average steps are 6,062 steps per day. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will get much better than this.
- Cook 1 vegetarian/fish per week. I want to cook a healthy meal at least once a week. So far I have cooked 29 healthy meals. This is great progress.
Personal goals
- Disneyland, zipline, or a hot air balloon ride. We visited Disneyland in March. It was great. We enjoyed the trip immensely. The RB40Jr wasn’t a fan of classic ride-on toys, but he did love the newer, more exciting rides. I’m glad we went. Finished!
- Happiness > 8. It may have been a little difficult for me. My mother passed away this past April, and I’ve been putting on weight for the entire month. It’s hard when you see the end of the game. I’m getting better, though. I give May 7 points. Summer is almost here, so things are starting to look up.
- Get rid of Awebber. blocked. This is one of the biggest expenses of my business and it doesn’t seem to help. I’m moving to a cheaper alternative this year. It is difficult to move forward on this front.
net worth (+10.1%)
The stock market did very well in May. AI stocks were on a tear and led the index higher. I sold some NVDA and META to take a little money off the table. It was a great month to be an investor.
I’ve been tracking our net worth since 2006. Normally, it’s very motivating to see progress. The mounting strength is incredible. However, 2022 has been underwhelming. Our net worth has fallen along with the stock market. Hopefully we can get back to our all-time highs this year. The important thing is to keep investing even when the market goes down.
***Important*** My best advice is to stay the course. Never stop investing. You have to keep investing when the stock market goes down. Eventually, the stock market will recover and you will do well as long as you keep investing during the downturn.
Below is a graph of our net worth from Empower. (Personal Capital is now Empower.) Sign up for a free Empower account to help manage your financial and investment accounts. I log in to check our net worth and use their free tools. It’s a great site for DIY investors.
May 2023 Fire Cash Flow
This FIRE cash flow chart includes online income, side gigs, and taxable passive income. Mrs. RB40’s income is not here because I prove we’ll be fine after she retires. May was a good month. Our cash flow was positive and we saved over $2,000.
May 2023 blaze income: $6,019
Our fire income was high in May. The real estate crowdfunding came in two beautiful installments. Additional income from food delivery was also beneficial.
- Real estate crowdfunding: 1850 dollars. Our income from real estate crowdfunding is doing well. You can read more on the RE crowdfunding passive income page.
- Dividend: 1216 dollars. Good earnings.
- rental income: $592. I have washed and stained the surfaces in the duplexer. I also bought some plants for landscaping.
- Blog income: $1290. Blog income is slowing.
- Odd jobs: I made $1050 being a delivery driver. But I also spent more than usual on gas. I will continue to drive for a while to see if I can improve my efficiency.
- interest: $20.
Spending: $3,795
In 2023, I plan to spend about $50,000. This is the same budget as last year. May was good. We spent more than usual on eating out and clothes, but the rest was fine.
Here are some details. In fact, I’ll just focus on a few categories to keep it simple.
- housing: $1,297. This includes mortgage, utilities, furniture, repairs and maintenance. Our housing expenses are very low because we live in a duplex. We split several expenses with our tenant.
- clothes: 404 bucks. The Mrs. RB40 said it did being cheap. I got some clothes and accessories. I think that’s good. She should spend some money on herself.
- entertainment: $385. We ordered out more than usual last month. The Mrs. RB40 was pressed into action so we needed an outlet.
- grocery shop: $641. My goal for grocery expenses was $500 a month. Perhaps this is not realistic now due to inflation. I will increase our grocery budget to $600 a month.
- child: $263. RB40Jr Activities – Wushu class.
- parents: 250 dollars. My brothers and I sent $250 a month to our parents to help with expenses. They live in Thailand, so their cost of living is much lower.
- communications: $279. This was much higher than usual. Normally, I spend about $50 on gas. This class will be about $300 a month as long as I continue to be a delivery driver.
rescue: $2,226
Finally, we have a good month with savings. This should help us catch up on the previous negative cash flow months.
May 2023 concludes
May was a good month for me. Life was rolling at a regular clip in the RB40’s home. I was a little emotional, but I’m almost back to normal now. It just takes time.
The stock market did very well and we benefited. Investing is the best way to grow your passive income. I’m bullish for the rest of 2023. The economy may have a soft landing and avoid a recession after all.
Well, I’m ready for summer. Bring on the hot weather!
That’s all for today. Did you have a good month? School is almost over and we are looking forward to a great summer. I hope life is good for you too.
Passive income is the key to early retirement. These days, I invest in commercial real estate with Crowd Street. They have many projects all over the United States. Go check them out!
Disclosure: We may receive a referral fee if you register for a service through the links on this page.
Passive income is the key to early retirement. This year, Joe is investing in commercial real estate with CrowdStreet. They have many projects all over the USA so check them out!
Joe also highly recommends Personal Capital to DIY investors. They have many useful tools that will help you reach financial independence.
Get the update via email:
Sign up to receive new articles by email
We hate spam just as much as you do
