Financial Independence Update- November 2020

November was a relatively uneventful month spent at home in Virginia. Most weeks I worked between 10-20 hours at my new PRN outpatient physical therapy job, while spending most of my time working on getting in better physical shape. I averaged 2-3 hikes (5-10 miles each) per week along with 5 days per week lifting heavy in the gym. After all the hiking we did on our cross country roadtrip along with continued hiking throughout October and November, it’s safe to say I’m in the best cardiovascular shape of my life. In addition to the cardio conditioning, I also made big strides in my strength and am now within 30 lbs of my all time bests on all compound lifts at a significantly lower bodyweight than when those PRs were set. The quick progress in my health and conditioning has me very excited to continue pushing my limits to see what I can achieve before we hit the road again for more traveling in 2021.

Whitney and I have set tentative “end dates” for our PRN jobs in mid January, which would put us right at three months back in the clinic. I’ve enjoyed refreshing my clinical skills after taking so much time off and am overall happy with our jobs, but this experience has reminded me of some of the aspects of patient care that I don’t enjoy and why I pursued FIRE so aggressively in the first place. Once we settle down more permanently somewhere, I could see myself working 1-2 days per week in an outpatient clinic for some structure and for the rewarding aspects of patient care, but I don’t I’ll ever more than 24 hours per week in a clinic again. At this point in my life I’m experimenting more than ever with what does and doesn’t bring me joy, happiness, and value. So far it seems that a small number of hours per week spent in the clinic gives me the satisfaction of making a difference in patients’ lives and improving the community, without the stress of the clinic that I wanted to leave behind.

Income

Income from the websites (FifthWheelPT and Travel Therapy Mentor) for November was pretty good overall. As of November, the year to date business revenue for 2020 has actually exceeded last year’s revenue, which was a surprise considering how bad revenue was impacted this year from COVID. This makes me excited for future growth once things get back closer to normal. Whitney and I have spent more time on website projects lately as well as responding to an influx of emails and messages. We’ve got some exciting business plans for 2021 to be announced soon!

I also of course earned a decent amount of money in November from my PRN job, which is always nice.

Expenses

November expenses were minimal since we were at home the full month and didn’t have any major expenditures pop up. I expect this to continue to be the case until we get back to some sort of traveling again in late January or early February 2021. In total, my savings rate for the month was around 80%.

Investments

The S&P 500 was up about 10.8% in November! That makes it one of the best performing months for the index ever. The incredible performance seems to be related to lots of good news on coming vaccines. This puts the CAPE ratio at around 33.4, which is the highest ever besides during the early 2000s dot-com bubble. We’re at even higher levels than 1929 and 2008, which is pretty amazing considering all the economic destruction that’s occurred as a result of the pandemic. A CAPE ratio that high historically does not bode well for returns in the next decade, which is a major reason why I remain cautious in my equity asset allocation. With that being said, there could certainly be a lot more upside in equities in the near future when considering historically low interest rates and massive amounts of quantitative easing.

My investment portfolio return was about 5.2% in November, which was largely a result of the ongoing crypto bull market. Bitcoin was up almost 40% on the month.

Financial Independence Progress

My net worth increased by about 5.6% in November, which is one of my highest monthly increases ever. This puts me at a big new all time high net worth and my projected future yearly expenses at only 3.1% of my total net worth. It’s been exciting to watch this percentage gradually decrease each month lately, and I’ve got my fingers crossed that it continues.

Next Month

In December, I’ll continue to work toward all time PRs in the gym while working a couple days per week in the clinic and spending more time on website projects. December should prove to be a good month for my net worth with continued low expenses and higher income. I’m very interested to see how long the equity rally lasts and if it will extend through the end of the year.

As always, stay safe and healthy! — And let me know in the comments how November was for you along your financial journey!