May was a great month personally and for business, but a terrible month for my investments. As you may have guessed following my crypto asset allocation article recently, having a concentrated allocation in crypto was rough in May with the massive drop across the board in crypto assets. These sorts of sudden drops are par for the course in crypto though, and I made my investment decisions knowing that it was only a matter of time before a big drawdown. I definitely didn’t anticipate it would happen so early in the year, but if markets were predictable then everyone would be rich.
Personally, Whitney and I spent much of May at home in Virginia focusing on going the gym, hiking, and getting ready for our move to Hawaii for Whitney’s eight week Travel PT contract. There were a lot of logistics involved in making the move, especially with trying to keep costs relatively low. The rental car shortage made things very frustrating and expensive, but we eventually found a decent option and had to just accept the higher cost. This was also the case for short term housing. The cheapest feasible housing option we could find in Hawaii was over twice as expensive as any other short term housing we’ve ever lived in on prior travel assignments. Nothing in Hawaii is low cost, but that’s for good reason because it is absolutely amazing there in terms of climate and quality of life. If it was cheap then just about everyone would want to live there.
Income
Income from our websites (FifthWheelPT and Travel Therapy Mentor) hit another new all time high for the month of May. I’m continually shocked at how things have evolved over time and how we continue to find new ways to expand our online presence and earn additional revenue. If income growth continues to increase like it has so far this year, it’s actually possible that revenue from 2021 will surpass revenue from 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 all combined! Had you told me what this website would eventually grow into when I first started writing about Travel PT in 2016, I would have thought you were insane.
Expenses
May was a relatively average month in terms of expenses. We were at home for most of the month and didn’t have any out of the ordinary expenses. We did have to have our AC repaired right before we moved to Hawaii, but luckily that was a low cost and easy repair. We still have our basement rented out which helps to offset most of my housing costs. My savings rate for the month was at about 85%.
Investments
The S&P 500 was up about .5% in May. Bitcoin was down about 36% on the month, with some alt coins dropping much more than that. At one point during May, Bitcoin was down over 50% from all time highs. It was a really tough month to have a big exposure to crypto, and I’ve definitely been irresponsible with the amount of risk I’ve been taking. But, overall I’m still very optimistic about the future of Bitcoin and am holding strong. Despite the drop, I’m still up significantly on my crypto investments in total due to the big jumps in valuations over the past year.
Financial Independence Progress
My net worth decreased by about 16% in May due to the big drop in crypto prices. This doesn’t feel good, but it’s certainly not the end of the world. After the drop, this leaves me with a net worth equal to about 41 times my annual expenses, which is still amazing and leaves me with a big FIRE buffer even if the websites weren’t doing as well as they are currently in the future.
Next Month
In June we’ll be settling in at our temporary home in Hawaii, exploring the big island, and Whitney will be starting her travel assignment. I’m very excited to get out of our town for a while and explore another beautiful part of the world. I expect for income to continue to be very good for the websites but for expenses to increase significantly with the higher costs in Hawaii. That isn’t ideal but should be well worth it for the experience of getting to live in Hawaii!
How was May for you financially? Let me know in the comments!
Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist 