June was an amazing month. Whitney and I got married and then set out on another long international trip for our Honeymoon, this time 10 weeks in Europe!
The beginning of the month was a little hectic, with making sure everything was good to go for the wedding, but overall everything went really smoothly. We got to see some family and friends that we had not seen in years, and the weather turned out perfect for the ceremony. We decided to do a private ceremony with only our immediate family at a great overlook along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We really didn’t want a ton of people at our ceremony, but we did want to have a reception with extended family and friends. I think this was an excellent choice for us. We got to avoid a lot of hassle that would have been involved with a big ceremony, which also saved us money, but we still got to celebrate with everyone afterward.
We spent the second half of the month starting our Honeymoon off in Switzerland, which was the 43rd country we have visited! Switzerland was incredible, and is easily in our top three favorite countries. The only real downside to our 18 days there was the cost. Lodging, food, and transportation were all much more expensive than we’re used to on our long international trips. But, we went into it knowing this would be the case, so it wasn’t a big deal. Switzerland will almost certainly be somewhere we return to in the future. I wrote all about my expenses there in this article and Whitney wrote a full recap of our time there, with more detail about everything we did in each area of the country and some photos!
Income
Income from our websites (FifthWheelPT and Travel Therapy Mentor) for June was 20% higher than May, which was nice after such a low earning month. Even with June being 20% higher than May, it was still lower than June of last year, which is a little concerning. Q1 2023 income was nearly double Q1 2022, but Q2 2023 was actually lower than Q2 2022. Hopefully this was just a reversion to the mean after an outstanding Q1, but we’ll have to see how the rest of the year plays out. All in all, the first six months of this year were better than the first six months of last year, so that’s a positive. I’m optimistic that 2023 business revenue will surpass 2022, and so far we’re on track to do that.
Expenses
June expenses were high as you can imagine. We had all of our wedding reception expenses while at home, plus our usual monthly expenses at home. Before we left for Europe, we were booking and paying in advance for some of the flights and accommodations for the trip. Then we had high day to day costs while traveling in Switzerland. I also had Q2 estimated taxed due in June, which was a huge expense. June expenses weren’t as high as April (due to a big tax burden paid at that time), but they still were very high — actually my second highest expense month of all time. The good news is that much of our Europe trip is booked now, so July and August shouldn’t be nearly as costly.
Investments
The S&P 500 was up by about 6.5% in June. The market keeps climbing higher each month this year, despite a lot of doom and gloom forecasts. I remain concerned by a lot of economic indicators, and I think eventually equities will come around to this view as well. But, the longer this rally continues, the more likely my view is wrong. Meaning the more likely that all of the negative news was already priced in and the market is looking toward rosier economic times in the future. If this really is just a bear market rally like I believe, then the market should be turning around before the end of the summer. If not, then the bottom was in back in October. We’ve rallied over 20% off of those lows, which is pretty impressive.
Bitcoin was up almost 12% in June. I have continued to add to my Bitcoin position this year, and that has played out extremely well so far. Bitcoin is now up more than 100% since some of the purchases I made at the end of 2022. This quick rally also seems pretty unsustainable with current economic circumstances, but with the halving less than 10 months away, Bitcoin may continue to price that in and look past economic data. With that being said, I would be extremely surprised if there isn’t a pretty significant pull back between now and then to shake everyone’s confidence going into the halving year. A big drop before the halving seems to happen every cycle, and this time probably won’t be any different. If it does happen, I’ll treat that as a major buying opportunity.
Financial Independence Progress
My net assets increased by 4.1% in June, mostly due to the increase in the Bitcoin price. This puts me at a new all time high in both my net assets and net worth. With Bitcoin down over 50% from the high and the S&P still below it’s highs, I’m very happy with my current financial situation. Staying heavy in cash has dampened much of the volatility of the past year and reduced my risk. Getting over 4% interest on cash in high yield savings accounts right now has been really nice as well. We’re still planning to buy a house later this year, so the cash I’ve been saving might go toward paying for that anyway. I’ll most likely avoid getting a mortgage on this house purchase as well, unless mortgage rates decrease significantly between now and then.
With this increase in my net asset value, my assets are now equal to approximately 70.3 times my annual expenses.
Next Month
In July we’ll be in the middle of our Europe trip. The plan is to visit Slovenia, Lativa, Estonia, Finland, and Norway during the month. We don’t have much planned past Finland yet, so we’ll have to work on that at the beginning of the month. The trip is off the a great start so far, so hopefully that will continue through July!
How was June for you financially? Let me know in the comments!
If you want to learn more about 0ur 10-week trip throughout Europe this summer, check out this overview. You can also follow along with our trip on Instagram and Facebook where Whitney regularly posts pictures, especially on our stories.
Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist 