At the beginning of September, we finished up our road trip to our last national park in Michigan, plus visiting friends in Wisconsin. Soon after we got home from the road trip, we flew to Las Vegas for annual The Traveler’s Conference. This conference is always one of our favorite times of the year, and this year was no exception. We met some new friends and reconnected with a lot of old ones as well. Even though we always look forward to TravCon, it’s also a bit of a relief when it’s over. The endless food, drinks, and late nights are great for a few days, but not for any more than that. Once it’s done, we always look forward to getting home and back into a routine.
After TravCon, we spent the rest of the month at home in Virginia catching up on various things including website related work. We did a good job of keeping up with most things while traveling for the past several months, but finding time to write and for phone calls is always much easier at home, so we fell behind on that a little. We also had a lot of accounting/following up on payments to do to get ready for the end of the year. Q4 has historically been our best quarter of the year, so we’re hoping that continues this year as well.
Now that we’re back home in Virginia for a while, we’re planning to do a lot of hiking to enjoy the beautiful fall colors in Virginia as well as get back on our lifting and dieting plans. Both Whitney and I gained some weight on this past trip (although we did do better than on prior trips) and we want to get back to where we were before our wedding. We’ve got a little while before our next adventure, so that should be feasible.
Income
Income from our websites (FifthWheelPT and Travel Therapy Mentor) for September was great. Sitting down to do accounting and following up on payments after long international trips always leads to a jump in income for us. No matter how well we try to stay on top of this while traveling, we never do as a good of a job as we do once we’re at home and can more easily set up phone calls and go through all of our records. September was our second highest earning month of the year and the fifth highest earning month of all time for the business. Historically, September hasn’t been a great month for our revenue, so this month was a welcome surprise.
We are continuously looking for ways to refine our processes to make things more efficient and profitable, and some recent changes we’ve made have been very good for us. Most of our metrics continue to trend upwards, which is a positive indicator for future income.
Expenses
September personal expenses actually weren’t too bad despite the road trip and the trip to Las Vegas. Besides the cost of gas, the road trip was pretty low cost, especially since we were able to stay with some friends for many of the nights. For Las Vegas, our only real expenses were the conference tickets, the hotel, and a couple of Ubers. Staffing companies at the conference are always throwing events with free food and drinks, and breakfast and lunch are included with the conference ticket. So we only paid for a couple meals outside of all of the events and had no activity costs. TravCon is definitely the most affordable way to do Vegas!
My fixed costs back home remain very low. Property taxes and home owner’s insurance in Virginia hasn’t increased as much as in other states recently, and our utilities costs have remained about the same for the last several years. When we’re traveling, my costs back home are only a few hundred dollars per month, and when we’re at home the only things that change are higher utility costs and spending money at the grocery store (and occasional meals out) which aren’t huge expenses. When we’re home, most of our time is spent either hiking, lifting, working on the business, or spending time with friends and family, so no major costs to speak of there usually.
My only big expense for this month was business related. Quarterly taxes were due, and that takes a significant chunk of the business revenue for the month. Paying this large sum is always a little frustrating, but having the money set aside and ready makes it feel not as bad.
All in all, my savings rate for the month was definitely over 70%, although I don’t track the exact number anymore.
Investments
The S&P 500 was down by about 4.9% in September. The market turbulence has continued, and recession fears are starting to come back around, which has caused investors to be nervous. The job market appears to be holding up well despite the much higher interest rates, but I have doubts about how long that will last. Mortgage rates are at 20 year highs, and the cost of borrowing for companies (and governments) has exploded higher. It’s only a matter of time before that impact is felt throughout the economy after so many years of very cheap borrowing. I’m expecting for companies to be cutting costs going into 2024 and also reporting lower earnings than anticipated. Although I could certainly be wrong, I believe that the bear market that started at the end of 2021 isn’t over yet.
Bitcoin was up by about 3.9% in September. Bitcoin is in a really interesting spot right now. Most traders still treat it like a very volatile risk asset, but I believe that will slowly change over time as more people start to understand the true value of a decentralized, scarce, and inelastic asset. It’s still in the early stages of adoption, so the volatility will likely continue (although not to the same degree); but just like for the last 14 years, most of that volatility will be to the upside. I’m extremely bullish on Bitcoin over the long term and have continued to accumulate more and more, especially over the past year when sentiment has been very negative. If the economy does go into recession at the end of this year or beginning of next year like I expect, Bitcoin will probably drop in the short term, but there’s no guarantee of that so I don’t think waiting to buy at lower prices is prudent here with so much potential upside. Another big story this month for Bitcoin is the narrowing of the discount on the Greyscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) in anticipation of a spot Bitcoin ETF. I was adding to my GBTC position over the past year, so Bitcoin increasing in price while the discount to NAV is also reduced has meant really great returns this year. GBTC is up over 130% year to date, which has meant a meaningful increase in the value of my investment accounts.
Financial Independence Progress
My net assets increased by about 1.3% in September. A high earning month combined with an increase in the Bitcoin price and an even bigger increase in the GBTC price had a big impact despite the decrease in the S&P 500. This increase actually put me at a new all time high in both net assets and net worth!
With all of the volatility and uncertainty in markets lately, I feel very fortunate to still be making new highs. Having the majority of my money in cash or cash equivalents and Bitcoin, while certainly not a traditional approach or one I’d recommend to new investors, has worked out very well for me over the past few years. This isn’t even the allocation that I would prefer, but with the housing market and stock market so overvalued relative to historical indicators, I feel like my current position is still the place to be.
With this increase in my net asset value, my assets are now equal to approximately 72.7 times my annual expenses.
Next Month
In October, we’ll be at home for the entire month, so we’re hoping to be productive and get ahead on some things. I also turn 35 in October which is exciting! We’ll also be spending some time writing about our Europe trip this summer and preparing for our next big adventure at the beginning of next year, so stay tuned for that!
How was September for you financially? Let me know in the comments!
Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist 