Financial Independence Update- March 2024

In March we spent the month working on the websites, looking for travel therapy contracts, traveling, packing and moving.

It seems like we’re always playing catch up when it comes to work we need to do for the websites. While it’s a flexible business and doesn’t require more than 15-20 hours or so per week to keep up with day to day tasks, there is always a backlog of maintenance tasks and new content that needs to get done eventually. Most of those things fall by the wayside when we’re busy traveling, so it’s easy for us to feel behind. When we are home we always try to get caught up. In March, we got caught up a little, but we still have a lot we need to get done in April after being gone for almost all of January and February.

We interviewed for a few Travel PT contracts to try to find something that would work for us. Finding contracts can be difficult for us these days because we have really specific requirements. Both Whitney and I want to work outpatient PT contracts, and we also want to only work two days per week each so that we have time to get our own work done during the week. For these contracts, we also wanted to be within a couple of hours of home because we have several weekends we need to be back there over the next few months. We’d also prefer 1:1 care clinics, but since those can be tough to find, we are more lenient on that.

We eventually decided on one and signed our contracts to start on April 1st. This will be my first time treating patients in almost two years, so to say I’m nervous about going back is a bit of an understatement. So why do it? Mainly because I need practice hours to renew my license, but also because I do miss being in the clinic and treating patients sometimes. While I certainly don’t need the income, I want to keep my license to keep my options open in the future. For me in the future, I think some sort of two days per week work schedule in the clinic could be really good. After five years of being semi-retired, I’ve learned that never doing any work at all isn’t an option for me. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment as well as the routine and consistency that comes with doing some sort of meaningful work. While the websites have filled that need for the past five years, I don’t know if that will still be the case in the future.

As far as traveling goes, in March we went to Mexico for the annual Core Medical Group trip, followed by Orlando for the national Occupational Therapy conference. There was only a few days between the Core trip ending and the OT conference starting, so we stayed three extra days in Cancun and went straight from Mexico to Orlando. This made more sense to us then going back home to Virginia for just a couple of days, and it worked out well. Mexico was a lot of fun as always, enjoying the beautiful resort and hanging out with fellow healthcare travelers. This was our second year attending the OT conference, and it was great. We met at least a couple hundred current OTs and students who are interested in travel therapy. We also hosted a meetup for about 50 prospective travelers that gave us a chance to talk to everyone more in depth than we can in passing at the booth.

At the end of March, we spent a few days getting our house in order, packing our things, and moving to our new travel contract location before starting work on April 1st. Since we’re going to an area we’re fairly familiar with in Virginia and not too far from home, that all went smoothly. We’ve gotten much better at packing and moving over the years but still dread doing it every time!

Income

Income from our websites (FifthWheelPT and Travel Therapy Mentor) for March picked up significantly, up 70% compared to February. While still nowhere near some of our really high earning months lately, it was nice to see the turnaround from February. Fortunately, since January was an all-time high earning month, even though February and March weren’t great, we still set a new record in Q1 with our highest earning Q1 of all time and our second highest earning quarter ever! Although nothing major, it’s still nice to celebrate the little wins.

Expenses

March expenses weren’t too bad. We used points for all of our flights and hotels in both Mexico and Orlando. In total we only spent a couple hundred dollars for all of our expenses in those 10 days, which was very reasonable. Besides that, we just had our normal monthly expenses back home which are very low these days while we’re still living in our townhouse. We’re currently watching the market for our “forever home,” which will undoubtedly increase our costs down the line. But, we’re in no rush, so we’re waiting patiently for the perfect place to pop up.

In total, my savings rate for the month was around 85% when all was said and done.

Investments

The S&P 500 was up by about 3.1% in March. Still breaking new all time highs almost every month now, the stock market is showing little sign of slowing down. With that being said, much of the increased prices have come from multiple expansion and not earnings growth, which is not a good sign. The Shiller PE Ratio is currently over 34, which historically is very high. It’s only been higher twice in history, and that was during the tech bubble in 1999-2000 and the post-Covid rally in 2021. Most people don’t know that the S&P is trading at multiples higher than before the great depression and before the great recession still. While this time could be different, those sorts of multiples are very risky and historically proceed very low forward looking returns. I still have a relatively small equity position and don’t see any reason to increase it with valuations where they are. Although that has been a bad decision over the past couple of years, I don’t mind because if I’m going to take big risk, I’d rather it be in Bitcoin where I think the risk/reward is much better.

The Bitcoin price increased by about 16.6% during the month of March. That makes seven straight months of positive Bitcoin returns. While very exciting, historically long periods of positive months like this don’t last long. There have only been a couple of times in history that Bitcoin has had six months or more of positive returns in a row, so we’re certainly overdue for a red month. I didn’t take any profits in March after doing some selling in February, but I’ll probably sell another 10% of my holdings if we see another leg up in price in April. I still feel that all possibilities are on the table for Bitcoin right now. We’re going into the halving in April, which could mean that hype and price continue upward and we see some really absurd numbers this summer– but it’s also very possible that things are too overheated right now and the halving turns out to be a “sell the news” event before we get a correction and a quiet summer. Prices remaining near all time highs for so long makes me lean toward more upside before a potential correction though.

People always underestimate how quickly Bitcoin can move both up and down. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we have a quick rally up to the halving breaking $80,000 and then a sudden drop back down to $50,000 or lower right after. That would surprise everyone and would be par for the course for Bitcoin. Since it’s so unpredictable, I just buy during 20%+ declines and then gradually sell as the price increases. I want to be prepared for any outcome instead of trying to be a hero timing things perfectly which is a fool’s errand.

Financial Independence Progress

My net assets increased by about 5.6% in March, thanks again to the increase in the Bitcoin price.

This increase put me at another new all time high in both net assets and net worth!

I’ve only had three negative months in all of 2023-2024, and each of those were less than 1% drops. The business doing well and the Bitcoin price tripling in that time period have undoubtedly been big reasons for that. I’ve been increasingly lenient on spending and expenses over the years, but that’s been no match for the snowball that’s built up from my assets growing. In 2023 and so far in 2024, it’s only now become clear to me just how quickly that snowball can grow over time. I fully intend to increase my spending more in the coming years to try to get as much value out of those assets I’ve built up as is possible.

With this increase in my net asset value, my assets are now equal to approximately 100.7 times my average annual expenses! What a crazy milestone!

Next Month

In April we’ll start our new travel therapy contracts. While I’m anxious about getting back in the clinic, I know it will be good for me to be in there helping patients again. It might take me a while to get back in the swing of things, but every other time I’ve taken long periods off, it’s been just like riding a bike when I get back in the clinic, so I’m optimistic this time will be no different.

How was March for you financially? Let me know in the comments!