At the end of June, Whitney and I finished our travel contracts in Charlottesville, VA and moved back home. It was a little bittersweet. We loved the patients and the area, but we were glad to be done with the demanding caseload at the clinics. This was definitely the last time that we’ll work at clinics seeing multiple patients every hour. I’ve mentioned this in past articles, but one thing that was really good about this travel assignment for me was realizing that I still really enjoy treating patients and making a difference in their lives. After being out of the clinic for a full year and a half before this, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever work with patients again, but now I think working 1-2 days/week in the clinic in the future is a real possibility for me. That was a strange realization for me because I always thought that once money wasn’t a concern, I wouldn’t have any desire to be in the clinic treating anymore. We’ll see how that all works out after the baby comes, because I may end up changing my mind again…
As far as business, things continue to go well. Every month we gradually refine things to make them more efficient and/or more profitable. While the revenue numbers aren’t increasing rapidly like in the past, we’re making way more from the business than we need to live comfortably which is great. We’re now past 8 years of working on this side-hustle turned business, and it continually amazes me how things have evolved.
Whitney has continued to be a superstar during pregnancy. Not only has she been working in the clinic part time, but she’s also been the glue holding the business together, all while really focusing on eating healthy and continuing to exercise. We’ve been doing weekly hard hikes (6-10 miles with 1,200+ feet of elevation gain) throughout her pregnancy, and she’s still doing at least a few days per week of lifting at the gym.
Income
Income from our business (FifthWheelPT and Travel Therapy Mentor) for June was up 5% compared to May. Now that we’re half way through the year, we can start making pretty accurate estimates for total annual revenue, and it looks like we may actually surpass last year which was by far our best year of all time. We’re very fortunate with the growth of our business over time, and to be able to work whenever and where ever we want. I also earned a few thousand during the month from our part time travel contracts which was nice.
Expenses
June expenses were just slightly higher than in May. We have been buying a lot in preparation for the baby and for Whitney’s postpartum recovery. We also made our last rent payment for the place we were staying at in Charlottesville for our travel assignments. Fixed costs at home remain very low, although a little higher than usual for utilities with it being so hot in Virginia so far this summer.
As I mentioned last month, my expenses are undoubtedly going to increase drastically in the next year or so with the baby, most likely buying a new house, building a home gym, and probably upgrading both of our cars. Once all of that happens, I’ll have to recalculate the numbers I use for these articles.
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 3.5% in June, again breaking all time highs. My biggest lesson of the last few years is that the stock market is truly random most of the time. No matter what crazy headlines there are or things happening in the world, the market generally just continues to slowly grind higher even at historically crazy high valuations. That’s why usually people that just dollar cost average in over time and ignore all the news and fluctuations have the best returns. Trying to time the market is a fool’s errand for 99% of people.
The Bitcoin price decreased by about 7.1% during the month of June. The price has basically remained in the same range for the last 4 months, which is very good in my opinion. The market was very overheated when we broke all time highs in March and needed time to cool down and for some of the hype to go away before continuing higher. That has happened to a large extent now, but it would be great if we stay in this range for another few months. As someone who bought a lot of Bitcoin when prices were below $10k, it’s always amazing to see pessimism and negative sentiment at current prices. After taking some profits in February and March, I used some of those profits to buy back in when we dropped below $60k in June and some people seemed to be panicking. Although it didn’t make a huge difference, it’s always nice to reduce cost basis a little especially when buying/selling in a retirement account without tax considerations. Any prices below $60k seem like a steal to me right now. I’d love to see a drop below $50k as I’d really load up there and redeploy all of the profits I took. While that’s unlikely after so many months of bouncing around in this range above $50k, it’s always a possibility especially if unemployment continues to increase and the market starts pricing in an actual recession.
Financial Independence Progress
My net assets decreased by about 0.9% in June. Overall a pretty small decline on a month that the Bitcoin price dropped by over 7%.
Cash (earning 5% interest) and Bitcoin are my two largest holdings currently. I’m still really enjoying the risk/reward of having a high cash balance combined with the upside potential that I think is inevitable with Bitcoin. Over the last 4 years, I’ve had much better risk adjusted returns with this allocation than if I was 100% invested in S&P 500 index funds. With that being said, this certainly is not a good choice for everyone. I do still have a decent amount of money in equity index funds as well as some in real estate and precious metals.
With this decrease in my net asset value, my assets are now equal to approximately 101.7 times my average annual expenses.
Still having over 100x my yearly expenses in assets even with a drop on the month is insane. Once my expenses increase in the near future as I discussed above, I’ll have to adjust the calculations, which will bring this multiple down quite a bit though.
Next Month
In July, we’ll be back at home working on the business and getting everything ready for the baby to come in the few months. We’re really excited to be back home and able to get back in a more normal routine. After so many years of traveling both domestically and internationally, we really value our time at home in our normal routine more than we ever would have thought.
How was June for you financially? Let me know in the comments!
Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist 