January was the first month that Whitney and I felt like we were getting in a good groove as parents. Aria started sleeping a little longer at night, at least at the beginning of the month, which was wonderful. Something I didn’t realize before having a baby is that things seem to progress and regress every couple of weeks. Some weeks she’s eating great, going down for naps easily, and sleeping for 6-8 hours at night, and then other weeks it seems like we’re back to square one with her not sleeping for more than an hour at a time. The key for us has been not getting our hopes up during the times when things are going well and realizing it’s only temporary when things are going poorly.
We spent most of the month at home continuing to work on getting in a groove as a family. But we did take our first short trip with Aria to see how it would go and do some trial and error with travel logistics prior to a bigger trip we had planned for February. It was just a weekend trip a few hours from home. It went okay but definitely not great. She had trouble sleeping in a new environment and had a difficult time riding in the car for hours at a time. Being out and about with her in a new city went better than we expected though which was nice. She was content in her stroller and was able to nap on the go pretty well.
As for business and finances, it was a good month. We still haven’t had nearly as much time to spend on the business lately, but despite that we’ve been able to keep up and maintain everything that we need to do. New content has been scarce, but hopefully we will have more time to write articles, make videos, and do more on social media soon.
Income
Income from our business (FifthWheelPT and Travel Therapy Mentor) for January was about 20% lower than December. Considering December was one of our highest earning months of all time, 20% lower is still really good. We got caught up on most payments that were past due but still have some that are taking longer than expected. Sometimes things are slow around the holidays and beginning of the year as far as people getting back to us, so hopefully by February everything will be caught up.
Expenses
My expenses for January were very low. Besides our weekend trip, we spent most of our time at home taking care of the baby and going to the gym. I continue to have really low fixed monthly costs for almost everything, so when not traveling, the burn rate is extremely low.
In total, my savings rate for the month was around 90% when all was said and done.
Investments
The S&P 500 was up by about 2.7% in January. It’s been really interesting recently to see equities at all time highs but there being a lot of negative sentiment, fear, and uncertainty. Basically the stock market was going straight up for so long that even a slowing rate of change has been enough to make some people panic. The economy does definitely seem to still be softening with inflation remaining sticky and unemployment gradually trending upward, but no major changes for a while now. The Shiller PE remains very high, so there’s no doubt the market is in a precarious situation if the economy does slow further in coming months — but normally sentiment is much more euphoric at new market highs. I’m not sure exactly what this means for the future, but it’s an interesting thing to take note of nonetheless. I still have a large cash cushion along with my risk assets.
Bitcoin was up by about 9.5% in January and put in a slight new all time high near the end of the month. The price has basically been chopping sideways for a few months now, which is generally a good sign for the future. Moving averages are catching up to the price, sentiment is getting reset, and all of the indicators are showing that the market is really only slightly overheated at this point. This cycle was following the last cycle closely until December but has really deviated now. Overall I think this is a good thing. The last cycle got too euphoric too quickly which led to the big blow off top, so it’s nice to see another period of mostly sideways consolidation to keep things from getting out of hand too soon.
While it’s always possible that we hit the peak for the Bitcoin cycle, I think it’s unlikely. A 20-30% correction from the highs would just be par for the course and not make me nervous. If we drop back below $70k then that would definitely be more concerning but no risk of that yet.
Financial Independence Progress
My net assets increased by 3.8% in January. That puts me back to all time highs for both net assets and net worth. My net worth has now doubled in just the last two years, which is crazy and unexpected to say the least.
What makes this even more insane is that I’ve kept 30%-45% of my assets in high yield savings accounts during that whole time to decrease risk. That barbell strategy of high allocations of Bitcoin and cash has paid off extremely well, giving me high returns with only moderate volatility.
My assets are now equal to approximately 128.8 times my average annual expenses!
Next Month
In February we have our first real trip with Aria. We’re going to Houston for the APTA CSM conference, which will mean her first flights when she’s just a little over 3 months old. Wish us luck! Besides that, we plan to spend most of the month at home again hopefully putting a little more time into the business.
How was January for you financially? Let me know in the comments!
Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist 