In October, I turned 37 years old and Aria turned 1! It’s hard for me to believe that I first started this blog and writing these monthly updates at 27. So much has changed since then, and my life is in a place I could have never imagined in many aspects. My net worth is multiples of what I thought possible back then (4x my projection when I started), I haven’t worked full time in the clinic since 2018, I got married, had a baby, traveled to 56 countries, visited all 50 states and all of the national parks, and Whitney and I started a successful business together. If you told me this is where I’d be at 37 back then, I would have thought it was impossible, but that just goes to show how important hard work and compounding is over time.
We had great weather in Virginia for most of October. That meant lots of hikes in the mountains to take advantage of the beautiful views and fall colors. In the fall we always appreciate where we live more than ever. It was a busy month with tons of plans, but we got to see a lot of our family and friends which was great.
Income
Income from our business (FifthWheelPT and Travel Therapy Mentor) for October was about 20% higher than in September. Q4 is almost always our best quarter of the year for income, and it’s looking like this year won’t be any different. I’m expecting a strong end to the year for earnings and possibly a new quarterly record.
Expenses
My expenses for October were back around my new baseline. Much higher than in the past due to our new place being a lot more expensive, but this is around the level I anticipate normal months being going forward.
In total, my savings rate for the month was around 70% when all was said and done.
Investments
The S&P 500 was up by 2.3% in October, setting a new record all time high. The climb in equities has felt unstoppable despite there being constant talk of this being a bubble. One concerning thing about this entire rally from the 2022 lows is that the breadth of it has been narrow. Essentially the large cap tech stocks are up massively while most other companies in the indexes are up to a much smaller degree. In terms of a speculative bubble, that’s about what you would expect if that is indeed the case. The hopes and dreams of the market are based on AI revolutionizing everything, so if that doesn’t materialize or it becomes clear it will take longer than expected, that could cause major problems.
Bitcoin was down by about 4% in October. At the beginning of the month Bitcoin did really well and actually set a new all time high at $126,000, but unfortunately that was short lived. The price dropped precipitously throughout the month with several large liquidations happening including the biggest of all time on October 10th. It seems that there was a lot of leverage built up in the Bitcoin and crypto market in anticipation of a very strong end of the year. The market is punishing all of those speculators right now. I definitely thought Q4 would be good for Bitcoin like in past post-halving years, but markets are always unpredictable and often do the opposite of what everyone is expecting. I remain very optimistic on Bitcoin for the foreseeable future and feel that it is pretty undervalued at these levels based on all of the metrics I watch closely. I’m continuing to accumulate and will only sell when risk metrics show significant overvaluation, whether that’s 6 months or 3 years from now.
Financial Independence Progress
My net assets decreased by 2.8% in October. Unfortunately not the new highs like I’d hoped but still not bad being back to levels from June. I still have quite a large amount of cash which cushions the drops.
My assets are now equal to approximately 37.8 times my average annual expenses!
In case you missed it, check out my August monthly post for an update on why I adjusted my spending assumptions.
Next Month
In November we don’t have any trips planned and a lot fewer plans than in October. A laid back month with some extra time to work on the business will be very nice. We’re excited for Thanksgiving and for the cooler weather.
How was October for you financially? Let me know in the comments!
Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist 