May was a fairly quiet month for us spent near home. We didn’t do any traveling besides a couple of short day trips, each about an hour away, to go hiking and have lunch for Mother’s Day and Whitney’s birthday. We did lots of other fun family activities like going to the zoo, science museum, hiking, and playing at the park with Aria during the month. She’s at an age where she really enjoys being outside playing especially on playgrounds with swings and slides. She’s been sleeping well lately which we’re enjoying as much as possible before our second baby is due later this year.
We’re trying to decide if we want to stay at our rental house for another year or buy a house before the baby comes. We initially thought we’d stay at this rental as long as possible while waiting to find our “forever home,” but it only has two bedrooms on the main level and Whitney really wants both kids on the same level as us while they’re little, so that’s a big downside. We’re leaning toward moving to a different place, but the house search hasn’t been fruitful so far.
Income
Income from our business (FifthWheelPT and Travel Therapy Mentor) for May was up about 40% from April. After the really low earning month in March, it’s been nice to see revenue recover back over the last two months. June is looking like it will be an even better month as well. Running a business like ours means that revenue is always lumpy from month to month, but our savings rate is high enough that it doesn’t really impact our finances to any meaningful degree as long as we’re trending in the right direction on a yearly basis.
Expenses
My expenses for May were really low. No traveling and no unexpected expenses put them at what is about my baseline moving forward. We don’t go out of our way to budget smaller expenses since they don’t have much of an impact, as long as we keep the big expenses in check.
My savings rate for the month was about 85% when all was said and done.
Investments
The S&P 500 was up by 5.2% in May. The last two months were huge for the markets as a whole. Equity indexes are being pulled higher by AI buildout spending and expectations. Many stocks in the S&P really aren’t up that much, but the ones that are are up massively.
Bitcoin was down by about 3.6% in May. Summers are often flat to negative for Bitcoin especially during midterm election years, so weakness in price this summer wouldn’t be a big surprise. I’m continuing to accumulate during the weakness and still have strong conviction regarding adoption and price over the mid to long term even though the short term hasn’t been pleasant.
Financial Independence Progress
My net assets decreased by 0.7% in May. Only a small drop on the month was expected with the drop in the Bitcoin price but a high savings rate.
My assets are now equal to approximately 33.3 times my average annual expenses!
In case you missed it, check out this post for an update on why I adjusted my spending assumptions.
Next Month
In June, Whitney and I are taking a short trip by ourselves to celebrate our three year wedding anniversary. We haven’t done much traveling at all just the two of us since Aria was born, so it will be nice to have a couple days to relax and celebrate.
How was May for you financially? Let me know in the comments!
Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist 