April 2017 Financial Update – Quaranta

Hi RIP voyeurs,

April 2017 is gone and hopefully this new wave of winter is gone too. Before jumping into numbers let me explain why you didn’t hear from me for an entire month. April has probably been one the busiest month of my life so far, so many things happened! I had no bandwidth for writing and blogging and several other activities. My “watch later” list on youtube crossed 200 videos and my “read later” bookmark folder crossed 1000 (!!) links, maybe it’s time to declare a “bookmarks bankrupt”?

Anyway, I’m fine with that (for now). My April 2017 has been filled with so many amazing life experiences and I chose to fully enjoy them with no commitment on blogging except for this monthly financial (and personal) update. I don’t see myself blogging much more for the next 2 months given we’re organizing the Italian Wedding and then going on Honeymoon for 4 weeks. I’d be surprised (and very happy) in case I am wrong on this.

Welcome back to my monthly update. As usual, the reference doc is my NW spreadsheet.

Overview

Numbers may not grasp the actual goodness of this month. NW Delta +8,078 EUR may seem not that good but I’m actually very happy!

Major wins for April 2017:

• Mr Market bullish again, most of my ETFs went up, with the STOXX600 horse (Euro area) running like crazy after France election!
• Contained expenses. Yes, above 5k CHF this month but more than 1K is extra and one-off (Travel, Wedding, my 40th Birthday party, quaranta anni). We did good after all.

Losses of April 2017:

• Very strong EUR currency. France elections boosted EUR currency and stocks. I measure my NW in EUR while I own assets in 3 currencies. It means my NW measured in EUR got a bump. Anyway, not a big deal, currencies fluctuate. On the bright side, my NW in USD got a +23.5k, that’s an incentive to retire in US, lol!
• Naked Hooli salary. No bonuses, no stocks, just my very naked salary this month. Turbo-Sad.

Other Financial Facts

• I have 13.5K sitting in my brokerage account. That’s my timid attempt to time the market, proven wrong so far. 10K are sitting since a couple of months, 3.5K since the beginning of this month. Market performed well, so wasted opportunity here. Never time the market!
• We are accumulating cash. Now that both my salary and Mrs’s one are flowing into the shared account, we have a fat cash reserve. This is not an attempt to time the market, it’s more about we should sit together and discuss what to do with money. We have a wedding + honeymoon coming so we’ll need cash. Will think about it in July, after Mrs RIP takes her very deep financial course with an awesome teacher: myself 🙂

Other Facts

• Theater theater theater! 2 amazing weeks of plays. It’s been a success (for an amatorial company) from every point of view. Attendance satisfied, new friendships built, genuine feelings and whatever else. I found myself biking back home late at night singing and feeling very happy. That’s just the beginning, we’ll soon start planning next show and few summer activities, workshops, etc.
• Run a relay Marathon. I spent the whole March training for it. I performed way better than expected. I’ve run 12 km in little above 1h. Next step: Half Marathon in September and probably a Marathon next year! Sadly, after the run I had a small calf muscle injury and I’ve not trained much during second half of April, but I’m getting better now and running again 🙂
• Another Hike Trip, along the Via Francigena with Mrs RIP and a group of 16 people during Easter holidays. It’s my third hike trip in less than 1 year: May 2016 Italy Coast 2 Cost walking alone, October 2016 Via Appia with a dear friend and April 2017 Via Francigena with my wife and a large group. Three totally different experiences. This one was really amazing. From San Miniato to Siena, all in Tuscany. 5 Days walking a total of 100km with backpacks, almost always immerse in nature with no cars in sight. Not a very tough hike but spectacular landscapes and nice group. Made a lot of new friendships and, most important of all, Mrs RIP first hike trip stimulated her. She wants to repeat the experience! Another taste of FI life. Photo gallery at the bottom of this post 😉
• Visited Rome while Mrs RIP went to Milan. I’m not going to Rome frequently these days. I went after Easter (for 5 days) mainly to give Wedding invitation letters to friends and relatives. Meeting uncles, aunties, cousins and grandparents was fun, but spending a full sunny day hiking in Rome, 28km by foot, covering almost everything a tourist can do in a week was priceless.
• I turned 40 years old. Since our life is so intense this season I asked Mrs RIP to not do anything spectacular for this special date. No big celebrations. She can’t help, she organised what was supposed to be an informal “apero” at our place and became a 20 people thing with 24 hours of upfront preparation, cooking and organization. But it’s been a very warm and frugal party, I love my wife!
• Loosing weight took a pause. Intense sport month till Francigena hike, then dropped everything. With an intense life I had trouble keeping up with good habits. Bad weather and a calf muscle problem set me down for a couple of weeks. I allowed myself to overeat and drink a little bit too much during theater nights and travel. Getting back on track in May.
• blogged ZERO this month. Enough said. I’ll be back.
• Having hard time keeping up with my waking up early habit. Several late evenings both due to theater and celebrations of various kind. But it’s ok and I’ll be back on track soon.
• I met MP! Yeah, I physically met the awesome person behind The Mustachian Post blog (and forum)! We met for lunch and we had a 2 hours intense discussion over soooo many interesting topics. We seemed happy like children, like we knew each other since forever. It’s so fulfilling to know you’re understood and you speak the very same language 🙂 I hope we’ll meet again soon, maybe at FIWE?

Numbers & Details

Total Income for the month was 16,770 CHF (cell H40). Base income for both of us. I started putting Mrs. RIP Pillar 2 contributions in our NW and cash flow.

Total Expenses for the month were 5,070 CHF (cell H41). Without Wedding expenses 4,547 CHF (cell H45). More details on my expenses sheet.

Expenses highlights:

• Wedding. 523 CHF, payments for photo shooting, flowers and make up.
• Travel. 442 CHF, Francigena expenses like hotel room for the night before starting the trip, in Bologna, and cash expenses for food (and beers) for the 5 days.
• Groceries. 891 CHF, kind of a lot. We did a bulk grocery purchase in Italy and spent quite a few bucks in groceries for our “frugal” 40 years old Mr. RIP party at home. It’s ok.
• Transportation. 231 CHF for train tickets, tickets from Siena to Rome (me), Milan (Mrs RIP) and then back to Switzerland for both of us. Probably these should be budgeted to Travel.
• Dinners out. 102 CHF, essentially we didn’t go out but on the very last day of the month, still on “40 years” celebration mood.
• Leisure. 547 CHF, Theater, theater tickets I gave to relatives that came to watch me acting, a day in the SPA (40 years old celebration, ok, not so frugal) and Mrs. RIP cash withdraws. We can do better here.

Total savings are 7,953 CHF (cell H42), not too bad after all.

Saving rate for the month is 61.1% (cell H43), excluding Wedding 65.1% (cell H46).

Saving rate for 2017 so far: 69.4% (cell Q43), excluding Wedding 75.1% (cell Q46).

Net worth is 631,502 EUR (cell H17), Delta is +8,078 EUR (cell H18), percent +1.30% (cell H19).

The progress bar changed from 56.28% to 57.01% , with a step of +0.73% toward the big goal.

Forecast for 100% FIRE: 35 months left (+1 months), i.e. forecast Fire Date is March 1st 2020, (cell V10). Uff, the goal is moving faster than us. I knew that since 12 months linear forecast is stil consuming those awesome 2016 months when NW delta were above 20k per month.

Current Monthly allowance: 1,710 EUR (+22 EUR, cell V13).
Current Withdrawal Rate – Real:  8.85% (-0.23%, cell V15).
Current Withdrawal Rate – Ideal: 5.70% (-0.07%, cell V16).
Years of Ideal expenses accumulated: 17.5 (cell V19). If we cash all our assets we can live with 3k EUR per month without the need of any money until end of 2034, assuming no income and no investments. Reassuring, isn’t it? 🙂

Next Steps & Other Updates

• Prepare myself psychologically for the ~20k Wedding&Honeymoon expenses over the next 3 months
• Invest the 13.5k I have sitting in my Interactive Brokers account.
• Keep postponing financial chores (close UBS account, Pillar 3a for Mrs. RIP, Pillar 3a funds instead of saving account for both of us, invest more instead of keeping too much cash)

How was your April? Mine was ridiculously intense!

Enjoy this gallery of Via Francigena’s hike!

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