Financial Independence Progress Report for Dec 2019

/ humblefi

It is December 2019 now. Somebody recently asked the question: what were your accomplishments in 2019? At that moment, it struck me that 2019 has been a very very busy year….there were a lot of personal and professional issues our family had to deal with….relationship troubles, a job loss, new job and job-change induced relocation, sick parent, moving to a new house, etc. There were some good things as well….but lots and lots of stress. I realized that I need to slow down for a few days and slowly extricate myself from the grind. 

First step is this report 🙂 My last monthly progress report was May 2019. I was supposed to use a new method to track my finances and goals going forward from May. That did not happen for the above reasons. I have used this template since I started this blog…almost 6 years ago. So, lets use it for some more time until I stabilize my life!

That said, let us see how much closer I got to my financial independence targets in Dec 2019.

12/22/2019
Emergency Fund 100.0% 39.27%
College Fund 67.39% 76.20%
Passive Income (2018 vs 2019) $1387.59(12/2018) $732.68 (12/2019)
Retirement Fund 92.52% 95.46%
Roof for our Family Done!
Medical Fund (via HSA) 18.60% 22.30%
Life Insurance Done (term life insurance policy)

Main Takeaways this month

  • Passive Income Stream
    • This year’s target dividends was $500 pm or $6000 per year. The target is half of last years because I had to sell some investments for a home down payment.
    • The good news is that I have exceeded my target. The total dividends, as of today, is $10,426.89.
    • The bad news is that last year the total dividends were much higher….$16,589. But that was expected….home purchase and all.
  • Additional Investments
    • Investments in taxable accounts
      • Nothing this month. Too many expenses related to Christmas 🙂
    • Investments in tax-deferred account (IRA)
      • Redirected the December REIT fund dividends into VEIPX: Vanguard Equity Income Fund
    • Investments in tax-deferred 401K
      • No change this month…continuing to build a cash position.
      • The way the market is going up, this plan seems stupid…..but I want to have cash when the chips are down much more that the incremental gains this year.
  • Miscellaneous
    • Nothing special.

 

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