Financial Transparency for first month of 2017.
music selection: “Give Me All Your Love” — Whitesnake
weigh-in: 213.2 +3.4 – Superbowl eating!
ASSETS:
Wells Fargo (taxable): I’m up 613 here to 29,747. A monthly gain of 2.10%.
Interactive Brokers (taxable): Strong gains of 10,221 for the month up to 279,747. That is a gain of 3.79% – smoking!
Interactive Brokers (tIRA): A more pedestrian gain of 2,108 to 142,325. That is good for a monthly gain of 1.50%.
Checking: Not much action here with cash balance up 685 to 9,128 or a 8.11% gain.
Total Assets: Total assets increased 13,924 to 461,244, which is good for a 3.11% gain on the month. I’m more than happy with that result.
LIABILITIES:
House: Paid
Car: Paid
Taxes: I should qualify for the full Obamacare subsidy for 2016 thanks to tax loss harvesting. That will not be an option in 2017 so I’m going to start converting my tIRA to Roth. I’ll need to send Uncle Sugar 1,250 a quarter to reach 5,000 by year end to support 20,000 in conversions.
WITHDRAWAL RATE:
My projected 12 month withdrawal is now 24,000. I’m budgeted at an even 2,000 a month to make the math easy. It’s going to be tight with the extra income tax burden. Against an asset base of 461,244 that is a projected withdrawal rate of 5.20%. Current forward twelve month estimate for distributions, dividends, and interest is 25,263 or 105.26% of budget. I also clocked 3,805 in options income for the month. That is a record and not likely to be duplicated again this year. Overall, I’m happy to have budget met by distributions with options premium serving as gravy.
SPENDING:
Spending for the month came in at 1,757. I’ve done better but its good to just be under budget. I need to get a little further under budget to meet my tax burden without needing to increase withdrawals. I have some additional expense hitting the credit cards next month as I registered for FinCon in Dallas and booked a hotel room.
Devour your prey raptors!
I know you don’t write about frugality, but 25k is pretty damn good and is not accomplished by accident. What’s the breakdown for groceries, restaurants, merch, entertainment, insurance, transport, etc? Any killer tips?
Hey Chris,
I don’t track by category. Biggest expense after real estate expenses such as taxes and insurance is restaurants. I mostly eat out and rarely eat in. It’s an area I could improve but don’t because eating out brings me joy and it is often a social item as I frequently eat with my father. I recommend the ‘anti-budget’. Set a number and spend it without worrying about where it went. Just make your savings goal and don’t sweat the small stuff.
$25,000 a year is pretty good for a rolling estimate. It’s awesome that you’re trying to minimize it to $24,000 and keep it to $2,000 a month, which it seems like you were able to do for January.
Looks like you might have to squeeze it down to ~$15,000 if you decide to drop to a 4% SWR.
I’m doing well. There are no plans to drop to 4%. The whole point of what I blog about is to show a higher rate is reasonable if you are in the right asset classes.
You are doing well FV with your options trading. And your spending is not too bad either – there has been an improvement since last year.
The interesting thing is that as you continue being successful, your withdrawal rate as a % of assets will likely decrease even below the 4% level. And I sure hope you do well!
DGI
Thanks DGI. My spending might be higher this year due to taxes. I’m toying with starting a Roth conversion ladder. I haven’t in the past because I was able to TLH and get an Obamacare credit. That trick is played out.
The only downside of going below the 4% level is my entire thrust here is that you can go higher with active management!
My living expenses are usually around $28k, but 40% of that is rent. So I think I could essentially retire if I bought a house. I have around $400k in investments, about $300k of it is in taxable. I’d like to get taxable up to $500k and then pull the trigger.
I also have 15+ and counting vested in a pension, which I can start collecting on at 60.
Half a million is a good place to be for most Americans. You need more in a place like San Diego or Manhattan but most of the country can comfortably retire there. I have a pension too but I only expect it to be worth 21k when it is mature and ready to collect. I don’t usually post about it because it is gravy rather than part of my strategy. Same with Social Security. It’s there, and funded at least 70% into perpetuity but I can get by without it.