🗓 Monthly Snapshot: July 2021

How well did I track against my goals this month?

I plan to write a post at the end of each month that tracks my health and progress towards goals. These cover the following main categories:

1. FI (Financial Independence) Contributions

2. Monthly Discretionary Spending Budget

3. Monthly Flows Breakdown

4. Self-Care

Check out my annual goals for 2021 and a detailed overview of how I think about my monthly tracking in my January 2021 Monthly Snapshot. Alright, let's dig in!

1. FI Contributions

By the end of the month,

• Roth IRA: ✅ Completed YTD goal --> 100% Complete!

• Pre-Tax 401k: ✅ YTD goal --> 100% Complete!

• After-Tax 401k: ✅ YTD goal: On-Track --> 100% Complete!

• Emergency Fund: ⛔️ YTD goal: Delayed. My Emergency Fund has been paused.

• FI Investment: ✅ YTD goal: On-Track.

Overall, my July 2021 FI Contribution goals were ✅ On-Track (4/5 goals).

2. Monthly Discretionary Spending

At the outset of the year, my annual goal allowed for $20K in discretionary spending, split about equally between food and other spending. A few things have changed: I am starting to take a larger share of joint expenses and will be the single/primary earner for my household in a few months. Here's the full breakdown of spending this month, according to Mint.

• Education: Paid college tuition for the Fall Semester

• Home: Skipped a mortgage payment this month due to a refinance, and had a $4K home improvement project

• Shopping: Travel prep

• Gifts & Donations: Mostly family gifts

This month was an extraordinary high spending month. We treated several family members to fancy dinners, and also hosted several friends from out of town as well.

3. Monthly Flows Breakdown

This section breaks down all the money coming out of my checking account for the month. It may not match up all the way with money in any of the previous sections, since I sometimes pay the entire previous month's credit card bill and/or pre-pay my credit card to reduce the ultimate monthly balance.

A very unusual month.

4. Self-Care

July was a lot of ups and downs, and starting off the month feeling burnt out and emotionally exhausted took its toll. More on this, later.