February - March Expenses

Well here we are at almost one quarter of the year gone by!  I recently posted about a milestone I hit but that doesn't mean I'm stopping.  No surrey bob!  That is just one little step on my way to a life of choices.  In fact to be honest I should celebrate $30,000 as much as I should celebrate $30,001.  I can't make every blog post about the value of my portfolio, however, but it's still fun every now and then.

What really matters in my journey to FI are these posts right here.  My expense posts outline my spending every month.  It shows my offensive and defensive strategies and just how well they are working.  Offensive is my income.  Am I making the best use of my time or am I just slagging off on the weekends.  Defensive is my spending.  How well am I controlling my urges to buy the latest widget or gadget?  How often to I really need go out to eat with my buddies?  Let's take a look:

Income:
Paycheck:  ¥299,404
Part Time Job:  ¥102,755
Part Time Job 2:  ¥27,000
Questionnaire:  ¥5000
Total:  ¥434,159

My income was pretty insane this month.  I received my regular pay in addition I discovered some unused vacation time at my part time job and asked to receive the whole lump sum ASAP (got to get that interest working in my favor).  The Step EIKEN test was also held where I am an interviewer (part time job 2).  In addition a friend introduced me to a survey where for answering almost 400 questions in Japanese and 400 questions in English I can earn ¥5,000.  Not bad, but I have to admit it was a drag getting through it all in one sitting.  Over all this might have been my best month ever as far as income goes.

Expenses:

 Total:  ¥148,334

Expenses weren't out of line with where they usually are.  I suppose because of "Presents" it was a bit high.  This year I sent out my X-mas album late and so, I paid off my credit card in the month of February.  I track my bills by when I actually pay them so this expense landed in the second month of the year.  This should be the last month that "BIlls" will be as high as it is.  I'm completely clear of my old cellphone bill now, and riding high on prepaid.

My target savings rate for the year is 55%.  So far I've hit:

January - February:  47.36%
February - March:  65.43%

My average savings rate for the year is 56.40%.  Not bad!  It looks like we are back on track.  I'll admit that March - April is already shaping up to be a bit of a struggle with end of year school parties, a bike trip, and possibly a fun weekend at Fujikyu Highlands.  I'm all about enjoying my money while I have it as well, but I am sure not gong to forget about my goals. 

Milestone: Portfolio Surpasses $30,000!

I've been in Japan for the last little while but that doesn't mean I haven't been watching the market.  If you haven't been following, the market is on fire like the flames from Mt. Doom (in Mordor).  Because of that it's pushed my portfolio passed the $30,000 mark!  This is a big achievement for me.  I have never had this much money at my finger tips before.

I could, if I so wanted, go out and buy a Mini Cooper right now with zero need to go to a bank.  I could, if I was so persuaded, take a huge long vacation staying in expensive hotels and dining at the finest restaurants.  I could even, if the feeling so arose, pay for a six year college education including one year of study abroad in Japan (I should know).

However I don't feel like doing any of those things.  In fact the next vehicle purchase I make will probably be more than ten years down the road and it will be a bike.  My next vacation is being taken on a bike.  And, although I don't think I'm going back to school anytime soon (not that I didn't have a good time), my next educational foray will probably be via Treehouse.

Perhaps the surreal thing is that although it took me about four years to pay off six years of college, credit cards, and a car, it's only taken me fourteen months to save up a stash equating to 85% of that same amount.  That really demonstrates: how interest rates kill you if you aren't on the receiving end of them, and the job of money is to make money.

Back in January I revealed for the first time what I am holding.  At that time my portfolio was worth $25188.70.  With the recent drive in value by the market I just hit $30125.13!  That's an increase of almost $5000 in about two months.  Not to keeping adding cherries on top but I still have capital that I want to deploy.

I'm not a genius.  Looking at my portfolio people might be confused.  "Apple!?  That's not a dividend paying stock!"  "Why's he buying individual equities but also Vanguard 500?"  Well that's because I'm not a genius.  And yet here I am on my way to FI.  I am also not a big enough fool to think this can't go back down.  In addition it's more about how much the portfolio firing off in dividends than it's actual total value.  But I'm not going to ignore the obvious correlation between portfolio size and dividend payout.  Put simply "the more, the more."

Frankly a stock sell off would be pretty cool right now as it's getting harder to find good values.  But in the mean time I'll enjoy the view from 30,000.

Mata ne,

Kechi