Each month, I break down my finances and financial progress. This serves primarily to keep me accountable. I hope it also helps others see the power of an income centric approach to early retirement investing. Today’s report covers the month of July 2018 with year to date updates.

ASSETS:

Wells Fargo (taxable): This finished the month at 30,343, up from 30,333 at last month end. That is a 0.03% monthly gain. Year to date, this account is down 338 or 1.10%.

Interactive Brokers (taxable): Here I finished the month at 306,024 up from 303,464 last month. That is a monthly gain of 0.84% and a year to date result of minus 5.50%. The annualized loss is my first one in several years and is driven by the unexpected change in leverage at UVXY from 2x to 1.5x. I was unprepared for the announcement.

Interactive Brokers (tIRA): This account is also up to 173,213, from 171,648 last month. The monthly gain is 0.91% and my year to date result is a 6.24% gain.

HSA: This account is up 292 on the period to 4,089. That is a 7.69% move in the right direction. For the year, I am up 639 or 18.51%.

Checking: Cash is down substantially due to a on off purchase of an additional Stansberry product to 9,821 from 11,880. That is a17.33% decline from last month.Year to date cash has changed by minus 18.25%

Total investable assets come to 523,490 up 0.45% from 521,122 last month. That is a 0.45% monthly gain. The year to date mark is minus 1.15%

Don’t forget to see the long term trend at Lizard King’s Transparency Page.

LIABILITIES:

Home: paid

Car: paid

Income tax: I have a 12,945 tax asset on deposit with the service. Because of the mishap with UVXY, I expect to have a trivial tax liability this year and should even qualify for the maximum ACA subsidy. Net tax rate could be negative for 2018.

WITHDRAWAL RATE:

I have automatic withdrawals from my taxable investing accounts set to provide a cash income of 25,000 a year. Against a liquid net worth of 523,490, that is a withdrawal rate of 4.78%. I earned 2,029 in options premium income during the month of August and am on pace to earn 38,88 in options for the year or 1.56 times budget. Additionally, my income centric approach to investing includes 26,811 in expected distributions, dividends, and interest for the year or an additional 107.25% of budget. In the event of a downtown, I should be immune to the need to “sell at the bottom”. At the same time, I can expect steady and robust growth to keep ahead of inflation. Together, my budget is covered 2.63 times over by portfolio earnings.

SPENDING:

Spending was 4,734 for the month, which is way over the 2,000 target. I had an extraordinary item in August of 3,500 to purchase a premium four year subscription to a Stanberry Research product. I expected to be done with purchasing investment guidance but had a follow up opportunity to spend 1,500 more and convert my subscription from 4 years to lifetime as well as secure 4 additional lifestime product subscriptions.I should be done purchasing Stansberry products basically forever now. Year to date, I have spent 17,774 and am pacing 26,616 for the year.That is 1,616 over budget.

OTHER INCOME:

I earned 150 this month or 138.52 after payroll taxes for my efforts at the Memorial Hills UD municipal water board. It is a small amount but over a year’s time it adds up to another full social security credit. This should improve my eventual payout when I reach qualifying age. Next month should see a payout from Google AdSense of just over 100 dollars. That represents about 11 months of earnings for the blog (you cheap bastards never click my ads!)I won’t convert those earnings into an hourly rate because it is unseemly when giant lizards cry.

Devour your prey raptors!