Hey, everyone. Q1 is over! Boy, what an exciting year 2022 has been, so far. Well, exciting isn’t quite the right word. The world seems to be spinning out of control, but we have to figure out what we can and can’t control. I can’t do anything about inflation, the war in Ukraine, or Covid. But I could minimize spending and get a booster vaccine shot, for example. It’s no use to worry too much about the things we can’t control. That’s how I stayed happy in March while the TV is full of bad news. (Hint: The TV is always full of bad news.) Oh, I didn’t watch much TV either.

Anyway, I’m in Thailand for just a few more days. Then, I’ll be back in Portland, just in time for spring! There are all kinds of activities waiting for me back home.

I’m looking forward to getting back to the regular routine.

On the personal finance side, March was a very good month. Our income was solid and our expenses were low. I traveled to the beach in Thailand and spent some money, but not a huge amount. It was a nice getaway. Our passive income exceeded our expenses again. We continued to save the extras. It was a good month.

I’ll share how I’m doing on my New Year goals (badly) and update our monthly cash flow. Here are the details.

Here is my 2022 goal spreadsheet. It works really well. Try it out if you can’t keep up with your New Year goals. The key is to go over the spreadsheet at least once a month to track your progress. That way, you can see which goals need extra attention.

I’m not doing so well on my goals this year. I already failed 3 of them. See the reason below.

I’ve been tracking our net worth since 2006. It is very motivating to see our progress. The power of compounding is unbelievable. Our net worth increases more than we earn almost every year. However, 2022 might not work out so well. The stock market dropped quite a bit since the beginning of the year. Our net worth followed the market down and dropped about 3%. I think that’s all right, though. The stock market increased so much last year. It needs to calm down a little. I’m surprised it came back so quickly with the ongoing geopolitical crisis.

Here is a chart of our net worth from Personal Capital. Sign up for a free account at Personal Capital to help manage your net worth and investment accounts. I log in almost every day to check on our accounts. It’s a great site for DIY investors.

Here is a quick summary of our passive income. You can see all the details on my .

March was a good month for passive income. Also, we didn’t spend much so our FI ratio looks really good.  

*FI ratio = passive income/expense

Our cash flow was good in March. Our income was solid on all fronts except for side hustles. I’ll take a break from side hustling this year because we plan to travel a lot more. Last month, we didn’t spend much. Overall, it was a good month financially.

Here is the Sankey diagram of our March cash flow. You can get a quick overview from the diagram and see the details below.

Our gross income will be lower than usual this year. We plan to work less and travel more.

This year, I plan to spend about $50,000. So our monthly spending budget is $4,166/month. In March, we were under that budget. We didn’t have any big expenses. My travel didn’t cost that much so that was good. Here are the details.

• : $12.   
• : $147. Mrs. RB40 purchased some stuff.
• $200. Donation.

I don’t count these as personal spending.

• : $2,630. 

I don’t think we’ll save as much as usual this year. We plan to travel more and relax a bit. We’ve been saving for so long. I think we deserve a break.

• : $2,300.
• : $4,500. She contributes $750 every paycheck. She’ll need to increase it this year, though. I’ll send her a message.
• : $3,000.
• : $0.
• : $17,206

March was a crazy month for the world, but I had a very nice month. I spent a lot of time with my parents. Financial independence enabled me to do this. My brothers also visited, but only for about 10 days. They don’t have time to relax and help with my mom. This is probably the last time I’ll have good quality time with my mom. The next time I see her, she’ll probably be in a nursing home and who knows how much time I’ll be able to see her then. They still don’t want visitors because of Covid.

I’m just glad for this time with her. Also, it didn’t cost that much money to stay in Thailand for 3 months. It’s a trial run for my future retirement. I’ll spend 6 months in Thailand and 6 months in the US. Life is good in Thailand when you have US money. Housing, food, transportation, and entertainment cost way less than in the US. Fortunately, I have some families here so I’m not too lonely.

How was March for you? Did you have a good month?

*Sign up for a free account at Personal Capital to help manage your net worth and investment accounts. I log in almost every day to check on our accounts. It’s a great site for DIY investors.

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