Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! We have enjoyed almost a full month back at home in Raleigh since our last vacation but we’re about to hit the high seas again in a couple of days.
We also managed to take a short mini-vacation in the middle of March with all of our kids. Our family visited the Outer Banks of North Carolina for two days during a nice and warm weekend.
Overall, March was a busy month for me between preparing my own taxes and planning a bunch of trips throughout the summer and fall. Hopefully April will bring a slower pace of life since I don’t think I’ll have as many “chores” to take care of.
On to our financial progress. March was a good month for our finances overall. Our net worth declined slightly by $14,000 to end the month at $3,347,000. Our March income of $13,401 was more than six times higher than our spending of $2,136 for the month.
Let’s jump into the details from last month.
Income
Investment income totaled $10,955 in March. Our equity index funds and ETFs pay dividends quarterly at the end of March, June, September, and December. As a result, we had a larger than normal amount of investment income last month. Here’s more on our dividend investments.
Blog income totaled $456 for the month. This represents an average month of blog income.
My early retirement lifestyle consulting income (“consulting”) was $1,028 last month. This represents five and a half hours of consulting. I’m keeping so busy with these consulting sessions that I decided to raise my rates in March. I didn’t raise rates in December to account for inflation last year, so part of this increase is just a standard inflation pay bump for myself. So far, April consulting session bookings continue to be strong.
Tradeline sales income totaled $550 last month. I ramped up my tradeline sales a few years ago and discussed it in a bit more detail in my October 2020 monthly post and in my July 2021 monthly post. During 2024 I made over $6,000 in exchange for lending out my stellar credit history from half a dozen credit cards.
For last month, my “deposit income” was $10 due to cash back and incentive bonuses from the Rakuten.com and Mrrebates.com online shopping portals (some of which was earned from you readers signing up through these links).
If you sign up for Rakuten through this link and make a qualifying $25 purchase through Rakuten, you’ll get a $10 sign up bonus (or more!).
My bank and credit card bonuses totaled $400 last month. That amount came from the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s “Pay Yourself Back” feature. I get a 25% bonus when I redeem the Chase Ultimate Rewards points to reimburse for my purchases in select categories like utilities and insurance. Since I have a TON of Chase points, I have started cashing them out by placing my utility and insurance payments on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card and using the 25% bonus Pay Yourself Back redemptions.
Starting in April, the “Pay Yourself Back” categories switch to gas and groceries so I may start putting those kinds of purchases on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card going forward.
Shocking Extra Income during March!
My final chunk of income didn’t make it into my income summary graphic because it’s so massive and the bonuses didn’t show up as transactions at my brokerage firm. The bonuses just “appeared” in the account alongside the transferred assets.
Last month, I moved over $2 million of our IRA assets from Citibank (where I was getting a series of transfer bonuses) to Robinhood. The offer at Robinhood was a 2% transfer bonus with no cap on the bonus. The total amount of the transfer bonus was $43,368!!
Yes, more than $40,000, paid instantly at the time of transfer, just for switching our IRAs from one brokerage firm to another. It’s already invested and making me more money right now.
The catch is that I must subscribe to the Robinhood Gold service for $5 per month for a year and I must keep the investments at Robinhood for 5 years. I’ll be giving up transfer bonuses on this $2 million over the next five years as a result. However the simplicity of just cashing in big time and not worrying about transferring assets while I’m busy traveling (or doing other funs things) is nice.
The Robinhood service is still very new to me but so far I am impressed. The transfer process was the easiest I’ve ever experienced (and I say that as a serial asset-transferrer to snag all these transfer bonuses!). The interface I give 4 out of 5 stars as it’s a little clunky for placing orders on their website trading platform. It’s more than adequate for buy-and-hold investing, however.
If you’re interested in trying them out or getting that sweet 2% transfer bonus on your million(s) then here’s a referral link that will add $5+ in free stock when you sign up for a new account. The 2% transfer bonus ends April 30th, 2025 so move quickly if you’re trying to take advantage of that offer.
If you’re interested in tracking your income and expenses like I do, then check out Empower Personal Dashboard, formerly known as Personal Capital (it’s free!). All of our savings and spending accounts (including checking, money market, and more than half a dozen credit cards) are all linked and updated in real time through Empower Personal Dashboard. We have accounts all over the place, and Empower Personal Dashboard makes it really easy to check on everything at one time.
Empower Personal Dashboard is also a solid tool for investment management. Keeping track of our entire investment portfolio takes two clicks. If you haven’t signed up for the free Empower Personal Dashboard service, check it out today (review here).
Tracking spending was one of the critical steps I took that allowed me to retire at 33. And it’s now easier than ever with Empower Personal Dashboard.
Expenses
Now let’s take a look at March expenses:
In total, we spent $2,136 during the month of March which is about $1,200 less than our regularly budgeted $3,333 per month (or $40,000 per year). Travel and groceries were the two largest categories from last month.
Detailed breakdown of spending:
Groceries – $890:
We spent $890 on groceries last month which seems a little high. However we were at home for most of the month of March. I also think I may have lost my frugal card somewhere along the way while watching my portfolio continue to rise in value this past decade of early retirement.
We also buy a lot of imported ingredients. And we have some big time carnivores in the house so we don’t skimp on meat either. In fact, it seems like every time I go to the grocery store to stock up on meat when it goes on sale, someone asks me if I run a restaurant. Don’t normal people buy 30-40 pounds of meat at a time for their family?
The grocery spending seems high but it works out to only $6 per day per person.
Travel – $604:
Last month’s travel spending was a mix of several different expenses. The largest spending item is the annual fee on our Capital One Venture X card of $395. We’ll get back the whole annual fee in the form of a $300 travel credit and $100 worth of points that can be redeemed for $100 in cash or transferred to airline or hotel partners. The main benefit of this card to me is the nice airport lounge network from Priority Pass and Capital One Lounges.
I actually used part of that $300 annual fee to book a hotel room for $60 at the Outer Banks of North Carolina in March. I also paid $71 in cash to book a second room for the kids. Other costs on this trip were $21 in souvenirs, $39 in gas, and $3 for slushies at the gas station. I used a Domino’s Pizza gift card to provide a “free” lunch on our second day of the trip. Dinner on the drive home was Taco Bell paid with a gift card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve monthly $5 Doordash coupon. Slushies, pizza, and Taco Bell – all classic road trip foods!
Other March travel expenses included $42 for an Uber from the port in Miami to the airport in Fort Lauderdale.
Closing out last month’s travel spending was $34 in taxes on a set of six American Airlines tickets to Europe for our summer travels. We also booked several cruises during the summer and fall using Chase Ultimate Rewards points through the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel portal ($0 cost out of pocket for those). Three of these new cruises are in Europe so I have some travel hacking to do to make sure I’m getting great deals on flights to/from Europe.
Get free travel like us
If you are interested in getting free travel from your credit card like I do, consider the Chase Ink Preferred business card (my referral link). Right now, the Chase Ink Preferred business card offers an above average $900 worth of Chase Ultimate Rewards points that can be redeemed instantly for $900 in cash (or even more for travel!). I just signed up for another new Ink card to snag one of these great bonus offers.
Chase is pretty liberal when it comes to “what is a business”. If you sell stuff on eBay or Craigslist or do some odd jobs occasionally then you have a business and could get a credit card as a “sole proprietor”.
I use the 90,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points by transferring them to my Chase Sapphire Reserve card (also offering a 60,000 point sign up bonus right now). With the Sapphire Reserve card, I can get 1.5x the points value by booking cruises, flights, hotels, or rental cars through their travel portal. For example, I used 165,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points to pay for the $2,475 in taxes, fees, and gratuities on two of my cruises. Or I can transfer those Ultimate rewards points to over a dozen travel partners’ airline/hotel programs like United, Southwest, or Hyatt.
Capital One VentureX card
Another favorite travel card in my wallet is the Capital One Venture X card. The Venture X card is a “keeper” for me. First off, it comes with a $750 sign up bonus after spending $4,000 in the first three months. The bonus is paid in the form of 75,000 bonus points that you can redeem against any travel purchases from anywhere. Then you earn a solid 2 points per dollar spent forever! The other big perk is airport lounge access. You can get yourself plus unlimited guests into Priority Pass lounges. And you and two of your guests can get into Plaza Premium network lounges and Capital One Lounges.
The Capital One Venture X card does have one catch – a $395 annual fee. But they reward you every year with an easy to use $300 travel discount plus $100 worth of points. Together, that makes $400 they give you annually which completely offsets the annual fee. Another benefit worth mentioning: you can add up to four authorized users for free, and they also get all the benefits of the Venture X card including the valuable airport lounge access. We used this perk to “gift” a pair of Venture X cards with airport lounge access to my brother in law and his wife to use on their family trip back home to Cambodia last April with their two young children.
Since the annual fee is offset in full by travel credits each year, I personally plan on keeping the Venture X card forever since the card benefits are so great.
Utilities – $454:
We spent $163 on our water/sewer/trash bill last month.
The electric bill was $88 last month.
The natural gas bill was $204 for a combination of the March bill and the April bill for the water heater and gas furnace. I paid the April bill on the very last day of March so that expense is included in this month’s spending summary. I won’t have to pay the natural gas bill next month.
Entertainment – $69:
We went bowling during our son’s middle school spring break. For $69 we rented four pairs of shoes and got two hours of time on our own bowling lane. We managed to play four and a half games in that time.
Gas – $43:
A tank of gas for our Hyundai Accent for $18. Our daughter drives the Hyundai to school four days per week so she uses about a tank of gas each month when school is in session. I also topped off the tank in our family’s minivan for $25 during March.
Healthcare/Medical/Dental – $37:
Our 2025 health insurance is free thanks to very generous Affordable Care Act subsidies that we receive due to our low ~$51,000 per year Adjusted Gross Income.
Our 2025 dental insurance plan normally costs $32 in premiums per month. We picked a plan from Truassure through the healthcare.gov exchange. The dental insurance does a good job of covering most of our routine cleanings, exams, and x-rays plus most of the cost of basic procedures like fillings. I paid $37 for two months of premiums for one of us during March.
Since we have two separate policies, the billing got all messed up for the first few months of the year but I think it’s mostly straightened out going forward and we’ll be back to $32 per month soon.
Cable/Satellite/Internet – $25:
We usually pay $25 per month for a local reduced rate package due to having a lower income and having kids. 50 mbit/s download, 10 mbit/s upload.
Restaurants – $17:
Mrs. Root of Good went out to lunch with her friends during March for $17.
Spending for 2025 – Year to Date
We spent $9,688 for the first three months of 2025. This annual spending is very close to our budgeted $10,000 for three months per our $40,000 annual early retirement budget. I haven’t increased our annual budget for inflation in a decade, so at some point I need to revisit the budget numbers.
We started out the year with some big spending for our annual property tax bill due in January. Then we had a couple of low-cost months in February and March that brought our average spending back in line with our budgeted $3,333 per month.
These low spending figures make it sound like we’re living very frugal lives. In some ways we are since we own inexpensive cars and live in a slightly below median price home for our city.
However we also spend weeks at a time traveling all over the world. During the remainder of 2025, we’ll be spending eight weeks cruising around Alaska, Scotland, Ireland, and the Baltic Sea while visiting dozens of ports along the way. We also have two cruises booked with our kids during the summer. And to wrap up the year, we’re doing a cruise through the Panama Canal from Fort Lauderdale to the west coast of the USA.
I’ve written before about our $100,000 per year lifestyle on a $40,000 per year budget. I think that article is as accurate today as it was when I wrote it nine years ago.
Monthly Expense Summary for 2025:
Summary of annual spending from more than a decade of my early retirement:
- 2014 – $34,352
- 2015 – $23,802
- 2016 – $38,991
- 2017 – $31,708
- 2018 – $29,058
- 2019 – $25,630
- 2020 – $28,466
- 2021 – $31,740
- 2022 – $29,449
- 2023 – $37,865
- 2024 – $40,286
- 2025 – $9,688 (through 3/31/2025)
Net Worth: $3,347,000 (-$14,000)
Our net worth declined by $14,000 to end the month at $3,347,000. That’s not too bad of a month given how shaky the stock market in the USA has been lately.
I’ve stuck with my heavy tilt toward international investments since I retired early almost 12 years ago. They underperformed for most of that time period but they’re finally providing some nice diversification and keeping my overall portfolio in good shape.
Last month I wrote:
My international investments are also my answer to the concern of “what if the USA doesn’t maintain its position as the best large developed country in the world for the next 50 years?”.
Hey, let’s do everything we can to make sure the U.S. of A. remains number one, but also take proactive measures at an individual level just in case we drop a couple spots on the leaderboard.
(pardon the lump in the middle of this chart – that’s an artifact from double-counting our assets for a few days while they transferred out of Citibank and into Robinhood)
For the curious, our net worth reported above includes our home value (which is fully paid off). I value the house at $300,000, which is probably what we would net after sales expenses. However, please note that I don’t consider my home value as part of my portfolio for “4% rule” calculation purposes. I realize folks ask me about that every month so I just wanted to state that here for clarity.
Closing thoughts
As another busy but fun and adventure-filled month of early retirement draws to a close, I still feel incredibly grateful to have the financial freedom to do whatever I want on a day to day basis.
Some weeks we’re here at home in Raleigh relaxing and catching up with family and friends.
Other weeks we’re booked on some adventure just down the road or far away overseas (or on the seas!).
I’m trying to maintain a balance between being busy and traveling with having free, unstructured time at home to indulge in downtime activities. So far I think it’s going okay. A few weeks or a month at home and then two or three weeks on a trip somewhere seems to work.
We might as well keep up the pace as long as we find interesting places to visit and our knees and legs don’t disagree with us too much along the way. We can always rest when we’re “old”!
Well that’s it for me this month. See you next time!
Spring’s here, everybody thawing out okay?!!!
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