May and June 2025 Early Retirement Update – Busy Travel Season Edition!

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! This is a bonus edition covering the last TWO months. Many readers reached out to me to find out where the May update went. The truth is I was way too busy with a series of back to back to back cruises around the world. I only had a few days in Raleigh between each cruise, so I had to focus on other things while in town.

In May we flew to the west coast and took an 11 night cruise to Alaska. After that, we flew home for a few days. At the very end of May we flew to London to start our two week cruise around the British Isles and Europe. 

Once home in Raleigh again, we set out on a week-long cruise around the Caribbean with two of our children. One of our kids graduated college in May. She started her new full time job at the very end of June, so we squeezed in one last family vacation before the “fun” of a career starts for her.

Right now we’re enjoying almost a month at home in Raleigh before we head back to Europe for another two week cruise and a bit of London explorations. 

On to our financial progress. May and June were excellent for our finances! I should travel and ignore my finances for two months at a time more often because it seems to be working well. Since April, our net worth increased by a whopping $246,000 to end the month of June at $3,597,000. Our combined May and June income of $17,628 was way more than enough to cover our spending of $8,193 for the two month period.

Let’s jump into the details from the last two months.

 

Income

Investment income totaled $13,199 in May and June. 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 specifically in June. Here’s more on our dividend investments.

Blog income totaled $980 for the past two months. This represents fairly average blog income. 

My early retirement lifestyle consulting income (“consulting”) was $420 the last two months. As anticipated, my consulting slowed down significantly the last two months. I was out of the country for most of the time, so I didn’t have time to do many consulting sessions anyway. 

Tradeline sales income totaled $1,750 during the last two months. These were two very good months. 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 the last two months, my “deposit income” totaled $56. Of that total, $11 was 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!). 

The other $45 in deposit income was a class action settlement check. 

My bank and credit card bonuses totaled $1,222 the last two months. Of the total, $775 came from a new credit card sign up bonus. The other $447 was from the Pay Yourself Back feature on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card. I reimbursed myself for $447 of grocery purchases during May and June. 

 

 

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 May and June expenses:

 

 

In total, we spent $8,193 during the months of May and June. That equates to an average spending of $4,097 per month which is about $700 more than our regularly budgeted $3,333 per month (or $40,000 per year). Insurance and healthcare/medical were the two largest categories from the last two months of spending. 

 

Detailed breakdown of spending:

 

Insurance – $2,507:

Our annual homeowners insurance policy just renewed for $1,448 for the whole year. The premium is up some from last year but nowhere near the 29% increase we had a couple of years ago. 

Our auto insurance policy renewal came due in June as well. The total premium for six months was $1,059 for two experienced adults and two inexperienced adults. The rates should drop quite a bit in the next year or two as our kids become experienced drivers (or switch to their own auto insurance policies). 

 

Healthcare/Medical/Dental – $1,710:

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.

We paid $1,679 in May for a dental procedure. This is our last major dental expense for a while (we hope!). Dental expenses continue to be the majority of our healthcare/medical spending because our dental insurance is not as comprehensive as our ACA health insurance policy. But we planned for these expenses in our budgeting for early retirement so it’s not completely unexpected. 

 

 

 

Groceries – $1,001:

We spent $1,001 on groceries in the past two months, or about $500 per month. Two of us were barely in town during May and June so we spent less as a result. 

 

Gifts – $1,000:

Our daughter graduated college in May. We gave her a $1,000 cash gift to congratulate her on finishing college. 

 

 

Travel – $825:

The May and June travel spending was a grab bag of a wide variety of different expenses.

We spent $245 on the annual fees for two travel credit cards. In exchange, we’ll get enough airline miles for about 3 or 4 free roundtrip flights almost anywhere in the world thanks to generous sign up bonuses. 

Another $263 went toward the airline taxes and fees for two roundtrip frequent flyer award tickets to Europe for the fall. 

Our rental car home from Orlando in June was $25 plus another $40 in gas. We decided to drive the nine hours instead of waiting all day in Orlando to catch the (expensive) flight that would get us home just before midnight. A very good choice in hindsight since we got home at 7 pm without really hurrying.

The remaining $252 of travel spending falls into the “miscellaneous” catch-all that includes a bunch of uber rides, transit fares throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland, admission fees, souvenirs, and other travel related expenses from the past two months.

 

 

 

 

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!). 

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. 

Or consider the revamped Chase Sapphire Reserve card with the highest sign up bonus ever of 100,000 Ultimate Reward points plus $500 in travel credit. The higher annual fee of $795 comes with some added travel benefits that can more than offset the annual fee if you travel a decent amount. Plus the sign up bonus is worth $1500-2000 depending on how you use the bonus!

 

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. 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 – $570:

We spent $217 on our water/sewer/trash bill for the last two months.

The electric bill was $284 combined for May and June. We’re starting to hit peak summertime air conditioning usage which means $200+/month bills for a few months going forward.

The natural gas bill for May and June totaled $69. That includes some heating in April plus our normal water heater usage. 

 

Taxes – $400:

I paid our North Carolina quarterly estimated tax bill of $400 during June.

 

Restaurants – $105:

We got takeout three times during May and June, totaling $105. 

 

 

Cable/Satellite/Internet – $50:

We 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. 

 

Gas – $25:

A tank of gas for our Hyundai Accent. The $40 for gas for the 600 mile trip home from Orlando in the rental car was included elsewhere in the “travel” spending category. 

 

Home Maintenance – $3:

A gallon of gas for our lawnmower. 

 

 

Spending for 2025 – Year to Date

 

 

We spent $22,141 during the first six months of 2025. This annual spending is about $2,000 over our budgeted $20,000 for the first six months of the year 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. 

As of right now, I think our major expenses for the summer are all paid. For the next few months it’ll just be routine monthly bills like groceries and utilities plus some low level travel spending. We might get back on track for our $40,000 per year budget. We’ll see how the latter half of 2025 goes. 

 

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 – $22,141 (through 6/30/2025)

 

 

 

Net Worth: $3,597,000 (+$246,000)

Our net worth increased by $246,000 during the last two months to end June at $3,597,000. 

That’s almost a quarter of a million dollar gain in two months’ time. I was genuinely surprised when I logged into my Empower dashboard to check on our finances after being on the road for almost two months. I didn’t really pay attention to our investments for those two months, so it came as a shock when I saw the quarter of a million dollar increase. In fact, I assumed there was an error such as one investment account being double counted or updating incorrectly. 

I double checked and everything appears to be in order. Good news! I’ll have to go take another couple months off and ignore my investments and see if I can hit the $4 million milestone by the end of the year! 

 

 

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

A lot happened during May and June since my last update. Our oldest daughter graduated from college. While we were in Scotland on our cruise, she got a job offer from a large business with a local presence in the Raleigh metro area. At the end of June she started her full time career the day after we got home from our celebratory cruise! 

 

 

She’s still living at home so not much has changed day to day other than she goes to work every day instead of working on school work. 

Our middle child finishes her bachelors degree in three weeks and will hopefully land a job soon. Let me know if you’re interested in hiring a clever summa cum laude business graduate focusing on IT/data analytics/technology that knows how to code a little. 

With the kids getting jobs our tax filing status will probably change for 2025, so this will impact our ACA subsidies, taxes, and our finances more generally. We haven’t worked out exactly who’s paying for what yet once the full time job paychecks start flowing. That will be a discussion that happens soon. 

On a personal level, it’s nice to have them around to housesit and babysit their (teenage) brother for us while we’re traveling for extended periods. I think this will mostly continue into the fall depending on their exact work schedules but we’ll see how it goes. 

Right now we are enjoying the peace and quiet at home for a few weeks before our next big trip. We’ve been busy with holiday gatherings for the 4th of July and have some family birthdays coming up soon too. And we’ll be heading back to Europe in just over two weeks for our next trip so we can’t get too cozy at home! 

The pace of travel the past two months was pretty hectic. It would have been nice to have a few extra days at home between our Alaska cruise and Europe cruise. While flying home in late May, we had a major travel delay in Denver and had to unexpectedly spend the night there. Our break of four days in Raleigh turned into three days in Raleigh. 

Throughout the rest of the summer and fall, our travel schedule isn’t quite as packed. We have a two week trip overseas then about a month at home before the next two week trip overseas (rinse and repeat a few times). That’s a better pace because it gives us time to catch up on things at home and relax before we head out again. 

A quick note on the photos in this article. I’m sharing the pics from our May cruise to Alaska and our June cruise to the Caribbean. I’ll present our May-June Scotland, Ireland, and Europe cruise pics in a separate (shorter) article in a week or two. 

Okay folks, that’s it for me for this update! 

 

How is your summer going so far? Big plans?

 

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