Total

March 2019	April 2019
$746,942	$768,881	+21,939 (+2.9%)

2.9% is great. Over a whole year, that would be a 34% increase. Much of it was due to a strong stock market. We also had some large expenses this month which is put on credit card, so I expect this rate of increase will go down in the coming months as I pay those cards off. Year to Date, I am up 27%.

Taxable

Mar 2019	Apr 2019	Change
214,048	224,380	+10,332

I deposited $1,500 into our brokerage account in April and the rest were from an increase in the stock market. My biggest gainer was Microsoft stock which increased 10% in April. Wish I had more of that stock.

Retirement Accounts

	Mar 2019	Apr 2019
Roth IRA’s	204,376	211,841	+7,465
Work 401k	29,860	31,796	+1,936
Solo 401k	24,310	24,715	+405

Canadian Retirement accounts

	Feb 2019	Mar 2019
RRSP’s	200,035	207,388	+7,352

Checking/Savings

	Mar 2019	Apr 2019
Checking	13,955	9,618
Savings	52,100	50,732

Slight decrease in both. Main expenses:

• I paid off $3,500 of my heloc.
• I paid about $3,000 in taxes.

529 Account

	Mar 2019	Apr 2019
529	12,743	13,109	+366

Debt

	Feb 2019	March 2019
Mortgage	381,000	380,207
Heloc	7,500	7,133

Although I paid off $3,500 from my heloc, I had to pay the contractor. On the bright side, this was the last payment (out of a total of >$110,000 paid for repairs)! So the heloc should only shrink from now on.

Income and Expenses

Our income this month was $13,084. It’s an increase from the average month because due to the extra Friday in March, I got 3 paychecks instead of 2. We also received the aforementioned $2,500 education gift from my wife’s parents. 

Work Income	4,655
Side Gig	517
Wife’s Income	6,380
401k	553
FSA reimbursement	416
Credit Card/Bank Bonus	535
Interest	28
Total	13,084

The credit card/bank bonus of $535 was higher than normal. This was a $300 bonus for opening a Chase bank account and meeting the requirements for 90 days. I also got a $235 travel delay reimbursement from my Chase Reserve card. With that travel delay check, the Chase Reserve, which has an annual fee of $450, has already more than paid for itself this year.
Our expenses came in at $15,830 which is close to double our budget expenses. We had a number of large expenses this month.

• $1,009 – I bought a new laptop. My old Macbook Air was from 2012. One of the keys was falling off (that cursed ‘I’) and the battery was having problems. I had just replaced the battery last year. I think 6+ years is pretty good lifespan for a Mac. I didn’t urgently need to get a new laptop, but BestBuy had a sale on the new Macbook Air.
• $1429 – Car insurance. This is for our 2 vehicles. I pay a whole year’s premiums at once to get a ~10% discount.
• $616 – Term life Insurance. We really should have done this years ago when our kids were born. Fortunately, neither my wife or I have died. But part of adulting is buying life insurance. This is my wife’s annual premium. Mine hasn’t been approved yet, but should be around this amount when/if it gets approved.
• $3750 – Taxes. Speaking of dying, I finally paid our 2018 taxes. I had actually finished preparing them in February, but since we owed a substantial amount, I waited until the last moment to send the money off to Uncle Sam. Since my wife is self-employed, this also includes 2019 estimated taxes that are due in April.
• $707 – Vacation. For April break, we went to Nantucket. Since I already paid for the hotel in March, this expense covers mostly food and activities. Including our Disney trip in February, our vacation expenses this year has already been a lot higher than previous years. I’ll need to look at budget vacations for the rest of the year.

Since most of these expenses were paid on credit card, May’s net worth might be taking a hit.