Hello and welcome back to another update from Root of Good! We just arrived back in the USA after our two month vacation in Argentina and Brazil, so I’m a bit behind in getting this update published. Vacation was a blast but it’s great to be home too.
We spent the first two weeks of July in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Then we headed further south in Argentina to Puerto Madryn, a coastal city in the Patagonia region, for the last two weeks of July. At the end of July, we headed north to Brazil for a couple of weeks before heading home to Raleigh. I have some pics from our time in Argentina in this post. I’ll save the Brazil pics for my August update which should be published in under a month.
On to our financial progress. July was another great month for our finances. Our net worth spiked by $92,000 to end July at $2,859,000. Our income totaled $2,728, while our spending was a relatively moderate $2,064 for the month of July.
Let’s jump into the details from last month.
Income
Investment income totaled $1,724 in July. Our equity index funds and ETFs pay dividends quarterly at the end of March, June, September, and December. A small portion of our quarterly dividend income was paid in the first few days of July. 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 $539 for the month. This is the “new normal” for blog income since I only post on here about once per month.
My early retirement lifestyle consulting income (“consulting”) was $0 in July. The slowdown in my consulting hours was a nice relief since I spent the whole month on vacation. August has been just as slow with zero hours booked so far.
Tradeline sales income totaled $450 in July. After a slow few months, my tradeline sales income is picking up again in June and July. I ramped up my tradeline sales in 2020 and discussed it in a bit more detail in my October 2020 monthly post and in my July 2021 monthly post.
For June, my “deposit income” totaled $15. This came from 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.
Youtube income was zero in July. Youtube only pays out when you exceed $100 in accumulated revenue. Recently, my Youtube earnings have been just under $100 per month on average, so I only get paid every other month.
Here is the Youtube channel for the curious. It’s random travel videos, birds, kids, and a couple of DIY videos. There are only a few main videos that bring in most of the traffic (and revenue!).
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 five 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 July expenses:
In total, we spent $2,064 during July which is about $1,300 less than our regularly budgeted $3,333 per month (or $40,000 per year). Travel and utilities were the two highest categories of spending in July.
Detailed breakdown of spending:
Travel – $1,375:
In July, we spent four weeks in Argentina and the last few days of the month in Brazil. Most of the expenses in Argentina were paid with cash (about $1,000 USD worth in total). More details on why we used cash in the “Argentina Cash Management” section, below.
Restaurant meals in Argentina were usually $20 to $30, and we would go out to eat or grab takeout at least once per day. Other meals were primarily leftover restaurant food, fresh salads we made from grocery store ingredients, or something simple like pastries, fruit, and yogurt for breakfast.
During the month, we spent about $150 at the grocery store. Mostly for wine, beer, other drinks, paper products, and some snacks. We bought a pack of steaks in Puerto Madryn to try, and they were delicious.
Transportation in Buenos Aires was dirt cheap. A few cents for subway or bus rides. Ubers were $2-5 around town and $5-15 to one of the two airports in town.
In Puerto Madryn, we had to take taxis a few times. They were relatively cheap. $5 for a 15-20 minute ride to the airport and $45 including tip for a two hour round trip drive to a nearby beach plus two extra hours of wait time while we watched the whales play next to the beach. That taxi trip to the beach was significantly cheaper than a rental car for one day plus gas.
We didn’t pay any admission fees for anything during the month of July in Argentina, until we visited Iguazu Falls at the end of the month. The admission fees to Iguazu Falls on the Argentina side were USD $63. The tickets to visit the Brazil side of Iguazu Falls were $71 for the four of us.
As it turns out, the museum is a well preserved century-old mansion immaculately decorated with European-style trappings throughout. Hard to believe it’s free but that was our experience at most of the places we visited in Buenos Aires – no admission fees or a very minimal cost in general.
Due to some travel interruptions with our flights between Puerto Madryn and Iguazu Falls, we ended up spending two nights in hotels between these two cities. One night in a 2 room suite in Buenos Aires for USD $80 and the second night in a two bedroom apartment-hotel in Puerto Iguazu (near the falls) for about USD $75.
Other than the hotels, we only spent about $1,200 during July on travel. That means our food, transportation, and sightseeing only cost about USD $40 per day. Argentina proved to be very affordable as long as you’re carrying a wad of USD’s with you.
Argentina Cash Management
As far as cash management, we brought a stack of crisp, new, excellent condition USD $100 bills. Every few days I take one of those $100 bills to the moneychanger office across the street and get about 50,000 Argentine pesos in exchange. This foreign exchange trade takes place at the “blue dollar” rate which is about twice as good as the “official” exchange rate that basically no one uses.
Argentina is the rare country where you can’t get the best exchange rate by simply withdrawing cash from an ATM using your fee-free Fidelity or Schwab or Citigold ATM card. I haven’t tried to use my ATM card yet, but apparently the exchange rate is about 10-15% worse than the moneychangers. Credit cards are almost as bad. So far my Mastercard gives me an exchange rate about 8% worse than trading USD cash for a thick stack of pesos.
As a result of the bad exchange rate on credit cards, I pay cash for almost everything. This means carrying around an inch-thick folded wad of pesos everywhere we go just to cover a meal or two and any small incidental expenses during the day. Their largest bill here in common circulation is the $1,000 peso note, worth about USD $2. So a $45 steak dinner (22,500 pesos) has me counting out quite a stack of 1,000 peso notes to pay for the meal. Once we arrived in Puerto Madryn in the south of Argentina, the largest bills we were able to acquire were only $500 pesos, or just under a dollar each.
As this post goes live in mid-August 2023, the peso has lost about 33% of its value compared to June 2023 when we first arrived in Argentina (just two months ago). The current peso:dollar exchange rate is 750 pesos per $1 USD. This means that, at least temporarily, prices in Argentina would be even better than when we were there earlier in the summer of 2023 (in US dollar terms). However, inflation continues to run wild so it’s hard to say how much more of a bargain it really is today since prices will undoubtedly rise as the peso continues its downward spiral.
Get free travel like us
If you are interested in getting free travel from your credit card like I do, consider the Chase Ink Unlimited or Chase Ink Cash business cards (my referral link). Right now the Chase Ink business cards offer 75,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points that can be redeemed instantly for $750 in cash. Mrs. Root of Good and I each received our new Chase Ink Unlimited cards during December, and we just picked up a new Chase Ink Cash card during March. The bonuses keep on rolling in the door!
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”.
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 plus two guests can get into Plaza Premium network lounges and Capital One Lounges.
We bought some mid-range tickets for about USD $7 each to watch the national symphony orchestra. I figured this would be a better way to experience the grandeur of the historic building instead of paying $12 each for a brief guided tour of the theater.
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 credit plus $100 worth of points. Together, that makes $400 they give you annually which more than 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 in 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 – $359:
We spent $43 on our water/sewer/trash bill.
The natural gas bill, which provides heating and hot water, totaled $21 for last month.
I paid the electricity bill for two months during July. The June electric bill was $128 and the July bill was $167. Since it was hotter during July, the air conditioner at our house in Raleigh ran more often. Our daughter stayed at home this summer to pursue work and school, so we had a few household expenses in Raleigh like the electric bill for air conditioning.
Groceries – $278:
A little over half of this total was our daughter’s groceries back in Raleigh. Since she is still in college, we are paying for her groceries while she’s living at home.
The other portion of grocery spending were bird and deer food we ordered from Walmart and had shipped to our house during July. We are using the animal feed now that we are back home.
Our grocery purchases in Argentina and Brazil are recorded as “travel” expenses.
Gas – $34:
Our daughter bought about a half tank of gas during July.
Healthcare/Medical/Dental – $20:
Our current 2023 health insurance costs $18 per month, thanks to very generous Affordable Care Act subsidies that we receive due to our low ~$45,000 per year Adjusted Gross Income.
I paid for health insurance for June and July before we left on vacation so I wouldn’t have to worry about that bill while we were gone. As a result, there was a $36 expenditure for health insurance in June but no health insurance bill during July.
Our 2023 dental insurance plans cost a total of $29 in premiums per month.
I chose a very basic plan for $9 per month for me that covers most preventive care but no fillings. Mrs. Root of Good has a different set of dental needs than I do so we kept the more comprehensive $20 per month plan for her (same as 2022’s plan). I only paid the $20 dental insurance bill during July, and will pay the $9 insurance bill twice during August.
By buying insurance, we should save a couple hundred dollars on my dental care. For Mrs. Root of Good, we will still save a few dollars compared to paying cash for the preventive dentist visits throughout the year.
Cable/Satellite/Internet – $0:
We generally pay $18 per month for a local reduced rate package due to having a lower income and having kids. 30 mbit/s download, 4 mbit/s upload. Right now the cost of the internet service is temporarily reduced to $0 due to the “Affordable Connectivity Program”.
Year to Date Spending – 2023
We spent $14,916 during the first seven months of 2023. This annual spending is about $8,000 less than the $23,333 we budgeted for seven months of spending in our $40,000 annual early retirement budget.
The one large expense anticipated for 2023 will be a used car. We failed in our attempts to acquire one during 2022 but that’s okay. The market appears to be cooling off a bit, since I am finally seeing a few cars under $10,000 that aren’t complete pieces of junk. We will start the used car search very soon now that we are back at home.
Fortunately, we are underspending our budget by a significant margin, so we should be able to “absorb” the used car purchase in our regular $40,000 per year budget without exceeding the budget by much. Right now we have an $8,000 budget surplus so that’s just a bit less than the amount we’ll likely spend on a used car.
I’m also planning on upgrading our dishwasher soon. I have repaired or replaced various parts on the dishwasher a half dozen times. I could keep repairing it, but I’d rather get a newer, nicer, more reliable model of dishwasher (if such a machine exists).
Monthly Expense Summary for 2023:
- January – $3,423
- February – $1,675
- March – $1,679
- April – $1,566
- May – $2,976
- June – $1,536
- July – $2,064
Summary of annual spending from all ten years of 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 – $14,916 (Year to Date through July 31, 2023)
Net Worth: $2,859,000 (+$92,000)
Our net worth climbed $92,000 to end July at $2,859,000. We ended the month just a few thousand dollars below our all time high net worth. It’s dropped a bit in the early days of August so we still don’t have a new high water mark.
The next big psychological milestone will be the $3 million dollar mark. It won’t change much day to day for us. But it’ll be a nice big personal achievement. It could happen this month, or later this year or in a decade. Who knows!
For the curious, our net worth reported above includes our home value (which is fully paid off). 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.
Life update
We’ve been back home in Raleigh almost a week as of the publishing of this article. I have to say that absence makes the heart grow fonder.
It’s so nice to come home to a comfortable house with a nice view, central air conditioning/heating, a mostly functional dishwasher, large microwave, clothes dryer, sharp knives, incredibly soft king size bed with fluffy pillows and soft sheets, showering in a fully enclosed shower with unlimited high pressure hot water, and tap water we can drink. And we get to drive around town in our large minivan with working AC, plush cloth seats, and a roomy interior with plenty of storage room. We are kind of spoiled!
We grow so accustomed to these creature comforts while living in America that we don’t realize how good we have it. Until we travel overseas and realize that our arguably lower middle class lifestyle in America includes more amenities than most people enjoy in the rest of the world.
I had a ton of fun in Argentina and Brazil. I hope our summers of adventure continue indefinitely in the future. At the same time, it’s always great to come back home after a long trip.
We arrived back home in Raleigh just in time to celebrate a big milestone for me. August 26, 2023 marks ten years since I retired early at the age of 33! It’s hard to believe I’ve spent a whole decade of “doing nothing“.
Ten years ago, we had a one year old “baby” and our two girls were in elementary school. Today the girls are both in college and the baby just attended his middle school orientation. Time flies!
Looking back, I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job of challenging myself, seeing new places, trying new things, and having a generally good time. Sometimes I find it hard to wipe the smile off my face!
Here’s to hoping the next ten years is as great as the last ten years!
Here we are watching the sunrise in Puerto Madryn, Argentina while the whales put on a little show for us.
With that, I’ll leave you until next month’s update comes out. Have a great rest of the month!
Summer heat got you down? Ready for fall to arrive? I know I am!
Want to get the latest posts from Root of Good? Make sure to subscribe on Facebook, Twitter, or by email (in the box at the top of the page) or RSS feed reader.
Root of Good Recommends:
- Personal Capital* - It's the best FREE way to track your spending, income, and entire investment portfolio all in one place. Did I mention it's FREE?
- Interactive Brokers $1,000 bonus* - Get a $1,000 bonus when you transfer $100,000 to Interactive Brokers zero fee brokerage account. For transfers under $100,000 get 1% bonus on whatever you transfer
- $750+ bonus with a new business credit card from Chase* - We score $10,000 worth of free travel every year from credit card sign up bonuses. Get your free travel, too.
- Use a shopping portal like Ebates* and save more on everything you buy online. Get a $10 bonus* when you sign up now.
- Google Fi* - Use the link and save $20 on unlimited calls and texts for US cell service plus 200+ countries of free international coverage. Only $20 per month plus $10 per GB data.
Great update. Will you be posting separate trip reports like in previous years? I always love reading about your travels. I tried to retire early back in July, but my job begged me to stay on part time while they search for my replacement…so I agreed for a while. Looking forward to complete retirement soon though!
No separate trip updates this time around! It’s a ton of work so I just decided to put a bunch of pretty pics in my monthly updates 🙂
Congratulations on both the excellent time in Argentina and elsewhere, as well as the ten year milestone. And you won’t have to fret much about that $3M psychological milestone for awhile; the August stock market returns are insuring that will be pushed into the near future at a minimum.
Love your updates and all the photos. Was there much of a language barrier/culture shock on the trip?
Language wasn’t bad in Argentina. I speak Spanish well enough, even though their local accent is pretty thick. Brazil – I can read portuguese but not speak it much at all, so it was a little tough at times. Google translate helped. Culture shock – they’re all Western people so not too much different than at home, once we got used to a few quirks. Like having to call the waiter to the table any time you need something (it’s not rude at all down there), and lining up in a single file line to get on the bus.
With unemployment so low, have you ever considered getting a ‘lazy girl’ style job? I get paid really well to do nothing, don’t even have to go to the office! I planned to retire, but am now waiting for the severance check!
Nah, sounds like too much work for me!! ha ha
I’m interested! What do you do?
For dishwashers: newer is not always better. I got a new dishwashers, and due to the new efficiency standards, a cycle takes several hours to complete. Something to think about before you let the old one go.
same with the new washing machines!! They take forever and don’t cover all of your clothes with water-even though you can only do a small to medium load…no more large loads allowed!!!
Got the new Bosch dishwasher installed. Looks like 2 hours, 40 minutes for the regular cycle we use now. That might be a little longer than our previous dishwasher but not that much worse. We only do 1-2 loads on most days so it’s okay if it just runs and runs. It’s pretty quiet.
Quite the view, and the flamingos and churros! Must have been a nice experience. Pretty low food spending but I guess that’s a perk of being abroad and I guess your dietary preferences. And such a cool laundry service.
Yeah the food was pretty cheap. And generally good quality even at low prices.
You mention that you don’t count your house in your net worth for the 4% rule. That makes total sense. However, part of the 4% rule is to cover your expenses, which are greatly reduced due to the paid-off mortgage. So in a way, the house as part of the net worth does come into play.
Congrats on the successful trip and the upcoming 10-year anniversary.
Did you find out about the US-Argentina exchange rate hack from your pre-travel research? Interesting that they value actual dollar bills more there. can’t wait to see the August Brazil photos. As usual, your food photos make us jealous. Is Raleigh not miserably hot this time of year?
Yes, I read all about the exchanging money issues and planned for it. Just carried a little envelope full of crisp $100’s 🙂
Raleigh in July-August is “miserably hot”, or rather, humid. That’s an upside of being overseas all summer – it’s usually nicer wherever we are so we aren’t baking in the heat. And South America was in the middle of their winter so it was nice and cool or moderate weather everywhere we went.
“We grow so accustomed to these creature comforts while living in America that we don’t realize how good we have it.”
+++++
Ha.
This reminds me that while traveling can be kind of “fun” (and stressful), the best place to vacay is still Home, USA.
Get a Bosch dishwasher. It’s awesome, and the lower end units are less then $1000, and very reliable
How much were your flights? did you use points?
We used American Airlines points to get down to Argentina and back home from Brazil. It was about 20-22k points per one way segment for each of us, plus $40 in taxes round trip per person.
Good call hitting up a concert at the Teatro Colon! We did the same in Merida, after discovering the gorgeous Teatro Peón Contreras where the Orquesta Sinfónica de Yucatán performs. It was totally worth the $11ish ticket price to spend some time in a gorgeous air-conditioned historic building listening to great music.
For whatever it’s worth, we’re still super happy with the $809 Bosch dishwasher we bought in late 2016.
Congratulations on a decade of living the dream!
Theater sounds cool! Will have to look into that if we ever make it to Merida.
Good to hear the Bosch is going well. Just got ours installed and so far, so good.
You’re such a great writer. I love the new format with adding the pictures to your regular monthly updates.
Thanks! Photo credit goes to my wife, the photographer and photo editor.