Fundamental Tools for Tracking Your Progress Towards Financial Independence
Details
We now officially have a venue for our May meeting. I didn't know which library would be available to us and couldn't book one as far out as I announced this Meetup. We're now secured at the Harmony Library in Community Room H from 2pm to 5pm.
Agenda:
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I'll give a brief overview of my family's 3 months in Ecuador and introduce the FI website I've been working on during our time abroad.
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I'll share the results of the Airbnb experiment we've been conducting at our home while we've been away.
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We'll discuss Mint.com and Personal Capital and I'll share some nuances to how my wife and I implemented these tools.
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I'll give a walkthrough of the spreadsheet I developed to encourage my wife and I along our journey towards financial independence.
The spreadsheet in question is a fairly low maintenance tool. When used in conjunction with Mint.com and Personal Capital, it can be kept current with about 5 minutes of effort each month or about 10 minutes each quarter if you prefer.
Some features of the spreadsheet include:
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Tracking your monthly income and expenses, including trailing 12 month averages
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Tracking your net worth over time, with or without your primary residence
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It produces a helpful Wall Chart (a slightly modernized adaptation of the Wall Chart found in Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin's book 'Your Money or Your Life')
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It produces a dashboard for reviewing net worth needed and your savings rate
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It projects your future net worth
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It provides a number of helpful tactical ratios to encourage your progress from month to month.
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It tracks your credit score over time
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It provides a monthly report for reflection and/or discussion
I plan to make the beta version of our spreadsheet freely available to any interested group members following the meeting because I'd love to get feedback from my fellow FI/RE Fighters before publishing it on our site.
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again at the May meeting and hope to follow it up with some fun and frugal outdoors activities with everyone this summer.