Savings Update – March 2021

I dread writing this report — Last month was damn hell expensive. I took two short trips and started with some house renovation work. The contractor we’ve hired has been working on breakneck speed but that comes at a price. He doesn’t consult before making decisions such as title we want to use etc. It’s getting to a point that it’s becoming annoying.

BaristaFI

I’ll get to the BaristaFI goal right away since I haven’t made any progress. Although this was planned, with renovation work going slightly above budget, I couldn’t add to the BaristaFI goal last month. So no change in the month of March. Funds needed to reach BaristaFI –

June 2018: 17L
August 2018: 15.5L
September 2018: 15.4L
January 2019: 15L
March 2019: 14.8L
August 2019: 9.5L
December 2019: 5.1L
February 2021: 1.3L
March 2021: 1.3L

Expenses

Rent & Utilities0
Commute500
Bills3,000
EMI & Maintenance59,000
Food & other expenses7,000
Renovation1,00,000
Travel15,000
Total1,84,000

Since I am anyway looking to rent the apartment, everyone around me was of opinion to not go for the renovation work. I was a bit conflicted though, since some of the work I wanted to get done was making structural changes and once the society is registered it would have been difficult to make those changes. So even though, I was a bit tight on cash since I no longer have large cash position, I went ahead with the renovations. This is also a property I’ve purchased where I could live in future if I don’t have to move to the other city. Thinking of future, it seemed like a good investment.

I, of course, had to pull funds from my smallish emergency fund for the renovation. From next month, I’ll have to make sure to refuel this emergency fund.

Stock Market Series

Due to all these cash burns, I also haven’t been able to increase my base amount for my stock market series from current 1.3L to 1.8L. I’ve made significant progress from my last update though. I went from INR 33K invested to INR 41.8K invested. My setup seems to be working even in a bear market which I’m very happy about. For now, I’ve abandoned the dividend stock portfolio and shall get back to it once I’ve made enough progress with the stock market series. I do not want to diversify my attention as with the new apartment, there’s just way too much work to be done.

Travel

This month I traveled. I went to Goa, which is a party hub of India and I went to Nashik, which is the wine hub. I traveled with friends so it was a nice break and we saved tons by driving down. While the number of cases is increasing it’s not advisable to travel but we took precautions everywhere. It really surprised me to notice less crowd in Goa this time of the year. Almost everyone I know is in Goa these days but aren’t crowding through the beaches, which was a good surprise. My friends are renting out cheap apartments and drinking inexpensive booze (hello low tax). People are living their life while I’ve been a drain on my own energy during this lockdown. I just cannot Wait for vaccines to be allowed at our age range.

Mortgage

I paid my first mortgage payment in March. For some reason, in April I can see the EMI has increased by 1K INR. I have reached out to the bank but I’m awaiting a response. For this month I will have to make the extra payment.

Recently I found a nice spreadsheet to track mortgage payment and I’ve replicated it for me. I want to track months when I make minimum payment and when I make extra. For the last two payments I’ve made minimum payments. I was supposed to give the apartment on rent but I haven’t.

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