I’m still making my way through the 2023 monthly results so here are March 2023 results. I’m aware we’re already in July 2023 but I had a few months without posting on this blog. If you want to know why, click here.
Before I share with you our March 2023 results, as I promised in July 2021, I’ll share with you what we’ve been up to the past month. After that, we can talk about the numbers.
What have we been up to this month?
March 2023 was a very busy month for the Lazy FI Family, both in our personal life and financial life. Let’s start.
Personal life positives
Trying to recall what happened a few months ago is an interesting activity because it’s been so long. I used Google Maps’ timeline, Google Photos, old WhatsApp messages, and our expenses to remember what happened in March 2023. I feel like Lazy FI Detective.
Visitors from Israel
After Lazy FI Mum had visitors in February 2023, it was my turn, my dad came over for over a week.
My dad’s visit
My dad’s trip was mainly a business trip but we still got to spend a lot of time with him- 2 weekends and sometimes we saw him during the week when he finished early enough.
Our son’s first birthday
He was here for my son’s first birthday, which was great, we celebrated with our neighbours from upstairs and had fruit and Yoyo bears. In case I haven’t mentioned it in the past, my kids and the neighbours upstairs are VERY good friends. There aren’t many days in which my kids aren’t up there or (more commonly) the neighbours come to ours to play. Anyway, my son really enjoyed the food and the company.
7-0
My dad was also here for my daughter’s first time watching a football match in the pub. I was unsure if I wanted to share this one with you but bad memories should be shared as well so here it goes. I took my dad and my daughter to a local pub that shows live sports. My daughter had chicken tenders and chips so was over the moon. I, however, had to spend way too long explaining to my daughter that all 7(!!!) goals that were scored that match were “bad goals”. Luckily, she is not old enough to understand exactly what happened there. Otherwise (god forbid), she would’ve maybe become a Liverpool fan after that.
Lazy FI Mum’s birthday
A day after my dad left, it was Lazy FI Mum’s birthday. We went out to her favourite cafe for a family meal and had a great time.
As for the gift, she asked that in April, while we’re in Israel, we stay in a hotel (without kids) for 2 (not consecutive) nights. As I find it very hard to be away from my kids, I thought that was very fair. However, I can not quite count that as my gift to her but I’ll share more on that in our April 2023 results.
Jewish Holidays
During March, we had the holiday of “Purim”, where we dress up (kind of like Halloween but with a very different backstory. My son dressed up as a tiger and my daughter dressed up as a giraffe, they were both adorable!
In addition, our kids’ children centre had an evening activity of Matzah baking for the kids. Passover is in April but as the children centre is closed during Passover, they did this activity earlier. My daughter had the best time, she wore her apron and really got into the rolling and piercing of the dough, she smiled and laughed a lot and we had a great evening.
Lazy FI Mum’s second month without a job
This was Lazy FI Mum’s second full month without a job (numbers below, as usual). However, in March she secured her next job, starting in May 2023. Once again, I’m very proud of her for not giving up and not compromising on her next role.
First family mystery dine
My loyal readers know that two things make eating out extra special for me:
- A mystery dine
- Nando’s
You can imagine how happy I was when I caught a family (2 adults and 2 kids!) mystery dine at Nando’s. It’s essentially all my dreams coming true in one meal.
First of all, it was amazing.
Second, it was at Barking, which made us explore the area after we ate. We were amazed by the park. There were a lot of animals, parent & child swings, and even unicorn-shaped boats in the lake.
We’ll try and go back now that the weather’s better.
Personal life negatives
Health
During March, there were 7 days in which my son had a fever. Most of them were expected due to his vaccinations but it was still tough to see him suffer through that.
Work
In my job, March is probably the busiest month of the year.
Having Lazy FI Mum at home was a blessing, it really was.
March 2023 results- savings rate
Our savings rate for March 2023 was 49.04%.
As a reminder, my long-term target is 50%, hoping to hit that target for 3 years in a row.
Our (weighted) average savings rate for the past 6 months is 43.14%.
Our 12-month-weighted average savings rate is 50.74%.
Finally, our YTD (since January) weighted average savings rate is 52.94%.
March results- What was different this month?
Every month something unusual happens. Sometimes it’s a one-off expense and sometimes it’s a one-off income. The fact that this happens every month amuses me but also makes it harder to analyse the savings rate and draw conclusions. That’s why I also use the 6-month, 12-month, and YTD average figures to “smooth” the data.
Anyway, what was different this month?
In short- childcare (as usual), two salaries, and holiday
Childcare costs
As you may remember, we contribute to our children’s tax-free childcare account once every quarter (every 3 months). Both children’s contributions are in the same month. This causes a huge fluctuation in our monthly savings rates. March was a “no childcare cost” month.
Any “no childcare cost” month looks better than it really is so you should have that in the back of your mind while going through our March results.
Two salaries
As mentioned above, this was our second month with one salary as Lazy FI Mum.
“But the head says ‘Two salaries’ “
Yes, you’re right, that’s not a mistake. My employer pays me every 4 weeks, not every month. As a result, I get 13 salaries a year. That means that there’s one month a year when I receive two salaries. March 2023 was that month.
Holiday
We prepaid quite a bit of our holiday expenses during March 2023, this will results in lower expenses once these holidays take place.
March 2023 results- Net worth
In March 2023, our net worth increased by 1.09%. The 1.09% is made of two parts:
- Our actual savings increased our net worth by 1.26%
- Our investments decreased in value, which decreased our net worth by 0.17%**.
Achieving FI– how far are we on our journey?
Reminder: I set our FI number (how much we need to retire) in July 2020 and update it every month for inflation (I use CPIH* index).
At the end of March 2023, our net worth is 30.87% (February 2023: 30.83%) of that number.
We are once again above the 30% mark and set a new record for the second month straight, beating our previous all-time-high 30.83% (February 2023). Woohoo!
Real change
The 0.04% increase in our FI journey (as a percentage of our FI number) from 30.83% to 30.87% means a real (inflation-adjusted) increase of 0.12% (30.87 / 30.83 – 1)**, which can be broken down into these two parts:
- Our nominal net worth increased by 1.09% as mentioned above.
- The CPIH index increased (back to increases) by 0.96%, which decreased our real (inflation-adjusted) net worth**.
As you can see, 2 factors are out of our control:
- The market performance (are our investments worth more or less this month?)
- Inflation (are things more expensive than last month?)
As these factors are out of our control- I tend to focus on our savings rate.
While 49.04% is relatively low for us considering it’s a “no-childcare month”, I know that a big chunk of our expenses were prepayments for holidays which make me optimistic about maybe even reaching 55% this year, let’s see.
When can we achieve FI (and possibly retire)?
As I told you in the October 2021 results, calculating an FI date is not relevant for us anymore. We will move back to Israel sometime between December 2025 and August 2026. As my models are split into tax years, that means April 2026 is our relevant date.
Once we move back to Israel, I will either move to “just” teaching (no accounting) or try and keep my current job but part-time.
If anyone’s wondering if moving to Israel will help or hurt our FI journey, I present to you this article:
Tel Aviv named as world’s most expensive city to live in – BBC News.
No need to click the link, the title gives it away. Good luck to us.
In any case, we will not reach our full FI number by the time we move to Israel. Therefore, the only relevant question is…
How far into our journey to FI will we be by April 2026?
Based on my “regular” (which is more like a worst-case) scenario, we expect to be 46.24% FI by April 2026. We are still close enough to the 50% mark to make it happen. I think it’s going to be very close to that benchmark in the end.
As a reminder, this number is based on our UK level of expenses. I don’t know how expensive Israel will be. We’ll need to track our expenses for a few months there to get a better understanding. Also, I will have to learn all the little local tricks (like I learned in the UK) on how to save money, get free stuff, and reduce my tax bill.
The April 2026 model assumptions
My model assumes that only our ISAs, LISAs and pensions (essentially, our stock/equity investments) will generate an annual real return of 4%. Meanwhile, I assume our real estate and cash will retain their real value but not increase.
In addition, I assume no future income from teaching as I can’t reliably forecast how much I’ll earn from this side hustle. That means any future income from teaching will be treated as a pleasant surprise.
Another future income I ignore is my job’s annual bonus. Just like teaching, any future bonus is not guaranteed. That means that if my employer has a bad year, the bonus can potentially be 0%. My model assumes every year is such a year. Again, any bonus that does come through will be treated as a pleasant surprise.
I know these assumptions are very prudent but I prefer being prudent and positively surprised to “realistic” and having to deal with unforeseen issues.
Well, that’s our March 2023 results, have a great week everyone!
Notes
*CPIH- “Consumer Price Inflation including owner-occupiers’ Housing costs”. As we are consumers and we own our home- I think this is the best inflation metric for us. You can see the changes in the index here.
** You might get a slightly different number (by 0.01% or so). That’s due to rounding. The numbers I share are the accurate ones, the equations are so that you understand the way I calculate the numbers.
