Financially free family

Market correction, Index funds, and DIY

OK, here is the first attempt to post at least 1 article each month in 2022. Will focus on financial progress, learning and forecast for next few months.

January 2022 financial highlights

Expenses and savings

Increased expenses for home improvement as we got multiple household items repaired.
Booked all train, flight and cab tickets for upcoming travel to hometowns in February and March.
For the flights tickets, we utilized our credit card reward points to pay

Financial review of 2021

Sharing the key highlights from our financial review of 2021

Expenses increased by 23.4% YoY: As we became 3 from 2, there were new expense categories introduced in our budget. Apart from these, we spent more on travel, home improvement , entertainment and commute.

Savings rate at 83.62% was almost similar to 2020. Even though the expenses increased, we were also earning more in 2021 which helped to maintain our savings rate.

Equity profits increased significantly, as our investments in stocks and mutual funds saw healthy growth due to market rallies. Our portfolio's unrealized profit at the end of 2021 was

As we became first-time parents, there was an expense spike during the month of January. This was primarily due to travel arrangements for our parents, a birth-related ritual-naamkaran sanskar, and gifting.

Luckily for us, the Covid-19 situation was relatively better in January. However, we still took utmost precautions and the naamkaran was a low-key affair.

During the month of February and March, we travelled to-and-fro our hometowns, incurring more travel expenses. However, the remaining expenses started coming down and we hope to be back to our previous savings rate(~85%) in the April – June quarter.

Below are major highlights for the last quarter

Parenthood, medical costs and why insurance matters

In January 2021, we were blessed with our first child. We are super happy and still trying to adjust with the schedule of the new boss in the home.

During the lockdown phase, we relied on virtual consultation, took utmost precautions while going out for diagnostics tests or buying medicines. It was extremely challenging and demanding situation considering the risks to the to-be-mom. Fortunately, everything went well throughout the pregnancy.

As we track all our expenses, we have consolidated the cost of all medical expenses related to pregnancy. These cover doctor consultations, prescription medicines, diagnostics tests, vaccinations(for mother) and finally the hospitalization, during different phases of a a low-risk pregnancy and normal delivery.

Break-up of medical costs

Financial review of 2020

At last, 2020 is gone. One hell of a year it was!

Just like last year, we have done a financial review of 2020 to measure our progress and make necessary adjustments.

We will quickly share the progress during Oct – Dec and then the whole year.

July - Sept 2020: healthy saving rate

The spread of Covid-19 in India grew significantly during July – Sept 2020. Government started reopening the country via different phases of unlocks. However, we took utmost precautions to avoid chances of an infection. Work from home continued as per office guidelines, we limited our outdoor exposure, and stuck to simple living.

Below are the highlights for the last three months

Saving rate

July – 87.56%
August – 87.18%
September – 87.94%

April - June 2020: Slow and steady financial progress

The first quarter of the financial year 2020-21 provided a much needed boost to our financial progress. Primary reasons for this were:-

Slight recovery in the equity markets
Interest payout for EPF and PPF
Increased savings rate during the lock-down

Below are the highlights for the last three months

Jan - Mar 2020: Coronavirus sinks equity investments

If you are reading this post, we hope you and your family & friends are safe from the COVID-19 disease.

Unfortunately, the same wasn’t be true for the safety of our equity investments. During the last 6-8 weeks, the equity markets have plummeted across the globe and we’ve also faced its severe impact on our financial progress. Read more – https://www.bloombergquint.com/markets/10-things-that-define-the-worst-march-for-indian-markets

Below are the highlights of our financial progress during the 1st quarter of the calendar year 2020.