The end of July marks our second full month with our baby boy, Lukas. It’ll come as no surprise that he dominated most of our month. But, it was most. Why not all? Well our house—coming up on its centennial—must have got a little jealous of our attention and has decided to sprout all manner of problems and leaks. Despite that, we came in under budget—but no doubt, we’ll be way over in the coming months as repairs get underway.
For our monthly donation, our theme is disaster relief in Nepal. You can read more about the three charities we’re considering and vote for your favorite in the poll below!
We track our income, spending, and savings each month to stay on our FIRE path and share it with you. Keep reading to see our monthly updates, tips, and charity reviews.
Budget Update
In the Sankey diagram below, the income on the left matches our expenses on the right.
We’ll run through the income and expense sources for the month and remark on any interesting items.
Income Summary
Our income was a quite short of spending this month, but that’s the intention with this whole FIRE thing! Our income continues to dwindle as we focus on other interests and our new baby.
Gifts Received
With Chris’s parents and grandmother visiting, a few belated birthday gifts for all three of us arrived. Our families know our little home is already overfull of stuff, and they insistent in offering up something to celebrate birthdays—especially Lukas being born. So, cash it is. In this case, we turned some of these gifts into 529 savings fund investments with matches. The match ($100 per person, so we’re hoping for $400!) should appear next month assuming the promo works out.
We received about $900 in gifts.
Credits
Several of our credit cards offer statement credits for purchasing with certain companies. Paze, a new digital wallet by a variety of big banks, seems to be competing with Apple Pay, PayPal, etc. They have a promo going where for every purchase over $10, they’ll offer a credit of $10 up to ten times per eligible card. We have quite a few eligible cards and that’s $100 in credits for each. This promo ends early in September! Our favorites:
- Orders around $10 at Newegg for various gadgets and other electronic needs.
- Dominos takeout Pizza—especially with their $9.99 large 7 topping national pizza deal (even works with gluten free crust!).
- Clover—which is a restaurant backend payment system—to hit quite a few walkable coffee shops and restaurants near us (check PazeMap.com).
We’ve started making good use!
Promo runs into September, check it out if you have Capital One, Citi, Chase, Bank of America cards—and probably a few other brands.
We received $130 in statement credits.
Cashback
Ibotta continues to be one of our most consistent sources of cashback rewards—almost entirely on groceries. Chris cashed his balance out this month (about $103). We also earned $20 in PayPal rewards cashback from a purchase of gift cards a few months ago.
We earned about $123 in cashback.
Investments
Chris mentioned a big promo with a fintech company, TradeUp, recently which continues to work out well. He received the first $350 payout of an expected $1,000 for a transfer bonus (2% of 50K). The next two payments should appear over the next 6 months. In addition, Chris sold a small portion of his $VXUS investment in preparation for some consolidation and other changes in our accounts over the coming months.
We received about $707 in investment income.
Expense Summary
From our $3,878 monthly budget, we saved and invested $440 dollars.
After subtracting our credits, savings, and donations—we spent about $3,301 on living expenses.
That’s 69% of our FIRE budget from 2022 ($4,787/month).
Let’s break down some of the more exciting details this month.
Home
Our typical home costs haven’t changed… but, our house seems to be upset about bringing our baby home.
Home Improvement
We’ve lived here for about 13 years now and it’s decided that everything will fall apart now that Lukas is home. Since he was born:
- Slow roof leak—discovered while monitoring the AC which started leaking (cracked drain pan)
- Gutters leaking severely—possibly 100 year old copper originals, dumping down the front windows
- Aforementioned air handler drain pan cracked and leaking (after spending nearly $2K trying to keep it going last year…) — replacement in the works
- Wax seal on the primary toilet said adios
- The valve to that toilet refuses to shut off completely so, the valve also needs replacement
…So expect some ongoing home repair costs as we flesh out fixes for each of these issues. Here, we thought having a baby was going to mean our time was occupied. Nope, having an old house has suddenly consumed our energy instead! In the shorter term, Chris started some basic resolution:
- Gorilla glue and duct tape for the gutter leaks as a temporary solution
- Buckets for the roof leak
- A siphon pump to keep dumping water out of the AC air handler emergency pan while waiting for that to be replaced
So that’s the first $36 in home improvement costs this month!
Furnishings
Our little house could be made a little more efficient in the storage department. We continue to try to optimize shelving and storage—this month, a large, heavy duty steel shelf rack was added for our attic. Assembly to come. We also added another some more plastic storage carts for the attic. Furnishings clocked in about $60.
We spent about $1,404 on home this month.
Food & Dining
There’s been so many food-related promos in our area that we’re overstocked at this point—and still underspending our normal!
Groceries
As mentioned previously, we’ve made good use of our discounted/Aeroplan paid Uber Eats credit. That’s cut down on our apparent grocery cost since the underlying cost is rewards points. Our Instacart to Publix pickup promos with Chase continue to be lucrative. Even with new parent conveniences, we kept our groceries to about $292. We even included the $95 annual fee for Chris’s new Chase card that qualifies to do transfers to Aeroplan.
Restaurants, Fast food, Alcohol & bars
On a recent Saturday, Jenni’s coworkers and friends got together to celebrate a birthday. We managed to get ourselves together and enjoy the restaurant and company along with Lukas. We practically feel like normal people again! 🙂 Aside from that brunch (about $45), Jenni got together with an old friend for brunch (about $32). Apart from restaurants, we made liberal use of local cafes, takeout pizza (with that Paze promo!), and Too Good to Go app discounts.
We spent $445 on food & dining this month.
Childcare
On Lukas’s second month of expenses, costs remain pretty low.
Our stock of baby supplies covered the month with no additional expenses. In fact, the only direct Lukas cost was about $72 for a pediatrician appointment!
We spent about $72 on childcare this month.
Health & Fitness
Meanwhile, our healthcare costs continue to balloon. Hopefully we’ll find some relief in the coming months as our changes to insurance and followup appointments subside.
Health Insurance
For July, we continued on our newly created family ACA Silver plan. The plan recently switched to one with not quite as good of coverage (25% coinsurance, $400 deductible) as what we had early in the year (5% coinsurance, very low deductible). But, it’s not too bad either for what we’re paying on the marketplace. The premium was about $277. We also continue to carry separate dental insurance.
Doctor
Jenni continues to have followup postpartum. And we continue to be confused about which insurer is going to pay the bills (our insurance apparently switched as labor started…). So, will it be the 5% coinsurance or the 25% coinsurance? Who knows! Anyhow, we paid off another $166 bill this month which was related to pregnancy care and labs.
No doubt, we’ve still got more insurance changes and doctor bills to come.
Dentist
Piling on the recent healthcare costs, Chris has ended up needing braces for his teeth. Yep, braces. And he had them as a kid! A single lower front tooth is trying to escape, though. After consulting a periodontist and three orthodontists, he was convinced the best solution was to go through a year of braces on the lower teeth to correct that single tooth tilting forward. The anticipated cost is a little under $4,000—monthly payments will show up until that’s covered. Crazy!
We spent $809 on health & fitness this month.
Expense Conclusion
While that covers the big stuff, we still had a few random things or small purchases to mention that might be of interest.
Amusement
With Chris’s parents and grandmother in town, we tried to act like normal people again. We went to a restaurant altogether, we got out on the town. In fact, we spent one afternoon visiting our regional botanical gardens! Beautiful and Lukas even took in some of the colors and smells. Tickets were about $100 for the six of us.
ⓘ Curious about some of the other expenses that we didn’t address? We’ve written about every expense in this month’s diagram either in this post or in the past. Check out our previous budget updates for more details or ask in the comments below!
How Much We Work
We like to keep track of how much time we spend doing work that is paid.
Let’s add this month to the list…
History of Monthly “Hours Worked”
| Month | Chris (Hours Worked) | Jenni (Hours Worked) |
|---|---|---|
| May 2020 | 41 | 108 |
| Jun 2020 | 38 | 96 |
| Jul 2020 | 36 | 120 |
| Aug 2020 | 39 | 48 |
| Sep 2020 | 27 | 76 |
| Oct 2020 | 26 | 104 |
| Nov 2020 | 27 | 57 |
| Dec 2020 | 28 | 57 |
| Jan 2021 | 25 | 102 |
| Feb 2021 | 24 | 104 |
| Mar 2021 | 24 | 106 |
| Apr 2021 | 23 | 85 |
| May 2021 | 17 | 29.75 |
| Jun 2021 | 19 | 66 |
| Jul 2021 | 21 | 30.25 |
| Aug 2021 | 23 | 16.5 |
| Sep 2021 | 26 | 28 |
| Oct 2021 | 22 | 49 |
| Nov 2021 | 21 | 51 |
| Dec 2021 | 64 | 27 |
| Jan 2022 | 32 | 80 |
| Feb 2022 | 29 | 63 |
| Mar 2022 | 14 | 70 |
| Apr 2022 | 15 | 21 |
| May 2022 | 14 | 36 |
| Jun 2022 | 6 | 12 |
| Jul 2022 | 13 | 45.5 |
| Aug 2022 | 15 | 96 |
| Sep 2022 | 12 | 54 |
| Oct 2022 | 14 | 34.5 |
| Nov 2022 | 12 | 72 |
| Dec 2022 | 11 | 16.5 |
| Jan 2023 | 10 | 88 |
| Feb 2023 | 11 | 81.5 |
| Mar 2023 | 12 | 47.5 |
| Apr 2023 | 8 | 1 |
| May 2023 | 16 | 100 |
| Jun 2023 | 10 | 109 |
| Jul 2023 | 12 | 48 |
| Aug 2023 | 16 | 54.5 |
| Sep 2023 | 9 | 20 |
| Oct 2023 | 14 | 22 |
| Nov 2023 | 15 | 22 |
| Dec 2023 | 16 | 12 |
| Jan 2024 | 12 | 61.25 |
| Feb 2024 | 14 | 28.5 |
| Mar 2024 | 16 | 61.5 |
| Apr 2024 | 12 | 22 |
| May 2024 | 8 | 19.5 |
| Jun 2024 | 18 | 19.5 |
| Jul 2024 | 14 | 44 |
| Aug 2024 | 18 | 81 |
| Sep 2024 | 15 | 20 |
| Oct 2024 | 18 | 51 |
| Nov 2024 | 5 | 15 |
| Dec 2024 | 19 | 12 |
| Jan 2025 | 17 | 17.5 |
| Feb 2025 | 4 | 8 |
| Mar 2025 | 14 | 12 |
| Apr 2025 | 3 | 11 |
| May 2025 | 14 | 33 |
| Jun 2025 | 12 | 2 |
| Jul 2025 | 12 | 13 |
| Aug 2025 | 16 | 13.5 |
| Sep 2025 | 12 | 30 |
| Oct 2025 | 13 | 40 |
| Nov 2025 | 12 | 22.5 |
| Dec 2025 | 13 | 16 |
| Jan 2026 | 12 | 8 |
| Feb 2026 | 12 | 12 |
| Mar 2026 | 7.5 | 12 |
| Apr 2026 | 14 | 22 |
| May 2026 | 6 | 0 |
| Jun 2026 | 12 | 0 |
| Jul 2026 | 11 | 0 |
Our earned income work continues to hover close to lows—about 11 hours.
Net Worth Update
Net worth is not our primary measurement, and can understand it can be discouraging if you’re working yourself out of debt. We also understand it’s difficult to be transparent with our readers without divulging this information, so we continue to do so.
Account breakdown
The markets continue to gyrate, but fortunately our assets remain pretty stable. From a high level, our assets and liabilities are shown in the data table below as of July 31, 2026.
| Description | Value (USD, $) |
|---|---|
| 401(k) | 1,387,469 |
| Brokerage | 1,171,560 |
| Roth IRA | 358,758 |
| Traditional IRA | 58,775 |
| HSA | 75,283 |
| Real Estate | 463,100 |
| Mortgage | (126,009) |
| Miscellaneous Assets | 25,000 |
| Checking & Savings | 22,236 |
| Net Worth | 3,436,262 |
- Miscellaneous assets include specific investments we’ve made in physical assets (think collectibles) and treasury bonds
- Amounts do not reflect the value of the businesses Chris owns or their assets, which should appear as income to us over future years
- Jenni’s Prius is omitted
The S&P 500 was down about 0.1% for the month.
We were down about 1.3%. That’s quite a bit worse than the market it seems but might reflect some of our rebalancing of our portfolios in process.
Overall, our net worth decreased by around $46K this month.
Net Worth History
| Date | Amount | % Change |
|---|---|---|
| July 2020 | $1,555,289 | – |
| August 2020 | $1,597,334 | 2.7% |
| September 2020 | $1,566,393 | (2.0%) |
| October 2020 | $1,568,182 | 0.01% |
| November 2020 | $1,720,113 | 9.6% |
| December 2020 | $1,810,864 | 5.3% |
| January 2021 | $1,860,996 | 2.8% |
| February 2021 | $1,878,154 | 0.9% |
| March 2021 | $1,918,269 | 2.1% |
| April 2021 | $2,010,849 | 4.8% |
| May 2021 | $2,049,213 | 1.9% |
| June 2021 | $2,093,896 | 2.2% |
| July 2021 | $2,092,153 | (0.1%) |
| August 2021 | $2,130,761 | 1.8% |
| September 2021 | $2,070,730 | (2.8%) |
| October 2021 | $2,151,272 | 3.9% |
| November 2021 | $2,095,273 | (2.6%) |
| December 2021 | $2,160,235 | 3.1% |
| January 2022 | $2,055,292 | (4.9%) |
| February 2022 | $2,058,001 | 0.01% |
| March 2022 | $2,134,428 | 3.7% |
| April 2022 | $1,968,069 | (7.8%) |
| May 2022 | $1,975,569 | 0.04% |
| June 2022 | $1,868,397 | (5.4%) |
| July 2022 | $1,975,608 | 5.7% |
| August 2022 | $1,878,352 | (5.2%) |
| September 2022 | $1,735,997 | (7.6%) |
| October 2022 | $1,820,287 | 4.9% |
| November 2022 | $1,920,635 | 5.5% |
| December 2022 | $1,866,513 | (2.8%) |
| January 2023 | $1,953,691 | 4.7% |
| February 2023 | $1,882,656 | (3.6%) |
| March 2023 | $1,969,566 | 4.6% |
| April 2023 | $1,981,934 | 0.6% |
| May 2023 | $1,995,247 | 0.7% |
| June 2023 | $2,092,479 | 4.9% |
| July 2023 | $2,189,821 | 4.7% |
| August 2023 | $2,140,296 | (2.2%) |
| September 2023 | $2,042,865 | (4.6%) |
| October 2023 | $2,015,648 | (1.3%) |
| November 2023 | $2,157,404 | 7.0% |
| December 2023 | $2,261,458 | 4.8% |
| January 2024 | $2,296,269 | 1.5% |
| February 2024 | $2,365,110 | 3.0% |
| March 2024 | $2,434,250 | 2.9% |
| April 2024 | $2,371,284 | (2.6%) |
| May 2024 | $2,423,205 | 2.2% |
| June 2024 | $2,472,353 | 2.0% |
| July 2024 | $2,513,877 | 1.7% |
| August 2024 | $2,560,215 | 1.8% |
| September 2024 | $2,592,558 | 1.3% |
| October 2024 | $2,576,903 | (0.6%) |
| November 2024 | $2,685,615 | 4.2% |
| December 2024 | $2,621,732 | (2.4%) |
| January 2025 | $2,689,706 | 2.6% |
| February 2025 | $2,665,053 | (0.9%) |
| March 2025 | $2,581,708 | (3.1%) |
| April 2025 | $2,588,737 | 0.3% |
| May 2025 | $2,711,140 | 4.7% |
| June 2025 | $2,818,049 | 3.9% |
| July 2025 | $2,836,370 | 0.7% |
| August 2025 | $2,915,960 | 2.8% |
| September 2025 | $3,012,036 | 3.3% |
| October 2025 | $3,067,605 | 2.3% |
| November 2025 | $3,066,024 | (0.05%) |
| December 2025 | $3,077,922 | 0.4% |
| January 2026 | $3,174,543 | 3.1% |
| February 2026 | $3,212,548 | 1.2% |
| March 2026 | $3,107,967 | (3.3%) |
| April 2026 | $3,358,212 | 8.1% |
| May 2026 | $3,500,516 | 4.2% |
| June 2026 | $3,482,197 | (0.5%) |
| July 2026 | $3,436,262 | (1.3%) |
Previous Donation Winner
TBD (closes August 31)
Our Reader’s Fund seeks to leverage the principles of FIRE to build a lifetime of giving.
Thank you for your participation in our polls over the last 5 years. We’ve given over $10,000 to deserving charities with your help in deciding which organizations to donate to.
Polls are now open for our next round of candidates: Disaster Relief in Nepal.
Charity Round-Up
A glacial collapse resulted in a massive landslide and subsequent mudslide devastating towns along the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli River in Nepal. Communities had little to no warning to escape. Homes, bridges, buildings, schools, and roads were instantly washed away. Given this was a tourist area, thousands from across the globe are still missing in the rubble and mud. But there is hope of survivors and emergency response teams are working hard every day to find them.
Each organization has great charity ratings. We invite you to learn more about how they are helping with relief in the aftermath of Nepals deadly mudslide. Join us in donating to one of them by casting your vote.
Summaries below include the impact metrics and a link to their Candid profile, which details the nonprofit’s operations and transparency.
1) All Hands & Hearts
Why? All Hands & Hearts doesn’t just provide a one-time donation after a disaster. They support affected communities with immediate relief, physically rebuild damaged infrastructure, and then work with residents to make homes, schools, water systems, and communities safer for the next disaster.
Where? Globally.
Our Notes: Hands & Hearts is a global disaster relief nonprofit that partners with communities to deliver immediate response and long-term recovery. They have been working in Nepal since the 2015 earthquake. Over the following decade, they’ve provided emergency relief, rebuilding, and getting children back to school. Their goal is to help communities recover faster, rebuild stronger, and prepare for the future. All Hands & Hearts have activated a Nepal Flood Relief response in Nuwakot following the catastrophic flooding and mudslides that hit Nepal in August 2026. They also have teams in Colombia and Venezuela providing earthquake relief.
2) Humanity & Inclusion
Why? Everyone needs help during a disaster but those with special needs require even more help. They need a team like Humanity & Inclusion (HI) to meeting their needs in a crisis.
Where? Globally.
Our Notes: Humanity & Inclusion (HI) is an international humanitarian organization that focuses on people with disabilities and other vulnerable populations. Their work centers on helping people access healthcare, rehabilitation, education, livelihoods, and essential services while making humanitarian responses more inclusive. HI has been working in Nepal since 1996, focused heavily on rehabilitation, while also expanding into inclusive education, livelihoods, healthcare, and disaster-risk reduction. They have launched their emergency response teams to assist with the mudslide with a special focus on people with disabilities, ensuring they aren’t left out of the emergency response.
3) Direct Relief
Why? Their medical teams were already in place for monsoon season and are familiar with the facilities to provide emergency medical care to the survivors of the mudslide.
Where? Globally.
Our Notes: Direct Relief is a humanitarian organization focused on providing medicine, medical supplies, and healthcare resources to people affected by disasters, poverty, and emergencies. In Nepal, Direct Relief is working with Nepal’s Ministry of Health and local healthcare organizations, deploying emergency medical supplies and supporting medical teams treating people in the affected areas. Because Direct Relief had pre-positioned supplies in advance in preparation for monsoon season, it has been able to respond quickly.
Nonprofit poll
After reviewing the list above, please take a moment to vote for which nonprofit you think will put funds to use in the best way.
(Have trouble using or seeing the poll above? Some reader tools or apps may not display it. View this page in a browser or use this link to our Reader Fund page, which has a copy of the poll!)
Thank you for taking the time to vote!
One of our primary goals with TicTocLife is building a stream of giving within the FIRE community, and that starts with knowledge.
Want to hear about the results? Sign up for our free FIRE Insider newsletter! We send it out every few weeks and include the monthly poll results and donation winners. You can see an archive of the FIRE Insider and sign up here!
What’s Next
August will be cleanup for all these house issues, no doubt. Making room in our attic for a crew to get the old air handler out (and new one in) is going to be no easy feet. Not to mention getting contractors scheduled for quotes and repairs across roof leaks, gutter replacements, and the air handler. Let’s hope nothing else gives up the ghost!
We’re hoping to have some time to take Lukas on his first trip—likely to Virginia Beach. That’s only a few hours driving for us which seems like a reasonable first expedition outside our city’s immediate area.
Perhaps we’ll be able to start thinking about bigger trips…and even Lukas’s first flight!
Got an old house yourself? Is this summer its failure time, too?
Let us know in the comments or on Threads and X (Twitter)!
