Violet Sky

Another killer month. Last year, we went on a two week vacation to Italy at the end of the month of June, and came back to a substantial increase in our net worth despite the $20k or so we poured into the trip. I did not do a very good job not checking the markets this time, so the increase was not totally a surprise, but I was certainly not as on top of checking things while traveling as I would be sitting at my desk at work all day.

Given that this is now two years in a row that we’ve gone on an international two week vacation and somehow come back wealthier than we left, I think the logical conclusion is that we need to test this theory a third time by going on vacation in late June 2025. Luckily for us and the rest of the stock market, that’s already the plan!

Not a whole ton to say about this update otherwise. Monarch‘s auto value tracker finally updated, after about two months of standing still, so the value dropped probably more than it would have if it was updating monthly. Since we have no plans to sell any of our cars, I wasn’t too worried about the accuracy of the vehicles in our net worth. We had slightly higher contributions toward retirement accounts, thanks to the larger end-of-year check my husband gets from the school district; this will be offset by smaller checks, and thus lower pension contributions, in July and August, so it’s kind of a wash.

The bulk of the spending for the international trip we just returned from didn’t come out of savings until after I recorded our net worth update, so I expect next month’s totals to drop more dramatically than even this month. And yes, I did open all my financial apps (not on public WiFi, of course) and dutifully update our net worth spreadsheet while strolling around the Irish countryside, especially after my many peeks at the stock market throughout the trip. It’s always fun when an update is good news!