The past few weeks it has been quit calm on the blog front. Due to a busye period at work with a deadline to be met, I was not able to blog a lot, or worse, just follow up what others were talking about.
That is why I am so excited to post another blog report, even if it is “only” an update on the numbers. Then again, knowing your numbers is an important aspect of the journey.
Savingsrate
In order to achieve a certain positive financial goal, it is needed to save more than you earn. A quick way to monitor this is the savings rate. I have 2 variants of the savingsrate. A first one is a large interpretation that counts all money that goes towards investing and loan repayment, I call this the full savingsrate. I also publish a revised savingsrate: here I do not count payments to the mortgage and some other health savings related contribution. By measuring both, I have a good view of what we save.
As the graph illustrates, both metrics are just about on target to reach the 2015 goals. I am curious to see what the effect will be of the ski trip we booked. To counter balance this, there is an unexpected early payment of a 2015 bonus. It will help me to reach the 2015 goal and will make the 2016 goal a little hard to reach… In life, you can not have both at the same time…
From the graph it is clear that reaching the goal mainly depends on few good months. These good months are the result of tax repayment, bonuses and a holiday allowance. Without those, it would be very difficult to reach these levels. By following the numbers on a monthly basis, the importance of these special items becomes very visible.
Amberindex
The result of a savingsrate is a increase of net worth. Given our amber index, the results of the market are more important than the inflow. At times, this can be demotivating: you save all you can and still your amberindex goes down. I know that it is part of the game. It makes the timing of the publication of these numbers even more important. In an ideal world, I get the numbers on the first day of the month. In reality, I deviate a lot. Maybe an attention point for next year?
At this moment, we are on track to reach the 24,8% goal. that would be great. Fact is that this year, there will be no additional money inflow, so now, it all depends on the markets. Lets wait and see where this takes us. I am curious to run the numbers on Jan 2nd to see where we stand.
amber tree leaves 
Well done you! Another increase in the Amber Index, your savings rates also seem stable, which is usually a good sign, in the sense that your cash flow is stable (i.e. no large frivolous expenses or change in paychecks). We hope that the market bumps you over that 25% threshold, would a great way to close out 2015!
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Thx T.
For the stats, it would indeed be great to get to 25pct.
Amber tree
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We like your Amber Index, we may shamelessly steel that idea to track our progress to financial independence as well (we are not too keen on exposing our networth). Thanks!
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Hey teamCF,
I look forward to see the evolution of the cheesy index!
Staying anonym and keeping my exact net worth private are important to me.
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“Cheesy Index”, really Funny!
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Congrats…that’s a great saving rate. Net worth can only start with what you are able to retain.
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Still a great savings rate. Best wishes for 2016!
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