Greetings all!
Apologies for the late post. A lot has changed in the world over the last 5 weeks. The COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of how lucky we are to live in Australia. Not only are we dealing with the fallout of this virus outbreak, we have also been faced with immense changes in our personal lives.
Due to the economic downturn, my wife was stood down without pay. Her employer has asked for voluntary redundancies, so it could mean a nice payout. Additionally my employer has asked us to relocate interstate , which we have accepted. This will be a time of great change for us, but I think it will afford us new opportunities as we leave Sydney behind. As a result of all the change, we’ve put our debt on the back burner for a bit until we have some more stability. To the numbers:
| Forecast | March |
| Consolidation Loan | $ 0 |
| Credit Card A | $ 0 |
| Credit Card B | $ 0 |
| Credit Card C | $ 0 |
| Total | $ 0 |
| Actual | March |
| Consolidation Loan | $ 0 |
| Credit Card A | $ 0 |
| Credit Card B | $ 2,030.00 |
| Credit Card C | $ 0 |
| Total | $ 2,030.00 |
Only $2,030.00 remaining, and yes that is on an interest free credit card. We have put back paying this off as we will need to produce approximately $2,500 for a bond due to our move, and we are down to one income. These times show just how important it is to pay off your debt as fast as possible. If this pandemic were to break out back when we started on our journey to aggressively pay down debt we would have been in all sorts of trouble, and likely on the brink of bankruptcy. My wife is likely to receive a redundancy payout as we relocate our lives to a different city. If this comes through we will go from our current position to +$25k overnight.
The red line nears ever closer to zero dollars!
Net Worth
With the ASX200 down ~27% at the time of writing it is no wonder our net worth and super balances have taken a hit, which is exactly what you want in accumulation phase! The cheaper the stocks, the more we accumulate. Our collective super balances are down around $16k since the last post, and the graph shows that beautifully:
Our net worth has dropped from $113 to $99k excluding HECS. Again, nothing to be too concerned with here. I am lucky that the industry I am in is extremely safe/insulated from this downturn and I will get through it being fully employed. Unfortunately my wife’s industry has felt the full force of the pandemic, and she is currently out of work. Luckily I earn enough to sustain us both until she is able to find gainful employment again. However the injection of cash a potential redundancy could provide will give us a unique opportunity to capitalise on the market downturn that has occurred, if only anyone could pick the bottom?
I am sure April’s update will be even more eventful with many interesting decisions ahead of us that could have a substantial impact on our financial journey down the road.
I hope you are all safe and well during this time! Look after yourselves, and your families.
Follow us on the path to FIRE 