The month of May went by in a breeze. In literal sense, we experienced almost perfect spring weather through the month of May in our region, see below. With so much sun to enjoy, it was very difficult to stay put in front of computer! As such, my plans for a follow up to my STEP portfolio pivot will have to wait a bit longer.

Its the time of the month when I update AVI family net-worth status! And so without any further ado, here are the numbers

• Net Worth (as percentage of FI number): 114.18
• Accessible Net Worth (as percentage of FI number): 73.81
• Liquid Assets/ Debt Ratio: 3.679
• Cash Balance/Two Year Living Expense Ratio: 1.096

Here’s the chart of how AVI family NW has increased through first five-months of 2021

Synopsis

• The year thus far has been quite productive (in terms of NW growth) for AVI family. Two significant contributors to this performance are: (a) increase in house prices in our neighborhood and (b) Avi equity portfolio having value-bend which has out-performed growth by a healthy margin for better part of the year.
• The numbers would have been even better but for the Uncle SAM cut of income and earnings for 2020 that I paid on May 15th and a rather expensive home renovation project that we have undertaken for the year. Not to mention, all the expense related to family travel plans for the summer of 2021.
• No regrets for the planned family vacation, after a long-morbid Covid-19 year of being couped up in house, we all deserve a nice break!
• Taking a microscopic look at the month-to-month changes in assets and liabilities,
  • markets continue to be on tear, especially, quality value stocks in the energy and banking sector, coupled with a very nice run in bullion price and equity vesting for AVI employer stocks has led to a solid 6.3 % growth in AVI family equity portfolio
  • Retirement portfolio saw a modest growth, in part due to the drag from bond investments in the portfolio.
  • Housing stats continue to be on tear, though the growth trajectory seems to have slowed down a bit for the past month. I believe we may have reached the saturation point in growth for house prices in our neighborhood. I am continuing to pay down my mortgage principle aggressively. The numbers do not show up since the delta is relative to my last net worth update which was earlier in the month.
  • Cash balance in emergency account as well in portfolio account continue to pile on as I am finding it increasingly difficult to find any worthwhile (even at fair value) opportunities for investments that conform to my STEP philosophy.
  • A pleasant problem to have but it is some what annoying to have cash sitting on the sidelines earning next-to-nothing

Having surpassed the notional-accumulation phase in journey towards FI, there is a sense of calm that is hard to describe. Our attitude toward living has morphed from aggressive savings mind-frame (think 70 % of income) to savings-to-enjoy-life mind-frame (think 20 % of income). The change is quite obvious through the month-over-month increase of >200 % in AVI family CC liability. I foresee this trend to continue for the rest of 2021.

Video/Book/Article/Audios for this blog post

• Video: A must watch interview with the legend macro-investor, Stanley Druckenmiller, earlier this month.
• Video: Yes another Stanley Druckenmiller interview on the My First Million podcast
• Video: Mohnish Pabrai never disappoints, Q&A session with MBA students at Columbia Business School.
• Book: Warren Buffett, Inside the Ultimate Money Mind, by, Robert Hagstrom. Enjoying reading this book to better understand the concept of “money mind”