Woohoo! Blasted through the 6 figure NW mark for the first time. An absolutely huge jump this month mainly due to gains in the cryptocurrency portfolio. But first – an update about our latest holiday.
TL;DR – I spent way too much, and need a plan to budget better for future trips.
Hawaii holiday
I just came back from my holiday in Hawaii with the missus. We absolutely loved it. It’s truly an amazing place. The people are very friendly, and the overall vibe on the island is so relaxed. We stayed in Waikiki on Oahu, which while very touristy, is still a beautiful place. I love how they’ve managed to preserve so much of the natural beauty on the island. Hawaii is also extremely clean – I don’t think I ever saw a single piece of rubbish on the streets in Waikiki. There’s no hustlers on the street trying to sell you stuff. A big change from what I was sort of expecting, having been to Bali and Thailand numerous times.
I’m also a big fan of Japanese cuisine, so I absolutely loved the food there. The Japanese are the second largest ethnic group in Hawaii, so there’s no shortage of great authentic Japanese food and restaurants.
To top it off, the weather was absolutely perfect. It was 28 degrees every day, but there’s a constant light breeze throughout the island to keep you cool.
As you can probably tell, we absolutely loved Hawaii. It’s somewhere we’d love to live one day once we hit FIRE. Not migrate forever, but perhaps stay for at least 6 – 12 months on the different islands. It is however, an extremely expensive place to live. The median price price for a home is $550k USD ($780k AUD), with the median monthly rent being $2,400 USD ($3,400 AUD). Ouch – not so leanFIRE friendly.
I also found how expensive Hawaii was first hand when going through my Pocketbook after returning to Australia. While I’m on holiday or travelling, I try not to worry too much about budget/spending as the primary goal is to relax and enjoy ourselves. However I feel this approach is flawed. Looking at my expenses so far in 2019 – it’s blatantly obvious that I need to tighten my spending while on holidays. Those dinners at restaurants which you thought were $60 USD end up being well over $100 AUD when you factor in the currency conversion, taxes, and a minimum 15% tip.
Here is my spending so far in 2019:
Over $10k spent on holidays and travel!
If I take out the $2k worth of expenses which were to attend an overseas funeral in February, it means the Hawaii holiday cost over $8k (the flights and accommodation were $4.5k, meaning we actually spent $3.5k while there).
$8k for 8 days – that’s $1k per day! I do love travelling and am not going to stop doing it anytime soon, but I really need to tighten my belt and stick to a budget next time I go on a trip. That’s almost 1/3 of my spending this year spent for 8 days of fun. Yikes.
Do you guys have any tips on how to budget while on holiday, yet not feel like you’re missing out on experiences by being too frugal?
Cryptocurrency portfolio
I haven’t put any more of my own money into crypto for almost 6 months now. In fact I’ve actually been selling down the portfolio, cashing out $5k in Dec, $5k in Jan and $2k in Feb. Despite this, the value of the portfolio has managed to surge over $20k this month due to a few projects I invested in last year finally releasing tokens and getting listed on exchanges.
However it’s not all roses. As an early investor in these projects, similar to VC funding for startups, the tokens are subject to vesting periods. They may only release 10% of the tokens per month, therefore I am unable to sell them all now to lock in the gains. And because there is no inherent value in crypto like in shares, there really isn’t a firm price floor to support any of these valuations. It’s 100% speculation. Therefore some of these paper gains are very likely to be erased by this time next month.
I’ve learnt my lesson trying to get rich quick with high risk speculative investments, so I am sticking to my guns and continuing to sell down my crypto portfolio for cash every chance I get. I’d rather put the funds into ETFs/LICs so I can sleep soundly at night.
Monthly graphs
Progress Trackers
Thanks to the huge jump in the cryptocurrency portfolio, I’m back on track to achieve my extremely ambitious goal of a 7 figure NW before I turn 35 (Oct 2025).
Thanks again for reading – see you next month!
Turbo FIRE Australia 
It is easy to travel cheap on paper. Most of the time, I make my own food (Last year, I did this in NZ, Japan, Thailand, and the UK). I kind of hate high end hotels and most tourist traps, so that’s an easy one too.
The trouble I find is that when I travel with my partner, we disagree on what travelling is and should be, and finding a compromise is stressful. She feels like she is missing out on something if we don’t eat out, if we don’t see tourist traps, etc. If you plan on travelling cheaply this conversation needs to be had well before you get on a plane!
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Very good points there Mateo. I hear you regarding the disagreements on what travelling or a holiday should be. My partner also feels like we’re missing out on something if we ever take a day off just to relax and lie by the pool in the hotel.
But the larger problem for us is basically FOMO – Fear of Missing Out. An example is Kualoa Ranch in Hawaii – the location of where they filmed many movies including Jurassic Park. Now this place is a complete tourist trap, it’s the #1 recommended activity on TripAdvisor after all. It’s also super expensive. For two of us to drive a UTV around on a tour was $450+ for two hours. However we did it, simply because of the thinking: “Well how often are we in Hawaii. If we don’t do it now we’ll never do it and regret it later.”
Same thing for swimming with dolphins/sea turtles. Very touristy, very expensive, but yet again: “How often do we get a chance to swim with dolphins in Hawaii? Let’s just pay the $500 and think about it later”.
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Hey, sure, those activities might be worth the cost to you guys and be really great memories that you’ll have forever. You are always missing out on something though, right?
I used this logic: Would you rather eat out for brekky, lunch and dinner every day or go do these activities while making our own food? This way a 10k trip might only cost 5k and enable a second trip elsewhere.
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Congrats on cracking 6 figures!
TBH I am a creature of habit when it comes to food, even when on holiday. So I generally eat the same thing I do as if I were at home, which is a bowl of muesli for breakfast and a simple homemade sandwich for lunch. This means I only eat out for dinner, and so can save a bit on food and maybe splurge a little more on experiences. Though I acknowledge that the way I do it isn’t for everyone, especially if you’re a foodie.
Another way I do it is by loading money up on a debit card before travelling, which sets the total spending budget while I’m overseas. If I can see the balance running low, it’s time to cut something back, either food or experiences.
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That’s a great idea regarding the debit card! I’m going to try that for my next trip.
I’ll leave the 28 Degrees credit card in the hotel safe (for emergencies), and only bring out the Citibank Plus debit card for spending.
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There are lots of frugal travel bloggers around, so if travel is your thing you might like to do some googling. I recall coming across one or two relatively recently, but I don’t have them bookmarked on my tablet so unfortunately don’t have the site addresses handy.
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