Monthly Financial Snapshot: July 2023

Current exchange rate: 143

Market movement: up

US travel plans: still undecided

Another mostly uneventful month. One event coming up is that I will finally start selling off my I bonds that I purchased in 2021 (already sold a week before I’m writing this) and 2022 (will sell in early January 2024). Because US interest rates have settled down compared to previous years, the interest payments on I bonds has dropped as well. However, market interest rates are at about 5%, so it doesn’t make sense to continue holding I bonds anymore. The reason for the strange sell timing is a quirk of how I bonds work: there is a penalty of 3 months’ interest if you sell them if you haven’t held them for 5 years. Since you forfeit the most recent 3 months of interest, it makes sense to time the sale for 3 months after the interest rate drops so that you aren’t giving up any months of the higher rate. For when I bought mine, that timing works out to be August 2023 and January 2024 for the optimal selling time. There’s a very handy site with charts that show the growth of I bonds over time, which is useful for anyone holding I bonds. A consequence of selling the bonds is the interest accrued is realized at the time of sale for tax purposes. So the interest I accumulated from my 2021 purchase will be taxable in 2023. This will slightly reduce my capacity for Roth conversions, but in the long run it probably won’t matter much.

Here’s a summary of my financial position this month:

Projected time to FI (assuming 6% growth and 4% withdrawal rate): 7 years, 5 months.