Here’s some Context:

We’re currently 35 and 36, and have one child who is 17 years old. We’re originally from the US and are living overseas, rent-free. We have no debt, but we do use credit cards for travel rewards and pay them in full each month.

 

Our monthly expenses are <$2,500 and include the following:

  • Utilities: electricity, water, internet
  • Mobile phones
  • Food (groceries + eating out)
  • Transportation
  • Miscellaneous (clothing, home purchases, gifts, etc.)

 

Second Quarter Travel:

HAHAHAHAHA. *sob* All travel plans for 2020 canceled until further notice.

 

Here’s What Happened this Quarter:

  • Spent most of April canceling upcoming travel plans + chasing up refunds
    • We (thankfully) received 100% refunds for all travel cancellations!
  • Closed on second rental property (remotely, with POA)
  • Our teenager’s International School closed early March and remained closed until the end of May.
    • Some students returned to campus for a few days before the end of the academic year which ended at the end of June.
  • We spent the rest of the month 100% focused on staying safe + healthy (and HOME)!

 

A little more about our current situation:

Mr. Unsettled’s job is still secure, and for that we’re feeling incredibly grateful. We learned that we will likely be able to extend our contract (currently through mid-2021) through 2022. He was still unable to work from home due to the nature of his job.

As you can see reflected in our numbers below, the US markets seem to have recovered from the March 2020 downturn, but we’re not holding our breath! Our gut feeling is still that things will get much worse before it gets better.

Here’s what did this quarter in order to protect ourselves right now and going forward:

 

We continued saving cash.

Our goal was to have at least $100,000 in cash savings, and I’m happy to report that we were able to achieve that this quarter. Just a note that about 50% of our cash on hand is earmarked for future real estate investing, but we feel good knowing that we could use it for living expenses in case of emergency. We also have credit cards with high limits (~$30,000 each) in case we need to make any quick emergency purchases like expensive repatriation flights or quarantine accommodation. We’re not planning to go anywhere now or for the foreseeable future, but as expats we need to prepare for that to change in an instant.

 

We’re still pausing all real estate investing (REI).

Like I mentioned last quarter, we are still saving >$3,000/month earmarked for this purpose (that we could dip into in an emergency) which is included in the cash number below. I’m happy to report that we were able to close on our second property mid-April using a POA (Mr. Unsettled’s mother) and a remote notary arranged by the title company. It’s still nearly impossible to close on properties overseas with the US Embassy being closed for non-emergency services, so it makes sense not to move forward on any new properties for at least the next few months.

I’m happy to report that both of our properties have tenants, and we’ve continued to collect rent throughout the pandemic. We’ve been flexible with them by waiving late fees and are prepared to waive or discount rent if needed. Now is not the time to be super worried about the bottom line, of course, and I don’t mention this to make us look good. But I do think it’s important to talk about the human side of REI. As landlords, we’re in a unique position to directly help our tenants during this time of uncertainty. I plan to dive into our REI philosophy soon, but one thing we’ve prioritized is keeping at least 6 months of gross rent set aside to give ourselves a cushion against vacancy, which has given us the ability to be extra flexible with our tenants right now.

 

And because I find this bit super helpful, here’s the change from Q1:

Cash +$38,637
Taxable Investments* +$39,810
Tax-Advantaged Investments +$88,760
Debt: $0
Total Change: +$179,026

*REI – Home value less mortgages, plus savings accounts for each property included in this number, income reflected in cash savings.

Our cash increased due to a few things, mostly due to Mr. Unsettled receiving his annual contract completion bonus (10% of his base salary) and the fact that we’ve been naturally saving cash because we’re not going out, traveling, etc.

The investment accounts increased as the market recovered from the dip back in March. For the record, we’re not super invested in the ups and downs of the market. Pun intended, haha. And we fully expect that we’ll see more volatility with the ongoing pandemic and the upcoming election. Now that we have our cash reserves built up over $100,000, we intend to resume investing in the market this month. Our strategy has always been to buy shares every month no matter what is happening in the market and that’s what we’ll be getting back to.