SUMMARY

January 2004 is an uneventful month in my journey to early retirement. With largely flat performance in investment accounts and regular saving, my net worth advanced $3,668 to end up the month at $136,252 (an increase of 2.8%). Liquidation value surpassed $110,000 by the end of the month. The Month-To-Retirement dropped one notch from last month's June 2016 to May 2016.

MONTH-END BALANCE SHEET

INCOME STATEMENT

Total operating expenses for the month is $3,830, the lowest since June 2003 due to 1) there is no extraordinary item for the month, and 2) my wife and I greatly decreased our dining-out expenses.

My vested options appreciated by $1,057 in January, while is partially offset by loss of $679 in my actively managed accounts.

BALANCE SHEET

There are several noticeable changes in my balance sheet. First, with the conclusion of another ESPP cycle in early January, I liquidated my $10,000-some ESPP holdings on January 5th.

Second, I used the ESPP sale proceeds to contribute $3,000 to my Roth IRA account, pay back some of the credit card loans and add more cushion to my savings account. (I still expect to maintain $2,000+ balance in my ShareBuilder Visa Platinum card to take advantage of the 0% APR offer until August.)

Third, the tax liability account increased by around $450 mainly due to accrual of the capital gain tax of my ESPP sale.

As always, I continued to contribute to 401(k) account and ESPP account (for the new cycle).

INVESTMENTS

S&P 500 gained 1.7% to close at 1,131 by the end of the month. PPD lost 12.7% following a lukewarm quarterly production report. FDP gained 9.1% apparently because it is selected as a Fool.com Hidden Gem.

Speaking of my 401(k) account, I still play defensive by putting 75% of the balance in Money Market account. I did, however, reallocated 25% of the 401(k) portfolio to ING International Value fund (NIIVX) to hedge the risk associated with the falling dollars. (So far, it lost 1% compared to my cost basis, which hurts my 401(k) accumulated gains.)

IMPORTANT PERSONAL FINANCE ISSUES

- In the month of February I expect to start sweeping my saving funds to VirtualBank eMoney Market account. I expect this move to add at least $50 to my net worth in the next 12 months.

- With various tax forms coming almost every day in January, I will start preparing for my tax in February. I decided to use free tax filing service from TaxAct.com. As I expect I owe IRS about $1,000, I don't expect to physically file the tax return until late March or April.