December 2017 Net Worth +$2,607

Unexpected money found November:

Interest earned on checking/savings accounts: $12.27

ATM Refund: $4.50

Rebate Apps: $12.16

Credit Card Cash Back: $47.84

Gifts: $100

Follow ups on last month's posts:

We went to the local FIRE meetup and I'm still torn on how I felt about it.  All of the people were much further into the process than we were so it was kind of difficult to connect with anyone.  There was one gal that I think I really liked because she has a handful of kids but I haven't reached out since.  I think we're going to try to go to the one in December and go from there.  I just feel out of my league since a lot of this stuff is all in my head and I haven't fully articulated it to my husband even.  I just felt intimidated and I hate that.  It was more of a Mr. Money Mustache group and I find those people to be far more hardcore than we are.

All of my 529 contributions and withdrawals have been made for the 2017 Fall semester.  I enrolled in two classes for 2018 Spring so it's going to feel so much more relaxing than this 11 hour semester did.  They aren't even at the same time and I sweet talked my way into doing them online instead of on ground so I'll have 8 glorious weeks of classes one after another.  There are definitely perks to being an employee of the institution.  They aren't currently letting people jump in and out of the online cohort but they made an exception since I work there.

I also took a breath and threw that money that I was holding onto on the mortgage and I feel much better for it.  We were spending more easily since there was a bigger balance in checking and by taking that money and making the most intentional choice for it, it's completely out of my hands.  It knocked the last year off of our mortgage so we've been here for 2 months and now have 165 payments remaining on the bill.  We don't really have a specific FI date that we're working toward, but it makes me sleep better to know that our mortgage will be gone before our little guy is 15.

New issues:

It's hard to do a less stressful holiday season when family members just flat out don't get you.  Last year, I was checked in the hospital to be induced the day after Christmas so we did not have to travel, shop, or run around and it was magical.  Now that we have the baby, they are expecting us to come out to do Christmas with everyone we've ever met.  I know that it's a lot of fun for them to see a baby but we're not even there yet and I'm exhausted.  My mother told me that my son's gifts won't fit in my car so they'll have to bring the truck down some other visit.  I drive a not-small SUV.  He's also going to be a year old.  What could they possibly buy him that I'll have to move around my house for the next year that I can't fit in a Chevy Equinox?  I know it's a matter of my values not syncing up with theirs.  There's nothing wrong with them wanting to spoil their grandson either.  I just don't think I'm going to love giant gifts in my house that we keep pretty decluttered on purpose.  They flat out refused to calm their gift giving and contribute to his 529 too.  Oh well.  I made the attempt!

Until next time!

17 Years + 6 Months to go.

1st Halloween $$$

$7: Costume from Target during a big sale in early September.
$10: For his 2018 costume during Target's 50% off sale on November 1.
$0: Trunk or Treating the night before so we would have candy for the neighborhood kids.
$0: Wearing hand me down Halloween footie pajamas when the neighborhood kids came to the door and just grinning at them like it was the best thing he'd ever seen.

Overall, I think we did great!

November 2017 Net Worth: +$3688

Unexpected money found October:

Interest earned on checking/savings accounts: $16.17

Related to buying the house: $450

Money Highlights:

Open Enrollment happened this month at work for both of us and we opted to switch to high deductible plans.  My HDHP at work is actually set up so I don't have a premium at all if my family is covered elsewhere so we split off with me alone on one plan and everyone else on my husband's plan.  We kept the dollar amount that used to come of his checks almost the same to the dollar but we're getting $104 put straight into the HSA this year.  As the Millionaire Educator would say, it gets to stay on our side of the ledger.

My check on the other hand is comical for all good reasons.  It's so SO tiny.  They did a 2.5% bump across the board (first raise in 2 years!) I honestly couldn't tell a difference because my check is so heavily being put into retirement.  I signed up for the FSA for child care expenses so it'll be even smaller in 2018.  All of these things mean progress so I'm happy.

Since I was in the husband's work retirement page anyway, I went ahead and bumped his 401k contributions up to 10%.  We're not at a point yet where we can max every account but a few percentage points here and there feels good.

A gal made a Facebook page for local people with an interest in FIRE and I think we might go.  I have no idea what to expect out of these people but it could be fun.

This is the first month with my 529 set up for my MBA.  I'm routing books and housing through it because my state will allow deductions for any 529.  My employer is paying for my tuition so I'm trying to soak in all of the tax benefits I can for my portions.  We'll see how it all turns out when tax time rolls around.

I've been dragging my feet on tossing money at the mortgage for some reason.  We made enough on the sale of our last house to have our mortgage start out under $120k and I just can't bring myself to hit submit on the payment.  I guess I like having a little cash on hand.  I tossed $2500 at it this month but I'm having a hard time committing to the last $3900 I had planned to throw on it.  It would knock an entire year off the back end of the mortgage so it would be like a 14 year mortgage from the beginning.

Until next time!

17 Years + 7 Months to go.

October 2017 Net Worth: +$1,886

Unexpected money found September:

Interest earned on checking/savings accounts: $17.56

Craigslist: $260

Related to selling the house: $332

Money Highlights:

I've now finished two MBA classes and am rocking a 4.0 so far.  I'm doing well in my Accounting class which is really exciting because I was the most concerned about it.  A surprise benefit of being chained to my kitchen table working on homework is that our restaurant budget fell by over $200 compared with the month before.

I raised my 403b contribution to $1500 for the first time.  My new small paycheck cleared and the world didn't end.  Everyone at my work will benefit from the first 2.5% raise in 2 years starting October 1 so that's something to look forward to.  My small check will be getting a little larger and I'm grateful.

I made my spreadsheet of how we filed taxes for the last several years and I think I found ways we can improve.  Having the childcare credit, MBA, 529 contributions, and all sorts of other things will make this year really interesting when we file.

I'm excited for the new year to basically have a clean slate to start over.  Everything between now and then feels like a test run but everything is live.

Our plan for the rest of 2017:

Put the search for a duplex to live in/rent out on hold
Get our house realtor ready regardless on when we decide to list it
Pay off the car
Max out as much as we can in our IRA's for 2017
Add 1% to my 403b contributions at work to reach 15% Actually changed contribution from 7% to like 52% by making it $1500 per check on the 403b
Plan our vacation for the week when day care is closed this fall Going to stay home and enjoy where we are.
Find out what is a tax deduction on my MBA and set up 529 if need by to route mortgage through since I'm a full time student.

Until next time!

17 Years + 8 Months to go.

July-September 2017 Net Worth: -$2,185

Unexpected money found June-August:

Interest earned on checking/savings accounts: $24.82 

FSA Reimbursement: $137.51

Husband's travel stipends: $275

Returned a few items we decided we didn't need: $217.58

Birthday money for the husband: $120

Rebate Apps: $44.89

Related to selling the house: $8390

Money Highlights of the Summer:

So when I mentioned selling the house to my husband, he was so on board so fast that it was actually surprising.  We met with a realtor and when he told us what we would list it at, we said yes immediately.  The house went on the market.  34 showings and 4 total days on the market later, we had an over list price offer.  I'd like to say the repairs and things went by just as smoothly but I think it's like childbirth and it's not as painful once you're past it and time dulls it over a bit.  

We bought a much better house for us that is not a 90 year old fixer upper like the one that we sold. When I come home now, I don't have a giant list of expensive projects on my mind.  I can just be home.

Since we made out very well on the sale, we were able to do 20% down on a 15 year mortgage with has been our goal for buying houses since day one and we've never been able to do it.  This is our third house and we have some serious financial nerd pride on that.  We received enough back that our plan is to dump the additional proceeds on the house and knock off the last year too.  I know paying your mortgage off isn't as sexy as dumping it into VTSAX but it's what we want to do.  So a brand new 14 year mortgage was our big addition this summer.

Paid off the car as well so we're down to just the mortgage debt wise.  I turned in my documents to take $1500 out of each monthly paycheck at work so I'll really just be going in for glory as far as my paychecks will reflect.  

I'm going to put together a spreadsheet of what we've paid in taxes over the last few years and see what I can do to reduce the amount.  It's the fall so there's still plenty of time to make some changes if we need to.  I feel like the deeper I dive into the FIRE community, the more tips and tricks I need to apply to our lives.

I'm taking advantage of the free tuition employee benefit I have at work and am working on my MBA when our son is small.  He has less to schedule around and is so delighted when I get to take breaks from studying and homework to come and snuggle him.  If all goes to plan, I should graduate in December 2018.  If I can find a higher paying job or something with a bigger future, our goals will go into warp speed.  We're doing pretty well now but could do a ton of damage with my income doubling.  Cross your fingers that my brain doesn't melt out since this is not my background.

Our plan for the rest of 2017:

Put the search for a duplex to live in/rent out on hold
Get our house realtor ready regardless on when we decide to list it
Pay off the car
Max out as much as we can in our IRA's for 2017
Add 1% to my 403b contributions at work to reach 15% Actually changed contribution from 7% to like 52% by making it $1500 per check on the 403b
Plan our vacation for the week when day care is closed this fall Going to stay home and enjoy where we are.
Find out what is a tax deduction on my MBA and set up 529 if need by to route mortgage through since I'm a full time student.

Until next time!

17 Years + 9 Months to go.

June 2017 Net Worth:+$2,790

Unexpected money found in May:

Interest earned on checking/savings accounts: $11.05

Refunds: $7.99 on a recalled toy for our son

Husband's travel stipends:  $110

Birthday money (30!): $100

Money Highlights of May:

We're finally close enough to paying off PMI that I reached out to our lender to see the process.  Silly me thought it would be simple: "Hey!  We did it! Take it off our bill!"  Our lender was more like, "Lol. No."  They want a $400-$700 appraisal to remove PMI. If we let it fall off naturally, we will pay $588.90 in PMI if we wait it out until August 2018 so we're still kicking around what we want to do about it.

I moved 2 months of our emergency fund to a harder to get bank account.  It was falsely inflating out checking account and we were spending more than we normally would have because the money was in the account.  We're giving up a little bit of extra interest because our checking account is 2.7% but we're more than making it up by not over spending.

I called AT&T and mentioned that our internet bill was creeping up over the last few months and wanted to see if there were any promotions that I was missing.  They dropped our bill by $15 a month for the same level of service and no additional contract after a 5 minute phone call.  I'm routing the savings to our brokerage account through an automatic transfer with everything else we've cancelled.  It's now up to $107/month from cancelling subscriptions and negotiating services down.  It's not saving money if it's just sitting in our checking account and getting spent on diapers and groceries later.

We went to my husband's hometown to see his folks this weekend.  Since we had willing babysitters, we snuck out for a margarita at our favorite Mexican place in town.  We had a good talk about what our goals even are.  I've been so focused on getting a game plan together that I kind of forgot to figure out our why.

Our plan for the rest of 2017:

Put the search for a duplex to live in/rent out on hold
Get our house realtor ready regardless on when we decide to list it
Pay off the car
Max out as much as we can in our IRA's for 2017
Add 1% to my 403b contributions at work to reach 15%
Plan our vacation for the week when day care is closed this fall

Until next time!

18 Years and 1 + months to go.

I wrote this post with my son sleeping on my lap. It's hard to imagine life 18 years from now.

May 2017 Net Worth: +$1,647

Unexpected money found in April:

Interest earned on checking/savings accounts: $14.29

Rebate apps: $1.25

Husband's travel stipends: $165

Refund from Amazon and Esurance: $32.88

It's a more normal check for me this month.  I think there were only 2 weeks that went unpaid but the number didn't make me laugh out loud when I saw the pay stub this time.

I moved both of our Roth IRAs over to Vanguard this month.  The whole process took longer than I thought it would but we're officially out of our terrible financial advisor's service.  He was really patronizing when we sat down for a meet and greet when he took over our account from the guy we signed on with.  My 2017 New Year's Resolution was to learn more about investing so we could handle things ourselves so the poorly run meeting we attended was exactly what I needed to pull the trigger and act.  I wish I had done it ages ago.  I picked my own funds and waited for the transfer to come through.  Overall 100/10 Stars for the experience so far.

I was so enamored with our new accounts at Vanguard that I opened a regular brokerage account there too.  I've been saving money from the J Money Challenge Everything idea and am set to have that auto transfer over in mid may so I can get rid of a clunky online savings account and actually have the money earn more than 1%.  When the car is finally paid off, I plan to still pay a car payment into the brokerage account to let it do its thing.

Until next time!

18 Years and 2 + months to go.

April 2017 Net Worth: +$4,286

Unexpected money found in March:

Interest earned on checking/savings accounts: $12.86

Rebate apps: $9.95

Husband's travel stipends: $165

Refund from Amazon and Esurance: $83.80

Federal Tax Refund: $1,866

My unpaid portion of maternity leave has finally kicked in.  I get paid monthly so my check was comical.  I would absolutely take the tiny check all over again to spend that time with our baby.  My next check won't even be a full check so there will be a maternity leave bite size chunk out of it too.  Things should return to normal on my last check in May.

We just had a baby at the tail end of 2016 so thanks to him we had a larger than normal tax return.  We'll get that adjusted for 2017 so we can take better care of our money all year.  But really, thanks for the tax credit, kid.

This was just kind of a normal month for us.  We tried to not spend a bunch and stayed close to home.  I expect spending to crank up a few notches next month because I'll be back at work and we'll feel more comfortable moving money around to get that car and PMI taken care of.

Until next time!

18 Years and 3 + months to go.

March 2017 Net Worth: +$4,657

My plan is to track our progress at the beginning of each month by posting our net worth to celebrate good things and talk through the challenges we had in the prior month.  I've been tracking our net worth since February 2013 and this is the first month that we have ever hit six figures which is a big deal.

Thank you Budgets are Sexy for the excellent net worth template!

Unexpected money found in February:

Interest earned on checking/savings accounts: $12.93

Rebate apps: $14.24

Husband's travel stipends: $330

Refund from over-payment on medical bill: $101.66

Kansas Tax Refund: $135

We received the last bill for labor and delivery in February so we paid that in full.  Having a baby is so interesting financially because you can bargain shop for just about anything else you're interested in spending your money on but they won't even tell you how much it's going to cost until after.  I think I'll save the details on that for another post.  (JUST THE MONEY PART. I promise.)

I threw just about everything left at the end of the month at the car to bring it down.  Ideally, I'm trying to pay the car off by September 2017 but I'll have a few odd months of income since I have 6 weeks of unpaid maternity leave heading my way.  Hopefully we'll be able to scratch that one off a little sooner.

I couldn't help myself and threw two of my husband's travel stipends ($55/each) at the house because I'm trying to end our PMI payment.  We have to clear $69,500 to drop the $40/month off our mortgage payment and we're so close that it's nearly unbearable to still see it.

Until next time!

18 Years and 4 + months to go.

The Goal

Our goal is probably what brought you to this page.  I would like to have our net worth be at or over a million dollars before we drop our son off at college.  So by August of 2035, we'll need to make a handful of new habits and good choices and keep them up.

I was inspired by Millionaire By Forty who set a goal to reach a million dollars in the bank by his 40th birthday.  But honestly what got my attention on his site was his simple idea to write. my. goals. down.  

Accountability has been the hardest part of keeping up with our finances in my opinion.  We generally live under our means, save quite a bit, and pay off debt aggressively when it comes into our lives but the idea of meeting a lofty goal like having a million dollars in the bank seems impossible on a month by month basis.  I'm just too close to it and need to look at the bigger picture and see what we can accomplish in the long run.  

Here are some details so you can know a little bit about me since I'm in this for the long haul.  My husband and I are both 29 and live in Kansas with our two dachshunds and brand new baby.  I work in higher education at a private university and my husband is a driver for a food distributor.   

Thank you for joining me! 18 years and 4 + months to go.