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Happy Independence Day to all my lovely American readers.  We have 50 minutes until we make the long and arduous trek to the end of the driveway to watch the blast over the bay.  Best seats in the house even if we are a mile away, the view is still one of the best in the city due to our position on the hill.
It's been a long month of progress on building our garden, cleaning up the yard of general mess and taking care of a huge area of overgrowth, taking stuff to the...
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Big changes this week and though there’s a long way to go, it’s nice to see things taking shape.
The work that was done this week:
++ The dumpster was picked up at the very end so half the driveway is back in business
++ The unpleasant surprise (sewage pipe) discovered last week was resolved. The plumbing is rerouted to be in the adjacent wall and that opened up the area since the remnants of the partition wall are gone now.
++ Most but not all of the electrical...
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Well I see the bif beautiful bill passed through, I am just wondering what it means for Americans? 
I have read what it means on the white house page but it seems like everything else and is a lie to what they actually say and what many more have actually said as well so I am confused, so financially speaking what does it mean? I know the rich will get richer and the poor will get little or be worse off but what about the rest of the people. What does this mean with taxes...
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Our guy was off today (and will be off tomorrow). Yesterday he painted the ceiling and did a couple of coats of primer over the soffit mural. The kitchen actually looked better before that because the mural was bright yellow with green vines and blue flowers so it was the only thing colorful in the room right now. Now everything is white so it's a little stark but once we do the backsplash and paint we'll remedy that situation. It's a blank slate now.
The last cabinet for over...
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Investments $1,800,032
> TSP $1,382,848
> IRA $405,449
> Brokerage $11,735
Cash Savings $1,034
Home Equity $140,000
June 2025 Net Worth $1,941,066
May 2025 Net Worth $1,859,826
Monthly Gain/Loss $81,240
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Our guy finished installing the cabinets today (except for the one over the fridge which we don't have yet). We had to compromise a bit on the spacing around the window but I think where we ended up is okay. Not perfect but we can both live with it. The only other alternative is to buy a new cabinet which would probably run $700 or so.
He plans to sand the ceiling and start priming tomorrow. We have a mural around the soffit that needs to be covered up before he can paint.
He...
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Unfortunately, I recently found out that a friend of mine lost his job to DOGE.  DOGE substantially slashed his agency's funding, particularly those related to research and study of pollution and its environmental impact.  Unlike other "luckier" employees, this friend wasn't given a "buy out offer" or anything.  His entire department was simply gutted financially, and was left to fend for itself with what remains of their funding.
So, when this friend of mine made...
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It was kind of a crazy month, because I paid $423 in fees and services! Very unusual for me. It was mainly two big things -- the cost of renewing my passport, and the renewal of my service agreement with Best Buy for my laptop and phone. Which I need because I'm stupid about those two things. As for the passport -- I'm not sure if I need it, to be honest, but as I may have said before, I would hate to be without it if I needed it.
Housing and utilities were my other big expenses,...
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It definitely feels premature to be celebrating with so much current and potential chaos in our country, but we had a second good month in the markets, almost as much as last month, and hit an exciting milestone: over a million in our nest egg!
We're Coasting along with a $106K surplus to our CoastFIRE number. I tinkered with the calculator and it says we're at Coast even if I retired at 63 instead of 65. Aiming for 62, we'd be supposedly able to reach Coast in 3 years with just...
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Like most of the Midwest and part of the east coast, we've had extremely hot temperatures. But it was June and the sun was out. We had have a lot to do around the homestead.
Besides working on the garden (weeds grow no matter what the weather it seems), we've been working on fixing stuff or updating it. DH had an old wooden glider in the pole barn that was  in rough shape. The wood was still good, but it needed some TLC. So, he worked on fixing the mechanical parts, and then...
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I shared photos earlier of our makeshift kitchen in the dining room. It’s working okay because we know it’s temporary. Plates, bowls, cups, and utensils are disposable but we still generate dishes to wash with measuring cups, cooking utensils, mixing bowls, food processor container, crockpot, etc. Since there is no sink available (The laundry AND kitchen are included in the reno.), I set up a dish-washing station outside. I found the used countertop at the BuildIt store...
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So if you don't agree with these GLP drugs ozempic or mounjaro don't read this post. I am giving a straight up warning about it because this is my opinion about them and what I've experienced.
So on June 1st, I started on zepbound which is the mounjaro eli lilly shot for diabetes.  I started it for a lot of reasons.  Mostly I started it because I want to try to lose weight and see if I can reverse my pre-diabetes with the drug.  I've been pre-diabetic for about...
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He installed the cabinets along the sink wall today except for the one over the fridge which hasn't come in yet (there was an issue when we ordered it).
He hung the top cabinet to the left of the sink and we did not like where he put it so we went back and forth on options. The problem was it was too far to the left which he did so that it was the same distance from the window as the one to the right but that resulted in it being too close to the sliding door. We had him move...
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Debts
Mortgage -$108,513.84 (-$498.88)Land Loan -$4,971.72 (-$416.44)
Savings
Roth IRAs +$44,035 (+$3,681)401K +$88,041 (+$8,955)Emergency Fund +$28,960 (+$1,887)Animal Fund +$2,576 (+$14)HSA +$1,674 (-$188)
Overall: -$15,264.32 (This is for May-June)
Insurance finally agreed to come up on the roofing price after some estimates and back and forth for several months. The window and siding payment was still undervalued, but they said they would negotiate once I got the work...
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This year has been a real slog.  MH's movie premiers have been the exception.  Ohio trip was amazing.  MM(21) had spring break and was able to join us for a few days.  I don't remember the last time our flights went so smooth, etc.  It was a very nice and peaceful 5 days during an otherwise not peaceful year.  Then we had the west coast premier at the IMAX a few weeks after the Ohio premier.  It went really well.  
I took a staycation...
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Good progress was made this week.
+ The dumpster arrived and was set up. It was bigger than anticipated since the smaller ones were all rented. So, I took on the additional task of rid of anything we planned to trash.
+ The cabinets were delivered and stacked inside our garage like hay bales.
+ The plastic ‘wall’ with the zipper door was installed.
+ The demolition was completed. This included cabinets, appliances, an island, and two partition walls.
+...
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Big happenings today. The cabinets were delivered bright and early at 7:30am.
By end of day, he had installed 3 upper cabinets (on the oven side of the room) and the 2 lower cabinets on that wall. It's really exciting to see it start materializing. You can look at renderings all day but until it's physically in front of you, you don't fully know how it will look.
He will install more on Monday and Tuesday I'm guessing. Then the electrician will come back to finish all of the...
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Recently, a friend of mine got his debit card swiped by some identity thief.  Luckily for him, he managed to detect the illicit purchases in his checking account early, and contacted his bank immediately.  While that's all well and good, what followed is that his entire checking account had to be transferred to a new account, meaning he has to go through all the process of changing all of his online bill pays and direct deposits, etc.
Some of his bills had hiccups, such...
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I haven't posted for over a week but there hasn't been a whole lot to report. Now there is.
He finished the floor today. He completed putting down the tile yesterday and did the grout today so it's fully done and looks great. He also did more spackling yesterday and today and will do the sanding tomorrow.
Our cabinets are being delivered tomorrow morning! That's exciting. I also picked up the cabinet hardware today. He wasn't sure if he will hang the cabinets first or paint the...
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Well June is almost over which means tax season for aussies...yes we do in middle of the year..lucky for us we dont need to do taxes each year, which is nice but seriously considering not doing US taxes for a couple years just because they are so difficult and they have made it so hard for us to be able to contact people there now...I'm not sure it is worth the headache...we will see.
Our debt actually went up a little even though we are paying it down and that is because my student...
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