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Another milestone! I recently hit $2 million net worth, but today when updating my accounts I now have $2 million in investments on top of my other assets. My total net worth is now approaching $2.2 million.
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OMG my student loan payment actually hit in one day. I cannot believe my payment actually hit so soon. My new balance is $$15,102.84. I'm so excited. 
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Its a small win, but we are under $100K on our mortgage!  Yay!
 
I got paid today so I will work on posting some numbers.
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Earlier, I showed a photo of my snake plant with a couple of leaves that mysteriously collapsed overnight.  I was going to trim those leaves off, but over the following days, they are slowly making a comeback!  Here is its current status:

My plant may not be the prettiest around, but it's a fighter.  You go, little plant! I'm cheering you on!
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I made the decision to go to the grocery store last night.  We are celebrating Halloween with my parents and making homemade pizza.  And I had in my brain that I wanted lasagna.  I spent $54!  I didn't have $54 to spend.  It was a bad decision.  I spend more than I have.  I made the lasagna and will be able to eat it for several days.  And my mom contributed $10 for the pizza.  But I should have been smarter.  How do you all stick to a budget?
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My current student loan balance is $20,310,94.  
I was just able to pay $5210.94 on it. Of course my payment won’t hit until maybe Monday which means there will be an additional $10 or so applied to the unpaid interest balance. This annoys me. 
 
Friday is payday so I’ll be able to drop another $200 on it. I can finally see the end to this thing. God’s will I’ll be done by February 2026 
 
My estimated balance as of today after...
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Took a few minutes and balanced my checkbook.  I have $127.44.  I get paid Thursday, but after my husband's last minute dentist appointment and bills, I will be short ($261.60).  That is only with the necessities.  I am going to go through our pantry and see how many meals I can come up with.  Not that it will save me much....I only have $35 budgeted for the grocery store.
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So we bought our second EV last month before the tax credits expired.  We qualified for it based on our 2024 income and had been considering it since 2024, but decided in May 2024 to buy a used Tesla instead for $30k because paying $50k seemed a lot.  Anyway after we bought our 2021 Tesla DH really enjoyed the self-driving and foudn it useful.  So we made a plan to buy a new tesla end of 2025 right before we would lose the $7500 tax credit.  Since they moved...
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Oct 24

I went for a morning walk on Friday and at first I noticed some dew on the plants and thought I might get an interesting photo during a different time of day.  But then the birds were very loud and so I tried to snap a picture.  They were mostly too small and I was surprised this came out at all.  He stood still just long enough...
Oct 23

On Thursday I just got lucky.  I don't think I took any other pictures.  But happened to catch this sunset...
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Hi! I'm obviously new here and a little nervous.  From the looks of it, I may be in the worst shape on this platform.   I'm 44.  Married.  From the great state of Texas.  I work full time.  My husband runs a business.  Now the not so pleasant stuff.  At this very moment I don't know what is in my bank account.  I have zero in Savings.  We are behind on income from my husband.  We are behind on our bills.  And I have $14...
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Oops. Alas, I have no photo I took today so I'm cheating a little and posting a photo I took last week that made me laugh. A teeny tiny lock someone's using at my gym.

Today I made lentil soup.
In other news, Patient Saver has dipped her toe in the dating pool again and now she has not one but two suitors. I find it kind of stressful. I  never liked dating more than one man at a time (feels deceptive and gets complicated), but in this case, I met Bachelor #1 today and...
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Oct 22

I had some Kohl's cash and so I picked up some clothing for DL(20).  He definitely gets a 'free clothes' boost re: living at home.  
I had gone to Kohl's to return some shoes the prior week.  They already had Christmas stuff filling up the front of the store but I hadn't bothered to grab a picture at that time.  I snuck a pictue this time, but it was only a small fraction of the display.
I guess we are skipping Halloween and going straight to...
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The IRS has released the income tax brackets for 2026 so I’ve begun planning our money management strategies for next year. I’m planning to aggressively execute Roth conversions in 2026 and that process will be new for me. The main learning that I took away from the recent free financial course that I attended was the risk that I’m taking by having most of my retirement savings in a tax deferred account.
Making big money moves always feels scary to me, but after...
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So we still havent found a new house to move into, hoping it will be soon because summer is approaching and I dont handle the heat with my chronic illness and same with hubby...but it is also nice to not just have to take anything because we have a move out date....rental are still so over priced here it is ridiculous.
I have given my daughter money for her surgery which is a week before christmas, we just have to pay the ansetheologist a week beforehand, so that is done. hubby...
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Near where I live....
What I'm reading: The Nature of Oaks, by Doug Tallamy.
Today started out as a good day but that was short-lived.  That's when I entered my father's apartment to see him attempting to attach a paper towel with scotch tape to his leg, which was bleeding. The elderly have very thin skin; he had a large scab that I guess he scratched, and his entire leg was bloody from the knee down.  There was blood on his bedsheets, the floor, the rug and him....
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Oct 20

Monday was a busy day.  So I just took a picture of my cat at the end of the day.  
 
Oct 21

This was the more exciting looking sports car I noticed before.  I hadn't seen it since.  But today...  Today I went for a mid day walk and there was the car.   Apparently it belongs to a veterinarian.
Google lens tells me that the car is a Corvette. 
 
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Once again I got super busy, this time going to DC (by way of Baltimore airport) and Northern Virginia (hence "DMV" which is a common abbreviation for the area--thank goodness I didn't spend 5 days in the Dept of Motor Vehicles!!). It was just the parents--the kids stayed home again (with their godfather in the lower part of the duplex, so not really "home alone").
We flew in Thursday and I didn't take many pics, but I did take one of a mezcal menu to text my friend who's a fan...
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So the reason we stayed in Hakone where we did was go to the once a month Geisha Event show.  We stayed at the Hakone Tenyu Kowaiken hotel and they had a special dinner and show.  It was fantastic.  We had a great time.  Got to interact and play games with the Geisha. I'm not sure the kids got it.  Perhaps one day we'll head to Kyoto and do Gion.  

From Kyoto to Nara we took a special sightseeing train called the aoniyoshi train. It was good...
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Oct 18

Another trip downtown.  This was just the best picture I got of the sunset.  The pyramid at night.
I went to a Halloween party at an art gallery, but this was the most interesting picture I took.
 
Oct 19

This is a Pacman frog that lives in MM(22)'s college house.  
I pretty much checked out for the day and didn't take any pictures.  I am sure I could have come up with something if I had more brain power.  But MM(22) was telling...
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Can't really tell from this, but this rally was bigger than the June one (which had a turnout of about 5,000).  Last time, the rally stopped at this intersection (the biggest intersection downtown, where my office is located); this time, they continued on to march another half mile to City Hall.  
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