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Finished the year up by $49.324.56
Total Assests $392,158.04
Total Liabilities $40,699.27
Always feel behind on retirement savings but happy with where I ened up.
Hoping to payoff at least 4000.00 of my liabbilities.  It is my mortgage.
 



 



 
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Happy new year!
2025 wrapped up well financially speaking.
Our spending came in just under $150,000. That does not include cash spending which I don't track. I do know that in the past year or two our cash spending has increased as more and more places, especially restaurants, are charging an extra 3% for credit card usage.
Still, I was happy with the total. I was expecting it to be higher due to the kitchen remodel. I figured we'd be closer to $170,000 so $150,000 is good with...
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So 2025 was a very different year for us. In our shared brokerage accounts, our net worth grew $142k. This includes our taxable brokerage accounts, and our IRAs. Heres where it gets interesting. My mom's last husband was very well off. When he died, he had set up his will to where mom had a living estate interest in his house, a life insurance policy, and had moved a large six figure amount of cash into an account in her name. Plus she was the beneficiary on his traditional...
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I finally was able to close the books on 2025--I was waiting days for NT to categorize two little transactions so I could be done!
Because of the way I work my budget it'll be a bit hard to get granular on numbers, but I'll do my best.
2025 - 2024 comparisons
In 2024 our projected budget was $71,606 in fixed income and $116,405 expected spending, which meant we need to come up with about $45K extra. Since AS and I keep 75% of our earnings, that meant we needed to make $60K....
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I just found out that two of my former co-workers have either died or is dying.  Well, let explain.  One died recently of acute liver failure.  The other is dying of stage 4 cancer that has unfortunately spread to the point where he is not expected to be around for much longer.  Chemo has only slowed down the inevitable.
They are or were both still so young to me.  Neither have reached age 60 yet.
Both were or are shining beacons to the rest of us, always...
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Everytime I post here, I have to do it twice because it disapears the first time. I got tired of contacting admin here about it. I know from long practice to always copy what I write so it doesn't get lost, but this site will never grow because people will get frustrated and not bother trying a second time.
In 2022 (or so), I purchased an Eco-Flow power station, which is strong enough that it can keep my fridge/freezer going for 4 days in the event of an extended power outage....
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Unlike many of you, I don't set specific goals for the year, I'm just trying to survive. It's been such an emotionally rough year and I'm expected to reduce my workload starting mid-May. This should help but I won't really notice it until the fall. I've always lived within my means and this year financially we might have overspent. I'm trying to catch up because I prefer to live that way. It's not that we don't have the funds to spend, I'm just trying to continue to maintain at...
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Our net worth increased by $120K in 2025.  This works out to $14K retirement contributions & a $101K increase in stocks.  Cash/investments down $5,000 (re: college costs).  Mortgage was paid down by $10K.  Home values remain steady.
Re: my sidebar big picture goal, the goal has been surpassed.  Still have two more years to reach goal so will leave it there.  Will see how future stock market fluctuations shake out.  It's my 'financial independence'...
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My 2025 expenses are pretty scary to look at, given how many line items increased significantly from 2024.
Here are my top 10 expenses.
1. No surprise, but what I paid on my new Toyota Corolla Crossover, between the down payment, regular payments and extra principal-only payments was $19,662. I still have a balance of $9,650 and plan to pay it all off in 2026. Seems like it's taking FOREVER, and I resent the 6.9% when nearly every other car brand out there finances at less than...
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I don't have any particularly new or specific goals for the new year, except for the usual to reduce spending more, rebalance my portfolio, to spring clean and declutter more, and to just be more mindful of my use of time and energy.  I know, I know, not all that specific hahaha.
The only new wrinkle, I guess, is re-connecting with this female friend of mine, and to see if we can't work things out again.   So far, to the surprise of no one, we are not working out.  We...
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I just saw that the final judging video was posted on the YouTube channel.  It shows a lot of the details.
You can copy and paste the link:
https://youtu.be/2AHWPHzncww?si=3dBnxI40zR1tn0kx
 
 
 
 
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My goals for next year are as follows:
TSP $24,500
IRA $7,500
Savings $6,000
Brokerage $1,200
Total Savings $39,200
FSA $3,400 (for tax savings only)
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2025 Net Worth $2,161,680
2024 Net Worth $1,805,796
Annual Loss/Gain $355,884
TSP $23,500
IRA $7,000
Brokerage $3,200
Savings $4,000
Total Saved $37,700
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TSP $1,546,818
IRA $455,150
Brokerage $13,635
Investments Sub-total $2,015,603
Home Equity $142,000
Savings $4,077
December 2025 Net Worth $2,161,680
November 2025 Net Worth $2,147,110
Monthly Gain/Loss $14,570
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One more sleep until my Christmas dreams come true...  😁
On 12/31, disaster company got served with a lawsuit.  🙄  We knew it was coming and I expect they probably heard about the company sale and wanted to slip this through.  It was just icing on the cake of a trying week.  But we had a heads up (some months ago) and everyone seems pretty *Shrugs* about it. We will be financially responsible for anything of this nature pre-2026.  It was a disgruntled...
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Happy New Year!
Has anyone already maxed out their IRA today? Or rather, sent the order to do so when the market opens tomorrow? I am sitting here contemplating doing just that noe that I have the cash to do so for the first time in years. However, the last time I did so, the market went down that year so I felt like I bought at a bad time. I know you can never time the market but it makes me hesitant to pull the trigger.
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So, after finishing the small spreadsheet, from July to December, that I used to keep track of how much we saved using coupons -- digital or paper -- and we saved $300.54. I didn't buy stuff just because I had coupons, but used coupons on things we would normally buy. So, the goal this year is to continue to make a spreadsheet and once a month move whatever we saved in coupons into savings for a way to build up our savings without taking a big chunk of money out of checking all...
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Here are our final numbers for 2025. Numbers in () are 2024 figures for comparison.
Cash/Liquid Savings:$3,089 Animal Fund ($1,903)$21,624 Escrow Fund ($25,186)$3,184 Checkings ($4,855)$490 Cash Fund ($300)$2,214 HSA ($3,244)
$5,077 529s ($3,312)
$35,678 Total Liquid Savings ($38,800)Retirement:$101,560 DH's 401K ($76,020)$8,619 DH's IRA ($7,062)$40,463 My IRA ($30,244)$150,642 Total Retirement ($113,326)Liabilities:-$106,998 Mortgage (-$110,003)
-$3,699 Land Loan (-$6,204)
-$110,697...
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... And I've calculated my spending for December and for the year. 
December:
Gifts/Charity - $864
Housing - $799
Property Taxes - $441
Utilities - $250
Groceries - $140
Fees/Services - $90
Household Supplies - $60
Phone - $50
Medical/Health - $47
Furnishings/Equipment/Decor - $35
Personal - $33
Entertainment - $32
Gas - $27
Vacation/Travel - $25
Laundry - $17
Eating Out/Takeout - $2
Grand Total - $2912
 
2025
Housing - $9588
Insurance - $4312
Gifts/Charity...
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Because of the New Year holiday, my paycheck came a day early, enabling me to make a few credit card payments.
As of today, my total debt is $29,889.40.  Total assets are approximately $1.2 million (some accounts won't show the 12/31 balance until tomorrow morning), so Net Worth is $1.17, a 15% increase from last year.
Tomorrow I will calculate my RMD from my beneficiary IRA and take a distribution to pay off my outstanding consumer debt.  The mortgage payment will...
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