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I wanted to post a photo a day so I'm going to post photos of our travels throughout the year.  So this summer our big trip was to Japan.  We started our trip in Tokyo and we stayed at Tokyo Shibuya Excel Hotel. It is directly attached to the train station and overlooked the famous pedestrian Shibuya Crossing.  We arrived at 5 pm then had to clear customs and take an hour ride in from Narita Airport.We had a lot of awesome adventures this year and i'll be hard to only pick one.

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I really like the idea of a daily photo challenge... but I can't imagine my life being interesting enough to be able to post a photo daily.  Still though, I do have a picture to share today, along with some questions.

The following is my poor example of the Mother-in-law's tongue plant.  I woke up one day, and a couple of leaves simply fell over.  Is this normal?  Or is it dying?  I should trim the leaves, right?  It happened just a couple of days ago.
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Oct 5

I really love this corn salsa, but no one else in my household cares for it.  I will give half to my coworker.
I took a picture because it is so colorful.
MH would say I was bougie, buying lemons and limes.  Versus just using whatever juice he has in the fridge.  It was $1.28 for the lime and lemon.
There has never been a time in our lives where we couldn't afford the extra $1.28.  I always say we are backwards because we started out with the dual...
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MM(22) Aug 2025 'Gifted College Fund': $16,075 (+$5K ROTH)
MM(22) Sep 2025 'Gifted College Fund': $14,897 (+$5K ROTH)
Rent is paid through 10/31.
Paying *all* of MM's college expenses out of this account.  Still no idea if it will be enough to stretch through the end of the school year.  
MM(22) told me he is due some money for utilities.  To be reimbursed from past year roommates.  But they are shuffling the deposits around and he will have...
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In the past year, I realized my house plants were threatening to take over this small space, so I have winnowed down my collection of cacti and succulents considerably. I think I now have 8 now, plus 2 pothos. But I still have this pencil cactus, which loves its spot in my sunny bathroom. I may bring a little Ikea stool down from the attic for her.

This week I reviewed Kiva loans from Tonga, Rwanda, Phillipines and Indonesia.
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Opsie, I took the photo yesterday but forgot to post. It's mistflower. It's nice to see such a vividly colored flower in bloom this time of year.
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Oct 3


I've got two photos today.  The clouds were beautiful again today, against the blue sky.
& this squirrel was very busy.  He posed briefly on a log and I tried to take a picture, but he was too busy to pose for long.  I noticed when I looked closer that he was carrying food in his mouth and burying it in the dirt.  I noticed him run past my window several times in the morning, sometimes catching glimpse of some bright colored food in his mouth.
I've...
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This is what I did today. Been pulling it for weeks. Rather exhausting as it also includes carrying the stuff on a pitchfork about 300 feet from where it's growing. Next stop: dump.

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Oct 2

I was trying to get a picture of the clouds.  But after looking through my photos later, I was somewhat intrigued by this one.  Yes, I captured clouds.  But there's the birds on the light pole, the shadows on the ground, the old truck being towed (I didn't notice in the moment), etc. 
Edited to add:  I somehow got a cursor in the clouds.  I zoomed in; that is an accidental post edit. 
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Oct 1

This is the view from my office.  I probably haven't seen very many clouds for roughly 4 months.  So I was enjoying the show and the contrast of all the different cloud colors. 
PatientSaver mentioned she was considering a 'photo a day' project in 2026.  I decided that sounded fun and would try in October.  The past couple of Octobers I have done daily spending tracking.  I find that diving into the minutiae makes for a lot to talk about...
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I don't know how many years I've been reading the Finance Buff, but every year around this time I start checking for their projections of next year's retirement contribution limits.
In 2026 I expect to be able to contribute:
$24,500 to my TSP
$7,500 to my IRA
$3,400 to my FSA
That is an increase of $1,600. That seems like a lot to my FSA, but I've been using every cent of my FSA with no rollover for a few years now. I don't even expect my income to go up by that much as our...
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TSP $1,499,790
IRA $440,022
Brokerage $12,995
Subtotal of Investments $1,952,807
Savings $2,549
Home Equity $141,000
September 2025 Net Worth $2,096,356
August 2025 Net Worth $2,031,090
Monthly Loss/Gain $65,266
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It's hard to picture compounding as it happens.  It's hard to see it as you save and all your effort seems to get you nowhere.  You seem to tread water forever.  I mentioned the wealth ladder by Nick Magguli before and I said it was the spending muscle.  I mentioned getting lost in rung 4.  All true but something interesting has happend along the way. I've gotten to see a really clear pattern of compounding.
DH started his 401k in 2005.  20 years...
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Now that the 3rd quarter is behind us, I thought it would be a good time to project my total 2025 income and see if I could manage a small Roth conversion while still staying in the 12% bracket, which tops out at $48,475. Cus I'm not sure my income would ever exceed the 22% bracket, which tops out at $103,350 for a single person, so not sure during a Roth conversion now and paying 22% taxes would offer any benefit.
To my surprise, my projected income this year, between annuity...
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This September was a bit challenging. It's one of the months when I have two grandchild birthdays, and I always give $200 to each for their college funds, as well as $50 each for a gift of their choosing. I used to give more, but this is what I can do with the budget I have now. So that was a big hunk off the top. Also, I bought a plane ticket to Oregon (to be used at the end of this month), and I had to pay wheel tax and replenish my tollway pass. Other than that it was a month...
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We're back from Europe! We had a fantastic time in Portugal (new to us) and Spain (2nd time there). I was exhausted from an intense summer of work so I did more relaxing than sightseeing, but I didn't mind--relaxing away from all my stuff and responsibilities was way more impactful than if I'd tried to have a staycation or anything. Anyway, we all loved Portugal and it's definitely at the top of possible places we'd love to have a winter home, if we can figure out how to afford...
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Today is my mom's 75th birthday. I always take the day off from work. First we went to her doctor's appointment, followed by brunch. After those two activities she was tired & ready to go home. Parkinson's really drains her energy; she tires quickly.
Last month I paid off two low balance furniture accounts & it really impacted my credit positively. I owed less than $1,000 on each, but just paying them off has my credit score solidly above 800 again. I have one more furniture...
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So life likes to throw people a few obstacles at times to see how we go in dealing with them. So a few life updates...not really financial but updates anyways.
Oldest was told that her surgery would be delayed for a year because she needed private health insurance (have a 12 month wait on surgery for it) even though we just wanted to pay for it ($7-10k) so we looked around but needed the surgery numbers to make sure it was covered, so we did that...while we were doing that her...
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The view from our hotel room.  We had a clear sky and an amazing view of the stars on our first night.

The beach was filled with clams.  Which was apparenty unusual (per social media chatter) but never saw a definitive answer as to why there were so many clams.  The birds (and some people) were enjoying the clam bounty. 

On Day 3 we went to the Elfin Forest, which we had to ourselves.  Lots of animals and amazing views (the surrounding hills, the...
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I put off writing about this, partly because it's not financial, but mostly because I am trying my best not to think about it.  My mom has been diagnosed with colon cancer.
The craziest thing about that is that she eats the healthiest in our family, and is constantly active.   So she is the one we least expected to come down with something serious first.
Anyway, she finished her first of twelve rounds of chemotherapy, to be administered every other week. ...
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