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Thought I would do the year in review a little earlier this year.

MORTGAGE:
NOV 2016 = 86,735.14
NOV 2017 = 84,213.18
NOV 2018 = 81,699.54
NOV 2019 = 79,499.00 (REFINANCED IN SEPTEMBER - took off 2 years of our balance and $100 off our monthly payment plus the credit union paid the closing costs).
SEP 2020 = 75,639.08


Goal for 2020: Beef up my emergency savings account to $10,000. EXCEEDED my goal. Current balance is $10,505.00 (thanks to working from home...less...
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$318.47 Tithe
_500.00 Utilities
_400.00 Grocery Envelope
_500.00 Medical Fund
__75.00 Household Envelope
_115.17 Internet
__36.00 Garbage
_100.00 Car Insurance Fund
_100.00 Gas Money
_100.00 Adult Spending Money
_120.00 Allowances Kids
_200.00 Christmas/Gift Envelope
_100.00 Clothing Fund Envelope
_500.00 Handicapped Ramp
-----------
3164.64 Total Money Out

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There was $81 left in the grocery envelope from last payday so I transferred that into the Freezer Fund envelope. We are almost halfway there now. Maybe by next payday.

$384.00 Balance Forward
+_81.00 Money Added
------------
$465.00 New Balance
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Okay so a budget revamp is due since DH is switching jobs in March 2021. Our budget I think will be done annually. It'll be easier. This is our tentative budget for 2 years. Right now the plan is to fund our Roth IRA @ $6k/year and 2 ESA @ $2k each.

Salary $180k
-$60k mortgage PITI
-$25636 Federal Taxes, SS, Medicare
-$6000 Medical (no idea just estimating)
-$3000 Auto Insurance/Umbrella
-$1800 Electric
-$1800 Water
-$1200 Internet
-$3120 Cleaner
-$1560 Yard Guy
-$1400...
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Well, the dishwasher wasn't broken at all. There is a switch in the cabinet under the sink that has to be in the "on" position. I had somehow turned it off, probably moving things around in the cabinet. It never even occurred to me it was related to the dishwasher. I don't think it even registered on my brain that it was there.

So, even though it was $109 just to flip a switch, it is still good news. The repairman told me if it had been an electrical problem, I probably...
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It has been a hell of a week..earlier in the week my hubbys son ended up in the er...all is okay and he went home later that day...then today I ended up in the ER again for the 2nd time in a month...they still can't figure out what is wrong so it is a work in progress.

We have everything set up for mom to move on thursday..she is so excited and friday she is getting her new furniture...I can't wait to get all her stuff out of my dining room...literally can't move in there but...
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We made it to the "under 6 digit club" on our mortgage principal. Goal is to be completely paid for primary residence by July of 2023. I might recast the loan to have a lower payment while putting all the extra money on the principal. The payment will be substantially lower, but I'll pretend that it is still the original payment. I think it's worth the one time $250 fee. There are no prepayment penalty ever.




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Pay day and I paid $400 on my student loans. I’m hoping to have my lowest balance loan, of $5,485.00 paid off by December 🙏🏾. The best thing that could have happened was this zero interest deferred payment. It allowed me to tackle at least one of my loans aggressively.

Now I’ll admit last month was a dud. I fell off the wagon, buying things for the house. I wanted to “fix” my home up. I painted my kitchen cabinets, painted the spare bedroom, bought a rug, bought...
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I canned 10 more quarts of green beans yesterday, bringing the total count to 29. A deer got in the garden and ate a lot of the middle sections of beans and I am not sure if that part will grow back now that we've fixed the fence. It has caused a rush of growth at the top as the plants try to make up for the loss of leaves, so maybe it'll just get really full of beans up there where the stupid dear can't reach. It doesn't eat the vines, thankfully, so the plants are still alive.

I...
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I did a quicker fuel savings post (my last post). Just a more general summary if you are curious about fuel savings and a more general update. This one will be a little more in-depth.

Every electric car out there right now is very different. I think driving an electric car is a big jump (no matter how open you are to the idea) and we most definitely got there a lot faster with the hybrid car as the gateway to electric. It was literally just a day or a week before it was,...
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If you missed it, we bought an electric car last weekend.

I had to think about it a little bit, but looking at last year numbers should be a good gauge of our gas spending. I was thinking that MM was not 16 yet (for half the year), but we did do most his driving in either his car or with electric fuel (hybrid). & I remembered I track fuel costs per car so it is easy to separate out.

Gas car fuel 2019: $879
Hybrid car gas fuel 2019: $270**
Total gas fuel = $1,149
{All...
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I met BFF in a town where I used to live -- it just happens to be at the midpoint between where the two of us now live. I haven't been there for more than thirty years, except for a few drive-by's to see the old house. I found it to be much changed -- not surprising -- but saw some old landmarks, too. My old house looks better than it ever has before!

We met at a shopping center parking lot and rode together to the town square, where we found an adorable restaurant with patio...
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At least for today.

I logged into my Mint account & for the first time I saw a net worth in the 7 digits. Very exciting, yet nothing changes for me. I just keep plugging away. I can't even celebrate with a glass of wine or champagne because I'm not drinking alcohol right now. Just seeing the number is celebration enough!

Net Worth $1,006,252
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so i have been putting off some items simply because i have no desire to get stuff done lately

an item i ordered 6 weeks ago that has 2-3 day shipping still a problem when i called them before a week after product was due it was a nightmare with customer service person just insisted NOTHING could be done UNLESS i give them my email.
so a month later no refund and no product ..... i called again In their time frame for customer service listed and just got a voicemail i asked...
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Have you read that kids' book? I think it has another title too. Basically the character has very good luck and very bad luck every other page. I think about that book a lot lately because that's how 2020 feels. Every time something good happens, something terrible cuts short any sense of celebration.

Some of them are smaller things, but some are bigger. I never feel like I can relax for long.

Our youngest kid has had to get two COVID tests, once for a fever and once for...
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I don't have a US mortgage payment this month, in fact added nearly $5k to my principal due to the refi. (More on that in a separate post.) But our UK mortgage payments went through:
UK1: $192
UK2: $42
UK3: $43

So just $277 went toward principal this month.
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Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 22,397 pounds ($27,996)
SW: 29,047 pounds ($36,309)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $96,078
NT's Roth IRA: $49,313
AS's trad. IRA: $23,169
AS's Roth IRA: $72,591
AS's SEP IRA: $50,695
CJ's 401(k): $172,906
CJ's Roth IRA: $54,182
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $592,200 ($630,000 value -6%)
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TOTAL ASSETS: $1,396,017

Debts:
US Mortgage $375,000
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage...
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Three whole days of owning 4 cars, and it was driving us crazy. I am sure the pandemic just makes it worse. We could live very happily with one car right now.

I figured I would adjust and was giving it some time. But MH brought it up last night because it's really driving him crazy. I am glad because we had our light bulb moment. I do think it was prudent to just buy the newer car first and figure it out later. It's all just a lot. But now that newer car decision was...
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I went to Aldi yesterday and stocked up. I spent $72, $10 of which was household supplies (paper towels & toilet paper) rather than groceries.

I made chicken noodle soup yesterday. My soup has a lot of veggies -- celery, onion & carrots. I haven't been cooking a lot, because of the broken dishwasher, but this was easy and didn't generate a lot of dirty dishes.

Another book I had on hold became available, so I went to the library and picked it up.

Today I'm traveling...
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So the stock market insanity. I mean i can't explain it at all. Can you? I mean Singuy's explanation that we aren't in a real recession and people are parking money somewhere because Bonds and CDs are paying nothing makes sense. Everything I've read saying it's going up because the fed is inflating asset prices by printing more money. QE is real.

This stock market has skyrocketed our investments. Our retirement accounts are $1.15M today. Our taxable investments are up...
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