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It was higher-spending month than usual, but that was because my semi-annual auto insurance payment was made. It was $1977. I also had some fees to pay -- $116 to renew AAA and $40 to replenish my tollways pass. Medical was a bit high, with a copay to a kidney specialist and the purchase of a blood pressure monitor. Other costs were quite reasonable, and I only paid $60 for groceries! About midway through the month I decided to challenge myself to eat exclusively from my pantry...
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We had a very modest increase (about $10K) in net worth; $2K was mortgage reduction and the rest our retirement funds. We're still solidly in CoastFIRE status with a $100K+ surplus, which is good because our spending is outpacing our earnings so far this year. (Some of the extra spending is discretionary; we're taking a trip to Europe and a few others as well, and some of the home improvements we've made weren't strictly necessity. Other things like healthcare, escrow increase,...
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So I got 1 of my payouts and I have paid all of our debt except my student loans....do I have the money for it...yes....why aren't I paying it now...well our govt is going to take 20% off of our student loans so I will save over 5k when they do.. so I am going to wait till they do that so I can save the extra money but other than that we are debt free and finally have some money in the bank, we are doing a couple of things bt most will be saved for a house deposit. so we are excited...
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It's been an awful couple of weeks with continued high heat and humidity. But it's all getting washed out of here by strong rain tomorrow, just in time for what we're told will be a wonderful weekend followed by more temperate and pleasant summertime temps in the 80s all next week.
So I can catch up on some much-needed yardwork. I see weeds everywhere, for one thing.
Brought my father to the periodontist last week and the dentist broke his crown. This was the 2nd time it broke....
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This week the triple oven stack was installed. Technically they work but we will not be using them until the kitchen is done. The contractor modified the cabinet as discussed in earlier posts. Before he orders shorter doors, which would cost me extra, he’s going to try to modify the 24” tall ones. He’s not done that before but we have nothing to lose. It’d be nice not to have to purchase new cabinet doors. We’ll see.

 
He made the bottom of...
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I had a week-long unplanned trip out of town so I’ll be doing two updates nearly back-to-back. The fourth week progress occurred while I was gone so it’s possible that there are small things that I didn’t notice.
The most important item: The inspection was completed with no issues. The contractor said that the inspector took only a few minutes to walk through. I think we have one more final inspection when the project is completed.
Several areas that were open...
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July always seems a little extra crazy with kids' birthdays.  & it's MH's full summer month off work, so he's catching up on appointments.  Things like car maintenance and taking the cat to the vet.  Which is a little rough during this one-paycheck month.  But it's how the timing works out.
MM(22) is staying at the college this summer, I think I mentioned.  My Dad took him to a music camp the week of his birthday (a couple of weeks ago).  MM absolutely...
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I just wrote the blog about me approaching $2 million net worth. Yesterday I logged into my Monarch account and I had already achieved $2 million net worth. That was fast! I achieved $1 million net worth in 2020. Only 5 years later & that has doubled.  I'm really blown away, honestly. I remember being in my 20's & knowing that it was possible, but it seemed so far away. I rember thinking that I could never max out my retirement accounts. I've been doing that since...
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Do y'all remember the Extreme Couponing shows from the past where folks would have their notebooks of coupons and plan a big trip and get cartloads of groceries for very little? I enjoyed watching them and I looked on YouTube and there are a few there. I was always amazed at how their built their stockpiles on so very little. But then, I always wondered, how they really did it. 
Our local paper had pathetic coupons. I learned that there were different coupons packages the...
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I thought I'd make one last kitchen update for now.
We've now been living with the new kitchen since Tuesday afternoon, cooking and eating there. Everything is great. The new stovetop and oven are much better than our old ones. There's a bit of a learning curve with the controls but nothing major. Just knobs for the stovetop and a touch pad for the oven. Microwave controls are a bit different too. We've run the dishwasher twice now and that's fine. Pretty simple controls that...
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It was not that long ago that I reached $1 million net worth. That was only during the Codid pandemic which was 5 years ago. Wow, seems like yesterday. It's wild that I'm now looking at $2 million. I may reach it before the end of the year if the market doesn't have a downturn. I really can't believe how quickly my net worth has grown. I just want to make sure that I don't accumulate debt again, which is why I'm being very prudent right now to pay off my medical debt  &...
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Our contractor left today. He has some finishing stuff to do but is waiting for items to come in so he is done for now, 57 days since beginning. He only worked Monday to Friday, of course, except he did come a couple of times on Saturday to finish some things but didn't do full days. He also took a couple of days off along the way, so he probably worked a total of 38 days I think. Pretty damn impressive when you look at what he did and consider the fact that he worked alone with...
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I could have sworn I posted an update since 7/12 but I'm not seeing one.
Except for some finishing touches, the kitchen is done! We moved the fridge into place Friday morning. The dishwasher was delivered a short time later and our guy installed it. He had installed the toilet on Thursday and did the sink on Friday as well as installing the new bathroom light fixture and the toilet paper holder.
Every major component is now complete and we've started using the kitchen again....
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I reached a milestone this week--total current debt under $35,000!  That's $22,300 on the mortgage (which I estimate I can pay off at the end of 2028) and the rest on loans at rates ranging from 4.99% to 7.98%).  The first of those loans will be paid off in a month.  That's about $360 a month of cash flow freed up, most of which I intend to put in my brokerage account so that I start building up a decent balance in a taxable account.  Then another loan I will...
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We were hoping not to move again until we could buy but the owner is putting the rent up and this house just isnt worth the extra money, our lease is up in 2 months and if we havent found anything we will do a month by month lease...in the mean time seeing what we can find out about buying a home this is what I was told by a company earlier this week
We can lend up to 759k (would not get a house around here that would fit us for that), you will need $85k deposit and 49k in upfront...
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Geez, these Chase offers are getting into serious money...
Of course, they want serious money, too, which won't be forthcoming.

Tempting to think about though.
I went to one of those retirement planning programs last night. They always talk about Roth conversions. Which I understand can be very helpful in reducing taxes you'll pay once RMDs begin, but I don't think they're necessary for everyone, and they didn't mention scenarios where they wouldn't make sense.
There's a...
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I normally don't comment much on politics, but today I was taking a break from some housework and the White House press secretary was on the news talking about all the wondrous things that have happened since DT has taken office. This isn't a quote, but something along the lines of groceries are cheaper, gas is cheaper, and so on and so forth. I don't know about you, dear readers, but I'm not seeing a big reduction in the price of groceries. Gas fluctuates, but it isn't like it...
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One of my major goals for this year, along with the renovation that’s underway, was to roll over my 401k into a self-directed IRA. I could have (and should have, in retrospect) done this earlier but held off until I was 59 ½. I believed that waiting provided more flexibility if I needed funds earlier and I also was nervous about doing it. It’s basically my life’s savings and having it moved and reinvested virtually seemed a little scary. What if something...
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Few things scratch my budgeting itch like a slick online calculator. Instead of eyeballing a spreadsheet, I can punch in a few numbers and—boom—get a crystal-clear answer (or at least the illusion of one). Over the past weekend I’ve test-drove a dozen tools to see which are helpful and which feel like clickbait. Below are my notes on four big categories: retirement, credit-card payoff, portfolio balancing, and life settlement calculators.
How I Tested


I...
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Progress this week:
++ The replacement cabinet for the broken one was received and installed. They sent doors with it so now we have 2 extra doors. Since we have three sets of identical cabinets on the peninsula, I’ll keep the extra doors in case we have a mishap.
++ The electrical wiring was completed. This now includes the pendant lights above the peninsula, the new 220V circuit for the stovetop, and another recessed light by the beverage station.
++ The hardware was...
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