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Time for a periodic check-in on my goals (listed in the side bar).

1. Job/CFP coursework: I am still working on getting timelier but I have made some progress. As far as the CFP coursework, I should complete my second course for the year today (I just have to take the final exam). I am hoping to complete at least one more of the 7 courses by the end of the year, which still leaves 2 more courses and the exam, which I'll take in 2019--most likely next July. In addition, I...
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As always happens recently, I'm going to try and run through a lot of updates all in one post! It makes for very nondescriptive titles but oh well.

- Had a sit-down with the spouses about our shared spending and vacation budgets being so far in the red. I put together projections of what would happen if we stopped funding the reno fund for a while and split AS's net pay 50/50 between the two line items. If we were careful about our spending for the next few months, we should...
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Got some sweet deals this week! Starting today I am going to be doing a lot more deals separate from my Mom as she hasn't been able to contribute on the work portion for over 8 months now due to medical issues, and I have been doing all of the work, but only getting 1/2 the profits this whole time. We were hoping she would get better enough to keep doing the deals together, but at this time she still hasn't and I just can't keep doing everything on my own and only getting 1/2...
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What do people who don't have sick time do? They still go to work, get sicker, take longer to recover. I am glad that I have sick time because while the cold is better the vertigo in my inner ears is worse. Crystals on the fine hair of the inner ear affect the balance of the body. I believe I have an inner ear infection of something because I've had low level of vertigo for several weeks. Seeing doctor later.

Payday was yesterday so I will need to pay bills later today.
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I feel like I'm slogging through my days – I don't like uncertainty or change!

I just took a little vacation to the Finger Lakes to visit P, an old friend from college. P lives in CA and stays with her parents at their lake house for a portion of the summer. It's a beautiful spot! I drove there Thursday and returned on Monday afternoon. It was a very low key visit. P had a large brain tumor removed three years ago and is still learning to deal with the physical changes...
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I'm going to update on these goals once a month, so here's where they stand today.

1) Pay off 2 more credit cards (Ashley Furniture balance: $827, Marriott balance: $2500)
2) Save 10k in a replacement car fund. ($50)
3) Live off last month's income. ($2500)
4) Fulfill fireplace fixing and dining room pantry savings goals ($160)

I did some more forecasting/YNAB goal setting, and it looks like my goals are going to be really hard to reach. Forecasting what I'd need to accomplish...
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I'm going to update on these goals once a month, so here's where they stand today.

1) Pay off 2 more credit cards (Ashley Furniture balance: $827, Marriott balance: $2500)
2) Save 10k in a replacement car fund. ($50)
3) Live off last month's income. ($2500)
4) Fulfill fireplace fixing and dining room pantry savings goals ($160)

I did some more forecasting/YNAB goal setting, and it looks like my goals are going to be really hard to reach. Forecasting what I'd need to accomplish...
[ Read More ]

It was a bad day yesterday, and I didn't sleep much last night, but this morning I woke up feeling better. I still have a stomachache but I am much improved. I did have to bow out of child care today.

I did two loads of laundry yesterday, just trying to keep up with the mess my illness was making. $3.

I found a big error in my variables table -- I neglected to remove the income I am no longer getting from the College. Duh! Kind of what Gap Year is all about. So last...
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I have been tweaking our budget for this month and I am hoping to save between $2000 -$3000 this month for our house deposit. I do have a couple of specialist appointments so not sure how much we will have to pay out of pocket that's why it's between $2-3000...maybe if we are lucky we can save more...can't wait to update as this month goes along...feeling excited!!
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Payday. There are 5 paydays this month. I went to Veggie Boys and bought over 2 kilos of carrots for $2.49 and just under a kilo of kiwifruit for $1.87. I also went to New World and bought 2 liters of canola oil for $5. That's all I need for the rest of the week.

I transferred $300 from my check account to my emergency fund. Now up to $2,383.38
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Total Spending = $951.07
UNDER 1 GRAND!!! I can’t remember if this has ever happened before.

This was a very low spend month but not very frugal because we went out a lot so Entertainment expense was high and for some reason we were craving a lot of Vietnamese food. We spent $287.29 under the Entertainment category. And then DH had few lunches out because there are a lot of people at his work that are left this month, so Allowance spending for the month was $58.95

GROCERY...
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I found out about 3 months ago that we were going to be getting raises. This came as a total surprise because I'm only in year 1 of a 3-year contract. Apparently, management realized that there was no continuity to what everyone was making. It varied quite a bit based on when they were hired. They decided to switch to a 3-tier scale based on years of experience and adjust everybody's pay to get them onto that scale, giving everyone some degree of a raise in the process.

The...
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I've never looked at my retirement changes year over year, and suddenly was curious. I started in September 2007 since that was the first time I added up all the retirement values, but for every year after I used the July retirement amount. Here's what I found:

2007: $62K

2008: $65K (+$3K)

2009: $69K (+$4K)

2010: $109K (+$40K)

2011: $141K (+$32K)

2012: $151K (+$10K)

2013: $175K (+$24K)

2014: $220K (+$45K)

2015: $248K (+$28K)

2016: $279K (+$31K)

2017:...
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Goal: $512,564 by March 2019

As a reminder, this is just an incremental goal along the way to 8x income by retirement. This mini-goal aims to get us to a milestone by the time I turn 45 and AS turns 40.

The milestone (which changes whenever our salaries change) is to get me to 3x my current salary, which is now $75,120, so $225,360; NT to 3x his, which is now $62,100, so $186,300; and AS to 2x hers, which in 2017 was $50,452, so $100,904).

Current balance: $421,009

May...
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Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 17,967 pounds ($22,459)
SW: 26,544 pounds ($33,180)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $66,580
NT's Roth IRA: $29,132
AS's trad. IRA: $19,592
AS's Roth IRA: $50,267
AS's SEP IRA: $25,970
CJ's 401(k): $132,522
CJ's Roth IRA: $33,229
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $427,281 ($454,554 value -6%)
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TOTAL ASSETS: $1,060,790

Debts:
US Mortgage $386,825
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage...
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The US is becoming a place where it's impossible to move up and down the spectrum of wealth. Studies who it's becoming harder and harder and that if you don't have help from your parents it's not a place you can make yourself a success no matter what.

As my kids age I hear more and more concern from other parents about college costs. Many have kids who are older and their youngest is 8. They say they are still paying on their loans or just finishing but now they are going...
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I got a few grabs at Menards!



Multi-Function Scissors (Bought 4)
.99 After Rebate
(Marked $5.00 each for rummage sale)
*ETA - Keeping 1
*ETA - Sold 1 for $5.00 on FB on 7/30/18

Hair Angel Straightening Brush (Bought 1)
Free After Rebate
(Marked $12.00 for rummage sale)
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I spent a lot of time over the weekend polishing my brass door knobs, believe it or not. But they do look great. It took a lot of polishing to remove 23+ years of tarnish. I don't know how long the "new" look will last, but it does look like new right now.

I've discovered that I now have THREE bunnies living in the yard: 2 in back and 1 in front. I love watching them; they will happily munch on grass or just about anything, so I'm not too worried about my flowering annuals because...
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I felt tired yesterday and became quite sick in the night. Today I'm not really better, just spent.

I didn't spend anything yesterday and I won't today.

I really need to do laundry but I can't manage those steps until I feel a lot better.

Thank goodness, DIL is not working today and I don't have to watch GS2.

Hoping when I check in again I'll be much improved.
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Debtfreeme pointed out on my last post that I don't pay rent...I've been in the house for almost 2 years now and still refer to my mortgage payment as rent...oops!

To honor my stillborn son's original due date, my boss gave me a butterfly bush. She knows we have a ton of yard, and landscaping isn't our thing. She came over to help us plant it, and we ended up spending hours out there starting to clean things up. Apparently, we have boxwoods and azalea bushes in the front. (I'm...
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