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For 13 years, I’ve been paying on my student loans—13 long years.
What started as a $33,000–$35,000 loan turned into nearly $90,000, because my income couldn’t keep up with the payment plan.
Some people will say, “Don’t take on debt.” I hear that. But here’s my story.
At the time, I was making $36,000 a year. I was debt-free. Then I lost my job. I went back to school because employers wanted higher education. Since I wasn’t...
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Finally my $780 payment hit my student loan, I'm officially under $10k. My new balance is $9,991.01. The daily interest is about $2. Next week is pay day with the first job so I'll be able to throw another $250 on it.  
Side-note, I'm learning to keep my mouth shut with the second job. I know that there are a ton of things that's going wrong, but I need the money so I'm just going to keep my mouth shut. Make my two grand a paycheck so that I can pay this thing off, hopefully...
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This is what I started to write re: 2026 Financial Goals.
I am trying to minimize IRA contributions.  But I think we will need to contribute $5K to IRAs, in order to avoid the next tax bracket (22%).  Which feels pretty steep after paying ~$0 taxes for two decades.  & also factoring how complicated taxes are and how this means an effective tax rate of 35%+.
I ended up preparing our 2025 tax return this week (state software isn't ready but I have good IRS numbers). ...
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Pay cash for college ✔
Just one more tuition payment left for MM(22).  Crazy!
$10K to Savings ✔
Final tally was $13,185. 
Saved at the last minute, by a cash gift.  Which made up for a wild spending year.
$7,500 to Investments ✔➕
Final tally: $7,900
Was able to surpass the stretch goal with my bonus.
$1,700 to mortgage ✔
Mortgage goal is non-negotiable.  I will not have a mortgage for more than 30 years on this house (while...
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I had a couple of outstanding non-mortgage loans (mostly arising from my beautiful Buffy cat's illnesses).  I paid them off this morning, so now the only debt is my mortgage (down to $19,500 so the end is in sight) and credit cards, which are a rolling balance.  I typically use the first paycheck of the month to pay down loans and the second to pay down credit cards, so the CC balance is around $3k right now and that will come down when the next paycheck arrives on 1/16.
Banks...
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Well almost a week into the year and we have paid all of January's bills already and put money back into our ice account and put $800 into house savings....we still have 2 pay checks to go. It is my birthday month but not sure what we are doing yet if anything we will see what the weather is doing this week its 100-106 all week so if its like that won't be doing anything. Feeling positive in 2026
That my word for this year Positive...I am going to try stay positive all year in...
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I received a 2.55% raise. I wasn’t initially excited about this; I thought it could have been higher. However, it is what it is, and I have to remember that some people don’t have jobs right now. 
 
What really changed my outlook on things was that I increased my 401(k) contributions by 2% because (I can’t enter 2.55%). I didn’t realize I was at an 8% contribution rate; I thought it was lower. I must have bumped my contribution last year when...
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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 $115K in 2025.  This works out to $14K retirement contributions & a $96K 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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