It’s been nearly a year since my last post. Where am I now? I’ve jumped 2 jobs to make less salary than the first job I left, but the potential to earn more. The biggest improvement is I’m loving my day job! The money is comfortable and the flexibility is phenomenal. Enough about that though. How are my finances you ask? Net neutral is the best way to put it. My wonderfully owned home has almost doubled in value. My investment real estate property has doubled in value. The rental income hit its stride as everyone clamored to vacation. Net worth is looking closer to the double zero club! Now, my vacation was as wildly expensive as it has ever been and with the space between jobs, I put more on credit than I was able to pay off at once. I’ve recently consolidated my credit card debt and got the interest down below a mortgage rate! I’ve still for close to $20,000 combined debt. Student loans are still deferred interest-free, so I’ve left those alone. They are under $10,000. I plan to pay $2,000 per month and have everything paid off in 2 years. Sounds reasonable, but Christmas is around the corner and my love language is gifting with very little craft or cooking talent! 😬 I’ll keep you posted!

A quick online search search brings up this “messiness – a state of confusion and disorderliness”. Yup, that sounds about right. The world seems to be in a state of confusion is a post Trump, COVID laden, contradiction overwhelming era. Being true to the overall theme of 2020-2021 I’m full of contradictions and cautious uncautiousness myself. On the left side of my brain, I just moved a roll over an old IRA to Fidelity’s Zero stock Market Total Index Fund (FZROX). This is a direct response to the ultra low Vanguard total stock market index (VTSAX). Yes, Vanguard had a model and Fidelity is trying to grab the outliers and no loyalist (me). However, zero is better than ultra low costs. If this 0% expense ratio goes away, there’s always VTSAX!

Now, on the right side of my brain, I’ve been hand picking a feeble stocks. This mean chump change hand picking. I’m interested in a few industries I know a very little bit about. I wanted a reason to research them. Plus it’s literally less than a nice dinner out I’m risking here. .I also learned about negative correlation stocks. Buying stocks now that you never expect to change unless the market crashes. That’s like putting savings in a bank account that’s not FDIC insured but has the possibility of an upswing you you need it the most.

Overall, I’ll say my risk tolerance has increased slightly from my first job and 401k, when I save like an 80 year old, but I’m still a big believer in buy and hold. Even these hand picked stock, I don’t plan to sell. Like ever… still living a hot FI mess 🤣

I didn’t grow up in Church, even though I’m from “The Bible Belt”. I didn’t really start looking for religion until my son was born. As a gazed down at my perfect infant human being 5 weeks early and still perfectly healthy, I thanked God for his work. I knew I had been blessed beyond my wildest dreams. I was very adamant that I did not want kids up until I got pregnant. That changed in an instant. As I grew as a parent, I wanted my son to understand the blessing I felt he was. I started searching for a church. In a blink of the eye I had been attending the the same Church for 2 years. Soon after I was asked to lead Vacation Bible School. That led to being asking to the the treasurer. That led me to ask about tithes. I was very honest about my goal to reach FI, my “discretionary” money is going to consumer debts. They understand and support. I prayed and decided to make tithes/offerings a monthly bill. It may delay my FI date, but I find it’s worth it for the peace I feel helping support the foundation of my faith!

I’m sitting here contemplating the “worth” of my streaming service. I can live without a paid service. There are many free options. In addition, I personally get a lot of benefit from Amazon prime shipping and consider the Video, Books, and Music services “free” to me. AT THE SAME TIME, I spent $120 on new clothes yesterday when I went into the store for a sleep mask. I heard sleep is important and thought, a mask is less than $5 and could improve me life. We see how that $5 went. Baby step forward, giant leap back. I still haven’t canceled my streaming service but I’m attempting to not use it for 30 days. If I can do that, I’ll cancel it until I want it again.

I was suppose to be in Athens, GA at 9am. Where am I at 8:35? My main office with lunch box and bags in tow. I totally screwed that up and showed up to work like normal. I completely forgot about my meeting and was 20 mins late. It’s a nasty dreary rainy day and I forgot. This wasn’t a weekly staff meeting that my boss could forgive me for either. No, no, no. That would have been too easy. This was a BIG group of people from all over the company who all managed to get there in time. Face plant in palm, Epic fail, Fear for my career, mess today. All I can say is tomorrow is a new day and I better double time my workday from now on.

One of really big struggles is my overall health. I don’t come from “good healthy genes”. My husband does and I pray my son got that from him as well! My family has a history of mental health causing physical health issues. I have drug and alcohol abuse, diabetes, and cancer genes flowing through my veins. Retirement is often preceded by death in my family. For my I try to be healthy but I am so focused on earning more, spending time with my family, and maintaining a home that I don’t have time to exercise or meal prep. I know, I know, you make time for what’s important. If I swing to more time on health I have less time for family. No, family first, always. Less time on work, longer working in this imbalance. No thank you. Drowning in the middle of it all. 100%. Today I’m downloading a free exercise app in the doctor’s office because the scale was another 5 pounds higher. Is it temporary motivation? Possibly. All I can do is try today.

There are many ways to get a positive net worth, earn big, pay little to other, and a combination approach like me! I did it today. My PERSONAL net worth went from negative to positive by a whole $200! That may change by the end of the month, but my goodness does it feel good today! I am excluding the value of my home, simply because it’s a shared asset with my husband and I want to write about my personal journey. As far as my home is concerned, we have no mortgage as of May 2019 after a solid 120 payments on the 1st of every month. We never paid late since we were so grateful to get into a home with no down payment. This is a simple moment of joy on my FI journey!

Here I am ruthlessly pursuing debt repayment. However, my natural spending habit is a BEAST! I went to get Valentine’s gifts for my family. 10 gifts = $200! What just happened?!!??! Ahhhhhhhh real money monsters! The other side of the coin is I’ve been working so much I didn’t have time to “shop” and just grabbed what I could find quickly. Overtime = cash to pay debt = no time for home = overspending. There is NO winning this game!

My husband is a natural saver, bless his heart. We have kept our financials mostly separate over the years, there is less arguments when the only balance you have to keep is your own. We do split the bills 50/50 though. I manage the bill payments and auto draft (obviously I can spend on ANYTHING). He’s always provided when we need something out of the ordinary bills. Vacations, car batteries, Doctor bills, dinner out he’s got it. This has slightly shifted since I’m earning more and able to save more. However, as I take stock of our financial picture I find he is MUCH closer to FI than I am. I’m actually basing my FI independently. See I’m a doer, and this is how I’ll know we are done. He doesn’t have any credit card debt. We have 1 car payment, and he pays large lump sum principal payments on it regularly. We did wait for our house to be paid off to get a newer and more reliable vehicle. He wants truck for some home renovations we have planned (again we have no mortgage payment anymore). However, there is a clear disproportion of wealth accumulation between us. I’ve always felt, even though our financial accounts have been separate, we were on the same page… until now. Now I need to catch up BIG TIME! I wonder… should I let him to pay more pop up bills and maintenance even though I CAN split it 50/50? Should I consider my savings rate a “bill” and monthly expense that needs to be split? I’m still focused on debt repayment so I have a little time to figure this out. I’ll just have to ponder some more.

So I had a debt snowball plan. I’ve been pushing over $1000/mo towards paying down my consumer debt. I’ve also been pushing $1000/mo to my 401k and 529 plans. I’m a hybrid between being debt free and just starting with investment. I’m basically frozen in my tracks because I don’t know which is better and I’m not effectively doing either. To take another curve ball, my favorite podcast (ChooseFI) just did a course that said I should have an emergency fund BEFORE I pay down debt! Information overload and mind blown. I’ve made a new plan. Credit card payments have been adjusted to the minimum payments for 1 month. I’ll put all that $924 into an emergency fund (high interest online savings account, it currently has a $76 balance). I did a balance transfer with 0% interest for 12 months on $6000 of debt. Beginning next month, I’ll try the avalanche method (paying all the extra toward the high interest credit card debt) around $7800, moving to my student loans ($8000) possibly, and finishing with the $6000. My hesitation with student loan is they are subsidized and at 3.15% interest. It’s lower than some home mortgages AND it’s my longest standing item on my credit report. If I pay them off, I think my score will suffer. I’ve worked had to get it back above 700 since taking the new job and starting my path the FI. I don’t want to stop saving in my 401k or 529 because #1 employer match and #2 I want to help my son become a 2nd gen FI. We will see how this new plan goes in 2020!