I feel like I say this every time, but time is flying and money is piling up. I know this gravy train will temporarily come to an end with the next recession, but for now I am LOVING it! Seeing my money compound so fast is still crazy to me. It’s been 8 months since I hit $150,000 while in Thailand on my 10,000 day of life and here we are with 33% more. Just stupid. This has been caused by the high stock market as well as my salary being higher than I anticipated because of bonuses and investing more as a result. My goal for the end of 2017 was to have a net worth of $200,000 and we’re already there with 3 months to spare. I thought this was going to happen on my birthday in 2 days when I receive my paycheck, but instead the market has been on a rampage and I’ve reached my year end goal with 3 paychecks and approximately $22,000 left to invest this year. Just madness. We’ll see how I feel if stocks crash before the end of the year :), but for now I’m floating on a cloud. It’s time to set a new goal.
Year: 2017
9 Months Without Sickness
As long as I can remember I’ve gotten sick fairly regularly. Nothing serious, just a cold and the sniffles every 3-6 months. Usually I got sick around exam time in school – maybe because of the additional stress. I’d be the one sniffling in a quiet room and bothering everyone else. Sorry y’all! As a child I had strep throat every few years as well. I think I had it like 4 times which apparently can become deadly with that frequency. Luckily I’m still alive! Continue reading “9 Months Without Sickness”
A Boss Who Listens
When I took my current job I knew what I was getting into. I was told that my client was “difficult,” but that didn’t concern me. That was the descriptor that has been given to literally every client and company I have worked with except the last one (though now that someone else is working with him they are calling him “difficult,” which is inexplicable to me). Continue reading “A Boss Who Listens”
Q3 Budget Check-In 2017
We’re 75% done with 2017. Madness. Let’s check in on my goal to decrease my spending from $22,491.86 last year by $4,491.86 to $18,000 this year. Continue reading “Q3 Budget Check-In 2017”
Dividend Season
It’s that wonderful time of year again: Dividend Season! When I feel like free money is reigning down on me. It feels like my cash is just sitting in something boring like a bank account so I usually forget that it’s actually at work within 3,300+ businesses within the US and as a result those businesses pay me money every quarter for doing basically nothing. It feels like Christmas! This quarter I received $670.17 from my Vanguard account (which sadly doesn’t include my 401K or HSA), which is a 30% increase from the $514.02 I received last year and a 143% increase from the year before that ($275.23). And it will just keep increasing because of the miracle of compounding. AH! So exciting. The end of Q4 in December usually brings the largest dividend payouts of the year…on literal Christmas. I can’t wait to open my presents!
Retirement Inevitability
[The Matrix has a quote for every occasion]
An article I read this morning made me realize something: early retirement is inevitable. I currently have almost a $200,000 net worth (so close!). I could stop saving now, not touch my money and let it grow. If I did that then based on historical averages I would have enough money to retire at 43 years old. That’s 12 years before my mom and 19 years before the earliest social security payout options without me adding another penny to my accounts. I could suddenly quintuple my lifestyle, live like that for the next 15 years and still retire earlier than I could have ever imagined. That’s INSANE! I might start thinking of all the money I invest from this moment as money that’s buying back my time between 32 and 43 years of age. I’m slowly rolling back the clock. I like that visual. Even if I do nothing I will get there. And fast. Let’s do this!
How I Saved $1,912 With Travel Hacking In 2017
This year I flew to:
- Disneyland LA
- Phoenix
- Maine
- Thailand
- Atlanta
- Upstate New York
- Atlanta for Christmas
- (Planned) Singapore in February 2018
- (Planned) Ecuador in May 2018
Most of these trips have been domestic and I was able to find cheap flights so travel hacking was not necessary or beneficial. I also took understandably less trips since I was employed the whole year 🙂 (the horror!) Still, I was able to decrease my costs in the following ways:
Continue reading “How I Saved $1,912 With Travel Hacking In 2017”
Have I Always Loved Money?
Looking back I think I’ve always been fascinated by money. I tried to negotiate prices with the tooth fairy (proof below), was a bank for my siblings (a bad one) and loved collecting foreign currency. My aunt and uncle would often bring me coins from wherever they were living at the time. I also bought fake foreign currency with the little chore money I received. I was such a normal kid 🙂 .