Building Wealth, Strength, and Character
Here is where we currently stand: Total Net Worth: $784,000 Market appreciation helped us move up a bit quicker than expected, which obviously feels nice. However, this has me thinking that a downturn will temporarily feel awful. Regardless, we will stay the course. I am actively trying to think about our finances a little less. […]
Learning to save requires delayed gratification. You have money to spend, but you are intentionally choosing to put it aside. This can be very difficult, but once someone establishes the habit, delaying becomes second nature. In my own experience, the gratification part has been more difficult. Month after month, our net worth increases and, by […]
It has been several years since our last net worth update. A lot has changed in our lives, but our strategy for building wealth has remained the same. Here is where we currently stand: Total Net Worth: $756,000 This officially marks another quarter-million-dollar milestone. I’m currently setting aside money for our Roth IRA contributions, but […]
As the announcement of our annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) approaches, I’ve found myself thinking through the possible outcomes. It’ll likely land somewhere between 1% and 3%—already an improvement over last year, when I received 0% as a new hire. Still, with inflation averaging around 4% in recent years, it’s easy to feel like […]
On the financial independence track, where does happiness come in? When should we slow our portfolio growth to focus on lifestyle? I don’t think there is a prescriptive answer that fits everyone. These questions require us to look at why we want financial independence and examine what we are willing to sacrifice to achieve it, […]
As we graduated and entered the workforce, a recurring piece of advice we received from friends and family was to budget. The version they were imagining involved setting aside a set amount of money each month into different buckets of expenses. Two hundred dollars for the gas bill, eight hundred dollars for groceries, two hundred […]
The latte factor is the idea that if you spend 5 dollars every day on a drive-through coffee, you are losing around 150 dollars a month. Therefore, it has become a common piece of financial advice to skip the daily latte. I can’t argue that, for many people, an extra 150 dollars a month could […]
As of October 5th, 2022. My net worth is -6694. A 9124 increase since I last posted an update in July. This is how it is currently distributed. Checking: Current Value: 2758 Change from last July: -2896 High Yield Savings: Current Value: 4615 Change from July: +2262 403(b): Current Value: 17415 Change from July: +6353 […]
