Hey! Yes, we’re still alive. Got sucked into the day to day monotony of work, eat, sleep, repeat // sometimes not in that order. If you follow the posts on this blog you most likely know how it is or can relate. It’s so easy to slip into the state of just letting time pass by. In all honesty, I hadn’t turned on my computer much since the last post. Surprised it even turned on but here we are.
A lot has changed since our last post – yet it seems like everything is mostly the same. We have the same house, same car, same jobs, same relationships, etc. I interviewed for two higher paying positions this week and am waiting to see how the cards fall.
Oh! Our garden took a hit over the long weekend. All the seedlings I put out to harden drying up and dying. I did everything I could from over an hours drive away to save them but that language barrier and perception of what plants need to live thwarted my attempts to get someone to water them for me.
That said, we still have grapes, kiwi, raspberry, blueberry, gooseberry, mint, tomatoes, and peppers growing. I also just started some tarragon, chives, lettuce, green bean, and Malabar spinach vine so will see how it turns out. This is more of a test year because it’s our first year in the home and working the ground. Hoping next year will have a better harvest! Definitely learned our lesson on getting too excited and planting seedlings outside before mid-May. That snow in the last week of April put the strawberry patch beck into dormancy. #GlobalWarmingSucks
Portfolio wise, we’re 10 years out from being FI. I’ve been working overtime the last few months in exchange for comp time. Each hour worked nets me 1.5 hours of paid time off in the future which we will use to destress, visit family abroad, travel, and/or maybe save for mat leave. Because we live in a “modern” society that expects women (AKA breadwinners due to societal shifts) to either quit working and put their family into poverty to heal from the trauma of birth on the body, take leave unpaid, or go straight back to work. If men were treated like that, they’d have a heyday with lawsuits. And they wonder why our birth rates are declining. I digress, what I’m trying to say is I chose to stay in this backwards country for the only fact that it provides the ability for us to reach FI in the quickest amount of time possible. Doesn’t mean I can’t complain or be bitter about the cons that come with it.
This tax season was interesting in that it was the first year in our lives we’ve actually owed taxes. I know, it was a surprise for us too. Luckily it wasn’t anything like the 15 grand my parents owed one year. Just shy of a grand. Even though our withholdings are correct, it seems my husband’s employer still doesn’t withhold the proper amount. The geniuses they are. *eye roll*
In the grand scheme of things, I’d rather breakeven or owe taxes back than receive a refund. Time Value of Money dictates that the money is better held in our portfolio which turns upwards of 20% annually vs receiving it back with no interest a year later. That said, last February I started using a new app to easily track our net worth on a monthly basis. We haven’t really made any “moves” from the last month. Mostly due to paying taxes and paying off a small balance we’d racked up on a credit card in spring home repairs. Over all, last quarter we broke the 40k mark. Leaving us approximately 610k off from our FI number. That’s up from 33k at the beginning of the year. Not too bad! Repairing our home’s Northern foundation wall helped up the home’s value so while part of the increase is held in real estate value, we will still count it for net worth purposes.
Otherwise, I have a fun tidbit. Last year I bought $10ish of DOGE currency. It drives me crazy that everyone thinks of it as a stock. Anyway, imagine my surprise when it jumps from the $0.0025 I bought it for to $0.40+. Normally I hold, but the volatility behind DOGE led me to sell all. Basically flipped $10 into a little more than $1000 in a years time. Just another example of how we thrive on happenstance. I put it back into our portfolio in the form of dividend producing >4% stocks and ETFs. Sounds like a fair trade to me. 😎
Keep an eye out for more posts in the future. I’m planning to incorporate some money saving tips!
