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Archive for February, 2017

Retirement goal progress

February 28th, 2017 at 04:30 pm

Goal: $489,745 by 2019

(As a reminder, this is just an incremental goal along the way to 8x income by retirement. This mini-goal aims to get us to a milestone by the time I turn 45 and AS turns 40.

The milestone (which changes whenever our salaries change) is to get me to 3x my current salary, which is now $66,625, so $199,875; NT to 3x his, which is now $62,100, so $186,300; and AS to 2x hers, which in 2016 was $51,785, so $103,570)

Current balance: $315,041

January 2017 balance: $304,883

Progress: $10,158

A big bump this month, though as I mentioned last month, I take it with a huge grain of salt.

To reach the goal by our birthdays in 2019, that's 24 months, so we'd need to contribute (or have assets appreciate) $174,704 -- $7,279 per month -- to reach it.

February 2017 net worth update

February 28th, 2017 at 04:10 pm

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 17,967 pounds ($22,459)
SW: 20,398 pounds ($25,497)
FL: 5,534 pounds ($6,917)
NT's 401(k): $51,160
NT's Roth IRA: $17,071
AS's trad. IRA: $16,704
AS's Roth IRA: $34,961
AS's SEP IRA: $14,221
CJ's 401(k): $104,169
CJ's Roth IRA: $21,882
NT's flat: 180,000 pounds ($225,000)
CJ/NT/AS house: $470,000 (value -6%)
---
Total Assets: $1,010,041

Debts:
US Mortgage: $398,846
Loan from friends (duplex): $9,000
UK Mortgage 1: $35,390
UK Mortgage 2: $7,460
UK Mortgage 3: $7,856
---
Total Debt: $458,552

Current Estimated Net Worth: $551,489

January 2017 estimate: $540,383

Change in net worth: +$11,106

Summary: Our assets are back up over a million again! However, I said it last month and I'll say it again: I'm not counting on this as long-term gains. But hopefully we can add to our net worth enough over the next few months that we can stay above a million in assets even when the market has a downturn.

Notes on the numbers above: House value estimates are approximate. (I do have my eye on a comparable listing for the UK flat, but it's been on the market a long time.) UK pension values updated about once a year. UK asset values and debt amounts are calculated figuring $1.25 for every British pound.

Got through last week! Here's what's coming up

February 28th, 2017 at 03:32 pm

Whew, we did everything on the schedule and even managed to have fun doing it! Smile This next week is slightly less crazy (in that not every single day has something(s) going on):

Yesterday I ordered the last of the kids' birthday presents and made invitations for SL's bday (which isn't actually happening until April 1). I also signed tax docs and wrote checks, so we're done with taxes for the year. I still need to write donor thank-you emails for my alma mater, but it keeps getting pushed. It just needs to happen today or tomorrow. Other things I've pushed off: scheduling a bunch of routine doctor appts. for me and the kids, donating to my friend's fundraiser for a good cause.

Tonight and tomorrow are easy dinners and nothing going on, so hopefully I'll have the energy to get some more stuff done.

Thursday is my 43rd birthday! I have the day off and no real plans other than picking up ingredients for vegan rice krispie treats. Maybe I'll treat myself to breakfast or lunch somewhere. I may stop off at the arcade because I heard they give out free tokens on your birthday. That night we're getting Chinese delivery and hanging with our downstairs neighbors, and might "test out" SL's karaoke stand (we really should make sure we know how to work it before her party Smile ). My one big present from the spouses is 2 handpainted cat portraits, but I need to choose photos of our kitties to send to the artist and I haven't decided yet, so they'll come later.

NT has events Friday and Saturday for a festival he helped organize, but I don't think I'm going to any of them.

Saturday is AS's 38th bday! We'll be ordering some kind of delivery for dinner, and then glomming onto someone else's bday party as an easy way to have fun without planning or too much money. Smile We have one small present for her, but this year she'll be deciding what to buy with her bday gift money.

Sunday is AA's 7th bday! We have four confirmed guests for her salon day, so we'll be getting manis and pedis for five little girls in the morning, then taking them out to lunch. Meanwhile SL has swim class in the morning and a friend's bday party in the afternoon. That night we'll have dinner of AA's choice, cake and presents. Mostly books and a couple toys; the big present is a 2-wheel scooter to replace her 3-wheel one.

Then Monday and Tuesday will be relatively uneventful before the next wave of activities hits us. Smile

Spending, taxes, etc.

February 22nd, 2017 at 01:43 am

We've been spending, spending, spending recently!

- NT had his solo roadtrip, and the carshare cost twice as much as we'd estimated! I forgot they charge for mileage after the first 100 miles per day. Whoops. He also had other expenses on the trip.
- We bought Valentine gifts and treats for the kids and had a dinner date. At least that was cheap; less than $70 for three appetizers, three entrees and six drinks!
- I booked my airfare to NYC for March and bought tickets to the show I'm going to.
- NT booked airfare for his solo trip to England for his sister's wedding in September.
- We had a number of other shows besides my March one that we wanted to go to: two plays and a movie, one already past, one tomorrow, and one coming up in March. So I bought all those tickets.
- I signed the kids up for another round of swim classes and AA up for an art class.
- I set aside $$ for AA's party, which will be mani/pedis with 4 friends, plus lunch afterward. I'm trying not to stress that we haven't gotten any RSVPs! AS got one of the parents on the phone tonight and we'll send notes for the other three. I'd like the chance to invite some of AA's other friends if any of these can't come.
- We bought a karaoke stand for SL's bday party.
- I set aside $$ for AS's dreadlock maintenance appointment.

What with AS's freelance checks being a bit sluggish, we were about $1500 in the hole after all of this spending! Then today we got the news from my tax guy that we're actually going to net about $3K in refunds this year. What luck! I put half toward the renovations budget and used the other half to make up the spending money shortfall. Now when AS gets some more checks, we can use them to set aside funds for my NYC trip, for grownups to order food for our birthdays, and to set aside to pay the remainder of the cabin and car rental for our April trip.

February through the first part of April are looking extremely busy! Travel for work, potluck, movie, plays, my solo trip, our cabin trip, and of course Birthday Month (all five of our birthdays are in March). Luckily none of us adults have a milestone this year, so we're having low-key birthdays. The kids are having more elaborate birthdays than us this year!

This week alone, we have: movie date tomorrow night (our downstairs neighbors feeding and watching the kids), me leaving for a quick business trip Thursday morning (coming back Friday morning), an alumni event I'm cohosting Saturday, swim classes for the kids Saturday and Sunday, the neighborhood "chili fest" on Sunday lunchtime, a potluck at our downstairs neighbors Sunday at dinner time. Oh and tonight I have to write notes to the kids' parents who we want to come to AA's party next week, and I need to write some thank-you emails to donors for my alumni association.

Holy moly! I'd better get to work. Big Grin

Progress (or lack thereof) on goals

February 22nd, 2017 at 01:24 am

Whew, it's been a long time since I posted!

Luckily I keep our menu plan in a Google spreadsheet, so I can look at revision history and see what new recipes we tried. Smile

NT found a vegan crab cake prepared food, so we tried that. I made a new kind of purple coleslaw and a new (very standard) rice pilaf to go with it. We really liked all of it. I'd get the crab cakes again and definitely make the rice pilaf. It's just from the Campbell's website, but nice comfort food.

Another night we did "pizza style" grilled cheese sandwiches. (No recipe, just something that occurred to me to try.) We used pizza cheese, and for the grownups added sauteed peppers and onions, vegan pepperoni slices, and marinara sauce on the side for dipping. It was pretty good but not transcendent or anything.

That's 15 new meals tried, 35 to go!

No progress on the financial goals, and no progress from my neighbor on the agreement for selling the lower unit of our duplex. No decluttering progress. No movement on refinancing the US place or selling the UK one (that similar UK place is still on the market, now for almost a year).

No progress on self-publishing. I asked AS to read one of my two novels and give me some recommendations, but I don't know if she's actually going to do it. She started getting irritated with me asking, so now I just have to wait. I've decided if she doesn't look at it by end of March (birthday month), I'll just do the best I can to edit it without her input. We have a week at a cabin with no screen time, so if I bring a printout, I can work on it there.

Renovations: the bathroom is almost done! Unfortunately, the other bathroom's tub/shower has sprung a bad leak. It was a small leak for a while and I hoped we could ignore it until the other one was done, and then figure out how to close off the water until we get around to renovating that one completely, but it's gotten really bad. The plumber who's working on the renovation will hopefully come tomorrow and we can hopefully ask him if he has a recommendation for the cheapest, fastest solution. The other bathroom really is almost done, so we could turn off this one very soon. I'd hate to spend a ton to fix it knowing it will be completely renovated down the road, but I'm also concerned this leak will turn into a flood soon. (It's already a very bad leak, and it's hot water coming out as well.)

Progress on goal (new recipes)

February 7th, 2017 at 08:47 pm

We tried two new meals in the past few days! On Sunday, we had biscuits & gravy. It was pretty good (AS made her usual vegan biscuits which are always great) but I wonder if I could make a better gravy. I used veggie sausage patties and crumbled and browned them before adding to the gravy. That part was good. I used soymilk that I typically use for savory recipes, but I felt like it brought a sweetness to the gravy that spoiled the effect a bit. Maybe a different milk or just add some savory elements to overpower the slight sweet taste.

Then Monday we had ham, beans, greens and cornbread. The ham and beans were both new recipes: I made a vegan ham from scratch and a modified version of FrugalTexan's beans. (I don't have an instapot so I took an online recipe for stovetop beans but used FT's suggested seasonings.) The beans were an awesome side dish (maybe I'd put a bit more paprika next time), but the ham was a fail. The flavor was good but the texture didn't work. I sliced it and pan-fried the slices, and that made it OK, but still my least favorite "wheat meat" I've made in a long time. I may look around for another vegan ham recipe since we liked the concept of it!

13 new meals tried, 37 to go!

Progress on goals

February 2nd, 2017 at 06:34 pm

I've again decided that a refi of the U.S. mortgage is off the table at this point. If rates go down, values go up or we're able to pay down a big chunk of principal, I'll reconsider, but for now the matter is closed.

Total debt is down to about $458K. We should meet the goal of less than $450K of debt in about nine months, unless something else happens to add to debt (selling the UK property and buying a U.S. one with a bigger mortgage, for instance, or refinancing the U.S. mortgage and rolling in closing costs). It's an unpredictable year so I'm not sure about that particular goal.

We tried another new meal on Monday: taco crescent ring using Pillsbury crescent dough and vegan "ground beef" substitute. I thought it was great! NT thought it was OK. The kids actually cleaned their plates, which hardly ever happens with new foods, so for that reason alone I'd make it again. 11 new recipes tried, 39 to go.

February 2017 debt payments

February 2nd, 2017 at 06:29 pm

All our mortgage payments hit:

US: $689
UK1: $180
UK2: $39
UK3: $40

In total, $948 went toward principal.

Seeing my U.S. mortgage payment go through was another small weight off my mind about switching banks. I'm watching even more closely than usual to make sure I don't miss any payments or anything.

Credit score :(

February 1st, 2017 at 05:40 pm

Well, Capital One wrote us a letter telling us that they went ahead and reported NT's late payment, so our phone call was useless.

Today the mortgage guy let me know that NT's credit score is currently in the 600s because of showing as being over 30 days past due on that account.

So he's going to try and qualify just AS and me for a refi. NT will still be put on the loan (if we do the refi) but will not be included on the qualifying info.