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Archive for August, 2018

August 2018 retirement goal update

August 31st, 2018 at 03:28 pm

Goal: $512,564 by March 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 $75,120, so $225,360; NT to 3x his, which is now $62,100, so $186,300; and AS to 2x hers, which in 2017 was $50,452, so $100,904).

Current balance: $431,075

July 2018 balance: $421,009

Progress: $10,066

To reach the interim goal by the end of our birthday month (March) in 2019, that's 7 months, so we'd need to contribute (or have assets appreciate) $81,489 -- $11,641 per month -- to reach it.

We rarely come close to that, so it's pretty unlikely. But at least we're making progress in the right direction!

August 2018 net worth update

August 31st, 2018 at 03:23 pm

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 17,967 pounds ($22,459)
SW: 26,544 pounds ($33,180)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $68,397
NT's Roth IRA: $29,585
AS's trad. IRA: $19,887
AS's Roth IRA: $51,051
AS's SEP IRA: $26,374
CJ's 401(k): $136,923
CJ's Roth IRA: $35,141
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $427,281 ($454,554 value -6%)
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TOTAL ASSETS: $1,070,856

Debts:
US Mortgage $386,099
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $32,126
UK Mortgage 2 $6,773
UK Mortgage 3 $7,131
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TOTAL DEBT $441,129

Current Estimated Net Worth: $629,727

July 2018 estimate: $618,678

Change in net worth: +$11,049

Summary: Pretty big gains this month, almost as much as last month. My 2018 net worth goal seems a lot more within the realm of possibility!

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.

August 2018 debt payments

August 2nd, 2018 at 06:16 pm

All our mortgage payments hit:
US: $726 to principal
UK1: $180
UK2: $37
UK3: $40

All told, we paid $983 to principal.

New debt totals:

US Mortgage $386,099
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $32,126
UK Mortgage 2 $6,773
UK Mortgage 3 $7,131
---
TOTAL DEBT $441,129

Money and other news updates

August 1st, 2018 at 10:33 pm

As always happens recently, I'm going to try and run through a lot of updates all in one post! It makes for very nondescriptive titles but oh well. Smile

- Had a sit-down with the spouses about our shared spending and vacation budgets being so far in the red. I put together projections of what would happen if we stopped funding the reno fund for a while and split AS's net pay 50/50 between the two line items. If we were careful about our spending for the next few months, we should be back in the positive by October, so hopefully then we can start splitting it 3 ways between shared spending, vacations and renovations.

Everyone gave up some things to make this projection work. NT gave up a second trip he was hoping to take. (I was also idly thinking about another trip because my two have/will be very very cheap. But it's highly unlikely I'll get another one this year.) I cut back the amount I was planning to spend on my next solo trip and pledged to shop my closet for my fall wardrobe and avoid buying new clothes if possible. AS cut her sewing-room renovation budget from $1000 to $600.

And we all agreed to skip the State Fair this year; we love going but most of the charm is buying tons of different foods, which combined with admission (and sometimes a second trip with the kids, which involves rides and games) gets very expensive. There's always next year!

- Some other expenses came to light after our discussion, but also AS logged some more hours on her big freelance job that aren't in the projection. I'm going to update my projection every week or so to keep tabs on whether we're likely to hit our goal.

- I just realized that I'll be in four, maybe five different states this month! Tomorrow we leave for Va. (technically we're spending the first and last night in a hotel in Md. but I don't count that). We may do a day or overnight trip to W.Va. while we're there. We get back Wednesday, and that Friday I leave on a road trip with a friend to Iowa to see my fave band. We get back that Sunday, and on Tuesday I fly to Tenn. for a two-night, three-day business trip! Whew!

- Although I haven't made any progress on editing my own novel, I've been busily chatting with my NY friend on our plans to write a new novel together. We're a long way off from starting; we need to agree on the main plot, character and setting before we can start writing a scene-by-scene outline. But we have lots of great ideas so I'm hopeful we can pull it off!

- I've been neglecting most of my goals except guitar, which I practice almost every day and keep making progress on. However, I realize that most of my goals were about reducing stress and increasing mental health, and guitar is doing more for that than I could have imagined, so I'm kind of OK with taking a different direction than my initial goals for the year.

- I do wish I could finish my emergency preparedness kit and schedule us for some first aid/CPR classes, but I need to wait until our spending deficit is under control.

- Things we decided not to cut back on: kids' swim lessons at the pricier (but very effective) new place we've been trying, art class for the 8-year-old, and we're going to start gymnastics lessons for the 6-year-old. We had her on art but it's not really her thing. She's always doing somersaults and flipping off couches, so maybe gymnastics will be a better fit!

- I thought about withdrawing from my alumni board so I could maybe focus my time on other interests, but then I had a couple of fun events that actually went well, and the alumni office has been so grateful for the work I do. So I'm reconsidering and may try to serve out my term (until 2021).

- My second-weekly guitar lessons end next week, which I'm glad of so I can have more of a social life again! When I finish all this traveling, that is. But maybe I can do some planning now to set up some hanging-out time with various people for when I'm back from my three trips. Tonight though I have to focus on packing, since we'll be leaving for the airport as soon as I get home from work and picking one of the kids up from daycare tomorrow.

- We've had some minor illness and injury lately -- AS sprained an ankle, AA had a fever for a couple days, a few other things -- but overall we're in good health. My one complaint is I've been so busy and our kid dropoff routine is so off-kilter that I haven't been walking nearly as much as I had been, and my A.M. strength exercises have fallen off the radar. Got to get those two habits back, because they do wonders for my energy!

I'm sure there's more I've forgotten, but that's more than enough for one post!