Better month net worth-wise; we made up last month's lost ground and added $10K. We're now at Coast with a $225K+ surplus!
I like to go on the calculator and move my retirement age down a year...if I'm still at Coast I make it one lower...see how far I can get. Well I got to retiring at age 60 and was still in Coast!
I don't really know if my spending estimates are accurate. Maybe we're worse off because I haven't factored in how much me and the spouses are gonna spend, or maybe we're better off because I don't factor Social Security in at all. But I do like imagining that I'm less than 8 years away from retirement!
I also don't really know what retirement would look like for me. I imagine I'd still want to work in some capacity but maybe most of it would be doing unpaid or lower-paid stuff I love, like fiction writing, music journalism, etc. I do like marketing work still, but occasionally I feel burnt out from the hustle of it. It'd be nice to be able to pick and choose my paying work!
Anyway, the improved net worth was a bright spot amid our current struggles. For one, our kiddo's gender supportive care so far is gonna cost us $4500, and we haven't even begun to get to the hormone stuff, let alone if surgery is on the table. That's gonna take us over our healthcare spending budget for the year and there's still me and AS's mammograms and who konws what else this year. We def can't go any further on the gender care until we make a plan for how much it's gonna be and how to pay for it.
That was the expense side. On the income side, AS and I had booked a 6 month or so contract that was meant to gross $90K. Well the project was canceled after we'd only billed about $30K. So our calculations of our annual booked income went way down and I've been hustling to take every job that comes my way. I feel okayish about hitting our goal of me and AS making $164K; we've booked about $80K and it's less than halfway through the year. But it's still ambitious because it's $50K more than we grossed last year, and there can be quiet periods, and if we get one of those it could really throw us off track this year. And plus, it does look like we're gonna go over budget in a few areas, mainly home improvement (boiler replacement) and healthcare, but there are other things that could go wrong.
On the happy life side though, at least things have calmed down somewhat in Minneapolis. ICE is still here, deportation flights are still happening, loads of people are detained or deported including 70+ MN kids (you know, the worst of the worst), but they're keeping a lower profile presence now. And it sounds like Tr*mp did not repeat the pattern of Metro Surge anywhere else because of how bad we made them look, so that's good.
On a frivolous home note, we adopted 2 young cats in early March! They are somewhat feral (but in a gentle fearful way, not a bitey scratchy way) and still spend most of their time under the bathtub, but they are lovely boys and we are so in love with them.
May 1st, 2026 at 10:11 pm 1777673506
What kind of contract work do you guys do? Because, to me losing a $90k gig while having already accrued $30k expenses would have really burned my bacon.
Yeah, I guess it's good that ICE is being a lot more discrete at least, though the fact that they're still out there profiling blue cities burn my bacon as well.
May 1st, 2026 at 11:41 pm 1777678899
May 2nd, 2026 at 12:34 am 1777682068
May 2nd, 2026 at 03:31 pm 1777735902
Good that ICE is being less nasty.
May 23rd, 2026 at 01:56 am 1779501380
May 23rd, 2026 at 04:27 pm 1779553666
My numbers are a bit loopy, I admit--they may only make sense to me lol. But let me see if I can untangle them in a way that makes sense.
I don't see us fully retiring early even if we hit our milestone number because:
1. The budget assumes a paid-off main mortgage, but we have 19 years left on our main mortgage. So even in 13 years when I am due to fully retire according to my calculations, we will still have 6 years of mortgage payments left (unless we manage to pay it off early).
2. The budget assumes no more kid expenses. Our youngest is 14, and we'll be supporting him through college at least, so we have another 8 years of kid expenses. So even if we hit our milestone before then, that would impact our ability to retire.
3. The budget may underestimate monthly/yearly expenses. I haven't updated it in a while, so I'd need to take a clear-eyed look at that before deciding to retire.
4. We have one out-there idea, and that's to purchase a property in Portugal. TBD whether we could make it work, and if so, whether we could AirBnB it part of the year to help us break even on mortgage and other expenses. I'm not even sure this is realistic but if it starts to be more of a possibility, it becomes part of the retirement equation.
On the positive side of my loopy calculations, I don't figure Social Security benefits into them at all. That's like bonus money sitting out there. So when we get close to our milestone number, part of my assessment will include seeing where Social Security is and whether it's a realistic part of our retirement income calculations.
My biggest hope, though not fully formed, is that we can scale back on our work in about 8 years, reducing our income and starting to draw down some of our retirement savings to supplement.
I hope that clears things up though it probably made it even more confusing! Suffice it to say CoastFIRE is still mainly a fun exercise vs. a reality-based plan. The only thing it's changed is that I do feel confident not putting any more money away for retirement. That's been a huge boost for us though, because we used to put thousands away per month!