Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

Finally, some progress on the retirement goal!

Goal: $814,292 by March 2024

Current retirement balance: $565,234

January 2020 balance: $542,038

Progress since last update: $23,196

Still needed: $249,058

This interim goal is based on getting my and NT's retirement to 4x our salaries (currently $82,500 and $64,118) by the time we turn 50 and AS's retirement values to 3x her annual income ($75,940 in 2018) by the time she turns 45.
$82,500 x 4 = $330,000
$64,118 x 4 = $256,472
$75,940 x 3 = $227,820

It will shift anytime our salary/annual income changes. (The only exception is I won't lower AS's if she has a lower-income year, because her income fluctuates. So I'm keeping it at the 2018 level because her 2019 income was a little less.)

NOTE: I'm in a weird position because I got a 10% raise in February but a 10% "temporary" paycut in May. I decided to base this on my new salary of $82,500 instead of my old (and current "temporary") $75,120 salary. But that may change. I don't know. I'm still thinking about it. But that of course puts us farther behind because our goal is now that much more ambitious. (NT has also taken a "temporary" 20% paycut but we hope that will end in September, so I'm keeping him at his stated salary.)

There are 44 months to go before March 2024, so that means we need to gain $5660 per month on average to meet our goal.

The ultimate goal we're working toward is 8x our annual income by the time we retire at 65.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 22,397 pounds ($27,996)
SW: 29,047 pounds ($36,309)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $92,548
NT's Roth IRA: $46,606
AS's trad. IRA: $21,978
AS's Roth IRA: $68,610
AS's SEP IRA: $47,913
CJ's 401(k): $163,988
CJ's Roth IRA: $51,208
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $592,200 ($630,000 value -6%)
---
TOTAL ASSETS: $1,369,934

Debts:
US Mortgage $368,807
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $27,929
UK Mortgage 2 $5,888
UK Mortgage 3 $6,200
---
TOTAL DEBT $417,824

Current Estimated Net Worth: $952,110

June 2020 estimate: $758,303

Change in net worth: +$193,807

Summary: Wow, thanks to the higher-than-expected home appraisal, we're suddenly nearing net-worth-millionaire status! Our retirement accounts were all up a fair bit too--maybe $20K? So that helped too!

If our refi goes through we'll add about $5K to our debt next month, so I don't expect to keep at this level. I'm also thinking the stock markets can't hold out against the recession forever, so those could tank at any time. Still, this is a nice number to see!

Notes on the numbers above: House value estimates are usually approximate. UK pension values updated about once a year. UK asset values and debt amounts are calculated figuring $1.25 for every British pound.

We're still in the refi process, but it does appear to be moving toward completion. AIMloan is a much more orderly broker than the person we worked with for our last two big mortgage actions (buying our current home and refinancing it).

I don't claim to understand everything about how refis work, but despite having to bring a lot more to the table than expected, it still feels like we're getting a good deal. Here's what's happened:

- They noted we'd have to bring over $13K to closing (or is it $14K or $15K? I have such trouble understanding the magic math of mortgages), despite having quoted closing costs of $2400. Say it's partly to prepay 4 months of interest, insurance and taxes into the escrow, and partly because our annual insurance bill is coming due. We have the cash on hand but since we still want to do a kitchen reno at some point, I asked them to roll $5K of it into the loan.

- In addition to rolling $5K into the loan, I believe we'll get $3700 returned to us from the existing mortgage's escrow account, and I have $3500 set aside for the refi. The very highest closing number I'm seeing (I can't tell if that's what we'll actually need) is $15,619. So that means the most we'd have to come up with, net, is $3419.

- Our home appraised for $630K (vs the $500K I estimated)! This means even with the additional $5K, our LTV is 59%. Our agent says this means a $937 drop in closing costs. So maybe the most we'll have to come up with is $2482?

- AIM also says there's a $1473 "aggregate adjustment" coming our way but I can't tell if that's already factored into the numbers. It also seems like the loan is based on a higher principal amount than what we owe, but maybe I'm reading things wrong. It's all so confusing! It does appear that the closing costs they're charging are staying the same and that the other fluctuations are due to escrow, insurance etc., so I'm just trusting the process at this point. Luckily we have plenty of money in savings.

- Right now it seems like we're just throwing tons of money at the refi, but in the long run, we should get a monthly payment that's $300 less than what we pay now, for the same payoff period we had before, so if that happens, I'm happy. Anyway, we do have expensive homeowner insurance and property taxes, so it kind of just is what it is I guess.

- I let our neighbors know about the appraised value and they said they're meeting with an accountant to get all their tax stuff worked out! If that happens, we'll start to explore the possibility of co-owning the home again. I had all but dismissed that idea forever because I thought they'd never clear out their unfiled tax returns. My neighbor said he's thinking we should do a trust where the home is owned among us but goes to our kids. (They don't have kids and they're our kids' godfathers so they want to leave their portion to them.) So we'll see how that all pans out. Definitely will be making sure there are no unfiled taxes and also will get a second opinion from another lawyer to make sure there aren't any pitfalls we're not considering.

Mortgage payments hit:
US: $776 to principal
UK1: $191
UK2: $40
UK3: $43

That's a total of $1,050 of debt paid.

New household debt totals:

US Mortgage $368,807
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $27,929
UK Mortgage 2 $5,888
UK Mortgage 3 $6,200
---
TOTAL DEBT $417,824

It's been a month and a half since my previous post about what COVID has done financially to our household. What a wild ride it continues to be! At least my mental health seems to be settling into a more stable place; not happy, but more accepting that it's going to be a long long time before things get back to anything resembling normal.

Anyway, money stuff:

- Salary. Last time I wrote, NT had seen a 5% paycut. Now, the paycut for him is 20%. The bonus is, he gets Fridays off. I also now have a 10% paycut. I consider that lucky since 6 of our approximately 36 staff were cut last week. My workload is abnormally light so I don't at all feel secure in my position, but for now I'm still in it. At least AS's freelance business is still going strong!

- Net worth. As detailed in my previous post, our wealth has essentially stagnated since January. I know we're some of the luckier ones to even be able to hold the line, so I can't complain, but it's not a great feeling either to not be making any progress.

- Refi. After dithering for years about a refi, I suddenly bit the bullet and applied for one last night! We're preliminarily approved so we'll see how it goes. I've noticed I'm more willing to make sudden changes in my thinking during this whole crisis, so I do think this is a COVID impact. If all goes well and if I understand correctly, we'll spend about $3400 for a 25-year mortgage that's about the same P&I as our current 30-years, and no mortgage insurance should take us down a few hundred bucks a month, so if I understand the costs right, it should pay for itself in 6-9 months.

- Technology. Last time I reported we bought two Chromebooks for the kids' distance learning. Since then we've also purchased a Nintendo Switch to have some new games to help distract us. About $350 total for the system and a starter batch of games.

- Dependent care flex spending. Last time, I mentioned stopping contributions because it seemed like all summer care options were being canceled. Well, in the end three options did decide to open, so we'll be incurring some daycare expenses without the immediate tax benefit. I could have started up my contributions again but thought, what if there's an outbreak that forces the camps to close? What if one of us gets COVID and we all need to quarantine? So I decided not to. We did change the summer care schedules to just four days a week, and on Fridays NT entertains the kids, or we let them lounge around on screens if he's busy with errands or whatever.

- The UK flat. Early this year (January or February), we decided that Brexit had settled down enough to list our flat for sale, so our management company gave our renters notice. Then COVID hit. Technically the flat is still on the market, but we found new renters who signed a year lease, so anyone who bought it would have to take it over with them in situ. I'm glad we have renters to cover the mortgage, property taxes etc. though, even if it means even less chance the flat will sell anytime soon. We only missed one month of rent after all that, amazingly; the old renters moved out 5/31 and the new ones move in tomorrow.

- Regular household expenses. Last time, we hadn't used the bus in over a month. Since then, we have used it a few times to get the kids to daycare or to go to a store, but the buses have the front blocked off to protect the driver, so there's no way to use our bus passes. So we continue to save on that regular expense.

- Going out/shows. Last time I reported I'd gotten refunds from loads of canceled shows. Since then, I've bought a few concert tickets, for a late October show and two May 2021 events. I also continue to tip musicians whose livestreams I watch, because they're still working hard, and they need all the help they can get.

- Travel. Of the 4 air trips and 1 road trip we had booked before the pandemic hit, all have been canceld (either by us or the airline) except 1 air trip (sending the kids on their first parent-free flight to see my sister in Va.).
* We got airline credits for two of the three flights and a full refund for the one hotel that had been reserved.
* The big airfare, the one to UK, was fully refunded without us even requesting. That $5K was a balm to our budget and wiped out our shared-spending deficit. In different times I might've tried to save the cash for a future time, but...you know.
* We did however book two NEW trips: road trips to lakes to replace two of the canceled trips. A road trip to a secluded rental house is much less risk than a touristy destination.
* We are waiting to decide on the kids' trip to Va. but from what I've read, planes are not that risky comparatively, and my kids are well, well trained on safety and social distancing. MN and Va. are so far controlling the spread pretty well, so if that keeps up, we may go through with that trip.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 22,397 pounds ($27,996)
SW: 29,047 pounds ($36,309)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $88,673
NT's Roth IRA: $43,474
AS's trad. IRA: $21,004
AS's Roth IRA: $64,468
AS's SEP IRA: $45,695
CJ's 401(k): $153,837
CJ's Roth IRA: $47,862
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $427,281 ($454,554 value -6%)
---
TOTAL ASSETS: $1,177,177

Debts:
US Mortgage $369,583
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $228,120
UK Mortgage 2 $5,928
UK Mortgage 3 $6,243
---
TOTAL DEBT $418,874

Current Estimated Net Worth: $758,303

May 2020 estimate: $743,824

Change in net worth: +$14,479

Summary: Our net worth finally surpassed our previous high which was way back in January. Five months later we have gained $545 in wealth. (And I'm certainly not counting on this amount.) I'm not going to do a retirement progress update yet though, because we've paid off about $5K in debt in those months, so I know overall our retirement accounts are still off their January highs.

I will be interested to see if our appraisal for the refi we're attempting will turn up a higher home value than what I have. But again, considering how weird everything is right now, not really counting on anything.

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.

Our mortgage lender sent a refi offer -- they FedEx'ed it which was a good ploy to get me to open it.

I like the rates they mention and that there are fewer fees. Plus it would be a chance to eliminate our mortgage insurance, which we're stuck with for the life of our loan regardless of LTV.

But they slapped this chart on the mailing and I'm totally confused. The new scenario shows a new loan amount that's over $120K lower than our current principal balance.

So what I'm trying to figure out is, why are they showing that lower amount? Are they trying to say we'd have to pay down to that amount to qualify for the refi? Or are they being sneaky and pretending this offer will save way more money than it actually would if I refi'ed the entire principal amount?

Either way, is this sneakiness concerning enough that I shouldn't even reach out to them? I didn't choose this lender; when we refi'ed, the lender sold our loan to this company. We haven't had any problems with them but don't really know anything about them either.

All our mortgage payments hit:

US: $774 to principal
UK1: $191
UK2: $40
UK3: $42

That's a total of $1,047 debt paid.

New household debt totals:
US Mortgage $369,583
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $28,120
UK Mortgage 2 $5,928
UK Mortgage 3 $6,243
----------
TOTAL DEBT $418,874

CCF's note made me realize a quick check-in might be welcome! We live in South Minneapolis, the area facing the most unrest, but so far our block has been untouched. We're not getting much sleep but otherwise OK. Most protesters are staying home during curfew so the looters and arsonists are easier to target. Unfortunately there's some white supremacist activity that's very calculated to strike fear so we've been staying up very late watching the streets. So far they've not hit any private homes, though they've threatened to, so we're hoping they get weeded out before that can happen.

On the bright side, very proud of most of our neighbors for everything they're doing for one another. We haven't done much but we donated some money to various causes, and NT attended a rally and a cleanup.

I'll check in hopefully soon with a longer life update, including some more financial impacts of COVID-19 that have cropped up since my last life update, but for the time being I wanted to let you know we're hanging in there, focused on getting through the day to day as best we can.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 22,397 pounds ($27,996)
SW: 29,047 pounds ($36,309)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $85,506
NT's Roth IRA: $41,775
AS's trad. IRA: $20,447
AS's Roth IRA: $62,200
AS's SEP IRA: $44,055
CJ's 401(k): $151,556
CJ's Roth IRA: $46,042
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $427,281 ($454,554 value -6%)
---
TOTAL ASSETS: $1,163,745

Debts:
US Mortgage $370,357
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $28,311
UK Mortgage 2 $5,968
UK Mortgage 3 $6,285
---
TOTAL DEBT $419,921

Current Estimated Net Worth: $743,824

April 2020 estimate: $703,686

Change in net worth: +$40,138

Summary: We lost $85K total value in February and March, and have gained about $72K back, so we're about $13K off from our pre-pandemic high.

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.

Hey, have you heard about this pandemic thing? :-)

The weirdest thing about this whole thing is that more than anything in my lifetime -- more than the great recession, more than the tsunami a few years ago, more than even 9/11 -- I know nearly every person in the world is affected by and thinks about COVID-19 nearly every day. We're all having the same moment in history, but every person's situation is slightly different. So all I can really comment on is how it affects me personally.

Mentally and physically, that's a whole story on its own; it's taking its toll of course. I'm just going to focus on all the financial things that have changed for me since early March when this really hit my world.

The bad:

- Salary. NT has been given a small temporary pay cut, equivalent to last year's pay raise, but other than that our incomes remain miraculously intact. We're all working from home at our office jobs. (AS has had her lowest 6 weeks of income ever, weirdly, since she started being an independent contractor, but it has nothing to do with the pandemic. She just got paid early for a bunch of things in the first quarter and is working on a lot of things now that she either already got paid for or will get paid for later.)

- Groceries. The schools used to provide 3 or 4 lunches per week for the girls, plus breakfast and snacks if they needed them, so our grocery bill has gone up. Liquor store spending has increased too, but that's mainly because we used to drink at shows etc. and that got calculated differently. I don't think we're drinking more than before; in fact it might be a little less for me at least.

- Technology. When it became clear the kids would be distance learning for a while, we decided we couldn't take turns on our computers forever, so we bought them each a refurbished Chromebook. Not a huge expense but one we wouldn't have made for a couple years, probably.

- Dependent care flex spending. We allocated $5K pretax for child care that was going to be used for summer camps/care. Well, the first summer camp has just notified us that it won't be happening this year, and we expect some or all of them to follow suit. Well, I've already had nearly $1700 withheld from my paychecks, and the current policy is that the money is use it or lose it. So unless I find a workaround, I might lose it. Two possible solutions: 1) I wonder if my old daycare lady, who is one of the most cleanliness-focused people I know, would take two older kids for a week or two. It'd give everyone in the house a much needed break and I could use some of my use-it-or-lose-it money. I may check with her at some point. 2) I heard from a co-worker that I could potentially move that money into my medical flex spending account. We haven't exhausted our current flex spending but it's possible we could over the course of the year, plus I believe you can carry over a few hundred into next year. We'll see.

- The UK flat. Early this year (January or February), we decided that Brexit had settled down enough to list our flat for sale, so our management company gave our renters notice. Little did we know what was about to take over. This is the last month they'll be paying rent, but our estate agents aren't allowed to do viewings, so our place is essentially sitting on the market. If we don't sell it soon, we'll have to start covering mortgage payments, utilities and association dues out of savings. We asked for advice and our management company said they could list it for rent simultaneous with it being for sale, so we're going for that. We have enough money in UK savings to cover expenses for probably a couple years, but hopefully it won't come to that!

The good:

- Regular house expenses. Since we can't really use them, we've been saving money on bus passes, carshares, ride-sharing and house-cleaning. I haven't stopped my bus pass being taken out of my paycheck, A) because it's a pain to stop and start it and B) it's a relatively small expense that supports our public transit system, but NT, AS and the kids haven't needed bus passes in a while. Most of those were reimbursed by NT's work so it's not much of a savings. The house cleaning was over $200 per month, so that has been more of a benefit to us.

- Stimulus money. Obviously that's been a benefit to us. We decided since we didn't really need it, we'd spread it around. So we've spent most of it helping nonprofits, artists, local and small businesses, etc. Some of it benefits us, such as local restaurant delivery, CDs, and gift cards to places we intend to go back to when they reopen, but some of it is just benefiting society as a whole. But anyway, it's made it easy to make the decision to give back to the community.

- Going out/shows. I had quite a few shows booked that were canceled, and I got most of them refunded. A few I had them keep the money for when the show got hopefully rescheduled, and a couple I donated the amount to the venue or artist. So I didn't see a big material benefit but I suppose I saved some money. (even though I'd much rather have the shows!)

- Child care. Once I realized summer camps would likely not happen, I canceled the remainder of my dependent care flex spending contributions. That will bring about $3300 (pretax, so less than that once it's taxed) back into our budget for the year. And if I do find summer care options, I have the $1700 set aside, which I'm no longer counting on getting back, so that will feel like something extra for free at this point.

The chaotic/confusing

- Travel. I booked 4 air trips and one road trip in February; two have been canceled and the other three are severely in doubt. For the one air trip I had to cancel so far, the airline had a deal where I got a credit I can use for two years. I'm wondering if I can get actual refunds if others are canceled. I'm not sure, but I guess even if I can't, they'll probably give us credits we can use later, so when travel is eventually allowed again, we'd be able to book a few trips using credits. So it hasn't helped our current cash flow but it may make vacations a lot cheaper next year if all these get canceled. (One was a trip to England for about $5K, the others were smaller/cheaper trips.)

- Summer camps/care. We do a thing where we use five different places to provide summer care, which gives the kids a lot of variety and keeps them from getting bored. However it's thrown planning (both money and logistics) into chaos.
*One place has canceled camps outright -- they're offering online courses but not for entire weeks, of course. We're getting a refund from that.
*Another is taking a wait-and-see approach for now -- they may try to go on or go virtual, but they're not making decisions and not requiring parents to make decisions yet.
*Another place is going to try and go on but with current social distancing guidelines, need people to commit to 9 straight weeks or nothing. We had signed up for weeks here and there. We have travel in the middle of the summer that we're not sure is getting canceled. We have weeks at other camps that we're not sure are getting canceled. They want us to make this decision by Monday, but there are so many other things in play it feels impossible! But we have to -- if we want our money back we need to cancel by the 18th, if we want the 9-week thing we need to sign up by the 18th. The kicker is of course, there's some chance the state will say no summer camps allowed at all, and all this scrambling will be for nothing.
*We're still waiting to hear from two more camps and trying to decide about travel booked in July and August.

There are so many big and little impacts but those are the main financial ones I can think of right now.

I only got halfway through recording my April payments last month, so my spreadsheet was mixed up and I couldn't tell what I'd recorded. So I'm just going by March debt totals to see how much we paid in April and May combined.

US Mortgage: $1,541
UK 1: $378
UK 2: $80
UK 3: $84

In total, we paid $2,083 of debt in April and May.

Current household debt:
US Mortgage $370,357
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $28,311
UK Mortgage 2 $5,968
UK Mortgage 3 $6,285
---
TOTAL DEBT $419,921

Wow, I see that for the first time...ever? I forgot to record my debt payments for the month. Oh well. I'll do two months' worth when I do May's mortgage payments. If I even remember to. Heh. Time is weird these days.

Anyway, let me do my net worth update before I forget THAT too!

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 22,397 pounds ($27,996)
SW: 29,047 pounds ($36,309)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $82,254
NT's Roth IRA: $39,397
AS's trad. IRA: $19,582
AS's Roth IRA: $58,914
AS's SEP IRA: $42,088
CJ's 401(k): $126,862
CJ's Roth IRA: $43,474
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $427,281 ($454,554 value -6%)
---
TOTAL ASSETS: $1,124,735

Debts:
US Mortgage $371,129
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $28,503
UK Mortgage 2 $6,048
UK Mortgage 3 $6,369
---
TOTAL DEBT $421,049

Current Estimated Net Worth: $703,686

March 2020 estimate: $671,958

Change in net worth: +$31,728

Summary: We lost $85K total value in February and March, and gained almost $32K here, so we're about $53K off from our pre-pandemic high.

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.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 22,397 pounds ($27,996)
SW: 29,047 pounds ($36,309)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $75,245
NT's Roth IRA: $35,213
AS's trad. IRA: $17,852
AS's Roth IRA: $52,913
AS's SEP IRA: $34,803
CJ's 401(k): $126,862
CJ's Roth IRA: $38,910
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $427,281 ($454,554 value -6%)
---
TOTAL ASSETS: $1,093,962

Debts:
US Mortgage $371,898
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $28,689
UK Mortgage 2 $6,048
UK Mortgage 3 $6,369
---
TOTAL DEBT $422,004

Current Estimated Net Worth: $671,958

February 2020 estimate: $726,548

Change in net worth: -$54,590

Summary: Last month we lost $31K, $54K this month, $85K total so far. We're about where we were last May. Repeating my mantra: buying low, buying low, buying low...

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.

A little late reporting this; March is birthday madness in our family and we had three birthdays this past week -- which equalled three nights of family celebrations and three friend parties, so six nights of celebrating over eight nights! Oh, and one was a sleepover, so technically we partied seven out of the past nine days. Super glad the next birthday-related activity isn't for a couple weeks so we can all recover!

All our mortgage payments hit:
US Mortgage: $767 to principal
UK Mortgage 1: $185
UK Mortgage 2: $38
UK Mortgage 3: $41

That's $1,031 total put toward debt this month.

Current debt totals:

US Mortgage $371,898
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $28,689
UK Mortgage 2 $6,048
UK Mortgage 3 $6,369

TOTAL DEBT $422,004

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 22,397 pounds ($27,996)
SW: 29,047 pounds ($36,309)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $82,905
NT's Roth IRA: $40,104
AS's trad. IRA: $20,412
AS's Roth IRA: $60,498
AS's SEP IRA: $40,131
CJ's 401(k): $149,001
CJ's Roth IRA: $44,368
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $427,281 ($454,554 value -6%)
---
TOTAL ASSETS: $1,149,583

Debts:
US Mortgage $372,665
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $28,874
UK Mortgage 2 $6,086
UK Mortgage 3 $6,410
---
TOTAL DEBT $423,035

Current Estimated Net Worth: $726,548

January 2020 estimate: $757,758

Change in net worth: -$31,210

Summary: Considering the news about the Dow crash and everything, I guess it's good that I've only lost about two and a half months' worth of gains. Will be buying low, buying low, buying low...

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.

We took a short trip to Atlanta this past weekend; the kids had a couple days off work, and we wanted to get a break from the cold and snow. It was only in the 50s and a bit gloomy there, but that felt heavenly to us!

Here's the spending totals for a four-day trip (left Friday night, came back Tuesday afternoon). Travel can really add up for a family of five!
Airfare: $994
Lodging: $655
Checked luggage: $60
Taxis & rideshares: $284
Food & drinks: $947
Tickets (aquarium & music show): $231
Souvenirs & misc.: $223
TOTAL: $3,394

I had a little sticker shock at food and drinks coming to nearly $950, but that basically amounts to $47 per person per day, and when you take into account that most midrange restaurants' entrees are priced around $15, not counting drinks, appetizers, desserts or tips, it starts to make sense! I'm just not used to it because we cook almost all our meals at home.

We just booked airfare and car for our next family trip, which is to UK in August. That came to $5,595, but doesn't include lodging (which NT's family is taking care of for us) nor food/drink/entertainment/gas.

So between the two trips that's $8989 of expenses so far! Nearly half of that was paid in cash; the other half I'm floating in the budget and will gradually make up with AS freelance income and other money that comes in. I'm pretty confident we'll be able to pay for it all without dipping into reno or other savings.

As some of you know I've been applying for jobs because my current company was looking shaky, and I've also been contemplating going full-on freelance with AS.

Then a job was posted with my company for a position a half step up from mine. I decided to go for it. There was some confusion and delay, but finally this week I was told I'd gotten the promotion, along with a 10% raise!

I think my company is stabilizing; our results were OK the last quarter of 2019, plus they haven't been giving out promotions and raises for a while, so I take mine as a good sign. I'll still keep an eye on other options, but now I'm feeling better about my current company again.

I won't know my new take-home amount until 2/14. However, I went ahead and bumped up my 401(k) contribution by 1%, and did the same for NT's 401(k) and AS's SEP IRA.

That'll help with our retirement goal, which also gets more ambitious when one of us gets a raise!

Other news:

- We had another meeting with our kitchen designer and it seems like we're on the home stretch of finalizing the design. Once we're done, we can get a detailed quote from our contractor and see if/how much financing we'd need to complete it. Then decide how to handle that.

- We've engaged an estate agent in England and NT's flat will be going on the market soon. Asking price is going to start at 210,000 pounds. We still haven't decided what we'll do with the money if/when it sells; considering all options including U.S. rental property, investing in a stock portfolio, paying down our home mortgage, paying off the kitchen reno, and/or some combination of all that.

- We've started using a professional housecleaning service again, for the first time since we moved into the duplex. It's more expensive than the condo because the square footage is bigger, so we hesitated for a long time (about 6 years I guess!), but we finally concluded it was worth the expense. We are busy all the time and the house just wasn't getting cleaned very well or often. We've had one cleaning so far and it made such a difference!

- AS's freelance business is going exceedingly well, so she's started eliminating some lower-paying jobs and focusing on the most profitable clients.

I guess that's all on the financial front! Maybe I'll do a non-financial update at some point. Life's been busy, plenty of ups and downs but overall very good these days.

All our mortgages hit:

US: $765 to principal
UK1: $182
UK2: $39
UK3: $40

That's $1,026 toward debt this month!

New household debt balances:

US Mortgage $372,665
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $28,874
UK Mortgage 2 $6,086
UK Mortgage 3 $6,410

TOTAL DEBT $423,035

Goal: $784,772 by March 2024

Current retirement balance: $542,038

December 2019 balance: $541,036

Progress since last update: $1,002

Still needed: $242,734

This interim goal is based on getting my and NT's retirement to 4x our salaries (currently $75,120 and $64,118) by the time we turn 50 and AS's retirement values to 3x her annual income ($75,940 in 2018) by the time she turns 45.
$75,120 x 4 = $300,480
$64,118 x 4 = $256,472
$75,940 x 3 = $227,820

It will shift anytime our salary/annual income changes. (The only exception is I won't lower AS's if she has a lower-income year, because her income fluctuates. So I'm keeping it at the 2018 level because her 2019 income was a little less.)

There are 50 months to go before March 2024, so that means we need to gain $4855 per month on average to meet our goal.

The ultimate goal we're working toward is 8x our annual income by the time we retire at 65.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 22,397 pounds ($27,996)
SW: 29,047 pounds ($36,309)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $87,170
NT's Roth IRA: $42,969
AS's trad. IRA: $21,755
AS's Roth IRA: $64,813
AS's SEP IRA: $42,998
CJ's 401(k): $162,413
CJ's Roth IRA: $47,537
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $427,281 ($454,554 value -6%)
---
TOTAL ASSETS: $1,181,819

Debts:
US Mortgage $373,430
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $29,056
UK Mortgage 2 $6,125
UK Mortgage 3 $6,450
---
TOTAL DEBT $424,061

Current Estimated Net Worth: $757,758

December 2019 estimate: $755,732

Change in net worth: +$2,026

Summary: After a couple big months, gaining $2K doesn't seem like much, but given all the uncertainty out there, I'll take it of course!

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.

Advice, thoughts, opinions and experiences welcomed on this one!

First, the situation:

We're finally going to try and sell the UK flat this year. Now that Brexit details are becoming more concrete, we're hoping people will be less spooked and homes will move faster.

We'll probably list it in the spring, when the current tenants' lease is nearly up. It might be listed for 215K pounds but could sell for about 200K. We think management and real estate agent will take 3% of the sale price. We'll still owe about 32K in mortgages that will need to be paid off. We will likely owe about 35K in capital gains tax (the property appreciated in value quite a bit from when NT bought it).

So that takes us to:
200K
-6K
-32K
-35K
A profit of 127K pounds maybe?

That's approximately $160,000 in U.S. dollars.

Assuming we sell and we have $160K at our disposal, I can think of many uses for the money, but here are the two I keep returning to:

1. Pay down our mortgage on our home. Key factors:
- We currently owe about $370K
- We bought for $465K in 2014 and haven't had it assessed since then
- Our payments to principal, interest and mortgage insurance come to about $2100 per month
- We're 5 years into a 30 year mortgage, so we're looking at 25 more years if we continued to pay the minimum.
- We're looking at financing $40K of our upcoming kitchen renovation. We may explore a mortgage refi (for a lower rate or possibly for a 15-year term) once the kitchen is done and the home is assessed

2. Use the money for a down payment on a rental property closer to home. Key factors:
- The UK rental brings in about $500 per month, and we save most of that money for longer-term things (EF, renovations, etc.)
- The idea of having income generated outside of our full-time employment is very attractive for a number of obvious reasons.
- If we bought in our immediate neighborhood, condos start around $200K, single-family homes around $250K, and duplexes/triplexes around $500K. There are of course cheaper neighborhoods in the city.

So that's where I am. If you had to vote, which do you think would contribute more to overall financial security/independence?
A. paying down our mortgage
B. purchasing a rental property
C. you need professional help--go talk to a financial adviser already!

This post is very late, because we couldn't get into NT's UK account for a couple of weeks, and then I just got busy and distracted!

All our mortgage payments hit in early January:
US: $763 to principal
UK1: $182
UK2: $39
UK3: $40

All in all, $1,024 went to principal this month.

Current household debt:
US Mortgage $373,430
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $29,056
UK Mortgage 2 $6,125
UK Mortgage 3 $6,450

TOTAL DEBT $424,061

Only now do I look to my sidebar and realize that I put a spot to track 2019 achievements as they happened! Well, that went nowhere, but I did achieve quite a bit this year, so hopefully I can remember all the highlights without having kept track.

These were my "intentions" for 2019:
- Make healthy choices.
- Deepen friendships.
- Do creative things.
- Chase pleasure.
- Build my career.
- Be flexible when life throws things at me.

I'll start with "Do creative things," because I'm most proud of the work I did in that category.

- In February, I completed one year of guitar lessons. I'm closing in on my second full year with no signs of slowing down! I'm a pretty good basic rhythm guitarist now and am working on learning more complicated stuff too.

- From February to August, I off and on helped a musician work on his bio to be used in promotional materials. It sort of went nowhere, mainly because he seemed to give up promoting himself, but I'm still proud of the work I did to try and learn a new type of writing I'd never done before.

- In June, I self-published a book I originally wrote for NaNoWriMo in 2014! I, much like my musician friend, have sort of slacked off on promoting it and haven't made back the money it took to publish it and print 50 copies. But a couple dozen people have read it and I've gotten some positive reviews (from friends and friends of friends, but still!). I started editing a few others but haven't made significant enough progress on any one manuscript to be able to say when I'll be ready to publish it. But I definitely intend to publish more books at some point! And, yes, try to market them a bit better than I did this one.

- In November, I completed NaNoWriMo for the seventh year in a row!

OK, on to "make healthy choices":

- Healthwise, I kept up pretty well on walking and daily strength training -- until about November when everything got really busy and several sicknesses passed through our household. But I did do a good job with healthy lunches the second half of the year, and overall my weight decreased around 6 or 7 lbs.

"Deepen friendships" and "chase pleasure" got somewhat intertwined (and even dovetailed with "do creative things"!) because I used going to music shows, creative writing and playing guitar as ways to hang out with existing friends and make new ones.

- I befriended people I met on Instagram through music posts, got to know musicians I went to see perform, and got closer to people I already knew because of music and/or writing. One or two friendships faltered this year, but I'm trying to see that relationships ebb and flow, so as long as I'm continuing to connect with most people, I don't need to stress out about a few friendships not becoming as close as I thought they would.

- Overall I went to 88 live music shows in 2019! This is by far a record for me. Most of them were small local shows that were free or didn't cost much, so although I did spend most of my personal fun money on shows, it wasn't nearly as expensive as it may sound! I did travel for a few of them, but that was budgeted through our vacation savings.

Similarly, "build my career" and "be flexible" dovetailed this year. My company went through several rounds of layoffs and I feel its future is far less certain, though things have stabilized somewhat in recent months. So I took the opportunity to update my resume, start making networking connections, and apply for a few jobs. I assisted AS with her freelance business too, and discussed the possibility of joining her instead of having a salaried position. I also applied for an internal promotion, so I'm currently exploring all angles. So my career hasn't necessarily moved in terms of title or salary, but I'm proud of the steps I'm taking to round out my personal brand while staying flexible to whatever may come.

That's it for my intentions! Now for the financial progress my household made in 2019.

Debt decreased from $437,178 to $425,085
Retirement values increased from $406,280 to $541,036 (taking our asset values from $1,046,061 to $1,180,817)
Overall net worth increased from $608,883 to $755,732

We paid off our credit cards in full each month and continue to be debt-free except mortgages! Not too bad for a year where saving and debt payment took a bit more of a backseat to other financial priorities (such as saving for our kitchen renovation, which is currently stalled in the planning phase, but we do have over $30K saved up for it, not reflected in our assets above).

I guess that was my year! Honestly I didn't even think about goals or intentions for the new year, we were so busy/sick/etc. the last two months of 2019. My instinct is to keep going with everything I listed above, because it's all stuff without a definite end point, and it's all things I feel have enriched my life!

There have been tons of challenges over the past year, but looking at my cumulative results, I feel happy, lucky and proud.

Goal: $784,772 by March 2024

Current retirement balance: $541,036

November 2019 balance: $517,266

Progress since last update: $23,770

Still needed: $243,736

The new interim goal is based on getting my and NT's retirement to 4x our salaries (currently $75,120 and $64,118) by the time we turn 50 and AS's retirement values to 3x her annual income ($75,940 in 2018) by the time she turns 45.
$75,120 x 4 = $300,480
$64,118 x 4 = $256,472
$75,940 x 3 = $227,820

It will shift anytime our salary/annual income changes. (The only exception is I won't lower AS's if she has a lower-income year, because her income fluctuates. So I'm keeping it at the 2018 level because her 2019 income was a little less.)

There are 51 months to go before March 2024, so that means we need to gain $4779 per month on average to meet our goal.

The ultimate goal we're working toward is 8x our annual income by the time we retire at 65.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 22,397 pounds ($27,996)
SW: 29,047 pounds ($36,309)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $86,522
NT's Roth IRA: $43,321
AS's trad. IRA: $21,896
AS's Roth IRA: $64,340
AS's SEP IRA: $45,359
CJ's 401(k): $160,289
CJ's Roth IRA: $46,926
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $427,281 ($454,554 value -6%)
---
TOTAL ASSETS: $1,180,817

Debts:
US Mortgage $374,193
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $29,238
UK Mortgage 2 $6,164
UK Mortgage 3 $6,490
---
TOTAL DEBT $425,085

Current Estimated Net Worth: $755,732

November 2019 estimate: $730,941

Change in net worth: +$24,791

Summary: A really big month propelled us past the three-quarter-million net worth mark! Part of it was AS's quarterly retirement contribution -- she had a huge fourth quarter so I put in over $4K. I know volatility is still on the horizon but it's waited awhile, so I'll enjoy the gains while I can!

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.

Shoot, I just realized I forgot to factor in NT's annual salary since he got a raise in October! That changes our retirement goalpost. I'll update next month. To remind myself, salary WAS $62,100 and is NOW $64,118.

All our mortgage payments hit:

US Mortgage $760 to principal
UK Mortgage 1 $183
UK Mortgage 2 $37
UK Mortgage 3 $41

All told, that's $1,021 of debt paid.

New household debt totals:

US Mortgage $374,193
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $29,238
UK Mortgage 2 $6,164
UK Mortgage 3 $6,490

TOTAL DEBT $425,085

Goal: $776,700 by March 2024

Current retirement balance: $517,266

October 2019 balance: $506,160

Progress since last update: $11,106

Still needed: $259,434

The new interim goal is based on getting my and NT's retirement to 4x our salaries (currently $75,120 and $62,100) by the time we turn 50 and AS's retirement values to 3x her annual income ($75,940 in 2018) by the time she turns 45.
$75,120 x 4 = $300,480
$62,100 x 4 = $248,400
$75,940 x 3 = $227,820

It will shift anytime our salary/annual income changes.

There are 52 months to go before March 2024, so that means we need to gain $4989 per month on average to meet our goal.

The ultimate goal we're working toward is 8x our annual income by the time we retire at 65.

I was so busy last month that I'm late on my update. Therefore some retirement contributions that would ordinarily show up in my December net worth update will be here. This note will remind me not to be disappointed at our progress end of December!

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 22,397 pounds ($27,996)
SW: 29,047 pounds ($36,309)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $82,940
NT's Roth IRA: $40,895
AS's trad. IRA: $21,198
AS's Roth IRA: $62,163
AS's SEP IRA: $37,479
CJ's 401(k): $154,863
CJ's Roth IRA: $45,345
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $427,281 ($454,554 value -6%)
---
TOTAL ASSETS: $1,157,047

Debts:
US Mortgage $374,953
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $29,421
UK Mortgage 2 $6,201
UK Mortgage 3 $6,531
---
TOTAL DEBT $426,106

Current Estimated Net Worth: $730,941

October 2019 estimate: $718,815

Change in net worth: +$12,126

Summary: Another good month, also bolstered by the fact that December contributions got in here as well. I'll enjoy the gains while I can!

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.