Originally posted
September 3rd, 2019 at 12:11 pm

So turns out I never recorded my August debt pay-down. I don't think that's happened in 12 years!!

I don't know what the exact amounts were, so I'm just recording a combined August and September amount here. It does explain why my debt hadn't gone down for my net worth update--I thought it was because I'd recorded August early but apparently it was because it wasn't reflected at all!

US mortgage: $1,505 to principal in August/September
UK1: $361
UK2: $76
UK3: $82

All told, that's $2024 paid toward debt in August and September.

Current debt totals:
US Mortgage $376,468
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $29,785
UK Mortgage 2 $6,279
UK Mortgage 3 $6,611
---
TOTAL DEBT $428,143

Originally posted
August 3rd, 2019 at 08:15 pm

Goal: $776,700 by March 2024

Current retirement balance: $490,425

Still needed: $286,275

June 2019 balance: $489,155

Progress since April 2019: +$1,270

There are 56 months to go before March 2024, so that means we need assets to appreciate $5,112 per month on average to meet our goal.

Overall goal: saving 8x income by retirement (age 65)

Incremental goal explained: 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

The goal will shift anytime our salary/annual income changes.

Originally posted
July 17th, 2019 at 08:52 pm

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've finally self-published one of my novels! And, because we've got so much going on financially (and because I have zero confidence in my ability to sell copies, TBH), I've tried to do it as cheaply as possible. Here's what I've spent so far (and what I've managed to do for free).

Editing/proofreading: Free. (AS did a round and I did several.) Well, I did purchase some book editing software a couple years ago, but I did that before I even had concrete plans to publish, so I don't really count it.

ISBN/barcode purchase: $79. (Well, I bought 5 of each in bulk for $395, but I intend to publish other books so I'm only counting a fifth of the cost for this one.)

Cover design: Free. (I found a free photo on a site called Unsplash, and AS designed the cover.)

Formatting and test paperback copy: $85.24. I used a platform called IngramSpark, which also makes the ebook and print-on-demand paperback available on most bookselling sites.

Marketing/publicity: $19.39 so far. Since I'm publishing under a pseudonym, I wanted an author pic that didn't look 100% like me, so I paid someone on Fiverr to make a line drawing of my photo and alter it a bit. That cost $14. Then I shelled out $5.39 for a review copy that I sent to a site, hoping they would give me some press. (They said they would but haven't so far, so we shall see.) Other than that, I have a Facebook account, Instagram feed and blog under my author name, and those are all free to use.

50 copies to sell personally: $226.13. It would have been about $279 but if I ordered at least 50, I would get a $49 formatting fee refunded, so I did that.

Total cost so far: $409.76.

Total revenue/sales: $0.

So far I know I've sold at least 3 paperback copies through online, but I won't get paid until the next billing cycle, so I'm not counting them. I make less than $2 per online paperback sale, so less than $6 that I know I have coming.

Oh, and I have at least three real-life people who want to buy a book directly from me. I'm going to charge $10 for the book if I sell it personally, and they cost $4.52 apiece to print and get delivered to me, so that's at least $15 net expected.

So I guess I'll make at least $20 on the sales I know for sure? Obviously I need to keep marketing myself, but this is the hard part. I hate boasting, and plus I'm beset with self-doubt about whether the novel is any good. Sometimes I think it is but other times I'm like how can I know for sure? I'm too close to it.

But obviously, I need to get out there and hustle for at least $380 more in net revenue if I want to make up for the cost of getting the thing out into the world!

9 Responses to “Self-publishing on a dime (or several thousand dimes)”

mumof2 Says:
July 17th, 2019 at 10:50 pm

have you thought of doing a book signing in a book store in your town...or see if they sell them in their store....or get local media to write a quick article...just an idea

Lucky Robin Says:
July 18th, 2019 at 12:41 am

When I read it I will put up a review for you on Good Reads.

Lucky Robin Says:
July 18th, 2019 at 12:44 am

What do you get on an ebook sale?

CB in the City Says:
July 18th, 2019 at 05:00 am

It's interesting to know the costs of self-publishing. I thought it was an ebook, but it sounds like you are publishing hard copy?

ceejay74 Says:
July 18th, 2019 at 06:05 am

mumof2, I know I should consider such things, but I find them terrifying!! Smile Bookstores don't carry my physical book (though it can be ordered from virtually any bookstore).

Aw thank you Robin!! I don't know yet what I get for ebooks; they don't give me a sales report until the end of the month. That's how I figured out how much I make on paperback sales.

CB, it's available in both formats! The paperback is print-on-demand, so it takes a week or two to get to people. The ebook is sold for Kindle, Nook etc. on the usual bookselling sites.

Lots of Ideas Says:
July 18th, 2019 at 07:02 am

Some ideas to get some traction:
You could give a few copies to local libraries to get them in circulation.
AS could write a review on Good Reads or other review sites.
Carry a copy with you, and ask AS (and others) to do the same, so that people see the book. Read it in public.
Look for a local bookstore and ask them to carry a few copies. If you are too shy to do that, perhaps AS could be your ‘agent’.
Do you know anyone who belongs to a book club? Suggest your book to them, and offer to attend the meeting and discuss it. The group would be small, but a place for you to practice being ‘an author’.

Treat each event as an adventure, a few scary hours to live through, to get the result you want.
Best wishes!

crazyliblady Says:
July 18th, 2019 at 11:34 am

Another free publicity idea would be to have a book talk at your public library and give people information on how to buy it online or sign their book if they have one. And I love Lots of Ideas idea of donating some to libraries.

crazyliblady Says:
July 18th, 2019 at 11:36 am

Also check if your state has a group called a "humanities council." They sometimes have book clubs.

disneysteve Says:
July 18th, 2019 at 04:37 pm

As I said, my daughter went through this process a few years ago. All 3 of us posted about her book on our Facebook pages and that brought in a lot of sales from friends and family. She also was active on Twitter and posted there. She started a YouTube channel and posted videos promoting the book. A couple of her teachers bought copies. Once she started college, she hung a print of the cover on her dorm room door and wrote, "Ask me about my novel" or something like that. A few friends bought copies and a professor or two.

Now that the book has been out for 5 years, she still sells one on Amazon now and then. I have no idea how people stumble upon it but it's all good. She managed to make a small profit on her book which I thought was amazing for an 18-year-old self-published author.

Oh, her school library also set up a display highlighting her book. The librarian thought it was neat that one of their students had published a novel. You might want to check your local library. They may do something similar for a local author. Bookstores too.

Although it might involve a small cost, consider getting a table at a local community event where various vendors set up tables. Or even better find a vendor who goes to those events and see if they would be willing to share a small bit of table space for you to sell your book.

I see that you're doing print-on-demand. Do you have any copies in stock? If not, I think you ought to do that and definitely carry a couple with you. We were shipping copies to folks all over the country and even one to a friend in Australia who bought one. DD didn't do print-on-demand. She printed 100 copies (I think) and only has about 20 left.

Good luck!

Originally posted
July 11th, 2019 at 08:09 am

Well, self-published, but it's still exciting!

I finally managed to get one of my NaNoWriMo novels edited and uploaded to a self-publishing platform.



It's now available on most bookselling sites as both an ebook and a paperback, if you want to check it out! (Warning: It's a thriller and a little bit gory and raunchy, in case that's not your thing!) Just search "Viral Berkeley" and it should come up.

I decided to publish under a pseudonym since I'm also a writer in the marketing industry and don't necessarily want my clients to know that I write trashy novels! :-)

There's so much to learn about this process...I've learned many lessons and I'm sure there are more to come. Like, I tried to price my book so that I'd get a little bit of profit, but I found it hard to figure out. So I'll have to wait until I get my first sales report to see if I did it right.

If you're interested in learning more about my lessons learned so far and other things related to the book, I also have an author blog.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to market the thing, and also working on a new book--a financial advice book based on my old Ordinary Savers blog!

Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments »
17 Responses to “I'm a published author!”

Wink Says:
July 11th, 2019 at 08:50 am

Congratulations!! Very eye catching cover.

creditcardfree Says:
July 11th, 2019 at 08:51 am

Congratulations!!

Carol Says:
July 11th, 2019 at 09:39 am

How wonderful! Congratulations!

Petunia 100 Says:
July 11th, 2019 at 10:14 am

So cool CeeJay, congrats!

disneysteve Says:
July 11th, 2019 at 11:47 am

Congratulations! That's really exciting. Good luck with it. And don't down self-publishing. That's actually how the majority of books are published today. I kept telling my daughter that. The traditional route of getting an agent and using an old-school publishing house has become less common. It's cheaper and easier to do it yourself.

My daughter has been doing NaNoWriMo for years. She published her first (and only so far) novel a little over 5 years ago when she was 18. She used BookBaby for hers. And she has actually made a small profit overall between paperback and e-book sales. Here's her book:https://www.amazon.com/Forced-Be-Traitor-Jennifer-Gitler-ebook/dp/B00II95294/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=jennifer+gitler&qid=1562870722&s=gateway&sr=8-1. Only the e-book is on Amazon. She has the paperbacks.

MonkeyMama Says:
July 11th, 2019 at 08:53 pm

Exciting!

VS_ozgirl Says:
July 11th, 2019 at 10:45 pm

That is awesome congratulations!!

mumof2 Says:
July 12th, 2019 at 01:47 am

awesome congrats

CB in the City Says:
July 12th, 2019 at 04:40 am

Congratulations! Very exciting!

Bluebird Says:
July 12th, 2019 at 07:04 am

Congratulations!!!

ceejay74 Says:
July 12th, 2019 at 09:14 am

Thanks everyone! Steve, that is so cool -- and good to know a small profit can be made! I'll do a separate post about the financials of this, but basically I'm just trying to spend as little as possible and hoping to break even, since I have no idea how this will go.

Lucky Robin Says:
July 12th, 2019 at 10:17 pm

Good for you! The story sounds intriguing. I'm going to put it on my to buy list.

Sarah Says:
July 13th, 2019 at 12:11 am

Congratulations!

rob62521 Says:
July 13th, 2019 at 02:11 pm

That is terrific! Congratulations!

Dido Says:
July 14th, 2019 at 12:20 pm

Congratulations! I'm not into thrillers but I like the sound of your NEW book!

ceejay74 Says:
July 15th, 2019 at 07:54 am

Aw, thanks Robin! And thanks everyone for the congrats.

My English Castle Says:
July 15th, 2019 at 08:43 pm

Hooray for you, ceejay! You are great with your goals.

Originally posted
July 6th, 2019 at 01:39 pm

I'm just catching up on finances because we were away at a no-screens lakeside vacation in Wisconsin!

While we were gone, all our mortgage payments hit:
US: $750 to principal
UK1: $182
UK2: $38
UK3: $40

All told, $1010 went to principal.

New debt totals:
US Mortgage $377,973
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $30,146
UK Mortgage 2 $6,355
UK Mortgage 3 $6,693
-----
TOTAL DEBT $430,167

Originally posted
June 3rd, 2019 at 02:12 pm

I don't know if the blogs are messed up, but PatientSaver's blog seems to be retired, with the last entry posted in 2018? Does anyone know anything? Did I miss a farewell or any kind of explanation? Or is this just a temporary glitch, do you think?

25 Responses to “PatientSaver?”

crazyliblady Says:
June 3rd, 2019 at 02:19 pm

I think it must be a glitch. I think she had more current entries than June 2018.

creditcardfree Says:
June 3rd, 2019 at 02:20 pm

Hmm, no there was no official goodbye of any kind. I'm guessing temporary. I feel like she posted in the last month or so.

creditcardfree Says:
June 3rd, 2019 at 02:28 pm

And Dido posted on May 12th that she had seen her in person. The blog missing is odd!

Petunia 100 Says:
June 3rd, 2019 at 04:32 pm

I noticed her blog missing and emailed her a week or two ago. It's not a glitch; she had concerns about having so much personal financial information on a site with little security.

However, she is happy and doing well.

creditcardfree Says:
June 3rd, 2019 at 04:54 pm

Thanks Petunia! Sorry to hear that she will be absent from this site. I don't think this site has every had I what I would consider security. It's a risk we all take.

Butterscotch Says:
June 3rd, 2019 at 06:37 pm

I’m sad to see her gone. I got so attached to her after reading along about all she went through with her mother.

Amber Says:
June 3rd, 2019 at 06:41 pm

I’m not sure who, glad to know all is well.

Jenn Says:
June 3rd, 2019 at 08:07 pm

Butterscotch, you echo my sentiments exactly. She was such a good writer. I felt like I knew her personally, so it feels like a loss. Glad to hear all is well though, and she's close to retirement so she may have other interests to pursue.

LuckyRobin Says:
June 4th, 2019 at 01:37 am

She left once before, though, didn't she?

creditcardfree Says:
June 4th, 2019 at 04:14 am

@LR, yes, and she came back with a different blog name. Based on her reason this time, I'm not sure that is likely.

Turtle Lover Says:
June 4th, 2019 at 05:42 am

Thank you for the update. I echo everybody else's sentiments and happy to know she is well.

ceejay74 Says:
June 4th, 2019 at 07:00 am

Thanks Petunia. I'm sad to see her go but at least I'm not worried.

Laura S. Says:
June 4th, 2019 at 05:30 pm

I am sad as well. I wish she would come back and maybe not share what she feels is sensitive.

rob62521 Says:
June 5th, 2019 at 02:23 pm

Another sad loss.

Carol Says:
June 5th, 2019 at 04:33 pm

I echo what Rob said. I was wondering where she was. Thanks for letting us know.

kashi Says:
June 6th, 2019 at 09:17 am

Oh no! I'm so sad! She is one of my favorite bloggers.

Dido Says:
June 14th, 2019 at 03:17 pm

Yes, she left because of security concerns and feeling she had too much of her personal financial information posted on the site, possibly making her a target. We had emailed about this and after that, I reduced the amount of financial information (net worth and so forth) that I previously had in my blog side bar, but I don't share her concerns about making oneself a target just by posting here.

I'm going to email her and suggest that she read these comments--and perhaps respond. I definitely miss seeing how she's doing on a regular basis (we do email periodically with each other, but less frequently than she had posted on here), and I find myself checking in a bit less frequently to the site as a result.

Carol Says:
June 14th, 2019 at 06:58 pm

She is such a good writer. I'd love it if she could contribute with less specific detail.

creditcardfree Says:
June 20th, 2019 at 03:33 pm

Thanks Dido! I do know that she shared specifically the town she lived in, or made references to it, which I don't think anyone should be doing honestly. And as a single person, I'm sure that she is more cautious. We all have to do what is right for us.

GoodLiving Says:
June 25th, 2019 at 11:17 am

I miss Patient Saver, Laura, Ceejay (doesn't post as much anymore) but I don't expect that they should post just to keep me happy! :-D I'm glad for CB in the City and Amber to read their regular posts even if I'm more of a lurker than anything.

Butterscotch Says:
June 26th, 2019 at 07:41 pm

Goodliving - I feel the same way! I really miss her writing. I wish she would come back and blog about her life and just leave finances out of it if that’s what concerns her. I loved reading about her meeting up with distant relatives, the remodeling she would do on her house and yard, and even about her lunches out with her father. I hope he is doing okay!

And yes, I love reading about CJs life. Like when they did a year of new recipes, or when she travels to see family and favorite bands. Plus her whole family dynamic is kind of edgy and progressive. Please post more CJ!

I am also grateful for Amber and CB in the City. Amber is such a strong, determined woman, and CB has the most positive attitude. I swear when CB doesn’t post for a day I find myself hoping that she is okay!

I know a lot of people get obsessed with Netflix or Games of Thrones, but not me. I get into some of these blogs more than I do TV shows!
I hope everyone is doing well - you too My English Castle and Frugal Texan! Catch us up!

ceejay74 Says:
June 27th, 2019 at 02:39 pm

Aw, thanks you guys!

ceejay74 Says:
June 27th, 2019 at 02:39 pm

I still keep up on reading the blogs and I keep meaning to blog more often myself. My life just never seems to slow down these days!!

Dido Says:
June 28th, 2019 at 03:42 pm

I agree--it's been too quiet on this site of late.

starfishy Says:
July 1st, 2019 at 04:58 am

I miss PatientSaver's blog, too! As a fellow single homeowner, I especially loved reading about how she cared for her house. I hope she will consider returning at some point. Also wondering about English Castle and others. Wondering whatever happened to commenter Snafu?

Originally posted
April 30th, 2019 at 09:15 am

Goal: $776,700 by March 2024

Current retirement balance: $473,628

Still needed: $303,072

March 2019 balance: $452,766

Progress since March 2019: +$20,862

There are 59 months to go before March 2024, so that means we need assets to appreciate $5,137 per month on average to meet our goal.

Overall goal: saving 8x income by retirement (age 65)

Incremental goal explained: 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

The goal will shift anytime our salary/annual income changes.

All our mortgage payments hit:

US: $756 to principal
UK1: $182
UK2: $39
UK3: $40

In total, $1,017 was paid toward principal.

Updated debt balances:
US Mortgage $375,712
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $29,603
UK Mortgage 2 $6,240
UK Mortgage 3 $6,571
-----
TOTAL DEBT $427,126

Goal: $776,700 by March 2024

Current retirement balance: $496,098

Still needed: $280,602

Progress since last update: ???

The new 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 54 months to go before March 2024, so that means we need assets to appreciate $5196 per month on average to meet our goal.

I got NT's annual notice on one of his pensions. (I must have missed at least one previous one, because even last year's value is more than what I have listed!)

So for our net worth update at the end of the month, I'll change this pension:
AV: 17,967 pounds ($22,459)

to
22,397 pounds ($27,996)

That'll be a nice boost for our retirement goal!

All our mortgage payments hit:

US: $743 to principal
UK1: $180
UK2: $39
UK3: $40

All told that is $1,002 of debt paid off.

On a related note, we checked in with our UK property manager about selling the flat, but he's convinced the market is terrible right now because of Brexit uncertainty. So we're reupping with our current tenant for another year and will look at listing it next year if things have improved.

New balances:
US Mortgage $380,215
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $30,689
UK Mortgage 2 $6,469
UK Mortgage 3 $6,813
---
TOTAL DEBT $433,186

March 2019 was where I set our first retirement goal milestone, since I turned 45 and AS turned 40 this year. (NT turned 46 but I'm weighing his assets by the same measurements as mine, to keep things simpler.)

Goal: $563,540 by March 2019

Final balance: $452,766

Result: Fell short by $110,774. Now, starting January our goal got about $50K more ambitious due to AS's income increasing, so about half of that shortfall was due to that.

This was an incremental goal along the way to 8x income by retirement It aimed to get me and NT to 3x our income, and AS to 2x hers.

Anyway, it's time to set our next incremental goal! The new 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

So our new goal is...$776,700 by March 2024! (And of course it will shift anytime our salary/annual income changes.)
Current retirement balance: $452,766

Still needed: $323,934

There are 60 months to go before March 2024, so that means we need assets to appreciate $5399 per month on average to meet our goal.

So, here we go!

Finally getting around to this ... it's been a very busy weeks, with three of our five household birthdays hitting one after the other! Lots of parties, gifts, spending, fun ...

Anyway, I finally checked our mortgages and all our payments hit.
US: $741
UK1: $184
UK2: $38
UK3: $41
In total, that's $1,004 to principal. Yay, our minimum payments finally add up to more than a thousand bucks!

Current household debt:
US Mortgage $380,958
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $30,869
UK Mortgage 2 $6,508
UK Mortgage 3 $6,853
---
TOTAL DEBT $434,188

Things have been going along pretty well so far this year. It's been a spendy few weeks, with all our birthdays hitting in month (we planned a big blowout for AS's 40th that will run us about $3K; everyone else's parties are more like a few hundred each) and signing the kids up for spring swim, theater and art classes. And a few other things have cropped up here and there. So our shared spending was running a deficit of a few grand (about $5K), but we could easily float it and I felt like we'd be able to chip away at it over the next couple months with AS's expected checks and our usual budget surplus.

Then we got our first tax return news; NT and I owe about $2400 between state and federal. We don't yet know if AS will owe; I'm hoping for some benefit from the tax deal since she's a business owner, but she also made a lot more money in 2018, so I kind of expect her to owe but don't know how much. We have $4300 set aside for taxes, so if what she owes plus what we'll need to pay our tax guy comes to less than $2K it won't be a big deal, but I'm not sure.

So I was already thinking I need to adjust my withholding and take home about $200 less per month. That was going to eliminate/reduce our monthly budget surplus. Then our downstairs neighbors' boiler broke on Friday.

The estimates of various options ranged from $5K to $20K. It was a bit of a shock. But I finally asked NT and AS to come to a decision with our neighbors which option was best bang for buck, and I'd work out how to pay for it.

They came up with one that's about $8600. Yikes, but it's gotta be done.

We had about $36K saved up for our kitchen reno. Early rough estimates (depending on how drastic we want to go) were $45K-$80K. We were mulling our options; do we save up the full amount, think about financing, try to sell the UK flat and use part of the profits? But I ended up pulling $11K out to handle the boiler and also reduce our shared spending deficit. I also took $2K from vacation savings and wiped out the deficit.

So now we only have $25K in reno savings. And we heard from the UK property manager that the market is really bad, the worst he's ever seen. Plus he says we'd have to have the place vacant if we hope to sell it, which would mean having it sit not generating income. So it seems like with everything else happening, we should probably not list it at this time.

I don't know what to do about the kitchen reno. I wouldn't mind financing a small amount but I don't want to do half of it or anything. So I think we just sit back, wait for AS's tax return results, wait to see if NT and I get raises this year, wait to see what kinds of jobs AS books this year. Slowly start rebuilding our reno and vacation savings in the meantime.

Although we're very eager to fix our kitchen, I don't want it to put us in a place of financial insecurity again. So we'll take some breaths and decide later what we should do.

I feel good that we have the money in savings to deal with this. I'm choosing to look on the bright side!

Anyway, I've been having a very fun, active, busy year so far otherwise. Lots of exciting things happening on the "chase pleasure" new year's intention for sure! I'll try to check in with some of the happy stuff in my life.

I have so many balls in the air right now, I feel slightly behind on everything, including blogging!

I only now checked our mortgage payments to see our new balances.

US: $739 to principal
UK1: $178
UK2: $38
UK3: $39
Total principal paid this month: $994

New household debt totals:
US Mortgage $381,699
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $31,053
UK Mortgage 2 $6,546
UK Mortgage 3 $6,894
----
TOTAL DEBT $435,192

Well, now that I'm basing our retirement goal on AS's 2018 income, it just got $50K more ambitious!

Goal: $563,540 by March 2019

Current balance: $434,490 ($129,050 to go)

September 2018 balance: $436,289

Progress: -$1,799

Ordinarily, I only post retirement goal updates when we make positive progress, but since AS's salary calculation underwent a reset, I figured I should post.

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 2018 was $75,940, so $151,880.

To reach the interim goal by the end of our birthday month (March) in 2019, that's 2 months, so we'd need to contribute (or have assets appreciate) $129,050 -- $64,525 per month(!!!) -- to reach it.

So yeah, we're going to fail badly on that there goal. Considering we've made no gains since August, despite dumping thousands and thousands of dollars in our accounts, there's not much more we could have done about that.

Come March, even though we'll be short of that goal, I'm going to set another 5-year goal. Which of course will change any time one of our salaries does.

Wow, I was too busy to really check the blogs for two weeks, and it sounds like there was some drama with them all disappearing! Glad they didn't; it would have been so horrible to try and come back and have lost you all.

Anyway, I reached an equilibrium where travel is done for now, I'm mostly caught up at work, and personal life isn't too busy, so I wanted to take a few minutes to check in.

As you might have seen, this year I'm working on "intentions" instead of goals. I'll try to list achievements on the sidebar, but a lot of it is about the journey, so I'll also try to blog about my activities that fall into my intention categories.

- Make healthy choices. I haven't been too good about walking or morning strength training so far this year, and my eating has been all over the place due to travel. But I've been trying to add one healthier meal such as Buddha bowl (beans and grains and veggies) per week to the menu. This week's will have chickpeas, broccoli, sweet potatoes, kale and brown rice.

- Deepen friendships. I've been cultivating my friendship with my Canadian friend; she came to Minneapolis a couple weeks ago and if I can swing it, I'm going to try and head to Canada in April. Her trip and my hopefully future trip are both centered around seeing our favorite band.
This week I also reached out to about 6 other friends. One came over and chatted for a few hours, another will be going to a show that I'll be at on Monday, and others have promised we can make plans soon.

- Do creative things. I've been practicing guitar nearly every day and attending lessons once a week. I also play with my Canadian friend whenever we get together. I think I'm going to make my bday party in March a music jam type event, where I ask friends who play or sing to come hang out and make music together.
I've been pondering my writing projects, and I hope to get going on those soon.

- Chase pleasure. I saw my favorite band for the 30th time this past Monday, so I think I'm chasing pleasure pretty well! And tonight I'm going to a bar to see another band that I like quite a bit. I've also got tickets to a few other upcoming shows. I'm really really into live music these days! I've also read a novel by one of my favorite authors. And I'm hoping to go to this big book festival in a couple months that another favorite author will be appearing at! Oh, and I'm thinking about scheduling a "bad movie night" in February with some friends who also enjoy that sort of thing.
Our birthdays are all coming up in March, so I'm starting to plan our parties. AS is hitting the big 4-0, so hers will be the biggest event! I'm determined that she have fun and not freak out about this milestone!

- Build my career. I had to do my self-assessment at work. Since my boss/mentor left, I've been a little unsure the best way to advance my career. So I figured I'd just put that comment in it, and hopefully my direct boss will have some ideas. I also put down a goal that I want to win an award at work, or at least resolve to work harder and better to make my job performance award-worthy. (Since winning isn't something one can really control.)

- Be flexible when life throws things at me. We've had a couple challenges this year -- a houseguest who was meant to leave in October but is still here, AS's mom repeatedly needing money due to some unexpected problems -- and so far we're dealing with them pretty well. Nothing too bad has happened this year.

We got back from England Sunday and have been incredibly tired AND busy since then! Last night I got a second night of fairly solid sleep so I'm feeling partly back to normal. Still a lot of work and housework to catch up on, though, so I don't have time to run down our trip. Suffice it to say, fun but tiring, lots of quality time with family and friends, didn't see a ton of new sights but that wasn't what it was about this time.

I did keep track of our spending so I thought I'd do a quick summary and compare it with our more epic July 2016 trip. That one was 15 days, included a short jaunt to Barcelona in the middle, and came to about $10,500:
UK flights & travel insurance: $5500
(UK lodging paid for by NT's parents)
Rental car & insurance: $900
Barcelona flight and lodging: $1300
Other spending: $2800

This trip was 12 days, included stops in Exeter, Cornwall and Oxford, and came to about $7,300:
Flights & travel insurance $4,200
Car rental & minor damage (just some scuffs from all the narrow roads and parking lots) $700
Other spending (gas, food, gifts/souvenirs/clothes, sightseeing, drinks): $2400
(some lodging paid for by NT's parents; stayed w/people the rest of the time)

So there you have it!

All the mortgage payments hit:
US: $736 to principal
UK1: $179
UK2: $37
UK3: $40

That's $992 to principal. (Maybe this will be the year when my minimum payments put $1000 or more to principal!)

Current debt totals:
US Mortgage $382,438
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $31,231
UK Mortgage 2 $6,584
UK Mortgage 3 $6,933
---
TOTAL DEBT $436,186

Usually I have goals with measurable results and I achieve maybe half of them? So for 2018 I tried to really analyze why goals succeeded or failed, and come up with ones I was sure to meet, and enjoy meeting.

Well, the results were not what I expected. Over the year I ended up abandoning most of them and doing some other equally awesome things. Basically, my focus and priorities changed. It was still one of my favorite years, but I don’t like the feeling that I didn’t meet my goals.

I won't go into them in detail, but here are the things I achieved in 2018:
Creative - learn guitar.
Vacations: UK family trip after Xmas. Solo trips for adults. CJ family reunion in June/July Niece's wedding in Va. in August.

And things I didn't quite get done in 2018:
Creative - get a novel publishing-ready.
Health - Limit drinking on everyday nights.
Health - limit screen time outside of work.
Health - Try relaxation/destress tactics on nondrinking/no-screen-time days
Pragmatic - emergency preparedness.
Work/professional development: Look for class on Agile; see if work will pay for it.
Work/professional development: Limit social/personal internet at work.
Jan: No personal internet/phone at work one day per Financial: Retirement assets to $475K. Net worth to $650K. Bump NT's 401(k) up 2%.
Financial: Kids' savings up to at least $1K per year of age.
Home: Full kitchen renovation.

So there you go.

I feel like I've entered a new stage of life where I can achieve anything I set my mind to, but can't necessarily map out the exact things that I'll want to do.

So for 2019, I've decided I’ll have less structured “intentions”: a mindset where I try to live a full and successful life and, yes, have ambitions, but I'm not laying out specific ambitions or milestones I'm working toward.

Part of it is my new mindset but also, I realize with family members in all three of our extended families struggling, and also all of us chasing our dreams, which may make our day-to-day schedules and finances less predictable.

So here are my intentions for 2019:

- Make healthy choices (with an eye toward fitness, weight control and general energy and vitality and hopefully longevity). My initial thoughts are getting back into walking and AM exercises and intermittent fasting, and trying to bring more salads and whole foods into my diet. But I'm leaving this open to any other ideas or inspirations I have.

- Deepen friendships. In 2018 I put a lot of effort into widening and deepening my social circle with mixed results. Recently I've been spending less time chasing the people who don't seem to be putting any effort in reciprocating. If they want to hang out, I'm not shutting off any avenues; I'm just going to focus more on the people who have been more responsive, and putting out feelers for other people to focus on.

- Do creative things. Right now I'm feeling very happy learning guitar and working on a new novel with a college friend. I'm also seriously considering finally self-publishing one of my novels as kind of a test run. But we'll see what other creative urges hit me! The point is to do things that aren't just stressing over the news or mindlessly checking my phone or computer.

- Chase pleasure. I don't know how many solo trips we'll get to go on (due to the uncertainties I mentioned) but if I do get to, it'll likely be to see my fave band in other places, meeting up with my Canadian friend I met in January via their concerts. That friendship has been the single biggest social success I had, even though we mainly communicate via computer! I also want to see lots of other live music, which has become one of the biggest pleasures of my life. So has guitar. Maybe it means more date nights with my partners; we didn't get many this year. I also consider reading a creative activity, and I don't read as often as I used to, so I could try to focus on that. And my kids are getting to the ages where we start to have activities we both enjoy, so I hope to hang out with them more and more! This is a wide open field, so hopefully I'll surprise myself pleasantly!

- Build my career. I'm still very happy with my current job and seem to be still making good impressions and doing good work, so right now that's my focus. I don't have any big ambitions about moving up quickly; as long as I get modest raises and the work environment stays supportive and the work interesting, I don't see any need to do anything other than continue to challenge myself and keep growing and deepening my skills in this position. But I realize jobs are a fluid thing, so again, a wide open intention!

- Be flexible when life throws things at me. This is about resilience as well as openness to new ideas and new situations. It's optimistic that amazing new opportunities may present themselves, but also realistic that challenges may arise, and I don't want to be blindsided or feel persecuted, I just want to land on my feet no matter what. I hope I can do that!

So, those are my thoughts. I'm in the UK, so we're about to hit the new year in about an hour. I wish all my SA friends the 2019 they want, and the ability to tackle the year even if it doesn't turn out the way they hope!

Hi friends!

I had an absolutely crazed December; working nights and weekends trying to get through a mass of work that suddenly hit me all at once. I did all I humanly could, so now I can take my two weeks with a clear conscience if not a clear plate. I'll have a lot to do on Jan. 7 so I'll need to hit the ground running, jetlag be damned.

But until then, I have some time off, so I'm going to try and rest my brain as much as possible.

I want to do a detailed end-of-year rundown like I typically do. I'll be in the UK on New Year's Eve, so I'm not sure if I'll do it beforehand or try and do it from my phone in England. I don't think I'll take my laptop...but I'm still figuring that out. We leave the day after Xmas and I haven't even thought about what I'm going to bring!

This was an odd year. I started off with some of my most organized, regimented goals ever, did really well the first two months, and then things just kind of went off the rails. But not in a bad way, really...I still had a busy, fruitful, creativity-filled year, I just ended up doing things differently from the goals I had so methodically put in place.

So I think next year, I'm going to structure things differently, in that I won't really structure annual goals. It'll be more about being ready to jump on something when I feel it, no matter when it happens in the year. I'll still have intentions, ambitions, but not as many yardsticks or finish lines. It'll be about the doing, and hopefully there will be some achievements reached along the way that I'll celebrate.

Besides the fact that the very concrete goals didn't work as well for me last year -- indicating I'm moving into a different way of getting things done -- another reason I don't want to be so specific with my benchmarks is we have a number of wild cards next year.
- My mom is home from the hospital and doing somewhat better, but I still feel it's very possible that she's not long for this world.
- AS's mom is struggling financially and with finding a stable place to live and any kind of employment; we've had to bail her out financially a few times in the past couple months and feel the worst may be yet to come.
- AS had her best income yet this year, and we have high hopes for next year, but she's taking a leap and getting rid of some of her steady but lower-paying work to give herself more time for higher-paying work and also to build her personal brand. So there's some risk but also more potential for reward.
- We've enlisted a kitchen designer, and depending on what the estimates come to, we may have to decide whether to take on a short-term loan to cover part of it, or find alternatives that work within our current savings, or put off the renovation a while longer until we have the funds. So it's hard to say the impact that will have.

Anyway, still taking stock of the year and thinking about next year, so I'm hoping to do a longer, more coherent post soon. But since I had a bit of time to drop in, I wanted to at least say something. One of my "intentions" for next year will definitely be to blog more frequently again -- I miss it! Even though I still read all of your blogs, I haven't had time to comment as much, so I hope to be more present in general here.

All the mortgage payments hit:
US: $735 to principal
UK1: $180
UK2: $38
UK3: $40

That's $993 to principal.

Current household debt:
US Mortgage $383,174
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $31,410
UK Mortgage 2 $6,621
UK Mortgage 3 $6,973
___
TOTAL DEBT $437,178

All our mortgage payments hit on Friday, but I'm just getting around to posting about them:
US: $732 to principal
UK1: $179
UK2: $37
UK3: $40

All in all, $988 of debt paid off.

I got a notice that our escrow shortage is lower now, so our US monthly mortgage payment will also be lower starting next month. Only by about $30, but I'll take it! Our utilities have averaged about $100 per month higher this year than last year, and I don't see that changing until/unless we can invest in better insulation, mini ductless AC, etc. So it's nice to have one house expense decrease a little.

Current debt amounts:

US Mortgage $383,909
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $31,590
UK Mortgage 2 $6,659
UK Mortgage 3 $7,013
___
TOTAL DEBT $438,171

The past few days have been hard. My mom went into the ER with chest pain (and just gradually feeling worse over the past couple weeks; regular doctors and specialists unable to pinpoint the problem).

Her heart rate was super low and she had several infections in various parts of her body. There were some scary points where a temporary pacemaker wasn't working, where they were debating whether to do surgery before they got rid of some of the infections.

But yesterday she had pacemaker surgery, today she's off oxygen and catheter, and the infections are coming under control. If she continues to pull through she'll likely have to go to a rehab facility before going home, which is good, because after her heart attack a few years ago she totally ignored the physical therapy exercises recommended. If she's at a place, they'll make her do something.

I'm in MN and she's in VA, so all of this has been communicated by email, calls and texts. My dad is stressed and burdened by all the decisions and insurance things he's having to handle, but he had two of my sisters around to help somewhat. One went home and another came, so he still has two there.

I was holding off booking a trip until I heard whether I needed to get there right away, but now it seems like it might be nicer to come in a week when she's probably going to be better able to enjoy a visitor. So I'm going to research flights for early November. I have an extremely busy month (all cancelable if there's an emergency) so I'm looking at a three- or four-day window next week as my best bet for a non-emergency visit.

Luckily we have vacation funds stored up that we don't really have plans for, so if I make this trip and still need to run out another time if anything goes wrong, it shouldn't put a financial burden on my household.

Everyone is being supportive including my work. I know things are touch and go still, but I'm enjoying the feeling of relief after the surgery even if it turns out to be premature. The mind and body can use this respite. It was a few days of -- I don't even know what to call it. The feeling of my mom in danger and my dad suffering mentally was like this ocean of raw emotion right under the surface 24/7. As long as I stayed busy and around people it stayed under control, but it was always there, every second, even when I was laughing and having fun. So to have the ocean subside a bit, even if temporary, is a good sensation.

We had our benefits presentation today, so now I know how much more our medical costs will be (pretax; the effect on my paycheck won't be 100% known until Jan. 15).

Medical is going up a little, plus I've just edged into the next income bracket, so the premium for me and the kids is going up $85 per month pretax.

Dental is staying the same.

I'm adding NT to vision coverage next year because he thinks he may need glasses, so that's going up $8.33 per month.

Since he'll likely need glasses, I'm going to put another $600 into flex spending, or $50 per month.

That means medical expenses are going up $143.33 per month, or $71.67 per paycheck. I'm going to estimate $60 per paycheck for now and we'll see what the change in tax withholding actually is in January.

On the bright side, AS's Obamacare premium is actually going down a little bit for some reason. I guess she made a tiny bit less in 2017 than 2016, so maybe that's why. If so, we'll enjoy it while we can in 2019, because she's making a lot more this year and 2020 healthcare will likely reflect that! (Of course the GOP could do more horrible things to the ACA and it could get even worse, so there's no sense extrapolating that far into the future for healthcare costs.) I believe her costs will decrease about $20 per month.

So I guess the impact of the changes will be about $100 lower income per month. Could be worse, I know. Hopefully NT or I will get a raise to help offset it, since this comes out of our regular budget which is covered by our paychecks. (I handle AS's pay separately; after her tax and retirement it goes toward renovations, vacations, variable/unplanned costs and shared fun money.)

A UK pension statement came in the mail; since I can't check them online it's the only time I get one. The Scottish Widows pension value has increased from 26,544 pounds last year to 28,134 pounds this year. I'll reflect that in our net worth update at the end of the month.

I hate having to wait a day for my US mortgage to hit the actual account, because sometimes I then forget to update my debt totals! But anyway here I am, better late than never.

All our mortgage payments hit:
US Mortgage: $730 to principal
UK Mortgage 1 $179
UK Mortgage 2 $39
UK Mortgage 3 $38

All told, that's $986 to principal this month.

Current debt totals:
US Mortgage $384,641
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $31,769
UK Mortgage 2 $6,696
UK Mortgage 3 $7,053
---
TOTAL DEBT $439,159

Wow, I haven't blogged properly for months! Life is just busy, I guess. Some highlights:

- Social life is good. Making/keeping/deepening friendships is a LOT of work, but I'm loving hanging out with folks when I can corral them. Next week I'm going to Wisconsin to see my fave band and my Canadian friend!

- AS's big freelance job is still chugging along; she's invoiced for about $8K of the possible $32K. They pay weekly for however many hours she worked the previous week, which has been GREAT for our shared spending!

- We applied AS's increased income plus NT's third upcoming October paycheck to eliminate the shared spending deficit and begin saving up for renovations once again. We've fallen out of touch with our kitchen designer, but we probably won't nudge her until we've built up the savings to more than they are now.

- Most of the goals I set at the beginning of the year have fallen by the wayside, except learning guitar. I love guitar! I still take lessons weekly and practice almost daily. I can play almost 20 songs, I think.

- Another unexpected project I didn't foresee on Jan. 1 but am still working on is planning a novel with an old college friend who lives in NYC. We're slowly bringing the plot and characters into focus and I hope to have a detailed outline done in time to work on the novel in November. Doing a shared project for NaNoWriMo is an iffy proposition but hopefully there's no harm in trying it this once. I just need to figure out a way to keep working even if my friend gets busy or stuck, so I can get to my 50K words by the end of November!

- Also, it's become something of a habit to see more music live! There were a few years when I really didn't feel inspired by music but I'm getting really into it again. In addition to the October show in Wisconsin, I have tickets to FOUR concerts in November! And I discovered another local act I really like; he's taking a 2-month hiatus from playing live, but I'm looking forward to when he starts playing around again.

- My work just started up the pedometer challenge, which is 4 weeks in October. I know I'll do enough steps to get the $25 gift card; the real challenge is doing enough steps to get one of the $100 weekly prizes. We shall see! I did finally order some new sneakers which I've been meaning to do for months.

- We decided to do a staycation in October instead of going to a lake. Still deciding what fun things to do but we've got $750 set aside for the 5 days, so I'm sure it'll be great! Our next trip as a family will be to the UK, leaving the day after Xmas and coming back in the first week of January.

- Work is good, family is good, everything is trucking along!

Goal: $512,564 by March 2019

Current balance: $436,289 ($76,275 to go)

July 2018 balance: $431,075

Progress: $5,214

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.

To reach the interim goal by the end of our birthday month (March) in 2019, that's 6 months, so we'd need to contribute (or have assets appreciate) $76,275 -- $12,713 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!

All our mortgage payments hit (a bit late because of the holiday):
US: $728 to principal
UK1: $178
UK2: $38
UK3: $40

All told, $984 went to principal.

New debt totals:

US Mortgage $385,371
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $31,948
UK Mortgage 2 $6,735
UK Mortgage 3 $7,091
___
TOTAL DEBT $440,145