I was scrolling on Facebook and an ad for a Kate Spade Monica crossbody bag popped up on my feed. I've never bought a Kate Spade handbag. I have 2 Coach handbags that I bought many years ago at the Coach Outlet when they were on clearance. Same style, one is brown/deep orange and the other is black/gray. I have 2 matching wallets for the black/gray purse that I use with both purses. 

I ended up buying the purse in all 4 colors. It was retail $279, on sale for $89, and a one day special of $59. I thought they would make good Christmas presents for my sisters and also for myself, but I may keep all 4. The colors are black, camel brown, a deep dusty pink, and a light blue. I was going to keep the standard black & tan and gift the other two pretty colors,  but I may spoil myself and keep all of them as an early 45th birthday present. I do love cute purses & jewelry. Thankfully, my tastes don't run very expensive for either. 👜👝💍

Roughly 10 days out from the November election & it can't come soon enough.

There's a certain very popular radio personality that I l just got back to listening to in the past couple of years. I had stopped listening to him over a decade ago because I got tired of his political rants. Well with the upcoming election he can't seem to stop making comments about politics. I think I'll take a break from the show until the election is over. 

One of my pet peeves in life is people who think that everyone wants to hear their political opinions all the time. I listen to him for financial advice, though I certainly don't always agree with his. It's probably  more like 50-50 with this particular money guru, but I still enjoy the discussions. What I'm not interested in is hearing his political opinions.

Just vote how you want to & be quiet. I'm pretty well set on my political leanings & I only discuss politics in certain venues. Other than alluding to having some strong feelings after the 2016 election I try not to discuss politics here.

I am in a TSP group & the administrators are militant about no political posts. I love it. If there's even a hint of politics in a post it gets taken down. There's a certain group of people that get mad, but I think it keeps the focus on the group's real intent. 

Read more at the WSJ: https://apple.news/AtzbVF-0tRNS9FbyJo3e75A

401k $22,500

401k catch-up $7,500

IRA $6,500

I'm excited to be able to save $2,500 more next year in my retirement accounts. It will make good use of my recent raise.

I paid $664 for my 2 nights in a hotel for my short trip to Portland. It wasn't even a weekend and it is the off season. I don't think I paid that much for a hotel in NYC. I paid $509 for my B&B in Manchester, but I did find a much cheaper hotel there that I canceled because I wanted the experience of staying in a B&B. That price included a ticket to the Frank Lloyd Wright homes for $28. I had a wonderful time & enjoyed every moment, but it was not a budget vacation!

I lost $100,824 in my investments, but still maintained 7 figures - just barely. September was my biggest one month drop yet, despite contributing 3 paychecks' worth of retirement investments & beginning contributions to my brokerage. Whew! My past paycheck on the 30th was pretty nice as it contained my new increased salary as well as some retroactive pay.

$1,046,003

I am back from an absolutely unforgettable trip! First let me share an article that my friend wrote for our local paper:

https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/entertainment_life/article_3be53d0a-445a-11ed-8197-4bdb49cc5497.html

We all took our own journeys before & after the four nights on the schooner Stephen Taber. I started with 2 nights in Manchester, NH and ended with 2 nights in Portland, ME. I enjoyed both cities but I will say that although Portland is maybe half the size of Manchester there was so much to see & do in Portland. Portland, and Maine in general, is very proud of their  heritage. Maine is very well marketed. There are so many shops & everything is all about Maine.🦞🫐🌲

I'm not sure why New Hampshire is so different. I went searching for my favorite souvenir item, magnets, in Manchester & came up empty-handed. It's the first time I've visited anywhere & didn't come home with a new magnet. It was strange how hard it was to bring home a piece of NH. I ended up buying a sample of maple syrups as my memento from NH, and even had to get that from the B&B where I stayed. Who knew NH was known for their maple syrup? I thought that was a Vermont thing. ME & NH also produce a lot of maple syrup. 🍁 

In Manchester, I toured the Frank Lloyd Wright homes and visited the Currier and Millyard museums. In Portland, I did a walking tour and the self-guided Portland Freedom Trail. I also toured Victoria Mansion, which has a New Orleans connection.

I was honestly nervous about the schooner portion of the trip, but it turned out fine. It turned out better than fine as a wonderful time was had by all. About half the people on the trip was from our group. We visited Buck's Harbor, Stonington, Deer Isle, and Hurricane Island. We actually didn't go ashore at Hurricane Island. I'm not sure there would have been much to see either. During our trip we saw seals, porpoises, so many sea gulls, and even spotted bald eagles which was fun. 🦭🦅

The food was fabulous! We had early morning fresh baked pastries & coffee for sunrise, breakfast at 8, lunch at noon, apps & wine at 4:30, the dinner & more wine at 6. The captain presented a variety of cheeses each day, which really made me want to up my cheese game & try more cheeses. 🧀

The weather was perfect on land, but quite chilly sailing the coast line. Of course, you need the wind to sail. If I ever do a trip like this again I would try high season, in July or August. 

This blog was all travel. Next blog will catch up on my September numbers.