July is shaping up to be an expensive month, but I am enjoying myself. I had my trip to NYC earlier this month, I attended an Alicia Keys concert this Sunday, and I just booked a trip for October to Napa Valley & Lake Tahoe yesterday. I'm really looking forward to it. 

Since the laboratory where I PRN at may be bought out by the end of the year, I may not have a second job beyond December. That is fine by me. I will have more time to visit home. I have started to look at new homes being built. I supposed I should also look at existing homes, but I am excited about the idea of picking out just what I like in my home. My lease ends in one year so I would like to time my next move around the end of my lease.

I really want to encourage my parents to get a house cleaner at least every two weeks. My dad has so much on him as caregiver. I will bring it up this weekend. I might have to call in the troops (my sisters) for support.

My investments & net worth are at an all time high of $1.361 million and $1.429 million respectively. I just want to see $1 million in my TSP. Just once, even if it doesn't stay there. I am at $982k so I'm close. 

Yesterday I got my paystub for my biweekly check. We got our raise as well as backpay. It was a nice little bonus. 

The market is up this week & I'm inching towards $1 million in my TSP. My high this week (before my biweekly contribution Thursday) was $979k. I am at $1.35 million in all investments.

I also hit a liquid cash high of $50k. I don't keep that much in cash as I always look to have my money invested. Even when I was saving for my first home I didn't have that much saved.

My net worth on Mint hit a new bench mark this week. I am currently at $1,401,489 in net worth. It's the first time I can recall that I've hit $1.4 million. This includes all cash & my car value.

I've also recovered the $1.33 million I had in investments at the end of 2021. I now have $1.34 million in investments. Though my TSP & IRA are quite where they were, I now have a larger brokerage account than I had at that time. We'll see how the rest of this year plays out!

I mentioned back in May, I believe, that we got another 5% raise. Well, it takes a little while for everything to be filed. On Thursday night we got the notification in our employee file of the raise. Whether we'll see anything on this week's paycheck remains to be seen, but we should get back pay dated to early April when the raise was effective.

I had a wonderful trip to New York! My friend & I took direct flights from New Orleans on Friday, and flew back Tuesday. Four nights was a perfect length trip. Friday night we got in late due to weather delays. We had a late dinner at a Cuban restaurant & celebrated my sister's birthday the prior day. She took the Megabus up from Union Station in DC. 

Saturday we met my sister's friend who lives in Harlem. We did something very touristy that despite our many trips to NYC, we had never done. We took the double-decker hop on hop off bus. We didn't hop off however. We took the full downtown route, had lunch, then took the uptown route. After that we headed back to the hotel for showers. We had dinner at a restaurant right at the Lincoln Center. We then attended the ABT performance of Giselle.

Sunday we had two shows, but first my sister & I utilized our bus tickets for free entrance to the Museum of the City of New York. I loved this museum. We had a snack in the cafe, then we took a Lyft to drop me off at the theatre for my first show while she went shopping. First show was Lea Michelle in Funny Girl. Then we headed back to the hotel for about an hour where I met up with my sister again. We went to dinner then headed to New York, New York. I enjoyed both shows.

Monday we took the subway all the way downtown so we could hop on the ferry to Governors Island. It wasn't very busy as there was a lot closed. Apparently the time to visit is on the weekend, but we still enjoyed it. We headed back across the water & had lunch at a taquiera. Then we walked around Battery Park for a while. We took the subway back to our hotel & got ready for our second show at Lincoln Center. We walked through Central Park & had dinner at a French restaurant before heading to see ABT's Swan Lake.

The next day we headed home. A great time was had by all. 

Thursday I was sitting in my living room and I thought I heard water dripping. I knew I had not left any water running so I figured maybe that's just what it sounds like when water is going through the pipes. I live in a second floor apartment. There are three floors. Not fifiteen minutes later I'm talking to my manager on the phone when all of sudden I hear water running inside me apartment. I get up & start walking around my apartment. 

I find water pouring through the sprinkler system in my master bedroom as well as running down my bedroom walls in two spots. In the bathroom water is also pouring out that sprinkler and leaking through the ceiling. I call the rental office immediately then run upstairs.

My neighbor's door was open (so strange when there is a heat advisory out). It's nearly 100 degrees outside! I knock & when he comes to the door I inform him that water is coming through my ceiling & ask if he has any water in his apartment. He says that he turned off the water valve & walks away to check. He comes back & says he has an inch of water in his bathroom because he forgot to turn off the sink faucet. Unbelieveable!

So anyway maintenance comes & assesses the situation. I'm glad I was at home because usually at that time I'm at work. I was home early because I worked an earlier shift. The damage wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I have a dehumidifier that they brought to prevent mold & they will come back later to repair the sheet rock.

What a mess! I still can't believe he just left his sink running. Why?! Was the stopper plugged? And how could he not hear the water running? I do have have renter's insurance, but thankfully had no damage to my personal property.

We're now half-way through 2023! The second quarter was a very good quarter.

I'm almost back to where I was at the end of 2021 in my investments. I have about $30k to go to get back to where I was at Q4 2021. That's not including my contributions as I've been maxing my TSP & IRA, as well as contributing to a brokerage account since my personal investment high 18 months ago. I was at $975k in my TSP and I just knew that $1 million was around the corner. Then 2022 came and the market started its downward trend.

Investments 1,312,264

Cash Savings $27,761

Total $1,340,025

Monthly Gain $82,465