Happy New Year! 2024 was good to me, despite health challenges for myself and my mom, who spent a month as an inpatient between the hospital & rehab. I have great expectations for 2025. 

My financial goals for 2025 have not changed much. I am readjusting my budget & cash flow after building my home.

1. Max out TSP: $23,500

2. Max out Roth IRA: $7,000

3. Max out FSA: $3,300

4. Contribute $500 monthly to brokerage: $6,000

5. Begin to replenish my savings re-starting with $100 monthly contributions: $1,200

6.  Rebuild cash cushion in checking to at least $10,000.

7. Automatic contributions to church & charity. 

8. My TSP match will be $6,300.

My mom mentioned that I should be getting my deposit returned once I moved out of my apartment. I honestly did not remember paying a security deposit & told her I didn't pay one. Well, I unexpectedly got my deposit returned. That was $250 I was not expecting, but was happy to see.

My request to turn off (or stop) service on my move out day was not processed. Entergy says that they can't even see where I requested it. So I'm on the hook for another month. It's only $53, but I am aggravated that the property wouldn't pay for it when I sent the bill showing it was after my move out date. Poor business ethics on their part. I will certainly include that in my review of their property. Along with all the noise issues I endured for 3 years.

Last night when driving I could barely see with my headlights. I have never had this happen, but do headlights just all of a sudden stop working? I  have a very low headlight that only shows just what I'm passing over & nothing ahead. I kept hitting my brights to avoid getting in an accident because I couldn't see ahead. I would turn them off when encountering other cars. I made a service appointment to have my headlights checked out. I may still drop in today since it's just that one issue for them to look at. 

My mom ended up spending 11 nights in the hospital, including 3 nights prior to her surgery. She was then transferred to a neuromedical center for rehab for 2 weeks. She has another week remaining here. My mom is very ready to go home. She is a homebody & this has been hard for her.

My mom had a rough time after the surgery. It was expected that she would go home after one night. Her age & maybe the Parkinson's has made the recovery slower. Also her back condition had deteriorated so much that the surgery took longer than usual. She was in a lot pain & not herself at all. She can't remember much of what happened, which is probably a good thing.

Thank you for asking about my mom & sending your well wishes.

My dad texted me & my sisters Saturday around noon to say he had taken my mom to the ED and asking me to come. I left work immediately, went home & packed a bag with more clothes than I thought necessary at the time, then hit the road. Turns out I'm going to use all those clothes & more. They admitted her that night & yesterday (Tuesday) she had back surgery.  We won't be going home today, maybe tomorrow. And maybe not straight home, but in an inpatient rehab program. I'm glad that I could be here. I've spent every night at the hospital with her, only leaving to go to my parents' home to shower. She was in a lot of pain & I'm so thankful that this surgery will alleviate that.

I'm also glad that I didn't accept the $25,000 she offered to help with the down payment on my new home build. She will probably need that money for medical bills.

I hope your holidays have been wonderful. It was good to have family home for Christmas. We had a couple of outings to museums for the kids, but mainly stayed close to home. We played a lot of games as a family which is always fun.

My mom had a low glucose episode & my dad called an ambulance on Christmas Eve. That was the one low light of our holidays, but thankfully she was fine. After checking her out they were only there about 15 minutes & now my dad knows what to do if this occurs in the future. Yesterday my mom said that she feels her glucose levels have evened out & she's not feeling the swings that she was prior. Thank the Lord.

Due to my mom's health, I ended up not attending the extended family Christmas Day gathering though I sent my assigned food dish which was complimented. It was just green beans, but it's kind of become the dish I can make well since it's what I always make for holidays. I like to spruce it up with potatoes & bacon. Baby Yukon gold potatoes are the best. I only use fresh green beans so most of the time is just prep time. They ran out quickly so I will make more next year. I stayed at home with my mom & we had an enjoyable time watching football & movies that day. 

I am planning to visit my niece & nephew in the spring when I can watch them play soccer. My niece is all about soccer & plays on the advance team. Her younger brother is not quite as into it, but plays as well.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2024!

A few this and that as the year comes to a close.

I upped my monthly IRA contribution to $575 per month, which would bring my annual contribution to $6,900 annually. I'll put in an order for $100 on January 1st to get me to $7,000.

I increased my biweekly TSP contribution to $900 which will max me out for the year at $23,000. They reduce the last paycheck's contribution automatically.

Based on tax efficiency I got out of the high dividend yield fund at Vanguard and exchanged to the tax managed capital appreciation fund. VTCLX return was much better than VHYX this year. I could kick myself for not making this change earlier, but c'est la vie, non?

My last paycheck was about $800 higher than usual so I must have been paid for my performance award. My other paycheck was higher as well after working extra hours on my last weekend.

I'm excited & ready for 2024, but enjoying time spent with family this Christmas.

One of my CDs pays the monthly dividend on the 1st so I'm always a day late.

TSP $980,827

IRA $290,549

Brokerage $86,295

Total Investments $1,357,671

Cash Savings $30,835

Total Net Worth $1,388,506

Monthly Gain/Loss +$117,446

Checking $16,841 (included this month just to give an idea of what I usually have for cash flow, not included in my net worth calculation)

Car $15,062 (checked Kelley Blue Book value this morning, also not included in my net worth calculation)

My investments gained another $14,000 just one day later. I'm less than $9,000 away from reaching one million in my TSP. So close!

When my auto insurance renewed in Septmember my rate was raised by 30% with no changes to my driving record. I know that USAA has never been cheap, but this rate is almost triple what I get when I look at Geico or Progressive. So after 23 years solely with USAA I am thinking about leaving them. Who do you have auto insurance with and what do you think about their service?

I hope your holiday has been a good one. I hope you gobbled till you wobbled! 

A friend posted on Facebook that her car registration expired without her realizing it & I immediately realized that mine did the same. It expired in July. We both had moved since our last renewal. I still don't understand how they couldn't locate me since I have updated both my driver's license & my voter registration to my new address. She ended up paying $70 to renew her registration. I'm not even worried about it. I'm off the week of my birthday (I have so much annual leave to use before the end of the year!) so I'll take care of it then. 

October was not a good month financially, but I had a lot of fun. I vacationed in Napa Valley & Lake Tahoe. I got back to dancing again with salsa & bachata lessons. I walked regularly. I lost weight. I looked at future homes. I still worry & pray about my mom, but I had more to sustain & relax me.

Investments $1,240,842

Cash Savings $30,218

Total $1,271,060

Monthly Gain/Loss -$35,869

My net worth dipped below $1.3 million, but I'm not worried.  I don't know what the markets will do short term, but I have faith in investing long term. Next month I will have another $10,000 to ladder into a CD. Capital One is paying 5.3% for a 10 month CD. And my checking account is paying 5.25%.

I really can't believe it, but we had another raise announced this week. It was 5% this time. I never would have expected another raise after the 16% raise we received last year & the 4% annual raise we got in January. I think we are also going to get retroactive pay for the raise back to April. What makes this better than the 10% retention is that it goes toward your pension calculation & your match calculation.

I have no plans to increase savings. If I end up with a lot of cash in my checking account - like I did last year - I will make a contribution to my brokerage account, but otherwise I just plan to enjoy the money for once. I max out my TSP & IRA every year. I contribute monthly to my brokerage & savings. This time I'm going to learn to relax & enjoy the present rather than save for the future.

Happy belated Mother's Day! I worked yesterday, so this morning I drove to BR & took my parents out for brunch. It was a nice brunch & we had an awesome waiter. I usually pick a 20% tip by default, but he was such a nice young man that I picked the highest percentage that they offered for a tip, 25%. My mom had the Spanish omelet, I had the shrimp omelet, and my dad had the Southern breakfast.

We stopped at Trader Joe's after brunch & picked up a few things. My mom & I love Trader Joe's. This afternoon we had a family video chat since it was my nephew's 10th birthday. Time sure does fly!

Saturday was a fun day. I met my friend for lunch and although we've been to this restaurant several times, I've never enjoyed lunch as much as I did this weekend. I had a delicious salad followed by a shrimp pasta dish. We then went to the local ballet and saw Romeo & Juliet. It was very well done with a modern twist and beautiful costuming. The costume designer actually passed away two days before the performance so it was a poignant feeling to the performance.

After the ballet my friend & I walked back to the hotel where we had lunch and stopped into their cafe. We got coffee drinks and sweet treats to go. We walked back to our cars and said our goodbyes. She headed to BR & I headed down the street to work to meet with my co-workers.

I had about a half-hour to spare. I freshened up (it was hot Saturday!) and did something quickly on my computer while it was on my mind. Then my co-workers & I carpooled to a different theatre to see Trevor Noah. It was awesome! I'm such a fan of his and he was hilarious, as was his opening warm-up comedian. We really enjoyed it, even though we kept taking shop while we waited for Trevor. 😆 

Sunday I had to work. Usually ask off for Mother's Day, but I got it confused with Fatger's Day, forgetting it was the second and not the third Sunday. After work I went to the library, watched Jennifer Lopez in The Mother on Netflix, and got in my one hour walk.

I also bought us tickets to NY, NY on Broadway for our July trip. My friend got the tickets for Funny Girl. So we have two ballets and two Broadway shows booked. I will leave Friday night open in case we have travel delays. Maybe I'll get to use my Broadway gift card that night. My sister gave it to me for my birthday in December 2021, but this is my first trip to NYC since then. Last week I booked my nonstop flights for only $218!

So it's been a good few days, though spendy.

I enjoy following your budgets so much that I thought I'd give it a go at sharing mine. I know that I put more on credit cards than this budget accounts for, so I really need to get better at actually accounting for my expenses. Now that I write that, I realize that I had nothing in my budget for travel or shopping, which is definitely not correct. In fact I just spend $800 on booking ballet & plane tickets for NYC in July. 🩰 ✈️ 🚖 

rent $1712

utilities $100

auto insurance $143

cell phone & internet $143

food $400

travel $300

shopping $300

church $100

charities $100

Apple $1

IRA $500

savings $500

brokerage $500

Expenses $3399

Savings $1500

Total $4899

I now realize that in posting a budget how vulnerable you feel opening yourself up to others' scrutiny.

Since I don't know if I'll be able to recover my lost entries, let's try this for a third time. Third time's the charm, right?

Retirement investments $1,156,452

Brokerage investments $81,542 

Savings $26,551

Total $1,264,545

My brokerage account is set aside for a future home purchase and my cash savings is earmarked for future car purchases. I put $500 into each every month.

I hope to not have to buy another car until 2032, which is when all cars are projected to be electric. I know a hybrid CR-V today will cost approximately $35k with the trimmings I desire, which are nothing extravagant.

Not included in my net worth is my cash in checking accounts and car value, which amount to approximately $35k.

Just testing because I'd hate to type out another lengthy blog only to lose it again.

Well I did get a paycheck from my PRN job, but there was a snafu at work with processing time cards so I didn't get paid at my full-time job. No biggie. I'm actually carrying a little extra cash at the moment as I've been receiving reimbursements for planning work events. And since I got out of debt in 2021, I've kept a good amount of cash on hand.

I'll get a double paycheck on the next paycheck. I'm most concerned that they get my match on my retirement contributions correct since my contributions that should have been on this paycheck will be doubled up on the next paycheck.

Often in the evenings I'll watch the Dave Ramsey show on YouTube. On today's show they had a young postal worker from LI, NY named Patrice. She was there in front of the live studio audience in Tennessee to do her debt-free scream. She was absolutely amazing with her go-getter attitude. I loved her mindset that she didn't want to be like everyone else. I always admire people who aspire to be true to who they are & embrace not being ordinary. Patrice from Long Island definitely inspired me today. 

It's a federal holiday so I'm off. Not really a true long weekend as I worked at my PRN job. I slept in, then got a text from my co-worker a little after 8:30 asking me to call him. He had gone in to work on an annual report & encountered other issues. We spent 45 minutes on the phone going over how to pull reports in our server & other miscellaneous things.

Then I had my cup of coffee and my favorite cheese pastries from Trader Joe's. I tried to make a TJ run yesterday after I got off work, but they had closed early due to a Mardi Gras parade. Speaking of, Happy Lundi Gras as well! 💜💛💚

The only other things on my agenda today is to mop my floors, fold some laundry, and maybe see the new Ant Man movie. 

I contacted Mint & realized why my CD wasn't linking. With Capital One you have to authorize the linking of each account, so when I opened this account it wasn't going to link. Easy fix. Now my accounts will be ready when I do my end of the month assessment.

I plugged in my numbers into the H&R Block calculator because I was anxious about having to pay a lot this year due to increases in income. It looks like I will owe less than $100 to federal, maybe a couple of hundred to state. It doesn't seem to calculate state taxes so I'm only going off my own rough calculations.

I didn't realize that the state income tax rates went down last year. That's a huge thing as they've remained unchanged for as long as I can remember. I don't know how I missed that news. Our high sales tax rate remains unchanged.

I received my W-2 for my primary job as well as one of my 1099-INT forms and was able to upload it to the H&R Block website for my dad to work on later. I don't think he can do my family & friends tax return until after the rush anyway.

I don't know if I'll post again before z Christmas, so I'm wishing you all a Merry Christmas today. My sisters both flew in Wednesday. One to New Orleans and my other sister & her family to Baton Roufe. Currently in the car writing this as my sister drives us to BR for the day.

I think I'm all done with shoppibn. I may pick up a restaurant gift gift card for my parents. I always try to give those to save them some cooking. I used to get a great Black Friday deal at an upscale Italian restaurant, but my dad let slip that my mom doesn't like much on the menu so I didn't get it this year. The deal was good, but a $100 gift card and get a bonus card for $50, but it's not a great deal if they don't find much they like on the menu.

I also want to confess that I have spent way too much at the Kate Spade sale site. In addition to the first 4 purses, I bought a couple more purses, wallets, card holders, and wristlets. My New Year resolution is to stay away! I am gifting the wallets that I bought this year to my mom, sisters, and niece. My niece will be 13 in March so she is getting to the age that I can gift her things like wallets. I used to carry around a purse when I was much younger than her & my relatives would be so tickled by it. She is much more into soccer than purses, but everyone needs a wallet, right?

Today I got my last paychecks of the year. With a $500 contribution to my TSP I have maxed it out for the year. This is the 15th year in my 15 years of federal service that I have maxed my TSP. I hope to keep it up until I retire. I have 12-15 more years before I can retire.  I have not seen anything about President Biden signing the budget which sets our pay raise for next year. Last year he signed it on the 23rd.

Not surprisingly, I did not switch anything with my health insurance. When I tend to waffle with a decision I usually just stick with the known. I did up my FSA to $1300 for the year. If I stay on Ozempic I'll have no issue using the money.

My birthday was on the 5th and I had a very low-key day. I accompanied my mom to a doctor's appointment, we had a nice brunch, went grocery shopping, then my dad & I decorated their Christmas tree. 🎄

That weekend I also had attended a sweets Christmas event at church as well as saw the musical Six, which I loved. It's an interesting musical as it is only 80 minutes with no intermission. But it was entertaining & fun, with great songs & costumes. 👑 

I ended up not changing anything with my health insurance. I stuck to the same plan & increased my FSA contribution. I also didn't opt back in to vision coverage which I had thought about doing since I am considering getting LASIKS again.I'm not a fan of glasses, especially when I have to wear them all the time now. 🤓 

I did increase my TSP contribution to $875 per paycheck for the new year. I really wanted to go to $900, but that would have me top off at paycheck 25 and I would miss out on my match for the last paycheck. Maybe the following year I can move to $900 per paycheck. 

I will resume monthly IRA contributions as well. Doing a lump sum contribution felt like a bad move this year what with the market falling afterwards. I'll contribute $500 monthly then another $500 to max out.

I almost forgot! I got notification of my performance award which is $1,050 this year. A nice little year end bonus. Plus we can expect a raise of around 4% in the New Year.

I'm looking forward to family being home for the holidays. Even without having kids of my own gift-giving & the holidays can feel stressful, so I'm just trying to focus on time spent together. 🎁 

I haven't done much because I shop through out the year, but so far I have purchased 2 books for my mom and a FitBit for my day. These expenses are shared expenses as we'll split the costs between me & my sisters, and my mom for the gift for my dad. The books were about $20 each and the FitBit about $160.

My mom had asked for Michelle Obama's latest book, then I also purchased Viola Davis's autobiography as I read so many positive reviews. The FitBit fitness tracker for my dad was my mom's idea.

My only other purchase was more printer tape for the label printer I gave my dad. He was using the Avery paper labels, but I gave him my Brother label printer so he can label his wine & the fruit he grows for tea. You can also make jam with it, but the name escapes me at the moment. Red something or other.

So I mentioned that I was planning to move to a health insurance that I could invest in an HSA. Well as I started to research my options they indicated that if you use your plan on average that you should stick with my current standard plan, while low use was recommended for the HSA plan. So now I'm torn. I probably should have chosen the HSA plan when I was younger, healthier, and rarely went to the doctor. Now I'm almost 45 and diabetic. Granted my diabetes is well-controlled now with the help of medication & exercise, but I wonder if it's better to just stick with what I have. Decisions, decisions. 

This year I am again thinking of making the switch to a health insurance plan that is eligible for an HSA. I may also opt back into a vision plan as I am contemplating getting LASIK again. I really don't care for wearing glasses. The contribution limit for a single person is $3,850. It's another great vehicle to save for retirement as well as medical expenses.

I have never in my life been collections, but on November 6th Sunrise Credit reported me as in collections due to owing $112 to AT&T U-Verse DirectTV. Thursday I got the alert from Mint. I remember that I disputed a bill over a year ago and after discussions with the company they agreed to dismiss the debt and they even sent me a Visa card for $91 my trouble.

Recently collectors called & I explained that we settled the issue. They kept calling even after I explained the situation so I started blocking & hanging up on them. Then I got an alert that I had a collections account opened up. I immediately filed a dispute with Experian, Equifax, and Transunion. Experian & Transunion have already deleted the collections from my report.

I also emailed the company directly & they said that they don't have a collections against me on their books & I should contact AT&T. But it was Sunrise Credit that reported the debt so I didn't understand that response. I responded why then was I just reported as being in collections by Sunrise Credit? They didn't respond. I also complained that they didn't send me a Notice of Debt which has been the law since November 2021.

It looks like this will be fairly easy to resolve so far. It also makes my decision to leave AT&T, my cell phone provider for approximately 2 decades, easier. I've been wanting to move to Verizon as they seem to provide better coverage post-hurricanes, but I due to loyalty & a federal employee discount I had been reluctant to leave AT&T. No discount however is worth seeing my nearly perfect credit card drop by over 100 points in a day.

In other bad news, I tested positive for Covid-19 yesterday. I'm already feeling better, thankfully. I had spent Thursday night with my parents' and when I woke up feeling awful at 4 am I took one of their home tests. My first symptoms were actually sneezing, which had me thinking of allergies. I had slightly itchy, watery eyes. Then Thursday morning my nose started running, then by that night I was coughing. I went to bed then woke up with chills and feeling very unwell, which prompted my taking the test. I'm still recovering at my parents' home. I wanted to go home to isolate, but they didn't want me to be alone. Last summer we lost my cousin that was younger than me by 2 years due to Covid-19 & I think it made me parents more anxious.

I'm doing much better & will head to my apartment tomorrow for the rest of my recovery period.

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. 

I walked into my office Friday morning & the first thing my co-worker said was that we got our salary increase. It turned out to be a little over 16% which is better than I expected. I had hoped for at least 10% to make our current (temporary) retention pay of 10% a permanent increase. Once we start being able to fill vacancies due to the increased pay, we'll lose the retention pay. The increase to salary is more important as it impacts your retirement pay, matching for retirement contributions, and more. I am very excited & so thankful. 

I had made some stretch savings goals when I started looking at my budget for next year. I am going to be able to meet that & more. People that were looking to retire are also reconsidering as their retirement pay is based on their high 3 years of salary. We'll be able to retain employees when we've been losing them. Everyone seemed to be in a jolly mood all day.

We federal employees should get a 4.6% increase in January. It will be slightly less for us as we are on this special salary scale, but that is another added bonus. I'm glad that retirement contribution limits are increasing so I can take advantage of this increased income to save for my future.

After President Biden's announcement about student loan forgiveness my former college roommate posted on Facebook about her situation. I graduated from college back in 2000, I think she took a year or two longer to finish. She still has over $25k in student loans. I was shocked. I know that she came from a single parent home & they didn't have a lot of money, but I was surprised as I thought our college was pretty reasonable to attend back then. She said that she has paid more that she initially took out & then some. She has deferred when she was unable to pay.

I am very sympathetic for those that continue to be bogged down with student loan even though I was able to pay mine off. I had only $5k for my undergrad due to having scholarships, then $20k for grad school. I got some repayment funds from the federal governmentfor my grad school loans. I think something like $4k in exchange for committing to continue my employment for a few years. I had every intention of retiring from the VA & still do so it was a no brainer to commit at the time.

Back to my friend, her loans were largely from undergrad though she attended and didn't finish grad school. Her undergrad degree was in education, but she was never able to teach because she couldn't pass the exam. With the teaching shortage I think she would be able to get a job now, but I'm not sure she is interested after all these years. She is hoping, and I as well, that she'll get the $10k loan forgiveness.

It's back to the grind tomorrow. I took off all a last week and enjoyed spending time with my family. My sister stayed the night with me Thursday, then flew back home Friday morning. We enjoyed low-key family time, talking, having lunch, watching movies. It was so relaxing. 

I had a terrifying experience on the spillway Monday night coming home. There was a tanker trucker that came up behind me, no headlights, with hazard lights flashing. I didn't know why his hazard lights were on. Had he lost his brakes? He was so close that I got over as I was scared that he was going to run into me. Then he started coming into my lane & blaring his horn. It was terrifying. He had plenty of time to get over before he was on my tail, which was why I moved over. I really should have called the state troopers. He had no business driving so haphazardly without headlights at night on a dangerous over-water bridge. I was in tears by the time I got home, but so thankful that there was no accident. My heart felt like it was going to come out of my chest during the incident.

In better news, after 3 weeks of diet changes, exercising, and weekly Ozempic injections my blood sugar is running consistently within range. Three weeks ago no matter what I ate my glucose was high. I was worrying that I would never get it under controls. I get my labs again in 3 weeks so my doctor can make sure there are no advisers effects from the Ozempic.