The stock market ended on a high note Friday to end the first quarter.

Net worth for March was $1,247,432

Investment savings $1,221,478

Cash savings $25,954 

Contributions were $4,125 for the month

Total gain was $28,593

Obviously still off from the highs of late 2021, but headed in the right direction this quarter. I haven't seen that the latest interest rate increase affected any of my savings accounts, however. 

My net worth was down for February, though not as much as expected. My investments were down & cash savings slightly up.

Net Worth: $1,218,479

Change: $-27,325

I don't include cash in checking which is about $15,000 between the two accounts. Nor do I include depreciating assets like my car.

Capital One paid my promo bonus of $100 for opening my savings account, so I took out another $10k to open a second CD while the rate is at 5.00%. I didn't want to pull anymore until I was sure that I would earn my bonus. 

My paycheck tomorrow will be my last paycheck with the 10% retention bonus. I will be fine financially, but it was a nice boost while it lasted. I'm happy that we're now recruiting & retaining staff, and we now need to focus on recruiting & retaining other positions. On the bright side, if things go as proposed we will get an 8% boost in January. Yes, it's a while away, but it's nice to know it's in the works.

Happy Black History Month! The January market was good to us. I'm not at my highest number, but I'm not terribly far off either. I gained $86,805 last month including contributions which were $3,750.

Net Worth $1,221,125

I am reading that we can expect the feds to continue raising interest rates into the late spring/early summer. If Capital One has paid my bonus for opening my 360 savings account by that time, I can move some money into CDs which will hopefully be at their peak rate. Their 360 account seems to be stuck at 3.3% while CD rates continue to rise. I may need to move back to my credit union.

I forgot to post my net worth for November 2022. I just wanted to note that I never count the cash in my checking account as that seems too fluid. I usually keep around $10,000 in my checking, but again, it's very fluid. Between my brokerage and savings account I have $104,106. I have that earmarked for a down deposit on a house if I wish to buy again.

November 2022 $1,209,583

December 2022 $1,158,919

My net loss for December was $50,664.

December 2021 $1.388 million

December 2022 $1.159 million

My net loss for the year was $229k, or actually $269k since I added nearly 40k to savings and investments.

The losses are a little disheartening but I became a millionaire in 2020, years before I expected to reach that goal, and I have never fallen below that. I remain optimistic about the future. Happy New Year!

I gained $83,955 over September's net work to finish the month at $1,129,958. $22,000 of that was cash while the rest is investments. 

Pardon me, if I already posted about this. I've thought of it often but can't recall if I ever did. My former co-worker FIRED! By that, I mean she & husband retired early. She was my first lead tech when I got out of school at 22. She was about 5 years older & pregnant at the time. She never spoke much about money, but I recall her mentioning that she & her husband were paying off their home early. I never knew anyone so young talking about paying off a home. Fast forward 22 years later and she has officially retired! They were both state workers so retired with a pension. Their boys are both in college I believe. I wouldn't be surprised if they both had scholarships. She has been posting pictures of their travels on Facebook since they retired. They seem to go non-stop. I'm so excited to know someone who actually FIRED in real life. It's so inspiring. 

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 was down for the month of August.

Net Worth: $1,126,879

Gain/Loss: -$42,350

It is August already! This summer is flying by. I don't like to wish time to pass, but I always enjoy the autumn. It is my favorite season. 🍁🍂🐿

I'm looking forward to our trip to Maine at the end of September. I am encouraged to read that airline tickets are decreasing in price. I need to book my ticket to Boston or Portland soon. 🦞⛵️

In June my investments & savings were down $83,439. For July I gained $90,928. I read this article this morning & a BoA executive predicts we're still at least 6 months out from an economic recovery. Who knows? I am glad that at least my cash savings, which isn't a huge amount, are getting more in interest. It can't combat this rapidly rising inflation, but it's something.

Net Worth $1,221,187

So I calculated my Q2 & monthly losses.

Last month I was down $84,439.

Last quarter I down $188,231.

This included biweekly contributions of $800 to my TSP and monthly contributions of $1,000 to my savings. Last quarter I contributed $8,600. I maxed out my IRA in January, which in hindsight was not a good idea, but fortunately is a very small portion of my holdings.

If the 401k limit goes up to $22,000 next year I'll increase my contributions to $850 biweekly.

I haven't done the final tally, but I'm down again for Q2. I don't know if there's an end in sight so I just keep plugging away. I'm still north of $1 million overall, and also in retirement.

This is a strange economy. There seems to be no limit on jobs available, yet no people to fill the vacancies. So many people are leaving the healthcare field. It makes me nervous for the future of healthcare in this country. And I'm happy that I'm not traveling this summer as flights continue to be canceled due to a shortage of pilots.

I read an article that estimated that 401k limits will increase to $22,000 next year due to inflation. I am anticipating an increase to the IRA limit as well. We shall see.

I've gotten in the bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night, in which case I end up on my phone, like now.

Still no retention bonus on our checks. I believe that once is goes through the process that we will get retroactive payments, which will be nice. We were under the impression that it could happen a lot quicker than it actually has so that leaves people feeling frustrated. 

I'm still not quite sure how I would like to allocate this money. I am saving $1,000 cash monthly already. I'm not sure that I want a lot of cash on hand, but at the same time I feel like my cash reserves are minuscule compared to my investments. Perhaps I should keep building it for a future car purchase? It's either that, or fund the brokerage for a home purchase.

In hindsight I do have a little regret about front-loading my IRA in January, right before the market started tanking. Maybe next year I'll go back to monthly contributions. If only we had a magic ball to predict these things!🔮

I can't recall if I've been using my car value in my net worth as does Mint, but when I calculate it myself I never do.

Investments $1,271,591

Cash $14,888 

Total $1,286,479

Net Gain from February $29,318

My gains include my contributions which are $800 to my TSP every two weeks & $1,000 to my cash savings monthly. The TSP is going to open up an investment window this summer, but I am planning on sticking with their low cost options. I am big on low cost index funds & I don't plan on changing that strategy anytime soon.

We still haven't received the 10% retention incentive on our checks, but I've been training on my PRN job steadily, which means most Saturdays. So there's still some extra income coming in.

We are experiencing a staffing crisis at the hospital so we got offered a 10% retention incentive to commit to a stay a year. That's a much bigger raise than we see at any other time. Add that onto my step increase due in 3 months & it's a nice increase in income. Almost $1k a month. We are also awaiting the results of a salary survey which we hope will bring an additional adjustment. 

I'm not on the schedule yet at my new job. I'm still in training mode. Actually more like orientation mode as I'm just trying to get through the online trainings. Tomorrow I think I will actually get to start training on the bench. I'm told that the job isn't stressful at all, which is nice to know. Everyone has been very nice.

I unexpectedly already got paid this Friday. For some reason I thought my paycheck would be on the opposite Friday for this new job. It's always a pleasant surprise to get an unexpected deposit in your bank account.

The market remains down. I'm not worried about it, but as I mentioned earlier it would have been nice to hit that $1 million mark in my TSP before everything started dropping. It was sooo close. My one fund that hasn't dropped significantly is my high dividend yield fund which I bought at the end of September.

Net Worth $1.257 million 

Happy New Year! I wish you and yours happiness & health in 2022. I meant to post at least once in December, but with the busyness of the holidays time got away from me. 🎄 

I celebrated a birthday last month. I celebrated by going out to lunch with my parents. They rarely eat out since the pandemic began & with Omicron I doubt they'll be doing it again anytime soon. 🎂 

My sisters came home for Christmas. It was so good to see my niece & nephew for the first time since Christmas 2019.  My younger sister flew home, while my older sister & her family drove from Virginia. We had an outdoor Christmas Day gathering with extended family. For once I was thankful for a warm Christmas! The high was 80 degrees here on Christmas Day. ☀️ 

I leave Wednesday for Nashville. There's a 40% chance of snow there on Thursday. I'm looking forward to my trip. I ordered some KN95 masks to wear. While I wore cloth masks in New York & was fine, with this new more contagious variant I thought it would be good to get more effective masks. Where we are going is requiring vaccination for entrance & I'm thankful for that. 😷 

I did my budgeting this morning since it's the first of the month & year. Nobember & December were high-spending months. I appreciate the cash my parents have me for my birthday & Christmas. My investments grew over $56k last month. I placed a trade for $6k to my IRA today. I was going to do $500 monthly contributions, but got inspired to go all in today. 💰

I get an annual raise of 2.2% in the new year & I will get a step increase in June. I have increased my retirement contributions to meet the $20.5k limit this year. I decreased my FSA contributions & I hope I don't regret that. It's always a gamble as you never know what will happen. I appreciated when they allowed us to change our allocation mid-year. 

Net Worth $1.388 million 

Investments $1.340 million

I see the website has been upgraded in my absence. I like what I see so far!

I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving. Ours was quiet as usual. We continued our new tradition from last year of Rock Cornish game hens instead of turkey, along with ham, cornbread dressing, carrot soufflé, and my homemade cranberry sauce. I usually do the fresh snap beans with potatoes & bacon, but my dad said to just cooked the stir-fry veggies we had in the freezer. Fine by me! Everything was delish & I'm eating my leftovers today. 🍗🍖🥕

My last two paychecks have had OT on them & that adds up quick. I'm always surprised by how much of an impact it has, but at a rate of 1.5 pay plus the shift differentials, it is significant. Much better than my pay when I had two PRN jobs. Work is about to get busier as my lab manager retires at the end of the year & I am the assistant lab manager. 

I traveled for the first time since 2019! My friends & I met up with my sister in New York. We had a great time. We saw 4 shows, ate great food, & did a ton of walking. 🍎🚖🗽

I have two more trips booked: Nashville in January & Maine next fall. 🎸🪕🦞⛵️ It is also my parents' 50th anniversary this summer so we may do a family trip.

I thought I might hit a million dollars by the end of the year in my TSP, but then the market pulled back due to Omicron. It still may hit those elusive 7 figures in 2021, we shall see. 

Yesterday I went to Hobby Lobby & Michael's looking for a Christmas tree. I had thrown my tree out last year as it had seen better days. I got a 7.5 ft pencil tree at Michael's and a tree skirt at Hobby Lobby. Michael's was much less crowded than Hobby Lobby. The pencil tree will take some getting used to, but it's decked out in rose gold, gold, & silver this year. It's a very pretty color combination, if I do say so myself. 🎄

My birthday is next week & I will probably have a quiet dinner with my parents. 🎂

I hate losing a blog just as I'm trying to post it! Ugh.

Friday was the end of the month as far as investing so I've been crunching my numbers already. I'm such a numbers need that I really love this time of month. Mint has my net worth increase for the past 30 days by $118,900. This is incorrect, but I attribute it to having a lot of money moving through accounts & my mortgage being paid off due to selling my condo. I also was having issues updating my credit union accounts last month.

My calculations show a gain of $68,616 for October. it's a good thing to do your own calculations and not just rely on the budgeting apps as they can be wrong. I love my Clever Fox budget planner and am already looking for next year's planner. Last year they were pretty late releasing their products. It seems like they would want them on the market by Black Friday, but choices were limited or even sold out in December last year. 

Yesterday's paycheck was larger due to coming in that one Saturday for a few hours. Next paycheck will be even larger because I picked up some evening hours for OT. Our evening shift differential is 10% and weekends are 25% base, on top of the OT rate. It works out pretty nicely. Also, we have shift incentives because we are so short. I'm happy to have the extra money & to help out.

My trip to NYC Is rapidly approaching. I have missed the city so much. I last visited the summer of 2019. We fly out on Veteran's Day. My sister is taking the train up from DC. We have tickets to 3 shows and reservations at the Met and a couple of restaurants. 🗽🚖🍎🎭

I have lost 13 pounds in the past month, but I will indulge a little on my trip. I have been pretty strict on plan with the exception of this Thursday when we had our Halloween office party. 🎃👻🍁🍂🥳

How is the weather where you are? Here it finally turned cooled yesterday. I'm glad that my dad gave me some gumbo for my freezer when I visited this weekend! His gumbo is of course my favorite gumbo. 🥘

My investments are almost back to the high of September 6th. Today they stand at $1,300,918 which is almost my entire net worth with the addition of my car & cash savings. 

I applied for a PRN position (you knew I couldn't stay away from a second job for long!), but turned it down when they told me the per diem rate, which was the same rate I was paid in 2008. You'd think with all these healthcare shortages that they would up there rate.

This past Saturday I did some OT at my hospital and that rate is more than twice the per diem I was offered. Our ENW supervisor, who is desperately short-staffed, asked me to work as much as I could so it looks like I'll be pulling some OT. One good thing about my promotion is that by losing my supervisory status I can make time and a half overtime, whereas I used to just get comp time. I am always in use or lose territory with my annual leave by the end of the year, so I don't really need to earn more time. 

I am setting into my new apartment. Furniture keeps trickling in & I am doing a little updating in my decor. I had some rowdy upstairs neighbors, but after a few complaints it looks like they have settled down. The leasing agent said she would contact the dad. I guess that worked. It's super annoying to be kept on weeknights by kids who have their daddy to pay their rent. The rest of us have to get to work in the morning!

I took some time this morning to update my budget in Mint. So many categories were obsolete now: homeowners insurance, alarm system, property taxes, student loans (which I paid off over 4 years ago!). Then others needed to be adjuste: mortgage & rent, which more than doubled. 

One of my credit union accounts won't update in Mint, which is frustrating because it's my largest cash account. It is, however, updating in Personal Capital.

I finally figured out how to add my car value in Personal Capital this morning. It's crazy because the Kelley blue book value today is almost the same as it was when I bought it 5 years ago. Supply & demand, I suppose. I think this is the first time in my lifetime that cars have held their value. Usually they are rapidly depreciating as soon as you drive them off the lot.

My new mattress will be delivered today. Mattresses have become quite expensive, but at least I get interest free payments for 4 years. The furniture will be no payments for one year. I don't expect to pay for that long on the mattress, but will take advantage of the one year payoff for the furniture.

My furniture went from expected delivery in October to full delivery expected in January. I should get some pieces this month. That is one thing that hasn't changed: furniture deliveries getting delayed. They blame it on the pandemic, but I remember prior orders. I'm looking forward to getting my second bedroom & sun room (office) furnished.

My investments for Q3 were up, partly because I invested the profits from the sale of my condo just before the end of the month. Since it's only 5% on my portfolio I decided to try something a little different & invest in Vagaurd's high dividend yield index fund. It's pretty new having began in 2019. It will be interesting having a new fund to follow.

I was able to transfer the funds from the sale of my condo to my new brokerage account just in time to invest before the end of the 3rd quarter. The proceeds ended up being just 5% of my total investments so I played with the investments just a little rather than sticking to my usual index funds. I still selected an index fund, but not the total domestic stock and total international stock index funds I'm currently invested in for my IRA. 

After living in my condo for 15 years, it's interesting that my equity was such a small amount of my net worth, when I always read that most people's net worth is largely tied up with their home. I'm not anxious to own again, and I've done much better selecting mutual fund investments that investing in my home. That's not to say that I'll never own again, but I always been told that renting was throwing away money. I don't have that perspective now.

It's amazing what you can accumulate in a home after 15 years. I moved into this home with only the bedroom set I had in my parents' home. I have accumulated so much stuff, some that I didn't buy myself & never used. Such as a silver gravy boat. I don't even make gravy & if I did, I wouldn't serve it in silver! So that has been my life the past 3 weeks. If anything will cure me of my love of shopping it's weeks of having to give things away. 🛍 

I hope to get repairs done soon so I can list my condo soon after I move out. It's so hard to find reliable people that follow up. 

My rent will be more than double my mortgage, which I can afford & am okay with. Since I applied 3 weeks ago they have already raised the rent by a few hundred dollars. (On another note I hope I don't regret passing up on the 3rd floor unit with the vaulted ceilings & skylight.)

My 401k rollover has been deposited in my TSP. It was only a little over $1k, but I'm glad to have the money consolidated in my TSP. I was being charged a $1.25 fee for what I'm not sure. It's not much, but I try to avoid any fees.

Stocks were up & down this week, but ended up at a high. My accounts are at an all-time high. 

Investments $1.193 million

Net Worth $1.335 million

My weekends now consist of purging & packing. Purging involves dropping off my discarded items to the local charity consignment store. I have packed more books than anything else. I have donated many as well. I bought a CD organizer & have been able to get rid of all of the cases. I just ordered a second one for my DVD's.

Yesterday I got a call from the apartment manager that she should be sending me my lease. After all those papers I signed I thought that I was done. Apparently I have 16 more pages to go through. I think I signed less paperwork when I bought my condo.

I initiated the rollover of the small employee plan from my weekend job. I am consolidating with my TSP. My investments are at an all time high of $1.189 million. Net worth is $1.329 million.

I hope my condo sells quickly. Repairs are coming along. I got a lot done this Monday & it only took him about an hour. Funny story, my handyman turns out to have two degrees as an MD & PA. But he started this business & it's doing so well that it may be his full-time career now. I love seeing people pursue what makes them happy. And it seems to be quite lucrative for him.

I notice that employers are trying hard to recruit employees. Costco upped their minimum wage to $16 & Wal-Mart has a minimum wage of $11. McDonald's is starting at $10 and is even advertising paying workers daily.  Last time I went to Wal-Mart there were signs advertising $13-21 for overnight stockers. These are really good wages for my area.

It seems employers are going to effectively raise the minimum wage even if the government can't seem to find consensus. And the more they raise their wages the less $15 as minimum wage seems a pipe dream as it once did. I think a split between current minimum wage & $15 should be easy to pass now. 

As for my own wages, the President has proposed a 2.7% raise for federal employees, which would be nice. If I get a promotion that will be a nice bump on top of that raise with another step increase to come in a year's time. I won't be making 6 figures, but I'll be close enough with working just one job.

My investments are up $8k this week. I hit $1.3 million net worth and $1.165 million in investments. I should hit $15k in savings this month before I quit my second & third jobs. I already sent off my resignation letter for my weekend job at the hospital. 

The market is closed Monday so I can make my end of month review for May now. I am at an all time high in my investments. I close the month of May with $1.158 million in investments and a net worth of $1.292 million. I was able to add an additional $2k to savings in addition to my regular $500 monthly contribution. Next month I hope to hit $15k in savings.

I plan to work my additional jobs through June then just work my full-time job. I may pick up another job in the future, but I have no plans for that at the time. 

I follow the FIRE community a lot. There are so many different FIRE communities, but one I follow is the Coast FIRE community. It's basically when you save a certain amount that allows you to no longer have to save anymore to be able to retire when you want. My age is 57. It's the earliest I can retire & get my health insurance benefits. If I retire earlier I don't get the health care benefits. I also get a social security supplement until I reach 62.

I found this Coast FI calculator that says that I am at about twice my Coast FI number. It doesn't take into account my pension or social security. I put in $40k as my annual expenses & that's generous. I spend approximately $3k a month now. That includes $1k to savings (Roth IRA & emergency fund) & my mortgage.

I should no longer have a mortgage when I retire or have to contribute to savings. My TSP comes out of my paycheck so I don't included that in my expenses which I budget based off of my take home pay from just my full-time job, not my additional income from my two other jobs. I want to make sure when I quit my other two jobs (in the next month or two) that I don't start racking up credit card debt again. I even have money budgeted for travel on just that income. I can't live without travel!

I hear some people say that they still save in retirement. I would probably be able to do that as well, but it wouldn't be intentional for me unless there was a tax advantage.

Here's a link to the calculator:

https://walletburst.com/tools/coast-fire-calc/

I worked another late, stormy night with bad weather. There were tornado warnings & my mom texted to see where I was. I told her I was at work & she told me that I should stay there for a while. I told her that I had my co-worker there (I always work alone except for last night) and we were going to be there a few more hours. I ended up leaving after 2 a.m. and he was hoping to be gone within the hour. The rain was pretty heavy, but not nearly as bad as the storm a couple of weeks ago. 

My co-worker was doing a big batch run (almost 200 patients) on the PCR analyzer while I was doing smaller runs on the quicker, but smaller capacity analyzer. They want me to come in again this afternoon/evening. We are staying so busy because we contracted with a film company. We are testing the entire cast & crew multiple times a week for COVID-19. Great for my cash flow, but I'm a little tired. I also have a 12 hour shift at the hospital tomorrow.

We had a quiet, but nice lab week at the clinic. I was talking to my manager about how event planning isn't my forte. She felt the same, but we got it through it successfully. On the career front, I qualified for an interview for a potential promotion. I owe a lot of people my thanks in the entire messy, complicated process. Our biannual lab next inspection has been scheduled & I'm looking forward to getting past that successfully. 

My investments are at an all time high. I don't know where things will go from here with the changes being proposed, but I'm just chugging along & staying the course. I continue to vacillate between staying or selling my home. I am consistent about wanting to move forward on a few needed repairs, though they may wait until work is a little more settled.

Investments $1,143,270

I'm going to spend some time this week changing my candles for sale by delivery only to offer shipping. A potential buyer mentioned that you can ship 4 large candles for $22 flat rate shipping. I think it would help me move my inventory a lot quicker. I went to the post office & picked up a large priority shipping box. I packed 4 large candles to make sure that they would fit well with plenty of packing material to minimize breakage. They are insulated pretty well.

I have been paid 6 times already this month. Two paychecks to go. Income surplus is nearly $4,000 now. That will be a nice deposit to savings. $500 to my IRA on Thursday & $750 to my TSP yesterday. 

Investments $1,142,785

It's 10 o'clock in the morning & I'm just waking up. I didn't getting home until after 4 this morning, after getting caught in a horrible storm. So thankful to have made it home okay. I left & it was raining, but not horribly. By the time I got halfway home I had little to no visibility due to driving rain coming in waves, lights were going out as I drove putting everything in complete darkness, & the winds were terrifying: knocking traffic lights askew & debris across the road. I was shaking & praying the whole time. When I got out of my car I could barely see to unlock my door & I got drenched from head to toe in a matter of a few seconds.  Still thanking God that I made it home safely. I never want to experience something like that again.

I worked so late last night (or rather this morning) because my third job picked up a major client. Just when I thought things would be slowing down due to vaccinations, I learn that not only is the Covid testing picking up, but also we will be getting mass collections. I worked every weekday except Good Friday & this Thursday and still made over 55 hours. That's the most I've made since I got hired a year ago & had to put in training hours. Thankfully I didn't pick up many hours at my second job. The only thing keeping me at my second job at this point is that I genuinely like the people. 

I'll definitely have a nice chunk of change to send to my savings this month. I get 8 paychecks this month! My checking balance is at over $11k as I continue to have surpluses in my budget. My goal is to keep it at least $5k to avoid fees. As much as work I can't outwork my investments! They continue to grow. This week was a good week for the market, though Friday ended a little down. It's exciting to see people meeting big goals. I saw a few people become TSP millionaires this week. I know I'll get there, too. 

Today I'll stay mainly close to home, cleaning up around my home. I'll also stop by to visit with my parents. Tomorrow I'll meet up with several girlfriends to celebrate a friend's birthday. It's my first social gathering in over a year. The birthday girl is staying two hours away, so we're splitting the distance and meeting up at a street fair in a city an hour away. We wanted to stick to something outdoors for safety, though I think most if not all of us have now been vaccinated. I hope the weather cooperates! 

Net Worth: $1,248,369

Just an update since the market has been hot:

Net Worth $1,240,980

Investments $1,115,243

Well, my April Fool's was fun because I hit $1.1 million in investments! On to the next milestone.

Investments Quarter 1 2021 Review:

Balance December 31, 2020: $1,023,303

Balance March 31, 2021: $1,087,545

Growth/Loss: +$64,242

Contributions: $6,000

Gain/Loss: +$58,242

Savings:

December 31, 2020: $2,814.15

March 31, 2021: $6,319.03

Contributions: $3,5000

Interest: $4.88

Net Worth: $1,227,452

My mom gave me an expected gift of $3,500! She said that she didn't want me to feel left out because I didn't my qualify for a 3rd stimulus. She is going to give me another $1,500 at a later time. It was such a sweet & unexpected gift. I truly am blessed. I have no plans for the money at this time.

I have all my expenses & income for the month & I only ended up in the red by about $141 not including the gift. Again, I wrote checks for my federal & state taxes totaling $1,410. I will mail them later. Happy to have an extra month to pay federal taxes!  

So close to $1.1 million in investments.

Net Worth: $1,211,800

Investments: $1,099,951