Is it over? Can we call 2020 complete now? Every month, right after I get paid on the 15th, I enter all of my account information into my net worth spreadsheet. I’ve been doing this for about a year and a half despite my belief that net worth isn’t a great indicator of financial shape.… Continue reading 2020 Year in Review
Tag: financial independence
I Get Access to a Mega Backdoor Roth
Earlier this year I updated my goals for 2020 and described how I’d investigated the possibility of doing a backdoor Roth to move my IRA into a Roth IRA. In the end, I found that my current tax rate is far too high for this to make sense for me. My current tax bracket is… Continue reading I Get Access to a Mega Backdoor Roth
Demotivated
Maybe it’s just the change from hot sunny days to…hot overcast days (no one told the NY weather that Fall is supposed to be cold), but I’ve been struggling with motivation lately. At the end of each quarter I get a few weeks of excitement. I have multiple RSU vesting dates, and in August I… Continue reading Demotivated
I Finally Paid Off My Truck
In October 2019 the lease ran out on my Hyundai Sonata, a car I’d originally gotten to commute and then to leave sitting in my driveway for 2.5 years after I started working from home. I decided to buy something cheap, old, and practical that I could work on myself if it broke. After a… Continue reading I Finally Paid Off My Truck
My Upcoming Car Problem
I have always loved driving small, fast cars. As long as I was single, I always had cool little six speed cars that were great fun for commuting, horrible in the snow, and completely impractical to get anything done. Soon after getting engaged, I started to think that cars should serve a purpose. My fiance… Continue reading My Upcoming Car Problem
Everything is Broken
If you read this blog (and I know you don’t because right now I still have single digit readers), you’ll know that last summer I was hit with a number of high priced setbacks, including a gaping hole in my pool liner, and refacing my driveway that was growing far too much grass. You’d think… Continue reading Everything is Broken
Dropping the Hammer on My Mortgage
One of my major goals for 2020 was to make one very large lump sum payment to my mortgage this year. I had planned to do this last year, but plummeting interest rates presented the opportunity to refinance so I reallocated some money to that and pushed the goal to 2020. My original goal was… Continue reading Dropping the Hammer on My Mortgage
Kids Sports, College, and Whatever this Lifestyle is All About
At the end of 2019 I had a party at my house, and during that party I found myself in a heated debate with my cousin and a friend of mine about youth soccer. Here in New York, as with many other areas, youth soccer has become an almost all consuming lifestyle choice. I have… Continue reading Kids Sports, College, and Whatever this Lifestyle is All About
My Financial Role Models
Like many people, I’ve learned a lot about money by reading books, articles, and blogs. At 41 I have a fair amount of real life experience to draw from as well. I look around me and I see examples of people doing things I like, and things I don’t like so much, and I gain… Continue reading My Financial Role Models
The Very Beginning of My Journey
It’s very common to read about someone who has reached financial independence looking back at that moment they started their journey. More often than not they talk about how they had this “ah-ha” moment where things clicked for them and they set off down the defined path. Sometimes it’s after they hit rock bottom, or… Continue reading The Very Beginning of My Journey
Freed by 50 