Return to Normal? Not Exactly

Back when we first started thinking about early retirement, or later on, our Fully Funded Lifestyle Change, we had ideas about what that life would look like in ALL the ways. We expected it would be a happy little family, with ALL the time to hang out together, we would/could have some income from this blog (lol, riiiight), we would/could have income from some yet to be determined adjunct positions, and or find some other income sources that would be fun, since we wouldn’t need the money. If all else fails, we could always “go back to work”. If not in oil and gas, then in teaching perhaps, or who knows, but we’ll let the “future SSC’s” figure that one out, if needed.

Well, the reality was a lot different. In less than 2 years after we initiated our FFLC, we were divorced and all of that planning went out the window. Well, not all of it. I’m positioned really well to be able to follow whatever type of work comes my way, I did get an adjunct position, and I’m working on developing several income streams in the background. Before you ask, No, none of those income streams are from public speaking engagements, or my book “How to Retire Like Me”, lol. With all of that in mind, my Mostly Funded Lifestyle Change (MFLC) has been interesting to say the least. One thing has been pretty certain throughout, is that planning on a return to your former industry is shaky at best.

In my case, I wasn’t ever really planning on getting back into oil and gas full-time. Sure, the money is uh-may-zing, and it’s enjoyable enough work, but it’s not that fulfilling from a personal standpoint. I also never planned/counted on being able to return to my previous salary level, bwahaha, I wish. That bridge crumbled almost immediately after leaving the industry. For perspective, when I left, there had already been a big wave of layoffs from 2014-15 crash and while a lot of those people left the industry for good, many are still out there scrapping for any job openings. I knew the job market would be tight if I ever did want to gain re-entry.

Also, with Covid and the general unpredictable nature of oil markets, the possibility of re-entry is all but gone. Most smaller companies are doing well just to NOT file for bankruptcy, unlike some larger companies that already have or are planning to file, like Whiting, or Chesapeake, as per their announcement this week. My former company is hanging on tooth and nail to not fold or be bought up, after a horribly poor timed and poorly executed acquisition of Anadarko. Remember how people talk about not letting emotions come into play when home shopping, car shopping, or shopping for any other major purchase? The CEO should’ve taken that advice, because the financial structure of that acquisition is the definition of overpaying, just to win the bid. Yay, you won… Long story, but definitely, nothing opening up there anytime soon.

With the kids being here in Oklahoma, I knew I’d be restricted to a smaller market, smaller companies, and less opportunity, even if I did try to jump back in to that industry. Fortunately, I don’t have a lifestyle that needs that outrageous salary, and all the trappings that come with it. What’s my plan moving forward? Well, here are a few of them that I’ve been working on, none of which involve returning to my old industry.

Adjunct Teaching

Yep, I am still teaching about petroleum geology, so that’s sort of kind of on the fringe of that industry, I’m employed/contracted through the school, so not necessarily. At $6k/semester, it’s not even AdjunctFI, lol. That’s been nice, and I’ve applied to some other positions, probably along with the other thousands of unemployed geologists now that the latest wave of layoffs is underway. I have heard nothing yet on any position related to using my degree, and that’s fine with me. I feel okay submitting lots of applications, even knowing that none will probably pan out to anything income producing. It helps me feel better, and that’s how I like to keep personal finance, “personal”. I haven’t seen my contract for the fall yet, and it may fall through, but I at least gave my preference for teaching delivery method (all online, meet at a certain time online, or Saturday teaching… booo Saturday) and am reformatting the course appropriately.

Department of Human Services (DHS)

I have an interview with DHS of Central Oklahoma this Thursday, to be a Child Welfare Specialist, i.e. a case worker. Do I have any background in this field? Meh… Not really. I’ve been a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for the last year and a half so I’ve been privy to the inner workings of all of this, more than when I worked oil and gas. But, I also have a BS, an MS, a heartbeat, and a willingness to do the job, so we’ll see how that plays out.

Why work at DHS? Well, CASA won’t be hiring this year, much to my dismay… So, I stepped over to the next best option and applied at DHS. No clue how it will turnout, but you can be sure I’ll be tweeting or writing about it as it does. For me, I’m in a unique position to be able to do a job I want, and not necessarily the first job that says they’ll hire me. That’s awesome, and a great opportunity for me to be able step into the social work space. I’m really excited about it!

Child Advocacy Center

Another income stream I’ve been putting energy towards these days is working on starting a non-profit that would be a place for supervised visits for kids in/out of the foster care system, or just divorced parents that need supervision with their visits. This would also be expanded over time to include more services, but the main service would be providing a comfortable, relaxed space that families can spend having quality family time, and not just visiting at a McDonalds, for instance, or a park, or someplace that might be harder to relax and connect with their kid. Who wouldn’t want to be able to just cuddle and watch a movie, or a tv show, or do arts and crafts, or play out back, or bake in the kitchen? IDK, but that seems like a way better more relaxed atmosphere that feels less like “visiting” and more like bonding time.

I lost my business partner for that plan. I haven’t lost her, but I’ve lost any access to capital from her currently, due to erm, life? It seems no one’s plans are working out as well as they thought, lol. I’m currently stuck at the board of directors stage, writing the charter, and all the paperwork accoutrements that come along with starting a non-profit. Also, I haven’t previously had access to cash, to buy “the perfect property” yet, but that is not the case right now. Woohoo!! Now I’m ready to pull the trigger, which leads me to the next topic.

What the hell is going on with real estate markets?! It’s as hot now as it ever was, at least around here. House pricing hasn’t come down, at all. Houses are on the market for 3-12 days before they go to pending and they usually sell for close to their asking price. It’s crazy. Until I find the right property, I’m still just dealing with paperwork and that aspect. When I DO find a property, I can always rent it back to myself, from the non-profit, or if that business doesn’t work out, move into it or put it up for sale and recoup some money from that venture. A bonus would be having more space to put my woodworking equipment and use the property for that as well. Also, another potential rent-back opportunity for garage space. Until that pans out, I’m still reaching out for other board members, as that is my limiting factor at the moment.

Medical Marijuana

I’m stepping into the MM space. It seems tight, and a bit overloaded here, especially with the number of dispensaries and the like, around Norman alone. Statewide, as of last week, we had 137 pages of registered dispensaries, and at 17 listings per page, that’s over 2300 dispensaries. I’d rather deal with plants than people, tbh, and so I’ve been emailing about commercial rental spaces I can use for that operation. I’ve been learning all about Triple Net Leases, buildout for indoor grow ops, and THC extraction methods from flower and that has been an enlightening experience. I’ve been trying to keep that rental as close to home as possible, so my commute to “work” wouldn’t be a hassle, AND I could visit it at odd hours, if I get a “real job”. So far, 3 rejections, with offers WAY more space and overhead than I currently need. I’m not wanting to tie down the first year of operations with massive overhead while it’s a fledgling business. I haven’t signed anything yet, but hopefully very, very soon.

I have a business partner for the manufacturing side, and some potential people to tap for the grow side, but first, I need a space. I’ve all but given up on finding some land east of town that could work for this operation. This is due to the last property I looked at, being the residence of a “crazy old coot”. I mean, wow. Just wow… So, until something out there comes along, I’m into the rental space now.

The main plusses for this income stream, in my opinion, is that at the very least, I could have some cash influx about 3 months after getting my certificates. Because we’ll be sourcing our own product for manufacturing, that greatly increases the profitability margin. Amazingly, the licenses, packaging, and certificates to grow, sell, and make MM products, is WAY, WAY, WAY cheaper and less regulated than starting a nano-brewery. Freaking crazy, in my opinion, but hey, the gov’t does, what the gov’t does… Also, why not learn something new?

What Now?

I don’t know what’s coming next, to be honest. I may get the DHS job, I may not. I may find a house for the advocacy center and go full steam with that and definitely try my hand at the MM space in the meantime. I also started an Etsy shop, Could Have Been a Book where I’m successfully paying for picture listings, lol. Thanks to the support of a lot of you in the Twitter space, I have been getting items sold, and more pics added to the shop. Thank-you to everyone that has been helpful in supporting me in that way. My main goal is to have a nice inventory and supply built up prior to the holiday rush and get a local Facebook page for people within driving distance that don’t want to pay for shipping on the bigger carvings and products. Is that going to solve my money woes? Nope, not at all, lol. However, if it helps stop the leaks, then that’s awesome, and it keeps me focused working on hobbies and away from the computer because holy cow, my activity level has been SO low lately. Even with a “supposed” triathlon in Boulder this fall. Fingers crossed, but I know I won’t setting any PR’s on that course. It will be a great time to catch up with my college buddy, play even more music, and spend some time in CO, even if it’s just Broomfield…

Summary

That’s about it. The most recent catch up on all things, Jay. Not much has changed since last time though. I feel like I need to pivot this whole blog, whatever the hell it is now, out of the PF space and into, I have no clue where it would go.

I don’t write about PF stuff anymore. I’ve been blogging almost 6 years, I left an industry, was unemployed for almost 1 solid yr, and adjunct only for almost 1.5 years now and I STILL haven’t written a book, made any positive net income from the blog, or have actively been trying to monetize this platform. Too much work, not enough “give a crap” from my side. Plus, what would my book be about, “How to retire like me!”, I see way too many of those as it is, and don’t have anything new to add to waves arms around that whole space. Who knows, but you can be sure you’ll read about it here, or somewhere, when that pivot happens. Until then, stay safe, be kind, and if you need any support, join our PF Group over at discord.

By Mr SSC
Posted on June 17, 2020
1 Comment on Return to Normal? Not Exactly

We Bought A Money Pit!

One year ago we bought a money pit, I mean a house in Oklahoma. We were so excited because we were starting our Fully Funded Lifestyle Change, I was quitting my job, and we were moving to the country! Well, we got the country alright. I sit outside and watch the birds at the bird feeder and in the trees around the backyard. I watch a pair of does come wandering thru the yard in the morning and evenings. They’re around so much the dogs have stopped barking and the doe wanders to the fence to check the dogs out. It’s hilarious! They’ve both figured out that even though their base instincts say “enemy!” they both know the fence keeps them safe. I caught a pygmy rattlesnake, and scared up a 5’ ratsnake that lives in a woodpile on the back corner of the property that I haven’t cleared yet. We have a hawk that likes to fly thru our yard in the afternoons and I saw it actually grab a mouse/vole idk, off the ground one day! It was awesome!

But none of that has cost us any money except for birdfood. It’s the “aaahhhhh” benefit of living out here. So what were we expecting with this house? It’s 16 years old, it had a 2 and 4 yr old AC and furnace respectively, 3 yr old roof that seemed to be in good enough shape. The home inspection report (what a scam industry) was pretty clean and didn’t note anything of significance. We had a home warranty for a year to cover anything major. How did we still manage to spend over $50,000 in the past year? With all of the following fixes and updates.

It’s Official, I’m Unemployed!

A LOT has changed since my last post. First of all, I’m unemployed for the first time since I was 16 yrs old! Woohoo! Stay At Home Dad (SAHD) Lifestyle Change is now officially in full swing. Yeah!! As for the rest of what’s been going on, my last post was in early September, so there’s a lot to unpack and sort through since then.

My biggest success since we last left was getting my mental health squared away better than it has been in decades. Literally, decades. Here’s a very brief back story. When I was in 6th grade one of my good friends was tragically killed when he hit a powerline while climbing a tree. I felt responsible and went into a fairly heavy depression. It lasted the better part of a year before my parents sought help. The child psychologist recommended me to in-patient treatment if I “didn’t snap out of it soon”. After overhearing that, I started putting on the happy face and pretending everything was fine. I’ve been doing that ever since and have just been going around being whomever I’m supposed to be that day. While I’ve gotten really good at it, I’ve never gotten rid of that inner voice of shame, guilt, negativity, depression, etc… It’s just followed me around like a little devil on my shoulder trying to convince me of all sorts of bananas shit and not let me enjoy my successes. Hell, it hasn’t let me “just be” in over 29 years.

Until these past few months that is. I got proactive and started going to a depression group here in OK, pretty much since we’ve been here. I also went to see a psychiatrist to figure out what’s wrong, because clearly, I’m not fixing it on my own. With the help of my shrink and my group, I’ve had no negative self talk, depressive voice, or any of that the last few months. It’s been freaking amazing!! Why the hell I waited so long to do this, I have no idea. If any of you are struggling with depression or any mental health issue and feel like you’re stuck and can’t figure it out on your own, take that next step. I’d done therapy (talking) for 4 years in LA and it helped with a lot, but not that. If you’re struggling, try kicking it up a notch and seek different help, or any help. It has made a HUGE difference in my life. HUGE.

So Much Free Time?

My remote contract ended on the 2nd, and I was officially “free” from work. To be fair, I hadn’t done any “work” in the last month and a half. I’d made 2 trips to Houston which were all but worthless from a business standpoint. I literally flew to town to sit in a conference room and watch my team present for 30 min and I didn’t say anything, offer anything, nothing.

Then 3 weeks later, I flew back for an all day meeting to watch my team present 1 geology slide in a 9 slide, 10 minute long presentation. Yep. Living the dream, baby!

With all that free time, what have I been doing? Well, trying to get a volunteer gig for most of it. The Watch DOGS (Dads of Great Students) group at my kids school took applications on family night, the day before school started. Then wouldn’t submit those applications until after their WatchDOGS BBQ late September, and I still haven’t heard anything other than – here’s a link to where you can buy shirts when you’re approved. Maybe it’ll happen before Christmas, who knows… I also submitted an application at CASA and they are meeting with me Nov 16, so we’ll see how that goes.

Amazingly, even with no actual commitments, it’s super easy to see my free time frittered away every day and think, “Holy crap?! It’s 3:20 pm already?!” I’ve done very little music practicing, even less exercise, and not much outdoor anything to be honest. I’ve just been enjoying the fall and getting to wear long sleeve t-shirts and jeans again. Woohoo!! Fall!!!

Set a Schedule?

Beyond that, I’ve been trying to get on a more productive schedule. Mrs. SSC came up with a nice schedule for weekly and monthly cleaning, and I need to get on to better meal planning and having dinner ready at nights. I haven’t adapted to that part of the SAHD lifestyle yet. I’m getting there, but it’s a lot. I did go into gmail and set up some blocked-out times mostly for exercise, playing music, and cleaning. I need to add in writing as I feel like there is loads of blog fodder around me most days/weeks and I just haven’t given a f$*& lately, to be honest. Hell, I didn’t even get out a “Here’s how Fincon 18 Went Down!!” post.

That’s okay, because I’m not being critical of what I didn’t do, I’m just being happy that I’m here now, writing. Yeah, writing! And exercising, and getting into doing what I need to do, not what I should have been doing. You can’t change that anyway, so why beat yourself up over it?

Finally, I spent some of that time revamping the blog! Yeah, a new layout, fresh new look, and hopefully cleaner interface for all of you that are gracious enough to stop by and peruse the blog posts. Thanks for your support and reading. I’m working on being more consistent with writing once again and like I said, there is loads of blog fodder around here.

Fincon 18 Quick-Take

Fincon 18 was pretty awesome! Good setting, if you knew how to play Frogger, great weather for running (if you were used to the Gulf Coast weather), and a great group of attendees this year. I loved getting the soul recharge of seeing old friends that you only run into online. Just as awesome is the new friends you get to make and get to know. There were so many of those it was almost like this was my first Fincon all over again. I was deep in depression that whole week, and it took a lot to get out of my room, but once I did, man, it was an amazing 12 hrs+ of talking each day. The parties were good, but the people are what made it epic. Thanks to everyone that made it a great Fincon for me and I hoped I added as much to your experience as all of you did to mine.

Summary

Look for more posts soon on finding my ikigai, adapting to our new budget, still cleaning up the yard (now that it’s cooler, that’s started up again), DIY vs contractors, me finding paid work (whaaaa??!!!) and more. Just kidding, I’m not looking for paid work, just seeing if you’re paying attention.
Anything big going on in your life lately? New changes ahead or just happened? Let me know!

Our 2017 Spending: What a Dumpster Fire!

Man, what a year 2017 was, what a year indeed. We thought it had gone fairly well. Our new Lifestyle Change schedule was amazing, we bought the land to build our house on when we pull the plug in 2019, or 2020, and I got to go to my first ever FinCon! Plus, I got to the end of the year and had extra vacation and thought, “Man, it felt like I’ve already taken a lot of vacation!” There were lots of good feelings all around.

Then we tallied up our total spending for the year, and womp, womp, the rain clouds moved in and shut down our parade. While we had been having a great year from a lifestyle perspective, our spending had been going on a tear, kind of like the stock market.

We both sensed it in January when we replaced our dishwasher and it cost an additional $300 in plumbing fixes that were discovered during installation. Mrs. SSC prophetically said, “I hope this isn’t “the year of spending…”” Well, it was. Where did our spending get derailed, how close were we to our FFLC (Fully Funded Lifestyle Change) budget, and how bad was it? Well, it wasn’t pretty that’s for sure.

Weddings and Finances – Perspective Changes Everything

This past weekend we attended my brother-in-law’s wedding at the Isle of Palms in South Carolina. All the planning had been done by “Jill” (now his wife) so that she could cut costs where necessary and still keep the wedding affordable. We got our flights booked early enough that they weren’t exorbitant. We also split a house with Mrs. SSC’s parents and Aunt to defray those costs. As a bonus, on the weekend of the wedding I found out that the father-in-law offered to cover the housing cost. That news was a nice surprise indeed! While I was expecting a nice, modest sort of ceremony, reception, etc… because of so much talk of “keeping the wedding affordable” man, was I surprised how this “affordable wedding” fit my version of a really nice wedding. It reminded me that you see the same differences in perspective of affordable and extravagant, whether you’re talking about planning a wedding or planning for retirement and financial independence.

According to “Retirement Calculators” I’ll Never Retire…

Last week I was on some random PF site and I saw a retirement calculator at the bottom of their site. Just for grins I threw in some numbers similar to our projections and OMG was I surprised at the outcome. According to this calculator I won’t be able to retire – ever… I mean, this particular calculator said that I’d need $10 million to retire based on my inputs. Really, $10 million?! Because of course I can’t live off of less than $500k per year, I mean, seriously, who does that? Well for starters, we don’t and according to the Census Bureau the median household income was only ~$54k which is only $450k short of our “recommended” retirement goal. While these inputs weren’t specific to our numbers, they’re close enough that we can ground truth them with our personal retirement spreadsheet.
For these calculators to get those kinds of numbers, the assumptions they make have to be pretty ridiculous, but it makes me think that these calculators can be misleading for the uninitiated. The biggest discrepancy I see is that they don’t ask what your expected income level will be. I only found one calculator that let you put that in, and nope, it wasn’t at Vanguard. I know, I expected them to have a better version of a retirement calculator, but with the screenshots I snagged, we can see why it falls short.

Holy Crazy Assumptions Batman!

Let’s start with the calculator that sparked this whole post. Again, I don’t want to say where I found this or what company is running it, but just google “retirement calculator” and have fun playing with the different versions that are out there. This calculator basically took my assumed income (not really my income, but that would be nice) and the current savings input number (not our actual number but close enough to where we’d like to be at retirement to know if the calculator is telling the truth) and spit out a freaking ridiculous number. How ridiculous you ask? Well, let’s look at it. My assumed income is $200k/yr and evidently I need to save enough to spend $500k/yr because in 25 yrs (assuming I retire at 65) I’ll have more than doubled my spending rate, and hopefully income to support that lifestyle. How it thinks I will spend $42k/month, yes, $42k PER MONTH is mind boggling. Remember that according to the Census Bureau the median US household income is only $53k per year. PER YEAR… And this calculator is telling me that I’ll need to save enough to spend $42k per month?! Holy shit….

retirement calculator - crazy — Wow! Just, wow….

I’ll Never Retire…

No wonder people get dismayed when looking at retirement needs and savings levels. I’d be really discouraged if I thought this calculator was for real. I mean, to save $10.7 million I’d have to work another 110 yrs at our current savings levels. Actually to put it in real terms if I exclude compounding growth, I only need to save $376000 per year between now and when I turn 65. Oh yeah, you read that right. This calculator assumes I will magically gain a 53% increase in salary and be able to save ALL of it towards retirement. Wow, just wow… Who the F created this thing?!

Surely Vanguard Can Save Me?

So, I thought surely all calculators can’t be this bad, what about Vanguard, the crème de la crème of institutions that us FIRE folks love. Well, they don’t love early retirees that’s for sure. Evidently in their world you can’t retire before 50, yep, that’s the lowest age that their calculator goes. Boo… I can’t save more than 30% of my salary, because really, who does that? Oh yeah, us and probably most of the PF community. If you don’t save that much, don’t feel badly about it, that’s why it’s called “personal finance”. I’m just pointing out some flaws with their assumptions. I mean building a retirement calculator can’t be much different from building a house right? You start from nothing and design a blueprint, layout, and add all the bells and whistles. So why not make the age for retirement anything before 50 or savings rate anything over 30%? I’m no software engineer, but if you can cut it off at a certain point, why not set that point at a crazy range so people can estimate things outside the box of “early retiree is 50” and we can only save 30% of my income. At least they only assume I’ll spend 60% of my current income in retirement, which we don’t. Maybe closer to 25% of our income would be realistic, but not 60% otherwise, I’d have to work until I’m 65.

Bankrate’s Calculator – A Nice Way to View Retirement Projections

This fairly simple calculator from Bankrate had a different take on it. Basically, you put in your inputs and then it shows you waht your portfolio could generate in monthly income. So, again if you know your monthly needs, you can figure out what you may need to start with to get there.

Really, MarketWatch has a nice Calculator? I’m Pleasantly Surprised

Then I found a nice calculator at Market Watch that didn’t set variables on anything. PLUS, it lets you calculate what you need for retirement income totally removed from assumptions based on what you make now. You can input your yearly retirement income needed based on your assumptions, not any random made up assumptions. Brilliant! PLUS, like the Bankrate calculator, it allows you to set inflation, tax rate, retirement tax rate, rate of return before and after retirement, I mean, it has it all. If you want a quick look at how doable your situation might be. Our spreadsheet also does this, but it gets so complicated explaining it, that um, yeah, this works great for me to play around with. You can see in this scenario we run out of “pre-60” money at 56 yrs old. Yipe! Granted, I could add more tweaks, and get really specific with our numbers and get a more realistic outcome, but the main point is that this is actually a good calculator.

What to do about that spending gap... — What to do about that spending gap…

Good income output, except for that darn gap... — Good income output, except for that darn gap…

If you want to play around with your numbers, I’d recommend using this one. Cfiresim also has a good calculating system, but it runs your data against all the historical data. So, if you hone in on a situation that you like using this Market Watch calculator, then you can plug the same data into Cfiresim and see how that plays out for you. It also lets you add in additional costs like estimating healthcare costs in the future, additional income and more.

Summary

We found that creating our own spreadsheet worked best for us. It’s grown and changed over the years, as we find different things we want to track, but it’s essentially our version of these 2 calculators. I rarely use it, but Mrs. SSC runs different scenarios on it about every other week. I just plug our data into one or both of these calculators and let it run and then discuss specifics with Mrs. SSC. I do use the spreadsheet but I often break it, so it’s good I’m only working with a copy, lol.

What about you? Do you use your own spreadsheet or a different retirement forecasting tool? How comfortable are you with the assumptions these online calculators make? Are they realistic for you or totally off base like I found? Let me know!

May 2017: Our Money Went Where?!

May. The end of spring and kickoff of summer and what a month it has been. We had some bumps in the road with our spending, and there is room for improvement, but in general it wasn’t bad. We were able to close on our lot in Canyon Lake, so we now have an official place to kick off Phase 1 of our Lifestyle Change. We reviewed our budget situation and decided that we can make the house work if we build it sooner than later, so we met with a custom home builder and designer this month and are on track to start designing our house probably by the end of the week. We found a couple of plans that we like ~90% of the layout, and we have a powerpoint presentation (because who doesn’t use powerpoint for everything?) with notes and details for the other things relating to homebuilding beyond the layout. I think it will come together pretty easily as we seem to be on the same page for almost every design aspect we’ve come across so far. Getting back to our spending, here’s where our money went this past month.

By Mr SSC
Posted on June 5, 2017
26 Comments on May 2017: Our Money Went Where?!

Estimated Lifestyle Change Spending: Canyon Lake Edition

We’re closing on our lot out in Canyon Lake this Friday and we’ve been doing a lot of reviewing of the numbers and seeing if we can make them work to start our Lifestyle Change. It’s difficult to know what will come of all of this, and how accurate they will be, because they are all estimates based off of our current house/utility usage, current lifestyle, and some moving forward assumptions. We have tracked our spending for over 2 years now, so we have that to go off of, but again, they’re all just estimates. Since that’s the best we have to work with, it’s what we’ll move forward with in our planning scenarios. The short answer is that we’ll be right around break-even or living paycheck to paycheck. We’ll only need to draw off of investments for travel and unplanned items that pop up, assuming I make zero money.

April 2017 Spending: Our Money Went Where?!

What a month it was around our household. There was a lot going on and the year of spending seems to continue. Some quick highlights were that we found a lot around Canyon Lake that we liked and are closing on that in a week, woohoo! We finalized our vacation plans up to MT and ID for the summer trip and I can’t wait to get to hang out in that part of the country for a few weeks. Property taxes just keep rising, but it looks like home value is actually commensurate with that this time. I’m trying a new cell phone plan that will drop my part of the bill to only $17/mo. More on that to come. Overall, it was a pretty rough month financially even though it was a great month in every other aspect. For more details read ahead, and for everyone else, we’ll see you next week with a detailed finances post about our Canyon Lake Fully Funded Lifestyle Change projections.

By Mr SSC
Posted on May 5, 2017
21 Comments on April 2017 Spending: Our Money Went Where?!

March 2017 Spending: Our Money Went Where?

March was a pretty good month. The “year of spending” seems to continue as we had another month and another round of big ticket items show up. Specifically, the fence got replaced, well on 3 sides of the yard anyway. Our other neighbor didn’t feel like replacing the side we share, so that’s fine with us. On the upside, we also got about 30’ of fence replaced that no one paid for. Not us or our backyard neighbors. At $22/ft. that saved us about $330 (that’s going halvesies with the back neighbor). We dumped my bonus into the kids 529’s so they got a nice boost, but beyond that, there wasn’t a lot of craziness in our spending.

A quick look at our FI target shows that we’re still at 84% of our goal, down ~0.5% from last month. That’s all market driven as we’re still contributing the same and just watching and waiting. Some fun stuff that happened last month was our first trip out to look for property for the Lifestyle Change. For more details on that plus where the rest of our spending went last month read on.

By Mr SSC
Posted on April 12, 2017
27 Comments on March 2017 Spending: Our Money Went Where?