Denali Northern Expenditure

Category: Plan Updates Page 1 of 8

Q1 2024 Plan Update: We’re Millionaires!

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On May 6, 2024

In Plan Updates, The Ride

You thought I would never blog again, didn’t you? Hilariously, I thought I missed just one plan update, but turns out I haven’t done a plan update for nearly a YEAR! WOWZA.

Okay, so quick recap of the past two updates that I should have done so we can all pretend I’m a good blogger and you’ve been following along the whole way (we’re also going to pretend it’s not almost time for a Q2 update):

Q3 2023: Our investments were at $816,000 and our mortgage was at $259,000.

Q4 2023: Our investments were at $947,000 and our mortgage was at $255,000.

So now… drumroll please… here are our Q1 2024 numbers: Investments at $1,060,211!!!!! (Our investments have gone down since these numbers at the end of March, but we’re still above $1 million.) Our mortgage is at $250,000 which is a nice round number as well (but again, our mortgage rate is 2.125%…. that’s right, I shall repeat that for you 2.125%, so we’re not paying any extra).

We’re Millionaires!

I’ve read so many blog journeys of people on their path to becoming millionaires and the majority have said something along the lines of “it was just another day. A non-event. Nothing has changed drastically.” You know what? THEY LIED. I know that with our current spending a million dollars does not make us financially independent, but there’s something about millionaire status that has fundamentally changed my attitude.

It’s akin to that time I had a dream I was shirtless but times a million (get it? because we’re millionaires now). “I’m a millionaire” has sort of become a mantra of its own that has made me more bold. I’ve been more outspoken at work when people do dumb things, chanting to myself “If I got let go, it’s okay, I’m a millionaire.” Again, we’re not financially independent yet, so maybe that milestone will be the non-event since my brain is already sort of acting like we are.

For your visual pleasure, here’s a two-second not-at-all-fancy Google Sheets chart of our journey to millionaire status:

Now, when you stack our chart up with the graphs of a bunch of other millionaires, you see that very same exponential kick at the end.

save a million dollars

I had concluded when analyzing those graphs that once you hit $500k, it’s completely possible to hit $1 million in four years. And IT’S TRUE! We crossed the $500k mark in April 2021 and the millionaire mark in March 2024, so it took us just THREE YEARS!

Reasons we were able to hit millionaire status so fast:

  • High income
  • Dual income
  • Dual, high income
  • Low mortgage rate (have you heard about my 2.125% mortgage rate yet?)

Honestly, luck on timing and high income is what got us here today. You can see in our chart the significant spike when I went back to work full time in December 2019. Mr. T and I collectively make just over $200k, so we’re in the unrelatable category to so many. And that’s the single biggest factor in making it to millionaire status for us. Because, if you’ll recall, we’ve spent the last four years buying a house, paying nearly $200k to add an addition to said house, while also saying yes to so many expensive things. We also just bought a hot tub!

So What Now?

Well, we had announced we were quitting in May 2025, but then we learned how much college costs and now sequence of returns risk seems to be against us. We’re entering the most expensive 12 years of our lives with three possible college students and our mortgage wrapping up in 2036. So for now, we’re crafting the life we want now and letting our investments continue to plug along. We’ll see where we’re actually at a year from now, but I highly doubt we’ll be totally ready to pull the plug on steady income.

Q2 2023 Northern Expenditure Plan Update

Q2 2023 Plan Update

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On July 14, 2023

In Plan Updates

It’s feast or famine here at the ole’ Northern Expenditure blog (okay, mostly famine these days, but I’m going to post a NZ/Australia cost breakdown this week as well, so a bit of a feast even though I’ve been silent for six months).

If you’ll recall from the last time I posted, we have two goals this year:

  • Finish a draft of my novel
  • Finish the home addition

Good news! The first one is DONE. I managed to finish a draft of my novel before the summer craziness set in. It has been sent to two rounds of beta readers who have returned very helpful feedback, which I will incorporate when the kids are back in school. I also plan to start pitching to agents at that point. I have also started a second novel that follows the first, so that’s the fun update there. It was a slog for awhile, but once I hit my groove, it was actually really fun. And I think now that I’ve written one novel-length story, it will be easier to fit a story into that size again.

Addition Update:

I know it’s July 14, so technically not still Q2, but we finished tiling the bathroom shower last night, which is the last BIG project left. We will grout it tomorrow. And I’ll call around to get shower glass ordered.

Things left to do before the addition is done:

  • Grout the shower tile
  • Add our accent line of river rock (which we’ve been collecting and tumbling from all of our travels around Alaska and elsewhere)
  • Seal the shower tile
  • Order shower glass to be installed
  • Make a countertop for the bathroom vanity
  • Install vanity and sinks
  • Install the toilet
  • Install the bathroom mirror
  • Install sliding door over walk-in closet
  • Install bathroom door
  • Finish trimwork
  • Extend deck
  • Get a new as-built survey completed
  • Get final inspection
  • MOVE IN!

It’s actually starting to feel doable and close to being done, which is VERY exciting. And I’m very over pouring money into it. Once it’s all buttoned up, our final big celebratory purchase will be a hot tub off the deck so we can watch the northern lights in comfort!

Work Update:

The new team is working out just fine, for now. It does involve a lot of last minute scrambling projects, which aren’t my favorite, but it’s still way better than it was at the end of last year and the big news is…

With this big promotion, I crossed the $100k earning threshold, which was a giant goal of mine for purely mental reasons. I somehow wanted to prove to myself that I could do that even after being a stay-at-home parent for a decade. I even crossed Mr. T’s earnings again! Our money is pooled, so it doesn’t matter, but it feels like an accomplishment!

Important note: I recommend everyone have an account in just their name, just in case. Mr. T and I each have a little stash of our own money. Mr. T is not offended that I think this way because he’s not a jerk and he knows the statistics on women, financial abuse, and divorce. Have your own money!

This also means we now collectively make over $200k, which I’m told is past the threshold of relatability. And let me tell you, I GET IT. When I started this blog and read so many blogs of dual-income families that were making MORE THAN DOUBLE what we were, it was completely unrelatable. But I want to remind you that early on, the numbers don’t matter and please do not discount the reality of the 4-year potential! I mean, four years ago, I was still a stay-at-home parent and we were still making less than $100k, combined!

Life Update:

We stayed in an AMAZING AirBNB in March in Mexico for Spring Break with our friends.

Mexico AirBNB

This was the last of my revenge travel trips I booked during the pandemic, and it was perfect. We played on the beach and went swimming in a million cenotes (natural sinkhole pools) that were incredible.

Swimming in a Cenote

The thing I loved the most was just being able to buy amazing, healthy pre-cooked food for my entire family for cheap. I’m so burned out of making food from the pandemic, I literally don’t do it anymore. Mr. T has taken that over entirely. If we had something like that here, I would be totally tempted to get it every day (even so, we’ve been going out to eat WAY more than we used to and I have no regrets).

Then, in May, we took my parents on a trip to Southeast Alaska, exploring islands via the ferry and making stops in Skagway and Juneau. We saw a ton of whales and had an amazing time.

In other news, I have a new Lego obsession. Okay, I’ve always loved Legos, but I managed to score two GIANT bags of Legos at Goodwill in May for $125 each. I’ve spent a lot of my free time sorting them into over $1200 worth of sets and planning a whole Lego corner for the basement once we move into the addition. I also want big, expensive Lego sets now, so the whole thing probably backfired, but I am HAVING SO MUCH FUN. And just LOOK at this amazing minifigure collection from just the first bag! The second bag doubled this number.

Lego Minifigures Collection

The Numbers:

I know, this is what you’re really here for and you had to put up with me talking about work, travel, and Legos for SO LONG (who are we kidding, you scrolled right on down to this, didn’t you?).

Well, since I skipped blogging for Q1, I’ll start there and say that at that point, our mortgage was at $267,000 (a reminder that this is a 15-year mortgage at 2.125%, which we don’t plan to pay off early and which I will brag about until the day I die). Our investments at the end of Q1 were at $746,600, which is just past the previous high of $744,000 we saw at the end of 2021.

Well, the market has continued to rip and we’re seeing a new number at the front now! Investments are up to $818,500 and my personal 401k crossed $100k, which is VERY exciting for me since I just started it at the end of 2019 when I went full-time at work. I can’t believe the progress I’ve made financially in less than four years! The mortgage is now at $263,000 and will be totally gone in 12.5 years if we pay nothing extra.

So far, we’re still on track to max out both of our 401ks and my Roth IRA is already funded for the year. TBD on Mr. T’s. We’ve been very spendy-pants the past couple of years, so after the year of yes last year, I’m hoping for balance. I think 2023 will still have elevated spending (braces for the oldest and finishing up the addition), but it’s nice to have the majority of the addition expenses finished. We also look forward to having more TIME after the addition is done. We’re building this life we want, but we don’t have time to live it between jobs and the addition (and travel, which is definitely part of that life). So, we look forward to being able to enjoy relaxing days filled with Legos, archery in the back yard, and evening dips in the hot tub (fingers crossed we get that before winter!).

I hope you are all doing well. Remember to be kind to one another. Also remember that money is just a tool. Use it to take care of yourself and your family.

Q4 2022 Plan Update

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On February 7, 2023

In Plan Updates

I’m only 6 weeks late, so it totally still counts, plus we were out of the country for the holidays, so I actually have a reasonable excuse. We took a 3.5-week trip to New Zealand and Australia over the holidays and it was glorious. I will write a separate post with a break-down of the costs for that trip (with pictures), but this post is our life update as of the end of 2022. So here it goes:

Addition update: Our walk-in closet is now fully installed, so I’ve moved all my clothes into it. Since we’re not quite done with the bedroom, it now just means I have to walk across the house to get my clothes each morning, but no big deal because I love my closet so much. The bedroom now has flooring and a birch plywood ceiling. We’re working on window casings and trim now. We will finish up the bedroom before starting on the bathroom, so fingers crossed we’ll get there before the end of Q1. TBD. We’re also done with most of our most expensive parts of the addition, so it’s nice to put those big costs behind us in 2022.

Work update: Isn’t work always a ride? Well, everything was restructured AGAIN while I was out of town and I was moved to a new team. I’m still in the limbo between teams finishing some things up and starting new things, but I think the new team will be a better fit for my skillset and interests, so I’m actually hopeful (and so glad I didn’t even have to apply for a new job to get to a better place!). Fingers crossed I’m right.

The Numbers

These numbers are actually from January 11 (when we got back into the country) because it turns out, when you don’t have access to your phone number, it’s really hard to check bank accounts with 2-factor authentication. Our mortgage was at $268,700 on a 15-year mortgage at 2.125% (which was the main topic of conversation among our New Zealand cousins at Christmas dinner since most countries only lock interest rates for 3-5 years, so they were all very jealous). With our savings at Ally Bank up to 3.4%, I’m not tempted to pay this down early, currently.

Our investments ended the year at $684,000 (though, again, this was January 11). Maybe we’ll pass the $744,000 we ended 2021 with again this year? Literally no one knows.

The Year of Yes

2022 was the Year of Yes, and wow was that expensive, but we had a fabulous time. Here are the things we said “Yes” to:

  • A week in NYC and 5 Broadway shows 
  • A week in the Florida keys followed by a week in DisneyWorld with my whole family
  • Solar Panels
  • A pizza oven
  • The continued addition project
  • Season tickets for the touring Broadway shows visiting Anchorage in 2023/2024
  • Australia/New Zealand – this included tours of the glowworm caves, a day out on the Great Barrier Reef, a flightseeing trip over Milford Sound and the Fjordlands, and obviously a visit to Hobbiton.
  • Tickets to Mexico for Spring Break 2023

Even with all of that, we still managed to max out both of our Roth IRAs and 401ks and put a few thousand in our SEP-IRA. Bonkers, right? High incomes, man. Still the ultimate life hack.

2023 Plans and Goals

2023 will be my year of “balance” after my year of saying yes to all the things. I was so excited to not make any large purchases or have any large costs, but then my oldest daughter got scheduled for braces next month, so that will be $8k. Oh well.

We have two goals for 2023:

  • Finish a draft of my novel – I decided to write a romantic comedy novel to see if I could. I chose Romcom because it’s formulaic, but challenging to make it interesting while still fitting a formula. I’m also writing it in first person present tense, which has also been a fun writing exercise. The novel can be terrible and I can choose to do nothing with it, but I want to finish it.
  • Finish the addition – This means building an entire bathroom and shower, finishing the trim in the bedroom, and rebuilding the deck.

We’ll likely try to max out all the things again, but I’m flexible on that, so I’ll keep you posted.

I hope things are looking up for you in 2023.

Q3 2022 Plan Update

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On October 16, 2022

In Plan Updates

It’s fully fall and our six-pack of skeletons from Home Depot are dressed in costume as trick-or-treaters on our front lawn (yes, this purchase will continue to make me happy every single year. Tempted by that 12-foot skeleton…). They can all be seen here, in their debut last year:

We’ve also had our first snow, so I did what any reasonable human does and went to the library to check out ten Rom Coms and I’m plowing through reading them in my cozy new wearable sleeping bag (hygge, right?!).

Addition update: The drywall is DONE and painted! Now we’re working on fun stuff like our birch plywood ceiling in the bedroom and starting the flooring. The contractor still hasn’t finished up his outside portion, but the longer it takes him, the longer it is until I owe him a final check, so c’est la vie. He’ll get around to it eventually, I’m sure. AND he let us borrow all of his fancy drywall tools, so we’re not too upset with him. Maybe we’ll be moved in to the new bedroom by the next plan update, but I’m guessing probably not because we’ve got quite a few upcoming trips.

Work update: It’s been a RIDE since last quarter. We were told in July that our team was going to be let go. Then the entire company literally changed from being a research company to a tech company, but we weren’t let go. So, the COVID research stopped, as did most other research, and our team became technical writers…? It’s not a place I thought I would land, being in research and all, but here we are. I applied for a few jobs that I got excited about, but didn’t get, so I’m still rolling with the current company for the time being (until it becomes unbearable or I find something better, I suppose). Though reading all the Rom Coms has me wishing we can just jump to the early retirement part where Mr. T and I write books together (it’s def on the list of things we want to do and Rom Coms have been floated. Though Mr. T wants to specify that ours would NOT fit the standard mold). Since we haven’t been let go, my boss has indicated I may be up for a promotion in the near future… which is, by all accounts, totally crazy and may not end up happening since my boss was also allegedly going to be let go just a few months ago, so… I can’t count on anything. But I do think the whole thing is definitely adding fodder to my future novels… workplace Rom Coms called “Endless Redundancy”? or “Under Threat of Discharge”?… uh, yikes. Nevermind. Forget I said anything. Better keep workshopping. Or working.

Also, I started Adderall for my recent ADHD diagnosis this summer and it has been life-changing. I can accomplish SO MUCH in so little time. Of course, now there’s a major shortage on Adderall, so I’m rationing through some of my PTO this month. So that’s fun.

The Numbers:

The numbers don’t matter right now because we all know they’re bad, but I still love tracking them, so this continues. Our mortgage is down to $271,500 and I think I’ve finally gotten over the desire to put any extra toward this because this month, our savings rate at Ally Bank just jumped to 2.25% which is MORE than our mortgage interest rate of 2.125%! So I’m keeping the mortgage for the full 15-year mortgage length (just 14 years left!).

At the end of September, our investments had fallen to $605,000, which is down 20% since December, but remarkably higher than our last update, so not all bad. Probably because we managed to max out our Roth IRAs with this year’s $3,284 PFD, but while we thought the market was bad, we put in 12k on a Tuesday and by Friday, it had all disappeared… just shows you can’t time the market.

We continue with the Year of Yes (minus quitting my job to write Rom Coms, I suppose). We have a trip to the Midwest planned this month to see family and enjoy visiting pumpkin patches (UPDATE: had to cancel last minute because the family we were visiting testing positive for COVID). Then we’re off to Australia and New Zealand over the holidays! I have purchased tickets to Mexico for Spring Break. Last week, when a flight deal popped up, I said to Mr. T: “We’re going to Spain in April, right? Just kidding” to which he responded: “I’m not sure you ARE kidding.” I’ve started to make him nervous with the amount of travel I’m planning, so it might be just the right amount. (Note: I did not buy tickets to Spain, though I was certainly tempted.)

Eklutna Lake

Q2 2022 Plan Update

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On June 30, 2022

In Plan Updates

Wait, what happened to Q1? That’s what you’re asking, I know it. Well, I guess life happened. We are in the process of building an addition after all! The good news is, I already mostly achieved my one goal for 2022: solve my migraines! Turns out iron supplements solved it. I now have 1-2 migraines a month and an amazing medication to take when they start that stops the headache. Modern medicine is a miracle.

Also, I’m ignoring the current state of the world in this update. I’m tired.

Addition update: We got our solar panels installed and I will never not geek out about them (okay, maybe in the winter when they don’t actually produce anything, but hopefully we’ll be living on energy credits we generated this summer!). We’re also in the thick of installing drywall, but took a break when the weather got nice to build a paver path and retaining wall along the property line. This was a ton of work and the kids were very helpful. Luckily, we had pulled up all the paver stones that were on the side of the house before building the addition and stacked them in our yard last summer so we reused all of those and saved ourselves at least $1000. The good news is that once the drywall and landscaping is done, the rest of the projects actually seem fun to me because they are weekend projects that have great payoffs (ie: installing flooring, installing closet shelving, bathroom vanity, etc.). So I look forward to all the exciting stuff ahead. And, we’re through all the expensive parts of the addition and almost done paying contractors (15k left!), so we can cash flow the rest of it when we feel like doing the projects. This is very relieving to me as a PF Geek.

Work update: I still have a job, but this month saw another dozen coworkers leave and an emergency meeting from the CEO about how “there is no mass exodus occurring” (which directly followed a 30-minute meeting where four people announced their resignations: something I would definitely define as a “mass exodus”). I’m still on COVID research all the time, so we’ll see how long that lasts, but I’m sticking it out while it does.

The Numbers:

Our mortgage is at $277,000 and at 2.125%, we don’t plan to pay this down early. With the rocky ride of the market as of late, our investments now sit at $593,000. Sad to drop below the 600k line, but we’re not worried (and we totally skipped the 500k bracket on the way up, so it wanted to say hello in our plan update page).

The Year of Yes

Maybe you recall that at the end of last year, I decided not to set financial goals this year and just say yes to all the things I wanted to do. Well, that is going SMASHINGLY. So far, we’ve said yes to:

  • A week in NYC and 5 Broadway shows – We timed it perfectly in February between COVID waves and the kids got to see Wicked, Hamilton, and The Play that Goes Wrong for the first time and all of us got to see Music Man with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster and Come From Away. It was an incredibly redeeming trip after two years of no live theatre and I loved it all. My daughter’s request was that next time we see MORE shows because five wasn’t enough. 😉
  • A week in the Florida keys followed by a week in DisneyWorld with my whole family – Just one week after returning from NYC, we went to Florida and I’m so glad we lucked out on COVID waves for both trips because both trips were crowds! But the kids had a great time in DisneyWorld with their grandparents and cousins and we all enjoyed trying every Key Lime Pie we came across as we worked our way through the Florida keys.
  • Solar Panels – I already talked about these, so I won’t say more here except that I have no regrets.
  • A pizza oven – This was on Mr. T’s “rich list” – a list we made at one point of all the things we would purchase if we were actually rich. It turns out, between the two of us it was basically just a pizza oven, solar panels, and a hot tub, so we plan to complete our rich list by the end of the year! And we’ve all been enjoying some delicious homemade pizza in our new Ooni (affiliate link).
  • The continued addition project
  • Tickets to Australia/New Zealand this Christmas – Okay, I actually used all the points we hoarded during the pandemic to pay for these flights, but am definitely spending money on tours of the glowworm caves, a day out on the Great Barrier Reef, and obviously a visit to Hobbiton.

We haven’t yet contributed to our Roth IRAs or maxed out our 401ks, but I think we will likely end up doing those things, too. Turns out that having two decent incomes is the ultimate life hack.

It’s so true. Our life got so much easier when we both started earning decent incomes. High income is the ultimate life hack. Like, I can just choose to have a “year of yes” and check it all off while the market tanks and inflation goes through the roof….? Unfair, right? It absolutely is.

Capitalism is the Worst

While we’re on the subject of unfair: my daughter just got her first job. She’s minimum wage and loves it, but I’ve been livid about the whole thing. First off, she was hired because they can’t find minimum wage workers that can drive themselves because they can’t afford to work minimum wage! The job is great, it’s great to have her get experience and have fun and get out of the house, but default capitalism is the worst. Her first three hours of work are deducted by the company for her mandatory uniform. I know this is the norm, but it shouldn’t be. If you require it, it should be covered by the company! When I asked her about breaks, telling her about her legal right to a break during her long shifts, she said that no one really does that because there’s not really a place to take a break. I basically lost my mind. I was like: “You say: I’m taking my break now, find a place, and sit down for a half hour.” She doesn’t see the problem in any of this because we drive her to the job, all of her expenses are paid for, and she doesn’t have a problem being on her feet for eight hours (apparently). One day, she worked a three hour shift and her allergies were out of control so her eyes were so red. She needed eye drops to be able to see clearly. I dropped her off at work, picked up eye drops, and brought them back to her at work. I then realized she would earn less than those eye drops cost at that shift and I was livid all over again. In short, my daughter is earning a few bucks that I will then match into her Roth IRA, and she’s also getting an anti-capitalist earful about worker rights. So win, win, right? 😉

Bear Market?

It’s actually killing me that I don’t currently have the cash to throw into the market right now because of the Year of Yes (and the final contractor bill pending). I have no idea what the market will do. I do, however, think the inflation is temporary and a lot of it is caused by companies inflating prices because they can. Yes, I think things are actually inflated because of supply chain problems (still pandemic and war related, primarily), but profits are also up considerably in many sectors. I don’t think inflation will stay high for years, but definitely likely for at least the next year. As for the market, I’m hoping it stays down long enough for us to get to our investments for the year! I have no way of predicting any of that, and I don’t like to time the market, but will Roth IRAs, which we usually fund in lump sums, it’s nice to see the market dip for the occasion.

It’s good to be back around these parts after a 6-month break. I missed you. I’ll share some pics of the inside of the addition as things move along. As for now, it’s just a boring box with some drywall. Stay healthy, friends. And hold on to each other. Be kind. The world is dark enough.

Q4 2021 Plan Update

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On January 5, 2022

In Plan Updates

Well, we wrapped up 2021. Woof. The kids are now all fully vaccinated with the oldest getting a booster this week. That is a big thing we’re grateful for. We’re also grateful Omicron was not quite here yet during the holidays, so we got to have our two usual families over for Christmas dinner and it felt somewhat normal. Omicron is def here now, so we’re back to hunkering down as much as possible and wearing our N95s everywhere (if you haven’t found a good, comfortable one yet, I recommend this one. I love it. Not even an affiliate link, just want you to have a good mask!).

My migraines ramped up to being 2-3 days a week, which is awful, so 2022’s main goal is to just get rid of migraines.

Other things that have gotten me through:

  • Online Board Games with lots of amazing PF bloggers. A new way to learn new games and get a dopamine hit when it’s my turn!
  • Weekly Goodwill trips: seriously love this new thing I do. I’m definitely not a minimalist. I have found so much great stuff including lots of the Christmas presents we gave. My daughter even found me an amazing Where’s Waldo shirt she gave me for Christmas. Good times had by all. I have considered just turning this blog into: things I find at Goodwill, but will save you all. But I will share the dollhouse I got for $3.50 and turned into a haunted house for Halloween:

We’re still up to our necks in house projects with the addition (we’re starting the wiring this week) and Mr. T building us some new chairs (aren’t they incredible?!):

Another picture, just in case you didn’t get a good look at the one at the top!

The Numbers:

Well, our investments are now at $744,600, which is INSANE. That’s over $300k from where we were a year ago. INSANE. A reminder that when we sold our condo last year, we brought out current mortgage under $300k and then refinanced at the end of 2021 into a 2.125% 15-year mortgage, so we’re trying not to pay that off early. Right now the mortgage is at $285,300.

As for 2021 spending (I didn’t keep track in 2020 with the world exploding right after we bought a new house), we spent a whopping $265,000 but that includes more than half of the addition and the extra mortgage payments to bring the current mortgage under $300k. In fact, when I take out all housing costs (mortgage, extra payments to mortgage), home updates (all the addition plus the furniture builds), and taxes, we only spent $46,500. We’re front-loading a lot of home costs (instead of buying a house with the right amount of bedrooms, we decided to buy one we liked and add a bedroom and cashflow that cost). But this also means I have NO IDEA how much “normal” spend is for us anymore. And likely won’t until at least 2023 (still much spending for the addition).

2021 Goals

We made these goals before we knew we were selling the condo. That certainly helped fund most of what we have listed here. But the addition is still the big unknown. We’ll hold off on making any new goals or doing anything big with money until that is paid for.

  • Have the Addition Exterior Finished – So we have a roof and it’s all framed… so kind of a win?! The windows and garage doors have been paid for, but thanks to supply chain problems, the windows aren’t expected until February and the garage doors should be arriving in May…
  • Max Out My 401k ($19,500/$19,500) – Done. My plan doesn’t let me go over, which is super nice, so I have it set up to max out on my last paycheck.
  • Max Out Mr. T’s 401k ($19,384/$19,500) – So close. Mr. T’s retirement has had a slider that only allows him to contribute in certain increments (ie: $798 or $819, but nothing in the middle). The GREAT news is that they have added a little box to the slider for 2022 that let’s you ENTER an amount!!! So we should be able to max him out in 2022!
  • Max Out my Roth IRA for 2021 ($6000/$6000) – Done. Probably the earliest I’ve ever done so!
  • Max Out Mr. T’s Roth IRA for 2021 ($6000/$6000) – Done. Seriously nailing these goals (thanks to the unexpected condo sale!)
  • Max out a SEP-IRA – This will happen at tax time when our accountant tells us what we can contribute. But will hopefully happen then.

2022 is shaping up to be much less specific in goals.

I assumed I would get a lot of pushback on that idea, but all the comments were overwhelmingly supportive. Basically, 2022 is going to be me saying yes to all the things that feel comfortable and exciting and if I have to slow down my 401k contributions for that, I feel great about it. The first thing I’m saying “yes” to in the New Year is solar. Because for our addition, we have some serious electrical needs (service upgrade, panel upgrade, and sub-panel install). Mr. T is doing the main wiring, but doesn’t feel comfortable doing those thing. BUT, if we do them all with the solar stuff, we can deduct 26% of the costs with our solar. And if we’re going to do solar at all, we should do it soon to start the ROI clock. So I think that’s going to happen. I’m just really into spending money right now it seems. 😉

We also have to figure out the plan in the next few years because if we plan to pull the plug on working in May of 2025, we need to focus more on the brokerage account (which currently only has $60k in it). So maybe we’ll start those discussions in 2022 when we stop spending so much on this addition!

I hope you all have a lovely 2022 – well, as lovely as possible with Omicron raging and under 5s not able to get vaccinated…

Q3 2021 Plan Update

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On October 5, 2021

In Plan Updates

This has been an eventful quarter. We went on our first trip since the beginning of the pandemic. We traveled to see our parents in the Pacific Northwest before school started. It was lovely to see them and siblings and cousins, but by the time we went, Delta was starting to take over and things were not very relaxing and traveling was stressful. So, when we returned home, it was time to send the unvaccinated kids back to school and scream into the void. We’ve so far only had one known exposure at school and no one has managed to get it yet (knock on wood) despite cases in Anchorage being astronomical and hospitals being on rationed care. I hate this. Can it please be over yet?!

Alaska is now the worst place in the world for per capita COVID cases for the entire pandemic! I’m sick of all this winning!

Work continues to lay people off at least monthly and everything is still so up in the air. I’m still on COVID research full time, but luckily that isn’t as time consuming as it was in 2020. I accidentally started freelance editing on the side because it’s enjoyable and not COVID related. (Turns out my standards for work are pretty low right now. Not about COVID? I’m in!)

I’m trying to handle the general pandemic stress by reading more. I recently read:

  • The Five Years Before You Retire (affiliate link). The book is about traditional retirement, but is a great resource for navigating that transition.
  • Working Twice as Hard (affiliate link) is written primarily for Black entrepreneurs, but I recommend it to white people too as it is helpful to be aware of racism in the workplace, help call out microaggressions, and be sure you’re not leaning too heavily on your Black colleagues to do your anti-racism work for you.
  • Laziness Does Not Exist (affiliate link) is revolutionary in that it’s thesis makes it really easy to call out unfairness. We’ve used “Laziness” to actually mean people who are disadvantaged in some way and are actually working way harder than the rest of us (ie: homeless, depressed, poor, etc.). It talks about how our culture has made us all so afraid that deep down we’re lazy, so we stop listening to our bodies and push through. I’ve been trying to slow down, nap when I feel tired, and really listen to my body. We’ve all been through a lot of stress and trauma this year and this book was a helpful excuse to give myself grace to rest.
  • Die With Zero (affiliate link). My main thoughts on this book were about how you can insure against money fears (and when an annuity makes sense). But this book also justified my desire to spend a bunch of money when this pandemic ends. I’ve got ten years with kids at home and I’ve got a lot to pack in! (Only 5 years left with Penny!)

I’m not sure what I’ll pick up next!

In other exciting news, the work on the home addition has begun. We have a foundation now! It’s been touch and go because there’s a contractor shortage (everyone wants to work on their houses after being stuck in them for so long). We’re still hoping they can finish the exterior so we can get roofing and gutters done before snow sticks around, but we really have no idea at this point.

The Numbers

This is the last quarter we’ll be paying such a high (3%) interest rate on our mortgage. I realize that sentence is crazy, but we were able to lock in a 2.125% and the bank paid us $500 toward property taxes to do it (this was in part because we bought the house so recently, they didn’t require an appraisal). The world is upside down right now. We just closed on it last week. I’m thinking with a sub-$300k mortgage at 2.125% for fifteen years, I may actually be able to have the self-restraint to not pay it off early. TBD, but if I can’t do it under those conditions, we know I’m not capable. The mortgage is currently at $288,000. With the fifteen year clock starting over and the lower interest rate, our monthly payment is also going down nearly $400! In the usual vibe of “my life is wonderful but it sucks right now for so many people,” my broker was talking about how the people who lost jobs in the pandemic, etc don’t have access to these low rates because they don’t have the income to qualify for a refinance, so they’re stuck with high interest rates on mortgages they can no longer afford because the bank says they can’t afford lower payments. Make it make sense.

Seeing our investments double in a year is also a bonkers situation. It feels unsustainable. I literally have no idea what happens next. But the pandemic has taught me that nothing can be predicted, so we just live our lives and do the best we can. With that being said, despite the market dips of September, our investments are now at $659,000.

2021 Goals

We made these goals before we knew we were selling the condo. That certainly helped fund most of what we have listed here. But the addition is still the big unknown. We’ll hold off on making any new goals or doing anything big with money until that is paid for.

  • Have the Addition Exterior Finished – So far, we have a foundation, which is good progress. Fingers crossed the framing happens this month. I’m hoping to report this is finished by the end of the year and Mr. T and I can start our work on the interior (we plan to do most of that ourselves).
  • Max Out My 401k ($15,138/$19,500) – My plan doesn’t let me go over, which is super nice, so I have it set up to max out on my last paycheck.
  • Max Out Mr. T’s 401k ($14,300/$19,500) – Mr. T’s retirement contribution “slider” may be the death of me. I can slide it to “$732,” “$798” or “$819″ per paycheck, but not $750.” We were under by $600 in 2020 because of the dumb slider. I’m hoping to get closer to maxing out this year, but I’m doubting we’ll actually be able to get the exact $19,500. My company doesn’t let you overcontribute, but I’m not sure about Mr. T’s. I’m afraid to try.
  • Max Out my Roth IRA for 2021 ($6000/$6000) – Done. Probably the earliest I’ve ever done so!
  • Max Out Mr. T’s Roth IRA for 2021 ($6000/$6000) – Done. Seriously nailing these goals (thanks to the unexpected condo sale!)
  • Max out a SEP-IRA – My current plan is to save all our self-employment income in our business account without using any of it. This will mean we can max out our SEP-IRA and then put the other funds into the new brokerage account, but we’ll wait until the addition is done… we may need to use the funds we get from our t-shirts/coloring books business for the addition.

I’m watching Pfizer closely hoping we get an approved vaccine for the kiddos by the end of the month and spending some of my free time researching Japanese toilets for my master bathroom. I would not have predicted I would be doing either of these things in Fall of 2021, but life is crazy sometimes. As we enter the holiday season, I hope you have time to slow down, rest, recover, and safely spend time with loved ones.

Q2 2021 Plan Update

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On July 1, 2021

In Plan Updates

This was an eventful quarter. It kicked off with tapping our birch trees and making birch syrup. Then, we dealt with the last month of remote school for the kiddos followed by a visit from my parents and then Mr. T’s parents (after not seeing either for over a year and neither had seen our new house). We went on a glacier cruise. Here’s proof we saw a glacier calving (followed by a collective reaction from the whole boat and Florin yelling: “Yes! That was AWESOME!” a few times.):

Then we sold our condo to our renters and submitted our plans to the city for our home addition. I also chaperoned our oldest (who was fully vaccinated!) at a church camp adventure with 20 teenage girls that involved rafting, hiking, camping, etc. And then had eight coworkers come to visit. After a year of only being social with our one pod family, this quarter was both thrilling and totally exhausting.

Work is still tenuous, to put it mildly:

Since then, several others were let go and I’m now on my fourth manager in a year. I really don’t know what happens from here, but things aren’t terrible yet, so I’m holding out until they are (or until I get let go as well).

I also got my official ADHD diagnosis yesterday. I feel like I should throw a party or set up a gift registry or something. Momentous I guess.

Selling the Condo

It turns out that buying a house in February of 2020, renting it for a year, and then selling it to the renters was one of the smartest, luckiest financial decisions we’ve made. Zillow says our house has appreciated nearly 75k since purchasing a year ago, we sold the condo for top dollar, and we didn’t have to deal with listing it, etc. It was fabulous.

So what did we do with the money?

  • $25k went to a mortgage recast – We chose a recast because it will lower our required monthly payment when we quit our jobs. For now, we’ll still pay the current amount and likely recast again before quitting if we don’t pay it off so we have maximum monthly payment flexibility. This recast brought our balance down to $289,000 (below 300k!) and got rid of our $27/month PMI.
  • $6k went to maxing out my Roth IRA for 2021 (yay for knocking out two goals!)
  • $65k went to a joint brokerage account – maybe we’re behind on this whole FIRE thing, but we finally managed to open a brokerage account and put 65k in.
  • The rest is being set aside for our home addition. When the addition is done, we’ll assess what, if any, money is left over and figure out how to distribute it.

The market appears to still be on a tear. Wild, right? Between the market’s wild climbs and the condo selling, our investments are looking pretty darn good! We’re currently sitting at $639,000 in investments. Again: WILD, RIGHT?! We jumped over $100k in a quarter and skipped right over the $500ks in our blog quarterly investment tracking! And, as mentioned previously, our mortgage is now down to $289,000.

2021 Goals

We made these goals before we knew we were selling the condo. That certainly helped fund most of what we have listed here. But the addition is still the big unknown. We’ll hold off on making any new goals or doing anything big with money until that is paid for. Lumber fluctuations make it really hard to pin down a price for what we need done.

  • Have the Addition Exterior Finished – We are planning to do all the interior work ourselves (except MAYBE drywall. TBD). But we need to have the addition “dry in” by winter. We have a contractor lined up pending plan approval by the city. If that takes too long, we’ll have to wait until next summer. But we’d really like to have the exterior done this year so we can spend the winter working on the interior.
  • Max Out My 401k ($10,077/$19,500) – I doubled my contributions this quarter and am on track for maxing out. But still have to make sure it doesn’t happen too early or I’ll miss out on my employer matching.
  • Max Out Mr. T’s 401k ($9,576/$19,500) – Mr. T’s retirement contribution “slider” may be the death of me. I can slide it to “$732,” “$798” or “$819″ per paycheck, but not $750.” We were under by $600 in 2020 because of the dumb slider. I’m hoping to get closer to maxing out this year, but I’m doubting we’ll actually be able to get the exact $19,500. My company doesn’t let you overcontribute, but I’m not sure about Mr. T’s. I’m afraid to try.
  • Max Out my Roth IRA for 2021 ($6000/$6000) – Done. Probably the earliest I’ve ever done so!
  • Max Out Mr. T’s Roth IRA for 2021 ($6000/$6000) – Done. Seriously nailing these goals (thanks to the unexpected condo sale!)
  • Max out a SEP-IRA – My current plan is to save all our self-employment income in our business account without using any of it. This will mean we can max out our SEP-IRA and then put the other funds into the new brokerage account, but we’ll wait until the addition is done… we may need to use the funds we get from our t-shirts/coloring books business for the addition.

That’s a wrap from me for the quarter. We have loads of summer plans ahead of us and a (fingers crossed) fairly normal fall with kids back in school. Watching the Delta variant closely and hoping Pfizer is on time with their September approval for 5-11-year-olds with vaccinations! I hope you all have a lovely summer moving at the pace you want to as we figure out what the new normal is.

1500 Days Until We Quit

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On April 11, 2021

In Plan Updates, Self-Employment, The Ride

The pandemic has me calculating all of our numbers on the daily, which made me realize, today is 1500 days from our target quit date of May 20, 2025! Why is this significant? Well, I’m sure you’ve heard of Mr. 1500 days. He and his wife set out to amass $1 million (+their remaining mortgage amount) in 1500 days. When they began in January of 2013, they had $586,000 and were contributing $2000/month toward investments. So… did they make it? YES! On April 19, 2016, they hit their goal (just 1204 days into their journey!). They now have a net worth over $3.6 million and are doing exactly what they want to be doing.

That means WE CAN DO IT TOO!

The New Plan

So our goal is the same as the 1500s. In 1500 days, we hope to have $1 million invested + at least 1 year cash + either a paid off mortgage or enough in a brokerage to pay off the mortgage. (If we pay nothing extra on our mortgage, we’ll need $235,000 to pay off the balance in May 2025.) We currently have $500k invested (THANK YOU CRAZY MARKETS!), which is less than the 1500s started with, but even if we just max out our two 401ks, we’re contributing $3,250 monthly, so we should be able to catch up.

Now, we’re more conservative in our estimates. I don’t trust the market to return 10% and I don’t think we could live off of $1 Million forever. However, that was never our goal. We want to be entrepreneurs for awhile without having to depend on the money forever. We are already CoastFI at 65 which means our $500,000 will take care of us forever after we’re 65 if we don’t touch it until then. This new goal will take us to Flamingo FI, which is another made-up goalpost, but I like it’s simplicity. Flamingo FI means you can count on your money doubling every 10 years counting on a 7.2% return and the rule of 72. So, with $1 million invested, in 10 years, that would be $2 million if we don’t touch it for 10 years and then we could withdraw between $60-80,000 forever (counting on a 3-4% withdraw rate).

With enough money to cover the mortgage and a 1 year emergency fund, we would just need to make enough for living expenses for a decade before being able to tap the investments. This sounds like a good balance between an exciting entrepreneurial challenge and a big enough safety net in case we either hate it or are terrible at it.

Why May 20, 2025?

The goal has always been to be available full time the summer before Penny is a senior in high school. We want her to be entirely in charge of the summer itinerary that year to maximize our time with her before she’s potentially getting college prepped the next year. She will get to choose where we travel and what we do that entire summer. May 20 is an arbitrary date that felt like a nice round number and is likely a few days before school will get out for the kids. 😉

Because the goal is not to never work or earn money again, I reserve the right to quit earlier if we hit our numbers earlier! This is, after all, about pursuing the things we want to do, so if that opportunity happens earlier, we’ll take it! (I mean, if we keep earning $20k/week with these crazy market increases, we’ll get there in no time!)

What’s the Entrepreneur Plan?

Mr. T and I have been dabbling for a few years with online side hustles we really enjoy. We currently sell t-shirts and coloring books on Amazon (affiliate link). With the pandemic, we’ve had almost zero time to work on any of those things, but have still managed to earn about $500/month as totally passive income. So, we’re not worried we’ll earn ZERO money when we quit our jobs.

We also have a HUGE LIST of things we want to create. We have so many stories we want to write together–likely YA fantasy. We’ve been piecing the worlds together in conversation over the past few years and are very excited to be able to go full time trying to map out and write the stories.

We also want to build an Etsy shop the kids can run to earn money in high school (and build up their Roth IRAs early). TBD what that looks like, but it’s on the list.

The list also includes an Alaska travel game we created a decade ago and a whole bunch of other things we’d like to see become realities. For us, most of this stuff isn’t about money. It’s about seeing these things in our brains become realities. But I’m also sure we can figure out something that will earn us money along the way. After all, we spent a year playing the Unemployment Game and won!

What are the Blog Plans?

We’ll keep documenting our journey along the way as we always have. Quarterly still feels like the right amount. I want to use real numbers because real numbers were what helped me know it was possible. But monthly seems braggy (and I can’t commit to more than quarterly right now!) Hopefully as we emerge from this pandemic (and I’m no longer working so much on COVID research and have a little more mental capacity), I’ll start posting more.

I have lots of things I have to work through as we get prepared for this big leap that I hope to talk through here including:

  • Pay off the house vs. Have the amount in a brokerage account (and how this decision impacts taxes and ACA subsidies)
  • Planning for healthcare
  • Helping the kids with college – how much and in what form (we don’t have 529s for any of the kids)
  • Eventual withdraw plans / Roth conversions, etc.
  • Donor advised fund?
  • AND MORE…

And don’t worry! I’ll definitely keep you posted on the Birch tapping experiment and update the annual dipnetting numbers. I’m hoping to get back to a more consistent schedule by the end of 2021, but who knows what the world will look like then. No guarantees.

Q1 2021 Plan Update

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On April 1, 2021

In Plan Updates

Well, 2021 is starting to look hopeful. I’ve got both my shots (as of Monday) and Mr. T is getting dose #2 today! (We’re lucky to live in AK which has been open for vaccines for all 16+ for awhile now.) I’m still full time COVID-19 researcher and recently discovered I have ADHD.

So, I found myself a neuro-therapist that specializes in ADHD and started therapy this week! I look forward to learning some new tools to help get me out of this pandemic in a healthy way. Right now I’m burned out, exhausted, and sick of feeling gas-lighted (gaslit?) as people try to school me in all things COVID (this is LITERALLY MY JOB). Also with 5 people in this house for a full year, I need some executive functioning tools to not feel overstimulated and tired all the time. The good news is the kids have less than 2 months left of the school year! We’ve almost survived!

The other thing happening is birch tapping season starts in the next couple of weeks (weather dependent)! We’ve built a reverse osmosis system to help cut down on fuel to make the syrup (because it takes 100 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup). We’re tapping 35 trees and with all the kids home all day every day, we’re all pretty excited to have a big family project to do together. And it will be a great big science experiment since this is all new territory for us. (Don’t worry, I will actually do a blog about the experience. Shocking, I know.)

The Money Stuff

It turns out, even after daily running the numbers, and the insane market, we still can’t retire yet. DANGIT. But can we just talk about how this market is INSANE? It’s UNREAL.

Still have a giant new (as of March) mortgage. It’s down to $318,000. At 3% for 15 years, my goal is to not pay it down early, but save enough money to cover it before early retirement (an account just for paying down the mortgage each month). But we’ll see if I last FOURTEEN MORE YEARS before paying it off.

And where has that bonkers market gotten us? Our investments are currently at $494,000 (SO CLOSE to half a million dollars!) making us officially CoastFI. That means if we don’t touch any of our investments until we are 65, we’re all set for traditional retirement. To calculate this number, you can use the Fioneers’ CoastFI formula (their website also has a calculator you can download for free if you don’t want to calculate it):

Coast FI # = FI # / (1+Expected Growth Rate)^# of years until retirement

We assumed a 5% growth rate and an annual spend of around $60-70,000 ($70,000 if we want to use a 4% withdrawal rate and around $61,000 for a 3.5% withdrawal rate). 27 years until Mr. T is 65 (I’m slightly younger, so I went with his). And BAM. There we are. CoastFI. Now we just have to figure out the next 27 years!

2021 Goals

We bought a house last year, as I mentioned, with the plan to build an addition. Mr. T and I are currently sleeping in the basement and plan to build a master suite off the main part of the house (we purchased the house with this addition in mind. We couldn’t find a house we liked that also had enough rooms for us). So, that’s our big elaborate project this year. Other than that, the goal is to max out all the things. 2020 was our first year of doing so (yay two full time incomes!!).

  • Have the Addition Exterior Finished – We are planning to do all the interior work ourselves (except MAYBE drywall. TBD). But we need to have the addition “dry in” by winter. Contractors are busy and we’re unsure if we’ll be able to get the help we need to get it done, but this is the big spendy goal this year.
  • Max Out My 401k ($2,661/$19,500) – I better raise my contributions!
  • Max Out Mr. T’s 401k ($4,788/$19,500) – Mr. T’s retirement contribution “slider” may be the death of me. I can slide it to “$732,” “$798” or “$819″ per paycheck, but not $750.” We were under by $600 in 2020 because of the dumb slider. I’m hoping to get closer to maxing out this year, but I’m doubting we’ll actually be able to get the exact $19,500.
  • Max Out my Roth IRA for 2021 ($6000/$6000) – Done. Probably the earliest I’ve ever done so!
  • Max Out Mr. T’s Roth IRA for 2021 ($0/$6000) – Not yet.
  • Max out a SEP-IRA – We maxed out for 2020 just this week and obviously we won’t be able to officially max out on this year until tax time next year, but I’d like to have enough set aside to be able to just max it out with taxes next year.

I hope you are all well. Take care of yourself. Be kind to one another. The world is dark enough.

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