March 2018 Plan Update

Ever have months where you step back and go: I think I’m crazy?! No? Only me? Alrighty then…

I’m starting to think we’re crazy for trying to pay off our mortgage AND take a family of five to 3 of the most expensive countries in Europe for a month. Do I think we’ll be alright financially? Yes. We are very privileged that we make right around $100,000 combined which is very high compared to many, many people. Can we reach all of our goals? TBD.

March is the month where winter turns to spring in Alaska. It starts with the Iditarod and ends with full on break up season. (April is where the grass turns green and the leaves start growing on the trees.) We stayed home for spring break but did some fun things around town (as you’ll see below in our expenses).

The Numbers:

Want to know how easy it is for us to write these every month? I literally just log into my Personal Capital and revel in all the numbers being in one place. Do you like checking numbers? Do you like graphics? Do you like playing with calculators like retirement calculators and how much your fees are costing you? Then, you should obviously use my affiliate link to Sign up here to help yours truly speed toward financial independence! (Also feel free to read my more in-depth review of Personal Capital.)

Our mortgage is now at $25,400. We’re still not really putting much extra toward the mortgage because of the impending trip (in 2 months!). I’m really hoping t-shirt sales will pick up in the summer so we can easily pay for everything for our trip and then start shoveling money into the mortgage fire!

Investments are now at $194,436. Another increase in net worth month. I’m telling you that this whole market is bonkers. It’s not going super high up right now, but it’s still flat enough that if we invest, our net worth goes up. No complaints here.

2018 Financial Goals Update:

• KILL THE MORTGAGE – $25,400 to go! If this was the only thing we were doing this year, I would feel super confident, but this big trip AND paying off the mortgage… it feels like a stretch! If we nail both of these goals this year, I will be ECSTATIC!
• 27-Day Europe Trip –  -$138.28 – Earned: $11,692.48, Spent: $11,830.76 (with “earned” meaning the money we’ve made from selling shirts on Amazon and “spent” meaning all of the costs for the trip as well as any extra payments toward our mortgage) – Details on these numbers in our Great Merch Challenge Q1 update next week!
• Max out Mr. T’s 401k – Automatic – however, limits rose to $18,500/year which makes it messy if you get 24 paychecks a year. We’ll probably make a contribution toward the end of the year to top it off.
• Stretch Goal: Put $5500 into My Roth IRA – Not yet.
• Market-Based Goal: $250,000 in investments by the end of 2018 – Not yet.

Notable Expenses This Month: The Story Our Money Tells:

These are expenses that tell an interesting story. A peek into our lives through our pocketbook:

• $60.75 – A Wrinkle in Time for Penny’s birthday – we brought her friend along. They really loved it. Fun time had by all.
• $48 – Moose’s Tooth pizza (if you come to Anchorage, you HAVE to go here) for Penny’s birthday before the movie.
• $20 – Spring Break swimming at the local high school pool with a slide and diving board.
• $84 – Spring Break brunch
• $183.73 – Tickets to the Warner Brother’s Studio to see the Harry Potter sets outside London with the kids.
• $62.63 – Westminster Abbey tickets (we wished we had purchased them ahead of time when we went two years ago, so we purchased them before we forgot about that).

Financial Phrases:

These are things said by actual people that were either talking to me or near me enough that I could hear them:

• “I always have to pick a couple of stocks because it feels like gambling. Plus Amazon’s been good to me.”
• An administrator at an elementary school: “I go into Costco weekly for work and I was talking to a lady that works there who’s been there forever. She was talking about how much she made. It was more than I do! I picked the wrong career!”
• “I went to the store yesterday for hamburger, pickles, and OJ, and I walked out with 4 or 5 bags. Because things look good!”