May was absolutely lovely. School got out and we took a week-long ferry down the Aleutian islands. (A whole post about that by request later this month.)

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.)

Mortgage is still at $ZERO!

Investments have dropped slightly to $255,000 – but staying above a quarter of a million dollars, so overall still pleased. Still really haven’t saved much this month. We’ll have to really work hard to hit most of our goals this year!

2019 Financial Goals (REWORKED):

  • Max Out My 2018 Roth IRA ($5,500/$5,500) – Thanks to the totaling of the car, WE DID IT!
  • Max Out My 2019 Roth IRA (0/$6,000) – Not yet.
  • Max Out Mr.T’s 2019 Roth IRA (0/$6,000) – Not yet.
  • Replenish Emergency Fund ($1,200/$1,200) – Because our emergency fund is in a Capitol360 account so we can use it for free ATMs while traveling (but the account only earns 1%), we lowered our emergency account goal from $5000 to $1200. Then we changed this goal:
  • Extra Investments ($300/$45,000) – Nothing new this month because we had to come up with the $2,500 to max out my 2018 Roth IRA. But we’ll catch up. $45k by the end of the year still seems like a big stretch. But you know, aim for the moon and you’ll fall among the stars or whatever. 

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 (prepare to be judg-y this month!):

  • $451.44 – Hotel in Dutch Harbor/Unalaska for 2 nights.
  • $422.44 – Hotel in Kodiak for 2 nights.
  • $23 – Museum of the Aleutians – a tiny little museum in Dutch Harbor.
  • $92 – Train tickets for the 5 of us between Seattle and Portland for our upcoming trip. It’s a lovely ride if you’re trying to get between those two cities – much more pleasant than I-5.
  • $47+$55 – Two meals aboard the ferry restaurant. It’s only open for an hour per meal and you can’t tip the staff because they’re all public servants.
  • $27 – 1/2 pound of king crab in Dutch Harbor (where we saw some of the Deadliest Catch boats in the harbor) so everyone could try some (basically two bites each).
  • $20 – Kodiak museum tickets – housed in the oldest Russian-built structure in the United States – an old store during the Russian settlement days that also survived the 1964 tsunami following the great earthquake.

Financial Phrases:

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

  • “Working on this ferry is my second retirement.”
  • “I came up with a genius idea that is going to get me to retirement. Someone pursued a patent for it nearly a decade ago but abandoned it.”
  • My 60-year-old Neighbor: “Your new copy of Work Optional [(affiliate link)] just came. I’m going to keep the one you gave me. And I’m getting one for each of my kids. They’re at the perfect age to read this. I’ve kind of missed the boat on most of it.”