Denali Northern Expenditure

October 2018 Plan Update

Better late than never, amiright? This October 2018 plan update is a couple of weeks late, but that is because we decided to take another epic family trip. As if a month-long European adventure wasn’t enough, we also decided that we would pack in a good old fashioned American road trip. So, in mid-October we flew to Bozeman, MT and drove from Yellowstone to Minneapolis seeing: Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Black Hills, Devil’s Tower, Mt. Rushmore, Wind Cave, Badlands, and, of course, the corn palace. 🙂 We had a fabulous time, saw amazing things, had beautiful fall weather, and arrived home in time for the first real snow of the year.

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.)

First the exciting news: our mortgage is now at $8,000! It’s so close! Maybe not end-of-year close, but very, very close!

Now for the investments: Since starting this blog in June 2015, our net worth has only dropped 5 total months. October 2018 is one of those months. When your investments aren’t bonkers high, the downswings aren’t has dramatic. All in all, month over month, our investments are only down about $16,000. Our investments now total $212,800. Are we worried? Nope. Why not? This is precisely what we planned for. Markets go up. Markets go down. We’re in no need of the money anytime soon. We’re going to let it ride.

2018 Financial Goals Update:

  • KILL THE MORTGAGE – $8,000 – We’re working our tails off to try to get this killed before the end of the year, but even if we fail this goal, we’ll be able to kill it in the first couple months of 2019, so I still feel okay about it. But, I haven’t given up total hope yet. It’s still possible!
  • Merch Challenge Update (paying for our 27-night Europe trip and our extra mortgage payments with t-shirt sales) –  -$1,483.98 – Earned: $16,141.73, Spent: $17,112.86 (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) – For the most up-to-date, detailed information, check out our Merch Challenge Q3 Update.
  • 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. But, we’ll hit $18,000 anyway, so pretty close.
  • Stretch Goal: Put $5500 into My Roth IRA – Not yet.
  • Market-Based Goal: $250,000 in investments by the end of 2018 – Markets down. Not looking possible this year. Oh well.

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:

  • $13.80 – I also headed to the office this month. My manager paid for my lunch, but I bought my coworkers some dessert to share.
  • $131.55 – Our annual IKEA shopping trip we do when we go out of town. New washcloths, a drying rack, couch pillows, etc.
  • $39.20 – Our annual Trader Joe’s run. Mostly pumpkin butter and truffle brownies. I’ll be honest.
  • $62 – Delicious Indian food in Minneapolis. So. Yum.
  • $41 – Roadtrip DQ dinner and blizzards.

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 really want to be home with my kids but I can’t because we’ve got some pretty lofty financial goals right now.”
  • “When my kids go back to school, I probably start up a craft business again. It’s always in the back of my mind.”
  • “The drunk driver program seems unfair. If you have to call in at 8am every day and attend classes most evenings after work, what happens if you don’t have a job, a phone, or a car?”

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Merch Challenge Q3 Update

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November 2018 Plan Update

2 Comments

  1. Wow, what brought on the mega road trip? You’ve had an awesome travel year AND you’re still on track to pay off that mortgage soon, I’m so chuffed for you!

    The 401K limit is up to $19,000 next year so that should be less messy starting in 2019!

    • MaggieBanks

      I know! I’m super excited about the $19,000 because it will be at least less messy. 🙂
      Road trip? I wanted to see Mt. Rushmore and Devil’s Tower and I used the trip to head in to work, so it was a double family/work trip for me.

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