The beginning of each month I’ll give an update on where we stand on our path to early retirement. Though I keep a very detailed and geeky Excel spreadsheet that tracks all of our spending, I won’t bore you with that minutia. I will mainly just give an update on the investments, the mortgage, and notable transactions from the month. Since this is the very first month, the notable transactions are:
– We started a blog! This cost $203.25 for three years of hosting and domain registration. No income associated with it yet. 🙂 I will be transparent monthly with the monetization of this thing because very few bloggers are and I want to share that information with you (since you readers will be the ones making this happen). We also didn’t start this blog to be a money-maker (and we don’t expect to see much revenue). We saw success with people sharing their financial journeys and we want that community, support, and accountability as well. We want you to join us on our journey, share your story, or just enjoy ours.
Okay, so one notable transaction. I’ll be better about making this interesting, I promise.
Now, for the numbers: We’re starting our journey with $59,030 in investments (over 10% done with our goal of $500,00!) and $90,000 left on our mortgage (nuts! this takes us down to -$30,970 or -6% away from our goal of $500,00!).
Watch our handy-dandy progress trackers on the sidebar as we’ll update those with each of these monthly updates.
Anas
Hi there,I came across your blog as I was doing some rcraeseh about teaching in Alaska. I am seriously contemplating this as my next adventure when I return to the United States. Right now I am teaching overseas in the United Arab Emirates. I have a husband and 2 year old daughter and so that makes going different places a bit more challenging. However, my husband and I had talked about Alaska quite some time ago and it would be a dream come true for us to raise our little one (maybe another) there in Alaska. We long to experience more outdoor adventures. My husband was raised in CO and loves hunting and fishing. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind telling me a little bit about getting certified to teach in Alaska and how to find an abundance of teaching jobs up there. I ideally would like to find employment before I arrive back in the US and I know that might be very challenging. I would love a bit more information! Happy Holidays and thank you for your blog! Sincerely, E. Stephanie Woodward
MaggieBanks
I really don’t know a lot about the teaching opportunities up here or where to find them. I do know that teaching in the Bush villages is a constant need and provides a pretty good salary compared to teaching other places in the U.S., but a lot of those places are VERY remote (think flying in by a tiny plane only). That being said, it would be an awesome adventure for a year and if you love it, stay longer. Any place in Alaska provides a great deal of outdoor adventures, I assure you!