July in Alaska is so wonderful and we enjoyed our time at parks, on bike rides, and going fishing! We’ve been running around like crazy people this whole summer and it doesn’t look like that will end for a few more weeks when school starts again.

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 $19,980. EVERYONE DANCE! WE’RE BELOW $20,000! I threw enough extra toward this to get it below $20,000 and now I’m working like crazy to make up for doing so. 🙂

Investments are now at $217,000. This includes my $385 401k I just got from work. My newly-acquired company is terrible. I hate work so much. It’s so terrible. The company has moved from a small start-up full of entrepreneurs to giant conglomerate big business almost overnight and it’s completely depressing. However, I’m committed to keeping my job until the mortgage is paid off. So, I’ve trained Mr. T, whenever I say: “ugh, I want to quit my job” to respond with: “Just remember your 401k!” – it’s somewhat motivating. Hopefully work will improve but at this rate, I’m not all that hopeful.

2018 Financial Goals Update:

  • KILL THE MORTGAGE – $19,980! I am SO EXCITED we got this below $20,000! This means with $7,000 of our PFD this year and our regular mortgage payments, we only have to find an extra $8500 to kill this thing by the end of the year!
  • Merch Challenge Update (paying for our 27-night Europe trip and our extra mortgage payments with t-shirt sales) –  -$2,055.93 – Earned: $14,656.93, Spent: $16,712.86 (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) – June was our most depressing month of t-shirt sales for a long time. We made less than $500. We haven’t really had time this summer to hit it hard again, but we’re hoping next month we can really get going because we need our sales to dramatically improve!
  • 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:

  • $44.99 – That heart-shaped Waffle iron I warned you about
  • $439.63 – Dipnetting Costs
  • $33.27 – Batting and backing material for a denim quilt Florin and I have been working on for her.
  • $66.98 – School clothes for the girls.
  • $77.60 – Eye exam for one of the kids.
  • $12.99 – Haircut for Mr.T
  • $30 – My haircut. I didn’t make Mr. T do it this time. He’s grateful.

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 pay some debt off every month. I don’t have enough to pay all of the bills, but I rotate so that no bill goes longer than a few months without being paid.”
  • “I feel like we’ve saved a lot at this point, but while I’m hesitant to start spending it I also don’t want to put fun vacations off til we’re older either. It’s a struggle.”