December 2018 Plan Update

December has come and gone and it was glorious. We ice skated, we went sledding, we built a luge track behind the house, and we ate so much delicious food. We’re good at hygge up here in Alaska. Candles. Heated blankets. Family time.

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 $1,900! This is BIG NEWS. That means 2 things: 1) we have made our last EXTRA payment toward this mortgage EVER and 2) the house will be paid off with our regular mortgage payment next month.

Investments have fallen to $204,000. At least we managed to keep it above $200k for the year. And, not that we’re trying to time the market, but I don’t regret our extra mortgage payments this year one bit! 2019 is when we’ll be able to start upping our investments. We’re the best market timers ever. 🙂

2018 Financial Goals Update:

• KILL THE MORTGAGE – $1,900 – Okay, we’ll be one month late, but we made ALL THE EXTRA payments in 2018 so this is a pretty big win anyway!
• Merch Challenge Update (paying for our 27-night Europe trip and our extra mortgage payments with t-shirt sales) –  -$1896.40 – Earned (with just shirt sales online): $19,216.46, Spent: $10,412.86 (Europe Trip) + $10,700 extra mortgage payments. It doesn’t look good, but consider we’re done with all the “spending” and now just have the earnings left. So, after the December payments come in January, we’ll be doing a Q4 recap… the moment of truth. Think we’ll make it?
• Max out Mr. T’s 401k – We got to $18,000 – I’m counting it because I never got around to changing it (and I don’t think he knows how). I’ll change it in January now that the limits rose again to $19,000/year.
• Stretch Goal: Put $5500 into My Roth IRA – Nopety-nope.
• Market-Based Goal: $250,000 in investments by the end of 2018 – Nopety nope.

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:

• $16.85 – We were able to get the two books Florin wanted for Christmas at the cute local bookstore. Yay for supporting local!
• $209.11 – My part of the health bill for some tests back in the summer when I had bronchitis. Finally came through. Finally had to pay it.
• $20.49 – More of that above healthcare bill. This part from a lab. Healthcare is confusing.
• $1.08 – Price of two sundaes at McDonald’s (after using the last of a gift card) to tell my girls about Santa. I told them about how magic is created and they’re part of Team Santa now. It ended up being really cute because they came home and helped Lui write his letter to Santa.

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 have a secret shopping problem.”
• “I think the pressure to buy his wife expensive gifts really motivated his career.”
• “We finally got our retirement stuff set up and the company started doing profit sharing. It’s nice!”