July was an anxiety-filled month. Work has been crazy and my manager broke the news that she spoke with higher ups and I will not be getting a salary increase. Their rationale is they have hired a dedicated person to help alleviate the work I was helping with for a different department. Another person from my department is also finally coming back after having taken a month leave. I was assured that once that’s in motion, she’d take back the role…
If I thought May was bad, well, June did not get any better. It has been absolutely full of madness. I’m so glad I have this 4th of July long weekend to take a breather. Work has been absolutely crazy. You really don’t know the consequences of what you wish for until you get it. What I thought was just a transition into the new team doing what I was already doing turned out to be much more. Somehow I…
Ah, I can’t believe it’s already mid-June. I don’t think I’ve ever been this late in doing my monthly updates. May was just a non-stop busy month, starting with closing on my home, buying appliances, and starting with the move-in process. Then I went on my pre-planned week-long vacation at the end of May which was a much needed break. The day I came back to work, I was met with the news I’d been wanting, which is a transition…
My home buying experience was a very memorable one for me as this is my first home so I wanted to do a recap to capture the entire journey. Surprisingly, this is not the first time I will be living in a new build home. The first time I stepped foot in a brand new building was my second year of college when my residential building had just finished being built and luckily my year would be the first to…
Ahh! I’m writing this post as I am currently waiting for the keys to my new home! In a matter of hours, I will officially be a homeowner! I’ll make a separate post on everything about my home-buying experience (spoiler alert: after my down payment went through, I’m sad to announce, I now have under $100k net worth). It is bittersweet to say, this is the end of a chapter in my life and this will be the last month…
Ah! March was such a hectic, anxiety-inducing month that I pretty much lost all motivation to keep the blog updated. The first two weeks of March were actually fine. I even started writing my recap of my first 5K, the training I did, and my future running goals but didn’t end up finishing it when things went crazy all of a sudden. I might still post that but a lot has changed since. I was hit with major hives of…
And just like that, it was over. Last month, I mentioned that I was doing nothing but working overtime including weekends. By mid-February, the overtime opportunity was over. In hindsight, I think I made a great decision (what a rare occurrence!) with going all out in January to work those extra hours. Now the opportunity is gone. I can make many excuses on why I’m so late on this month’s update. I was catching up with friends, shows, trips, and…
This month has been a huge money drain. I’ve been killing myself trying to play catch up with my 401k and Roth IRA contribution. As I’m doing so, regrets crept in. Why didn’t I start contributing earlier in the year? Oh, that’s right. Because I was too busy keeping my money trapped inside a savings account waiting to buy a house. In the midst of going crazy trying to contribute thousands per month into my retirement so I can be…
I can’t believe we’re already halfway through 2021! Unlike last month when I thought May flew by like a blur, June felt long. I felt like I did a lot this month which surprised me that with the exception of some miscellaneous spending, I’ve pretty much stayed on budget for most of my regular expenses. That breakdown along with a disappointing net worth update will be coming up later in the post. Home Update Last month, I broke the news…
Welcome to my May 2021 updates! If you are new here, every month I post the progress I’ve made on paying off my student loans and on my savings. I’ve done this since I first started paying down my loans in July 2017 and it has been so worth it. Student debt paid this month: $880.77 Student debt remaining: $42,327.50 I house every month’s debt progress from the very beginning here if you want to check out the progress so…