Some of you have wondered about me (thank you so much!).  Rest assured, I am alive and doing very, very well! If you remember, I left you with last year’s ex-boyfriend saga…well I made sure to end 2019 with a bang.  I took the last 3 weeks of the year off to travel – 10 flights worth!  I went to Charlotte, London, Phoenix, home for 2 days, Chicago, Cancun, Charlotte again, and Nashville.  Whew!  It was such a blast and exactly what I needed to shake those breaking up blues. Or so I thought…January 2020 hit, and hit hard.  In addition to my typical “I hate winter ..read more

Quite a bit has happened since the boyfriend and I broke up.  As you recall, I was letting him live in my house for free until he could get his own place.  Well… When I wrote that post, he was leaving for a camping trip that we had planned for almost a year.  He had asked me not to go so that he could have some space to “heal”.  When he arrived home on Sunday, he told me that he had had sex with someone(s?) on the trip. I mean, we were broken up, but I’ll admit it still stung a little.  But knowing about it helped me know that there was no turning back for me. Fast forward another 3 weeks, he ..read more

Wow, I haven’t been able to type those words in a very long time – March of 2018, to be exact!  That was when I decided to do a balance transfer on a couple of my Parent PLUS loans, and then I spent 15 months paying that off in order to take advantage of the $0 0% offer.  That balance transfer was paid off in May of this year, and since then I’ve been plugging away at Parent PLUS loan #6, which is now GONE! Gone:  Loan E – Boy Child freshman year (which was the smaller balance of the two remaining loans) $23,987.01 original loan amount 6.41% interest rate Principal paid:  $30,752.49 (includ ..read more

Parent PLUS debt down: $2,749.82 Mortgage lowered:  $913.38 Overall debt reduction:  $3,663.20 Parent PLUS debt remaining: $34,523.80 Parent PLUS projected payoff: October 2020 Not a bad month, overall.  I’m in love with seeing how tiny that Parent Plus 5 is getting! In fact, I love everything about how my finances are going right now, even without the extra income I was getting from you know who.  Even without any extra income coming in, I feel like I’m still kicking ass. And honestly, I’m kicking ass at life.  I still have sad moments about the recent breakup, but my social calendar is full ..read more

Today is a brand new VERY BIG net worth milestone for me! $300,000 Did you see that??? Just in case you missed it: THREEEEEE HUNDRED THOUSAAAANDDD I’ve been hovering just under for a few weeks now, so I’ve been checking my mint.com account a lot. Even this morning, I was still under. On a whim, I checked it just now and BAM! But don’t blink – it’ll probably bounce around for a few weeks. Happy Thanksgiving, y’all ..read more

Three years ago this month, still reeling from a wicked turn of events in my life, I started hanging out with a new group of friends.  They were all about my age, and ran at a pace of drinking and dancing and stuff that I found dizzying but loved.  Through that groups of friends, I met a man (well technically a few men, ha! but that’s not what this post is about).  Over time, this man and I became great friends. When this relationship started, I couldn’t tell what his intentions were.  It felt like he was flirting with me, but I just couldn’t tell if he was interested in taking it to the next ..read more

Parent PLUS debt down: $5,609.99 Mortgage lowered:  $230.05 Overall debt reduction:  $5,839.51 Parent PLUS debt remaining: $38,556.35 Parent PLUS projected payoff: November 2020 Finally, some decent progress last month!  As I mentioned, September was bonus month, and I didn’t blink twice before sending my entire bonus toward debt reduction.  It’s possible this wasn’t the smartest move, since I’ve been traveling a lot and there are other expenses looming ahead, but it’s a done deal.  And now I’m under $39,000 left to pay! The amount I paid toward my Parent PLUS loans was $5,827.92, $217.93 of ..read more

Today is the day I wait for all year:  the day we receive our annual bonus at work! Last year’s bonus was only about the size of a typical paycheck, definitely the worst I’ve ever received.  And I needed new tires, so there wasn’t much left to put toward my Parent PLUS loans. The year before that was great, but I still had some expenses to take care of before I could put any of it toward my loans. This year was a little bit different.  I had heard early on not to expect much of a bonus.  As soon as I heard that, I took my bonus out of my debt paydown chart so I wouldn’t be disappointed if it t ..read more

Here are the numbers broken down: Assets increase:            $     8,275.65 Debt decrease:             $       2,410.15 Net increase:                $    10,685.80 Current Net Worth:      $ 291,500.52 I’ve been feeling down for months because it felt like I wasn’t making any progress with my finances at all.  My net worth – like everyone else’s – has been stumbling around like a drunk this year.  Honestly, I quit paying so much attention for a few months.  It was refreshing to let it go for awhile.  Maybe the market felt the same way, because lately it seems to be a little more friendly ..read more