No burying the lede on this one — my fiance and I are buying a house! That’s right, we got engaged, too!  When I say that November 2023 was one of the most overwhelmingly positive and busy months of my life, I am not exaggerating in the slightest.  I can’t write two separate posts on these events and drag it out like a “good” blogger would probably do because they are so intertwined with each other that I have to tell both stories at once.  The Origins My fiance (still cannot wrap my head around that word!) and I met in August 2022 and started officially dating in September 2022 ..read more

Hi y’all! Back again with some more updates on what’s been happening in my little rhombus of the world. I recently had reason to make many comments on a post in the Women’s Personal Finance group on Facebook and multiple people expressed interest in hearing more from me, so I’m going to make more of an effort to post more often! I certainly still have ideas and things to say, so that’s not the issue On to the updates! Anniversaries This September saw my partner and I celebrate one year together! 12 months together and I still want to see him all the time. If not for that pesky thing called ca ..read more

This post contains affiliate links, so I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on my site at no additional cost to you. I first met JL Collins at the 2015 Ecuadorian Chautauqua. I’d been reading his blog jlcollinsnh.com basically since I’d discovered FIRE. The blog was originally started to document his advice to his daughter, Jessica, who is just a few years younger than I am. Thus, the content of the blog was particularly relevant to me. JL with FI friends in 2017 Getting to discuss all things FIRE with him towards the beginning of my journey was so incredibly he ..read more

Eyyyyy check it outttt!!! My 25-and-still-gung-ho-about-FIRE-self would have thought this would be a slower pace than projected; However, taking just over 10 years of working with a salary that recently crossed six figures is not too shabby at all. I benefited at the beginning from a robust bull market and continued to invest in my accounts even when the market was down. Slow and steady wins the race! According to my spreadsheet, here is when I hit some major milestones (for the first time):  $100k: July 2016 $200k: February 2018 $300k: May 2021 $400k: May 2023 So, the first $100k was ba ..read more

I haven’t been super active on the blog lately, so I wanted to write up a quick post that highlights some recent moves I’ve made with my money and in adjacent spaces. Let’s go!  No Car Note As Dee‑1 says.… Cause I ain’t got no car note I ain’t got no car note I ain’t got no car note No note No note No note (Check out the whole song “No Car Note”! It’s great!) I paid off my car loan early! I bought my car in September 2020 for $14,817. My loan for the car from my local credit union was for 36 months at 2.94%. Not too shabby! I paid the loan ..read more

In Part One of the Great Rollover Saga, your bold and feisty protagonist had nearly lost her mind dealing with the various people involved in trying to get everything transferred over. Out of 3 accounts (all done at the same time because why not?), not one of them was accepted after the initial round of effort.  It was time to get serious for Round Two.  Well.….…. it was time to get serious after the whole plan got interrupted by your favorite bold and feisty  blogger becoming a comatose, feverish mess for a week after succumbing to Covid. (I’m fine now but I did not have the en ..read more

If you’re a long-time reader, you’ll be able to vouch that I don’t tend to stay in one place or one job for very long. Since 2014, I’ve worked for 4 companies, held 6 positions, and moved 10 times. I saw a friend this spring and she congratulated me on staying with one job for over 2 years. While slightly rude, she wasn’t wrong. This job is the longest I’ve stayed in one job in my entire career (if you exclude the military, which I do since I was forced to stay in for 6 years). When all is said and done, I will have held this job for 2 years and 9 months. A different friend suggested the reaso ..read more

I have never been more grateful to have a powerful community behind me than when things go sideways.  I wrote previously that I was very honored and excited to get to speak at this year’s Chautauqua in Ecuador. I was honored and excited right up until it got cancelled roughly 36 hours before I was going to leave for the event. The indigenous peoples of Ecuador felt the government was treating them poorly and not listening to their side of things, so they agreed the only way they could be heard was to make their presence felt and block all the major roads until the government agreed to tal ..read more

I have attempted to rollover my prior 401(k) accounts in the past few weeks. As you can tell from the title, everything has gone smoothly and easily. HA! Just kidding. It’s been awful. Fortunately for all of you, I took detailed notes on the whole process. If any Vanguard or Fidelity executives read this post, sorry not sorry. This whole process SUCKS.  For the sake of simplicity, I will be referring to each account as the following so as not to confuse anyone. Since I am an overachiever, I tried to do 3 different accounts at once. It’s fine. I’m totally fine.  Account A: My $200,000 ..read more

I recently went through a cash crunch. It was not something I’d care to repeat anytime soon.  No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the math to work out. 4200 minus 2000 always equaled 2200. I’m pretty good at math and yet I was being defeated by 2nd-grade math. I don’t remember the last time I had a balance on my credit card at the end of a cycle.  The last few months have been pretty rough for me in new and inventive ways, many happening at the same time! So fun! (Narrator note: It was the opposite of fun.) Opportunities were there with the potential to improve just about everything ..read more