This is our journey to financial independence. You’ll find regular progress updates and a sneak peak at our finances (such as, monthly expense reports).
Well, that wasn’t the start to the new year that I had expected. January flew by with little accomplished as I’ve been dealing with some unexpected medical bills and undiagnosed health issues. I had such high hopes for this year that it’s hard not to feel disappointed, but we’ll try to make February a better…
We review our investment portfolio allocation and investment strategy annually, as a part of our year-end financial and tax checkup. In this post, we’re sharing our current portfolio allocation and investment strategy for the first time. Disclaimer: This post contains our personal opinions and portfolio and does not represent investment advice. Why you need a…
The most unpredictable year ever is finally over… Happy New Year! Although 2020 was strange and mostly unpleasant, I hope that you and your loved ones remained healthy and were able to find some silver linings. If you stayed invested in the stock market throughout the year, you likely at least have a fatter portfolio…
We’re two years into remodeling our fixer upper! If you haven’t already, I would encourage you to check out Part 1 of this series, We bought a fixer upper! Here’s how it’s going, for an update of what we’ve accomplished to date, along with a detailed look at the renovation budget, and things to consider…
Nearly two years ago, we took a risk and purchased a complete fixer upper! After moving across the country for Mr. RFL’s work, we realized the housing market in our new location was more expensive. So when we found a great deal on a fixer-upper in our desired neighborhood that had an open floor plan,…
Happy holidays! I hope you and your loved ones had a happy and healthy November. Our November was filled with gratitude and the shock of an unexpectedly optimistic stock market. We also managed to squeeze in a mortgage refinance and some pandemic stockpiling this month. What happened this month… The US stock market had a…
Let’s start with the fact that this post, as I had envisioned it, was supposed to be a 6-month update… That’s just one of the many things I had pictured for my first few months of early retirement which have not gone as planned. Then again, I don’t think this year has gone as anyone…
This post will cover why we’ve refinanced so many times, how we paid $0 for the first two through a no cost refinance, and how much we expect to save with our latest. Refinancing your mortgage (the traditional viewpoint) How often is too often to refinance your mortgage? Well, since we just finished our…
Is it bad when wine represents 19% of your monthly budget? Oh, it is? Thought so. As you can tell from the caption of this post, our spending this month included A LOT of wine (and a few other October expenses). The good news is that we don’t spend this much on alcohol every month…
We are coming up on two years of living through the complete renovation of our fixer upper. Though this is about two years longer than we thought it’d take (amateurs), we’re getting closer to the finish line. During this time our backyard has been a pile of rocks and weeds, all because we were struggling…