Thought I would update this!
We have spent the last year trying to optimize our current situation. We like our community, our friends, school, my job. 2 years ago I was pretty unhappy with my job and was trying to FIRE ASAP. Fast forward to now, I switched jobs and love it, focused on making friends in our neighborhood which has made us feel so lucky, and made decisions that optimized for time now that we have reached a certain sort of FIRE. Life is good.
80% time that I referenced last time has sort of turned into 50% time.
My wife and I are in the best shape we have been in a while.
our family has dance parties to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31crA53Dgu0 (sia, cheap thrills)
My dad and I rerouted the drainage for the sump pump which basically 100% solved our water issues. We did this 1 day before a huge set of storms came through and caused all sorts of flooding. Our house...bone dry!!
Family has focused on what brings us joy which has included upping our pandora subscription for 5.99 a month to 14.99 a month"gasp" and a membership to a community center/pool/gym/hot tub for the family at 176 a month. So far that has been some of the best money we have spent.
Our car turned 13, hit 134k miles and going strong.
Last year I mentioned that I negotiated our internet down to 29.95. Well it went up to 60 dollars a month but then had a 2 month saga of connectivity issues so the ISP gave us another year for 29.95!
Still eating our 55lbs of pasta from last year...man that was an awesome purchase.
Gone mostly vegetarian...except when we eat meat :)
Kindergarten has been pretty great. Fun to watch the kid learn to read, celebrate in the successes. Our little family is in a great spot.
Stock returns have been bonkers...40% for 2018, 22% so far in 2019. Feel very lucky
Networth went from 1.85 to 2.7 !!! We are in full scale-back mode. I really like my job so will keep it going until it isn't fun anymore.
thank you all for the constant inspiration and positive community!
z