So here's my budget both pre and post mustache. The awakening is still ongoing, but started in May 2017.
Assets: ~$136,000
Teachers Retirement Account - ~ $17,000
Voya 403b - ~$6,600
Roth IRA - ~$3,000
Vanguard Investments - ~$4,500
Cash in checking/savings - ~$5,000
Condo - $100,000 (Zillow Estimate)
Liabilities:
Loan, $80,500, 2.75%, 15 years
Credit cards paid off each month
No other debt
My questions regarding the numbers:Where do I allocate my investing/saving for retirement money? A few weeks into reading MMM, I felt the need to take some actions, but perhaps didn't have all the info I needed. Anyway, I opened up a Vanguard account with a couple funds, I moved my random Roth IRA with USAA to a new low-fee fund, and I connected with a financial rep at my school to get my pre-tax 403b withdrawals going. Those are through Voya and I just followed the rep's advice. (The existing 403b money is from the 3 years of teaching I did about 10 years ago. Also allocated according to the previous rep's suggestions.)
I had intended on doing $500 to 403b, $500 to Vanguard investments, and $50 to the USAA Roth IRA. Not even sure I had a real logic to it. Just that I didn't want all the money going to investments that I wouldn't be able to touch without penalty until retirement should a need ever arise.
But generally, I feel like I was already leading a fairly frugal life. I just never really spent more than I was earning. But also, I never was really saving either. Savings that did happen to pile up were just eventually spent (big vacations or home purchase). Over the past month, I've made several adjustments which I think I can maintain that allow me to now save ~$1000/mo. (This may become iffy as the desire to buy gifts for people and to travel to see friends arises. But I'm going to keep at it. I've felt so energized with all the biking and fighting for savings by doing uncomfortable (for me) things.) I do know I'm a car clown with my 13.5 mile commute. (Thinking about dropping my resume at the 3 schools with French that are within biking distance, not interested in moving closer to my current school b/c it wouldn't positively change my personal life and would like have a negative impact, and entertaining the idea of an ebike, but unsure about the initial expense. Complainypants excuses?)
My real burning question:How do I earn more!?!? (or should it be How do I become more satisfied with what I have?)
I am a public high school teacher. I do great work, I'm a well-respected colleague, I'm admired by the administration, I mentor colleagues, my students seek me out, and I know teaching is an underpaid profession generally, but in particular, I know I'm not getting any extra for the added value I bring. (Just some dollars here in there for official mentoring, district assessment writing, etc. or tacking on an extra period of teaching.)
I teach French, so I'm fluent in French. I'm also conversational and semi-literate in Japanese (studying up this summer as I'm slated to teach a section of level 1 Japanese this fall). I can barely manage in Spanish (but make it happen when I have to call Spanish-speaking parents). I've also taught English in Japan from pre-school to retired adults. I've taught in one-on-one to 250 person settings. I've taught language teaching methods classes, linguistics classes, English for international teaching assistants at undergrad and graduate levels. (I got to the ABD stage of a doctoral degree in linguistics, but did not complete the dissertation project. I had realized sometime earlier that research-focused academia wasn't for me, and just couldn't get myself to re-engage even just to finish to get the degree. Looking back and considering the doubt and lack of motivation, I'm surprised at how far I got, and happy about it since it earned me the 2nd highest level of pay I could get as a teacher.)
I get along with all kinds of people, comfortable in many settings, competent on a variety of topics. I like to play sports, rock climb, garden, play ultimate frisbee, run, study and talk in foreign languages, read, and create stuff. When I really get into something, I can do it for hours and hours without breaking a sweat or really noticing.
Even though I am able to write all this (with lots of effort needed to quash the caveats and criticisms that are definitely there), I am struggling with how to make a change in income or work.
*Honesty moment*
Grad school really took a lot out of me. I had struggled previously with procrastination and some self-judgment. But grad school really brought it out. Part of it was learning how to manage myself and my time. But that was overclouded by my inability to deal positively with the critical voice in my head. Since leaving the grad school campus, it's taken about 3 years to finally say goodbye to the degree and acknowledge that a majority of the procrastination was based on really not wanting to do that work or have that life, while also rebuilding my confidence in myself and my abilities and retraining myself to get good work done in a timely fashion while keeping appropriate expectations for myself and not being overly critical. I had gotten to the point where I did not believe I was a reliable person at all, a trait that had once been a major part of how I saw myself.
Summing up:Well, with my foundation mostly rebuilt, I've got a desire to do more, earn more, create more, but I'm lacking a gameplan. I think I'm still shaking off the last bits of self-doubt. And I've always been a bit more of the cautious type (at least that's how I see myself despite having taken the leap to live in France for 10 months and Japan for 2 years, the latter without knowing the language before going), so I'm a bit scared/hesitant to leave teaching (3 years HS French, 2 years English in Japan-JET, 5 years grad school, 3 years HS French again). I enjoy the summer and long holidays, but I have yet to use them as a time to earn extra money. But the freedom I have to get stuff done around the house, see friends, be in the city, workout like I want, etc., makes me think more and more about FI (now that I have that as a concept, thanks MMM). So what do I do? Seek out a career in the business world? Try to learn a trade...welding anyone (actually was trying to convince the Japanese teacher at my school to teach me since she knows how to from doing metal based art sculptures)? Learn some computer language(s) and set off in that direction? Just try to stake out a side hustle like selling stuff on Teachers pay Teachers? Educational consulting (can I do that with a "failed" doctoral program on my resume?)?
The other side of the question re:satisfaction... I do like teaching and getting to use French on a daily basis. And if I get to teach Japanese now, that's even more awesome. And I'm not in debt. And if I'm calculating correctly, I could be FI by my mid-50s or so, which is a decent retirement age. And I would probably still want to keep teaching in some capacity anyway. So do I need to just let this initial MMM excitement (I read the whole blog in a month) die down and settle in for my new, more frugal and FI-focused life, find satisfaction in what I have and what I do, and leave the big earning to others? Or should I really push myself to find out what I'm capable of in a non-educational area that ideally has more money-making potential?
