Race from 10 to 100k!!

[zeli2033]

End of month update:

10/31/17: $7,686
11/30/17: $18,654
12/31/17: $24,407
1/31/18: $35,314
2/28/18: $42,150
3/30/18: $45,528

Thus begins the very slow climb out of student loan debt. Stash is not going to be climbing as quickly until that's crushed.

[vertkurt]

1/1= 14,705

2/1/18= 18,264

3/1/18= 21,225

4/1/18= 22,741

[Tasse]

Jul 17	$6.2k
Aug 17	$6.8k
Sept 17	$8.2k
Oct 17	$9.0k
Nov 17	$9.9k
Dec 17	$11.1k
Jan 18	$12.1k
Feb 18	$13.6k

Mar 18: $15.1k + ~$300 of reimbursements owed

Three paycheck month got me out ahead of the falling market again. This was also my lowest-ever spending month, excluding those where I visited my parents and got fed - though we held recruitment for my grad program which means I was often still fed for free. Spent <$100 on groceries.

Next month I'll be back to a usual amount of income for a while, so expect <$1000/month advancements until late summer.

[Serendip]

Dec 18/17    18,146
Jan 03/18     20,624
Jan 19/18     23,607
Feb 06/18     25,073
Feb 20/18     27,000
Mar 31/18     29,008

[Optimizer]

March 1:
14,180 EUR / 17,538 USD

April 1:
14,401 EUR / 17,757 USD

+1,25%

Slight increase during the semester break regardless of the decline in stocks. Can not complain I think :)

[L2]

I am in! The goal is to get to 100k net worth by the end of 2018. Currently at ~21k. I have been pretty good at my goals so far. Starting out after college in Dec. 2013, I believe I had about a negative net worth of 65k. My first financial goal was to get a net worth of zero by the time I received my tax refund this year and I hit it at the end of January. My second goal was to have my private student loan (6.6%) paid off by the end of July. I made it at the end of June. Next I am hoping to have the car paid off by the end of the year. Currently have a 10k balance left on that loan.

My soft goal for the end of 2017 is 35k in net worth, only because I think I'll need it to be close to that to meet the 100k goal at the end of 2018. I have not done any hard calcs at this point, but in the mean time, I should be getting annual raises of approx. 5k beginning 11/1 for 2017 and 2018. I will also be maxing out my 401k in 2018 and hopefully the ROTH IRA as well.

So I am currently at ~30,900 net worth. I've been averaging about a 2k increase per month and I've got an extra paycheck coming in for December as there will be 3 pay periods. I should be between 37-38k net worth by the end of the year. I've got a raise coming effective 11/1, but I have not been communicated the amount yet.

I've cut almost 3k in annual expenses in the past few months. Moved to a nicer, more convenient, and cheaper apartment (farther away from city center, which I don't need anymore) that will save me $87 a month. In moving there and an acquisition by my firm, I will be driving approximately 10 miles round trip a day rather than 60. Rough estimates have that at about $100 a month in gas savings. My firm is also adding a HDHP plan, which I do not know the exact details yet, but I'm guessing this will be about 1/2 the cost of the low deductible plan (estimated savings of 50/month).

I have not ran the hard numbers yet as exact figures aren't determined, but my goal of 100k NW by the end of 2018 is going to come really close. I'd guess I'm looking at being more towards 10-15k short without any gains/raise coming next year/potential promotion. Here is a question for my fellow cohorts - I have about a 5k vested pension at my previous employer. I'm going to check to see if there is any way I can roll that over into a 401k/IRA this coming week. Either way, would you include that in your net worth calc? I'm younger so pensions are not a familiar topic for me. I've read being vested means that its guaranteed to me no matter what, but I've heard of plenty of people losing their pensions (albeit not knowing specific circumstances).

Now that year end is basically here I took some time to run my numbers.

Current NW: 46,289.93
2018:
Student loan payments decreasing principal: 1,933.56
ROTH IRA Contribution on 1/1 (with 7% return estimated: 5,885
401k Contributions (with estimated DCA of 3.5% return): 19,147.50
Deferred 2017 401k employer match: 458
401k employer match (with estimated DCA of 3.5% return): 2,000
2017 tax refund estimate (with 1% Ally interest): 2,020
Addition to savings (for house downpayment):18,379.42
Estimated previous employer retirement plan increase: 500
Estimated increase in paychecks due to lower w/h from tax reform: 1,500.
Estimated increase to 2017 YE 401k balance (assuming 7%): 1273.09
Estimated increase to 2017 YE Roth balance (assuming 7%): 424.41

12/31 2018 NW estimate: $99,780.91. So it's going to be VERY close. There will certainly be some unexpected costs that creep up such as smaller medical/dental costs, registrations, licenses, car maintenance/repairs, etc. Getting there is going to heavily count on the stock market getting at least average returns. I'm working hard towards a promotion that would go into effect 11/1/18, which would hopefully net me about another 1k before 2018 YE. I also have multiple ways to get bonuses at work, albeit normally in smaller increments. I believe I already have close to 1k gross coming my way. Let's get it!

One month into 2018 and the new NW is 51,349 (with some help from the market) with an end of year projection now of $101,092. Woo hoo! I would still like to come up with another few thousand to play it safe as there will certainly be expenses come up that I don't really budget for such as medical/dental, car maintenance, registration renewals, etc.

End of month NW: 56,190.70
End of year projection: 98,691.13

Had quite a few things going on this month...ended a relationship of 3 years, girlfriend moved out. Rent went up $350 a month as a result.
Bought some furniture off of ex that she owned.
Had to purchase some necessities for the apartment to make up for what ex took.
Stock market...bleh.
Bogus Uber charge of $234 that I'm still fighting.

I'm still feeling good about meeting my goal as I should have at least ~4k of extra income coming my way from various sources. Also going to concentrate on being more frugal than normal this month to help catch up. Shouldn't be too hard as I'm going to be spending  a lot of time at work anyways (tax season).

End of March NW: 60,017.55
End of 2018 projection: 98,683.37

The good - decided to take some of my house down payment savings and use it for some bank account churning (+650). Got project sale bonuses approved (+ approx 1500). Kept discretionary everyday spending down by about $300 from average.
The bad - realized I didn't remove my tax refund from my projection last month, so it was overstated by approx. 2,400. Then of course the stock market didn't really cooperate this month either. I believe I basically contributed 1,400 to 401k this month and the end of month balance is basically only 700 higher than the beg. of month balance.

[Jim Fiction]

Hello everyone! It is my first time posting in this thread, I just made by way over from the race to $10k thread which I just surpassed.

Here is a basic breakdown of the numbers as of the end of the day today:

Total Cash/Cash Equivalents: $31,642
Total Liabilities: $20,131

Net Worth: $11,511

Virtually all of my liabilities are student loans. I also have some minor balances on my credit cards, which I pay off monthly. I've been aggressively attacking the student loans (see my participation in the student loan challenge if curious) and have made steady progress.

As for asset composition,  20% are in checking accounts, 13% is in my HSA and 67% is in my 401k.

I'm looking forward to following everyone's progress. Good luck to us all!

Missed a month, but my net worth as of Nov 30th is $18,617.

As the year comes to a close, my next worth is up to $23,350.

Just updated my spreadsheet to record my paycheck. January ends with my networth up to $27,921.

With February officially in the books my net worth is sitting at $30,289.72. A pretty weak month compared to previous. Market losses along with some medical bills are the primary culprits.

Medical bills made March my least productive month in quite awhile, with only an increase of $1,438, leaving the ending balance at $31,728. My employer's quarterly HSA match came in. which represents almost half of the month's gain. My wife and I are expecting our first child in June, so I anticipate similar performance over the next few months... On a positive note, we've met our insurance deductible for the year, so the upcoming bills will be significantly less than they would have been otherwise.

[lexde]

Hi everyone! First post in this thread and I’m kind of amazed I’m even here. 100k seems so daunting. I have no idea what my goal timeline should look like to reach 100k NW. My NW seems to be climbing at about 2.5k per month on a 70k salary. At that rate, I’m looking at 40 months (3.34 years) but I feel like compounding should help significantly with that once I start to get some momentum going. So I’ll aim for 100k in 24 months as a stretch goal!



3/15/2018: $12,926.94

3/31/2018: $12,989.49 -- I managed to keep a positive net worth even with a pretty spendy vacation this month, so I'm happy about that!

[dutty]

What can I say, just the most insane month for me financially. It is likely the most money I will make in a month purely from income for a long, long time. I was able to pay back the loan to my parents and fill up my S&S ISA just before the deadline so I am super happy about that.

05/17   £1020
06/17   £470      (-£550 ~ -50%)
07/17   £1,590   (+£1,120 ~ +340%)
08/17   £2,080   (+£490   ~ +30%)
09/17   £7,250   (+£5,170 ~ +350%)
10/17   £12,000  (+£4,750 ~ +65%)
11/17   £12,360  (+£360 ~ +3%)
12/17   £10,800  (-£1,560 ~ -17%)
01/18   £21,300  (+£10,500 ~ +97%)
02/18   £25,500  (+£4,200 ~ +20%)

03/18  £48,800 (+£23,300 ~ +91% )

[grantmeaname]

DANG.

[mustache you a question]

01/17 - 9,926
02/17 - 15,869
03/17 - 21,618
04/17 - 22,738
05/17 - 29,255
06/17 - 30,880
07/17 - 40,255
08/17 - 44,722
09/17 - 48,025
10/17 - 62,340
11/17 - 67,770
12/17 - 83,785
01/18 - 87,942
02/18 - 95,169
03/18 - 97,342
04/18 - 100,214

Barely crossed 100k.  Might be back after this month...but hopefully you guys won't be seeing me again in this thread :)

[marielle]

Feb 1: $10,935
Mar 1: $12,472
Apr 1: $13,644

Making progress despite the downturn. I invested $3k a week or so ago and the immediate 5% drop was a little painful. Still getting used to that as a newbie investor! Rationally, I'm happy because stocks are on sale though.

However, in other news it looks like I'll be graduating this race sooner than expected because I'm getting married in May! How do you guys even handle that here!?

This is going to take some getting used to for sure. We've already been saving for FIRE together for the most part since graduating university, just haven't officially combined the numbers. He's been working a year longer than me and didn't have student loans other than one semester of grad school (compared to my $28k), so naturally he's ahead.

Oh and... we're going to the courthouse during our already planned New Zealand trip (paid for with points, of course), so I think it passes the mustachian test.

[ingrownstudentloans]

6/1/2017   $44,119
7/1/2017   $46,553
8/1/2017   $48,477
9/1/2017   $51,618
10/1/2017 $55,740
11/1/2017  $60,079 (will slow down through EOY as 401K is now maxed)
12/1/2017 $62,686.85
1/1/2018 $67,210.81 (excited to start 401K contributions back up)
2/1/2018 $76,267.84
3/1/2018 $83,679.47 (stretch goal of June for graduation - fingers crossed)

4/1/2018 $84,367.47 (market hurt me this month - June is probably not going to happen now, oh well)

[zygote]

Hello! I am new to MMM. I'm 28, recently married, and we maintain separate finances. The goal is to be in a strong financial position to maintain flexibility in the future, not necessarily RE. I have a job that I love with amazing benefits, so I am not in a hurry to retire. But as you all know, that could always change.

I have always lived below my means in that I have never held any debt, but I've never really saved. I was a grad student living on a lean stipend in a HCOL city until a year and a half ago. I'm still in the same HCOL city, but now I have a real salary, a defined contribution retirement plan, and access to 403b and 457 accounts.

Current net worth: $48,533.91
Breakdown below...
Cash: $17,747.04
Retirement plan: $18,702.39
403b: $679.16 (Just opened this 1/1/18)
Roth IRA: $11,736.04 (Did not open this until 2016 tax year)
Credit card: -$330.72 (Use this for normal expenses, pay off in full every month)

I was over $50k a week ago, but of course the stock market is going down at the moment. Shares on sale!

I'd like to start progress reports at the beginning of the month, so here goes. A big jump from just a week ago because March was a 3 paycheck month for me and I got a big tax refund (my tax situation changed a lot last year).

3/18: $48,533.91
4/18: $53,215.13

[Tasse]

Congrats marielle!

[LittleWanderer]

Congrats on the upcoming wedding, Marielle!  I guess if your combined networth is over $100K, you just hop over to the next thread and track everything combined?  That's probably what I would do.  I'm not married though. 

[M5]

Just graduated from the previous thread! Like a few others on here our NW seems to climb around 2-2.5k per month, so it'll be nice to have others in a similar situation. We don't own our primary residence and are only using the equity from our rental property and our liquid investments for our NW calculations.

3/15/18: $12,315.65

4/2/18: $12,849.33     not great improvement this time. bought plane tickets, vehicle registration, etc and dipping markets.

[martyconlonontherun]

I'm crashing two threads and this will be my joint account. I like my personal one since it's easier to motivate myself then my wife, but it still nice seeing the change in combined NW/Investments which is what matters.

29dh/29dw
Combined 120k income
Midwest City

09/01/2017: $65k Investments/$59k Net Worth
10/01/2017: $68.3k Investments/$65.6k Net Worth
10/27/2017: $72k Investments/$70.5k Net Worth
12/4/2017: $76.5k Investments/$81.9k Net Worth
12/29/2017: $79.1k Investments/$84.8k Net Worth
1/26/2018: $87.k Investments/$84.1k Net Worth (Down due to property taxes and change in Zillow for house
2/23/2018: $87.5k Investments/$88.3k NW
Original Goal: graduate this thread by March with NW.

4/2/2018: $87.5k Investments/$95.3k Net Worth (Up due to Tax return)
Hopefully this moves to the next thread in May.

[martyconlonontherun]

Background:
Age: 29
"Switched" Careers at 25.
Started taking personal finances 'seriously' around 27 (aka actually saving money, 401k, etc).
Started taking personal finances seriously around 29
Salary gradually up to 65k, 68k as of End of 2017, 75k at beginning of CY18
Married but don't include house (equity/mortgage) or joint savings in these calculations since she's the boss, it gets messy with house equity/sweat equity ($40k total on a $170k house in May 17), and it will just be cherry on the top.
-Paid off car but not adding value of that in the calculation since its not worth more than a few Gs and requires maintenance
-4.5 years left of student loan payments I'm aggressively paying off/refinanced in January '17
-15 year mortgage in May '17
-Not including 529 accounts-Only a few hundred now, but it will be going to Godchildren/my future children so not my money in my eyes.

January 2016-
($45k) Student Debt
($2k) Personal CC Debt
$8k 401k
NW: ($38k)

NW April 2016: ($34K)
July 2016: ($28.4k)
October 2016: ($22.6k)
January 2017: ($20.8k) (Refinanced loan and intransit payments not reflected)
April 2017: ($10.9k)
July 2017: ($5.7k)
August 2017: ($2.5k)
September 2017:(~$1.7k)
October 2017: $1.8k - $32k
November 2017: $4.5K - Investments ~$33.8k.
December 2017: $7.9K - Investments ~$37.8k.
January 2017: $11.4K - Investments ~$39.6k.
February 2018: $14.3K - Investments ~$43.9k.
March 2018: $16k - Investments ~$44.2k
Goal: 50k at end of year.
Hoping to increase 401k/IRA when the Sloans are paid off and hopefully some more salary. Realistic goal is to retire by 55 unless I really climb the corporate ladder.

Current  Beginning  March 2018: $17.1K - Investments ~$45.2k.

[repman]

Nov 2017     65.000€
Dez 2017     69.000€  a frugal month and a christmas paycheck !
Jan  2018     73100€
Feb  2018     74100€
Mar  2018     57300€  some expanses and bad investment decisions
Apr 2018      58800€

Don't forget to enter the speadsheet!

[Trifle]

01/17 - 9,926
02/17 - 15,869
03/17 - 21,618
04/17 - 22,738
05/17 - 29,255
06/17 - 30,880
07/17 - 40,255
08/17 - 44,722
09/17 - 48,025
10/17 - 62,340
11/17 - 67,770
12/17 - 83,785
01/18 - 87,942
02/18 - 95,169
03/18 - 97,342
04/18 - 100,214

Barely crossed 100k.  Might be back after this month...but hopefully you guys won't be seeing me again in this thread :)

Congrats @mustache you a question !!! 

[peppermint]

01/2018: $40796.81
02/2018: $41337.51
03/2018: $42682.42
04/2018: $46138.41

Getting there.

[ASW]

Hey guys,
First post.  31 years old, married with 3 young kids, single income (military family).  Had ~$150k combined student debt out of college, which took a few years to pay down.  Found MMM and got serious about finances in January 2018. 

Net worth (includes emergency fund, misc. cash, retirement accounts, and other investments):
1/1/2018: $38,800
2/1/2018: $49,800 (used tax refund to pay off family car - now debt free)
3/1/2018: $55,707
4/1/2018 : $64,352 (sold second car)

We are hoping to get to $100k by the end of this year, but we are moving to a new state in a few weeks, so we may have a couple expensive months getting set up.  Our spreadsheet indicates that we don't have a lot of wiggle room if we want to achieve this goal by then (unless we get some help from the stock market).

Glad to be doing this with all of you!

[M5]

Hey guys,
First post.  31 years old, married with 3 young kids, single income (military family).  Had ~$150k combined student debt out of college, which took a few years to pay down.  Found MMM and got serious about finances in January 2018. 

Net worth (includes emergency fund, misc. cash, retirement accounts, and other investments):
1/1/2018: $38,800
2/1/2018: $49,800 (used tax refund to pay off family car - now debt free)
3/1/2018: $55,707
4/1/2018 : $64,352 (sold second car)

We are hoping to get to $100k by the end of this year, but we are moving to a new state in a few weeks, so we may have a couple expensive months getting set up.  Our spreadsheet indicates that we don't have a lot of wiggle room if we want to achieve this goal by then (unless we get some help from the stock market).

Glad to be doing this with all of you!

Those are some impressive numbers for such a short amount of time! Welcome and congrats!

[Hirondelle]

Hey guys,
First post.  31 years old, married with 3 young kids, single income (military family).  Had ~$150k combined student debt out of college, which took a few years to pay down.  Found MMM and got serious about finances in January 2018. 

Net worth (includes emergency fund, misc. cash, retirement accounts, and other investments):
1/1/2018: $38,800
2/1/2018: $49,800 (used tax refund to pay off family car - now debt free)
3/1/2018: $55,707
4/1/2018 : $64,352 (sold second car)

We are hoping to get to $100k by the end of this year, but we are moving to a new state in a few weeks, so we may have a couple expensive months getting set up.  Our spreadsheet indicates that we don't have a lot of wiggle room if we want to achieve this goal by then (unless we get some help from the stock market).

Glad to be doing this with all of you!

Those are some impressive numbers for such a short amount of time! Welcome and congrats!

Holy wow that's some impressive numbers! GO YOU!

[L2]

That's some serious progress. Moving might set you back a couple grand, but I have no doubt you'll hit 100k by end of year.

[ASW]

Thanks everyone!  Looking forward to getting to know you all this year.

[Epor]

Hey guys,
First post.  31 years old, married with 3 young kids, single income (military family).  Had ~$150k combined student debt out of college, which took a few years to pay down.  Found MMM and got serious about finances in January 2018. 

Net worth (includes emergency fund, misc. cash, retirement accounts, and other investments):
1/1/2018: $38,800
2/1/2018: $49,800 (used tax refund to pay off family car - now debt free)
3/1/2018: $55,707
4/1/2018 : $64,352 (sold second car)

We are hoping to get to $100k by the end of this year, but we are moving to a new state in a few weeks, so we may have a couple expensive months getting set up.  Our spreadsheet indicates that we don't have a lot of wiggle room if we want to achieve this goal by then (unless we get some help from the stock market).

Glad to be doing this with all of you!

This is really awesome! How are you adjusting to be a one-car family? It takes guts to downsize like that. Congrats!

[ASW]

Hey guys,
First post.  31 years old, married with 3 young kids, single income (military family).  Had ~$150k combined student debt out of college, which took a few years to pay down.  Found MMM and got serious about finances in January 2018. 

Net worth (includes emergency fund, misc. cash, retirement accounts, and other investments):
1/1/2018: $38,800
2/1/2018: $49,800 (used tax refund to pay off family car - now debt free)
3/1/2018: $55,707
4/1/2018 : $64,352 (sold second car)

We are hoping to get to $100k by the end of this year, but we are moving to a new state in a few weeks, so we may have a couple expensive months getting set up.  Our spreadsheet indicates that we don't have a lot of wiggle room if we want to achieve this goal by then (unless we get some help from the stock market).

Glad to be doing this with all of you!

This is really awesome! How are you adjusting to be a one-car family? It takes guts to downsize like that. Congrats!

We are lucky to live close to most everything we need, so one car hasn’t been a problem. We already had bikes and a bike trailer, so we have been able to scale back our driving to once a week or so (Costco, museum, sporting event, etc). My commute is under two miles, and it will be about the same after our move. 
Getting the tax refund and selling the second car have given us some quick gains, but our pace should slow down to ~$3k per month.

[FIRE-ing in the UK]

Congrats to everyone who graduated to next thread!

Quarterly update from this end (liquid / total net worth)
Jan: £41,916 / £348,747
April: £52,627 / £372,377

Would love to get to £100,000 in the next two years but more likely to take three. It just feels soooo far away.

[lampstache]

1/2017   - 34,633
2/2017   - 40,740
3/2017   - 41,346
5/2017   - 41,840
6/2017   - 45,227
7/2017   - 45,862
8/2017   - 47,377
9/2017   - 47,669
10/2017 - 50,397
11/2017 - 52,228
12/2017 - Missed this month. I blame our newborn!
1/2018   - 56,928
2/2018   - 56,241
3/2018   - 57,176
4/2018   - 60,386

[lexde]

Hi everyone! First post in this thread and I’m kind of amazed I’m even here. 100k seems so daunting. I have no idea what my goal timeline should look like to reach 100k NW. My NW seems to be climbing at about 2.5k per month on a 70k salary. At that rate, I’m looking at 40 months (3.34 years) but I feel like compounding should help significantly with that once I start to get some momentum going. So I’ll aim for 100k in 24 months as a stretch goal!



3/15/2018: $12,926.94

3/31/2018: $12,989.49

4/13/2018: $16,254.32. -- Big jump in net worth this month despite having some huge setbacks. The increased income this month was from cashing out Amex points to IRA + employer 401(k) match for last year hitting my account. I would have gotten them anyway, but am just grateful that my net worth still jumped despite the horrible start to this month finding out my SO of 4 years was cheating and having to move on zero notice and furnish an apartment from scratch.

[Tasse]

Oh lexde that's awful! I'm glad you had the financial stability to handle it in the best way for you - but still sorry to hear it.

[M5]

Just graduated from the previous thread! Like a few others on here our NW seems to climb around 2-2.5k per month, so it'll be nice to have others in a similar situation. We don't own our primary residence and are only using the equity from our rental property and our liquid investments for our NW calculations.

3/15/18: $12,315.65

4/2/18: $12,849.33     not great improvement this time. bought plane tickets, vehicle registration, etc and dipping markets.

4/13/18: $14,324.67

[Serendip]

Oh lexde that's awful! I'm glad you had the financial stability to handle it in the best way for you - but still sorry to hear it.

Agree with Tass..awful but thank goodness you are on top of things. Best of luck moving forward @lexde !

On the gauntlet side of things :
My net worth didn't really grow this month due to owing extra for taxes..thankfully I had the money to cover this and will see if I can make at least a small gain to report before the end of the month.

[zeli2033]

@lexde that blows. I'm sorry to hear you're dealing with that. Glad to see your net worth is still rocking upward.

Mid-month update:

10/31/17: $7,686
11/30/17: $18,654
12/31/17: $24,407
1/31/18: $35,314
2/28/18: $42,150
3/30/18: $45,528
4/15/18: $47,409

[UnexpectedExpenseExpector]

Hey all!  I'm in!

Background: I'm 33.  My bride and I have been married for 4 years and currently have 2 children with baby number 3 expected in July.  We've been pretty frugal since the beginning of marriage out of necessity due to starting married life with combined student loan debt of $130,442.94.  I was very into Dave Ramsey prior to meeting my wife, and she was on board with getting out of debt when we got married and combined our finances.  We've been attacking the debt like crazy whenever we are not expecting a new little human and hopefully we will be able to claim debt freedom in 2019! 

Since it is my first post here I thought I would share the full monthly tracking thus far on our journey and hopefully some others will find it motivational or helpful.  If not please ignore my ramblings.  So without further delay..

2014
Jan: (129,703.05)
Feb: (127,746.46)
Mar: (126,954.96)
Apr: (125,962.65) (Baby #1 discovered to be gestating!)
May: (125,133.32)
Jun: (124,129.06) (Noticing there would be an extra mouth at the table during meal times I decided to float the resume in June and discovered a company willing to pay me 46% more than I was previously making)*
Jul: (123,013.92)
Aug: (121,844.95)
Sep: (120,792.34)
Oct: (118,271.42)
Nov: (117,923.50)
Dec: (116,441.29)

2015
Jan: (115,355.51)  (Baby #1 arrived this month!!)
Feb: (109,852.25)  (Since birth was normal with no complications we were able to reclaim a pile of savings and blast the debt.  We paid off 2 and a half loans this month. Fun!)
Mar: (107,412.93)
Apr: (103,171.56)
May: (101,980.96)
Jun: (95,096.99)  (This little jump was due to switching to YNAB from spreadsheets and the checking account balance started getting tracked)
Jul: (93,896.20) 
Aug: (92,590.26)
Sep: (92,030.22)
Oct: (87,217.98)
Nov: (87,373.87) (One of my wife's good friends got married, we cash flowed the trip. First month of married life where we did not end wealthier than we'd ever been...)
Dec: (83,899.96) (Back on track!) (Due to some drama at my wife's job and knowing that 100% of her pay was going toward debt reduction, we decided to FIRE her.  This would not have been possible with our initial level's of debt.)

2016
Jan: (82,545.00)
Feb: (82,683.59) (Had discussed with wife that our car repair savings was getting hefty and maybe we should slow down saving there... Car 1 went in for oil change, also needed brakes... Car 2's alternator failed a few days later... bye bye car repair savings... but that's why it was there)
Mar: (80,800.29) (Also Baby #2 discovered to be gestating)
Apr: (79,571.19) (On road trip to another wedding with now again pregnant bride noticed back seat of 5 passenger vehicle would only physically support 2 car seats, began saving this month for most likely need for 3 car seat supporting vehicle)
May: (25,718.53)**
Jun: (21,410.86)
Jul: (18,479.20)
Aug: (11,902.38)
Sep: (8,858.50)
Oct: (8,479.81) (Welcome baby #2!)
Nov: 131,47 (Welcome positive net worth!!)
Dec: 3,597.46

2017
Jan: 2,693.77 (Hello baby #2 hospital bills)
Feb: 6,133.17 (Now that those are taken care of ^)
Mar: 8501.30
Apr: 11,006.11 (0 - 10k achieved!)***
May: 11,397.26
Jun: 16,216.09
Jul: 23,716.66
Aug: 26,095.72
Sep: 30,643.51
Oct: 34,061.55 (Baby #3 discovered!)
Nov: 38,850.30
Dec: 43,056.75 (Began watching market for new to us family vehicle)

2018
Jan: 48,429.84
Feb: 39,863.96 (Acquired new to us mini-van at low end of our price range and at low end of mileage for vehicles in our price range)
Mar: 44,139.97 (Onward!)

At this point for net worth I am tracking all our liquid assets.  We do not yet have a house so we're still renting.  Once baby #3 arrives will will continue aggressively paying down the remainder of the student loan debt and then further develop our stash for the eventual home purchase and FIRE date.  Sorry this is so long!  In future updates I will only post the months which are applicable to this race!

I'm looking forward to hearing more about other's successes and being able to cheer everyone on! 




*New company paid bi-weekly instead of semi-monthly resulting in glorious 3 paycheck months. Despite that we continued living on 2 paychecks per month allowing for fun pay down months where an entire paycheck could go toward debt.

**Unfortunately due to health issues my father is considered permanently disabled.  Silver lining the parent loans he took out in his name for my undergrad were forgiven (~21k windfall for our balance sheet). Also, started tracking IRA balances with NW (they were ~27k at the time).  Why had I not done this before?! Also also, this was the month I discovered MMM after a co-worker mentioned in conversation I should check him out because of the way I talked.  After a few hours of binge reading past blog posts, I decided that was a compliment, and that we had room for improvement with our finances.

***First 140k down....

[Trifle]

Hey all!  I'm in!
<snip>

Welcome aboard @UnexpectedExpenseExpector !  Love the tracking you've done.  You'll fit right in here; you have found your tribe, sir.   Congrats on your arrival this summer!

[Hirondelle]

Oct 2017 EUR 13400,-
Nov 2017 EUR 13900,- (+500)
Dec 2017 EUR 14300,- (+400)
Jan 2018 EUR 16000,- (+1700)
Feb 2018 EUR 17050,- (+1050)
Mar 2018 EUR 17300,- (+250)
Apr 2018 EUR 18600,- (+1300)

Stocks going up again jihaaaa!

[Steeze]

Count us in!

Haven't been tracking monthly - but will start now. Hit 0$ NW in Nov. 2017. Year end goal is 100k (with help from DW)! Good luck all!!
May 2018: $55,766

[repman]

Nov 2017     65.000€
Dez 2017     69.000€  a frugal month and a christmas paycheck !
Jan  2018     73100€
Feb  2018     74100€
Mar  2018     57300€  some expanses and bad investment decisions
Apr 2018      58800€
May 2018      62285€

Don't forget to enter data into the column on the right side of the speadsheet!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aBcGP8d7UD2oJif5IMSY9xmi8sIcRWKYRUswL1FE-ZM/edit?pref=2&pli=1#gid=0

[lexde]

Hi everyone! First post in this thread and I’m kind of amazed I’m even here. 100k seems so daunting. I have no idea what my goal timeline should look like to reach 100k NW. My NW seems to be climbing at about 2.5k per month on a 70k salary. At that rate, I’m looking at 40 months (3.34 years) but I feel like compounding should help significantly with that once I start to get some momentum going. So I’ll aim for 100k in 24 months as a stretch goal!



3/15/2018: $12,926.94

3/31/2018: $12,989.49

4/13/2018: $16,254.32

4/30/2018: $17,831.70 — rolling with the punches and still coming out ahead. I’m scared to tally up what the move cost me, but I’m glad I cashed out my Amex points to pad my IRA and net worth for this month.

I don’t think I’m going to get to kill my loans as quickly as I’d like to (goal was 12/31/18, with 18k left to go) but I’m not going to quit. May will also be a tight month until I pad my checking account again but it will be okay!

[LittleWanderer]

November 2017 - $10,267
December 2017 - $11,208
January 2018 - $10,713
February 2018 - $11,869
March 2018 - $14,175

April 2018 - $14,330

I currently have a chunk of money tied up in security deposits.  We're moving in May, and I had to put down the security deposit for the new place.  Meanwhile, I won't get my old security deposit back until sometime in June.  So just a small increase this month. 

[ingrownstudentloans]

6/1/2017   $44,119
7/1/2017   $46,553
8/1/2017   $48,477
9/1/2017   $51,618
10/1/2017 $55,740
11/1/2017  $60,079 (will slow down through EOY as 401K is now maxed)
12/1/2017 $62,686.85
1/1/2018 $67,210.81 (excited to start 401K contributions back up)
2/1/2018 $76,267.84
3/1/2018 $83,679.47 (stretch goal of June for graduation - fingers crossed)
4/1/2018 $84,367.47 (market hurt me this month - June is probably not going to happen now, oh well)

5/1/2018 $95,369.27 (profit-share 401k contribution finally hit - brought me back on target for june graduation)

[Tasse]

Jul 17	$6.2k
Aug 17	$6.8k
Sept 17	$8.2k
Oct 17	$9.0k
Nov 17	$9.9k
Dec 17	$11.1k
Jan 18	$12.1k
Feb 18	$13.6k
Mar 18	$15.1k

Apr 18: $16.6k including ~$400 unintentional autopayment currently in limbo between accounts

My investments hit $10k this month! That was exciting. Some of the jump this month was due to reimbursements from previous months coming through, which is artificially inflating my savings rate (53%!!).

[Serendip]

Dec 18/17    18,146
Jan 19/18     23,607
Feb 20/18     27,000
Mar 31/18     29,008
Apr 30/18     31,290   

 *I owed more than anticipated for taxes-so an extra $3400 went towards that, now the next month or two will be slow due to workplace renovations--but will  keep slowly adding as I am able to :)

[L2]

I am in! The goal is to get to 100k net worth by the end of 2018. Currently at ~21k. I have been pretty good at my goals so far. Starting out after college in Dec. 2013, I believe I had about a negative net worth of 65k. My first financial goal was to get a net worth of zero by the time I received my tax refund this year and I hit it at the end of January. My second goal was to have my private student loan (6.6%) paid off by the end of July. I made it at the end of June. Next I am hoping to have the car paid off by the end of the year. Currently have a 10k balance left on that loan.

My soft goal for the end of 2017 is 35k in net worth, only because I think I'll need it to be close to that to meet the 100k goal at the end of 2018. I have not done any hard calcs at this point, but in the mean time, I should be getting annual raises of approx. 5k beginning 11/1 for 2017 and 2018. I will also be maxing out my 401k in 2018 and hopefully the ROTH IRA as well.

So I am currently at ~30,900 net worth. I've been averaging about a 2k increase per month and I've got an extra paycheck coming in for December as there will be 3 pay periods. I should be between 37-38k net worth by the end of the year. I've got a raise coming effective 11/1, but I have not been communicated the amount yet.

I've cut almost 3k in annual expenses in the past few months. Moved to a nicer, more convenient, and cheaper apartment (farther away from city center, which I don't need anymore) that will save me $87 a month. In moving there and an acquisition by my firm, I will be driving approximately 10 miles round trip a day rather than 60. Rough estimates have that at about $100 a month in gas savings. My firm is also adding a HDHP plan, which I do not know the exact details yet, but I'm guessing this will be about 1/2 the cost of the low deductible plan (estimated savings of 50/month).

I have not ran the hard numbers yet as exact figures aren't determined, but my goal of 100k NW by the end of 2018 is going to come really close. I'd guess I'm looking at being more towards 10-15k short without any gains/raise coming next year/potential promotion. Here is a question for my fellow cohorts - I have about a 5k vested pension at my previous employer. I'm going to check to see if there is any way I can roll that over into a 401k/IRA this coming week. Either way, would you include that in your net worth calc? I'm younger so pensions are not a familiar topic for me. I've read being vested means that its guaranteed to me no matter what, but I've heard of plenty of people losing their pensions (albeit not knowing specific circumstances).

Now that year end is basically here I took some time to run my numbers.

Current NW: 46,289.93
2018:
Student loan payments decreasing principal: 1,933.56
ROTH IRA Contribution on 1/1 (with 7% return estimated: 5,885
401k Contributions (with estimated DCA of 3.5% return): 19,147.50
Deferred 2017 401k employer match: 458
401k employer match (with estimated DCA of 3.5% return): 2,000
2017 tax refund estimate (with 1% Ally interest): 2,020
Addition to savings (for house downpayment):18,379.42
Estimated previous employer retirement plan increase: 500
Estimated increase in paychecks due to lower w/h from tax reform: 1,500.
Estimated increase to 2017 YE 401k balance (assuming 7%): 1273.09
Estimated increase to 2017 YE Roth balance (assuming 7%): 424.41

12/31 2018 NW estimate: $99,780.91. So it's going to be VERY close. There will certainly be some unexpected costs that creep up such as smaller medical/dental costs, registrations, licenses, car maintenance/repairs, etc. Getting there is going to heavily count on the stock market getting at least average returns. I'm working hard towards a promotion that would go into effect 11/1/18, which would hopefully net me about another 1k before 2018 YE. I also have multiple ways to get bonuses at work, albeit normally in smaller increments. I believe I already have close to 1k gross coming my way. Let's get it!

One month into 2018 and the new NW is 51,349 (with some help from the market) with an end of year projection now of $101,092. Woo hoo! I would still like to come up with another few thousand to play it safe as there will certainly be expenses come up that I don't really budget for such as medical/dental, car maintenance, registration renewals, etc.

End of month NW: 56,190.70
End of year projection: 98,691.13

Had quite a few things going on this month...ended a relationship of 3 years, girlfriend moved out. Rent went up $350 a month as a result.
Bought some furniture off of ex that she owned.
Had to purchase some necessities for the apartment to make up for what ex took.
Stock market...bleh.
Bogus Uber charge of $234 that I'm still fighting.

I'm still feeling good about meeting my goal as I should have at least ~4k of extra income coming my way from various sources. Also going to concentrate on being more frugal than normal this month to help catch up. Shouldn't be too hard as I'm going to be spending  a lot of time at work anyways (tax season).

End of March NW: 60,017.55
End of 2018 projection: 98,683.37

The good - decided to take some of my house down payment savings and use it for some bank account churning (+650). Got project sale bonuses approved (+ approx 1500). Kept discretionary everyday spending down by about $300 from average.
The bad - realized I didn't remove my tax refund from my projection last month, so it was overstated by approx. 2,400. Then of course the stock market didn't really cooperate this month either. I believe I basically contributed 1,400 to 401k this month and the end of month balance is basically only 700 higher than the beg. of month balance.

End of April NW: 65,600
End of 2018 projection: 99,880 (ugh..so close!)

I spent more then normal this month, but a lot of it was worth it in my mind. Planning vacation, reconnecting with old friends, dating, etc. Made good progress with extra income this month - $1,900 side income and $1,600 work bonus. Also saved $17/month on internet and more than doubled my speed at the same time. Gotta keep hustling..and it would be nice if the stock market would help some.

[dutty]

Back to reality for me this month. Although I noticed my stock investments have grown by £500, I am unsure if I want to start including this in the monthly update because it means I would have to get in the habit of checking every month but I would rather check once a year.

05/17   £1020
06/17   £470      (-£550 ~ -50%)
07/17   £1,590   (+£1,120 ~ +340%)
08/17   £2,080   (+£490   ~ +30%)
09/17   £7,250   (+£5,170 ~ +350%)
10/17   £12,000  (+£4,750 ~ +65%)
11/17   £12,360  (+£360 ~ +3%)
12/17   £10,800  (-£1,560 ~ -17%)
01/18   £21,300  (+£10,500 ~ +97%)
02/18   £25,500  (+£4,200 ~ +20%)
03/18   £48,800  (+£23,300 ~ +91%)

04/18  £50,616 (+£1,816 ~ +4% )

[ASW]

1/1/2018: $38,800
2/1/2018: $49,800
3/1/2018: $55,707
4/1/2018: $64,352
5/1/2018: $68,097

Weird month, but could have been worse.  We are in the process of moving, which was great because we sold a bunch of useless stuff (~$1k), but we've been treating ourselves a little more as we say goodbye to all the cool restaurants in this town.  Also, our kitchen is packed up, so between now and this weekend, our cooking options are really limited.  I think the move itself is going to cost another ~$350 in gas, food, tolls, and hotels until we reach our new house.  Then there will be some restocking cost (perishable condiments, shower curtain liners, etc.), but that will be spread out over a couple of months. 

Also completed rolling all our investments to Vanguard from USAA.  Now it's organized like this:

His Roth IRA: VTSAX
Her Roth IRA: VTSAX
Her 401k: VTWSX
Emergency fund tier 1: Cash
Emergency fund tier 2: VWINX

We still have two 529s with USAA because they would have been difficult to move.  The expense ratio is comically high, so we aren't going to contribute to them anymore.

We are tentatively still on track to graduate by the end of the year, but it will be close.

Congrats to everyone who made progress, especially you Lexde!

[peppermint]

01/2018: $40796.81
02/2018: $41337.51
03/2018: $42682.42
04/2018: $46138.41
05/2018: $48761.77