Stocktober

[Seppia]

I had a great Stocktober. I hit two royal flushes playing video poker and won $1,650.

...

[velocistar237]

We matched our lowest spending over the last 12 months, despite making an extra grocery trip and a 6-month car insurance payment. On to Nospendber.

[Jack]

I shoveled $5599 into my 401k in October, and still managed to have positive cash-flow for the month! (I'm contributing 100% of my salary and living on my wife's income, but I was expecting to spend down our emergency fund at least a little bit.)

[Bracken_Joy]

I had a great Stocktober. I hit two royal flushes playing video poker and won $1,650. It was also my first full debt-free month.

Mustachians don't even like stock-picking because the math doesn't work out. Gambling is just insane then. Definitely not exercising your badassity. Gambling is literally how we studied hedonic adaptation initially. Just something to think about.

[choppingwood]

I had a great Stocktober. I hit two royal flushes playing video poker and won $1,650. It was also my first full debt-free month.

I'm looking forward to November. I'll be publishing my Udemy course and possibly an ebook as well.

You sound like you are making lots of progress. How did you do on your goal of increasing your emergency fund from 1K to 5K? The month-end report should track your original goal.

The gambling wins are fun, but not a display of mastering your destiny....

[Faraday]

I had a great Stocktober. I hit two royal flushes playing video poker and won $1,650. It was also my first full debt-free month.

I'm looking forward to November. I'll be publishing my Udemy course and possibly an ebook as well.

You sound like you are making lots of progress. How did you do on your goal of increasing your emergency fund from 1K to 5K? The month-end report should track your original goal.

The gambling wins are fun, but not a display of mastering your destiny....

I saw that post and considered a cautionary comment, but hey, "Money earned is money earned."

TheBuddha, I hope your winnings catapult you to greater and greater degrees of Badassity!

[TheBuddha]

You sound like you are making lots of progress. How did you do on your goal of increasing your emergency fund from 1K to 5K? The month-end report should track your original goal.

Good point. My e-fund is only at $3500 now, but I took a 10-day vacation in the middle of the month that I wasn't originally planning on (not a paid vacation). So I did pretty well considering 10 days of no work and spending most of the gambling winnings producing my Udemy course (I'm almost but not quite done). 

I saw that post and considered a cautionary comment, but hey, "Money earned is money earned."

TheBuddha, I hope your winnings catapult you to greater and greater degrees of Badassity!

Thanks, yeah I set aside the gambling winnings for costs associated with my Udemy course and ebook production. So those two projects of mine have been paid for by the Universe :)

I'm actually not a big gambler and I'd never gotten a royal flush before October. I'm just awestruck that I hit two of them. Not so much for the money even, but the rarity of it. It's like seeing two unicorns within 30 days of each other.

[choppingwood]

You sound like you are making lots of progress. How did you do on your goal of increasing your emergency fund from 1K to 5K? The month-end report should track your original goal.

Good point. My e-fund is only at $3500 now, but I took a 10-day vacation in the middle of the month that I wasn't originally planning on (not a paid vacation). So I did pretty well considering 10 days of no work and spending most of the gambling winnings producing my Udemy course (I'm almost but not quite done). 

Great progress, though. That will help staying debt-free as life happens.

[zephyr911]

Well, between market gains and new investments, TSP is up $8300 since September 30th, or $332/mo in FIRE income @ 4% SWR. Thanks for the challenge! :D

[FrugalFan]

Well, between market gains and new investments, TSP is up $8300 since September 30th, or $332/mo in FIRE income @ 4% SWR. Thanks for the challenge! :D

Wouldn't that be per year?

[Faraday]

Well, between market gains and new investments, TSP is up $8300 since September 30th, or $332/mo in FIRE income @ 4% SWR. Thanks for the challenge! :D

Wouldn't that be per year?

You beat me to it TB. I thought...whoa...that's one yell of a yield for $8300.

[Seppia]

If that's the amount he's putting in per month, then the $300 and change are the additional fire income he's creating per month.

[Faraday]

If that's the amount he's putting in per month, then the $300 and change are the additional fire income he's creating per month.

So maybe he's just really shitty with sentence structure?

[zephyr911]

Well, between market gains and new investments, TSP is up $8300 since September 30th, or $332/mo in FIRE income @ 4% SWR. Thanks for the challenge! :D

Wouldn't that be per year?

OOPS.
I'm retarded.

[zephyr911]

If that's the amount he's putting in per month, then the $300 and change are the additional fire income he's creating per month.

So maybe he's just really shitty with sentence structure?

I'd rather work till I'm 70 than be accused of shitty sentence structure. I had a momentary brain fart. ;)

[Faraday]

If that's the amount he's putting in per month, then the $300 and change are the additional fire income he's creating per month.

So maybe he's just really shitty with sentence structure?

I'd rather work till I'm 70 than be accused of shitty sentence structure. I had a momentary brain fart. ;)

You go Zeph! Kicking it real time man!

[Zaga]

Another great month.

$200.01   Utilities
$291.01   Groceries
$145.69   Eating Out
$154.57   Misc (includes roof repair but also rebates from cashing in credit card rewards for the year)
401.00   Insurance (prorated) and property tax (prorated)
311.00   Interest expense
1,503.28   Total Expenses

There's property tax and interest expense but no mortgage?  Or is your house paid off and the interest is for something else?

The principle paydown is included in "savings" not "expenses" by many, myself included.  Because that money isn't going away, it's reducing the debt on the house.

[Faraday]

Another great month.

$200.01   Utilities
$291.01   Groceries
$145.69   Eating Out
$154.57   Misc (includes roof repair but also rebates from cashing in credit card rewards for the year)
401.00   Insurance (prorated) and property tax (prorated)
311.00   Interest expense
1,503.28   Total Expenses

There's property tax and interest expense but no mortgage?  Or is your house paid off and the interest is for something else?

The principle paydown is included in "savings" not "expenses" by many, myself included.  Because that money isn't going away, it's reducing the debt on the house.

Mr TM, this is true. Principal paydown is not considered an expense, but a form of investment. I enjoy prepaying my mortgage principal (abatement, not early payments) because it has awesome effect on my net worth in Personal Capital.  (Although Personal Capital DOES treat it like a "spend" and not like an investment....)

[zephyr911]

WELCOME BACK TO STOCKTOBER, BEEYAATCHEZ!

My goal is to invest $10K this month, though my realistic range is more like $5-6K.

Automatic contributions:
TSP $2600 (total of new contributions, government match, and loan repayments)

Other contributions to date: $1K toward 2016 Roth IRA yesterday.

Expected October cash flow:
ANG training ~$2k
Civ paychecks ~$3k
Rent check $1200

Costs about $3k

Wildcards:
closing a real estate deal by 10/31/16 - $2-4k commission
DW's contributions (she's been building up a surplus and my nagging has her close to making an IRA buy)

[Jack]

I'm in! My goal is to do all my normal investing plus open a solo 401k for my wife and invest 100% of her 1099 income.

[zephyr911]

Well here's a nice surprise: apparently I was totally not tracking an impending STEP raise. I'm already adding max to TSP, but this will increase my government match by a few bucks.