Feeling Thankful
Before getting to the contents of this post, I’m taking a moment going back to my previous post on Scarcity Mentality. I was flooded with heartfelt tears reading all your comments and personal stories you shared with me through emails, social media and on the blog. I was touched by your kind (and encouraging) words and support. Your voices reminded me that we’re here to lift each other up. Your sharing reminded me of the many reasons I keep going with this blog.
Even though both my husband and I have retired from our W2 employment, every day we have so many activities going on. Some of these involve volunteering (mostly providing guidance on effective money management for disadvantaged families), promoting financial literacy in schools, getting involved in our communities, raising a toddler and doing self learning. When being asked about how my retirement has been, my typical response is, “busier than ever.”
In general, producing contents for this blog hasn’t been on the priority list. I have many topics I’d like to share on the blog, but finding the time to do research, write and edit has been challenging. Your comments, feedback and stories have been the most rewarding part of blogging. So, I want to thank you for taking your time to share with me and other readers of this blog. Your words inspire me. Your stories and courage are worth sharing. Thank you for being on this journey with me.
Life with the Seibolds
Next, I want to give you a snapshot of what has been going on in my family since my husband retired back in September. In the month of October, we took a one-month long trip to the Northwest, including visiting Washington and Canada. The fall colors and food were amazing in all the places we visited. This was the longest trip we’ve taken. We certainly enjoyed the luxury of slow travel. Our most memorable times were a day trip out to Mount Baker and visiting an apple orchard. Once we arrived home, we took one full week to recover from the trip and to take care of unattended errands.
As I’m writing this, our family routine is finally back to normal. This past week we have been busy doing research and going to home centers. My husband and I are taking on a huge project remodeling our home, and we plan to do most of the work ourselves. This will be a very interesting and challenging experience for both of us. Prior to this work, neither one of us have really picked up any tool other than those that came in a cheap tool box set. We’ll be setting up a wood shop in our garage and shed. The next project on our agenda is to build a farmhouse dining table and a bench. If that goes well, we’d move on to build a breakfast nook. The first DIY project we worked on was replacing the flooring in the laundry room.
Yesterday, we visited Home Depot looking at table saws, jig saws, miter saws, orbital sanders, drills and safety tools. I feel proud as I’m writing out those words. Even just a year ago, I would’ve never thought myself becoming a handy/wood-making person. But never say never, right?
My family and I also recently celebrated Ruby’s 3rd birthday.
Personal Finance in the Seibold Family
In the world of personal finance, we have several pending items on the to-do list prior to the end of the year. These including finish funding our HSA and opening a solo 401(k).
Some of you have asked about our health insurance situation. My husband’s COBRA ended in October and we’re currently on a health care plan through Healthcare.gov. We aren’t receiving any subsidies for the month of November or December. Our annual income for 2017 surpassed the set income criteria. Now through December 15th, it’s open enrollment period for year 2018 on Healthcare.gov. We are planning to finish the application by the end of this month. By then, I’ll have a lot more to share on the blog.
Non-W2 Income Reports
Now, let’s move on to our non-W2 income reports for August, September and October. We started tracking these incomes back in December 2016. You can read more about why we decided to track and share these numbers in this post I wrote here. To view our past months reports, click here.
We use Personal Capital, a free financial tool, to track our net worth, view our investment performance, analyze our asset allocations and project and reevaluate our retirement goals. I wrote a comprehensive review of Personal Capital on another post. I encourage you to check it out. According to Google Analytics, that post is a readers favorites.
I plan to do an update on this financial tool and share more recent images on the blog sometime soon. Many new features have been added since my last review. Look out for that.
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Thank you for reading.