It’s hard to believe September 2020 is almost here. It reached a high of 106 here in Dallas, 113 with the heat index. I’ve still only gone out to restaurants / to see friends a halful of times since March. Gradually working up my comfort level, but still an adjustment, and I am still a bit concened about putting my health at unnecessary levels of risk..

August has been a really challenging month. The worst is behind me though, and my immediate friends and family are all safe. That’s all I really have the bandwidth to focus on. Everything I’ll take it for what it’s worth.

401k: $90,043.43
Roth IRA: $5,572.82
HSA: $552.55
M1: $677.43
August 2020 Total Investments: $96,846.23
July 2020 Total Investments: $87,553.45
(up $9,292.78 or 10.6% from last month, up $36,968 or 61% from August last year)

The level at which this market is going up is kind of crazy. I’ve been investing as much as I possibly can at my income each month. I also have been putting aside $500/mo toward an emergency fund. Will I break $100k next month? Hopefully but who knows based on how this market has been performing.

The brakes on my Nissan have had a pulsating feeling for months and months. I expected to have a $1k bill for 4 new rotors and pads. The reality of the situation is that the rotors I got from a local brake shop in 2018 were still in decent overall shape. Usually the fronts are the ones that get warped and the rears stay in good They were warped however, so the dealership cut them, installed a new set of OEM Nissan brake pads (DA06M-JE00PNW). The Vredestein Quatrac 5 tires I bought from Tirerack.com in April 2018 apparently were from 2017 and started to get very noisy, even with regular tire rotation and tire PSI within normal levels. My receipt says I paid $627.40 for them not including an extra $80 at this sketchy place to mount them . The new Goodyear Eagle RS-A tires pictured below were $708 including buy 3 get 1 for a $1 promo, tire disposal fees, wheel weights, mounting and balancing. Altogether I paid $866.09 and I had no shame in bringing a coupon in with my trip.

Fundamentally I don’t view myself as a broken person, but I do remind my self of the importance of doing things that are more healing in nature. Whether it’s picking healthier foods, experiencing the outdoors, talking to quality people, listening to good music. It’s easy to let the news, social media, politics, whatever take over our emotions, to the point we can’t find joy in anything or have strong dislike for people with different positions. There’s nothing wrong with drawing a line in the sand and saying “Heck no, I’m not going to waste another hour, or minute of my time getting riled up talking politics on this platform. My life, my family, my joy, my IQ, and desire to grow as a human being are more important than helping drive ad revenue and engagement for a mega corporation“.

I am already at the 50% mark to get the 60,000 bonus points or $600 cashback incentive for my Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Have to spend $4k in total in 3 months. Here is a referral link if you’re curious. I wouldn’t sign up if you can’t pay it off in full before the balance is due. I don’t like debt but free money is enticing especially if you would’ve spent the money on these items anyway.

Back to my last post, I still feel like a weird person. Living below my means with no debt. I did splurge the other day on $41 worth of PF Changs delivered to my apartment. Went to a fancy restaurant last week for some drinks / appetizers and a friend foot the bill. I tried to Venmo him but he refused. I just thought they had a nice patio, didn’t think a $120 bottle of champange was necessary but I’ll take it. Next time we will have to actually find a place that does Happy Hour and is open.

For those of you struggling or trying to get to the next level I think it’s important to remember the concept that the results of the things you are working on right now may in fact take months or years to actually pan out. Even in my late 30s I’m still impatient and expect things to happen immediately. Thanks for reading my latest post, hope you day is off to a great start.