On Monday I found out that I had incredibly high blood pressure. 140/92 then she took it again, 140/96, when I got home it was 145/104. The day before I had some drinks, a redbull, and some salty food at a local restaurant. Also more stressed than normal with work, my personal life has been going fine. I do need to make better choices when I’m out with my friends. Just because their bodies are fine with certain activities, doesn’t mean I won’t quickly start to feel the pain.

The doctor put me on a diuretic which I started taking for the first time today. Miraculously my numbers dropped to 128/78 which never would happen otherwise. Still looking look at diet and lifestyle choices more. Sodium is in everything I eat out but I can make a specific choice not to overdo it. I’m adjusting to not just eating what I have a craving for all the time, it’s rough. 😛

I’ve been trying to not look at the market as often as I used to but it’s hard. I made some recent changes due to my upcoming car purchase. Basically for my M1 account I stopped adding $400/mo and my 401k contributions have dropped to the maximum amount for the match. YTD between my 401k contributions and employer match I’m at $17,677 and $4,500 in the Roth. I almost cashed out my M1 account but literally hit the stop botton 15 minutes before the sell order would’ve kicked in.

	10/5/2022	9/3/2022	Difference	% Change
401k	147,597	150,337	(2,470)	-1.8%
Roth IRA	21,115	21,516	(401)	-1.9%
M1 Account	6,120	6,388	(268)	-4.2%
EF+House	1,952	2,728	(776)	-28.4
HSA	3,019	2,982	(+37	+1.2%
Total	179,803	183,951	(4,147)	-2.3%
Credit Cards	(2,229)	2,312	(83)	-3.6%
Net Total	177,574	181,639	(4.064)	-2.2%

So my current plan is to stack up cash and use it for the down payment on my replacement car, a 2023 Acura Integra w/Tech Package. I wanted something a bit more youthful than my mostly trusty 2016 Maxima and the BMW i4 would be almost $20k more with tax credits no longer applicable. There is a $1k refundable deposit that will go on my card presumably once the vehicle is in transit via rail. That hasn’t yet hit. The total OTD cost should be about $41,210.37 for 60 months at presumably $757.09 per month assuming the 3.9% interest rate holds. However I hate paying interest to anyone so I can accelerate this and probably pay the car off in 18 months. So hypothetically applying the $18,400 Carvana is offering me would drop the principal balance from $41,210.37 to $22,810. Divided by 18 that’s 1267/mo. or $600 everytime I get paid which is not too crazy. Just need to stop ordering DoorDash so much… 🙈 If I cash out my brokerage account I’d only have a principal balance of $16,810 to pay. Considering my salary those numbers really don’t look that bad.

Tentatively it looks like I’ll have until the end of October to decide how much I want to put down. That’s assuming the get their allocation as planned. Hopefully my Nissan’s value stays up long enough, the used market is quickly starting to drop.

My net worth is still down to a year ago where I was around $185k. Still doesn’t look like I’m breaking $200k anytime soon. I can dollar cost average but not sweating splurging for a bit on things outside of investments while the market has been in a freefall. As much as I want to retire early, I also want to start enjoying life now more. I feel guilty spending money sometimes after years and years of being in debt, but it’s about balance. Also if I’m not healthy the money means zilch.

Today I paid my rent a month early for peace of mind. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do that, lots of people have high rents or just simply don’t have that luxury. I find out next week if I’m getting a raise or a bonus. Crossing my fingers for both. It’s been an intense year.