Debt Free Alpha

February has breeze by I’m going to just go through a list of what’s happened.

1. 2 people I’ve known passed away in February. One was from school, his name was Lashaun. He was really nice to everyone and played on the football team, was only 41. I don’t know all the details but he’s the second classmate in under 6 months. Really makes you think about how delicate life is. The other one is one of my exes (from 2008) parents. She was very welcoming of me into her home and was 76.
2. Got my new passport in record time. The new one has so many more protections against counterfeiting and integrates a lot more tech. Going to use it on an upcoming trip to Quebec City later this month.
3. I made corned beef hash myself in a dutch oven and not a crockpot. Big mistake. Never again.
4. Saw the Lisa Frankenstein movie with friends. It was cute and romantic in a dark and twisted way.
5. Went to 2 escape rooms with friends. The second was on a whim but I needed to see some friends after going close to a week and half without since the superbowl.
6. Superbowl party, used my CBS phone app to stream it which came in handy since I didn’t manage my time well and didn’t want to be around my friends all sweaty. The party itself was at a friend’s house and I just brought ice and napkins so pretty low cost.
7. Considering downgrading my tech. The 12.9″ iPad Pro is great for video and using as a secondary monitor (the original reason why I bought it) but for reading it’s still kind of bulky compared to my old school Kindle. I’ve owned it since October 2020. The 11″ model might be the sweet spot. The thing is Apple is going to release new models late March so kind of too early to upgrade unless it’s a killer deal. Next is my dSLR camera. It takes great pictures but it’s bulky to put into a suitcase.
8. In January I forgot to mention I bought a Canon – PIXMA TS6420a Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer – Black from Best Buy for $59.99 to replace my $20 craigstlist Canon printer from a few years ago.
9. I switched from Spectrum internet over to Frontier FIOS. It took a total of 3 visits, the first the tech confirmed that the drop or line from their system to my apartment was no longer good. The second was to have a tech install the new line. Third was for the tech to install the new ONT box, remove the old one and install my router. I have 1Gig Down/Up for 59.99
10. Contributed $738 to my Roth IRA this month. Playing catchup, I have $5,389 contributed, $1,111 max left in contributions to make before I hit the deadline for 2023. For 401k I contributed $1784 with pre-tax dollars plus my employer match.
11. Enjoyed a simple but romantic pre-valentine’s day dinner with my bf at a nearby Italian restaurant. They had a buy one get one 50% off entree package I discovered accidentally. Got a small vase of flowers from the supermarket and some chocolate / snacks. Didn’t get a card which he was okay with since he thought they were super corny anyway. I found the last container of chocolates with a rainbow flag on it.
12. We decided to try a new restaurant together called Pacific Table in Las Colinas without a reservation. Next door was a cool spot called Club Monaco with lovely decor and drinks. No complaints at all, everything was so nice.
13. Last Sunday we went to the North Texas Auto Show completely on a whim at Kay Bailey Hutchinson center. It was the last day and we got in right before they closed the parking garage. A quick google search yielded $3 off per ticket and $20 to park. I’ve been going to car shows since 1990 and tech has come such a long way.
14. I got on the bike again on one of the 90º days here, wore my new bike shorts that are all lycra with some foam padding. Was a little worried about material ripping but it was all smooth sailing and I felt soo much more free than with my bike shorts plus the lining. I think the lack of additional friction material also made me move a little bit faster too.
15. I finally bought a new standard sized non-biking water bottle from Amazon. The price dropped by 25% the day I got it, I wrote the seller asking for a price match but honestly don’t think they give a crap. It was $37. The last bottle I bought was in 2019 and got a free one so maybe it’s not that bad after all.
16. Finished another season of cornhole. Our team had a really good playoff day, almost won the first game with my teammate but lost by about 2 points. The people we were playing shouldn’t be playing at our level, they were far too good.
17. Got my Ray Ban sunglasses fixed. The day I was getting my car scratch repaired I dropped them between my seats. In haste I broke one of the temples, drove to a local eyeglass repair place and they basically said nothing they could do so I looked at online options and worldoptic to the rescue. It took a bit longer than I expected between my spam filter and the replacement parts coming from Italy.
18. Finished up with taxes. Owed a whopping $3, the fee to TurboTax was about $94.87 after taxes. Debating whether to keep using TT in future years at least while my tax situation is not overly complicated.

I keep hearing bearish news reports about how the stock market is due for a big correction, this is 1999/2000 again, the US is due for a major recession, AI is going to take away all of our jobs, China is going to surpass the US as the #1 world superpower, we’re going to war, parts of the US are becoming more dangerous than third world countries. Maybe there is some truth to it. The best you can do is try to stay sharp, work on skills, and control your spending.

But yeah not a ton of strategy changes between last month and this month. For my net worth to be up $17,439 (more than I owe on my car) in one month is crazy. Just a year ago I was at $185,923 net worth so up $91,762 since.

Hope anyone reading this is in a good spot, I know some people have it rough out there. Peace.

This Sunday I got the pleasure of seeing TINA – The Tina Turner Musical. It was a fun show at Fair Park in Dallas. Some of the audio was difficult to hear but I still had a blast. Her life story is a reminder that just because you have setbacks early on doesn’t mean you can’t overcome them to lead a rich fulfilling life. I went with my bf, the tickets were quite reasonable around $105 per person after ticketmaster’s outrageous fees and taxes.

Earlier in the month we saw the musical Jagged Little Pill through free tickets a friend gave to me. The singing of Alanis Morissettes’s classics were nicely done, but the undertones of r*pe, and drug addiction were sort of heavy topics. Also saw a movie called Origin to a mostly empty theater that tackles the topics of racism and the caste system. The story was great as was the casting but in my opinion most don’t want to be reminded of all of modern society’s injustices.

The Macintosh computer has has a profound impact on my life. Last week it turned 40 years old, the same age of me. It’s fascinating to me how much the platform has advanced over the decades, even in the last 10 years. Completely new CPU and GPU architecture, new designs, mini-LED technology, touch ID, AI, spatial audio, etc. I think my life would’ve taken a much different path without the platform, from the decision to go to grad school to choosing a career in marketing. Not to mention some of my hobbies.

My 15 year old 2009 M-Audio Studio AV-40 speakers finally kicked the can, emitting a loud buzzing noise. I bought a pair to replace them and those had a hissing noise even with the audio low and speakers not even plugged into a sound source. I returned them in less than 24 hours, highly disappointed. Instead I bought the Edifier R1280Ts pictured in the gallery for about $108.

I know it’s not a BMW M5, but… with every new car purchase comes the need to keep that car looking as pristine as possible. Unfortunately for me there was a roughly 9″ long curved scratch on the bottom of the front door. No idea how it got there. Did try to buff it out on my own to mostly no success. You can see about 1/3 of it in this picture. I took it to a local body shop and they fixed it for $100 in the top picture, can’t tell it was every scratched to begin with.

My passport is up for expiration in May so I decided to renew it. $130… It only had one stamp in it during my 2017 Puerto Vallarta trip. I hate the picture I took at CVS but it was acceptable. It’s currently being processed but once it is I hope to book my first travel destination of the year in the not too distant future.

On YouTube I was watching videos about how high the cost of living has become lately. Came to a realization that I’ve been in this same 1br/1ba apartment since December 2014 and working home since March 2020. I need a change of pace. A few days later the house a stone’s throw from my childhood home was listed for literally over $700k. Still boggles my mind how people with modest incomes can afford these.

I’m still concerned about layoffs, there have been a slew of them in my industry and at companies either we work with or friends work with. Try to make myself as useful as possible, work on skills when I have time. Beyond that there isn’t a ton that I can do. Just thankful for what I have and it’s been a journey through hell and back at times. A whole 5 years after getting my MBA before I started earning a decent salary. Some are lucky to get six figures out of college, that took me well over a decade.

	1/31/2024	12/31/2023	Difference	%Change
401K	$232,746	$227,680	$4,796	+2.1%
Roth IRA	$34,506	$33,551	$955	+2.8%
M1 Acct	$2,031	$1,863	$168	+9%
Cash	$4,448	$2,739	$1,709	+62.4%
HSA	$2,725	$2,637	$88	+3.3%
Total	$276,186	$268,470	$7,716	+2.9%
Credit Cards	$87	$336	($249)	-74%
Auto Loan	$16,536	$17,746	($1,210)	-6.8%
Net Total	$259,563	$250,389	9,174	+3.7%

Up to $260k, that’s good progress in a month. Keep chipping away and invest whenever I have something extra leftover. The market has been up the past few weeks aside from yesterday so that helps.

Update while typing this up. My Passport Application Status is now approved. Time to head to bed for my dental cleaning in the morning. Hoping no cavities and I’m not a zombie. Filing my taxes in the next 2 weeks. Lost weight then gained it back when I got used to eating carbs again. Weather has been great so I can get more outdoor time. Trying to overcome time going by way quicker than I’d like to but not sure what the solution is. Keep investing and best of luck to you out there. Ok I’m out… 😀

A lot has happened in the last month.

1. Got back my dog’s ashes who lived with me from early 2013-October 2023. I cried a lot but I do have some closure. I gave her food to friends, along with some supplies I had. Expensive medications I ended up throwing out. I put the crate out by the trash container.
2. My carpet cleaner kicked the bucket. 10 years worth of regular usage. It started having a burning smell. Probably a belt that needs to be replaced or a motor that needed repair. At that age though I don’t think it was worth fixing and a new one starts around $70. I put it on the curb around noon and it was gone by the time I came back a few hours later.
3. I bought a new dining room set from Nebraska Furniture Mart. The one I am currently using has one of the four legs broken, and was originally built around 2005. It also used to belong to my ex. And I think it’s time for a change. With tax included the total netted out to be $649.49. The delivery date will be next month well still on the cheap side it’s more than I originally planned on spending for the month.
   
4. I received the expected trade-in value on my M2 max MacBook Pro, 16 inch which was approximately $2227. 100% of that went toward my new system the M3 Max MacBook Pro that had an additional 16 GB of ram, 4 CPU cores, and much improved graphics. $4004.17 for the computer less the $2250 put me out of pocket for ~$1800. I had the option of paying 308.25 per month for 12 months at a 0% APR but instead decided to pay it off as quickly as possible. So happy to say less than a 1 month later that computer has been paid in full.
5. After a bit of back-and-forth with the dealership that sold me my prior vehicle and the company that I bought the warranty through, I received my check for $947.39 which went directly toward a principal car payment. I was tempted to do lots of other things with the money, but thought it would be most responsible for it to get my balance down since I’m paying 5.99% interest (~$107/mo to start, but now $93/mo). I should be earning that much interest not paying it out 😛
6. In addition to the above mentioned car payment, I paid a total of $2001 in payments during November which I like to think is impressive considering the first of 72 payments was not due until December 5, 2023. New car has been pretty smooth sailing aside from the initial hiccups. I added wireless CarPlay to it since I got spoiled with it. It works 90% of the time, the other 10 it’ll stream music but CP won’t initialize. I put new wiper blade inserts in for about $20 shipped which is way cheaper than a whole new set of wipers. My back doesn’t hurt anymore. It handles like a dream. My old car still hasn’t sold and they’ve had to drop the price a few times down to $32,999 right now. I suspect they’ll have to go even lower or fix the steering rack problem before someone will want to buy it.
7. A few friends and I went out to celebrate one of their birthdays at a bar and pool establishing. They were drinking shots, basically had a few too many. I decided to be the designated driver since I only had one alcoholic seltzer and they all Ubered there. However, one ended up puking on her shirt, the other other had to stop twice to open up the door so she wouldn’t puke in my car, interior or on me directly. Luckily only very tiny amount got in the car and the shirt saved my car from the wrath of the other one. The next day both felt extremely guilty and sent me $150 each / $300 combined through Zelle. Not what I was expecting and I saw both of them the following day, but was appreciative nonetheless.
8. I found out that I was not getting a raise this year since I was just promoted which is fine. I also received some high-level information information about the bonus plan/targets for our new fiscal. I’m honestly not sure if I’m going to be eligible for it, but if that does happen the max payout I’d eligible for is 15% of my salary which is a lot. We’ll see.
9. Spent around $112 for Thanksgiving for just myself. It included two meals from Central market along with a four seasons, pie, and an assortment of side items. I consider this money well spent, and it kept me in the spirit of the holidays, even though I did not meet with friends or see any family in person.
10. One of my friends from Long Island passed away last month at the age of 60. I believe it was cancer related. He smoked fairly often, I would try to encourage him to quit, but I don’t think he was able to shake the habit. He was a genuinely good person and looked out for people regularly. Not to mention being funny as hell. Another person gone way too young.
11. I recently signed up for a promotional streaming bundle between Disney+ and Hulu for roughly $3.27 per month. Under the old plan I had which also included ESPN it was just over $20 per month. I will be subjected to advertising but still think it’s worth it in the long run. Sharing it with my parents so they get to enjoy it too.
12. Clothes – I bought lots of them, a few hundred dollars worth from various stores online. JCrew Factory, Perfectjean.nyc, Amazon.com, Equinox Shop, Bloomingdales, Bonobos. In some ways it’s not the most financially wise but in others I think fuck it you are wearing old clothes and need to get rid of the old clothes from 2-6 years ago. Some of those either don’t fit or are tied to memories I don’t want to be reminded of everytime I go out. Maybe $500 in total vs $500 for one item.
13. I helped a friend setup his Christmas tree earlier. My fake one is upright and well in the corner of my living room. Bought some extra garland and still need a tree skirt for it since the dog peed on the last one I had…
    
14. I’m not required to go into the office, I got snazzy, went in for the first time this year and was really impressed at the entire layout and views. A lot of thought went into making it an uplifting / aesthetically pleasing place to work which is very much on-brand.
    
15. FaceTimed with my parents on Thanksgiving, they were happy to see me. We chatted for a little over an hour. I can see them getting older and I think it’ll be time to start making more frequent visits soon.
16. Lots of great dates with my bf. Really thankful he is part of my world. He makes me laugh and generally feel a lot more upbeat about things. I try to keep things fun when we do see each other. He’s also 10 years younger than me so I’m trying to get the best version of my 40 year old self to keep up lol.

	12/2/2023	11/4/2023	Difference	% Change
401K	$215,535	$200,424	$15,111	+7.5%
Roth IRA	$31,319	$29,157	$2,161	+7.4%
M1 Account	$1,712	$1,564	$148	+9.5%
Cash	$2,522	$4,330	-$1,808	-41.7%
HSA	$2,494	$2,414	$80	+3.3%
Total	$253,582	$237,889	$15,693	+6.6%
Credit Cards	$1,407	$151	$1,256	+830.1%
Auto Loan	$18,697	$20,803	-$2,106	-10.1%
Net Total	$233,478	$216,934	$16,544	+7.6%

Quarter million in assets at 40 not including items I own. Considering where I started from I’m pretty content with that. Could I be doing more? Sure but you should enjoy some of the money now for the future is not guaranteed. Life is funny sometimes. I really don’t have much to complain about anymore other than my weight and wanting to move into a larger / nicer place. That will happen in due time. I’ve heard if you have a good job, keep fighting like crazy to prove your value so you keep it. 3 people I know/ know of locally are still looking for employment. The six figure jobs like the one I have now aren’t as easy to come by.

Also thinking about some vacation time I have coming up in a few weeks. Travel stresses me out but I should go *somewhere*. Just don’t want to spend a ton. Bf offered to let me use his discount so maybe that’s a path I could take. I mean if we both don’t travel somewhere together. I also have a flight credit I need to use and the flight would effectively be close to free. Just realistically who wants to travel to New York in the wintertime. Then I’d need to rent a car since I can’t borrow my parents. I mean I could stay in NYC and ask them to come to me but that’s also expensive. Gotta lock it down, the clock keeps ticking.

Not entirely sure where to start. November has been a rough month. I say it’s only money because in some cases that’s exaclty what it feels like. A tool and something I should enjoy while I’m still relatively young. So what’s been up with me?

1. Less than a week ago I said goodbye to my beloved canine companion Sasha. She was ~16 years old and was with my since January 2013 so almost 11 years together. This is an extremely long time for a day to have and just 2 years shy of the max life expectancyfor the breed. I was devastated, fortunately a friend drove me to the animal hospital and was there to console me. She was in the vet’s office at least once every 2 months and on 3 different medications toward the final days.
   
   My last visit to the vet was $180 for medication she needed, and her Hills Science Diet food was averaging around $44 for a 2 week supply of the wet food. She wouldn’t eat the dry if she got hungry. All of a sudden her health took a toll for the worse and she stopped eating, didn’t want to walk, poop messes on the carpet would happen 1-2 times a day, she didn’t want to go outside and would just look me when I asked her. Not even a week earlier she would bark, wag her tail, all of that behavior ceased in the final days. Even the tiny steps leading to my front door I had to hold her legs otherwise she’d fall over. Her body was starting to get frail overall, from a once slightly overweight size.
   
   I got $30 probiotic dog bites to get her to eat again, I threw treats at her, even gave her a high calorie gel for $15 from PetSmart that she only ate because I spread it on her paws. Eventually I admitted defeat and acknowldged any further treatment to keep her alive would be extremely risky and had a low probability of success. The fee for the procedure was $332.75. I should get her ashes and paw print next week. I’ve cleared out a good chunk of things from my apartment that were hers including dog beds, food, crate, and medication. I also put my Christmas tree up early to try to focus on the present.
   

2. Car update…. I wasn’t planning to trade my car in after a year only $4800 away from paying it off. I had enough cash to pay it off in full. In 12 months in addition to the 9 issues I mentioned in last month’s post, there is one big one. Sticky steering. You’re driving like normal and all of the sudden the steering wheel sticks in the middle of a turn, or while dead center. I have enough strength to overpower it but why is a relatively new car doing this?? Lane keep assist is turned off and it keeps on sticking. The issue has 100s of reports on for various Honda Civic models and 40+ for my particular model of car.

1. With a $2k down payment and the equity on my trade my debt increased from $4800 to $21,500, $16,700 more of debt to take on which yes is a significant amount. Also includes sales tax of just over $1k and I negotiated them down a bit down on the price of the car and up on the value of my trade-in.
2. The amount of total debt on the car is still a fraction of my annual pay. I could have it paid off in 9 months if I really hunkered down. My required monthly payment is $356.17 but am going to start out paying $750 per paycheck or $1500/mo possibly more to speed up this process.
3. Interest rate is up to 5.99% from 3.99% which isn’t great but still a lot lower than what I’ve seen out in the marketplace.

I did have a bit of drama with the dealership. They outsource a third party to do wheel repair. On the left is what the wheel should look like. On the right is what mine looked like after they used the wrong paint code to paint it. I waited 11 days for them to repair the wheel properly and get my car back, this is after driving my car for only 3 days. They did give me a loaner the whole time though and the final product looked fine..

So what I bought was a 2023 Certified Pre-owned Acura TLX A-Spec SH-AWD with about 6800 miles on it. First car I’ve owned without a CVT transmission since 2008, the audio system is amazing and sounds like studio on wheels. It handles incredibly well around corners, the seats are a lot more comfortable, 72 more horsepower / 88 ft/lb more torque, the seats don’t hurt my back. It comes with LoJack which I didn’t want but I guess I’ll keep it now. Missing the heads up display, remote start on the keyfob (I can activate it in the app however), and not as good mpg but I wasn’t spending much working from home anyway.

Had an amazing date with a guy I’ve been dating about 6 weeks. Love how down to earth he is and he’s much more open to exploring new things than I am. It’s kind of funny even though he’s 10 years younger than me he’s a bit of an old soul. He was singing I Am What I Am and Hello Dolly in the car yesterday. Here are some pics we took at the Dallas Museum of Art.

More Dallas Museum of Art Pictures.

In the coming week I’m upgrading my laptop to the latest and greatest M3 Max MacBook Pro 16″. Even with the student discount it’s not cheap. I fortunately was able to secure a $2,250 price on my current model. It’s 0% 308.25/mo or $305.17/mo for 12 months plus tax but the old model sale covers about 7 months of that. Planning to paying it off early after a month or so. I don’t need it but the Mac is my only gaming platform. I get 4 more CPU cores, 2 more GPU cores, 16GB more memory. A lot of benchmarks I’ve been consider it desktop-class in a laptop. This is something I use everyday for multiple hours a day so I’ll be getting a ton of use out of it.

I feel guilty spending money sometimes but what I spend on is reasonable proportional to my income. The car is another $16,700 financed, not $50k. The computer is another $1,754 not $4k. I’m cutting back on retirement short-term to get some of these debts down but then full-force. The first car loan payment is due 12/3 and I’ve already made a $750 payment. I just made my December rent payment so I’m good for the rest of 2023.

	11/4/23	10/1/23	Difference	% Change
401K	$200,424	$195,147	$5,277	2.7%
Roth IRA	$29,157	$28,748	$410	1.4%
M1 Account	$1,564	$1,277	$286	22.4%
Cash	$4,330	$3,234	$1,096	33.9%
HSA	$2,414	$2,140	$273	12.8%
Total	$237,889	230,547	$7,342	3.2%
Credit Cards	$151	115	$37	32.1%
Auto Loans	$20,803	5,368	15,435	287.5%
Net	$216,934	$225,064	-$8,130	-3.6%

There you have it. No student loans, basically no credit card debt. A car loan that I’m quickly chipping away at. Experiencing life more and investing but not being worried about money. Thankful for all the supportive people in my life. Still missing my beloved dog but she would want me to be happy and I’m doing things to make that a reality. Much love!

Fall started a week ago but you wouldn’t be able to tell with the temperatures here hitting 92º. I’ve been playing kickball for a few weeks now for the season with the new team. We had a really good set of games yesterday, 14-5, followed by 7-2.

Dealing with an extremely annoying health issue caused by GERD. It has been causing me to need to clear out my throat / cough fairly frequently. One of the medications I was on for blood pressure made it worse. Then I went through 2 different antibiotics and it still didn’t go away. Trying to avoid a lot of the common triggers people have and eat more veggies. Day one of making the change and already seeing some improvements. I haven’t had alcohol in 2 weeks and the last time I did was the first time in a month. I’ve lost a few pounds too through better eating choices and hoping to keep the momentum going.

The stock market has been through a bit of a downturn with the biggest drop coming from my 401k. I was contributing 100% to the S&P 500. Now I’ve changed future contributions to 60% S&P500 and 40% bonds. I might switch to 100% bonds or start putting dollars in a high yield savings account if I see more declines in the market.

	10/1/23	9/1/23	Difference	% Change
401k	$195,147	$202,892	-7,744	-3.8%
Roth IRA	$28,748	$30,299	-$1,552	-5.1%
M1 Account	$1,277	$1,374	(-$96)	-7.0%
Cash	$3,234	$3,150	+$84	+2.7%
HSA	$2,140	$2,170	-$30	-1.4%
Total	$230,547	$239,886	-$9,339	-3.9%
Credit Cards	$115	$814	-$700	-85.9%
Auto Loan	$5,368	$6,350	-$982	-15.5%
Net Total	$225,064	$232,721	-$7,657	-3.3%

Coming up on a year since I bought my car and full transparency I’m not really happy with it. Considering a few alternative options:
1. Honda Accord Hybrid – Ride is a lot quieter, and gets way better fuel economy than the 29mpg I’m going. 46 city / 41 highway. If the economy goes south or gas prices go up this is the more financially responsible option. However Honda still makes it and I shouldn’t reward a company that gave me one bad product by buying another one.
2. BMW 330i / M340i – RWD, luxury and sport. The 340i has a turbo Inline 6 with a ton of power on tap. Reliability has improved a lot the past few years and according to consumer reports is close to Lexus quality. Overall maintenance is still going to cost more than a Honda. I’ve seen a range of prices, as low as around $28k for ’21 330i with a clean title (less than the current value of my Integra) to as high as $48k for an M340i with $5k+ in options added.
3. Audi A4 – Great interior but less reliability than BMW. Expensive maintenance too. Friend has a Q5 outside of warranty and it’s needed thousands in engine work.
4. Lexus ES300h – Vetoing this option because so many old people drive these and the design is stale.
5. Nissan Maxima – I could buy one again but this is the last model year before they go electric in 1-2 years. Really don’t want to go with the same car I had for 6 years though.
6. BMW 2 series – Lot cheaper than the 3 but also a more cramped interior and less storage space. The option for looking cool on a budget. The M240i has gobs of power too.
7. Acura TLX – Not sure I want to give them any of my money though the TLX is a huge upgrade and the SH-AWD models have amazing handling. Suspension setup is better, better noise insulation. People with TLX models who drive Integra say it feels cheap and I agree.

Posted to an online group I’m a member of.
Anyone else buy a car and have buyers remorse? Got my 2023 Acura Integra last year. On a plus side the car looks nice, paint really shines and the car handles really well. It’s also super easy to park and I love the digital dash. These cars are also not super common in my area so there’s a bit of novelty. I only owe $5800 on it, under 8k miles so may be smarter to just drive it till the wheels fall off. Kinda feel like a slightly bigger car would feel more luxurious because this thing feels cheap. I’ve been looking at Accord Hybrid, BMW 330i, used current gen TLX. Def not a Tesla or a Prius though. Do you think I’m being unreasonable. I also earn a good salary so with current equity financing any of these cars would be a small portion of my income.

Problems – 1. Fuel nozzle cap needed to be replaced under warranty for evap leak, took months for the part to come in. Caused check engine light to come on and remote start to not work during winter. 2. Remote start shows a keyless access system problem message on the dashboard. Brought it in, dealer couldn’t reproduce it. 3. Fabric attached by clips on the back of the seat is unclipped. Dealer hasn’t been able to clip it back after 2 separate trips, said they can order a new seat cover but sometimes the creases / fabric don’t exactly match factory. 4. Speaker grills rattle without any audio playing driving on a normal road. They buzz badly when you crank it up, the loaner I got also was just as bad. 5. Excess road noise on the highway, many say changing tires makes a huge difference. 6. Less than impressive fuel economy around 29mpg on premium since I don’t do a lot of highway driving. 7. Not so comfortable seats, they hurt my back on longer drives, need to buy a cushion. 8. A/C is slow to get cool. No big deal but we had one of the hottest summers on record and I would be sweaty before the interior would cool down. Also no rear vents. 9. Tiny buttons, like okay for a 13 year old with small fingers but not so great for a beefy guy like myself.

I could always go to my Acura dealership tomorrow and complain to them since it’s under warranty. Just not sure I want to. Seeing all the flooding in my home state and my little issues really help put everything into perspective. It’s really not that serious. Choices.

Getting closer and closer to Fall but it certainly doesn’t feel like it. Next week we are still expecting to get some 100º+ days. I’m still adjusting to my financial life after getting my promotion. Some work days have been intense with 10 meetings in a given day and multiple projects happening at once.

	9/1/2023	8/1/23	Difference	% Change
401K	$202,982	$203,707	-$815	-.4%
Roth IRA	$30,299	$30,727	-$427	-1.4%
M1 Account	$1,374	$1,277	+$96	+7.5^
Cash	$3,150	$2,135	+$1,015	+47.6%
HSA	$2,170	$2,262	-$92	-4%
Total	$239,886	$240,108	-$222	-.1%
Credit Cards	$814	$277	+$537	+194%
Auto Loan	$6,350	$8,578	-$2,227	-26%
Net Total	$232,721	$231,253	+$1,468	+.6%

The S&P 500 closed at $4,515.77 on 9/1/23 , down slightly from $4,576.73 on 8/1/23 or -1.33%. A huge portion of my overall net worth is invested in the index. In terms of expenses I’ve had a few come up including $211 for my gym, $223 for hair loss product, $80-$100 grocery store bills, $70 for a new kickball team I joined, $80 for Spectrum internet, $95 annual Chase Sapphire credit card fee, $59 for drinks and dinner, $40 for a date, $87 for clothes, $21 for Max, and other random items. I get paid this upcoming Friday so the card will go back to $0.

I used the refund I got for my cancelled birthday trip ($1,227) last month and applied it toward my car loan. I still have a flight travel credit that’s available. Chipping down the loan by $2,227 took some sacrifice. I see the light coming at the end of the tunnel. I’m really thankful to have a high income where I can make these payments. Once the car loan is done I will have $1k/mo freed up for other activities.

Back to the drawing board with dating. Kind of out of left field, kind of not the guy I went on multiple dates with for weeks said “Hey elliot, I got serious with someone else. So whatever we have is gonna have to end”. I just said thanks for letting me know and good luck. Maybe that’s some beta male stuff, but honestly 10 days went by since our last date and he was making no effort to make plans. Two days before I asked will I get to see you again soon. He said Yes and Why do you say it like that. I generally have little trust in guys dating and this kind of reinforces it. Even when I try to give them space and be understanding it still doesn’t work out.

But the best way to get over rejection is to focus your energy on other activities. That is exactly what I’m doing. Cheers and keep on trucking along!

Man oh man… If you knew my story you’d be celebrating too. When I was just over a year old my father who was seemingly healthy had to go on dialysis and in effect was disabled from that point on. He got a kidney transplant nearly 11 years later, went back on dialysis 4 years later, then died close to 4 years later. When I was 10 years old my grandmother became disabled with emphysema and was forced to go into an early retirement. She died 6 years later and 5 years before my father did.

1999 – First Job $5.15/hr part-time while in high school
2001 – Graduated from high school / started college. Quit first job, got new job a few months later
2003 – Completed Associates Degree. Quit that job and came back after a few months.
2005 – Completed Bachelors Degree. First banking / office job $11/hr part-time worked 2 part time jobs. Bought used car.
2006 – Quit lower paying part-time job, started working full-time.
2007 – Got promotion at banking job but under sketchy circumstances.
2008 – Bought new car. Completed MBA, quit banking job due to stress being at all-time high and hating the job.
2009 – 6 months no job, worked as an exec assistant for a millionaire who paid me per diem out of the office / his house, pay was awful. Eventually he said he did’t have enough work for me. Went on income based deferment
2010 – Went back to banking for a year, met now ex-partner in November. Got off income-based deferrment.
2011 – Left New York for Texas, had no job for 6 months and burned through all my savings
2012 – Got first job in Texas, company went bankrupt bounced my paycheck. Got first job in a new field starting around $32k/yr. Started this blog at –$42k net worth
2013 – Started working at new company with a starting pay of $55k/yr. Turned 30. Started 401k contributions
2014 – Bought new car at 0% APR and regretted it soon thereafter due to transmission / power issues. Several years later the model was part of multiple class action lawsuits
2016 – Finished paying off student loans. Bought new car for $31k 1.9% APR. Also got hit with $8k in medical debt it took me almost a year to pay off.
2017 – Got promoted, along with a series of raises pay increased to over $70k/yr
2018 – Switched companies, pay increased significantly but lateral pay title change, got several raises
2020 – Hit $100k net worth. Became Debt Free, received a significant bonus.
2022 – Got promoted, received another bonus. Bought new semi-expensive car almost $40k before trade. Financed almost $26k. No longer debt free.
2023 – Turned 40. Hit $200k net worth. Got promoted again. Currently the most I’ve every earned in my entire life. Aggressively paying down car loan on target to have it paid off before end of year nearly 4 years early.

Lots of ups and down along the journey. At points I gave up but came back. Things could have taken a much different turn along the way especially if I let fear, uncertainty, and doubt get to me. 24 years since my first job I’m still going and will continue to push myself. It’s a blessing I’m where I’m at now and despite everything I’ve gone through to get here. Much love. Time for bed.