Saturday, February 10, 2018

2017 Recap...

2017 was another GREAT YEAR!

Moving home and renting out my condo was the best decision EVER! Not only are my Parents the coolest people but my Tenants are awesome as well! This entire experience has been a supreme blessing!

I was able to pay off another $30k last year while doing a whole lot of traveling!













My Net Worth has improved by $226k from ($93k) to $133k! Feels great to be in positive territory!
















I tried to go back as far as I could to capture the progress to date since the student loan repayment madness began! Below is a chart that shows I've paid off $138k so far and all on my own! Slow progress but progress indeed when you consider I finally stopped living paycheck to paycheck when I started making 6-figures about 6 years ago.
















Today, I have a healthy annual base salary of $136k and this year I will gross approximately $185k with bonus and stock that pays out in December. I actually have stock awards that will pay out over the next 3 years that was awarded from distinguished job performance. Mid-year, I got a salary bump as well from $122k to $134k and with the small yearly increase, I am now at $136k. Great things are happening!

CJ and I are still going strong. He works in the insurance restoration business as a project manager so he unexpectedly moved to Florida late last year to work on the hurricane damage. He is rocking out down there so it's hard to complain. Now we are trying to see if his move is temporary or permanent. The plan was for him to move to Chicago this year but Florida is looking promising, even if it's temporary. I already work from home Mondays and Fridays and a week every other month, which helps with traveling to see each other. I can do my job anywhere so my hope is that my company will allow me to split my time between Chicago and Florida and I am pretty sure I can pull that off.

My goal this year is to pay off EVERYTHING in the chart above with the exception of the final $60K federal loan. That baby has a monthly payment of $240 and is fixed at 3.25% for the life of the loan. At that point, I am going to shift my focus from debt repayment to growing wealth! Fun!

Right now, I have roughly $200k in Retirement Savings and another $30k sitting in cash and stock. Each month, I save $1,450 pre-tax (with bank match) and $1,500 post-tax. Not too shabby and next year I will be able to max out my pre-tax retirement with the shift to growing wealth! 

Oh by the way....Chitown turned 40 in December! Yasss!!! CJ turns 40 this week and he's coming to town to visit. My Dad turns 70 on Sunday and well...We are blessed! Thanks for reading!