According toYou Need a Budget(YNAB), my total net worth is currently $108,940.66.
Thats $6,193.91 higher than it wasat the beginning of last month.
$11,657.14 higher than it wastwo months ago.
I wasnt expecting the numbers to grow quite this fast, honestly.
So lets look at how they did.
This move,which I wrote about in detail for Vox, cost me $5,929.10.
(This includes travel, shipping my belongings, buying new furniture, etc.)
It also cut my expenses by close to $1,000 a month, much of that in rent costs.
This means it took about half a year for the move to pay for itself.
It was a win-win, on all counts.
With more money comes more optionsnot just today, but years down the road.
With more money comes more optionsnot just today, but years down the road.
This book blew my mind.
I readFinancial Freedomthree times, cover-to-cover.
I did all the exercises and plugged my numbers intoSabatiers online calculators.
Of course, Im not really planning to retire in my late 40s.
Im both a writer anda novelist; we tend to keep working until our final hours.
But Im also realistic.
So Im looking at this financial independence plan as a punch in of insurance, really.
The freedom, to borrow Grant Sabatiers term, to cut back on my freelancing if I have to.
This meant investing as much as possible.
Pouring every extra dollar into my IRA or my SEP IRA or my brokerage account.
This provides a huge incentive to max out both accounts, which I did in 2018.)
According to Vanguard, $4,729.49 of my $27K net worth increase came from investment returns.
Thats 18% of the total growth.
So I picked up some new clients, including some higher-paying clients.
And then, once it was over, everything got betterfor me, anyway.
(I know many Billfold readers still miss the site.)
But once I was settled into my new life, I knew Id made the right choice.
I also dont own a car.
I cut my own hair.
I spend, on average, $55 a month on dining out.
I visit the library probably three times a week (okay, that one isntthatweird).
Now Im living the frugal life so I can work towards financial freedom as well.
Thats not difficult for me, in part because Ive been living very frugally for a very long time.
Whether it becomes more difficult in the futurewell, well have to see.
The calculators have already updated my target goal date from 12 years to 10 years.
Well see how my net worth changes over the next six months.
