Checkup – November 2018

Budget/Cash Flow

Biggest thing to say this month is to give huge props to my wife, who is killing it in the work-from-home game. She’s been grading standardized exams, teaching English to none-native speakers via Skype, and watching another toddler for a few hours a week. All this on top of keeping our apartment from falling apart and raising our awesome almost-two-year-old. She’s almost quadrupled her earnings as her teaching gig has picked up steam.

It’s the holiday season, which means buying lots of gifts! All things considered it doesn’t look too bad; Christmas presents make up only a portion of that $823, and we are fortunate enough to have a lot of family that we want to give gifts to.

Another big hit to the education column, plane tickets to Las Vegas and a deposit for 4 nights in Caesar’s Palace for a conference in January. All should be reimbursable.

Still eating out more than I would like, and a lot of it is fast food. I don’t mind spending money at decent restaurants, but impulse food buys are still something I’m struggling with. Taco Bell breakfasts….

Finally, still seeing a negative trend in that expenses are consistently exceeding income. As I’ve said before, this is probably okay as long as I can actually find a job. Still, kind of sobering to think that even our current lifestyle (which feels pretty modest!) wouldn’t be sustainable on the median US household income (which is essentially what we make).

Net Worth


How Far I’ve Come

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