Welcome to my Weekly FIRE report!
Thankfully, it’s much better than last week. I had a bit of a mojo bump from finishing my taxes. HURRAY! Turned out to be easier than expected. Plus I had fewer “social commitments” so I was able to get more done in my free hours of the week. Hopefully next week will be even better.
Things I did this week to accelerate my path to FIRE
- Work contract was extended for 2 months, so I put an extra $500 on the debt repayment. Hurray!
- FINISHED my taxes. We’re getting more back than expected. I’m very excited to give those dollars jobs in YNAB. Turns out Hubs is getting extra taxes taken out on purpose…I may try to invest this extra money for him instead. Make his dollars work harder for him.
- Developed a “catch phrase” to ask myself before I’m about to buy something. Essentially something like “Do I want to become FI earlier, or spend too much on birthday gifts?” (Read: It happened last week).
- Attempted to lower my thermostats by 1 degree as per the one tweak a week challenge. It was tricky because OTHER PEOPLE kept adjusting them behind my back. That said, we had a warm spell this week so last night I was able to turn the upstairs one down to 16! It’s colder now…might need to notch it back to 18 for a few days…will spring ever come?
Things I HAD PLANNED TO DO, but didn’t do.
- Tweaks from the Afford Anything one tweak a week challenge – research my salary. Still haven’t done this.
- Get a copy of “Your Money or your Life” by Vicki Robin
- Post my month 5 FIRE report on this blog….It’s only March 18th for Pete’s sake!
New thing
Inflate my tires. Seriously, that’s the tweak this week. I guess it saves on gas money if your tires are properly filled!
I’m not adding anything else. Honestly if I can get the 4 things on this list done, I’ll add some more, but really it’s probably smart to stay small and (hopefully) more effective.
I realize that my FIRE efforts have been slow compared to many, however I’m trying to focus on my own journey, vs. comparing myself to people who can somehow save 50%+ of their salaries. I’m just not in a position to do that right now. However, I’m making extra effort bit by bit to get rid of debt and grow my Expense to Income gap. I keep saying “I’m going to kick this up a notch”, however it’s month 5 and I really need to take more action to widen the gap. I’ll be pondering that this week between full time job, managing a wild child, and dealing with the day to day.
Good luck this week to everyone!
Great to see your progress. I love that on your to-do list was “create a catchphrase!” haha
It’s hard to not compare yourself to other peoples progress. I find it especially difficult since the most popular FI blogs are top performers. Just know that every little win adds up. You’re doing great.
Thanks Sterling. I pretty much have to tell myself that on a daily basis. There’s more I CAN do, but I just have to chip away at it…my life will not be the same as a young, single six figure income kickass FI person 😛