So many things - a move and financial errands

 It's been about 3 hours online running errands. Yes online errands seem easy but gosh, they can be timely. I have so many notes and things to do.

Luckily, I made a list so I could at least focus more energy on the task than thinking of what I had to do.

Even though this is interim session number 2 with myself on my quarterly financial check-in, I'm glad I did it because I got a lot done. And waiting until the end of the month would've made for a very long day.

Some accomplishments:

- accounted for recent bank bonuses; realized I have extra funds I'm churning; so made many clicks to resolve that

- set up new checking account and finalized bill pay for new bank; groan; this one still doesn't meet all my needs so i'm a bit hesitant to do the move at all knowing i'd have to change it; but my brain is not able to keep track of everything, so while very inconvenient, at least i'll have the alerts...oh shoot, just realized I haven't cancelled the BillPay movements from Old Bank...groan! add that to do my to-do list; hmmm I guess alerts are not as concerning for my allowance card since it's such a small balance, but I definitely want to know for my BillPay account. 

- ordered new debit card

- changed direct deposits to account for higher auto-savings to brokerage (yikes!)

- contacted 2 banks to close accounts (long hold time on one)

- work stuff - meetings, grumpy co-worker; unknown expectations for upcoming project; still unsure of timelines

- reallocated quite a few funds to buckets that made sense

so it was a lot of thinking and a lot clicking.

I also tried to setup my White Counselor on my FSA but I need an invoice first, which takes away from being able to pre-schedule it. It really is an annoying process with them.

The Move

Yeah, somehow the framework of being traumatized by racism in NC somehow resonates with me and for now is making me see this is as enough reason to move and make a lifestyle change. THIS IS HUGE! I felt so motivated that I casually reached out to OfferPad to see what a basic offer would look like. Since I have no desire for this to be a long process, I decided I'd be fine to walk away with $50k. Not sure how realistic that is. I'm basing the fact that the houses across the street are going for $70k more that maybe $50k is reasonable for a no-hassle experience.

I also called a property management company I had bookmarked...it looks like April of last year (2022). So obviously this has been on my mind.

The thing I'm stuck with and haven't fully formed a complete thought on - my house. It's such a core part of my FIRE plan. So I'm still trying to figure out how it all fits in. The easiest thing seems to be just walk away from NC completely with no plans to turn back. it's such a young 20s thing to do, but the realistic part of me feels I've come too far to snatch away my own safety nets. So since I'm loosely thinking the longest I'll stay working is 5 years, a more reasonable thought is keep the house until I officially leave the workforce. But less so as I'm going to come back and more... maybe I'll have a clearer plan of what retirement looks like, especially in terms of expenses.

I think there is a concern that let's say I move on and need to quit my job (sooner and before 5 years). I don't have the money (for a different budget) or an idea of where else to live on $20k/yr.  So that's kind of the biggest wrench. While a lifestyle change is awesome and I'm getting pretty excited about it, I also don't want to lose all the safety nets I've spent all this time building.

Anyway, keeping the NC house as a rental seems to be the simplest choice...sort of.... I think the greedy part of me is like if I can get $50k now, I kind of just want it.  Maybe that will be my emergency House Fund, and I could keep that in a high yield account for 5% for 5 years or something. I think Ally has no penalty CDs. So that might make sense. Because I don't think my house is going to increase in value much more than this pandemic bump. 

However, I think just having the known of a house I can afford to come back to is comforting when I'm taking such a huge leap into the unknown.

So yeah, this morning, I lost a bit of momentum but even having slept on it, I'm still leaning towards moving out...I think.

I was hoping the work meeting today would give me a better idea of my workload for April, but it's still largely unclear. So I'm tentatively moving forward with spending the month of April in Philadelphia. 

Alright, I think I've earned my free Happy Meal and a soda and some car sitting time.

Note to self, no more work from bed. This bed is not that comfortable and it's very tempting to stay in it with little real emotional reward.