Welcome back to
My Early Retirement Journey. In case you're just joining us, here's a little bit about me. I am a single 30-something, openly Christian, hesitantly immigrant
-y, human woman. I love watching TV while eating takeout, and I want to retire early. I currently work as a consultant in a tele-health call center making around $40/hr. I started my professional life in 2015 at the ripe
ole age of 31 after a few false starts. I spent 2016 paying off about $10,000 worth of credit card debt. I spent 2017 paying off about $20,000 in private student loans; I still have about
$300,000 in federal student loans for which I am currently on an income-based repayment plan for the next 25 years, give or take. I started really getting into savings and investing late 2017 when I stumbled upon the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) community. In 2018, I made the decision to try to
save for a sabbatical and maybe if all goes well continue the journey to early retirement. Along this journey, I give weekly
more personal than finance updates just like this one. Come along with me, I urge you!
Monday – Weekend was kind of good. Still sleeping with mattress on the floor. Finally went into a mattress store to try to figure out what mattress to get. It helped… a little. Something between firm and not so firm. Blah, not that useful, but at least I tried. Decided just to compare 3 affordable options from each of the 2 bigger online stores. Not sure what else to do.
Aunty MERJ got her car back from
the Repo Man. Eye still twitching. Gotta do some back-to-school shopping for my life, in general.
Tuesday – Creepy crawly bug crawling on the bed in the middle of the night. Haven’t been sleeping through the night for at least a week now. Next week, I’m working late shift so I’ll try staying up later and see if that helps. Maybe till after midnight. Created a little blogging nook this morning before work and I’m super pumped to go home and use it. Had relegated myself to tinkering with blog to just 2 (or 3) times a week, but I’m thinking about the blog all the time and just writing notes on every scrap of paper I can find. That’s dizzying. Proud of myself for using what I already had instead of getting a new laptop (or horror: using my work’s laptop at home).
The bug did make me want to book my hotel holiday this weekend. Number one reason why I haven’t taken a bigger vacation going on 3 years now… the ones I look at cost about $2,000. That’s about 1 paycheck and about a month of essential expenses. So it would take a whole month to SAVE that much. I haven’t found a vacation that would bring me a month’s worth of pleasure to make it worth it.
Think I finally came up with a title for my next life-project: Take Back My Life 2020. More on that later.
Wednesday – Went to sleep a little bit later last night. After 1a. I slept through the night I guess. Lower back does not hurt as much. Ergonomics evaluator at work helped adjust my chair. It actually helped. Tip: Your bottom is supposed to hang over the back of your chair so that your tailbone is not compressed all day long. That was my chief complaint. Who knew! Got salmon and rice for lunch. But didn’t eat it. Clogged up again. Maybe when I get home.
Stayed up trying to do some back-to-school shopping. After about a week of deliberation and being too tired for clicking around, settled on a firmer mattress ($600) that one review says is recommended for side and back sleepers, and in another said not the best for side sleepers. I don’t know. I got tired of figuring it out. Ended up going with the supplier that sets it up and takes the old one away to prevent further clicking or phoning around.
Clicked around so more to pay Aunty MERJ’s car note, electric bill, fiddle with her car insurance, and cell phone bill. Some of this stuff I still have to do manually because I can’t figure out how to access these accounts automatically without her help and she’s on her own timetable.
Thursday – Didn’t sleep well last night. Up from 2a to 6a. Watched Cybil. Composed mental emails to my family that I will likely not send. I guess look for that in a future post. Called Aunty MERJ. She was able to get to store to get some grocery items. Someone in her building charged her $40 for the ride. It’s less than 2 miles down the road. Can you imagine! Made a call to Meals on Wheels for her. They were able to get her restarted for meals tomorrow! Tried to fax some forms to doctor’s office for one of the assistance programs. Of course they didn’t receive it or any other visit notes from previous doctor’s offices from when she was in Maryland. 5 more phone calls, all three of my breaks, and 7 more pages of forms to fill out. Anyone else want to sign up and help!
Had fries for lunch. Haven’t had any nutritious food all week. Appetite loss with so many things on my mind. Back and shoulder still hurt. Glad savings is at set-it-and-forget-it from beginning of year because been spending without a care.
Friday – Wow. Did I make it?! It appears I did. 3.5 hours left of work. Hallelujah!! Frustration tears today. Wonky Friday, as usual. I think I spent every lunch and break this week doing something or Aunty MERJ. Called doctor's office, new person I spoke with did get a least the emergency room visit back in June or July when it was requested. Ugh, that was a waste of my break yesterday. Thanks, humans.
In other news all my late night shenanigans led to me finally pulling the trigger on a weekend “away.” I’m driving maybe 15 to 20 miles up the road just to try to get a good night’s sleep. I’m calling it a writer’s retreat and that totally turned the whole thing around. I got excited once I re-branded it. About $240 total for the 2 nights. Goals of the weekend away: blog tasks and life tasks and a good night’s sleep. Bonus: maybe some nice cable shows! Enjoy your weekend! Any plans?
TV this week:
Cybil,
Big Brother, too zombied out for much more
Takeout this week: Everyday (Wendy's with a coupon, Japanese)
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