Background
Each month I will post an update on my finances to both give you, the reader, some insight into my situation and to give me markers of my progress on my financial journey. My updates include both spending and net worth.
- Spending is divided into joint and individual spending. My husband gets $600 a month and I get $450 a month for our own individual spending as an “allowance.”
- I don’t include charitable contributions in our numbers below, but we allocate 10% of our post-tax income to this each year.
- Our net worth goal tracked using undisclosed units of money. Our goal is to hit “Financial Equilibrium”, based on Thomas J. Anderson’s book The Value of Debt in Building Wealth. This is fairly close to our FIRE number.
The Charts
The Numbers
Monthly Update
Number go up, numbers go down. This month was a (big) down month, mostly due to crypto volatility. So it goes.
Work is going okay. There’s a lot less drama and politics than at my last job, which is nice. And people are generally more competent too, which I appreciate. Still, I’m kind of bored of work. There’s plenty to do, so it’s not like I’m twiddling my thumbs, but I don’t think I’ll be able to learn much here, and there’s still the high level of busy work that has been eating up some evenings. But, in general, it’s a good job, so I am trying to stay positive even if my heart is not in it.
My husband and I have decided to make an appointment with a fertility specialist. We’ve been trying for over a year with no luck, so it seems like the right time. I was sad the other day about not being pregnant yet, and started looking for TTC (trying to conceive) playlists on Spotify. After listening to a few rap playlists I realized that I had instead stumbled upon a trove of Tyler the Creator fans. That was a funny little thing. In any case, we’re talking about where our limits are: neither of us wants sperm/egg donors if only one of us is infertile, I don’t really want to do IVF but I’m willing to go through one round of egg extraction if we get that to that point. Adoption is the next step if we cannot conceive, though if we are honest, both of us would like if we can to have our own biological children. I like the idea of a little DH/me hybrid running around in the world.
I’d say I’ve been having a lot of feelings about not being pregnant yet, but that’s not true. I’ve only the one: sad. Not angry sad or anxious sad or scared sad or impatient sad. Just a quiet, calm puddle of tears that I scoop in my hands into and splash my numbed face with once and a while. I know we’re doing what we can and taking action as we need to, and I know in the big scheme of things we haven’t been trying that long, and I know we have a lot of resources that’ll enable us to be parents one way or another, and I know we have much else to be thankful for besides. But it doesn’t make it hurt less. And I’m just accepting those feelings because that’s where I am right now.
How was your September?
