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My Personal Happiness Project – July: Buy Some Happiness

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Last month I randomly picked up the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin off of a bookshelf at work and surprisingly enough, started AND finished it. (It’s been a rough six months reading-wise for me.) I loved it right from the start – her thought process and love of lists and charts stood out to me, as well as the quest for further happiness.

I am not unhappy by any means but I do recognize that I could be taking smaller, daily steps to become happier. A tiny example: if I spent less time on my cell phone / social media, I’d have more time to do the laundry. And while the laundry is not considered a fun activity (to me at least), I would be happier if I didn’t have 17 loads piled up in the guest bedroom needed to be folded. Okay, that’s an exaggeration; there’s probably 6-7 loads in there waiting to be KonMari’d into little packages of appreciation. My space would be cleaner AND I wouldn’t have this nagging item on my to-do list.

The biggest takeaway that I took from this book was that I should make a list of all of the things that make me happy and find a way to do more of them. No more excuses like, “when I retire, I’ll do more of XYZ…” or “if I had more time (or money), I’d do XYZ” or phrases like, “I’ve always wanted to try XYZ.” No more! No better time to be happy and to be engaging in activities that make me happy than now.

Rubin breaks down her resolutions by month, each month having a theme. And while I wish I had read this book in December so that I could have a fresh start (like her!) in January, I don’t want to wait six more months to give this whole happiness project a try. So, I went online and printed off her free resolutions chart, filled in my resolutions for the month, and taped it to my fridge.

July’s Resolution: Buy Some Happiness (spending money to boost happiness) 

How fucking ironic is that?! Here I am, finishing up Baby Step 3, learning to loosen the spending reins and the theme of the first month is buy some happiness.

Rubin has a wonderful example: Money doesn’t buy happiness the way good health doesn’t buy happiness.

When money or health is a problem, you think of little else; when it’s not a problem, you don’t think much about it. Both money and health contribute to happiness mostly in the negative; the lack of them brings much more unhappiness than possessing them bring happiness.

But the fact that good health doesn’t guarantee happiness doesn’t mean that good health doesn’t matter to happiness. Similarly, money. Used wisely, each can contribute greatly to happiness.

I love that perspective. We don’t often know how good we’ve got it until we’re late on a payment or receive a poor diagnosis at a check-up. This month I’m embracing our financial stability and finding happiness in where we’re at, what we’ve got and looking forward to what we can now afford.

My resolutions for July:

  1. Buy needful things: We’ve been delaying a lot of purchases while on the first three Baby Steps and we’ve now got a long list of items that we should be buying without guilt. Case and point: new underwear. Frames for existing art that’s been sitting in our office for almost three years, unhung.
  2. Indulge in a modest splurge: I feel like the entire month is going to be a splurge but I’ve already identified one purchase I’d like to make: a pedicure. It has probably been two years since my last one and these puppies are barking for some attention.
  3. Get rid of things that don’t work: and also items that we no longer use. This resolution falls under the minimalist living / KonMari method that I’ve been trying to embrace over the last couple of years and will encourage me to conquer one more drawer or corner when I’m looking for something to occupy my time / earn me a checkmark on the chart.
  4. Use up what we have: I feel like we’re pretty darn good at this because hello, #budgeting but with our CSA, I especially don’t want to let food go to waste. Admittedly one bunch of cilantro went bad in the fridge and I feel horrible; that was water, energy, time spent by the farmer that I don’t want to take for granted.
  5. Be generous: This is not just us donating money, but also what we’re looking to get rid / items that no longer serve us. I read a statistic somewhere that the U.S.A. is one of the only countries that sells their trash instead of donating it to those who need it. I’ve already got a couple of items that I’m going to be gifting to runners in this area when the time comes instead of trying to make an extra buck. #inolongerneedasidehustle
  6. Make purchases that further my goals: Hello, running gear! It’s probably been 5+ years since I purchased a sports bra. Yeah, no joke. I think this also falls under 1. as a need, ha! I’m also in the market for a new running watch that will help me with my running goals. The beau purchased an electric guitar off of Facebook Marketplace a couple of weeks ago and we’ve decided to budget in lessons for him.
  7. Spend out: This doesn’t necessarily mean monetarily; it also means acting in a manner to help out others without the expectation of acknowledgment.
  8. Track all meals: This has nothing to do with spending money but everything to do with my current training cycle. When I track my meals, I tend to eat healthier. I can also see how specific foods affects my running and recovery. I’ve been falling into a nice little running groove and would like this aspect of my life to be fully aligned. Happy gut = happy runs!

I’ll report back at the end of the month to let you know if I feel happier but for the time being, I want to know: if you had the cash available this month, what would your modest splurge be?

A new week, two new Baby Steps!

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Just as the photograph suggests, we are DONE with Baby Step 3! Wahoo!

Having 6 months worth of savings means should we both lose our jobs tomorrow, we’ll be able to cover our monthly expenses for 6 months without having to work a single day. Add in any residual income that I earn on a monthly basis, and we’ll be golden. Fingers crossed we’re never put into this situation but it’s worth reminding the world that emergencies happen. Life happens.

Here’s a recap of our progress:

  • Baby Step 1: Save $1,000 – DONE! Finished August 2017
  • Baby Step 2: Pay off all consumer debt – DONE! Finished in December 2018, $89k paid off in 16 months!
  • Baby Step 3: 3-6 month emergency fund – DONE! Finished June 2019, 6 months of expenses saved!
  • Baby Step 4: Invest 15% of income toward retirement – NOW UNTIL RETIREMENT
  • Baby Step 5: Save for college for kids – SKIP! (We don’t have kids.)
  • Baby Step 6: Pay off mortgage – Sorry SEFCU, you aren’t going to earn much interest from us! 
  • Baby Step 7: Live and give like no one else!

That means we’re up to Baby Step 6 on the list!

For the first time ever (yes, it’s true) I’ll be investing toward my retirement. And for the first time in a long time (we’re talking a decade), the beau will be able to start re-contributing to his. I can’t tell you happy this makes me feel – I was dancing this morning as we re-capped our investing plans, which will begin in July. And for those of you who are interested, here’s a quick breakdown of what that’ll look like for us:

  • Me: I’ll be maxing out a Roth IRA and then I’ll be contributing to a 457b plan (deferred compensation which is offered by my employer). Even though my position is not a state position, we are a member of the NYS Retirement System, so it is and has been mandatory that I participate (aka invest) into that. That figure is NOT calculated into the 15% I’ll be investing – so in reality, I’ll be investing 19.5% of my income.
  • The beau: his employer offers a 401k match! He’ll be investing the minimum to receive the maximum amount of match and then fully funding his Roth IRA.

Both of our paychecks will become significantly smaller but that’s okay – in fact, that’s great news for us! That’s money we aren’t going to have to think about from this point forward and is going to grow and grow and grow (the majority of it tax free) for our futures. This step won’t end for us until we hit retirement. We’ll continue to invest 15% of our gross income from now until then, making changes as we earn more.

Baby Step 5 is saving for college for any children that you may have. We’re both happy to be skipping this step, ha!

Baby Step 6 includes paying off your mortgage – can you even imagine?! We took out a 30 year mortgage with SEFCU back in October 2016. If we’re like many other Baby Steppers, we should have our home paid off within the next 5 years. That’s in 2024! That means we would shave off 22 years of interest payments! Ay-oooooo! If we were to keep our gazelle intensity, I know we could do it within 3 years but here’s why that won’t happen (with our financials as is): because we don’t want to live that way for another 3 years. Ha!

Our mortgage payment is only like $400 a month, if that. The remaining amount (like $650) each month is taxes… and those are something we’re going to have to pay forever. I’m not complaining and yes, I’d like an extra $400 in my pocket each month but I guess because it’s not a larger amount, I’m less gazelle about it. But the idea of selling our house and getting ALL THAT CASH is a great motivator!

We’re also going to be saving for other items during these two baby steps, so we won’t consistently have a lot of cash to dump toward the mortgage each month. Examples of such items include:

  • a new couch for our living room (Kitty oh so kindly peed on our current couch on the regular toward the end of his life and we don’t use it and wouldn’t expect anyone else to use it while visiting)
  • a new back deck because it’s starting to sag oh so unsafely
  • a new (used) desktop computer because the beau hasn’t had one for over a year now – as a graphic designer, this is a need ha ha
  • finish our upstairs bathroom because we’ve had exposed drywall since February 2018 (new everything except the tub)
  • travel! I’d love the opportunity to take two big trips a year
  • oh and remember the section of roofing that was leaking during BB2? We’d like to fix that / room as well
  • a new car. Neither one of us needs a new car right now but eventually I will. My car is now 11 years old – I bought it brand new off the lot – and my goal is to have it until 2023 (15 years!). Cars are expensive, so we’re going to start squirreling cash away each month NOW so that LATER we won’t be scrambling.

The list is never ending as an adult, right? And while the list grows, so does our trust that this plan works. There is absolutely nothing wrong with saving up money for something. In fact, I think it makes you appreciate whatever it is you’re saving up for even more. It also gives you a lot of time to think about what you want / research all of your options. We haven’t had the money to buy a couch yet but we’ve been looking for months. It not only motivated us to stick to our budget to finish BB3 as fast as possible, but it’s given us time to shop around until we find one that’s juuuuust right. We haven’t found it btw, the deck has been bumped up to be our first saving priority.

Something else that’s changing this month that’s been weighing heavy on my heart over the last 8 months or so is our budget line to GIVE. Dave Ramsey talks about this extensively throughout his program and honestly it was something we didn’t connect with, not having the same faith background. He suggests tithing 10% of your income throughout your entire debt free journey. I couldn’t wrap my head around that concept until I met a couple doing just that. They make less than the beau and I AND STILL GAVE AWAY 10% of their income. And yes, they are debt free! Each and every time I watch lesson 9 of FPU I cry and get worked up with anticipation of doing more. The time has finally come.

We are officially giving 10% of our gross income! It’s built into our July budget and ready to be implemented. Because neither one of us are of faith, we will not be giving this money to a church but to other causes and organizations. We’re opening a separate savings account to deposit this cash in to and as we see fit, will put the money to good use. Top on my personal list is a lifetime membership to the ADK 46ers, mostly because I’m always behind on my annual $10 payment, ha! I’m also looking forward to sponsoring a child for summer camp via a local organization – I’m telling you, the possibilities are endless! I LOVE thinking about making a difference, no matter the size. Think about it, if you had say, $1,000 a month to gift to someone or some organization, what would you do with the cash? DR has this amazing visual that I love sharing:

Picture yourself holding a handful of $100 bills. You’ve got a tight grip on that cash, not allowing any of it to “get away” from you. Essentially, your hand is making a fist, holding on to that cash so tightly. This is the grip of someone living paycheck to paycheck, unable to save, unable to help their community. That fist is a symbol even a dog can recognize. That fist doesn’t allow money to leave your palm, but it also doesn’t allow any more to enter.

I don’t know how much I’ll be sharing from this point forward on a monthly basis on this platform, as I know progress will be slow in Baby Step 6, but you better believe we’ll be walking the walk. And once we get to the halfway mark on the mortgage, I’ll keep you posted. I’m a true believer in the budget and will continue to make one for the rest of my life, regardless of how much income we earn. It feels pretty surreal to be at this point, saving 15%, giving 10%, paying off our mortgage (who does that in their 30s?!) and living life to the max. But let me tell you, it feels pretty damn good.

It’s day 176 of 2019, which means there are only 189 days left of the year. That happened REAL FAST. If there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout this entire process is that time goes by, regardless of whether or not your working the baby steps. Regardless of whether or not you’re training for a race. Losing the weight. Eating organic, whatever your next goal may be. Make your days count.

April in Review

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Oh, April.

The beau and I definitely let loose this month and while that felt good, tallying up the month’s spending did not. We aren’t progressing through Baby Step 3 as fast as I had anticipated and we’re the only ones to blame. After all normal household expenses, we should have deposited $5,684 toward savings, but we only deposited $1,780.

Ouch.

But a friend, who has also successfully paid off all debt using this plan, reminded me that we paid cash for everything this month! Despite how long the list, we didn’t dig ourselves a bigger hole. I was appreciative for that positive outlook and reminder.

Here’s a list of everything we purchased that wasn’t budgeted for:

  • our summer CSA via Denison Farm // 22 weeks at $595
  • our annual garbage bill and quarterly water + sewer bill // A lot of Troy residents in my neighborhood were complaining about these two invoices coming due at the same time. I wasn’t shocked and was prepared for these two expenses because they were both due at the same time last year. Shocking how that happens! Our garbage fee went up by $4 and our water bill was consistent (actually slightly less).
  • our last two flights for holiday were booked!
  • the beau and I each got our haircut
  • we had some business expenses: postage, a new URL and web hosting for said URL
  • we paid to have our taxes done
  • the beau had his snow tires removed
  • we each purchased some running gear (sneakers and fuel, both on sale and a race registration)
  • Mets radio ($3)
  • Kitty’s end of life expenses
  • and a few random splurges: milkweed seeds for our yard ($7) and a new rug ($242)

Life.

On the plus side, we did have $11.03 leftover from our eating out / alcohol envelope, so that’ll go in to our vacation cash fund! Whoop whoop! We’re both pretty excited to get our garden up and growing in May; there’s nothing like stepping out into your backyard and harvesting food for dinner.

Our emergency fund is officially 58% funded. I’m still gunning for a July 1st end date – we’re really going to have to buckled down these next two months to make it happen – or get another side hustle. We both have a long list of things we’d like to do / purchase, but can’t until this step is complete. Don’t be surprised if you see us working at Trader Joe’s – I’m joking, kind of. Baby Step 3 is hard, y’all!

January in Review – a new baby step!

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Time flew by while we were in Baby Step 2, and I think time flew by in January even faster now that we’re in Baby Step 3. For those of you who are unaware of Dave Ramsey’s program, Baby Step 3 means we are officially out of (consumer) debt and are ready to build up our emergency fund. An emergency fund should be 3-6 months worth of savings for EMERGENCIES. Not for Christmas. Not for new snow tires. Not for a family vacation to Disney, lunch out with a girlfriend or a even a function / sporting event for your child. Examples of an emergency: a car accident, an unexpected illness that takes one out of work for a period of time, the furnace quits during the coldest time of the year, the loss of a job… even a government shutdown.

January was an interesting month for me. Yes, I felt horrible for what #45 did to a lot of families by throwing this public temper tantrum and shutting down the government, HOWEVER I kind of had zero sympathy for them because if they had an emergency fund, 34 days without an income shouldn’t have been a problem. I know, I know, if this happened 18 months ago I would have had a completely different outlook. But I now know better and I am choosing to do better. This is not the first time the government has shut down. Personally, if I knew there was a chance this could happen to me or my spouse, I’d prepare a little more. Easier said than done, I know, but c’mon, 34 days should not cripple thousands of people. I was secretly hoping Dave Ramsey would offer discounted memberships to federal employees to help them find a long term solution because the problem here is not the President, it’s a lifestyle/spending problem.

It rains, it always does and for the thousands of federal employees that this affected, it poured. That is why you have an emergency fund (aka a rainy day fund). Okay, I’ll get off my high horse and share a story:

Mid-January, just days before my birthday when it was super cold here in Upstate NY, I emailed the beau and told him I missed Mexico. We both miss Mexico (and the sunshine and the tacos). We immediately started researching flights and cheap places to stay and concluded that we could get away for a week for less than $2,000 – yes, sign us up! The only catch, the trip would have to be postponed until March due to my work schedule. No big deal we thought. Well, we held off for a day so that I could discuss this plan over with my boss and while driving the next day, I heard an update on the government shutdown. I got on my high horse and thought, “if they had an emergency fund, they wouldn’t have to turn to food stamps or loans.” Then, I felt like a hypocrite. Here I was, planning a trip to Mexico with the money that should be going toward our emergency fund! I told the beau and we both agreed, no Mexico until this Baby Step is completed.

I share this story because we are normal. We want a break just like everyone else. Many people say, “you worked hard, you both deserve a trip!” but guess what, we don’t deserve a trip. We worked hard to complete a task that should have been done years ago and will continue to work hard until we’re done and we have the extra money to spend. There is absolutely nothing wrong with WAITING AND SAVING for what you want and need in life. I feel like this post is getting preachy but I’m in a raw mood today and give zero fucks.

Back to January.

Drum roll please…..


We deposited $4,417.09 into savings this month! Whoop whoop! With the $1,000 we already had in there (plus the interest that’s been accruing over the last year or so, $18.06), we now have 1/5 of our emergency fund funded. That happened fast! Should an emergency happen to us at this point causing both of us to be out of work, we’d be able to pay all the bills, put food on the table (aka live like we have for the past 17 months) for at least 1.5 months. It’s mega fun to see that savings account grow throughout the month, as opposed to seeing our checking account dwindle (and never see that cash again).

I like this quote from Dave: when you are in debt, you PAY interest. When you’re debt free, you EARN interest.

There were a couple of changes made this month:

  • January was a dry month for us… except for our last cider punch for the Nine Pin 26er Challenge and a beer I drank on my birthday. This saved us some cash from our eating out/alcohol envelope.
  • We budgeted $100 each for personal spending money. We don’t have to confirm or ask for permission to spend this money, it can be on anything our little hearts desire. What’s funny is that I had a list of things I wanted to do / buy with this money but when push came to shove aka last week, I had only spent $4.40. Ha! I have no clue how the beau spent his, I have an idea, but I spent mine on a tablecloth (that needs to be returned) and a calcite specimen for my office. That didn’t total $100 but because I did spent $50+ on shipping for new members on my Young Living team and samples for others, I considered it a wash.
  • A couple items we paid for out of pocket that weren’t originally in the budget: a domain name renewal for this website, my AAA membership, a couple of gifts, our first quarter water and sewer invoice, a scrub brush for our shower, a strainer for our kitchen sink, a parking meter fee and deodorant cream for the two of us. Yes, the beau has officially kicked Axe to the curb! YES! I also paid two co-payments out of pocket because my FSA card wasn’t working, but those will hopefully be reimbursed in February.

Oh, and I’m no longer side hustling. We did have supplemental income thanks to my growing Young Living business, a couple alcohol mail-in reimbursements (ha!), and I finally cashed out Ibotta. Side note: I hate that app. I’ve only had problems with it ever since Hannaford changed their rewards program; I will no longer be using this for additional savings.

We both agreed that meal planning (at least for our dinners) not only saves us money, but also time. We both work well having a calendar on the fridge with what’s to be made each night specifically. Typically the beau works out at night before dinner so I dive in and get started with dinner prep. But last night when I walked in the door, he was already sauteing the mushrooms for our creamy carbonara. I leave our go-to recipes neatly on the counter so that there’s never any questions (or deviations from the recipes, ha!).

That’s it, folks! Same hustle, same results… but different Baby Step! If you have any specific questions for me, feel free to reach out or comment below.

Hiking Black Mountain

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On Saturday Paula and I hit the road nice and early to avoid the pending snowpocalypse and hiked Black Mountain in Lake George. The last time I hiked this peak, I was working toward my Firetower Challenge and training for a marathon.

Paula picked me up at 6AM and we were dressed and on the trail at 7:46AM… but not before stopping at the new rest stop! I mentioned this stop in my previous hiking post and decided to take a couple of photographs this time around. Did you know NYS spent 16 million dollars on this project?! Holy smokes! The fancy video wasn’t playing this time around and I noticed there’s a fenced in area for dogs which is a perk I missed last time… not like I have a dog to let loose in there. I’m telling you, it’s good, but I don’t know if it’s 16 million dollars of taxpayer money good. Needless to say, I’ll be using this stop before every hike from now on to get my money’s worth.

Back to the hike. For some reason I remembered this hike being a little harder than it turned out to be. Maybe my legs were mega tired from all of the running I was doing back in those days? Or maybe it was the heat? On Saturday it was a lovely little hike, never really kicking my butt / requiring me to stop to catch my breath and question what the heck I was doing on my day off. Paula and I climbed at a steady pace, stopping only once to go to the bathroom and put on our microspikes. There was ice on the trail under the thin layer of snow that made it a little slippery. Admittedly it was a lot colder than I anticipated and my water tube froze. I woke up that morning and saw a balmy 26* on my iPhone and thought I’d be fine, but the further north we drove, the temperature dropped. When we started the hike it was only 7*. Not good planning on my part but I did know it was a short hike so I wasn’t too concerned.

When we arrived at the summit, I noticed the small windmill that wasn’t there the last time I visited and the snow covered tower (that you cannot climb due to the equipment that’s mounted to it). I thought we were completely socked in and scanned the sky to find gorgeous views of Vermont! AND! We were above the clouds looking west and north! It was super neat to see the snow storm clouds moving in quickly. We were lucky in that it wasn’t windy, so we could take a number of photographs without having to seek cover in the tree line.

Because it was an overall chilly morning, we only spent about ten minutes on the summit before heading down the trail. As always, I bundled up in my last layer and added a face mask; I’m typically colder on the way down due to the less amount of work needed to descent, especially in the snow. A sled would have been perfect!

On our way down we ran into a number of people, including Assemblyman Dan Stec. He was on the last hike we took two weeks ago as well – it’s great to see representatives on the trail! We also ran into two gentleman on snowmobiles who were cutting / moving downed trees from the trail. Now that’s dedication in this weather!

5.72 miles // 1,215 elevation gain // 6/12 for our Winter Lake George 12ster Challenge