February 2022 Updates: Reclaiming My Life
And just like that, it was over. Last month, I mentioned that I was doing nothing but working overtime including weekends. By mid-February, the overtime opportunity was over. In hindsight, I think I made a great decision (what a rare occurrence!) with going all out in January to work those extra hours. Now the opportunity is gone.
I can make many excuses on why I’m so late on this month’s update. I was catching up with friends, shows, trips, and errands this month but to be honest I was just lacking motivation.
With the drop in the market, I am no longer excited. It hurts to see my net worth going nowhere despite all the extra hours I’ve worked. At the same time, I also feel guilty complaining about such trivial things as the drop in the market when the entire situation in Ukraine is going on.
On a more positive note, work has gotten better. I finally had a talk with my manager regarding the extra duties I was doing without actually having the title and the compensation I thought I deserved.
I had to muster up extra courage to bring it up, but I’m glad I did. While nothing is completely solved yet, I’m glad I stirred the pot and got the talk going.
I know a lot of it is out of my direct manager’s control, but I was really touched by how seriously he took it and the fact that he immediately took action to bring it up to leadership and give me options on where I want to steer the direction of my career.
If nothing else, this talk really opened up a better relationship with my manager and I think resolved a lot of misunderstandings that we’ve had (or that I at least thought we had).
February Budget
Fixed Spending
My parents and I agreed that I would postpone any monthly payments to them while I am in the midst of the home-buying process. I will instead continue to save up and resume payments once the home-buying process is complete.
Other than that, my cell phone bill and Netflix make up the rest of my fixed spending.
Variable Spending
Gas – Under budget but I’ve definitely started going out more this month after being so cooped up at home last month.
Entertainment/dining out – Bought tickets to see Stars on Ice with my friend after watching the Olympics. Also, after freedom from the crazy non-stop work last month, I definitely dined out a bit more this month.
Groceries – Over-budget. I just ate a lot this month, okay? 🙂
Shopping – I love giftcards! I earned a $100 REI gift card for completing my company’s wellness incentives (tracking step, etc) which I spent on getting a new pair of hiking shoes. I only had to cover $5 out of my own pocket to make up the difference.
Miscellaneous
Hotel – I went on a trip with my mom this month. This was the second of the two hotels we stayed at. The first hotel was accounted for in last month’s budget.
Savings
After changing my 401k contribution to 50% of my salary to account for the overtime hours I was planning to do this month, overtime got taken away.
The good news is, I am now halfway to maxing out my 401k for the year. The not so good news is I had minimal take home pay this month thanks to my salary going back to normal. Hence, no extra contribution to savings account or brokerage account.
I maxed my Roth IRA last month so I took away that line from my budget.
Student Debt
Student debt paid this month: $880.77
Student debt remaining: $34,973.98
Business as usual on the student debt side. Just continuing with my minimum payments to my private loan. I’m also continuing to take advantage of the COVID-19 forbearance.
Currently, the forbearance is set to end in May, but we’ll see closer to the date whether another extension will pop up. My goal is still to pay this off prior to the end of forbearance to finally get rid of my Nelnet loan once and for all!
I house every month’s debt progress from the very beginning here if you want to check out the progress so far.
Home Updates
Sometimes you really just have to laugh when you’re handed a bad hand. I literally LOL when I looked back at what I wrote last month:
“I knew it was best not to get my hopes up anymore on my closing date. The current expectation for my closing date is now May, so I’m going to expect Summer 2022 knowing there is always a delay.”
– January 2022 Updates
My expectation was correct – the most current closing date has now been shifted to July 2022. So, resetting my expectation once again, it’ll realistically be Fall 2022.
Running Updates
I was debating if I should write a separate post on my running update. As I started writing, it got a bit long so yes I will create a separate post. I have my 5K race in 2 weeks so I’ll do a recap of that race and my training with Garmin!
Goals for Next Month
On the financial side, I’m going to keep saving. I’ll likely keep it in my savings account for now to create a buffer as I get closer to closing. I will also start the process of looking at home insurance and outside lenders.
Most importantly, I’m hoping that I can hit my goal of running my 5K in less than 30 minutes! I looked at the course map and it’s actually a hilly course so the odds are already not in my favor.
And the fastest I’ve ever ran a 5K is 34 minutes (yep I’m a certified slowpoke) so I have doubts that I’ll be able to go sub-30. It’s also my first race so I don’t know what to expect.
At the very least I’ll try to have some fun, even if I don’t meet my goal.
4 thoughts on “February 2022 Updates: Reclaiming My Life”
For motivation when investments are staying flat or going down, I track my number of shares as well as my balance. That way I always see my contributions translating into more shares, even if the shares don’t translate into a higher balance right away.
It sounds like a great conversation with your manager, and I love the hiking shoes and Stars on Ice spending!
Ah, love that idea! This is not my first market downturn so I know that I just need to stay the course and the market is bound to recover. But it’d definitely be nice to have another marker like number of shares to look at while I wait for that recovery.
I already tried my new hiking shoes and love them! And can’t wait to see the ice skating show!
Awe, I’m sad the overtime opportunity is over from an income perspective but it seems like you needed it to end to regain so balance so that is exciting. My part-time opportunity with University B doesn’t end until June but the tedious in-person work that takes up my weekends ends this month so I will have a bit more breathing room. Grr…I finally appreciate how upset you were about the continued federal student loan pauses…it was one thing for them to not say anything but saying, “There will be no more extensions” and then extending it is the worst. I will have paid at least $1,000 in interest based on the current extension. If they extend that through the end of the year…ugh. So excited you got to go on that trip with your mother. You don’t get time back with them so anytime you can spend time with them is generally worth whatever money was spent. As always, your saving and investment rocks! I think what you share here about being disappointed with market fluctuations is why I also have wanted to stick to just debt repayment. No matter what, every time I make a payment I am in a better position than I was previously. What a bummer about the home…I don’t get it…is it building delays? Yay for the upcoming race. Is this local or a national race that has come to your town?
I honestly didn’t realize it before but having weekends off does wonders for your mental health! Glad you’re finally going to have some recovery time.
And ughhh don’t even get me started on how I missed out on 0% interest rate for (likely to be) 3 years! I do feel especially angry at your situation though because it’s one thing to not know that it was going to happen at all (my case). It’s another thing to be told it’s ENDING and taking it back (your case).
Yes, the home delay excuse is always between Covid delays and material delays 😡
My 5k is a national race coming to my town but it’s marketed as a low key / fun race rather than a “serious” one.