As I was getting ready to write my June post, I was stumped to realized that there wasn’t anything truly memorable about June.

As I started doing last month, I’ve been tidying up the house a bit with more home decorations. I’ve also picked up some homebody activities like Paint by Numbers which is perfect for a non-artistic person like me.

One highlight this month was I went on my first business trip to visit the main office. Flight and hotel paid by the company. Meals with directors and VPs all compensated by the workplace!

Sounds exciting right? If you had told 20 year old me about this, I would have thought, “wow future Avery made it.” But it was far from glamorous. I realized I did not belong in this world.

All the chatter and dinners after work just felt like I was literally working after work. And how is everyone else so social?!

My social skill has only gotten worse since I’ve been working from home. All the small-talk I’ve tried to hone in over the years have simply disappeared. At times, I literally just sat silently thinking, “now everyone knows I’m an imposter –worse yet, an awkward imposter.”

I also realized I have no aspiration of climbing the corporate ladder. It may not be like this for all companies but I can see that the heads of my company truly work hard in their positions.

Maybe they’re in it for the fancy title and reputation or maybe they truly are passionate about what they do. Unfortunately, I care for none of those things.

I’m actually thinking of taking a couple days off for a staycation just to avoid working. The burnout is real.

June Budget

Fixed Spending

No changes.

Variable Spending

Utilities – My quarterly trash bill was due this month so that added on to my gas & electricity bill.

Gas – Out of town for one week and a homebody for the rest of the month. That pretty much describes my life now.

Entertainment – Spotify renewal. I actually use this every day, so well worth the annual subscription.

Food/drink – Due to laziness, I’ve combined all my food/drink expenses in one listing. This is because there is no way for me to combine dining out/drinking out on my Mint budget but separate groceries. My options are break it all the way down into “Restaurants”, “Coffee Shops”, “Fast Food”, “Groceries,” etc which was a bit too tedious or to keep it altogether as “Food and Dining”. So I decided to go with the latter.

Shopping – The home decoration continues as well as some hobby purchases.

Travel

Bought the plane ticket for my fall travel trip! Most of the cost was covered by credit card points. That’s $1000 saved. 🙂 It’ll be a family trip with my distant cousins/aunt/uncle who I haven’t seen for over a decade! So that’ll be interesting.

Miscellaneous

Auto Insurance – Not a bad rate for two people/two cars as I’m also paying for my mom, but still annoying every time payment is due every 6 months.

Investments/Savings

I was too excited this month and contributed $5k to my brokerage account (spaced out by ~2 weeks each).

Student Debt

Student debt paid this month: $880.77

Student debt remaining: $21,597.96

Here are all my previous student debt statements.

I’m just continuing to make the minimum payment to my private loan.

Second Quarter Net Worth

Well, to quote Eminem, “when it’s goin’ good, it’s goin’ great…”

The stock market hasn’t quite recovered to their all-time high in 2021 but it’s recovering all right. I gained over $12k/month these past three months. That is twice my take-home pay. So it’s really crazy to think that I’m potentially making more from the stock market than my actual salary.

Suddenly my 2022 year end review goal doesn’t seem all that crazy any more.

Hit $400k net worth. Can I be crazy? I know I didn’t hit my 2022 goal of $300k but can I still hope to hit $400k in 2023?

…It’s an audacious goal that relies on a huge market recovery in 2023 that I am hoping will happen as the world continues to open back up.