FreedomFIter

First - my friend's daughter was found, safe and sound, and life has never been sweeter. Okay, back to regularly scheduled programming. Typically, when I check in with my freelancing mid-month, I feel like I'm screaming into an abyss. Hooooow am I supposed to meet my goals? There's not enough time in the time! Not… Continue reading Mid-month freelancing check-in

I’m not writing a full post today because my friend’s 13-year-old daughter has been missing since she left for school yesterday morning and I’m devoting all my extra time and energy toward helping. Not like I can do much - they don’t live nearby - but I’m on standby in case anything comes up, like… Continue reading Priorities

For about three months now, whenever it was time for gymnastics practice, Sonya mysteriously came down with a headache, or a hurt ankle, or was just. so. tired. from Amelia waking her up in the night (side note: Amelia sometimes wakes people up at 3 a.m., and seems to have no remorse about it: is… Continue reading Know when to fold ’em

My student loan payments are going to go up considerably - about $250 a month. This is going to happen in December. I'm not panicking about it, right? I'm not? Because I knew it was coming, and because now that it's at its upper limit, I won't have any worries about this happening again in… Continue reading Two steps back

I've been thinking about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness plan quite a bit lately. Did I say lately? I mean every minute of every day for the past six years. At any rate, a few things have come up lately. First, it's time for my annual employment recertification. Actually, it was time for that several… Continue reading Public Service Loan Forgiveness – am I making too much money?

Everything is breaking. Everything. It really started toward the end of the summer, when our lawn mower and washing machine broke basically at the same time. Guess what? We can't buy new stuff right now, especially new expensive stuff. We managed to string it back together, one of the many "it'll do for now" repairs… Continue reading Them’s the breaks

On October 31, I was feeling pretty good about our finances. I mean, relatively speaking. Freelance goals were being met, bills were getting paid bit by bit, I got an extra hundred bucks last week for giving a talk on a topic that I could wax on about for free for hours. Things are looking… Continue reading ENW November 2019 – $25,000

I am admittedly terrible at some FI things. I travel even though I have debt, I have debt, I accidentally buy Starbucks sometimes, I have debt, I flew to the beach for a day, I buy my kids too many presents, I have an expensive nutjob puppy, I have debt. But I have knocked it… Continue reading Every day I’m hustling

“We’re 40!” According to my friends, that calls for a celebration. And, according to me, I guess, too. It’s been twenty years since we were in college. Two decades. In my mind, I feel like it’s probably been 3-4 years since then, and my body feels more-or-less the same (I mean, if you don’t count… Continue reading I blew my budget

When Viv turned 2, Sonya cried. It’s hard to be 5-almost-6 and watch the stupid baby have a huge celebration and lots of presents that aren’t about you. Because I’m a softie, and because I hate crying children, I briefly considered buying every non-birthday kid something small for birthdays, just to ease up on the… Continue reading Not even a little bit FI birthday tradition