Mirwen is baaaack!

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Mirwen
Posts: 170
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2011 8:02 pm

Mirwen is baaaack!

Post by Mirwen »

Mirwen is baaaack!

I doubt any of you remember me, but I was pretty active in 2011-2012.
Original Journal: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1260&hilit=mirwen+journal
I'll give you a brief synopsis

I started my ERE journey in 2011 as a new SAHM living on ~$3000/month. I was able to save close to 30% and pull myself out of debt. Once I was out of debt, I realized I couldn't retire anytime soon and so stopped journal keeping because nothing really was happening except my monthly fight with consumerist me.

Since then a few things have changed. We had a second child in 2015. So we now have a boy and a girl aged 7 and 2 respectively. Shortly after having my little girl, I went back to work. My husband applied for an IT job with the school district and I thought it sounded like fun, so I applied too. We were both hired and now work for the school district but at different locations.

The first year of having two incomes it felt like we were just playing catch up on all the things we hadn't bought since I began my time as a SAHM in 2010. We bought a new TV, couch, computers, etc. We're big gamers, so we bought new game consoles.

I'm now well into my second year with the school district. We are starting to accumulate instead of spend. However, we've also taken on some additional fixed expenses in the form of a second car. While we don't technically need a second car, I shave about an hour off my commute every day. It does improve quality of life greatly.

We have big plans. I never did go back to school for that physics degree, because of a financial aid mix-up. However, I am going back to school now for a Software Development degree from WGU. There are rumors that they will be rolling out a new Computer Science degree in the next year and I'm hoping to move to that degree when it is available. Once I have my degree I will be seeking a software development job in the greater Portland area. I'm hoping that the increase in income will more than offset the increased housing and taxes.

I'd like to start a new journal chronicling the risk/reward involved in moving across the country to seek a higher wage and the outcomes of that journey.

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Sclass
Posts: 2791
Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2012 5:15 pm
Location: Orange County, CA

Re: Mirwen is baaaack!

Post by Sclass »

Welcome back. Good to have somebody wander back after seeing so many interesting folks drift away over the years here.

That sounds like life!

Dragline
Posts: 4436
Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:50 am

Re: Mirwen is baaaack!

Post by Dragline »

Yes, welcome back.

I don't know if you qualify for 457 plans at your school district, but I recent ran across these people on the choose FI podcast and they seemed to have found a magic way to game the 457/403b systems using some special features of the 457 plans that allow for early withdrawal and allow them to pay virtually zero taxes: http://www.millionaireeducator.com/our-story-ii

I thought it was fascinating and would definitely look into it if I qualified for such things.

Riggerjack
Posts: 3182
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:09 am

Re: Mirwen is baaaack!

Post by Riggerjack »

Welcome back. Good to have somebody wander back after seeing so many interesting folks drift away over the years here.
Yeah, what he said. Only less gracefully. As usual. :roll:

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