Turning 30

Tomorrow is my thirtieth birthday.

Somehow, amazingly, I think I'm still on track. Well, not for 35, at least not without some significant lifestyle changes. But for being able to mostly retire sometime in the next decade.

Last year DH and I spent about $24,000. That makes our target for financial independence, using a quick-and-dirty calculation of annual expenses times twenty five, $600,000.

Right now, our net worth is about $150,000. In a few weeks, I should be getting another $30,000, the first "withdrawal" from my trust fund. So we're a little more than 25% of the way there.

Tonight, it feels very possible. 25% is a real number. I have a $2000 check for freelancing that came yesterday. If I liquidate my (excess) life insurance policy, that's a couple thousand more. If I sell my silver, another thousand or thousand and a half. (Both of those are things I've been wanting to do for over a year--geez, I need to get moving on those.)

I haven't made any progress on Being More Frugal in a long time--at some point a year or two ago I pretty much stopped buying books and clothes, but we're still spending the same on groceries and (more than I'd like) on eating out. And I wish our apartment was cheaper. And I wish I was hard-core enough to keep the heat down and the A/C off. But in spite of this, the money is starting to add up. And I could keep doing what I'm doing financially indefinitely--well, eventually I'll have to buy more clothes, but it takes those buggers forever to actually wear out.

I have everything--more--than I need materially: an excess of food, reading material, an Internet connection, transportation, warmth and shelter.

And by being content with that and having some fairly good luck, I guess I'm slowly getting rich.