2017 Wrap-up

Last year, I left off by saying that there was a shakeup at my job. That we'd gotten a new boss, who was an asshole and I thought my days were numbered. BINGO! Turns out, my days were numbered. The asshole ended up firing me on Friday the 13th in January. I later learned that my team basically disintegrated. People jumped ship. Some were assigned to different teams in the organization. There are currently 2 developers on the team, which are not original members. Oh well, as my wife is fond of saying, "Not my circus; not my monkeys."

Little did I know that that wasn't the only shakeup I would encounter during the year. Not only was I thrust back into the job market, but I soon discovered that landing a new job would be fruitless because my wife accepted a job out of state. We began preparation to put our house on the market and move to upstate New York; a big adjustment for me since I'd lived in Georgia all my life. We left during the first week of June to make the 1,000 mile drive.

In the time between being fired and our move, I made the most out of not having to commute to work, sleeping later, and spending my time the way I wanted. Albeit while also packing and preparing to move. It was a joint effort, after all. I also had to remain frugal and use my savings efficiently. I had about $14,000 combined in my HYSAs to get me through the drought until I was earning an income. Not to mention covering my half of the expenses that come with moving. I rolled over my 401k to an IRA at Vanguard that was around $27,000 (I ended up receiving a profit-sharing contribution of almost $4k from my former employer since the below screenshot was taken). I ended up selling my Jeep Wrangler for a few grand and was glad to be rid of the money pit.

Upon arriving in New York, my wife soon started her new job while I stayed home and half-heartedly sent out resumes. During the weekends, we would go for walks to explore the new surroundings or visit nearby festivals, of which our community seems to have a lot of.

It's always been my experience that it's easier to find a job after the New Year than it is after summer, so I wasn't holding out much hope. Also, I soon discovered that developers typically didn't make as much as I had back in Georgia. Interview after interview. It was a grueling process with rejection after rejection. Eventually, I began to question my self-worth. Until, finally, I received an offer with a company I thought would pass me over. I thought I'd bombed the interview.

I had asked for a salary of $90k knowing that the salaries weren't as high as I was accustomed to. They ended up offering me $95k. I've been there since September and, so far, it's been great. A complete contrast to my last employer, which is utterly refreshing. When I became eligible, I began contributing to the 403b plan they have, contributing 10% of my salary to test the waters. The rest of my money that I was able to save was placed in my HYSAs to replenish what I'd used since being fired. I needed money to get me through an emergency since I'd depleted nearly all of it. Luckily, I hadn't touched any of my investment accounts, but only spent cash.

Despite being out of work for nearly nine months, I think I did really well by making my cash stretch during this time. It was disheartening to see my net worth stagnate and then slowly decline during this period, but I'll take that any day over watching it drop drastically to cover out of control spending. This setback also had a negative effect on my record keeping. I wasn't as enthusiastic to sit down and keep meticulous records of savings/spending. Mainly because there was no savings, only spending. So, I wasn't as diligent as usual with updating my spreadsheets. However, I tried to honor my commitment to tracking my monthly net worth.

Now that I've summarized the highlights, let's look at a yearly comparison; from 12/31/2016 to 12/31/2017. (Notice that Personal Capital changed its UI during this time.)

12/31/2016 Net Worth

12/31/2017 Net Worth

At the end of 2016, I had $78,449 and I ended 2017 with $93,135; a difference of $14,686.

I think that's pretty damn good for being unemployed for most of the year. And, honestly, I'm still a little bit dumfounded that my net worth didn't suffer more during the year. I have a strong market to thank for that!

Once I started working in September, I began saving aggressively again while also updating my spreadsheet. I had to go back fill a lot of my expenses during unemployment, but had a newfound excitement for tracking my savings. My income for the year was a whopping $22,864 and the amount of that I saved was $12,460 or a savings rate of 54%. Too bad it wasn't for a full year's salary.

I'd hoped to cross the 100k milestone this year, but, as you can see, that didn't happen. With my unemployment and relocation, I think I did great for coming as close as I did.

My goal for 2018 is to reach $125,000. That's being aggressive but not impossible since my total savings (including cap gains) in 2016 was nearly $37k. That's anticipating that the market remains strong and that I can be as aggressive as I was in 2016 while also making more money. Which means, I would need to save $31,865 (excluding cap gains). With my 403b contributions on auto-pilot to max at $18.5k, I would need to sock away an additional $13,365 to meet that goal.

I'm a realist, so I don't expect things to turn out that well. I expect some snafu to arise since we don't live in a perfect world. Instead, I think it'll be more likely that I hit $120,000, meaning I would need to sock away $8,365. A much more doable goal. Actually, I think I might end up somewhere between the two. But, anything more would just be gravy.

Time will tell how things shake out. Here's to a prosperous and happy 2018. See you in a year!