2014 has been a pretty good year for us. Our biggest change was moving and downsizing. We moved to Naples, FL from Fort Myers, FL and downsized to a pretty tiny 2 bedroom apartment. Robert turned one and we found out that we are expecting our second son in April of 2015. Overall, we had a pretty amazing year. While I’d love to reflect on everything we did this year, I think it makes most sense to stick to our financial accomplishments from 2014.
Here are the ones that made us most proud this year:
Loan Update
We have paid off 74% of Tom’s law school loans! At this rate we WILL be meeting our goal to have them paid off by 2017. Tom graduated in 2009 and didn’t have to start making payments until 2010. He started paying them off right away and I am so impressed that he has paid so much in 4 and a half years. His interest was so high that it made sense to pay his ASAP to avoid wasting money. We are still chugging along with my loans and making the minimum payment. I’m lucky to have such low-interest that it doesn’t matter too much if we take our time with mine. Plus, if I ever go back into teaching there is a chance mine will be forgiven.
Rent
Our rent only went up by $50 this year and we consider that to be very reasonable for our area. Will it be tight in a 2/2 with babies? Sure, but we will make it manage for cheap rent!
Our House
The house we own in St. Pete continues to go up in value. While we aren’t currently making money off of it, we are happy that we haven’t lost any money on it. Stay tuned to see if we keep it or sell it!
Tom’s raise
I’m so proud of Tom for getting a raise this year! I’m even prouder of him for using that money to pay down his loans, save for the birth of our next child, and put money into savings for a new house.
My blog made money
Okay, so I didn’t make a lot of money, but I made more than I spent to manage my blog. It also paid for all of the Christmas presents I bought. In my books, that is a win!
Cloth diapers
Cloth continues to save us money each month even when I’m not doing it hard-core. I’ve slipped a bit and find myself reaching for disposables for outing. Even so, I think we only spend about $30 a month on diapers (and I use the expensive Seventh Generation kind).
Taking the time to look back and reflect on my year has made me feel pretty accomplished. I highly suggest you sit down and think about all your accomplishments sometime this week. While resolutions are fun, they can remind us of what we didn’t do over the past year. Now is the time to be proud of all you did accomplish. How did you do?
Clip art photo from: http://www.mirhaynes.com/brag-about-it/
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