Hello friends, and welcome to another monthly review. This month, overall, went a lot better than last month when I felt pretty blue a good majority of it. But as they say, “this too shall pass,” and it did.
First up, I’m celebrating a big job promotion at work! Hurray! I’m now Creative Director-Video. I know it’s super annoying when people talk about being, #blessed, so all I can say is I’m feeling incredibly grateful I got this opportunity back in December. I love my job!
A fellow volleyball player was commenting to me today that he thinks it’s so cool that my blog and the videos I made last year all led to this opportunity. And it’s true, like many of your blogs have led you down your own journey to greatness. It’s pretty cool what can come from something that just started out as a hobby to journal my feelings and keep myself accountable.
Regarding finances, my net worth jumped $12,471 this month! That’s a $31,588 increase since January. After the month of August I’ll probably bump my 401k up from 5% to 10%, which leaves a little extra left over each month to put more towards vacation. I want to plan one fantastical international trip next year, but location TBD.
The Apartment
Thanks to all of you who commented on my last post about how much I should be spending (or not spending) to upgrading my apartment.
One thing I forgot to mention in my post was about wanting to be careful about not rocking the boat with my landlord. I talked to my triplex neighbor Micheal about this too and he agreed. Our rent, compared to what could be charged in this area, is dirt cheap! Just to give you an example, here are two listings in my neighborhood. This place is closer to my current place and this other one is “closer to work.” For reference, I put my range from $1,200-$2000 and only these two listings came up.
Some of this is due to the influx of hi-tech companies moving in the area in what’s known as “Silicon Beach.” While many are still in the Venice/Santa Monica area, many are migrating south into the area I live in the South Bay.
Updated bathroom
So that’s why handing over a list makes me somewhat nervous. I did, however, ask about the paint in the bathroom and he agreed to paint it, and that was the room that looked the worst (see the before pics here). The painter asked if I wanted a color (which would come out of my pocket) and I agreed, so with some help of Facebook and some graphic designers at work, I came up with a color quickly and ran to Home Depot that night. I also picked up new blinds for the bathroom. Overall I spent $78, which is fine with me because I hate painting, or any home improvement work for that matter.
The landlord also sent another guy over to fix the bathroom window and install a new screen, since the other one had a giant hole in it. He also installed the blinds for me.
I’m so stinking happy with the results. Is it perfect? Nope! But it’s sooooo much better than it was before. I love the color!
New blinds
The only downside, and this is a completely first world problem, is that the new shower head that was installed has water pressure about half as much as it was before. But I’ll either learn to live with it, or later down the road I can get one like the one I had before.
I also bought a portable air conditioning unit, which will arrive this week, and I can’t wait. I tried Home Depot but not surprisingly, they were all sold out.
As far as the carpet, I can live with it. I’ll get a Groupon for a carpet cleaning about every six months. It would cost $1,500 to get laminate floors, and it’s just not worth it to me.
Overall, my priorities are saving for retirement, travel, and being able to spend a lil somethin’ somethin’ on leisure/health/entertainment.
Other Stuff
Other than that, after I got back from my Aunt Bunny’s funeral in Michigan I laid pretty low. I watched the series Stranger Things on Netflix, which was insanely awesome!
I also finished my 8 personal training sessions, which I might re-visit at another time.
Volunteering with my co-workers at the P.S. I Love You event
Lastly, I volunteered this past weekend with the organization, P.S. I Love You, which has a “Day at the Beach” event, which brings at-risk youth to the beach to be paired with mentors all day for water time, games, and other activities. My company was a sponsor and I shared a “kid” (he is in 8th grade) with my co-worker, and he was in the ocean from the time he got there until the time he left. Which meant that we had to be in the ocean too the whole time.
Thankfully I had a boogie board but let me tell ya, I haven’t been in the ocean that long in forever! I took a beating because the waves where huge! But overall it was a fun day. And I fell asleep by 9 and slept like a baby that night.
This Month
This month I’m going to focus a bit more seriously on my finances. I’m doing fine, but things got a little spendy in July. There are a lot of free events in the area this month, including free movies on the beach in August (The Goonies-FTW!), so with a little focus it shouldn’t be that hard.
I’m also doing an experiment with doing one thing per this book. Only doing one small change in different areas of your life.
I’ll let you know what they were next month and how I did.
How was your month?
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