Welcome to May and it’s time for March’s Financial Review and Net Worth Update.
 
For those who are new to The Grown-Up Pkmn Trainer, each month I write a financial review to xatu my net worth by writing down my thoughts on the previous and following months.  I share these summaries so everyone can gain insight into my personal finances and my thoughts behind them.
 
I started tracking my net worth to measure my progress, inspired by Budgets Are Sexy, which has helped me keep a keen eye on my personal finances.  I have been tracking my net worth since January 2015 and writing monthly financial reviews for myself since 2016.  I recommend both because they have been such helpful tools to watch my personal finances stat changes.

Summary of activity:  April became busy in and out of work.  At work, the month began like a slakoth but evolved into a vigoroth.  I started it by doing some spring cleaning in the office.  Once we started a new project, I hit the streets doing what I do best, finding the unique fabrics and materials we use to bring the designs to life.
 
I just kept fury cutting with my own projects.  I began April by facilitating the discussion at BiRequest, a twice a month peer support group for the NYC Bi+ community.  The next day I was hired as a costume design assistant when the original assistants unexpectedly emergency exited with a week and a half left.  The baton pass worked nicely and I guided the show to opening night.  My Bi+ Family Potluck Picnics have all of the permits submitted.  I have one granted, two awaiting security deposits and one still being processed.  I am super excited and am learning so much for next year’s encore.  My husband and I also made it to the Irene Sharaff Awards, a national gathering to celebrate and honor costume designers and artisans.  Besides catching up with other industry leaders, the awards got me involved with a new group of people schooling together to protect the small businesses being pushed out of the garment and fashion district of New York City.  So, now I have another project to work on.  Meanwhile, the blog is just trying tread water like a Hoenn swimmer.

Net Worth:  I foresaw a decrease coming.  I knew my March dentist check-up had high horsepowered my credit cards in the face.  My student loans are also not doing so well, but I will keep a keen eye on them.  Hopefully, a temporary budgeting adjustment can help my credit cards recover some.

Income Unusualness:  At the beginning of the month my weekly workload had dropped to about 35 hours.  I have figured out I need about 38.5 hours a week to reach my current weekly budget-HP.  Fortunately, the assistant gig covered those missing hours.  The rest of my assistant paycheck was stockpiled to save for a new cell phone.  As work increased over the month, my paychecks psyched up accordingly.

Overall Budget:  Since I started the month a little unnerved, I needed to use some assistant money for my rent.  Other than that, everything went well.  The extra $20 a month that I budgeted into April worked out well and I plan to keep it... for now.
 
Budget changes:  I have adjusted my student loan meal plan for the next three months by moving $80 from ACS to my credit cards as an attempt to lower my credit debts.  I think it might make a positive difference to my credit card balances and I am interested in seeing how it affects my student loan debt.
 
Savings Accounts:  My savings accounts are doing well.  I also have $600 in claimed savings, money biding for a new cell phone, and $150 in fun money from my parents for an Easter present.
 
Investments:  My investments are just splashing about.  I still need to figure out which stocks to purchase with my $100 for my IRA Roth.  I am not seeing anything that I am interested in at the moment, especially since my last purchase has been losing money ever since.  My Acorns is currently giving me a market gain of 10.33%, with a total loss of 1.17%, (an increase from last month).  Blackrock has passed the Whirl Islands and is back to its smooth surfing of the stock market.

Credit Card Relationship:  April had my credit card relationship feeling steadfast.  I used some extra credit card PP for what I thought might be responsible things.  For my Amex, I used the general PP for pizza and dinner with friends, and the ether paid for plane tickets for Wedding Season 2018.  (HM02 would be worth its weight in goldeen these days, if you know what I mean.)  As for my Visa, I used the general PP for tickets, notebook storage, and the ether paid for home essentials, like toothpaste, and summer picnic park permits.
 
My New Year’s goals status is, Amex: Reached!! & Visa: Still Working.  I am a little concerned about how the flights may taunt my Amex balance back into "Still Working" territory, but we will see next month.  When I updated my PP sheet for the next four months, I gave my Amex a little more PP to see if I can be more responsible with it.  I want to keep a nice vice grip on my Visa, so I tried to keep it limited.
 
Credit Card Extra Thoughts:  I upgraded my American Express from the Delta Gold Card to the Delta Platinum Card.  I realized that although it raises my annual fee to $195/year, I also get a companion ticket every year.  These tickets are basically a free ticket for my husband to fly with me with the exception of the taxes and fees.  This basically transforms a regular priced ticket into a $195 priced ticket that we were already going to purchase anyhow.  Flights into Montana can cost between $450 and $700 for a single ticket.  By using a companion ticket, we could not spend over $200 a year! I think in the long run the upgrade will eventually pay for itself.
 
I also scheduled 18-month Plan-It plans to pay off the Wedding Season 2018 flights.  I think it makes the most sense to keep interest low, but more on that when I eventually post my Plan-It review.
 
Student Loans:  My student loans keep moving ever so slowly forward.  My Nelnet loans continue to grow and will until I start paying down that interest poison.  My UAS loans are still set to be paid off in 2 years, or as I like to think of it “2 years earlier than they were supposed to be!”  That will be a helpful additional $75/month to put towards my higher interest credit cards or my other student loans.
 
Since my main financial goal of the year involves lowering my credit card debt, I want to try to symbiosis some money from ACS to my credit cards for the next three months and see what happens.  I want to try it now while my ACS monthly payments are low and can endure a little bit of damage.
 
Wedding accounts:  We got a bit more money back with our tax return than I thought we would which was great.  The final number bounced almost to where it was in February.  In other wedding accounts news, my husband and I had a long conversation about his credit cards.  Apparently, he still has over $1,500 on them from our wedding, gaining interest each month.  I asked him to switcheroo money from our wedding line of credit to his credit cards so it can stop gaining such high interest.  I also want to be able to see those expenses when I track our shared net worth.  I want to assist with that debt and I can’t if I don’t know it is there.  To also help ease his credit card stress, we agreed for him to use some of our savings to pay for his tickets for Wedding Season 2018.  I hope by the end of May our personal loan will reflect all of our outstanding wedding debt.
 
Other notes:  We joined Movie Pass for the summer.  We will see if it is worth the $10/month.  As we start transitioning into beach and wedding season, I make a healing wish that I am prepared.
 
Let’s chat:  What experiences did you have during April that helped grow your personal finances?  Do you expect anything to bellossom in May?
 
Further reading:
Rockstar Finances Blogdex Net Worth Tracker- over 575 other bloggers’ net worths
March 2018 Review and Net Worth Update- last month’s review and update
April 2017 Review and Net Worth Update- where I was a year ago
 
*A few notes about my net worth*
 
My net worth only tracks my personal assets and liabilities.  My husband’s finances are not included.  I include our wedding accounts on a separate line because I haven’t figured out how our accounts fit into my personal net worth.
 
The numbers are taken from each accounts’ monthly statements.
 
I don’t use dollar signs because looking at just the numbers helps me focus energy easier for analyzing by removing any prior attachments, emotional or otherwise, so I can look at the numbers as just numbers.  (In my excel file, I don’t use commas either.)
 
I only show the current month and the one before for illustrative purposes.  (My excel file contains the entire year.)
 
I use plusle-red, and minun-blue for illustrative purposes.  (In my excel file, they are all in black.)

​Blog Berry Juice is a triannual post where my squirtle and I treat one of my newer pokémon out to the Shuckle Shack to drink some berry juice and discuss the progress of The Grown-Up Pkmn Trainer.  This post’s guest, Ribombee.
 
First, let’s check out the blog’s stat summary.  It has an average of 55 unique visitors a day, with an average of 150 visitors each weekend in April.  The most popular posts continue to be the monthly financial reviews, although 4 Financial Weekly Events was the most read in April.
 
The blog’s social media following seems to continue to grow.  Instagram, the place to view all the blog’s art in one spot and learn about their backstories, has 62 followers.  Twitter, the place to hear about post updates, read U-turn Tuesday posts and see Shadow Sneak Peeks, has 71 followers.  Facebook, the place that announces when posts go live, has 35 follows.  The subscription e-mails, which I send out right after a post goes live before any social media, has stabilized at 15 subscribers.
 
Since the beginning of 2018, I feel as though my life has been probably the busiest it has been since grad school in 2012.  My evenings have become filled with activism, community meetings, project planning, design work and catching up with friends.  Near the end of March, I tried to pull back some, but then April continued strong.  I enjoy it and am starting to juggle everything better with my blog.  This business has defogged some blogging issues that I have been struggling with.  Today, I want to address my struggles with missing postdates, relatining to topics, and daydreaming about other ways to grow the blog.

Scheduling Posts
Each month I have a posting schedule set up at least a month in advance.  Each month it tells me which topics I wanted to write about and when.  It gives me time to think about the topic, research if needed, and plan my time accordingly for both the writing and the image.  In January I was able to have all of its posts started by the end of the first week.  However, that trend is no longer at Dewford Hall and I’ve been trick roomed to constantly feel behind instead of ahead.
 
One of my largest frustrations results from my inability to post consistently on Saturday.  I have had a difficult time balancing my evenings between my newer activities and my blogging.  My posting schedule exerts its pressure on me to meet my postdates, and as a result, generates stress.  I feel defeated when I fail to post according to my schedule.
 
Choosing Topics
When I make my schedule, I look at my growing list of topics and assign each postdate to a topic.  These topics then evolve into three different posts; easy to write, it needs an odd keystone, and I cannot connect with this topic.  The easy to write posts are naturally great to work on.  They flow smoothly out of my mind onto the computer screen like the rivers of Kalos.
 
The more difficult posts take some time finding an odd keystone to give me a solid format that brings everything together.  This commonly happens to my favorite topics when I have too much information and my outline becomes overwhelmed and unable to battle.  When I was writing Priority Transaction Basics, I had over six pages of information before I found the odd keystone that tied it all together.
 
Recently, I have stopped connecting with some of my topics.  As I write I feel like I’m false swiping a shedinja.  I tried to stick with the topic because it was scheduled, but after a week and a half of no progress, I simply skipped it.  Over the last three months, I have skipped at least one post each month due to this problem.
 
Daydreaming of the Future
Since starting the Grown-Up Pkmn Trainer, I have had illusions of grandeur for this blog.  I thought that I would be posting two posts a week by the end of the first three months of launching the blog.  I wanted include a variety of topics like diet, exercise, social things and maybe even sex.  I even thought about eventually having other authors adding to the collection to become The Grown-Up Pkmn Trainers.  Plenty of experience sharing, all through a pokémon lens.
 
Yet, here I sit…  Sixteen months later…  Writing about how I find it difficult to post a single, weekly, personal finance post.
 
Yet, I continue brainstorming new ways to grow my blog.  I have ideas such as starting a YouTube channel or even designing interactive web pages for budgeting, net worths, and even financial pokémon teams.  I see my frustrations when I remember my current limitations that block me from realizing such ideas.  I don’t have the time anymore to do all of this, especially as I fill more of my free time.  I feel like fantasizing is leech seeding some of my spare time that I really need for writing my weekly blog post.
 
Time to Struggle Bug
Now that I know what my struggles are, I have a plan to turn my struggling into struggle bugging.
 
To do that, I will need to take what I’m struggling with and twist it so I affect its stats instead of doing recoil damage to myself.  For the next couple of months, I will be changing my posting schedule.  I have removed post dates and have three general topics, to accompany the monthly financial review and net worth updates, each month.  I will post them when they are ready.  Hopefully, a more fluid schedule will allow more time to find those odd keystones for the more difficult posts.  I also have given myself permission to run away from a topic I don’t connect with and i can choose something more intriguing.  I will also start writing down my grand ideas for the blog to explore and see if they can become realities.  After all, this blog was only an idea I wrote down and started exploring only four months before its official launch.
 
Although I may struggle, I really enjoy this blog.  As I continue to grow in my non-blogging life, I look forward to seeing how it affects the blog and helps it grow too.  Cheers to the next four months!  Happiny! Chansey!! Blissey!!!
 
Let’s chat:  What's an experience you had struggling with something you enjoyed doing?
 
Further reading:
Giving Myself a Little Credit- She Picks Up Pennies
8 Fails Over 8 Years of Blogging- Budgets Are Sexy
Rockstar Directory- Rockstar Finance (it's a pokédex of over 1,650 Personal Finance Blogs)

Acronyms have become a part of our everyday life.  We LOL while texting with friends.  We pull our money out of the ATM.  We trade our pokémon over the GTS.  These shorthand abbreviations are acronyms, words or a group of letters that substitute for a group of words.  With Who’s that Acronym? I pick an acronym that you may, or may not, have seen before, and explain what it stands for, what it is and where we may encounter it in the wild.

For the first acronym of 2018, we take a look at ACH.  ACH stands for Automated Clearing House.  It is basically the most popular method of transferring money electronically between companies and people.  It is most commonly compared to an electronic check.  Most of my money uses ACH for paying my bills, loans, retirement and even my groceries.  ACH is something that we may encounter as part of our daily lives and may never even know it’s there nor what it does.

What is ACH?
ACH has been around since 1974.  However, it didn’t really start making headway processing electronic transfers until around 1978 when the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Act was passed, which also covered ATMs and pay by phone transactions.  ACH became known for their work on direct deposit paychecks and a way of processing a company’s transactions by using their own network and batching transactions to make transactions more secure and affordable.  Today, ACH makes up a large percentage of the electronic transfers made in the United States.
 
How does ACH work?
ACH works with the NACHN, the National ACH Network, to process transactions and transfers in batches.  First, let’s think of the NACHN, a network of certified businesses, as a network of certified Pokémon Centers all over the nation.  By being in the network, any Pokémon Center can easily transfer pokémon, or money, to and from different locations to and for trainers, or clients, using ACH.
 
When a trainer initiates a pokémon transaction through Pokémon Center B from Pokémon Center A, the ACH first confirms that both Centers are part of the network.  Once it confirms that both Centers are a part of the network and safe, it then confirms that the pokémon to be transferred to Center B is physically or digitally located at Center A.  Once everything is confirmed, the pokémon is marked for transferring.
 
Later in the day, ACH groups all the pokémon freshly marked for transferring at Center A.  ACH then processes the group at the same time by bringing them through the ACH and redirecting the pokémon to Center B where it waits with another group of pokémon to be deposited.  Once the group of pokémon is deposited, Center B may quarantine the pokémon for a day to make sure the pokémon didn’t drop an item along the way or any other error occurred.
 
ACH touches base with each Pokémon Center, or business, in the network numerous times each day to process different groups, or batches, of transactions together.  By processing numerous batches of transfers throughout the day and making the transfers electronically, ACH manages to keep transaction costs low.  These low costs save large businesses, who deal with thousands of financial transactions a day, millions of dollars on their daily transaction fees.  Most of these businesses then return the savings to us, usually by not charging a transaction fee for ACH transactions.  Whenever I make a deposit into my retirement account with TD Ameritrade, I have three different options of how to make the deposit.  Two of the options cost me money, while the free ACH option only takes 24 hours to process and deposit.
 
Where to Encounter ACH?
I have run into ACH many times across these last five years.  I was in college and grad school when I had my earliest encounters with ACH and wasn’t even aware of it at the time.  When I received student loans in undergrad, they would first pay my tuition and any leftovers would be returned to me.  If I remember correctly, these leftovers were direct deposited into my checking account.  I also encountered ACH in grad school when I received my monthly paychecks through direct deposit.  During this time of my young adulthood, I had my keen eyes only on the names and numbers on my statements.  Anything else was easily smokescreened.
 
I want to say the first time I really began learning about ACH was when I started repaying my student loans.  One of them had a payment option titled “ACH/ eCheck” with a little question-mark unown behind it for more information.  It explained that the option was like writing an electronic check because it was free and the money was withdrawn directly from my checking account.
 
I believe that with that brief introduction to ACH, I slowly started to subconsciously notice it on my bank statements.  It evolved from being financial chatter on my statements into a sparkling aria.  By the end of 2015, I was familiar enough with ACH to understand that when I saw it associated with a transaction I felt comfort knowing that the transaction was locked-on and would not fail.  When I opened a new savings account, at a new bank, I learned with my bank to bank transfers to have a lot of trust in the strength and security of ACH transfers.  It was also being used for my student loan payments, my American Express payments and even my Acorn and Digit deposits and withdrawals.
 
Why Do I Care?
ACH is not well-known.  Even my banker didn’t quite understand how ACH transactions work.  In June 2017, my rent check was stolen and my banker advised me to freeze my checking account.  This status condition would allow my weekly paycheck to direct deposit on Friday but would prevent any other money being withdrawn.  I pointed out that I had an ACH transaction to a student loan being processed.  My banker told me that since it was “processing” it was already removed from the account.  However, my money was only marked for transfer and the freezing removed ACH access to my payment arena trapping it in the account.  That payment became late and I had a bunch of clean up to do.
 
ACH does not get much attention in the financial blogging community.  Searching for other blog posts about ACH to feature below was like searching for a feebas in Hoenn, there are just not many out there to find.  Most posts I found discussed the news that as of 2018, ACH can now perform same-day transfers.
 
I find it fascinating to see how ACH facilitates daily financial transactions.  Even with money transaction apps like PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle, ACH continues to maintain a sticky hold on financial transactions.
 
Let’s Chat:  What do you know about ACH?  What financial acronyms would like to know more about and see in future Who’s That Acronym? posts?

Further Reading:
ACH Transfers: How They Work- NerdWallet
Learn How ACH Payments Work- the balance
ACH Payments 101: What is an ACH Payment- Due

Welcome to the second week in April and it’s finally time for March’s Financial Review and Net Worth Update.
 
For those who are new to The Grown-Up Pkmn Trainer, each month I write a financial review to xatu my net worth by writing down my thoughts on the previous and following months.  I share these summaries so everyone can gain insight into my personal finances and my thoughts behind them.
 
I started tracking my net worth to measure my progress, inspired by Budgets Are Sexy, which has helped me keep a keen eye on my personal finances.  I have been tracking my net worth since January 2015 and writing monthly financial reviews for myself since 2016.  I recommend both because they have been such helpful tools to watch my personal finances stat changes.

​Summary of activity:  March was an interesting month.  Work moved at an avalugg, or glacial, pace while the rest of my life was busier than a combee.  At work we have hit what I call the “Open for Tonys Morelull.”  In order to be nominated for the Tonys, a Broadway show has to open and be running by April 26, 2018.  Thus, after that date there are no new shows opening, which translates into no new work for our costume shop.  Without new work, our workload relies on costume reorders which there isn’t much of at the moment.  This year it has been a lot of cleaning house, reorganization and paperwork catchup.  Basically, I feel like I spend most of my energy during the day finding work to keep myself busy that by the time I got home, I was more exhausted than usual.  We also got a new project manager which had a smooth baton pass between the outgoing person and the incoming one.
 
As for my own projects for the month, I got a lot done, but not as much as I intended.  I was able to prepare for facilitating discussion for BiRequest, a bisexual peer support group in New York City.  I also applied for a park permit to plan some Bi+ family picnic style potlucks for this summer.  My first permit was approved April 2nd and I am excited to start planning.  I also was able to hang out with a handful of new friends over games, drinks and dance to get to know them better.  I also managed to decide on three costumes to start preparing for Drag Con later this year.  I disappointedly missed two blog posts in March due to my poor prep and scheduling for them.  (One I should be posting this following weekend.)  Overall, I would say it was a pretty successful month.
 
Income Unusualness:  Earlier in the month I had some overtime, but as work morelulled, there were a couple of weeks where working the full 40 hours became a struggle.  Luckily my budget was able to accommodate for those paychecks by underbudgeting for each paycheck.

​Overall Budget:  My budget was fine.  There was one week I juggled rent by setting aside more with my overtime paycheck to cover for the undertime paychecks.  Other than that, everything seemed to work great.  I can see in March’s Net Worth the fair amount of damage the extra money I flung at my credit cards did, however, I don't think April will be as successful.

​Budget changes:  I basically just upped the week base HP to match March's since it worked so well.  I power split that extra $20 between saving for a new cell phone, my emergency fund, and my retirement.  I also carried over the underlining automatic payments.

​Net Worth:  I am glad to see that it continues to rock climb, although it seems to be growing tired as it seems to reach shorter heights each month.  I get a sense that my debts are slowly plateauing and my investments are sky dropping because of the current market trends.
 
Savings Accounts:  It was good to see it go back up this month.  Emergency savings and my fun money savings is working well.  My new Claimed Savings, or the money that I subtract from my savings total, has $15 I’m saving for a new cell phone.  I hoping to grow that a little more next month.
 
Investments:  Basically, the only reason any of my investments went up was because of my deposits into my IRA Roth and haven’t purchased anything with them.  I managed to deposit $50 into my IRA Roth this month and shall start scouting new stocks to buy after next month’s deposit.  My Acorns is currently giving me a market gain of 10.26%, with a total loss of 2.15%.  Acorns is dropping, but that’s just the nature of investing.  As Blackrock just surfs the market, it has hit some market whirlpools and I hope it doesn’t dive too deep.  I am considering putting some money towards Blackrock while the stock market is having this stock sale.  I think it could help climb up the waterfall after all of this turbulence ends.
 
Credit Card Relationship:  I use plenty of ether this month.  I used up my Visa PP on my dentist and park permit fees and needed to ether to pay for a work-related dinner, tickets to Black Panther and a trip to Wal-Mart to stock up on home items like garbage bags and soaps.  I used up my Amex PP on a date night dinner and a friends’ dinner and using ether only once at a toy store.  Extra cash didn't protect any credit spending this month.  I found myself reminding myself what it is like to be tighter with my spending and the rewards it can bring.  However, I felt blessed and acknowledged that I was long reaching for a few things I wanted this month.  April I will return some inner focus to my spending.
 
I'm glad to see I have reached my New Year’s goal for my Amex to pay off 5% of the amount of debt I owed in December.  My Visa is getting close, but I don't think that goal will be reached in April.  My dentist high horsepower kicked that goal in the teeth which will appear in April's net worth.  I also have some plane tickets to purchase soon for wedding season 2018!  Plus, last month I had a whole extra paycheck to help bring it down, I won't have that luxury this month.
 
Student Loans:  Once again my student loan debt appears to have grown, but when I look at them individually, Nelnet is the only one not recovering.  I do not understand NelNet one bit and I have been too busy to get around to having that chat with them.  The longer I wait to chat or attempt to develope a new plan, the interest will just keep stockpiling until it’s time to spit up all over my finances.  Maybe instead of saying I’m going to do it, this coming month I just need to pick a date, let’s say June, to sit down and do it.
 
Wedding accounts:  Although the net total decreased, I believe we are actually in a pretty good place.  Now that we’re married, we filed jointly to double battle our taxes.  We used some of our savings to pay for our tax prep with my husband’s tax person.  Our refund is slightly more than the tax prep and will return directly to our savings.  So when I look at this stat, I remind myself that we will have about $600 going back into the account, which puts us at more of a stat increase than decrease.
 
Other notes:  I want April to be a month of continuing net worth growth.  I want to get a better handle on juggling my extracurricular activities, my activism, designing, and this blog while also not overspending.  March burnt some full incense and I hope April can burn some pure incense to reduce distractions.  I am pleased with the direction everything is heading and I just want to keep things moving forward.
 
With another delightful visit from Trixie Plusel, I have made contact with my 2018 goals, now I need to keep working with them.
 
Let’s chat:  How were your finances in March?  What kinds of activities are you looking forward to this spring?
 
Further reading:
Rockstar Finances Blogdex Net Worth Tracker- over 540 other bloggers’ net worths
February 2018 Review and Net Worth Update- last month’s review and update
March 2017 Review and Net Worth Update- where I was a year ago
 
*A few notes about my net worth*
 
My net worth only tracks my personal assets and liabilities.  My husband’s finances are not included.  I include our wedding accounts on a separate line because I haven’t figured out how our accounts fit into my personal net worth.
 
The numbers are taken from each accounts’ monthly statements.
 
I don’t use dollar signs because looking at just the numbers helps me focus energy easier for analyzing by removing any prior attachments, emotional or otherwise, so I can look at the numbers as just numbers.  (In my excel file, I don’t use commas either.)
 
I only show the current month and the one before for illustrative purposes.  (My excel file contains the entire year.)
 
I use plusle-red, and minun-blue for illustrative purposes.  (In my excel file, they are all in black.)

As I have been growing up I have noticed that my weekly schedule seems very busy.  Mondays I catch up with Monica, Wednesdays I have date night with my husband, and Fridays I watch the Nimbasa City Strikers.  Every week, I have the same routine scatterbugged with meetings and social gathering here and there.
 
My personal finances also have a weekly routine that lock-on to four different weekly events.  Each week I schedule payments, check my checking account, purchase date night’s dinner and buy groceries.

Schedule Payments- Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday
My biggest financial weekly event is to schedule payments for bills and to guide my money from each paycheck to where it needs to go.  I typically try accomplishing this task Friday or Saturday.  For a while, I would early bird wake up Friday morning to schedule everything on my budget before heading into work.  However, lately I have a hard time getting out of bed and only have time for one of three things; meditate, slack off or return to rest.  If I don’t get things scheduled Friday, Saturday I am usually will do it while I am sitting at my computer to work on the current week’s blog post.
 
On those rare occasions I haven’t finished scheduling payments on Friday or Saturday, Sunday is my next opportunity.  Since most banks and businesses are closed on Sundays, half of my payments are the still scheduled the same as if I had scheduled them on Saturday.
 
Monday is final chance to schedule my payments before the klinklang start gear grinding to a halt.  Occasionally due dates can become uncomfortably close to Monday, and I worry that my payment will be faked out into a late payment.
 
Check My Checking Accounts- Tuesday, Thursday, The Day I Schedule Payments
I am so glad that to be living in an era with 24-hour access to all of my financial accounts.  From what I hear, personal finances before online access involved tracking payments, checking monthly statements and a wailord of math.  With 24 hour access, I log-on whenever I want to see my current balances, which transactions have cleared, which are in process and which are still missing, all without pants.
 
Before my current budget, constantly checking my main checking account was my only way to prevent over drafting.  I remember thinking that the bank was leech seeding money from me because the totals felt like they changed a little every day without showing me why.  I even debated screenshotting my accounts daily to uncover the truth.  I never did it though.
 
These days, I check my main checking account often, but not daily.  I usually check it Tuesday, Thursday and whichever day I schedule payments.  Tuesday, I check to confirm which transactions are in process and which have cleared.  Thursday, I check to confirm that there are no missing payments from last week’s paychecks and all transactions have cleared.  Finally, I check my main checking account before scheduling payments.  I check to confirm how much money is available by checking that my transactions have cleared, usually they have, and how much I received for my direct deposited paycheck.
 
Purchase Date Night’s Dinner- Wednesday (for now)
My husband and I have what I call Date Night.  We usually order a pizza and watch one of our favorite tv shows; The Challenge, Game of Thrones, or RuPaul’s Drag Race.  These evenings are a great time for us to check in, hang out, do some nuzzling and discuss our thoughts on the latest episode.  (Being strategists, theatre people and artists we usually have a lot of opinions.)
 
My favorite part of the tradition involves dinner.  This is the one time a week we share a meal and neither of us has to make it.  However, this usually comes at a price, typically $17.  Since we keep our finances separate, we have a couple different ways to decide who pays each week.
 
Whoever is home first gets to order and the last one picks it up on the way home.  If the one of us who picks it up wants to pay for it, they usually speak up before the order is placed.  If the one of us that is ordering wants to pay, then he usually will just pay online while ordering.  If the one ordering does not want to pay, he will ask the other one if they are prepared to pay or not.  If they are prepared, then they pay at pickup.  If not, then we discuss it to find a solution.
 
I usually use credit card PP for these meals.  Recently I have been managing my extra cash well enough that this year I have been able to pay for a couple of date night dinners without hardening my debt.
 
Buy Groceries- Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, Anyday
When it comes to buying groceries, my main strategy is to buy them whenever I need them.  I walk past a 24-hour grocery store on my way home every night, so if I need something I just get it.  This helps me prevent overstocking my fridge with fruit, vegetables and other foods that go bad quickly.
 
Lately, I have gotten into the habit of stopping in the store on Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays.  I usually have enough food to get me through Monday’s breakfast and lunch, so I decide Monday what I want for my dinner for the week.  Wednesdays, I usually recover lunch supplies such as kale or salad dressing.  I used to spend my weekends living off weekly leftovers, but lately, there hasn’t been much left over.  Saturdays now involve a trip to the store for weekend groceries.
 
This schedule can vary from time to time.  Sometimes I delay scheduling a payment because my budget scheduled it a little too early.  I also feel free to check any type of account whenever I have questions about it.  The nice thing about having a weekly routine is knowing what to expect and when it comes to my personal finances, I like being a mind reader.
 
Let’s Chat:  Do you have a weekly financial routine?  If so, what is it?  If not, what do you do instead?

Further Reading:
What I Learned Working Like Benjamin Franklin For a Week- Budgets Are Sexy
The Path To a Thicker Wallet Has To Include a Financial Routine- Critical Financial

For the last two months, I have been attempting to discuss with my boss that I wanted to apply and replace my supervisor’s position.  I felt as though I had a clear understanding of what the job is, what kind of commitment it requires and I could return 5 years company related experience back into the position.  However, I needed to overcome my intimidation before I could talk to her.
​
A widely held belief is that fear prevents us from reaching our goals.  But, what about those situations when we have captured our fear but can’t seem to use that power yet?  I consider intimidation is a feeling of not being afraid to move forward, but still feeling trapped behind an invisible wall, or light screen, that needs to brick broken through.  Even when I don’t feel paralyzed, intimidation still weakens my attack power making it harder for me to accomplish my goals.

The big difference for me between fear and intimidation is that I can understand fear.  Fear has some sort of logic behind it.  I don’t want to jump off a diving board into the water because I could get hurt.  I don’t want to talk to my boss because I might get fired.  Both examples are easy to understand.

However, with intimidation the fear is captured, I am ready to harness its power, and yet, I still can’t initiate the action I need to in order to proceed.  It comes down to a single moment when either I do it or I don’t.  Once the moment passes, time continues either way.

First, let’s look at my friends and I jumping off a diving board into the water with my friends.  I watched my friends jump in and I saw that it was safe.  I wanted to jump too.  It looked and sounded like fun.  But, on the count of three, I just stood there.

I reminded myself “Self, after you do it, you will want an encore because it will be so much fun.  Think of the exhilaration of falling through the air.  You love jumping into water from the ledge.  It’s the same thing, just a little bit higher.”  I was excited to try again.  Again, on the count of three, I did not move.  I could not find any logical reasons explaining why I was just standing at the end of the board, paralyzed.

Now, sometimes intimidation can be weakened and even prevented.  Stage fright usually refers to the intimidation of a performer when in the presence of an audience, and they suddenly cannot perform.  By rehearsing their performance, performers prepare a calm mind by learning what is going to happen during their performance.  In most cases, the comfortability with the material lowers the impact of the addition of the audience.  I grew up performing in front of people.  I had piano recitals, played tenor sax in three bands, ran cross-country and acted every weekend during speech, drama and debate competitions.  However, sometimes just knowing these strategies doesn’t always prevent intimidation.

I knew I needed to prepare for speaking to my boss about such a large promotion.  First, I had to catch all of my fears before asking her.  I evolved them into concepts and ideas that I did not have to worry about.  The worst possible negative outcome was that I might be told “No,” and I was prepared to accept that answer.  I speak with her on a daily basis, so there was no reason to be nervous about speaking with her.  I was a little unnerved about the actual job, but I was also confident that I could do it.

I knew asking her would be intimidating so I strategized a plan to start our conversation with my supervisors.  It was going to be like weakening a pokémon before catching it.  I set up a perfect situation where we would start discussing one thing and then ease myself into asking her about the position.  I even visualized it.  All I had to do was ask, “How is the replacement search going?”

Even though I was prepared to dive in, I was not able to ask my question.  I still just stood there looking at her, leaning forward with my mouth ajar.  My brain was giving the command to talk and eventually yelling “Do this now!!! Now is the perfect opportunity!!! JUST DO IT!!!”  Yet nothing happened, and she returned to work.

Sometimes no amount of preparation or words of encouragement can counter intimidation when the moment arrives.  I have found that limited time acts as my best haze attack to eliminate the effects of intimidation.  When there are more opportunities to work through intimidation, the least likely I am to superpower through it.  Only when my chance to overcome the intimidation is now or never, my fight or flight instincts trigger my clear body and the extra adrenaline keeps my attack power stays strong and confident.

One day last week, I learned my boss was interviewing someone that day.  I knew I needed to talk to her that morning, or I might have lost my opportunity to actually apply for the job.  So, I arranged for another quick conversation to ease myself into asking her.  However, the interviewee’s arrival interrupted our conversation.  I felt I had missed my final opportunity to have this conversation, but the day was far from over.

After the interview, my boss came into the office, where I was eating lunch, to discuss something with one of my superiors.  Once they began chatting, my brain determined now was the time to ask.  I only needed to find any moment to jump into the conversation.  After missing a few brief pauses, I interrupted their conversation by saying my boss’s name.  With that short interjection, I felt the barrier fade and the intimidation fall.  I probably was not as articulate as I wanted to be earlier, but I knew I had smashed my shell and I could feel the confidence grow.

As a result, my conversation with my boss went well.  She acknowledged that she knew I was interested in the position from the last time the position was available.  However, she has been strategizing ways to give me more experience and to train me to a level where she feels comfortable with me in that position.  I think she believes my current level as too low to battle some of the higher level situations the position requires.

Sometimes intimidation is expected and I don’t experience any sort of thing.  I thought moving to New York City without a job or place to live would be an intimidating experience, yet I was unaffected.  Other times intimidation can be suppressed, like when my mother and I started down the walkway to marry my husband and me.  Although I find intimidation to be a silly reaction, I know the moment I encounter it I will need to decide to show a little moxie and break through or watch my desire wimp out.  Once that moment passes, time will continue either way.

Let’s chat:  What is a story of when you were intimidated by something?  How did you react to the intimidation?

Further Reading:
Are You Holding Yourself Back from Financial Greatness- Millennial Money Man
Money and Confidence are Interchangeable- Mr. Money Mustache

Welcome to March and it’s time for February’s Financial Review and Net Worth Update.
 
For those who are new to The Grown-Up Pkmn Trainer, each month I write a financial review to xatu my net worth by writing down my thoughts on the previous and following months.  I share these summaries so everyone can gain insight into my personal finances and my thoughts behind them.
 
I started tracking my net worth to measure my progress, inspired by Budgets Are Sexy, which has helped me keep a keen eye on my personal finances.  I have been tracking my net worth since January 2015 and writing monthly financial reviews for myself since 2016.  I recommend both because they have been such helpful tools to watch my personal finances stat changes.

Summary of activity:  February was another social month.  I went a lot of places and I saw a lot of people, both old and new.  The Olympics steamrolled my apartment almost every night and most of my spare time.  I also managed to watch 4 plays this month, three of which I worked on and three of which I did not pay for.  I almost had some close combat with some over drafting, but focus sashed some money into my account just in time.
 
Income Unusualness:  Although work was busy, I didn't really work much overtime.  The few times I did, it wasn’t much.  I also received a tynamo sized paycheck for some work I did for the milliner across the hall, but every little bit helps.  I used it to pay for date night.
 
Overall Budget:  My budget worked well again, but I ran into a diglet in the road.  I saw two amounts on my budget going to our wedding savings on the same week and spliced the two together.  I forgot that one of the amounts was to indicate my automatic transfer that mists my savings to stay fee-free.  I have updated my budget by underlining those payments as a remember.

Budget changes:  This is the first five-week budget since my new student loan meal plan.  By keeping my student loan payments relatively the same as during a four-week month, I have more money than usual to power split between savings and credit cards.  I added extra money to emergency savings, rent savings, our wedding savings and my retirement.  My excitement from my progress paying down my credit cards made sure I arranged for some money going to them as well.  As for the tax beast boost, I have decided to account for $5 of it in my budget to leave the extra $10 as a barrier for my credit cards and reflect for when I don’t work a full 40 hours.
 
My phone bill payment changed form by separating how much to pay my phone bill and how much gets stockpiled to purchase a new phone.  I also underlined the automatic payments that keep my accounts fee-free as a reminder.

Net Worth:  Overall, I am glad to see continued progress.  I am starting to acknowledge that my newer student loan meal plan has shell smashed to apply the money I was using for student loans to speed up other goals.  I am at my third net worth increase in a row and I want to skill link this barrage to keep it going.  Although lowering my credit card debt is important, I also need to mat block my student loans, savings, and investments from losing worth.
 
Savings Accounts:  The main reason my savings dropped this month was that I used fun money savings to pay for dinner at our friend's birthday party.  It was nice knowing that I had money set aside for exactly that reason.  I also needed to switcheroo a focus sash with some money to prevent an accidental overdraft caused by my not clearly paying attention to my budget.
 
Investments:  My investments did not have a great month, but neither did the stock market.  The only reason it appears that my IRA Roth had a good month was that my deposit cleared the day before the statement was created.  My Acorns is currently giving me a market gain of 10.96%, lower than last months, and a total loss of 1.83%.  I redistributed my Acorns at the end of the month to be a little more conservative than they were last year.  Naturally, Blackrock surfed down with the tide of the market.

Credit Card Relationship:  I used my 2 PP for my Visa this month to see a show and for my doctor's appointment.  I used 1 PP from my Amex to buy a book.  Having some extra cash in my checking account has been a great barrier for my credit cards.  I am quite pleased to see my credit cards balances dropping each month.  Now, I just hope it can withstand some powerful blows once wedding season starts drill running its way into my debt.  I have two weddings this year and flying is my credit cards’ biggest weakness.  Fortunately, I have the Plan It program on my Amex and I am curious to see how this may assist in battling flying debt.
 
Student Loans:  As a category, my student loan debt has grown. As individual servicers, Nelnet is as moody as a glalie on Mount Lanakila, one month it’s causing my student loan stat to increase and the next month it’s allowing it to drop.  I neither understand it, nor have I taken the time to understand it.  Maybe that can be a goal for March.  My other two servicers continue to get paid off, so at least I have those making progress.  Since it is a five-week month, I am allowing one of my six ACS loans to continue with its usual five-week payment boost, while mean looking the others into my newer student loan meal plan.
 
Wedding accounts:  My husband and I had a great discussion about the present and the future of our wedding accounts.  We decided to use only the money from our wedding savings account to pay our line of credit.  This way we have one total amount to refer to when we discuss a plan for paying our line of credit.  My additional payment in January grass knotted our plan.  So from February forward, I will be contributing my fair share to our savings.  This change in the plan didn’t make my February budget which was another factor in causing the potential overdraft.
 
Other notes:  I have been thinking about a bunch of different personal projects that I want to get started and am trying to figure out how to find the money in my budget to make these projects into realities.  One solution I have involves the tax beast boost.  However, I want to give myself one more month with it to see if I can get used to having some extra cash in hand.
 
With another plusle of a month I continue to long reach towards my 2018 goals.  Let's start making contact in March!
 
Let’s chat:  How were your finances in February?  Did Valentine’s Day or the Olympics have any effect on them?
 
Further reading:
Rockstar Finances Blogdex Net Worth Tracker- over 525 other bloggers’ net worths
January 2018 Review and Net Worth Update- last month’s review and update
February 2017 Review and Net Worth Update- where I was a year ago
 
*A few notes about my net worth*
 
My net worth only tracks my personal assets and liabilities.  My husband’s finances are not included.  I include our wedding accounts on a separate line because I haven’t figured out how our accounts fit into my personal net worth.
 
The numbers are taken from each accounts’ monthly statements.
 
I don’t use dollar signs because looking at just the numbers helps me focus energy easier for analyzing by removing any prior attachments, emotional or otherwise, so I can look at the numbers as just numbers.  (In my excel file, I don’t use commas either.)
 
I only show the current month and the one before for illustrative purposes.  (My excel file contains the entire year.)
 
I use plusle-red, and minun-blue for illustrative purposes.  (In my excel file, they are all in black.)

Lifestyle inflation is the process of how we adjust our spending when we suddenly have more money than we are accustomed to.  Although lifestyle inflation can be handled responsibly, most of the time people refer to it as reckless spending and the habits created.  I get it.  It feels great to be able to reward ourselves by allowing us to do the things we deprive ourselves of.  Buying lunch while at work, purchasing a new tv or even getting a massage in Veilstone City.  If we don’t catch it early, these little rewards become part of our everyday lifestyle and can slowly damage our finances like a sand tomb.
 
We are going to run into lifestyle inflation no matter what, and it is our job to prepare for it.  Back in September, I received a $3/hour raise with the requirement to work a 40 hour week.  This gave my weekly paychecks an approximate $100 boost, after taxes.  Having an additional $400 a month to spend led to a sudden battle with lifestyle inflation.  The way I battled and caught lifestyle inflation in five steps was to relax, aspire, reflect, strategize and stay calm.

​Relax
After I got my raise the first thing I did was breathe.  I took a minute to relax and appreciate my reward for working so hard.  I knew that a few of my money stresses would finally be relieved.  Before my raise, I was using my five-week months to stockpile rent money to help pay for the four-week months’ rent.  It was frustrating that my budget couldn’t sustain my rent any other way.  The raise money also meant that I could pay my credit cards’ amounts due without using any of my tricks.
 
Aspire
Once I felt the relief, I needed to review my goals to find productive ways to reward myself.  My largest, current goal has been to clean up my finances for my family and our future children.  Not only are we going to need some amulet coins and happy hours for my husband and me to have children, but I also don’t want to leave my family with my debts.  My financial notebook brick breaks my goals into saving and debts.
 
My first savings goal is to build a barrier of one month’s rent just in case I become unemployed.  I also want to slowly grow my emergency savings to use for real emergencies, not “poor planning” emergencies.  Lastly, I want to keep contributing something to my retirement account ever since I reached my original goal of opening a retirement account before I turned 30.
 
My debt goals are pretty basic. I want them paid off.  My student loans have been on a meal plan for the last four years, with a few minor adjustments.  At the time of my raise, my goal for my credit cards was to get a wrap on my credit card usage with the help of PP.
 
Reflect
As I read over my goals, I could feel the inflation shadow-sneaking behind me.  After I knew how I wanted my inflation to help me with my goals, I then reflected on my lifestyle of that time.  I wanted to discover if any changes needed to happen and I felt I really didn’t.
 
In January 2017, I experimented with reducing my weekly grocery budget from $30/week to $25/week.  By September, I had learned how to live on $25/week for groceries and saw no reason to change it.  I thought about restoring it back to $30/week, but I was happy, healthy and wanted to use that extra $5 for other things.
 
There were a couple other lifestyle upgrades that I considered but decided I could live without.  A gym membership is nice, but I would rarely walk the 5-7 blocks; I barely workout in my living room.  I could buy lunch for work more often, but one meal is about one-third of my weekly budget. (Plus, buying lunch at work was part of what got me into my current debt situation in the first place.)  I even investigated updating my old devices, but they were working fine.  Sure, two months of saving that extra $400 could buy a new phone, but my phone had just been refurbed in April.  I also didn’t want a new 3DS with the idea that the Switch might secretly be its replacement.

​Strategize
I have learned over the years that my money needs a purpose, or it would be gone with a smoke ball.  I knew adjusting my budget was the best way for me to capture and train my lifestyle inflation.  So, I sat down with my slowking, Diary, and my boldore, Budget to strategize how we could apply the relief from my raise to my lifestyle to reach my goals.

A hot topic that I see throughout the personal finance blogosphere is the concept of the side hustle.  Side hustles, or side gigs as I call them, are jobs to earn some extra coin and are optional.  Not to be confused with a second job, which is more of a necessity because the first job doesn’t pay enough to pay the bills, keep mouths fed and a roof overhead.
 
For example, a popular side hustle in Alola is chucking pyukumuku back into the ocean.  In Kalos, trainers can side hustle at the Hotel Richissime by making beds, hunting down lost items and helping with room service.  These small, short tasks can earn a trainer extra money for just a little bit of time and are not necessary for completing the games.  For real-world examples, J. Money, who has had a lot of experience with side hustles, has documented over 70 different side hustles to share with his readers at Budgets Are Sexy.

Now, side gigs seem to be romanticized by the personal finance community as a great tool that can assist with our financial goals while also being fun.  However, they also forget to mention that sometimes they share characteristics, and the added stress, of a second job.  So today, I am going to share four returns and frustrations, or pros and cons, to explain why I like and dislike the side hustle.

Extra Money for Goals
Return-  Since side gigs are not necessary to pay for the essentials, any money made from them is technically extra money.  This can be a quick and easy way to gain some extra ground on our goals.  I like to pair my side gigs with a goal that I can put 100% of that paycheck towards that goal.  My goals have been for debts, savings, other projects, our wedding or even just to buy some Castellia Ice Cream.  I used a paycheck from a costume design gig to pay the start-up costs for this blog.  Had I not had that side gig, this blog could still be a series of Word Documents collecting dust on my husband’s hard drive.

Frustration-  Although they can help with goals, more money is not always the answer to our problems.  When I first received my American Express credit card, I thought my money issues were over.  However, my problem was not that I needed access to more money, it was that I was bad at managing my money.  Sure, had I taken on a side gig, I would have a little less debt, but my spending would have still discharged uncontrollably.  Once I recognized my issue, I noticed that I learned better money management with less money than more.

Stress and Time Management
Return-  Since side gigs are extra work during our time for resting, I feel they should be simple, low stress and little time commitment.  The simplicity keeps it low stress and little time commitment.  For one side gig, I took an actor’s measurements for a costume designer friend who lives in L. A.  It took me about 5 minutes to take them and 10 minutes to send them to my friend.  I took them in the costume shop I work at, so I didn’t have to worry about not having access to supplies like measuring tape or a notebook.  I even was given $20 by the actor for being able to help them out.  This is the type of side gig bloggers love to chatter about, large payoff with little effort.

Frustration-  I have also found myself stuck in an arena trap by overcommitting to a side gig I think will be fun and easy.  Overcommitting causes me to lose time I should be using to rest and refresh.  This makes me irritable, tired and less productive.  The loss of productivity raises my stress levels and drain punches any fun I was should have been having.  By the end of the gig, I am burnt up.

Training Assistance
Return- Although I enjoy my journey reaching my goals, I like to use the actual work from my side gigs as stepping key stones towards the goals I am working towards.  Many of my side gigs have helped me train for my career as a costume designer.  Working backstage helped me learn about running a show.  Doing alterations for a vintage store helped grow my sewing and construction skills.  Designing costumes for smaller theatre companies exercised my design miracle eye.  A choreographer I worked with in grad school taught his students the importance of always working jobs that help us develop toward our goals, and I listened.

Frustration-  One side gig I had was passing out coupons for Outback Steakhouse at a football game.  It was an easy $60, but my experience gained was useless to costume design.  I think this type of out of the box side gig is ok every now and again.  However, encoring such side gigs fill our free time with liquid ooze.  Instead of using our time productively to train or rest, we become paralyzed, repeating the same side gig over and over, not making any progress.

Test Runs and Temporary Side Gigs
Return- I think that side gigs are a great low-stress way to test different types of work.  There are a lot of full-time bloggers who got their start doing their blog as a side gig.  In the freelancing world, it has helped me learn which types of theatres I like to work with and which jobs I like to do.  Shortly after moving to New York City, I was trained to be a wardrobe crew understudy for Silence the Musical.  After running the show for a couple weeks, I learned it wasn’t really for me.  (Even with the free berry juices.)

Side gigs also offer a variety of different jobs to keep things interesting.  One of the things I love about costume design is that every show is different.  I have a regenerated interest in every new project thanks to the different stories, periods and design problems.  By keeping side gigs temporary I can keep new projects rotating through.

Frustration-  I like to offer a word of caution for evolving a hobby into a side gig.  I think that most people think that it can be a simple way to make money doing something that they already do for free, like selling their knitting on Esty.  However, then they are featured on a blog and their side gig instantly evolves into a business.  Now the hobby they used to enjoy has become a source of deadlines, business taxes, and extra stress.  I like to recommend giving a hobby to side gig evolution a test run with an evaluation date.  By having a test run we can experience getting paid for our hobby, while also having a date to evaluate if we want to continue.  I am always unnerved when I learn that someone has evolved their activity for rest into more work.

Let’s chat:
If you have or are currently doing a side gig or side hustle, what has your side gig journey been like?

Further reading:
Why a Side Hustle Might Be the Last Thing You Need- Club Thrifty
Mkay, what is up with our side hustle obsession?- Picky Pinchers
The Stupidity of the Side Hustle- She Picks Up Pennies

Welcome to February and just in time for the first post of the month, it’s time for January’s Review and Net Worth Update.
 
For those who are new to The Grown-Up Pkmn Trainer, each month I write a financial review to xatu my net worth by writing down my thoughts on the previous and following months.  I share these summaries so everyone can gain insight into my personal finances and my thoughts behind them.
 
I started tracking my net worth to measure my progress, inspired by Budgets Are Sexy, which has helped me keep a keen eye on my personal finances.  I have been tracking my net worth since January 2015 and writing monthly financial reviews for myself since 2016.  I recommend both because they have been such helpful tools to watch my personal finances stat changes.

Summary of activity:  January was a very social month.  I even had one week with a different social event scheduled for every night.  I realized at the same time I am for sure more of a ledian person than a noctowl person.  Even though I went out more than usual, I managed to use real cash for most of my purchases, like pizza and drinks.  I also decided this month to cancel my cell phone insurance and to start saving for an upgraded phone.
 
Income Unusualness:  I worked overtime two weeks and left some of my extra earnings in my checking account to block me from using my credit cards during happy hour.  I also started noticing about a $20 increase as I assume the new tax reform bill began rototilling my paychecks.  I currently don’t know how I want to use it, but I hope to determine that in February.
 
Overall Budget:  My budget worked like a charm.  It felt a little oddish putting so much money towards my credit cards and so few towards my student loans.  I have a goal and strategy for 2018 and right now I just need to sticky hold onto it.

Budget changes:  I didn't change much about my budget from January to February.  There are a few areas that I want to stakeout this month before making my adjustments.  By canceling my cell phone insurance halfway through a billing cycle, my bill for February will include an adjusted insurance charge.  I am also biding my time to see how consistent the new tax beast boost is before I determine how I want to incorporate it into my financial strategy.
 
I did add a section to track my progress on my initial credit card goal of 2018, reduce my 2017 credit card debt by 5%.  I hope that by seeing it as part of my budget, it will encourage progress.
 
Net Worth:  Writing about progress, I was super excited to see two plusle months in a row.  (Plusle was excited too and couldn’t wait to show off her new Trixie Plusel parody photo shoot.)  The big players in January were my investments’ growth and reducing my credit card debt.  I hope by copycatting January’s budget, February can do a fair amount of damage too.  However, my student loans have me a little unnerved.
 
Savings Accounts:  My savings may look like it had a bad month, but it could just be an illusion.  This year, I am accurately reporting my Way2Savings account balance by using the monthly statement instead of what it's assumed to be.  I also added a line item for my savings section accounting for money I am stockpiling for specific reasons, such as my Switch money for my Amex payments.
 
Investments:  My Roth IRA, had a great month thanks to Nintendo stock's increasing value.  I also placed an order for a stock purchase for February, but more on that in February's review.  My Acorns is currently giving me a market gain of 13.65%, with a total gain of .80%.  It's down a bit from December, but February is my month to adjust my portfolio which may help balance things out.  I am glad I'm depositing money into my Acorns again.  Blackrock just keeps growing.

Credit Card Relationship:  I used all 2 PP of my Amex this month on date nights.  The first for dinner at Drag Bingo.  The second to purchase season 3 of Drag Race All Stars.  (The main reason plusle was so excited for the opportunity to do her Trixie Plusel parody.)  I didn't use any of my Visa's PP because the credit card embargo never was lifted.
 
Having extra cash in my checking account this month also helped with not using my credit cards.  I hope to keep that trend going.  I like using cash instead of credit because it prevents me from adding debt and I don’t have to mentally add interest to my check when paying.
 
Credit Card Extra Thoughts:  I am savoring the Plan It program on my Amex card.  I have one final payment to make and my Switch will be completely paid off.  After this billing cycle, I will debate if I should use Plan It for my Christmas plane tickets.  Substituting the interest from a purchase with a small fee is both a mathematically strong choice and I can see the difference it makes to my overall balance.
 
Student Loans:  The total went down, but I can see them adapting to my new payments.  Nelnet fluctuated again as anticipated.  Naturally, the interest is going to grow faster when my payments do half the damage they were last year.  The other two are going down as well, but I expect ACS to start slowing down over the next two months.  I read a post from Poorer Than You that reminded me of ways to attack a student loan’s principle when there is no way to aim extra payments at it on their website.  In February, I want to start looking into that and see what I can do.
  
Wedding accounts:  Our wedding savings will start struggling soon. It is running low and we need to stop relying on it to make our line of credit payments.  Fortunately, we are both starting to contribute more to paying our line of credit.  It will eventually get paid off, but it will feel slugma-ish... I assume.
 
Other notes:  I am feeling very positive about 2018.  My finances are off to a great start.  I just need to be wake-up slapped every morning and decide I am ready to make my goals a reality.
 
With the delightful return of Trixie Plusel this month, I am ready to work it in February.
 
Let’s chat:  How were your finances in January?  What are you doing differently for 2018?
 
Further reading:
Rockstar Finances "Blogdex" Net Worth Tracker- over 500 other bloggers’ net worths
December 2017 Review and Net Worth Update- last month’s review and update
January 2017 Review and Net Worth Update- where I was a year ago
 
*A few notes about my net worth*
 
My net worth only tracks my personal assets and liabilities.  My husband’s finances are not included.  I include our wedding accounts on a separate line because I haven’t figured out how our accounts fit into my personal net worth.
 
The numbers are taken from each accounts’ monthly statements.
 
I don’t use dollar signs because looking at just the numbers helps me focus energy easier for analyzing by removing any prior attachments, emotional or otherwise, so I can look at the numbers as just numbers.  (In my excel file, I don’t use commas either.)
 
I only show the current month and the one before for illustrative purposes.  (My excel file contains the entire year.)
 
I use plusle-red, and minun-blue for illustrative purposes.  (In my excel file, they are all in black.)