financial wellness

Continuing the theme of how I've gotten my shit together lately, here are some steps I've taken financially.

First, I decided to focus on retirement. Specifically, early retirement. Marrying a man 15 years older than you is pretty motivating. I want to retire at 55. Maybe even 50, if I can swing it. In order to do that, I have to start taking steps now. 

What am I doing?

1. Maxing out my 401k.

2. Maxing out my HSA. The idea is that I can use this to pay for health insurance until I'm 65 and am eligible for Medicare. In addition to maxing it out, there is an option to invest HSA funds further into mutual funds once you reach a certain point. Which I'm doing.

3. Opening and maxing out a Roth IRA. The money will earn more this way than sitting in a savings account.

4. Speaking of, I also transferred the majority of my savings into a high-interest account. Earning 4% interest on something that's sitting there anyway is just smart.

5. Miscellaneous investment strategies: I have 2 and they're kinda silly. 

The first one is, if I splurge on something, I have to put that same amount into stocks or mutual funds. I have an Acorns account for this.

The second is, if I buy something off of Amazon (vs supporting a local or small business), I have to put that same amount into cryptocurrency. Diversification, baby. I use a Coinbase account for this. Same goes for gambling money. Equal amounts go into crypto. And honestly, I get a better return from crypto than I do in casinos. Of course.

Our monthly expenses are fairly low right now, and we're pretty frugal so it works. I thought it would hurt to max out all those retirement accounts, but if the money comes out before I see it, I don't miss it.

Long term, we plan to sell the river house and use that money to buy some acreage/build a tiny home, so that once we retire our monthly expenses are even lower. The goal is no mortgage by that time. Plus we will have lots of space and freedom to live a little more off the grid. Getting crunchier by the minute over here. Plus I would LOVE to not have to set an alarm clock anymore... only 10ish more years!

6. In addition to the financial preparations, I've been really motivated to start working out/ seeing the doctor/taking better care of myself. Because what's the good of retiring early if I'm too tired or sick to enjoy it?