Welcome back to a slightly belated monthly update from Root of Good! We’ve been busy the last week or two with some short vacations. Now that things have slowed down a bit, I can put fingers to keyboard and let you know what we’re up to. 

February was a cold month interspersed with warmer sunny days. Perfect days for cleaning up the lakefront, doing some exploring down by the water, and having a toasty campfire at night to stay warm.

February proved a busy month for our family. Both of our older kids applied to transfer to bigger and better universities for the fall and kept busy with a full load of courses. Our planning for our nine week summer trip through Poland continued. Now the logistical framework of lodging, rental cars, and flights are all booked at this point. 

On to our financial progress. February was a great month for our finances in all regards. Our net worth shot up by $46,000, to end the month at $3,002,000. We finally hit the $3M mark! Our income of $2,653 exceeded our spending of $1,746 for the month of February. 

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

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Welcome back to Root of Good for a frosty winter monthly update! We kept busy around the house during January with a lot of indoor activities while it was cold outside. Throughout the last month, we completed the planning and booking for our two month summer trip through Poland. I bet we looked at more than 1,000 airbnbs and hotels during our search for lodging. More on that in the “Travel” section down below. 

At the beginning of the month, we celebrated New Years with family. We all got sick with flu-like symptoms during the early part of the month so we’ve been nursing ourselves back to health since then. It’s nice to not worry about missing work due to being sick, and having to come back to an office inbox with 1,000 unread emails. 

On to our financial progress. January was a decent month for our finances. Our net worth declined slightly, by $10,000, to end the month at $2,956,000. Our income of $1,864 slightly exceeded our spending of $1,828 for the month of January. 

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

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Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! Here we are halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas enjoying the last few weeks of the year. As this post goes live, we are days away from sailing on a cruise to South America and Central America where we will celebrate Christmas. We return home just before New Year’s so our 2023 is rapidly drawing to a close! 

Even though we didn’t really do any traveling this fall, we still kept busy with other daily routines around home. Looking ahead, 2024 is shaping up to be a busy year for travel, with a few domestic trips planned in the first few months of the new year. In the summer, we head to Europe where we will spend a couple of months road tripping around Poland. 

On to our financial progress. November was a great month for our finances. Our net worth skyrocketed by $134,000 to end November at $2,817,000. Our income totaled $1,992, while our spending was a bit more at $2,682 for the month of November. 

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

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Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! Fall is in full swing here, with the leaves shifting from green to various hues of yellow, orange, and red. The mornings are cool and crisp and the afternoons pleasantly mild and sunny. It’s a great time to enjoy the outdoors since the summertime heat, humidity, and bugs are completely gone. 

Even though we don’t have any travel planned for this fall, I’ve been busy researching and planning future trips in my free time. Our next big trip in about a month will take us to South America onboard a cruise from Miami during Christmas break. And after that, we hope to do a couple of smaller trips in the spring before we spend the whole summer of 2024 in Poland. Busy times!

On to our financial progress. October was a mixed month for our finances. Our net worth dropped by $22,000 to end October at $2,683,000. Our income totaled $2,663, while our spending was a rather modest $1,513 for the month of October. 

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

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Hello and welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good. We started last month with heavy bouts of consumerism, spending money like crazy on a new used car and half a dozen plumbing upgrades. By month’s end, we wrapped up the September projects and purchases and enjoyed more time relaxing in this beautiful fall weather we have right now.

In travel news, we officially have the bookends to our summer 2024 trip in place. We fly into Krakow, Poland in June for a nine week vacation that will take us from the mountains in the south of Poland to the Baltic Sea in the north. Our plans are wide open right now, and we may rebook the plane tickets depending on how our travel itinerary shapes up. 

On to our financial progress. September was mostly negative for our finances. Our net worth dropped by $79,000 to end September at $2,705,000. Our income totaled an impressive $8,498, while our spending was shockingly high at $12,714 for the month of September. 

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

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Hello and welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! It’s been a month since we arrived home from our two month trip to Argentina and Brazil. The first couple of weeks back home were a haze of getting set up in Raleigh, back to school events, and catching up on things I put on pause before departing home in June. Then, once all the kids were back in school and life slowed down, we had time to relax. 

In the last month, we spent a lot of time researching and buying several major purchases that have been in the works for a while. You’ll have to read on to find out what we got! 

On to our financial progress. August was a mixed month for our finances. Our net worth dropped by $75,000 to end August at $2,784,000. Our income totaled $3,571, while our spending was a relatively moderate $2,615 for the month of August. 

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

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Hello and welcome back to Root of Good! The month of May just wrapped up which means it is time for another update. The biggest news is our middle child finished high school a year early! She wrapped up her one AP exam and the last days of class during May, and the graduation ceremony is in a few days. 

In other exciting news, we are merely days away from hopping on a plane for our two month summer vacation in Argentina and Brazil. Essentially all of the flight and lodging bookings are done at this point. Right now, we are looking closer at what sightseeing we will do while in South America. 

May was a bit of a rough month for our finances. Our net worth dropped by $78,000 to end May at $2,683,000. Our income totaled $1,576, while our spending was $2,976 for the month of May. 

Let’s jump into the details from last month.

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