Hi from Oklahoma City! I have a house under contract here and am scheduled to close in two weeks. Hell on an intro, eh?

I figure it can be a primary residence, and later on, an investment property. I’m finally getting started with real estate investing.

My rate is 3.125% and I’m getting a great deal on a nice-sized house – 4 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms. My monthly payment for mortgage, property tax, and insurance will be ~$1,500 – which was my monthly nomad budget. The urban core area is on the up and up. It’s on a quiet dead-end street with only 9 houses.

Of course I’ll want to buy furniture and spruce the place up a bit, which will cost more money. But I figure it’ll all even out.

This means my nomadic adventure of living on the road is coming to an end soon. But for the best reasons possible – I’ll get to spend more time with my son, start buying investment properties, and make art again. I’ll also get to keep up with my health and exercise goals a lot more easily.

I’m nervous, excited, second-guessing everything, and ultimately deciding to take all of this on. It’ll be good. I feel it.

But, my net worth is gonna take a short-term plunge – right when I was getting to the halfway mark. What a journey!

November 2021 Freedom update

• Link: Track your net worth with Personal Capital

My other big news is I officially have $200K invested! 

As you’ll see, my current net worth is $240K, so investments are basically all of my net worth.

 

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I hit $100K invested on July 22, 2020. So it took about a year and three months to add another $100K. As of today, I’m working toward my third $100K.

This includes my 401k, Roth and traditional IRAs, taxable brokerage account, and a small amount of crypto.

House house… house!

So… I’m buying a house. I’m putting 5% down and locking in a low interest rate. There were other places I wanted to go on my nomadic adventures, but I feel it’s time to make room for other things. There will always be places I’ll want to go. But I want to be here for a while.

And, there are a lot of other factors at play that aren’t my story to share. Suffice it to say that this decision transcends finances, but is about family and connection and having a stable place. I believe this’ll be a good long-term move that will set me up for the next phase of my life – which includes being closer to my bio-son.

In a way, I’ll still feel free. There is a lot of good for me here. I want to be part of that goodness for a while.

Plus – financially – it’s time to diversify and add some equity and real estate to my portfolio. The plan is to keep this house around for a long, long time in one way or another.

Net worth gyrations

Because of the house purchase, the $30K I had in savings will go toward the down payment. So my net worth will fall later this month. But really – I’m just moving that money into another place. I don’t think I’ll ever lose it.

But, it’ll take some time for my net worth to bounce back after the sale is done. And all the furniture. And the repairs I want to make, including adding central heat and air. (The house is from 1938 and still has AC window units and a gas furnace. Yay modernity!)

I’m also potentially getting another – actual investment from Day One – property in New York state. It’s a place I found over the summer while I was in the Catskills. That place is under contract too, and I’m looking to close on it right after the Oklahoma place.

I’m also being gifted three acres of land in Arkansas. So in another month, I could potentially go from nomadic and houseless to having three pieces of property with a combined total worth of $500,000. Holy smokes.

But I get ahead of myself. My point is: net worth fluctuations are coming, but so is a lot of other stuff.

By the numbers

I had a stretch goal to get $15,000 into my taxable brokerage account my the end of the year. It’s looking more and more like that isn’t going to happen.

I also worked really hard to put $30,000 in savings. Between the move and property purchase(s), that’s probably going to sink closer to $0.

In 2022, my goals will be to bulk up my savings again and invest extra cash in my taxable brokerage account.

But for this year, I’m on track to max out my 401k, and have made some huge and significant financial progress. Here are the numbers:

	Current	Last month	Change	2021 Goal
ASSETS
Overall investments	$200,190	$184,870	+$15,320	As much as possible
401k (contributions only)	$15,833	$14,167	+$1,666	$19,500
Traditional IRA	$118,923	$110,917	+$8,006	xx (can't contribute)
Roth IRA	$48,655	$45,344	+$3,311	$6,000	COMPLETE!
Taxable brokerage	$9,847	$9,200	+$647	$15,000
Savings	$30,241	$30,180	+$61	$30,000	COMPLETE!
Net worth in Personal Capital	$240,017	$226,460	+$13,557	$500,000 (overall goal)	Track your net worth with Personal Capital

Overall, I’m pleased with my progress. I’m really glad to be borrowing bank money for a home loan. Other people’s money, baby. OPM.

And there are other things in 2022 that will help me financially that I’ve been working on. I can’t say just yet, but… things are shaping up to be really, really good. I can’t wait to share everything!

November 2021 Freedom update bottom line

• Link: Track your net worth with Personal Capital and get a $20 Amazon gift card

This past month found me:

• Hitting $200K in investment accounts
• Putting a house under contract in Oklahoma
• Putting an investment property under contract in New York state
• Continuing to invest 25% of my paycheck into my 401k
• Um that’s a LOT going on there
• Yes, that’s definitely enough for one month

I didn’t even get to tell y’all about driving from New York to Vermont to Delaware to Virginia to Tennessee to Oklahoma. It’s been… a ride (literally). Everything moved so quickly once it got going. I’m fairly breathless at the moment. 

You can also follow me on Instagram for more pics and stories over the next few weeks. Thank you to everyone who reads these updates. It’s the world to me. 🌌

Stay safe and scrappy out there – more updates to come! ✨

-H.

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