Lord love me, I am not known for my brevity in writing, but this should be a pretty quick update. It’s been a long week with Halloween, the time change, the election, and getting ready for a work trip next week.

Since I pulled the latest numbers on Tuesday night, the stock market has rallied for the last two days (it’s now Thursday night), and my overall net worth is now over $350,000. This turnaround has already given me momentum to close the last $150,000 gap to a $500,000 net worth goal.

November 2024 Freedom update

• Link: Track your net worth with Empower Personal Dashboard
• Link: Join Points Hub, the ultimate points, miles, and travel rewards community on Circle!

This month, I get three paychecks and get to bill for $2,000 in side hustle work. If the stock market holds, I should be doing pretty well by December.

My overall investments are — as of this moment — up to $336,497. I’m currently putting around $1,000 per month into a 401k and, like the last couple of months, throwing every other cent into paying down my credit cards.

I’ll be proper chuffed once they’re paid off and looking forward to how much of a dent I can put in my balances this month. The stuff of life (groceries, so many groceries, doctor visits, clothes, the little lives) has a way of making funds disappear.

It won’t always be this way, but it is for now, which is a big part of my “delayed” net worth progress.

I’m also thinking about how to get Points Hub out to more people. It’s a fun group, points-related, no politics, away from social media. I think I will find a lot of comfort there in the future, and hope others will, too. Here’s my writeup about it if you’re curious about joining.

This month’s progress

To recap the last month, I:

• Contributed $1,000 to my 401k
• Paid down a few lingering bills and ready to get into the bigger credit balances
• Did a bit of client work
• Rested a lot

I also downgrade my Hilton Aspire card. The new $550 annual fee hit, and it simply wasn’t worth it, even with all the extra benefits. I got a new U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve card, and have been amazed at how many places accept mobile payments to earn 3X points, which is essentially a 4.5% travel rebate: Dollar Tree, CVS, COSTCO, food trucks, stalls at the farmer’s market, the pizza place, every grocery store…

Mostly I held the line this month. I’ll also admit I was on the “pollercoaster” and having a lot of anxiety about the election. Now that it’s over, I’m getting ready to focus my attention elsewhere — probably more inward. I realize that sounds cryptic. It’s not meant to be. I just want to prioritize time to get some thinking done.

By the numbers

The shifts this month were small. It was as if the world was holding its breath, waiting to see what would happen. My investments barely moved, and I paid the minimums on what I could. So yeah, just small things. It felt like a lot and also enough, given all the rising energy of the last few weeks.

	Current	Last Month	Change	2024 Goal
ASSETS
Overall investments	$325,402	$324,793	+$609	As much as possible
Roth IRA total	$86,382	$85,610	+$772
Roth IRA 2024	$2,700	$2,700	xx	$7,000 (in new contributions)
Taxable brokerage + UTMAs	$4,153	$4,136	+$17	$25,000 (total invested)
Savings	$141	$70	+$71	$30,000
Raw land	$40,400	$40,400	xx	No goal, just including for completeness 🙂
LIABILITIES
Car loan	$23,283	$23,578	-$295	?
Credit card #1	$8,324	$8,408	-$84	$0
Credit card #2 (0% APR)	$11,351	$11,466	-$115	As much as possible
Net worth in Empower Personal Dashboard	$343,348	$344,811	-$1,463	$500,000 (overall goal)	Track your net worth with Personal Capital

Short- and long-term goals still include:

• Pay off all credit cards 
• Build my savings account again in 2025
• Work up to 15% in 401k contributions at the new job
• Save $7,000 in my Roth IRA (to count toward the 2024 limit)
• Trim our budget as much as possible—no “extras” for a while

November 2024 Freedom update bottom line

• Link: Join Points Hub

Eliot let me know my comments aren’t working here. I think I fixed it. It takes a sec but appears after refreshing the page.

Last time I had comment issues, I had to reinstall the plug-in and lost all the comments up to that time. I don’t want to lose all the comments again and can’t decide what’s worse: losing every comment or not getting any new ones.

But I’m here. If comments don’t work, I’m also on Instagram even though I don’t post much. Try to comment and see how it goes. If it doesn’t go through, find me on Insta or X (@harlanvaughn on everything).

I’m still kind of processing things. There weren’t a lot of financial changes this month. I guess that’s a good thing. I’m happy, alive, grateful, and still here. I feel bad for turning in a “non-update” this month, but I’d rather get it out late and keep resting/thinking than not say anything. I still love it here even though life changed so much these past few years. And if the recent past is any indication, many more are on the way.

Join me on Points Hub — I’m trying to be on there every day. No politics, no social media, just points and travel chat with zero fluff. I’d love to get more people hanging out on there. There are a few partnerships and many resources already. Think of it as a Facebook group without having to be on Facebook — and I encourage members to share and use each other’s referral links! Here are the membership options:

• Pro Monthly – Just $5/month forever with coupon code OUTANDOUT -> Join now.
• Pro Annual – Just $49/year forever with coupon code HALFOFF -> Join now.
• Pro Lifetime – $99 one time → Join now.

By the way, this post is under 1,000 words. Indeed, I kept it brief.

And as always, thank you for reading and following my journey. Hope everyone is doing well!

Stay safe and scrappy out there! ✨

-H.

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