I've been focusing on decreasing my debts this year. So far I've paid off $23,250, and I'm within a thousand of my (revised) year-end debt goal of a total under $50,000. (The goal was 60k at the beginning of the year but a surprise bonus when the company I work for was acquired allowed me to pay down more debt than I had expected.) Of that, the mortage will be $25,760 after the monthly payment hits tomorrow. I should reach the $50k goal sometime during November and am currently projecting the year-end total debt at $48k.
Hopefully assets continue rising, although I'm definitely expecting some volatility with the election next week (I'm not expectingthe winner to be called on Tuesday, although if there were enough certainty with the Electoral College votes to call it by then, that would be great.)
Traditionally, November and December are the strongest months of the year for the market, but we'll see how that plays out this year.
Whichever candidate wins, there will be ramifactions for the markets and for taxes, but typically the reaction around the election itself is short-lived. It's the policies that matter more in the long run.
And as for policies, the President generally can't act alone; the results of the Congressional races matter, as do judicial reviews. One thing that surprised me was an article in The Economist (this week's or last week's) showing that a "trifecta" outcome is actually more likely than a split party decision.
Whichever way the election goes, I'm looking forward to getting rid of that debt in the next 3-4 years and starting to build a buffer for myself of at least one year's living expenses in safe investments in a brokerage account. Right now there's only about 1.5 months' worth. I've got about $11k worth of loan debt that will be paid off in 2025, and, as those loans mature, I should be able to divert most of the payments towards brokerage account savings (except there's one big home improvement project that I will need to fund as well.)
November 1st, 2024 at 11:38 pm 1730504303
But of course, that's a serious over-simplification, so who really knows? Right now, we've also got the elections going on, war in the middle east, and on-going economic war with China. But on the bright side, maybe it can only go up from here too.
I know we're not suppose to talk about politics, but I'm just going to say I've already early voted the Democrat ticket all the way down. There is literally no way I consider Trump a viable option in nearly any conceivable way.
November 3rd, 2024 at 07:33 am 1730619197
November 8th, 2024 at 07:18 am 1731050325
November 30th, 2024 at 02:13 am 1732932836