Back to the world of blogging!

Coming out of lurking mode to give a bit of an update.

- Received a 12% raise last fall and am still working the 2nd job, so cash flow in is great.

- Celebrated a year of being cc debt free in Feb 2010! I still use ccs as my main source of payments for most items, but pay them off early and often.

- A good friend celebrated paying off all of her cc debt just this month. She had been told several years ago to file for bankruptcy, but refused and worked hard to pay it all off. Impressed and proud to have friends like this. :)

- The Porsche I so enjoyed driving was...cursed. Thank goodness I bought a warranty on that sucker. Warranty cost $2200 and it saved me $10k+ in 2 years. Still not happy with that 'investment' - new brakes, new tires, major service @40k miles, hassle of taking it to the shop a dozen+ times, and the loss of paying taxes on a car I only kept 20 months was...a lesson learned.

- Bought a new (to me) car last month. 2008 BMW 335i with 28k miles bought for 30k (out the door! wow I feel like I stole it). 2 years of original warranty and zero cost maint and then an additional 2 years of CPO warranty. Felt pretty awesome to put 12k down and finance the rest at 24 months with .09% financing. Plan is to have a fully paid off car in 2 years and then keep it 2 more years before while it is still under CPO. Much smarter purchase for me, again I dont claim it is a frugal choice.

- Savings was up to about 25k prior to car purchase. It is at close to 10k now and will be working to push that back up.

- Retirement saving made no progress. Didnt qualify for much of it due to too high of income. Company doesnt match, so I didnt even contribute to a 401k.

- I spent a LOT of money on travel last year and have zero regrets or complaints! I havent added it up, but Id guess 15-20k? Rome, LAx2, Indy, Seattle, Florida (Miami, Tampa and Jax on 3 diff trips), Atlanta, Phillyx100 (including the entire month of Dec when I sublet an apt), Napa Valley...that might be it.