Progress to Financial Independence- June 2017

This month was very busy, not so much because of weekend trips this time, but because of overtime at work. Although we did go on an awesome weekend trip to Washington DC which was a lot of fun and very interesting. We got to stay at a beautiful Fairmont hotel suite there for free by using a free night and room upgrade Whitney had from a credit card sign up bonus. She also got a $50 meal voucher on that card to use at the hotel restaurant which was very good. On another weekend, we went on an amazing hike near where we are staying that overlooked the historic town of Harpers Ferry, WV. Harpers Ferry is somewhere I would recommend everyone visit because there is some incredible scenery.

I definitely made some significant progress toward financial independence in June. I had two 60+ hour work weeks, as well as quite a bit of overtime the other weeks this past month, which meant some big paychecks. June had five Fridays which meant five paychecks as well. I also updated my financial assumptions and goals which involved reducing my target net worth and increasing my average savings per month to make things a little more realistic. This has led to a drastic reduction in the time left to FI, which is now only a little over two years away!

Due to all of the overtime we’ve been working on this contract, I was able to negotiate a bonus with our travel company for each hour of overtime worked that will be back paid once we sign a contract for our next assignment. Whitney and I were extremely happy about this because it will likely be an extra $2,000 or so for each of us. Overtime pay for travelers is usually not very lucrative because it is only time and a half of our taxable wages with no additional stipends. This makes the hourly rate of overtime work only about half of our normal hourly wages due to the tax free stipends! Getting the extra $15/hour bonus I was able to secure has made the overtime work a lot more tolerable.

July will likely involve a lot of expenses. We are planning to get our camper worked on at the end of this month as well as our truck since it, again, isn’t starting. We’re hoping that the overtime pay will offset these costs, but we haven’t gotten quotes on either of them yet so we will see. We have been looking for our next contracts which we hope to start 30 days from now, but so far have been unsuccessful in Illinois. We’re hopeful that we will be able to find something there. But, if not, taking a week or two off wouldn’t be the end of the world considering how much we’ve worked during this contract. I could definitely use a vacation.

Speaking of vacations, my little brother graduated from high school in June, and I surprised him with a trip to Aruba that I have planned for December, with the majority of the cost paid for with credit card rewards. I’m hoping it will be an awesome trip and allow us some time to spend together since I haven’t seen him much while traveling over the past two years.

Overall June was very eventful. Let’s see what July brings!