Note: I was technically supposed to post this earlier this week, but noticed that no one was signed up for today (plus I was super busy earlier), so I'm posting a bit late, under a throwaway account! Fair warning: I'm VERY verbose, so this will be long!
Section One: Assets and Debt
As I mentioned above, I make $56k per year as an administrator in higher education. My husband (K) just got a raise to making $155k per year. He works as a lawyer, has been in the workforce for about 12 years. I won't get into too many details but he works for a small boutique firm, not Biglaw. He also sometimes gets a yearly bonus of around $10k-20k but it's not guaranteed or anything like that. K and I have totally combined finances, so the below numbers are for both of us. I have a humanities PhD but I decided to leave academia and find an alt-ac job. My current position has good work-life balance (I never work past 5 pm), but pays terribly and my university is very badly run. I'm hoping to leave higher education all together in the future and am currently enrolled in a certificate program to try to make a career transition to instructional design.
The big elephant in the room is that my husband, K, makes a lot more money than me. When we first met, he was paying off massive amounts of student loans and making much less, and I was debt free with a lot of savings, so we both spent about the same amount. Now he makes 3x what I make and we are both debt-free, so the difference is much more noticeable. We do argue about money sometimes (more in the past), but the reality is that I have a humanities PhD and will likely never out earn him, and he knew that when I married him, lol. Because of all the labor I do around the house and in our lives to support him as he works a much more intense job, I was very clear that I believed we should split our finances equally as soon as we got married. We don't have separate accounts and we generally check in with one another whenever we are planning to spend more than $100. This system works for us for now.
I also want to address the question about parental or family support. Although I technically paid all of my own bills since I got my Bachelor's degree, my parents supported me a lot by paying for my flights home to visit at Christmas or in the summer as Xmas presents/birthday presents. My parents also paid for my undergraduate degree (and K's parents paid for his undergraduate degree as well). They also gave us about $15k to pay for our wedding.
Finally, my parents recently gave me $20k as an "early inheritance." They told me they plan to do this every year (depending on the stock market). We put this money into a brokerage. I don't consider my parents rich, as they both worked hourly jobs in health care my entire life (as a nurse and respiratory therapist - both with only associate's degrees). We never owned a new car, when we went on vacation we stayed in hostels , and shopped almost exclusively at Goodwill. But they scrimped and saved and now they have over $1 million in a retirement account. So I want to acknowledge my financial privilege in that I came from this kind of background. K's parents are similar.
Retirement Balance: $186k (combination of 401k, 403b, 457, 2 Roth IRAs, and taxable brokerage account).
Equity: None, we rent.
Savings account balance: Approximately $45k.
Checking account balance: Right now, around 8k.
Credit card debt: Right now, around $3k. But we pay it off each month with our checking account balance.
Student loan debt: $0. We finally paid off my husband’s law school loans (around $130k), last year. I didn’t have any student loans from undergrad (parents paid) and my MA & PhD were fully funded.
Section Two: Income
Income Progression: I’ve been working in my current field for 3 years. I started off making about $53k and got tiny 2% “merit increases” twice. Then in July my payroll title was changed, which triggered a required raise of about $2k. (I am dramatically underpaid).
Before my current position, I was in academia. I worked as a visiting assistant professor for one year at my alma mater (made $50k for 9 months of work) and before that I was a graduate student for 7 years. I was paid $18k-21k in stipends each year and my tuition & benefits were covered. Luckily, I lived in a very low cost of living area and this was enough for me to live on without going into debt. I got my PhD in 2017. Before I was a graduate student, I taught English in Japan for three years and made around $36k per year. In high school and college, I had random jobs that provided grocery/spending money, but I was lucky enough to have parents that paid my tuition and my rent in college.
I’m currently trying to make a career change (as you will see in my diary) and enrolled in a certificate program which runs from Autumn 2020 to Spring 2021 in order to help with that.
Main Job Monthly Take Home: $7,634. This probably seems low relative to our joint income, but we max out our 401k (K) and 403b (me). I work for the state government, which means I’m also eligible for something called a Deferred Compensation Plan (457b). This is basically the same as a 401k but you can withdraw contributions and gains from the account at any age without penalty (of course, you still have to pay taxes). I also max this out, and the limit is the same as a 401k/403b - $19.5k. Also this number is before K’s raise is accounted for. It won’t increase until his end of February paycheck.
Other deductions - I have health insurance taken out (about $80 a month for me, K’s firm covers his premiums) and taxes. WA has no state taxes, so it’s only federal taxes. I used to have to pay $50 / month for a bus pass (K's was free), but I don’t pay any longer because I’m working from home during COVID.
Final note - the sum I mentioned in the headline includes a variable bonus my husband gets. My base pay is $56k and his is $155k (as of February 1). This year he also got a bonus of $20k, which is set up a bit strangely. About $4k of this was structured as a 3% matching contribution to his 401k and the rest was taxable income. In small law firms, it’s unusual to get any 401k match so this was nice.
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: None.
Any Other Monthly Income Here: We get some interest from our savings account… like $25 a month.
Section Three: Expenses
Rent: Rent comes to approximately $2,050 total for a one-bedroom apartment. Rent itself is $1886, then we have pet rent ($25 per month), bicycle parking ($15 a month) and water / sewage / gas, which is usually $120-150 (variable cost).
Renters insurance: $157.76, paid annually. $13 a month.
Retirement contribution: In addition to the 401k, 403b, and 457, which all come out before taxes, we max out our Roth IRAs. That means $500 each per month per person (for a yearly total of $6k each). As I noted up top, we match out our 401k and 403b (19,500 each) and our 457. My employee also offers a 7.5% match. K's employee offers a 3% match but it is included in his yearly bonus so it's not guaranteed (confusing).
Savings contribution: We put $500 per month into our emergency fund. We also put about $860 a month into our “sinking fund,” which covers large and small annual or sporadic purchases such as vacations, gifts, Amazon Prime renewal, car insurance and renters insurance, etc.
Investment contribution: $875 per month into a taxable brokerage at Vanguard.
In total, we save about 47% of our gross income. We can do this because we keep our housing cost low relative to our high income, we don’t have any debt remaining, we don’t have any kids or parents who need financial support, and we’re very privileged in a lot of ways. We are hoping to FIRE within 10 years.
Debt payments: None.
Donations: We budget $100 per month for donations, which includes one-time donations as well as some reoccurring donations. My husband does pro bono work as well. I would like to increase this by quite a bit, but I still have a hard time budgeting for donations because I spent 7 years living on approximately $20k a year. To go from that to making more than 10x that amount within 3-4 years is obviously something that I am very privileged for, but it is still hard for me emotionally to comprehend at times.
Electric: ~$50-100 (billed every other month)
Wifi/Cable/Landline: An extortionate $87.12 for slow internet that only works for Zoom calls about half the time. Do I really live in one of the tech cities of the future?
Cellphone: $170 (This includes both service and paying off two new iPhones. We could have paid them off up front, but it was actually cheaper by like $50 to go on a payment plan.)
Subscriptions: BritBox ($7.70), Spotify ($16.50), HBOMax ($16.50), We Hate Movies Patreon (my favorite podcast - $8.81). My parents pay for Netflix and my sister pays for Hulu, and we all share.
Gym membership: None. K and I both run and do yoga with YouTube videos. Before the pandemic, we went to yoga classes pretty frequently in person. I’d like to do some online synchronous yoga classes but find it hard to make time.
Pet expenses: Varies, but I budget $50 per month and also include an emergency fund for my cat’s vet bills in our sinking fund. She’s 11 years old and probably asthmatic, so I know her vet bills are going to increase over time.
Car payment / insurance: We own our car outright. Insurance billed yearly is $2,097, about $174 per month.
Regular therapy: $0
Paid hobbies: Nothing regular, sporadic language classes and art supplies.
Other expenses: Right now I’m doing a certificate to hopefully help with a career change. The total cost for tuition is about $5k and we already saved it up (included in our 'sinking fund') basically through spending less during the pandemic. I’ve paid two quarters so far, and the last quarter (due in March) will be a bit more - about $2.3k.
__________
Day 1
Morning: I wake up at 5:30 am. Ever since the pandemic, my sleep schedule has been shot. At first, I was so happy not to have to leave the house at 7:15 for my 45 minute bus commute and I slept in a lot. But the stress (and maybe getting old?) has made me an early riser, no matter how much I try to sleep in. I do value my early mornings with just me, my cat, and my coffee, though.
I start work at 8 am and begin by triaging my emails. I have a bunch of deadlines this week, so it’s busier than usual. My job tends to be very seasonal, and sometimes I have a ton of work and sometimes I have none and can work on other longer-term projects. I have a piece of toast for breakfast and place a Whole Foods delivery order for the following day at 10:30 am. We made a meal plan and put everything in the cart the day before ($117.36, including tip).
Afternoon: I have my lunch break from noon to 1 pm. It doesn’t really matter when I take my lunch break, since I’m salaried, but the others in my office are hourly so in the before times we used to always close our office during the same time. I have a piece of leftover delivery pizza and some spinach risotto that I made a few days earlier. I also have half a brownie – the last one from a batch I made a few days ago (K gets the other half). He also has leftovers for lunch.
I should say at this point that both K and I are lucky enough to have been working almost entirely from home since early March. An area near Seattle was one of the first places to get hit by COVID-19, and my state and both of our employers have been taking it very seriously ever since. Working from home hasn’t always been easy since we live in a 600-square foot apartment. Also, there is a three-story townhouse being built directly next door to us and I can hear the pounding in my dreams at this point.
Around 2 pm, I go for a 2-mile run. I feel like some money diarists tend to toss off things like “oh, I went for an easy 7 mile run,” at the drop of a hat, so I want to be clear – running for 2 miles isn’t easy for me; it’s exhausting, annoying, sweaty, and generally gross. Also I am very slow. But it has kept me sane during quarantine.
Meanwhile, my husband goes to our local pet store to get an enzymatic cleaner (our cat peed in one of our suitcases… I think it’s probably a lost cause, but it was basically brand new, so worth a try) and special weight-loss cat food. Our cat is an 11-year-old rescue from the Humane Society and she is a chonky girl. We had to sign a waiver when we adopted her, saying that we understood that she was very overweight, lol. Our vet recommended a special diet food, rather than just restricting her intake as we have been doing, so we will give it a try ($78). My husband also stops buy our local wine store and picks up two bottles. We’ve been doing a dry January, so this will be our first drink for a while ($27.53).
I have a phone interview scheduled for 4 pm – just a preliminary interview with an internal recruiter. It’s the first ‘corporate’ job interview I’ve ever had, since I’ve been in academia my entire life. I’m trying to make a pivot into instructional design / training and development. I’m just excited to get an interview. It seems to go pretty well, but who knows. They tell me they will probably get back to me by the end of this week.
Evening: My husband whips up a random meal of fridge remnants – pesto pasta with sausage and a fridge salad with feta and bell peppers. It’s pretty tasty with a little Sauvignon Blanc. During dinner, we play a card game we call gin rummy, although it bears no resemblance to the actual game. After dinner, I make a chocolate cake with orange buttercream frosting and we watch Cobra Kai.
Daily total: $222.89
Day 2
Morning: Up early again, a piece of toast for breakfast (very exciting). We’re out of eggs until our Whole Foods order arrives. I’m working on creating some tedious but necessary spreadsheets this morning.
Noon: Our Whole Foods order arrives around noon. Excitement! They’ve given us a half-rotten bag of romaine lettuce and substituted pecans for hazelnuts. I should probably just double mask and go to Trader Joe’s myself (our regular spot, only a 5-minute walk from my apartment). I’m just getting anxious about these new variants.
I have leftover meatloaf and spinach risotto again for lunch. Lots of meetings and more organizing spreadsheets in the afternoon. Around 3 pm, I go for my daily ritual - a 20-minute walk around my neighborhood. It’s still raining slightly but I need to get out. Halfway through the walk, I get an email from my apartment manager telling me the apartment will no longer accept debit card payments, direct deposit, or credit card payments for paying rent. In other words, only checks or money orders (?!). Ugh. Our lease is up in 4 months and we will not be renewing our lease. Our last apartment manager was a gambling addict who may have been stealing people’s identities, but by God, he kept things working. Ever since they fired him, this place has been going downhill.
Evening: I check my bank statements to update my budget spreadsheet and realize that I have been billed the wrong amount of rent. They actually charged me less than they should have. I don’t trust my apartment manager not to start charging me a late fee or something for this, so I call them up. They are baffled by how to fix this, which you would think would be the one thing you would want to get right, if you’re renting out apartments.
K cooks dinner – steak with a Roquefort sauce and glazed brussels sprouts. It’s from a French cookbook we recently bought and it is delicious. I work on classwork for my certificate program while he cooks. After dinner, I do the dishes and buy the 13th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. I watch the first episode – lots of shocking twists and turns! I’m planning to watch the rest of the episodes together with my younger sister, M ($22.01).
Daily total: $22.01
Day 3
Morning: K has an 8 am dentist appointment, so he takes off early. He already paid for the work last month, so there’s no charge. I have a piece of toast for breakfast and get to work checking my emails. It’s 8:20 am and the construction crew building a townhouse next door is blasting mariachi music. I’m glad someone is having fun. At least the sun is coming out.
Someone at work has made a critical error, but it wasn’t me, thank God. I was the one who found out about it, but it’s still going to cause a big old headache for me. I’m ready to be done with this job. K and I go for a run so that I can exhaust myself enough to no longer be furious about said careless error.
Noon: I have leftover spinach risotto and meatloaf again – exciting. I’m busy at work but frankly, not a lot going on other than that. Still no word about fixing my rent payments. I’m not really willing to pursue this any further at this point.
Evening: I start making chili (Turkey Chili from the NY Times) and cornbread (from my new cookbook, Jubilee). K is doing some work on our investments when he announces that, somehow, a transfer was scheduled from our checking account to our savings account of $55k (?!) We obviously don’t have $55k in our checking account, so we start frantically trying to figure out what’s going on. Numerous phone calls later, we still don’t know if that was a hack, if my husband somehow mistakenly scheduled the transfer himself, or if the bank messed it up. Either way, it doesn’t seem like any harm was done since the bank with our checking account just declined the transaction. But it seems really strange and worrisome. We get to work changing the passwords on all of our accounts, just in case it was some kind of hack.
After dinner (and chocolate cake), I have a Zoom happy hour with a local friend. We occasionally see each other outside but it’s nice to have a longer chat from the comfort of our living rooms. We both love murder mysteries, so we signed up for a service where a company sends us letters with clues and we try to solve the mystery together. It’s a fun way to stay connected and look forward to something during the pandemic. The service costs about $15 per month, but I paid for it in lump sum for 3 months, so it’s not included in my budget above. I drink some wine and we vent about work (we work at the same place) before getting started on the puzzle.
Daily total: $0
Day 4
Morning: I sleep in a bit, which is nice. Get up around 7 am. My parents are both getting their 2nd vaccine today – they’re both in their 70s and I am so relieved. I send my mom a “congratulations on being vaccinated!” text and we chat for a bit. I have leftover cornbread with honey and butter for breakfast – soooo good.
Work is not particularly exciting today, but someone sends me a last-minute request for something that does not need to be so urgent. I feel annoyed. Still no word from the interviewers on Monday, and I’m beginning to suspect I wasn’t selected to move forward. Too bad. K pays for a Wordpress website for the year (it’s a work-related website, but sadly his work doesn’t reimburse him). It costs $92.48.
Noon: The mariachi music is particularly loud today. I stand out on my balcony in the sun for a while and watch the workers. It’s been interesting seeing a house go up next door in real time, especially since I’m at home all the time. The workers are balancing on the top of the third story wall without, as far as I can see, anything like a safety line. It seems unsafe, but I presume they know what they’re doing.
We booked a cabin for the upcoming weekend in the Hood Canal region of Washington to do some hiking and birdwatching. I want to be as safe as possible and not go to any grocery stores or risk spreading COVID in any way while I’m there, so I place another grocery order with Whole Foods just for some special treats for the weekend. The cabin has a small kitchen and a grill, so we’re planning to make a fancy steak salad on Saturday. I order chips and hummus, some fancy cheese and meats, Tate’s cookies (I’ve heard a lot of good things about these), a baguette, and the ingredients for the steak salad. I also order a few staples I forgot in our last order, like sweet potatoes, more coffee, and half and half. It comes to $87.41, including tip, but that does include like $30 worth of steak. For some reason, I can’t order a small amount of steak online, so I’m planning to freeze half of it for later. (I include this purchase in our vacation fund budget, rather than under our regular grocery budget).
Around 2 pm, K makes a quick trip to our local wine store to buy an Oregon pinot noir and some port to enjoy at the cabin ($59.45). This store has an outdoor walk-up counter where you can tell the owner what you’re looking for, and he brings you some options (the store is way too small to allow customers to enter during Covid). It’s fun to chat with another human being, even briefly.
Evening: After work, we spend a little time rebalancing our investing and retirement accounts. We decide to put more money into bonds and a little bit into REIT’s as a hedge against a potential crash or recession in the future. Then I start making dinner – Broken Eggs (Huevas Rotas) from the NY Times cooking site. You basically cook the potatoes in a skillet in water, spices, and olive oil, and then sauté them to crisp them up once the water evaporates. Then you add onion, lots of garlic, and finally some eggs. It is delicious. I eat it with leftover cornbread while watching RuPaul’s Drag Race season 13 with my sister – we watch the first two episodes. It’s full of twists and turns. A note about this – we have an elaborate procedure for watching shows together developed during quarantine whereby we start the show at the same with an earbud in one ear, while FaceTiming. I also have chocolate cake, of course.
Later, I get an email that I’ve signed up for HBO on Amazon Prime. I definitely have not. I text my mom, who shares my account, and she tells me she signed up by mistake. I cancel right away and luckily they won’t charge us for it.
Meanwhile, K is doing an online Japanese language class over Zoom. He’s been interested in learning ever since we went to Japan last January. I lived in Japan for 3 years so I was able to take us around to a lot of more obscure places and he really enjoyed the trip – it was a blast.
K starts a YouTube yoga class (from Do Yoga With Me – my favorite channel) and I join him for part of it before bed around 10 pm.
Daily total: $239.34
Day 5
Morning: I get up around 7 am and we go for a run first thing. I prefer running early in the morning because there are fewer people to avoid during COVID. We do a different route today – it’s longer (3 miles) but has fewer hills. It’s a slog, as always, but I feel good when I get back right around 8 am. I jump straight onto my computer to start checking work emails and my husband makes us avocado and egg toast for breakfast - it is absolutely delicious.
We talk about how our bathroom smells distinctly mildewy (yay for being a grown-up because I guess this is what we talk about now) and we buy two big buckets of DampRid on Amazon ($26.60). I’ve found this to be a necessity in Seattle. Mid-morning, I take a break from work and start packing for our trip to the cabin.
Noon: I have leftover potatoes and cornbread for lunch, and my husband has the leftover chili. We finish getting ready to leave and head out right after lunch, taking a half day. The only problem is that I have attend a meeting at 3:30 pm, so we head out hoping to get there in time. Our cabin is near Quilcene in the Hood Canal region of Washington, about a 2 hour drive or a 2 hour ferry ride + drive. We are initially planning to take the ferry both ways, but realize that we mistimed the ferry departure, so we drive the whole way instead. Luckily, there’s little traffic mid-day, and we arrive at our Airbnb around 3:00 pm.
The Airbnb is beautiful! It’s a small cabin handmade by the owner, whose house is next door. It’s very rural, with a beautiful view. It’s tiny, but has a little kitchen and a waterfall-style shower with river rocks on the floor. It’s a great place to get away for a short time. Luckily, it also has good reception and I’m able to sit in on my meeting with no problems. My husband also does a little work, and then at 5 pm we’re free!
In our planning, we decided to get takeout on Friday night, since the little kitchen isn’t designed for any serious cooking. We call ahead to a local restaurant to order burgers (one of only 2 restaurants in the whole town). It’s around 5:30 pm and the place is deserted. It’s a microbrewery, but they tell us they haven’t been making beer since COVID-19 hit. None of the workers are wearing masks when I walk in, but they put them on when they see I’m wearing one. I pick up our order - a few bottled beers and burgers and fries ($49.52 including tip).
Back at our Airbnb, we watch Big Trouble in Little China and enjoy our very messy, but delicious, burgers (it costs $4.39 to rent). The movie is very campy but fun. I love silly action movies, as you will see with my other viewing choices. We wrap up the night in a very exciting fashion, eating chocolate cake and watching old episodes of the original Star Trek.
Daily total: $80.51
Day 6
Morning & noon: When we wake up around 8 am, the weather is looking thankfully clear and even sunny! We were expecting rain, so we’re really glad. We decide to go hiking today, and we head out before even having breakfast, with snacks and lunches packed. Our first destination is a hike called Mt. Zion, but unfortunately, we run into enough snow 2 miles before the trailhead that we decide to turn back. We don’t have any traction for our Subaru and don’t want to risk getting stuck on a very narrow mountain road. Instead, we drive another hour or so to the Lena Lake trailhead, a very popular and less strenuous trail. It’s about 7.5 miles roundtrip with 1200 feet of elevation gain.
By this time, it’s around 11:30, but luckily there is still parking. It’s a great hike up, and we run into relatively few people. We always mask up whenever we pass anyone, as does about 50% of the people we meet. The others… not so much. Around a mile from the lake, we start to run into snow. It’s turned into a beautiful sunny day, and I’m loving seeing all this snow! It’s a bit slippery, but not too bad. We make it to the lake mid-day, and it’s super jammed – there’s only a small viewpoint accessible, so everyone is crowded in there. I feel a bit uneasy with all the unmasked people, but we manage to find a spot away from the crowd and sit down to eat our lunch of apples, chips, and energy bars. There are a ton of robber jays there (Canada Jays) which try to eat our chips. It is fun watching them, but I’m annoyed to see some kids feeding them – it’ll just make them that much more aggressive. Bad trail manners.
On our way back down, we get stuck behind a group of 5 unmasked adults, who refuse to cede the narrow trail to faster hikers. I’m a slow hiker myself, so, to be clear, I’m not angry at slower walkers being on the trail but have some self-awareness and let people pass! especially if you’re going to go hiking in a big group during a pandemic! We finally get back down and head back to our Airbnb.
Evening: Back home, we explore some of the trails our Airbnb host has set up around his extensive property, and then relax on the deck. The sun is breaking through the clouds and it feels wonderful to sit out in nature and feel the sun on my back. We open up a bottle of wine and have a few pre-dinner snacks (more chips and hummus). For this night, we brought ingredients to make a steak salad. Our Airbnb host has kindly set up a charcoal grill for us, so we grilled the steak and toast some bread on the side.
We eat dinner while watching the truly terrible Jean Claude Van Damme movie Bloodsport and finish up the very last of my chocolate cake. It’s amazing that anyone ever let Van Damme act… or should I say ‘act.’ I also have a Tate’s chocolate chip cookie or two, accompanied by a little port. My husband and I are truly very old people at heart, so we finish up the night watching a few episodes of Columbo.
Daily total: $0
Day 7
Morning: Unfortunately, K had insomnia last night, so he sleeps in pretty late. I drink coffee in bed and enjoy looking at the view out our big windows. Once he’s up, we get packed up and write a thank you note for our host. It was a great stay.
One of my big hobbies is birding and K enjoys wildlife photography, so we go out to look for some lifers! (The first time you see a new species of bird). Did I mention we are very old people in (relatively) young bodies? We first go to Dosewallips State Park and see some bald eagles, great blue herons, lots of various ducks, and a flock of Canada Geese, which, strangely, includes a domesticated gray goose. He’s much larger than the Canada Geese and seems to be watching over them. It’s kind of cute. Unfortunately, a lot of the birds are too far from shore to be seen clearly.
Our next stop is Point No Point (I love all the sad & disappointed names that early Westerner explorers gave places in the Washington/Oregon coast), a popular birding spot. We see a ton of birds here, and I can understand why it’s so well-known - Red-Breasted Mergansers, Western Grebes, Common Goldeneyes, Pacific Loons, and a few others I can’t identify yet. Most excitingly though, we see a whole pile of otters! They’re lounging around together on a rock just offshore and a ton of people are watching. We watch as they all slip off the rock and go hunting in the shore. It’s my first otter sighting in the wild, and it’s so cool! We also see some seals and possibly a sea lion. It’s a great spot for wildlife. We eat some snacks (hummus, chips, some sliced meat & cheese) before we head out.
I really want to come back to this area another time and explore further, but K has decided that we need to get back home in time for the Big Game. We take the 3:00 pm ferry back to Seattle ($16.40) and get home around 3:45 pm. I veg out at home while my husband watches football. He’s a Patriots fan but he still loves Tom Brady (??) so he’s happy to see Florida win. I don’t understand sports team loyalties at all, but whatever, I’m glad he’s happy. We order from a new Indian place called Spice Box and get vindaloo, roganjosh, and vegetables pakora – so tasty ($53.96). Happily, there’s enough left over for lunch the next day, since I have no plans for what we will eat yet!
I’m really dreading work the next day, as I know that it will be obnoxious. I want to get out of my job so badly, but it doesn’t look like I’m going on to the next interview stage for the job I interviewed no back on Monday. I’m feeling kind of down about it. I try to stay positive and promise that I’ll apply for at least 2-3 new jobs next week. I bake up some frozen cookie dough I had in the freezer and feel sorry for myself. We end the night by watching another episode of Columbo.
Daily total: 70.36
Food + Drink: $395.23
Fun / Entertainment: $26.40
Home + Health: $26.60
Clothes + Beauty: $0
Transport: $16.40
Other: $170.48
Grand Total: $635.11
I think this week was pretty normal for us. Obviously we spent a bit more than usual due to the weekend cabin trip, but nothing outrageous. Our largest consumer spending category is definitely food and drink – we live in a very busy area of Seattle with tons of restaurants and bars so believe it or not, we actually used to spend even more on eating out. We still try to support our local places by getting takeout or delivery during the pandemic and even occasionally getting a few drinks outside. I spent more than usual on groceries due to stocking up for the weekend away.

I wanted to do one of these since the bullshit post a few months ago from some E-6 claiming to be a millionaire with completely unrealistic numbers, but felt like waiting until I hit my 10 year mark/end of (normal) year. Coincidentally, these DFAS news and the paycheck posts made this even more relevant so I just wanted to share my journey with whoever is interested. Some of the numbers are from memory, but they're not going to be off by much.
I will say that while some of my situations were definitely lucky, some were also very stupid or unfortunate financial events that I've managed to recover from. Also, although we do NOT have kids, we do have a dog that we currently spend ~$200/mo on just allergy shots and food. It's a long post, but I'll hit up the different years and milestones I made in bold so it's easier to skip through stuff.
Also, although I am married, I was usually on the hook to pay for more of the expenses and our NW (retirement/savings) ARE separate and not included in MY NW numbers for this purpose.
BMT/Tech school - Nov 2010-May 2011:
NW: -15K
I came in on November 2010 (6-yr enlistee) as an E-2 due to college credits with roughly 15K in debt. During BMT/school, I had my brother sell my car for ~$5K that I put towards that debt. Unfortunately, I had no clothes that were made for the winter, and no entertainment for myself, so I bought a new wardrobe, a gaming laptop, a new phone and some other small purchases. Along with going out for food/drinks on occasion (we were at an Army base that had literally green meat as "steaks"), I ended up spending at least $3K during the total 7 months, but was steadily making progress on my debts. Got to my base as an A1C thanks to the 6 year thing.
NW: ~ -$6K
First base, year one May 2011-12:
As I got to my base I realized that I definitely needed a car. Being a car guy, I wanted something fun, but I also knew I wanted to be semi-responsible. I cringed at the notion of getting a corolla or civic, and ultimately bought my brother's car - a 2003 G35 that he bought brand new - for 12K that he demanded I get full insurance coverage for. We get along, so we worked out a payment plan and no banks were involved. I was paying him $500/mo and another $100 or so towards insurance every month because I had a few accidents on my record. To note, the car has lasted me until this year with less than $3K of total repairs to include all oil changes and the one tire change I did throughout my time of ownership.
I was eating out at least weekly for lunch and would usually do a dinner a couple times a month. I stayed away from clubs as it wasn't really my scene, but I drank at least one beer a day. I also flew home for every long weekend in the first year, which was pretty pricy and stupid in retrospect.
I had decent credit since my mom put my name on a credit card a few years ago, but I knew I needed to keep working at it, so I opened a discover card which all of my expenses (electronics, clothes, food, etc) went on that I paid off in full every month.
I knew that I should start putting money towards my retirement, so I also started a TSP (Roth was not available at this time) and was putting in about $100/mo which ballooned to a whopping $1K.
Paid off all my debts I had before I joined, but still had a little over $7K of the car to pay off and the rest was revolving debt that I paid off every month.
NW ~-6K
First base, year two May 2012-13:
I was able to get off base early (just over 1 year of being in the dorms) and got a place with someone I was friends with to pocket the difference in BAH. I bought a $1K mattress and other furniture that set me back a bit, but I was able to pay for it immediately. My rm and I got along well at first, but he was a few years younger than me and that age difference definitely started to show itself. After a few months, I had enough and asked him to move out around October. My rent was now $300 OVER my BAH. After paying for it for a couple months, I had a friend visit me for a month that chipped in the rent difference and ended up having my GF move in that did the same. I paid off my previous debts, but still owed a couple thousand on the car. I also started getting into scotch, picking up $1-200 of scotch every month (on top of the craft beer). Lastly, I got an off base gym membership that included tennis and a year round pool that cost me nearly $100/mo. Stupid expenses... but at least they made me happy.
Knowing a strategic language, I was told to take the language test and passed, getting me an additional $400/mo, although after taxes was closer to like 350 which basically allowed my scotch and gym expenses.
I stopped contributing to the TSP and instead went with the Roth IRA (remember, no Roth option in the TSP at this time and we weren't getting a match anyways) and I maxed out my Roth IRA for the year 2012 instantly.
NW ~+$5K
Deployment & moving May 2013-June 14
I got picked up to deploy at the end of May and was very excited. I also put on SrA just as I arrived. I bought a newer laptop that cost over $1K for that deployment specifically. Since I was living off base, I was able to put my stuff in storage to bank the BAH (~900/mo) and I was getting all of the hazard and tax free pay which totaled to be about 4K/mo. I had everything going into the SDP that I can and maxed it within 4 months. The rest I put in to max my Roth IRA for 2013.
Upon return, I moved to a far cheaper apartment that let me save ~$300/mo on BAH, but bought a new phone, kitchen knife, camera, handgun, TV and desktop, and had some other expenses. Because this place was also much farther of a drive, I was spending a bit more on gas. Nevertheless, the market was rebounding from the crash and I paid off the car, so I switched to liability insurance only that let me save more money.
Then, the hunger games started. I was trying to palace chase and was so sure it was going to happen, I didn't bother to study for my staff test. Unfortunately, the guard base lost my paperwork and by the time I sent everything to them again and they verified it all, my career field stopped letting people go. I found out a week before my test. I took leave to study, but spoiler alert: I didn't make it.
NW ~+20K
House purchase, marriage, divorce and another marriage June 14-16
The cheap rent was cheap for a reason. I got broken into and had my handgun stolen along with my TV. I also didn't have renter's insurance, but they only stole about $1K worth of stuff so it wasn't a huge deal. At this point I was also with my gf for 4 years now so we were talking about marriage and me buying a house to finish up my enlistment.
I bought a house that my GF liked that was probably the nicest house in the neighborhood with a VA loan and financed ~$180K. My BAH did NOT cover the house payment and they stopped paying my language pay, so I got a 2nd job for about 5 months on the weekends at a restaurant that averaged $700/mo. I ended up having some health issues that had me looking forward to get surgery and I could not be on my feet that long and had to quit.
Shortly after the house purchase, I bought my childhood attainable-dream-car. A '98 low mileage M3 that cost me ~$20K after the purchase & repairs were done which was close to the cost of it in this condition on the market so no change to my NW from this as this was my 2nd car that I could theoretically sell at any time. I did have the extra recurring cost of car insurance, but it was ~$50/mo for full coverage as my accidents finally fell off my records.
I also got married, moved her in, and paid for all of the expenses besides her car insurance, phone, and classes. I also gave her $5.5K to max her IRA for the year as well as maxing mine. We immediately started having issues (non financial) and we got a divorce within a year. While the divorce was pending, I started considering doing 20 years due to my medical concerns, but only if I got a base I wanted. Overseas listing was solid and I put on a few options for extended long.
Ended up going on a couple of dates a week after my ex moved out. After being in a shitty situation, I had a lot of time to think about what I was looking for and was very honest about that and myself in general. Really hit it off with one girl, but a few months into the relationship I was notified of my selection to Aviano. We talked about what that means for us, how we felt, and decided to get married, so we did.
Maxed my Roth IRA throughout the years and added a few thousand towards a brokerage account.
Before PCSing we had an AC go out that I paid for in the tune of $5K and decided to rent the house out (for the cost of the PITI).
My M3 went into storage with my family at no cost to me.
NW ~+40K
PCS issues July 16-April 17
We got screwed with a ton of wrong information about travel policies and had to spend nearly a month in DC out of pocket to the tune of $15K. Thankfully I had a 0% APR credit card. We also had issues finding a house here, so the extra TLA really helped out. We finally found a place, I had a couple of TDYs, bought a 2nd car, and as we were settling in, I got hit with a deployment.
I knew this was a good time to save some money, but also wanted another income generating asset, so when we flew home before my deployment, we made some time to look at houses so I can buy and rent it out in the same state that I was previously stationed at (and where she was from). We found a place and started getting everything together.
I also made the final payment on the 15K PCS bill the week before I left.
Maxed my Roth IRA.
NW ~$60K
Deployment April-Oct 17
In May, I had my funds in escrow that I got a hard money loan for, for a house that cost 120K and was set to be rented at $1200+. The house was rented within a week for 1250, so I was pretty happy about this. Wife went back to the US for a bit, so we saved a little on utilities/food expenses as she stayed largely with her parents. I started contributing 30% into the Roth TSP and I bought some crypto at the tail end of my deployment.
Deployment was shit, my shop literally sat in silence for 5 months after the NCOIC sent someone home for a bullshit article 15 charge. Made me EXTREMELY disgruntled and not giving a shit about making tech.
NW ~$80K
Home, until next deployment Nov 17-Jan 2020
I got home, bought a new PC (~$1.5K), and immediately made a bunch of travel plans to make up for the deployment time. The crypto boom/bust occurred with me taking out $5K (which was my initial investment), but re-investing it during the crash which I still hold to today and I crossed into 2018 with ~$100K NW.
January saw yet another budget issue where we weren't getting paid and our TDYs were getting cancelled, but I was doing pretty well... for a little bit anyways
Unfortunately, we had our renters cancel their lease on both houses in early '18, some repairs needed to be done that cost OVER the security deposit, and our PM company dragged their feet on getting new tenants in because of a change in ownership. I started living paycheck to paycheck (sans my TSP contributions) because I had to cover both vacant properties and still pay for our living expenses here DESPITE getting COLA and utility allowance as we were still trying to take travel opportunities. This year, I had to take money out of my taxable account to cover my Roth IRA.
I fired the PM company come September and hired a new one that had tenants in within a month at both places. Some additional repair costs were needed because the last company made certain things worse (or charged me for fixes that never occurred). We also had a flash flood while I was TDY (and had the wife join me) that led to our 2nd car having to be salvaged in the fall as well.
Come January '19, I was getting a handle on the past bills, we got another car for the wife, and life moved on for a bit. Picked up a 3rd car from a members that was PCSing (another M3, this one for $1K as a project car to resell or maybe even to take back to the US). Some more house expenses came up, but nothing we couldn't handle, although it did slow down our investments. Overall, '19 was pretty unprofitable outside of the 30% TSP and maxing the previous year's IRAs - which I funded for both myself and the wife. I got news that my IPCOT was approved, so I was spending another 4 years at Aviano.
We had some issues at one of our houses which cost 2 months of vacancies and another ~$2K of repairs in the fall of '19 and shortly after I had an opportunity to deploy again, this time to AUAB, which we agreed was probably for the best for a few reasons.
NW 120K
Deployment to now - Jan-Dec 2020
As soon as I got to AUAB, I put my TSP to 60% to max it out. During the deployment, my wife paid me back the previous year's $6K I gave her to fund her IRA, so I maxed out my 2019 AND 2020 IRA and also put aside ~$17K in a taxable account. I wanted my investments to REALLY take off, and they definitely did. Thankfully, the state where I have my houses were not heavily impacted by COVID and both tenants continued to pay rent without issues.
COVID sucks, but is a godsend for saving. With closed restaurants, that's at least $1-200/mo savings for us, not to mention another $2-300 savings/mo in travel costs before counting any extra expenses from these trips such as getting food at these locations, event tickets, etc.
That's not to say I've been saving everything, though. Upon my return we did immediately travel to a few cities, I bought myself a camera setup costing me $6K, and we bought a higher end Roomba and some other items on Black Friday totaling $1-2K. I still drink my craft beer and my Islay scotches. We finally salvaged my G35, which cost US money because of how the SOFA is here (bullshit...). I found a few more things wrong with the M3 that is here with me, so I'll likely start a large scale refresh here soon which means $$$$$$.
NW: ~$240K if you count the M3 in storage, $220K if not. To add, these amounts are based on my equity in the homes instead of the actual house sale price based on neighborhood comps which would bump up my NW by another $20K+
Goal for 2021 (assuming tenants do NOT move out):
I'll see what's up on the supplemental this month and if I don't make it again, actually study this year to get it come 2021. Figure it's time and all that, plus it would let me save/spend even more.
Max out TSP (should be done by September) and Roth IRA for 2021 next month. Look into getting a 3rd house if the numbers make sense, or just set aside ~$2k/mo towards other investments which, along with even a 7% market gain should see me hit $300K by end of 2021. If the market crashes, I would honestly prefer it so we can put in more contributions and ride the gains through the next 10 years until retirement.
We have also been discussing kids, so that may throw a wrench in the above.
All in all, hopefully this inspires you in some way and if you have any questions, let me know.
I want to specifically hit on the fact that while I do save a lot, I still find plenty of time and available moneys for my personal fun. Whether that's going out for food and drinks with the wife and friends a couple times a month, traveling around the EU, buying things for and participating in my hobbies (camera stuff, gaming, car expenses, snowboarding, etc.), I feel like my life is pretty un-deprived of things.
We also use quite a few credit cards to help us save money on travel, which does make a rather large difference when stacked together.
tl;dr a 10 year TIS, 2nd-time-making-it e-5 goes from roughly a -15K NW to +220-250K without bonuses, but with 4 years of COLA, 3 total deployments, and a total of 9K foreign language pay throughout his career so far
Edit: eyy just found out I made E6!

Section One: Assets and Debt

• Retirement Balance: $84,000 This is based on combined balances in my IRA accounts (Roth + Rollover). My current company, which I’ve been working at for 6 months, doesn't offer 401(k) matching until after the first year of work - so I’m waiting for that year mark to start contributing to one.
• Equity: ~$550,000 This is the current market value estimate of my home, a small 2 BR condo just outside of Manhattan, from Zillow. I purchased my home in summer of 2015 at a closing price of $484K. I put down $284K for the down payment (from my savings and investments which I had slowly accumulated since I was 15. My dad helped me open my first brokerage account at the time and encouraged me to keep investing and diversifying my portfolio as I grew older; this proved invaluable when it came to having the funds for my down payment a decade later) and took on a 20 year mortgage for the remaining $200K. Just last summer (June of 2019), I paid off the remainder of the mortgage balance and am now debt-free. The timing of the payoff was mostly motivated by a city-wide property revaluation assessment last year which bumped up my property tax payment to almost 3X the previous amount.
• Savings account balance: $139,000 I have this in cash in an online savings account with Ally. I normally would have invested some of this, but ever since March and with the ongoing uncertainty with the virus, the presidency, etc. I haven’t felt comfortable doing so. I am also considering buying a second condominium near where I am now that I could either rent out in the future, or move into myself and rent out my current place instead for rental income, so I want to keep funds liquid for the time being.
• Checking account balance: $3,500 This amount is split across two banks - one with Ally and the other with Chase. I keep above the $1,500 minimum at Chase to avoid any fees to ensure I can withdraw cash at one of their ATMs if needed.
• Credit card debt: $0 I place almost all of my purchases on one of two credit cards, but pay them off in full every month (and make sure to redeem the bonus points for cash back!) The total I’ll have charged across my two cards at any point in time usually ranges from $0 to $600 dollars.
• Student loan debt (for what degree): $0 I have an undergraduate econ/business degree from an Ivy League that I’m so grateful my parents were able to help me achieve without having to worry about accumulating a huge student loan for. They started a 529 account for me a little later than ideal (when I was in middle school - I’ll go into more detail in the next paragraph) but saved aggressively leading up to when I graduated high school. They were able to cover the majority of my tuition + room and board this way, and I helped cover the rest through several scholarships and working on campus.
• Mortgage: $0 Paid off last year! This was definitely one of my proudest recent accomplishments. I’ve always lived fairly frugally, due mostly to my childhood experiences and background. If there’s anything I could have done differently, it would have been to get a mortgage for a shorter term (versus the original 20 years) so that I could have gotten a lower rate and paid less in mortgage interest.

Section Two: Income

• Income Progression: My first job was at McDonald’s when I was 15, and I started with the minimum wage rate of $5.25/hour. In high school, I switched to working retail at Kmart and then every summer of college, worked at various paid internships for the full summer in addition to working on campus at various jobs (from cashier to research assistant). My junior year summer internship was at a firm that I would eventually return to full time after I graduated. I've been working full time for 8 years now, and my starting salary was ~$60,000. I started off working in analytics for a financial service firm in NYC and have changed jobs every 2-3 years since then. I primarily stayed in finance up until last year, working my way through steady salary increases each year and with each job change. I had begun looking for a new job and industry right before the pandemic hit in March as I was getting bored and frustrated with my role at the time; I had actually interviewed for my current role right when interviews were all being changed to virtual and didn’t hear back until May as the company was dealing with the big shift to work from home and figuring out headcount for the future. Thankfully my role was kept and I officially started working at my current company in the media/tech space in mid-May. My current annual base salary is $110,000 with a 10% annual bonus ($121,000 all-in).
• Main Job Monthly Take Home: $5,800 This is my final take home, which is paid out bi-weekly (my average paycheck amount is around $2,900). This is after deductions for health insurance (dental+vision), a healthcare HSA ($100 a month), and a pre-tax transit account ($100 a month). Retirement contributions are currently on pause until I hit my one year mark next May and qualify for matching contributions to a 401(k).
• Side Gig Monthly Take Home: ~$890 I have a couple sources of income from Instagram, one of which is my dedicated food account (75K+ followers). For this account, I don’t have a steady stream of income but reap the benefits in various invitations to restaurants in NYC - I’m invited in for a meal (usually with a guest), and for posting photos and stories featuring the restaurants and dishes, have the cost of the meal covered. For sit down meals, however, my guest and I make sure to cover the tip for the service. I’m occasionally shipped food/drink items to share as well. If I do make any income, this is from infrequent brand or restaurant campaigns that I’m contacted for; depending on what’s required in deliverables, these can range anywhere from $300-$3,000. The pandemic definitely impacted this year, but for 2020, I’m on track to have earned ~$6,500 from these. I am also helping 2 friends of mine who started a small business in July with some photography and social media. I post on their social channels and do larger product shoots 1-2x a month, and get $350 a month for this work.
• Any Other Monthly Income: $300 My property also has a gated parking spot included with the deed; so even though I don’t have a car, I’ve found a “tenant” for the spot since I bought my place five years ago. We sign an annual lease every October for $3,600 for the upcoming year, which comes to $300/month.

Section Three: Expenses

• Property Tax: $767 (paid quarterly at ~$2,300, this amount changes quarter to quarter, so I’m using an average for the past year)
• Homeowners Association (HOA) Fees: $434 (this covers water, garbage, and some building insurance)
• Condominium Insurance: $54 (paid annually at $650, my HOA fees cover some initial property insurance, so this is specific to my unit).
• Retirement Contribution: On pause for now as I wait to hit the year mark at my current job to get matching 401(k) contributions. I also want to keep some earnings liquid for a potential future real estate investment.
• Debt payments: $0, aside from paying off my monthly CC balance
• Electricity/Gas: ~$70 (depends on the season, spring and fall are in the low $40s while summer and winter can be in the high $90s)
• WiFi: $40 (recently signed up for the introductory offer at Comcast)
• Cellphone: $50 (I’m on the family plan still, but transfer this amount to my dad each month)
• Credit Card Fee: $8.33 ($200 annual fees across the 2 cards I currently have. Next year I will cancel/downgrade from the Chase Sapphire Preferred as the benefits for Travel and Dining are pretty much moot.)
• Subscriptions: Amazon Prime: $10 (annual subscription, I share with my family) Netflix: $0 (my parents cover this one) Hulu/Spotify: $11 Adobe Creative Cloud: $11 Apple Cloud: $1 OneDrive: $2 Causebox: $17 (quarterly subscription box that I pay the $200 annual cost for)
• Donations: I don’t have a recurring donation organization or amount, but will donate where and when I see the need. So far this year, I’ve donated $500 to my local hospital, the NAACP, and City Harvest.
• Savings Contribution: I will pretty much just transfer over money from my checking account to my savings account whenever it gets above the $1k or $1.5k threshold (I’ll keep more if it’s around the end of the month and monthly payments are coming up). I’m typically able to transfer over $2.5-3K each month, unless it happens to be one where quarterly property taxes are due.

Weekly Expenses:
Food + Drink: $78.70 (including tip)
Fun / Entertainment: $0
Home + Health: $72.33
Clothes + Beauty: $0
Transport: $0
Other: $189.24
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Day One (Monday)
8:45am: My alarm goes off and I hit snooze. One of the worst parts about the whole WFH situation has been how bad I’ve become with getting up on time, knowing that I can be at “work” in less than 15 steps. I scroll through social media a bit and catch up on some posts before getting out of bed.
9:15am: I’ve brushed my teeth, washed my face, and put on my skincare (toner, serums, and moisturizer) and am booting up my laptop. I changed jobs 6 months ago in the midst of the pandemic, leaving my previous role in financial services for a position in a large media/tech company, which has been a little crazy. It’s been tough doing everything remotely, and learning the new industry and programming/software has been especially difficult, but I feel like I’m getting my bearings. I start brewing some coffee.
9:30am: I hop on a Zoom for our weekly department huddle and listen as the different teams give updates on various initiatives as well as some background on company-wide kick offs and projects. Some of the projects I’m working on get brought up and it feels good to be doing what feels like actual work. After the call, I get to work on tackling work for some of the larger projects I have, which include scoping out source/logic details on a production report that we want to integrate in a new platform and QAing a table that I’m working on with data science.
12pm: I take a break to refill my coffee mug and make IG posts for my friends’ small business account and my own account (a food IG with 75K+ followers). I took on the first gig a few months ago when my friends, a couple in Brooklyn, launched their hand-crafted drinks business. I started the second, my personal account, over 3 years ago with a focus on restaurants in NYC. It stalled quite a bit over the last few months with the pandemic, but I’ve been dining out infrequently these days, and have limited myself to dining with only one friend at a time (out of a total of 3 friends since June, all of whom I know have tested negative and have been taking precautions since March).
3pm: I’ve wrapped up a touch base with a manager and a semi-stressful meeting where I had to present to some senior executives a dashboard we've been working on over the last few months. They have a few (mostly minor) tweaks that I note in a JIRA ticket before I grab my mask and take a quick break to stop by a local ice cream shop that’s invited me in to try their latest dessert special. There’s thankfully no one else there aside from one of the co-owners who recognizes me and gets my treats ready. I photograph them, thank her, and leave a $3 tip. $3
3:30pm: Back home, I get back to some Slack messages and try to prepare for another stressful call at 4:30pm that I have to lead. I finish eating the ice cream and call it lunch - but hey, that’s #adulting for you.
6pm: Wrap up some notes from the call and text my dad the address that I’m heading out to. I saw a 1BR condo listing pop up on Zillow over the weekend that looked promising, so I’m getting an in-person tour of it this evening. I get my mask on again and make the 5 minute walk to the building where the realtor is outside to meet me. We go inside to look at the condo for sale - the space definitely looks smaller in person than in the photos, and I note that a number of things need to be replaced or upgraded. I thank the realtor after the tour and give a call to my dad to let him know I’m okay and to give him my initial impressions of the space.
7pm: Back home! I wash my hands and change my clothes and get started on dinner; I’ve been craving soup these days so make a quick hot and sour soup on the stove with mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tofu, and some corn I have in the fridge. While I eat, I edit the photos from my DSLR from this afternoon, and check my IG account email to reply to about 7 emails that came in today about campaigns and invitations to restaurants; one of these includes signing a contract with a new app that’s offering a generous sign on payment and potential future income. I catch up on IG posts and comments and text a few friends.
11pm: I spend the rest of the evening catching up on some news, watching the latest episode of the Korean drama Start Up, and finally take a shower. While my hair is still drying in a hair tower, I do a quick Chloe Ting workout; I started doing some of her workouts a few months ago and while I’m not doing them super seriously, I’ve definitely noticed a difference in my abs and feel stronger overall. My Google Home plays some news snippets for me afterwards, and I roll my eyes at the continued attempts of our current president to try and derail the election results. On the plus side - the initial vaccine results from 2 firms have been super promising!
1am: I remember to take my daily multivitamins and then read a bit on my Kindle (I just finished Sex and Vanity, and start on Me Before You - another thing I picked up during quarantine, and I’ve already read over 30 books since March!). I then proceed to spend too much time on Instagram and reddit before turning out the lights.
Day One Total: $3
Day Two (Tuesday)
8:45am: Alarm goes off on the dot and I, the perpetual sleep procrastinator, snooze one too many times. I barely manage to make it out of bed in time to brush my teeth, wash my face, and chug some water before a 9:15am call. It’s a quick check in on projects within my business area so I summarize the work that’s been done and am grateful I don’t have to have my webcam on for this.
12pm: Unfortunately I need my webcam on for the next two meetings, so try to make myself look semi-presentable by combing through my hair and putting on a sweater, instead of my default hoodie. I get a little more clarification on some metrics and data sources in this upcoming platform integration and discussing my upcoming sprint priorities with my manager. At noon, I make a new post on my food IG and go through my feed. I pour my second mug of coffee and drink more water in preparation for the next batch of afternoon meetings.
3pm: Talk through more Zoom calls to the point that my throat is starting to hurt. I’m especially frustrated after the team huddle that just ended where one of the managers tells me my approach to building out the proposed data architecture is too limited in scope, and I should be more imaginative and proactive. The entire work from home situation has made it difficult to understand how to work with and collaborate with different people, so I try not to get too frustrated. I spend the rest of the afternoon making some minor adjustments to existing production reports and updating JIRA tickets.
5pm: I email over my dad a few of the more promising Zillow listings that landed in my inbox this morning. He jokingly complains that there’s too much to read and the words are too small before I realize that he’s been doing a lot of work on his laptop lately as he’s been WFH more. I take a look at a few computer monitors and opt for a larger (24”) version of what I currently have as it’s been working well for me for the last 6 months. I make sure it includes a HDMI cable and have it shipped my dad. $179.24
5:50pm: I grab my mask, bag, and camera and text my friend to let her know I’m en route to dinner; she’s one of the few friends I’ve seen in person since March and is also a food blogger with a separate full time job. She’s been quarantining in Long Island since the start of everything, and texts me that she’s driving in from her home, I head out to the PATH station, swipe in using my prepaid Smartlink card, and hop onto the next train.
6:35pm: I’m a few minutes late but make sure my friend knows I’m walking over, and meet her outside the restaurant. We get checked in, fill out our contact information on our phones, and get our temperatures taken; thankfully there’s only 2 other groups seated and the windows are open. Tonight’s dinner was an invitation that I already confirmed with the PR team, so the staff are expecting us and understand we’ll both be taking photos. We order a few apps and two mains, and spend the rest of the evening doing some quick photos and catching up on our lives, her plans to move into Manhattan or JC, and complaining about the ongoing election drama.
8:30pm: Dinner is done, and I realize I forgot to stop at an ATM and only have a dollar bill on me so ask if I can Venmo my friend my part of the gratuity. Thankfully she has $20 on her so I quickly Venmo her $10, making sure to use the adorable fries sticker to represent the copious amount that we ate tonight. $10
8:45pm: My friend and I walk out with our masks on, and I bid her goodbye and a happy Thanksgiving before stopping at the ATM to take out some cash, making sure to sanitize my hands after, and then head to my train. As I wait, I make some quick edits to the photos I took on my iPhone and add them with a few captions and tags to my IG stories; I manage to get through them all by the time the next train pulls up and leaves.
9:20pm: It’s always so nice to get back home! I wash my hands, change my clothes, and get started with transferring over the photos from my DSLR to my computer. I spend the next 20 or so minutes editing and saving the final versions in Adobe Lightroom and make sure to chug a glass of water to help balance out all the sodium I had. I check my messages and see that a restaurant in NJ confirmed a lunch delivery for tomorrow and see another contract in my inbox; I read the deliverables and ask the account manager if she can take out the clause requiring a Tiktok post because I don’t have an account.
11:30pm: I shower and put on my evening skincare, take my multivitamins, and do a quick ab workout with Chloe Ting (it still hurts lol). I take a look at my work calendar tomorrow and see that my first meeting starts at 9am, so I update my alarm to 15 minutes earlier. I take my vitamins and spend the rest of the evening catching up on some news, reddit, and IG.
1:30am: I blame Youtube vlogs for this one. Finally turn out the lights.
Day Two Total: $189.24
Day Three (Wednesday)
8:30am: Alarm goes off and I manage to get myself out of bed in a semi-reasonable fashion. Do my typical routine (brushing teeth, washing face, getting water and coffee ready) and log into my work laptop so I’m on the Zoom right at 9am. This is a belated overview session for one of the larger projects that I started working on quite late in the process, so it’s a useful business and data update that gives me a better understanding of the end goals.
12pm: Sit through one other department meeting where I don’t fully pay attention because I look into some minor report and code checks (oops). Once those wrap up, I’m able to take a break to do a post and stories for my friends’ business account and then make a post on my food account. I notice an email come in from a PR company about a new location opening for one of my favorite restaurants, so I check with one of my friends if he’s able to make the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and reply back to the email requesting it.
1:30pm: While I listen in on a company-wide speaker event on the topic of gender sensitivity and awareness, I also click through a recently assigned digital training course on sexual harassment and discrimination. I understand that the latter is a legally mandated item, but find it a bit sad (especially in the current day and age) that these are things that have to be spelled out for people. After I finish, I get a call for my lunch delivery; I grab my mask, keys, and wallet and meet the deliveryperson downstairs. I give him a $6 tip and take some photos of the items, which include chicken wings and a chicken sandwich. After I’m done with photos, I scarf down the food so I can make my next call which requires me to talk and have my webcam on. $6
4:30pm: I have a 1 on 1 with my manager and then a call with a business partner to scope out requirements for a new report. So glad to be done with calls! I get started putting together a project plan/roadmap for one of my projects and Slack one of the recently hired data engineers, who I found out grew up near me in suburban Philadelphia!
6pm: Get the shipping notification email that my dad’s monitor has shipped! I call it a day and close my work laptop and get started on my weekly apartment clean. I call my dad while I do so and let him know that his monitor should arrive on Friday; he thanks me and we catch up on work, COVID, and my potential future real estate investment. While I talk, I notice an alert from Mint that a large charge from Amazon hit my credit card; I’m a little worried until I log into my account and see that the annual prime membership has been renewed. Also tell my dad this as he heard me flip out thinking that someone had been making fraudulent charges on my card, as he and my mom are part of my “Prime household”. ($127, noted in my monthly expenses)
7pm: I’m done vacuuming and taking out the trash and am officially hungry. I make a quick tomato and egg soup with orzo and eat an apple while I wait for the orzo to cook. I wrap up some IG emails while I eat, including signing the updated contract with the Tiktok clause removed and politely declining some invitations to places that I’m not able to physically go to.
10pm: Wash the dishes, take a shower, brush my teeth and put on a clay face mask; while it dries, I do a quick 15 min workout on the mat and then wash off the clay mask before doing my skincare. I make sure to drink some more water and take my vitamins, and spend the rest of the evening in bed on my phone and working my way through Me Before You - it’s a slow start, but I’m starting to warm up to the protagonist.
1am: Lights out!
Day Three Total: $6
Day Four (Thursday)
8:30am: Forgot to change my weekday alarm back; oh well, I’ll survive. Crawl out of bed, and get ready for the day (you know the drill), and make sure I have plenty of coffee on hand. My period also just started, which is never a good sign.
12pm: The morning has just felt like an onslaught of meetings; followed by some impromptu Zoom calls. I’m starting to feel frazzled as various timelines and deliverables seem to have been shifted up and try to work with one of the other data engineers to specify possible business user requirements. This unintentionally gets shared with one of the project managers who sends an email en masse to the business users asking for sign off on this initial list. I don’t think it’s a big deal, but...
12:30pm: Make the post and stories on the small business account and my own account, finish the remainder of today’s coffee while I go through emails and minor JIRA tasks. I hop onto a share screen with one of my coworkers to transition over a project I’d been working on; I had built out a new dashboard and now that it’s “QA” state has been approved, he will now take over the more formal production process and maintenance.
3:30pm: During our second team stand up, I give my manager project updates and he immediately tells me I shouldn’t have let my list be shared with business users and other involved teams. I don’t fully get why; but after our team call he asks me to hop onto an impromptu Zoom with him where he tries to explain some of the complexities of company and team politics and how I should be very careful to give my stamp of approval, however formal or informal, unless I fully stand behind it. The conversation is a bit long, but I get a better sense of what's going on between teams and managers, and try not to cry as my manager tries to tell me it's not anything I did, but I need to be careful of my actions.
6pm: I manage to collect myself in time to meet a friend for the first time in months at an outdoor dine a few blocks away. He (and his girlfriend) was just recently re-tested as negative, which is always reassuring. While I get my belongings and my mask, my coworker Slacks me asking if I’m okay, apologizing for not messing earlier as she was on an afternoon call. She reassures me the same thing has happened to everyone else on the team, that a lot of these nuances I’m not aware of because I’ve never been in the office, and suggests putting on a one hour venting session with the other engineers in the team next week. I happily do so, and tell her I’ll catch up with her next week as I have off tomorrow.
6:30pm: My friend and I are seated near one of the heat lamps, and it’s so good to catch up with him after so long! He gives me some life updates, including the fact that he and his girlfriend are moving into a house they are waiting to close on, and the fact that he just put down a deposit for an engagement ring!! I’m so excited and barrage him with questions on timing, his plans, etc. and almost forget that we need to order food.
8pm: We have a delicious meal that includes burgers and a lobster roll (all of which I photograph) and he gets a few cocktails (I don’t drink). I leave a $10 tip, and my friend puts down $15 for his share, factoring in the alcohol. We mask up before heading out, and I tell him I want updates on everything for the next month as he goes through all those major life events! $10
8:30pm: After my short trip home, I wash my hands, change, and get started on editing photos from tonight. I definitely feel much better after the work “event” and take a longer shower tonight to decompress.
11pm: Decide to skip the workout tonight because I feel like it, and sit in bed doing some more administrative/scheduling tasks on my iPad in bed. I see a few updates from some of the team in India (yay international time zones - not) and debate if I should handle these tonight. Since I’m out tomorrow, I know it’ll be better if I do, so hop back onto the work laptop to wrap up some last minute code edits and JIRA updates. Once I’m done, I make sure my OOO notice and status in Slack are updated and eat a yogurt cup with some grapes because, yes, I’m hungry-ish again.
1am: Hair is dry, vitamins are taken, and it’s time for bed... or not? I’m already past the halfway point of Me Before You and cannot stop reading - it’s at the point where I’m now seriously invested in the relationship between the female and male protagonist and have to know how it ends (even though I already have my guesses). I speed through the rest of the book and shed a couple tears when I finish, which is past 3am. Thankfully I’m not working the next day! I make sure to set my alarm for later and finally go to bed.
Day Four Total: $10
Day Five (Friday)
11am: My alarm goes off and I actually feel semi-decent upon waking up - I don’t think I will ever not be a night owl! I get dressed and get ready to head out to try and get a COVID test; I last took one in June so want to have a more up-to-date status, especially as I’m potentially going home the next week for Thanksgiving. I haven’t seen my parents for over a year at this point and my dad has offered to drive down from Boston to pick me and my sister (in college, who is tested every week) up, but I’m still not feeling great about it given the fact that my parents are in their 60s. At the very least, I want to get a test to have more information before making any final decisions. I drink some water so I’m at least hydrated.
11:30am: I grab my Kindle, mask, and sanitizer and head out to the nearby mobile testing center that was set up. The line is about 15 people long - not terrible, especially as everyone is spacing out 6+ feet between each other - so I head to the end and spend the 2 hours or so in between my phone (making my daily IG post) and my Kindle (next up: Olive, Again) While I wait, I get an email about one of the campaigns I’ve been ironing out, and confirm I’m planning on visiting this weekend to get photos so I can send the content draft over for approval afterwards.
1:30pm: The process is pretty seamless; I fill out my information through my phone, upload a photo of my insurance card, and get my temperature and blood pressure taken before the nasal swab. It’s not that bad, I guess, but having anything put uncomfortably deep into your nasal passages is not fun. The doctor tells me I should get my results by the following Tuesday through the online patient portal; I thank him and head back out with my mask on.
2pm: Home and officially hungry, so after washing my hands and changing, I bowl a pot of water and put in a block of Shin Ramyun. I make it a little less like what I ate back in college by adding in some frozen corn, spinach, and an egg. I also eat an apple and catch up on some emails and go through IG before taking a fat nap.
6pm: I’m woken up by a text from my dad; it’s a picture of his new computer set up at home, and I’m glad to see everything’s working and should hopefully help his eyes. I take a second look at the photo and see that he’s using a tiny USB wire mouse - which he probably got as a work freebie. I sigh and find a wireless mouse on Amazon to have delivered to him the next day; I send him a text to watch out for that delivery as well tomorrow. $10
7pm: Time to head to the grocery store! I have a few options within walking distance of me, but like going to the Asian grocery store just given how unique and sometimes hard-to-find their selection is. I’m doing a virtual dinner swap with a friend tomorrow so I need to get ingredients for that, as well as my weekly grocery shop. I make sure I have my mask and reusable bag, and stock up on tofu, zucchini, mushrooms, bok choy, more apples (Fuji, but Honeycrisp is also a fav, ground pork, and some snacks, noodles, and yogurt. I struggle a bit to carry it home. #smallpeopleproblems $33.31
8pm: Once home, I unpack everything and get started on a (very butchered) version of soondubu with Napa cabbage, zucchini, and mushrooms with a spicy soup base (dwenjaeng paste, gochujang, soy sauce, gochugaru). I cook some rice on the side. While I eat, I load up Netflix and decide to start on The Queen’s Gambit.
11pm: Shower, skincare, and vitamins - and I end the evening with another quick mat workout. After I blow dry by hair, I climb into bed and spend far too much time on the phone as my brain wanders and gets in knots about Thanksgiving next week; my parents and I agreed not to make any decisions until I got my results back, but even if it’s negative, I know there’s still a risk if I were to let my dad pick me up and take me home. I know he and my mom really want to see me though, which makes me feel even more conflicted. I tell myself to stop thinking about it until next week and double check my schedule for tomorrow before opening up my Kindle to read.
2am: Finally decide to sleep after getting distracted by Youtube, again. Oops.
Day Five Total: $43.31
Day Six (Saturday)
10:40am: My weekly Saturday alarm goes off; my friends behind the small business and I have our recurring call every Saturday morning and while I would like to sleep in, I force myself to get up, brush my teeth, and do a quick face wash.
11am: I drink some water as we catch up on today’s agendas and tasks; we’re finalizing a seasonal holiday drink to be rolled out after Thanksgiving, so we go over the ingredients and timing, and figure out when I’ll be able to visit them in Brooklyn next month to get the photos for future posts and website updates. They also tell me they’d like to grab some photos of their new house (that they’ll be closing on soon) while I’m there, and I’m happy to do so. My friend tries to tell me that they’ll pay me extra for this, but I laugh and tell her she can just feed me.
12pm: Grab my mask, keys, and camera - Time to head out today! I have two stops near me to get photos for upcoming posts; one is for a bakery chain releasing a seasonal cake flavor and the other is for a newly opened location of a pizza franchise. My pick up order for the bakery was made in advance, so I stop inside, give them my name for the order, and after a little confusion that leads to them calling a manager, I have my cake ready to go. I take it outside to photograph; this campaign is offering a small payment but thankfully doesn’t need to review the content before I post.
12:30pm: I load up the app for the pizza place on my phone and use the pre-loaded credits to place my order in advance so it’ll be ready for pick up once I arrive. It’s a 15 minute walk or so over, but the pies are ready for me when I get there. The staff is nice enough to put them in a bag for me (they’re personal pies, so thankfully small enough) and I walk over to the waterfront to take some photos out there. I add some photos to my stories and walk home with my goodies; I’ll need to write up and submit the content for approval before posting, but this campaign is also offering a small payment.
1:30pm: Finally home! I wash up, transfer my photos to my laptop, and get started editing. In between, I make a post to my food account and the small business account, catch up on comments and friends’ posts, and try not to make a mess while eating some pizza and a slice of cake.
3:00pm: After putting the leftovers in the fridge, I’m ready for a nap. I set an alarm for 5pm just in case I oversleep since I need to make dinner late for my dinner swap!
5:00pm: Alarm goes off, and I struggle to get out of bed. I know I want as much time as possible to cook though, especially as bad things happen when I rush. I prep the food in advance by washing the bok choy, slicing the mushrooms, and mincing garlic and ginger. I do a bok choy and mushroom stir fry, and make mapo tofu and rice. I barely finish in time to package half of the meal into to-go containers for my friend, and text him; he tells me not to rush and that it’s cold enough so that the dessert won’t melt (lol).
6:40pm: I meet my friend outside halfway between our apartments outside of City Hall; of course we’re both masked. We do our meal swap; I give him the savory items I made while he hands over 2 small containers - and we both head to our separate homes. When I get back, I find out one has tiramisu and the other has a matcha oreo ice cream! I log onto Zoom for our virtual dinner hangout. Even though my friend is so close, he sees his parents regularly as well, so has been doing his best to be extra cautious. We’ve come up with this set up where we’ll each swap items for dinner (usually I’ll cook the savory and he’ll order dessert) and exchange them before enjoying dinner over Zoom later.
8:30pm: Call is over, so now it’s time to clean the kitchen - and it’s definitely a mess, especially as I was a bit frazzled. I wash the many utensils and pans I went through and do my best to dry them; washing up is definitely the least fun part of cooking.
11pm: Spend the rest of the night killing time between my phone, Netflix, and emails. I ask one of my friends (whom I saw earlier in the week) about some potential dates and places over the next few weeks, and send over calendar blocks while I wait to get reservations confirmed.
1am: By this point, I’ve showered, taken my vitamins, and am ready for bed. Read a little, watch some more videos, and eventually fall asleep sometime later.
Day Six Total: $0
Day Seven (Sunday)
12:30pm: It’s the one day this week that I don’t have an alarm, so I let myself sleep in for as long as I want to - which means that yes, I will sleep through the morning and into the afternoon. I dawdle in bed, posting on my food account and catching up on my feed, and just scrolling through various news articles and reddit threads.
1:30pm: After finally washing up and drinking some coffee, I grab my mask and bag to round out a few more groceries for the week; even though the Asian grocery store is great, they don’t have some staples so I’m heading to one of the more traditional stores near me today. I pick up some pasta, tomato sauce, oatmeal, peanut butter, and some more produce. $16.39
2:30pm: Once I’m back home and put everything away, I make a late lunch of oatmeal and apples with some Annie’s Mac & Cheese. While I eat, I start putting together the post and story captions, tags, and links for the pizza campaign, and submit them to the account managers for approval.
5:00pm: After some more dawdling on my phone and getting through more of The Queen’s Gambit (so good!), I hop onto a weekly Zoom with two of my good friends. We’ve known each other for over 8 years and while I do see one of them semi-regularly, the other has some health complications. We’ve kept this weekly Zoom call since mid-March and it helped me get through the rougher months.
7pm: After the call is over, I check my Amazon cart and take a look at anything that’s accumulated over the prior week. For non-essentials, I’ll add them to my cart and take a few days to think through if it’s something I really want/need and I’m usually able to pare down that list when I get back to it later. I decide to keep a saucepan and bath towels and order them for next week. $72.33
8pm: For dinner, I default to my tomato & egg soup with rice, and add in some zucchini for some more vegetables. I eat an apple and finish off the ice cream from yesterday as well.
11pm: Shower, do my skincare, and plop myself into bed. I continue binge-watching The Queen’s Gambit until the end - such a satisfying ending!
1am: Make sure my alarm is set for work before turning out the light.
Day Seven Total: $88.72

Intended to be a publicly available bibliography oriented around chopmarked coins and the Chinese silver trade. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to comment, and they will be reviewed as potential additions. Not planning on using an academic citation format, just a generally functional list that includes high-level descriptions of the material.
BOOKS

• 'Chopmarks', by F.M. Rose. Numismatics International, 1987. This is the seminal work on the subject, compiled largely by the personal collecting experience of its author over several years. Some of the information is outdated, but this is still a necessary work for the collector. Rose's collection is still considered the gold standard. A reprint was issued in 2003/4.
• 'Chopmarked Coins - A History', by Colin Gullberg. iAsure, 2014. An updated reference with excellent images, this is a fanatastic reference full of useful information for both the new collector and the veteran. Only one edition has been printed, and copies are only available sporadically on the secondary market.
• 'The Canton Trade: Life and Enterprise on the China Coast, 1700-1845', by Paul A. Van Dyke. Hong Kong University Press, 2007. An exceptionally detailed account of the commercial systems in place during the 18th and 19th centuries, backed up with substantial research and hard data. Something of a dry read, but highly informative.
• 'The Mexican Pieces of Eight Reales and Their Domination in South East Asia; a Historic Survey of More Than Three Centuries of a Trading Coin' by J. Busschers. 1999. One of the most exhaustively researched references on the use of New World silver in the Far East, particularly strong in its data-driven approach to documenting the 16th and 17th centuries and associated exports from various Central and South American sources. Virtually impossible to find copies available for commercial sale at present; most are in institutional collections.
• 'China and the End of Global Silver, 1873-1937', by Austin Dean. Cornell University Press, 2020.
• 'Empire of Silver: A New Monetary History of China', by Jin Xu. Yale University Press, 2021.
• 'When America First Met China - An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs and Money in the Age of Sail', by Eric Jay Dolin. Liveright, 2013. Though the silver trade is not a prime focus, a particularly readable exploration of the particular commercial relationship between China and the United States, predominantly focused on the 19th century.
• 'China Upside Down: Currency, Society, and Ideologies, 1808–1856 (Harvard East Asian Monographs)', by Man-Houng Lin. Harvard University Asia Center, 2007. Covers the often-overlooked implications of the reductions in the silver provided to China as a result of the toppling of Spanish authority in the New World.
• 'Notes Sur la Monnaie et les Métaux Précieux en Chine', by Marcel Tillot and Emil S. Fischer. Presse Orientale (L'Imprimerie Française), 1898. One of very few pre-1900 publications on the subject of foreign silver in China not in Chinese. Original print copies are rare, but the publication is currently available digitally in its entirety for free via Google Books, based off a digitized copy held in the Wason Chinese Collection at Cornell University.
• 'Resplandores: Cap and Rays 8 Reales of the Republic of Mexico, 1823-1897', by Mike Dunigan and J.B. Parker. Superior Stamp & Coin, 1997. Not a chopmark reference, but the most authoritative resource on the exceptionally wide-ranging Cap & Rays series, the long-running type that was probably the single most important issue to Chinese commerce in the 19th century.
• 'Compendio de las Piezas de Ocho Reales', by Gabriel Calbetó de Grau. Ediciones Jaun Ponce de Leon, 1970. A massive and influential two-volume publication on the 8 Reales series that is still commonly used.
• 'The United States Trade Dollar - America's Only Unwanted, Unhonored Coin', by John Willem. Whitman Publishing Co., 1959. The original study of the Trade Dollar series, far and away the most influential American type to circulate in China.
• 'The Silver Way: China, Spanish America and the Birth of Globalisation, 1565-1815', by Peter Gordon. Penguin Random House Australia, 2017. A brief and easily accessible title on the emergence of New World silver in international commerce.
• 'Counterfeit Portrait Eight-Reales: The Un-real Reales', by Robert Gurney. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. A substantial reference in English on the various contemporary circulating counterfeits in the Portrait series; as it pertains to the practice chops were intended to address (forgeries) in one of the most historically important types of the Chinese trade, it's a book worth having.
• 'El Numiscadero: English to Spanish, Spanish to English Numismatic Dictionary', by Gary Beals. Gary Beals (Self-Published), 2016. In a collecting area where Spanish and Spanish Colonial types are particularly prevalent, a useful book to have. Bonus points for featuring a rare chopmarked Maximilian Peso prominently on the front cover.
• 'A Monograph of the Silver Dollar', by John Leonard Riddell. Shepard, 1845. A fascinating book documenting the types of coins taken in at the New Orleans Mint in the 1840s (Riddell was Melter and Refiner at the N.O. Mint at the time, and had access to a range of coins placed there on deposit), including many contemporary counterfeits. Among the coins depicted are two chopmarked coins, reproduced in facsimile, a 1795-Mo 8R (Coin No. 24) and a 1776-M Spain 4R (Coin No. 481). To my knowledge, these are the earliest published reproductions of chopmarked coins! Available digitally through the Internet Archive.
• 'Tokens of the Industrial Revolution: Foreign Silver Coins Countermarked for Use in Great Britain, c. 1787-1828', by Harrington E. Manville. Spink, 2001. The actual subject matter is only tenuously related to chopmarks, but the publication itself carries a particular relevance. The front cover proudly boasts a 1796-Mo Mexico 8R with a Rothsay Cotton Works counterstamp and several chopmarks, a coin which originated from the Rose collection and is plated in 'Chopmarks', that Mr. Manville acquired for the British Museum, where it remains to this day as the sole Rose plate coin impounded in a major institutional collection. For the collector interested in other international uses of Spanish colonial coinage outside of China, this book would be useful.

MAGAZINES/ARTICLES

• 'The Chopmark News', edited by Colin Gullberg. The newsletter of the Chopmark Collectors Club that has been published since 1990, this is the reference periodical for the collector base. Membership in the club is less than $20/year, and typically two or three issues of more than 50 pages each are published annually, showcasing members' coins, interviews with dealers and researchers, and articles on the subject both scholarly and personal. Editions are delievered digitally but can be printed at additional cost. Mr. Gullberg can be reached at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
• 'The Journal of East Asian Numismatics' (JEAN), edited by Yuan Shuiqing. Originally founded by Michael Chou in 1994, JEAN saw a total of 18 published issues before ceasing operations in 1998. Regardless, the publication enjoyed considerable popularity and was known for its scholarship in the field of Chinese numismatics. The involvement of Mr. Chou, the buyer of the Rose collection, resulted in many Rose coins being published in auction sales promoted within JEAN. Publication of the magazine was resumed in 2015, and continues today.
• 'The Currency Problem in China', by Wen Pin Wei, Ph.D. Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, Vol. LIX, No. 3. Columbia University, 1914. An interesting academic article covering the development of coin and paper currency systems (including the use of foreign silver) in China; one of the more unusual claims is the continued circulation of Carolus 8Rs into the 20th century, trading at a premium associated with their popularity. Available digitally through the Internet Archive.

AUCTION CATALOGS

• Paul Bosco Auction 18, 'The Hal Walls Collection of World Trade Coins', August 4, 1997. Likely the single most complete and interesting collection of chopmarked coins to be sold in a single public sale (the Rose collection was dissolved over several years, and through multiple venues), including an 1859-S Seated Dollar, the finest known chopmarked 1878-CC Trade Dollar, and complete runs of chopmarked Pillar 8Rs (from 1733-1771) and Bust 8Rs (from 1773-1821), among many other impressive rarities.
• Aureo y Calico, 'Collecion Bohol', November 8, 2017. An extensive collection of Philippines coinage that featured a suprisingly comprehensive run of chopmarks on Spanish and Spanish American types, including several pieces that had originated from the Walls collection.
• Bonhams, 'The Alexander Patterson Collection - The Pillar Coinage of Mexico and Spanish America, and Cut and Counterstamped Coins of the Caribbean Islands.', July 16-17, 1996. A well-regarded collection of coins of Spanish America that included several quality chopmarked specimens.

Hi! First of all if you find this story too long or too boring, you can skip until the end for some possible way you might help our country in these trying times
Second, sorry sa papalit palit ko from English and Tagalog, this is just what I’m comfortable with kahit minsan wrong grammar din naman. Base sa title naisip niyo na siguro na story time to, and it is, pero let me just say kung bakit ko to ishare. Ever since nag start ako magwork hindi ako ganun kaopen sa financials ko, hindi naman ako madamot I just want to keep it private for the sake na di masabihan na mayabang, or mahirap, depende kung sino kausap ko. So ang solution lang na nakita ko is dito sa reddit, where I can keep it anonymous.
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ANYWAY. Hi. I’m a 22 years old CPA currently living in Marikina and working in Makati, and I want to tell you the story on how I made my first 100k in the hopes that I can inspire my fellow young people to start their own financial journey.
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It was November 2018, START OF MY CORPORATE LIFE
I finished college back in May, studied for the board exam and luckily passed in October. Straight after passing the board, I applied to be an auditor for a firm in Makati. I started in November. My salary at that time was 19k, at first I was ecstatic because before this I was used to a 1k per week allowance + money I make on the side sa mga raket na naiisip ko nung college, so 19k a month was HUGE for me. Pero unfortunately, nahulog ako sa patibong ng lifestyle inflation (the more you make, the more you spend), I started eating out with my friends more, I started buying more shit, I started traveling. So for the next few months yung 19k a month na sweldo ko napupunta sa transpo, food, family, and leisure. TOO MUCH LEISURE. To the point na every end ng cut off siomai with rice nalang kinakain ko sa labas ng office namin, zero balance talaga si atm natin. Ang source lang ng ipon ko at that time ay yung Coop ng company na sinalihan ko, every cutoff auto debitna yun ng 800 pesos, so 1,600 a month, pero bulag ako sa ipon na to since di ko din naman siya pwede withdrawihin pa and wala akong balak sana until magresign ako, it would be a pleasant surprise once I resign in a few years.
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It was June 2019, MY FIRST INVESTING MISTAKE
Everything changed nung June 2019, it was our first salary increase from 19 to 21k and we received our first ever bonus (nakareceive ako ng 13th month noon pero prorated to only 2 months since November ako nagstart and ginastos ko yon para sa Christmas celebration naming family). Yung nareceive kong bonus nung June is 13k. So syempre nung umpisa excited ako, 13k ganun ganun lang, di ko naman sweldo yon so parang libreng pera siya sa isip ko. PERO I was saved by my coworker, na nagsuggest na gusto niya magbukas ng COL Financial account gamit yung bonus na yon. At that time I was already thinking about starting with my investments, I’ve been interested in doing it for years nung college pa simula nung napagaralan namin yung Law of Compounding Interest.
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A short interlude: Law of Compounding Interest is a mathematical concept. Wala kang kailangan bantayan dito kasi it works on its own. Basically it means the earlier you start, the more you earn in the future. May complicated formula to pero here’s a simple concept para madaling intindihin. Lets say right now, at 20 years old, nag pasok ka ng ONE (1) PESO EVERY MONTH sa isang investment na kumikita ng 7% ANNUALLY, after 30 years at 50 years old ka na, yung 360 pesos investment na yon magiging P1,177.06 na. PERO kung naghintay ka ng 5 years at nag start ka ng 25 years old, by 50 years old yung 360 mo magiging P788.47 lang. TIME VALUE OF MONEY guys, the earlier you start, the more you earn. Ofcourse itong analogy na to is very gross simplification ng concept talaga, this is just to give you an idea of what the law of compounding interest can do.
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BACK TO THE STORY JUNE 2019 PA DIN.
Lunch break that same day nagprint kami gamit company printer ng COL forms (wag niyo sasabihin sa boss ko), and nagmartsa kami papuntang Makati office nila na walking distance lang sa work ko. And that was the start of my financial journey, dahil lang sa isang usapang tropa sa office. Pero this also led to my first financial mistake. Imagine niyo ko, since I was a child favorite ko Jollibee, paglabas ko ng bahay namin may Jollibee, pag dating ko sa office bago pumasok ng building may Jollibee, maglakad ka lang ng onti sigurado may makikita ka ulit na Jollibee. So san ko pinasok yung pera ko? SA JOLLIBEE. FUCK. I just thought na since it’s a well known company and its one of the premium stocks, it’s a good place to start my investment. WRONG. Nagpasok ako ng 10k sa investment na yon, the rest is mutual fund. And in a week I already lost 1k. So bilang nooby investor, nag pull out ako. Natakot ako eh. That was my first mistake, investing without research. Pero dahil sa experience na yon, it started my 1 month long, grad school thesis level, research on the know-hows of the stock market and other investments in general.
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It was August 2019, RULES ARE SET
After a month I received another bonus, this time it was health and another mid year bonus (thank you Lord), ang total na nareceive ko that time is almost 20k, pero at that time din madaming gastos kasi pinapagawa yung bahay namin, so I chose to help them with that bonus hanggang sa ang natira nalang sakin ay 4k. After a month of research, I learned about the stock market, I had a basic idea about technical analysis, fundamental analysis, I learned more about mutual funds and other investment options like MP2, VUL, REITs (welcome to the Philippines), and other investment opportunities. Again, basic stuff lang on some, a bit more stuff on others, pero the point is I’m more confident with my investments and continuous pa din ang learnings, but the most important thing I learned is EMERGENCY FUND. I always knew I needed to save first before investing, siguro nadala lang ako ng excitement kaya napainvest agad ako when the opportunity arose. In hindsight, thankful ako sa failed investment ko with JFC kasi kung di nangyari yon I wouldn’t have the motivation to learn more about these things.
So the rules were set, yung around 12k na natitira ko sa COL account, di ko na winithdraw, in fact pinasok ko siya lahat sa bond fund muna, which is a safer investment. The idea was that I’ll keep it in a safe investment hanggang mabuild ko yung emergency fund ko before going for the riskier options. I know taboo to sa ibang tao kasi dapat EF muna bago invest, but you’ll just have to forgive me on this one. Aside from the 4k from my bonus, I also set as a rule na magtatabi ako ng 5k every month, no excuses, minimum 5k. I started making a budget, I downloaded an app called “Money Lover”, dun naset ko yung budget plans ko and recurring transactions to remind me kung ano mga dapat itabi ko every month. So every month the formula is (SALARY – 5K MANDATORY – RECURRING TRANSACTIONS (FAMILY, FOOD, TRANSPO, NETFLIX SPOTIFY) = WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT MONEY), and it worked. It was not easy but it worked. Dahil sa app na yon and from my own initiative to discipline myself, nakapagtabi ako ng 5k a month and even more. Discipline is key nga talaga.
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It was October 2019, MY FIRST EVER LOAN
At this point on track pa din ako sa budget ko. For a rundown of my current “assets”, meron akong 12k sa COL na di naman masyadong tumataas, bond fund lang siya afterall, and 19k in cash on hand and in bank (5k a month + 4k bonus). Pero surprise surprise motherfucker, magsstart na yung busy season. For y’all non-accounting people, starting around September to November, audit starts for most companies para sa BIR and SEC deadlines around April/May ng next year. During these days extended na yung work hours naming mga auditor, puyatan na minsan alas sais na ng umaga ako makakauwi and I have to be at work at 9am, so san yung tulog ko dun kung bbyahe pa ko pa Marikina. So I decided na magdodorm na ko and found a few workmates to join me, pero kailangan naming magdown ng 9k isa isa for advances and deposit. That problem is nagcommit na ko na hinding hindi magagalaw yung EF ko kahit ano mangyari, and since kilala ko yung sarili ko, alam kong if I break that rule once, I’ll break it more times after, kaya pinigilan ko yung sarili ko. I considered borrowing sa parents ko, or sa mga kaibigan ko, pero I ended up choosing to borrow from the company coop na sinalihan ko. May special loan sila noon dahil malapit na yung Christmas, Chrismas Loan yung tawag, obviously. Essentially, they charge 5% interest with 6 months to pay and to make the loan worth my while, I chose to borrow more than I needed. I ended up borrowing 36k just so I have more money na hindi restricted na restricted like my EF. I know I had to pay interest pero it was worth it kasi naging magmadali yung budget ko after non since aside from EF, I barely had extra money before. And ta-da, just like that I paid 9k to the landlord and put the rest of the money in a “semi-restricted” fund na reserved for emergency pa din, but not as emergency ng EF ko. The plan is to use it for Christma, so I did pero di ko inubos. After December passed and may natira pa, ang plan nalang ay pangrefill ko siya ng onti sa mababawas sa sweldo ko every cutoff hanggang binabayaran yung loan.
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It was end of February 2020, A GLOBAL THREAT
Ever since DecembeJanuary ata naririnig ko na yung balita about the virus and how it seemingly started in China. During those times I didn’t think anything of it hanggang sa nabalitaan ko na yung first case sa Pinas. In anticipation sa pwedeng mangyari dahil during February dumadami na yung cases sa ibang bansa, I decided to pull out my investments. If there is anything I will need extra funds for, it would be for a global threat such as a pandemic. So pinull out ko siya all of my 12k-ish na tumaas sana pero due to the virus medyo bumaba din yung bond funds, so I didn’t really earn much.
A fast rundown ng financials ko at this time,
Assets
EF - 39,000 (5k x 7mos plus 4k bonus)
From COL – 12,000
Liabilities
Outstanding Loan – (12,000)
Net Asset = 39,000
Seems good naman diba?
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It was March 12, LOCKDOWN
I still remember how I was sitting in the office, there was a call for social distancing but we had to do a firm wide meeting so we did it via group call. Everyone in the office was in a meeting but we’re all just staring at our laptops listening to our bosses about their plans for the upcoming lockdown, which at that time was still merely a possibility until the president officially announced it hours later. And so I went home to Marikina that day and as of writing this, I haven’t been back to Makati since.
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It was March 20, DEEP DIVE
The PSEi made its deepest dive since early 2010s, it went as far as 4,700, it was briefly on the 3k level the previous day. Seeing an advantage from the situation, I deposited 20k on my COL account. I know some people may be groaning from this decision, it’s a pandemic and we could use the money. But I planned for this, I made sure we had enough funds in case anything happens in our family during these times. Although admittedly, foolish as it is, I didn’t think this lockdown would last 5 fucking months.
So the next trading day, I bought 12k worth of shares in an index fund hoping to ride the index back up when the whole thing calms down. I was intent on putting it in long term so even if the market dives deeper, it would be fine (Spoiler: Turns out I invested just in time before it goes up again).
I put the rest of the money on a speculative stock that I’ve been eyeing for a while.
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It was May 1, DEBT FREE
Starting May I decided to increase my monthly savings to 10k as I wasn’t going out anyway, and pledged 5k a month to my local foundation to help out in other communities as our community in Marikina is relatively more well off than others. At first the budget was hard as I still had to pay for my coop loan for 4 more cut off but that ended April 30. And since then I can save 10k, pledge 5k to our foundation, and use the rest to help out in our family expenses.
Starting May 1, I was debt free. At this point I had
EF – 41,000 (5k for 9 months + 4k bonus – 8k deposited to COL to make it 20k)
COL - 23,000 (Starting with the initial 20k, index grew by around 20% at this point while the stock grew quite a bit too)
Total Asset as of May 1, 2020 – 64,000
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It is July 26, HI THERE!
Yesterday I had the chance to revisit my budget, I didn’t get the chance before because the client I’m auditing requires most of my time. Ngayon lang free day ko, thank God its Sunday.
We’re 5 months into the lockdown and most of us were hit by the pandemic in different ways. I was lucky enough to be affected positively by the current events, at least financially. Emotionally and mentally is another story not fit for this subreddit.
Right now, at July 26, 2020 I finally reached P100k
EF – 66,000 (41k in May 1 + 25k for May, June, and first cutoff of July)
COL – 40,000 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
TOTAL ASSET – 106,000 as of writing.
The massive spike in my COL balance surprised me as much as anyone might have. As stock market enthusiasts would know, the PSEi recently went on a bull run before going sideways along the 6k level, but this was only small compared to how much I earned in the speculative stock I invested in, which I already sold by the way. The stock went from almost 1 peso to around 3-4 pesos recently before it went back down to 2-3 pesos, if anyone is familiar with the recent speculative stocks you might know what I am talking about.
And that’s how I achieved my first 100,000, pretty boring I know. Right now I feel proud of what I accomplished, if not for how I accomplished it. I wish it were otherwise but the biggest reason I made the P100k this early despite my expensive lifestyle earlier in the story is because the circumstances caused by the global pandemic ravaging the world right now gave me the chance to make it happen.
As I finally achieved the feat I was aiming for earlier than I expected, I decided to stop saving for now. Aside from my personal and family expenses, I decided to pledge the rest of my salary to the pandemic response mission.
There’s no lesson to my story, it’s pretty bland and I mostly did this for myself, but if you made it this far and want to help, you can donate to give2asia.org which is where I’ve been donating recently to reach other communities outside ours. Our earnings will grow again after the pandemic but some children might not. Of course, not everyone is well off during these times so I’m only addressing the people that have more than enough.
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THANK YOU FOR READING MY STORY! See you at P1 million? HAHAHAHA
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PS: I forgot that I still have coop contributions and I’ve been contributing 1,600 monthly. I ‘ve been contributing for 19.5 months since December 2018 and right now it’s at P31,200. So total is P137,200 apparently, unbelievable.

With NHL PR's press release on the CBA extension and return-to-play plan, they linked a 71 page PDF of the Memorandum of Understanding passed by the NHL and NHLPA. Let's review and discuss what changes are outlined here. For reference, here is a link to the original Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Friedman's How the NHL and NHLPA found labour peace in a pandemic.

Economic Issues

1) The CBA extension runs through September 15, 2026 (unless there are insufficient funds in the Escrow Account on June 30, 2025, in which case the CBA is extended an additional year)
2) The upper limit for the 2020/21 season is $81.5M, midpoint is $70.9M, and lower limit is $60.2 (same as the 2019/20 season). The cap will remain at $81.5M until Hockey Related Revenue (HRR) for a completed season reaches $3.3B. It will be between $81.5M and $82.5M on a pro rata basis in seasons where Preliminary HRR is between $3.3B and $4.8B. Then will increase by $1M per year until the Escrow Balance is paid off, unless agreed upon by both parties. After Escrow has been repaid but not earlier than the establishing of a cap for the 2023/24 season, a lag formula will be used such that the year-over-year increase in the cap will be between a maximum of the lesser of 5% and the trailing two-year average HRR growth percentage and a minimum (except for the 2026-27 season) of the lesser of 2.5% and the trailing two-year average HRR growth percentage.
3) Escrow is caped at:

Season	Escrow Cap
2020/21	20%
2021/22	14% if Preliminary HRR for 2020/21 exceeds $3.3B. 18% if it is below $1.8B. Pro-rata rate in between.
2022/23	10%
2023/24-2025/26	6%

Entirety of April 15, 2020 payroll deposited into Escrow. 100% of funds held in Escrow Account for 2019/20 season; and for future seasons until 1) the Escrow Balance is less than $125M or the beginning of the 2023/24 season (whichever is sooner), and 2) HRR exceeds $4.8B in a season; are released to the League. The NHL waives it's right to reduce or eliminate player salaries for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons based solely on the COVID-19 pandemic.
4) 10% of each player's 2020/21 NHL salary plus signing bonus are deferred without interest to be paid (in full) in 3 equal payments on October 15 of 2022, 2023, and 2024. This does not affect calculations of AAV towards the payroll range.
5) If the 2020/21 regular season starts after November 15, "Roster Freeze Players" (players in the NHL at 5pm ET on March 16 and who played at least 1 NHL regular season game in the 2019/20 season) signed to an SPC for the season on October 31st receive 8.1% (15/186) of their 2020/21 salary by October 31.
6) Increases the benefits credit for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons and provides values for seasons through 2025/26.

Player Benefit Issues

7-31) Various changes to health insurance, life insurance, retirement plans, senior player gifting, and accounting related to those benefits.

Medical-Legal Issues

32-37) Changes to how second opinions are handled
38) Clubs cannot enter into commercial agreements that restrict their ability to select medical staff or refer players to third party service providers.
39) Parties will forma a task force to advise on minimum standards for Club medical resources and staffing on road trips
40) Changes to off season rehabilitation.
41-43) Changes to post-career medical treatment.
44) The NHL and Clubs will not oppose legislation, in Canadian provinces, to extend workers compensation benefits to professional athletes.
45) Changes to worker's compensation.
46-49) Changes to the Performance Enhancing Substances Program
50) Parties will negotiate a revised Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program

Player Contracting Issues

51) ELC compensation limits are:

Draft Year	Maximum
2019-21	$925K
2022-23	$950K
2024-25	$975K
2026	$1M

52) Minor league compensation limits (for entry-level players):

Draft Year	Maximum
2019	$70K
2020-21	$80K
2022-23	$82.5K
2024-25	$85K
2026	$87.5K

53) League-Paid Individual "B" NHL Awards Bonuses (for entry-level players) are amended (starting with the 2020/21 season) to include the Art Ross, Masterton, Messier, and Clancy Awards. These bonuses will not be counted against league-wide player compensation. The amount paid will be increased by 50% starting in the 2022/23 season.
54) Club-Paid Individual "A" and "B" Performance Bonuses are amended to include the Art Ross trophy (starting with the 2020/21 season). Starting with ELCs signed after the 2022 draft, "A" bonus maximums are increased from $850K to $1M, and the maximum per category increases from $212.5K to $250K; "B" bonus (Club-paid) maximums are increased from $2M to $2.5M.
55) NHL Minimum Salary is amended:

Season	Minimum Salary
2019/20-2020/21	$700k
2021/22-2022/23	$750k
2023/24-2025/26	$775k

56) UFAs who play for a club outside North America do not need to clear waivers before December 15.
57) Revised tryout agreements.
58) No-trade and no-move clauses always travel with the player in the event of the contract moving.
59) Salary arbitration briefs are limited to: 1) 42 pages (exclusive of indices, glossaries, tables of contents, and exhibits), and 2) size 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, one-inch margins (except charts, tables, headings, footnotes, citations). Arbitration may not be settled after the hearing has commenced.
60) The UFA Interview Period shall be eliminated.
61) Starting with the 2020/21 season, a "Projected Off-Season Cap Accounting" rule shall replace the "Tagging Rule". From the beginning of the regular season through June 30, Clubs may not exceed the current Upper Limit plus 10% in AAV relevant for the following season. Any amounts based on rate reflective of a player's time on the roster uses the current projected time.
62) The Performance Bonus Cushion remains in the final year of the CBA
63) Cap Advantage Recapture is charged against a Club by either: 1) equal proportions in each season over the remaining term of the SPC, or 2) in an equal amount to the contract's AAV in as many seasons required to account for the full amount (the last season is the remaining amount). The later formula (2) is applied if the value in the former (1) exceeds the AAV.
64) The 35 or older cap counting rule does not apply to contracts that have: 1) total compensation (salary and bonuses) that is either the same or increases from season-to-season, and 2) a signing bonus that is payable in the first year only.
65) Clubs cannot make trades with conditions based on a player signing with a Club (if the player has a current or future contract at the time of the trade) or based on the subsequent assignment of the traded player.
66) Players signed through the subsequent trade deadline can sign an 8-year contract without waiting until the trade deadline.
67) For "Front-Loaded SPCs" the difference in the player's salary and bonuses cannot change by more than 25% year-to-year, and the salary and bonuses be less than 60% of the highest season.
68) For contracts signed after this agreement, if the minimum qualifying offer would otherwise be greater than 120% of the AAV of the contract, the minimum qualifying offer will instead be 120% of the AAV.

Working Conditions Issues

69) Changes to how days off are accounted.
70) Changes to bye week accounting.
71) All-Star Game Weekend events will be created by the NHL in consultation with the NHLPA. There will be no All-Star Game in a season in which the NHL and NHLPA agree to participate in an international tournament.
72) Parties will discuss minimizing travel by scheduling back-to-back road games in the same city
73-82) Changes in travel, moving costs and compensation.
83-84) Changes/restrictions to fitness testing and compulsory off-season training.
85-86) Clubs will make two complimentary game-worn jerseys available to each player, provided they are for personal or charitable use rather than commercial. NHLPA will agree to restrictions on player's use of Club-provided game-used equipment.
87) Clubs will give the NHLPA electronic player payroll records.
88) The Playoff fund will be as follows:

Season	Fund
2019/20	$32M
2020/21-2021/22	$20M
2022/23	$21M
2023/24	$22M
2024/25	$23M
2025/26	$24M

Other Issues

89) The NHL and NHLPA will participate in the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics, subject to negotiation of acceptable terms to each of the NHL, NHLPA, and IIHF (and/or IOC).
90) Changes to the maintenance of the Industry Growth Fund.
91) The NHL has a one-time option to modify revenue sharing on or before June 30, 2021. In the CBA, Recipient Clubs receive either a full or half share of the revenue sharing based on if their "Designated Market Area" has fewer or more than 3 million households (defined by Nielsen in the USA and BBM in Canada). This allows the NHL to change it so all Recipient Clubs receive a full share.
92) NHL will discuss providing footage and still images of NHL players to the NHLPA free-of-charge for non-commercial, editorial, and internal uses.
93) Parties will negotiate a 2020/21 calendar and schedule. Most statistics are pro-rated with a 70/82 factor for "Roster Freeze Players", but not for other players.
94) Tentative Critical Dates Calendar:

Date	Event
July 1	2020/21 season begins (for contract signing purposes)
July 13	Training camps open
July 26	Travel to Hub Cities
July 28-30	Exhibition Games
August 1	Stanley Cup Qualifiers Begin
August 11	First Round Begins
August 25	Second Round Begins
September 8	Conference Finals Begin
September 22	Stanley Cup Finals Begin
Later of September 26 or Beginning of SCF	First Buy-Out Period Begins
October 4	Last Possible Day of Final
Later of October 4 and 2 days following the last game in the final Playoff round the team plays	Deadline for First Club-Elected Arbitration Notification (5pm ET)
October 9-10	2020 NHL Draft
Later of October 6 and 4 days following the last game in the final Playoff round the team plays	Deadline for Qualifying Offers (5pm ET), which are not open for acceptance prior to the “Qualifying Offers Open for Acceptance (12pm ET)” date"
Later of October 8 or SCF + 6 days	First Buy-Out Period Ends
Later of October 9 or SCF + 7 days	Qualifying Offers Open for Acceptance (12pm ET); RFA/UFA Signing Period Begins (12pm ET)
Later of October 10 and 8 days following the last game in the final Playoff round the team plays	Deadline for Player-Elected Salary Arbitration Notification (5pm ET); Deadline for RFA Offer Sheets for Players for whom Clubs have elected Salary Arbitration pursuant to First Club-Elected Salary Arbitration (5pm ET); Commencement of Second Club-Elected Salary Arbitration Notification (5:01pm ET)
Later of October 11 and 8 days following the last game in the final Playoff round the team plays	Deadline for Second Club-Elected Salary Arbitration Notification (5pm ET)
October 12	Scheduling of Salary Arbitration Hearings
Later of October 18 or SCF + 16 days	Qualifying Offers Expire Automatically (5pm ET)
October 20	First Day of Salary Arbitration Hearings
November 8	Last Day of Salary Arbitration Hearings
November 17	Training Camps Open
December 1	2020/21 Regular Season Begins

95-97) Phases 2-4 Protocols (not included in the document)
98) Disputes regarding Leafs broadcasting rights agreement and Pittsburgh non-resident sports facility usage fee have been settled.