I have paid off one credit card and four to go. I'm still working on finalizing budget FI number.

Hey everyone, Nicole and I would love to know more about our students. We would like to know what hobbies you have, any books you read, and what shows or news channels you watch or listen to?

So I’ve been in a tailspin behind this market and the value I lost on some stock appreciation rights that I have to exercise by October. Like sick to my stomach tailspin. Normally I would treat it like my 401K and just trust that it will eventually recover but I don’t know if October is enough time for the stock to recover. Anywho, I decided to take some control and place a limit order. I’m not selling at the current bottom barrel prices but I’m not shooting for the moon either. I selected a dollar amount that would make me feel like I didn’t lose out on too much and technically I’m selling to cover so I will still own some stock that pays dividends and trust that eventually the price will rise to where it belongs …not this tariff induced haze. So that’s a win for me - trying to conquer my scarcity mindset.

TL;DR - make sure your dividends are actually being reinvested into your mutual fund vs sitting in a money market settlement account. So, longer story, at Vanguard you have a settlement fund that is used to hold your money when you are about to buy stock, after you've sold stock and then also apparently for dividends paid out. You can specifically request (select) to have your dividends reinvested AND your capital gains reinvested. I suppose there are reasons not to reinvest the cash that is generated but that should be a conscious choice not an "ooops...I should have selected that button". In my case that cash has been sitting around like it's in a savings account and not even a high yield one!!! Now I know better so I will do better - and if YOU* didn't know, now you do too. *I bet I'm going to come across a video I haven't watched yet that covers this exact topic....sorry in advance Twins.

While reviewing the "Bond" lesson, I picked up on a mindset change for me. As a child people always talked about buying savings bonds for kids. The other day, my 80 year old aunt asked me if she bought me savings bonds. Back then we didn't know or have as many options but today stocks or bond funds are a better option for me because kids have a longer time horizon.