We hit a milestone savings goal on Saturday. Pete thought it felt anticlimactic. I ran around the house excitedly singing a song I made up about it. Pete said nothing has changed. I said everything has changed. At the beginning of our marriage, we had three mortgages. Now we have zero mortgages and we've hit this goal, meaning we are solidly on track to retire early. That's a lot in 2 years. Pete seemed unconvinced. I remained ecstatic. When I was younger, I never longed for marriage, I never dreamed about weddings. I longed for financial independence, I dreamed about this particular net worth goal. (Admittedly, I was a weird kid. Which probably surprises no one). We didn't do anything elaborate or groundbreaking to achieve this goal. We spend money on the things and experiences that make us happy (travel, experiences, a comfortable bed, races and socializing with friends, Pete: computers/tech gadgets, Jen: 8' tall giraffe) and not on things that don't. We put money in our 401Ks and Roth IRAs. We put a sizable amount of money well sizable to us, maybe not to others) in our non-retirement investment account every month, which is just invested in an index fund. But mostly, we are so incredibly lucky (to have similar attitudes/habits about money, to have gainful employment, to have sold our 2 houses from our single lives for more than we paid for them, to live in a low cost of living area). I'd be lying if I said the money wasn't nice. I don't think money can buy happiness, but it sure can make a hell of a lot of things easier. But true wealth is not measured by the amount of money you accumulate. True wealth is living life with a richness and depth of relationships, gratitude and meaning.
I wanted to do something fancy to celebrate. But I didn't want to spend any money. So I'll have to wait and see if I can think of something creative to satiate those competing desires. In the meantime, Laura and Jon were coming over to meet George and so we could go eat at Brooklyn Ramen Rochester (which was meh) and see Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (which was fantastic). Laura asked Pete what he thought when I brought George home, he smiled and said "Jen was just so excited about it." Though I didn't make up a song about it and run around the house singing it, my heart did explode in feels. We are different people. Pete wasn't expecting marriage to include living with a giant stuffed giraffe. I wasn't expecting marriage to include watching my husband sitting on the couch peeling an orange and then nonchalantly putting the orange peels on a pillow as if that is where orange peels belong (no, really, this is a thing that happened). But it's those differences that make us who we are, a fact that I sometimes forget, such as when I am horrified and frantically picking orange peels off a couch pillow. Things will change, we will change. That is inevitable. We vowed to weather the changes together, the bear markets and bull markets, our best moments and our worst moments.
The thing that I want to celebrate isn't that the stock market went up or we're saving more money, it's that we're building a life together and that life is pretty freaking sweet. Marriage is building a life together that is bigger and better than both of us.
Lyric of the moment: "And the only way to last. And the only way to live it. Is to hold on when you get love. And let go when you give it..." ~Stars "Hold On When You Get Love And Let Go When You Give It"
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