Update on my "Challenge 102" - December 2018

There was an interesting effect I got from starting this challenge. 
In many ways I was just the same as many other people - struggling to lose weight which was slowly but surely creeping up.

After starting "Challenge 102" I stopped focusing on weight. My thoughts went deeper. Much deeper. 
Thinking my deeper thoughts I used my already available knowledge on the human body processes but suddenly the puzzle pieces became strangely rearranged. Suddenly I saw everything in a different new light. 

After applying my new understanding I lost weight without any struggle. 
I am physically stronger than I ever was and I wasn't as strong even in my twenties. I always was a weakling. 

My body shape has changed. Sometimes I look at it and can't believe it is my body. It is like I am living in a parallel reality where I got a different body. 

I always thought: genes are genes, you can't do much. And yes, genes are genes, but there was a hidden capacity I didn't know about and that is quite amazing. 

The phrase "I don't have anything to wear" doesn't exist for me anymore. I am happy.

This amazing transformation made me think about the mechanism behind this thoughts rearrangement which appears to be produced by asking a different question. 

What has actually happened? It looks like I stopped focusing on just one aspect of what I thought is a component of a healthy life. 
Instead I generated an overreaching goal: Leave to at least 102 years old. Achieving that goal already implies the underlying health. The answer to a question "What do I have to do do live that long?" came on its own and it was quite unexpected.

Now I am trying to deconstruct this example and apply it to another situation.
The example with the weight:
The conventional goal was "lose weight" as a representative for health.
The overreaching goal is "become at least 102 years old" which implies health as a major component.

What about money?
My conventional goal right now is to reach $3,000,000. It is a representative for financial freedom.
But what is the overreaching goal? The financial freedom? But comparing to the weight example that can't be my overreaching goal. The weight loss was representative for health, but the health was not the overreaching goal. I have to change magnification and see what is above the financial freedom. 

What do I want this freedom for? Having financial freedom  means that I will not bother by being dependant on work circumstances, on people, on people's opinions. But that is impossible when I live in a society. As long as I have connections and people I want to have relationships with, I will always have to adjust to some degree. And I don't mind that. I learned my ways and I like being in relationships with people. I also like my work. So relationship with others or work is not the factor. 

Maybe I want to reduce anxiety and have more fun. I want that much money primarily to feel safe. Feeling of safety is when you know that you will always have enough resources for your needs. What will I do when I know that I am safe? I will enjoy life? Is "Life joy" that overreaching goal where the financial freedom is a component, like health is a component for becoming 102 years old? 

It could be. 

Things that work, work fast. I started seeing the effects of my "Challenge 102" in about 5 months.
So if this new goal is defined correctly I could start seeing the effects in approximately the same time. I will add few months wiggle room and see what happens. 

So the results may come in May-September 2019. If nothing happens it will be either because of the wrong goal definition or maybe different goals require different times to work. 

I will think about it again in May-September 2019 and adjust. Of course I know that my interpretation of those mechanisms may be wrong, but  I will not know if I don't try. 

Thank you for your comments!

Thank you for very nice comments, guys!

I started this blog in September 2017 as a write up of information that I need to research for myself. Then one of my friends started to ask me financial questions which I found very interesting I and incorporated them as posts which usually start as "M. asked me".

Recently I started to see comments which are very positive. It is especially nice because I was not asking for any comments and I was not expecting any comments, sinse I am not producing any commercial material. 
I am glad that the information I collect and write up for myself is useful for someone else.

I have the comment moderation switched on so that no nonsense comments appear, something like "make money working from home" you can see on some blogs with unmoderated comments. But I have not had any of those yet.

I am not advertising anywhere. You can see the real time total blog view numbers on the right side which is at 3343 today. It is not much but it doesn't bother me. 


I do have some ads running but it is not a viable source of revenue because since the start of the blog they brought in $2.91.  Obviously this ad revenue is not a motivation for me to have this blog. But I will keep the ads out of curiosity to see if they will ever cover the blog costs which are $12 per year. The $12 are very tolerable and if I would classify this blog as a hobby it makes it a very cheap hobby. 

My main motivation is collecting reliable information which I research thoroughly myself because I trust so few people. I have to check everything myself, that always works best for me.

Why am I staying anonymous? I am writing down the information I have found and sometimes I also write down my thoughts to that. I like to write down my thoughts.
When I am anonymous, I can write what I really think. I am not bound by any need to keep my image because I don't have any. I really can write what I think. 
Only 5 people know who I am. 4 of them are not  interested in finances and they don't read my blog. I think that only one of them really reads it from time to time (that is M. who asks questions).

Basically I only use this blog for my personal needs and I am glad to see that it is useful for some people I don't even know. Thanks again for the nice comments!

How to pay for child's college? Does it still make sense to go to medical school?

Making a snow cat, December 2018 

I am not sure if my child will decide to go to college. It is very likely.

She is 8 and with determination she says that she wants to be a doctor. That means that there will be a college and maybe even a graduate school. If she chooses to go to college, it will be in about 10 years.

The college costs are rising. Per www.collegeboard.org the increase in college costs in the last ten years in 2018 dollars was $9,790 for private non-profit colleges and $4,910 for public colleges. 
The estimated costs for 2018-19 year for private non-profit college is $48,510 and $21,270 for public college. This includes room and board.

I used an inflation calculator and it looks like the increase is in keeping with the inflation of about 3% per year, at least for this data for the last 10 years. 
With the estimated 3% of inflation, the costs in the next 10 years will rise by approximately $20,000 to $78,740 for private college and by $9,000 to $35,183 for public college. 


If the pace of cost increase will not change, then in 2028 the costs will be accordingly $58,300 and $26,180 per year. Take that x4 for the 4 years of college and you will get $233,200 and $104,720 respectively.
If you add medical school, double it.


The physician's profession becomes less and less attractive with the recent increase in paperwork, new compliance hurdles, increasing costs of education and decreasing pay. Does it still make financial sense to become a doctor?

Taking the approximate education costs of $400,000, you will start working 6-7 years later than, for example a dietitian. The average dietitian's salary (per web search) is about the same as the resident salary. 

If as a dietitian you have approximately 45 productive years to work, as a physician you start later and have approximately 34 productive years. That is if you pick 65 as your retirement age.


If just as an example, you take a physician salary of $250,000 per year times 34 it will make $8,500,000. That is the money you will earn during the 34 work years.

The dietitian's salary of $50,000 taken x45, for the longer 45 years of working, will be $2,250,000.

Even including the high college debt the physician salary is still more attractive. These numbers are very approximate, not including inflation, raises or decreases. I did it just to see if the difference in total earnings even remotely makes sense. It looks like it still does.


Of course it is not just the money that makes you to choose a profession. When I told my mother that I have chosen pathology, she exclaimed sadly: "Why? Now I can't even tell the neighbors about that!  Why do you like the morgue? Who do you have that interest from?" And my father added gravely: "Are you doing it just for the money?"

I told my father that since his engineering genes didn't cross over to me, I had to do what I can. 
And since my mother opens every of her chickens that dies without an obvious cause, and calls me to ask what are the spots in that dead chicken's liver, I told her that she is basically "a chicken pathologist without a license".
My father agreed that you have to do what you can.
My mother was happy to discover that her interests are not that different from mine. And quickly everything was fine again.

I am curios what profession my daughter will pick. But in any case, there will be probably some college costs.


What are the options to save/pay for the college? 

Before making any decisions about supporting the child with the college costs one needs to make sure that his own financial well being including retirement is taken care of. After that I see following options:

1. Child will pay all costs. 
It would make sense to try to get stipends for which you need good grades and some outstanding extracurricular activities. The child's motivation to complete education will be high. Parents will have minimal or no costs.

2. Funding a 259 account.
That is doable but one needs to make sure there is enough motivation present to take the college seriously. One of the motivational ways may be the promise to pay for all college costs after college is competed but that will not work with the 529 account, because the costs have to be reimbursed in the same calendar  year.


3. Using gift to finance college costs.
3a. Each of the parents can give a cash gift of $15,000 (IRS reporting limit for 2018). That should cover $30,000 per year. The tuition can be paid directly to the institution and then it will not count as a gift.
3b. Gifts over the IRS limit are an option. Also the IRS allows taxpayers to give $75,000 into a 529 plan without paying tax or reducing the $11.2 million lifetime limit (see post on gift tax). 


4. Funding a custodial account.
There will be no penalty if the child doesn't go to college but the money will not be yours (like in 529 account) - you can't just take it back. It is officially your child's money. I have started one custodial account and which I plan to use for her wedding costs.

It also can be a combination of those methods.

Tricks for dealing with negative situations

M. asked me recently: How do you extract yourself from work drama? A work friend dragged me into one but I don't want to be in it. But I want to stay loyal to her.

M. doesn't want to be a part of the drama but wants to be loyal to her colleague. It sounds that M. doesn't want to take sides, but she wants to be liked by her colleague.

The main conflict here: M. wants to be liked but at the same time she wants to be herself by separating from other's opinions. Those two things are difficult to combine.  Difficult but possible.

I remember a situation when I was doing some rotations in Ireland as a medical student. The patient complained to me about the surgeon who was my supervisor. I couldn't really take anyone's side. By taking patient's side I would go against my boss. By taking surgeon's side I would go against the patient. Both could mean trouble for a medical student. 

A seasoned and very kind Irish nurse saw my helpless face, took me quietly to the side and told me: Don't take sides. Don't agree or disagree. Give some emotional support. Just say "Oh, dear, that is a terrible situation. I feel you."
I used it and indeed that was a neutral support phrase without making me to take any side.

Now I use it a lot at parties and weddings when people with not matching political views are passionately talking about recent political events. I have no goal or intent to change anyone's opinions or to convince them that they are wrong and I am right. Especially not at a wedding. 
Sometimes I don't even know who is wrong and who is right. 

They all can believe whatever they want. "Oh dear" and "I feel you" helps really me well.  I am not taking sides and at the same time I am not lying either. People like to talk and I let them talk. I might tell them what I think if they ask directly. But mostly I can redirect the question back to them, which is easy if you answer a question with another question.

Along the way I collected few more tricks about how to stay emotionally independent in "negative" situations.

1. Being able to listen to opinions different form your own, sometimes very different...

It is very helpful if you can listen to opinions of others which may be different and sometimes even the opposite of your own. When you start feeling inner diagreement, tell yourself: "It is not my way of thinking or doing things, but it sounds interesting" and after that just play a journalist and ask curious questions. Journalists don't necessary share the opinions and views of those they interview. But they still listen and ask questions.
Just because you don't argue, it doesn't automatically mean that you agree.

2. If you are pushed to an action, use a delay tactic
If someone asks you to make a decision on a spot, for example your financial advisor asks you to make a decision and you feel uncomfortable and are not ready to decide, just say: "It does sound very interesting. But I am not sure right now, I need more time to think about it." 
Some people may be very insisting and say: "What is there to think about?" You just repeat the same you just said: "As I just said, it does sound very interesting. But I am not sure right now, I need more time to think about it." You can repeat it indefinitely. They will feel a strong but polite resistance and will give up.

3. Be able to listen to critique without immediately fighting it 
Listen is the key word. You don't have to accept it. You can listen and evaluate if the advise is useful to you or not. 

Any unsolicited critique or advise is an attack. Use "marshal art" techniques to defend yourself. Step aside and let them fall. Say: "Thank you for you input, I appreciate it and I will think about it." Again, you don't agree or disagree and don't promice to change anything either.

4. Accept yourself as you are. 
With all your qualities. My parallel parking is pretty bad. Sometimes I get lost even with GPS. I get nauseated on roller coasters. 
There is no reason for me to hide that or to pretend to be stronger then I am.

If someone tells me: You can't park! I will answer: Yes, I can't park. And that is usually the end of the conversation. 

If someone who's definition of fun is a roller coaster ride will push me to "have fun" and to go on a roller coaster, it will be my own fault if I mess up the entire rest of my day after I get nauseated. 
Once you admit your weaknesses, life will become easier because there will be no more energy spent on pretending.


Have you noticed that none of the responses contain any lies or distorted truths. They are acknowledgment of received information, delaying of responses, or just acknowledgment of a fact without labeling the information as right or wrong. All of that is mainly avoiding or redirecting.

Tax advantaged accounts contribution changes in 2019

Contribution limits for 401k, 403b and most 457 plans are increased to $19,000.
For people over 50 - catch-up contributions are additional $6,000.

Traditional IRA and Roth IRA: $6,000.
For people over 50 - catch-up contributions are additional $6,000.

HSA: $3,500 for single and $7,000 for family.
For people over 55 - catch-up contributions are additional $1,000.

 

Gift tax - will it be ever applicable to you?

If you give a large cash gift to someone, it is useful to know the rules on taxation. The rules are very generous and it is very likely that you will never pay the gift tax. 

In 2019 the gift tax exclusion is $15,000 per person per year and $11,4 million per person per lifetime. A gift includes cash, stocks, real estate, land, vehicles.

Any gift below the exclusion limit doesn't have to be reported to IRS. 

Any gift above the exclusion will need the IRS Form 709 to disclose the gift at the time you file taxes.  Check if your state also requires you to report gifts over the limit (very few do).  
The person receiving the gift doesn't have to report the gift. 

If you give more than the limit, the amount over the limit will be recorded against the life time limit. So if you give your daughter $40,000 in one year, $15,000 will not be counted, and the sum exceeding that - the $25,000 will be reported and the records will be kept and will be counted against the life time limit. Later when she inherits your estate, her limits for estate tax will be lowered by that amount. 

If you (unlikely) use up your life time exclusions, you will have to pay the gift tax of 18%-40%. The person giving the gift will have to pay the tax.  

If gifted property is sold, a capital gains tax can be triggered.

If you add your child to your checking account, half of the money in the account will be considered a gift.

If you sell your relative a house below the market value, the difference will be taken out of the life time limit. 

Things that are not considered gifts:
- Anything given to a spouse (who is US citizen)
- Anything given to a dependent 
- Charitable or political donations
- Funds paid directly to medical service or health insurance provider, or funds paid directly to educational institutions (tuition only) on behalf of someone else


If you want to give someone a gift to help with education costs, you might give more than the yearly limit. The IRS allows taxpayers to give $75,000 into a 529 plan without paying tax or reducing the $11.4 million lifetime limit. 

What to do if your 60 days roll-over period is over and you still didn't finish the rollover?

There can be several reasons for the missed or prolonged rollover.

Not serious reasons

Forgetfulness, procrastination, laziness - nothing will help there. If you have no serious reason, you will have to pay taxes due and you will get them refunded after you file your tax return for that year.

Serious reasons
If one of the reasons below delayed your transfer, you can file the self-certification waiver which you will submit to the institution receiving the transfer. 

After 60 days allotted to the rollover are passed, the financial institution will not accept your rollover. 
The self-certification error is a form which you give to the institution to extend the rollover for another 30 days (safe harbor period for the reason stated in the form). 
The form is part of the IRS Revenue Procedure 2016-47 which you can google, download and fill out.  

To be granted the waiver you will need documentation supporting your claim that the rollover was not completed in time due to one of the qualifying reasons which are listed on the waiver page. 

   

Financial institution error

Copy and record the dates of all communications with both financial institutions. If the process takes too long you will have evidence that it was not your fault. 

It will not work if you wait with the initiating the rollover just one or two weeks before the deadline because it is obvious to anyone that such process may take longer than 2 weeks. Our rollover took 3 weeks (see the rollover update post here).  

Unusual circumstances

You have to have evidence that you were physically prevented from being able to complete the rollover.  Examples are severe home damage, serious illness (for example dementia or hospitalization), death in the family or of the person who is performing rollover, misplaced check or incarceration.

Postal error

Make sure to verify the address of the receiving institution before mailing the check. It is best to mail with tracking number. I used tracking number. The mail had 3 days delay for an unknown reason but I could follow the status every day.
Tracking also helped me to speed up the processes at the receiving institution. I emailed the customer service the day I saw that the letter was received and asked to process the transfer timely. I received an email response and the the transfer was processed on the same day.

Update on our 401k rollover - step by step

As mentioned before we decided to do a 401k rollover to IRAs do to a job change.

We decided to do trustee-to-trustee transfer (see previous post with specifics on how to do a rollover).


It is best to start early and plan the rollover in time where you will not travel much. There was a bit of hands on in our rollover process.


1. We called the previous employer 401k and requested a trustee-to-trustee transfer. 
They said that they only have one way they do it - issuing a check in the trustee name and mailing it to your address. That qualifies as trustee-to-trustee transfer because the check is in trustees name. 
They mailed us two checks, one for the Roth 401k portion and another one for the non-Roth 401k portion. 
It took about 7 days until we had the checks in our hands.


2. We called the receiving institution to verify the address to mail the checks to. 
They explained which form to fill out and to mail together with the checks. 
They also recommended to mail the checks in separate envelopes to avoid that someone might erroneously switch the Roth and non-Roth checks and and deposit the checks to wrong accounts. That was also my concern and I agreed.
We were also advised NOT to sign the back of the checks since the checks were issued to the receiving institution and not to us. 
It took us about 4 days including weekend.


3. We mailed both checks separately with tracking numbers. 
It took 7 days, 3 days longer then expected by USPS.


4. I was tracking the checks. On the day I saw that the checks were arrived, I emailed the receiving institution and asked them to perform a timely rollover. That was completed correctly on the same day and I received a confirmation email from them. 


It took about 3 weeks in all.

IRS wanted taxes on Back-door ROTH IRA conversions - They were wrong. What did I do?

In September I received a letter from IRS stating that I owe $7,000 in taxes on IRA distributions.

I didn't take any distributions!

The IRS letter stated that I took 3 distributions from my IRA, each of the distributions were $5,000.


The IRS was wrong on that. Those were not distributions, these were same year Back-door traditional IRA to ROTH IRA conversions.

You would think that IRS should know better. They have all information in their hands: my tax returns which clearly state each of the conversions and the 1099R forms from the broker which state that those were conversions. 
Why did they still sent me the letter?

They probably didn't bother to look at documentation. That is my guess because for anyone who will take a look at the tax return will see that everything is documented appropriately. And what about the corresponding 1099R forms they have received from the IRA broker? Maybe the broker didn't report the conversion?

I checked the accounts and it looked like the broker did report the conversion to IRS. All forms were on file.


Even if I knew that I was right, it was a bit stressful to see $7,000 in owed taxes in the IRS letter.

First I tried to look up online what others did in such situations. I could find only a few mentions on forums and blogs.  Most people called IRS and explained to the IRS person the issue on the phone. Some did mail documentation to them. Usually the issue was resolved.

What did I do?
Since it seemed that IRS already didn't do their diligence in checking the appropriate paperwork, how could I trust them to solve the issue on the phone? I wouldn't be able to document that phone call and anything they would tell me. In such an important issue I needed my own documentation.

I decided to mail in the supporting documentation without calling them. I mailed it with a tracking number and return receipt. $7,000 are worth that trouble.


My CPA wrote a detailed letter to the IRS and attached the copies of the tax reports with marks pointing exactly where the conversions were reported. 
I also attached the forms 1099R forms from the broker. The forms were available online so I didn't have to call the broker.

But I called them anyway and asked when do they submit those forms to IRS. The customer service representative said that the forms are automatically sent to the IRS as soon as  they are issued. 


The IRS gave me about 3 weeks to respond to their letter. I mailed the response in time. 
I was tracking my response letter and saw that it was received before the deadline.

Two weeks after that I got a letter stating that they have received my response and are working on it.
Then one month later another IRS letter arrived which stated that the issue was resolved and I owe no taxes.

Who has to pay estimated quaterly taxes?

IRS penalties can be painful.

Most people avoid penalty if they owe less than $1,000 in taxes for the year, or if they paid at least 90% of the tax for the current year, or 100% of the tax of the previous year tax amount, whichever is smaller.

If your AGI is less than $150,000 (married, filing jointly) or $75,000 (single or filing separately) - you have to cover 100% of previous year income taxes.

If your AGI is over $150,000/$75,000 - you have to cover 110% of previous year income taxes.


Why would that matter?

If you have a significant income from your investments (capital gains or dividends) or rental income, the income tax is not automatically deducted. You are responsible for paying additional taxes yourself.

As I hit $100,000 in additional income coming from my "Cash flow" challenge account this year, I want to make sure not to be on the hook for this penalty.


How high is the penalty?

It is a 5% penalty.
It is calculated from the due date (see the quarterly due dates below) until the payment is made.

Usually the estimated payment are equal amounts, you can also make payments each month instead of quarterly.

With investments, you can't estimate the income accurately. If you didn't send equal payments, you may have to file IRS Form 2210 to explain why you didn't send equal payments.

By filing this form (Form 2210, Underpayment of Estimated Tax by Individuals, Estates and Trusts) together with your tax return you can show that your uneven estimated payments match up with the income that you received unevenly over the course of the year.

  
When to pay the IRS?

The are quarterly due dates for the quarterly estimated payments.
They are on April 15, June 15, September15 and January 15. If one of those dates falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the date moves to the next business day.


How to pay the IRS?

There are two ways:

1. If you have a job where the taxes are withheld, you can increase your paycheck withholding.

2. If you don't have traditional job, or you don't want to decrease the amount of your paycheck (in cases where the additional income is very variable), you can pay the IRS directly.
The online method may be the most convenient for many, but there are different payment methods listed on the IRS web site IRS.gov/Payments.

The difference between paying as payroll withholding versus estimated quarterly taxes is that the by paying quarterly you have to be more careful not to underpay for each quarter. The payroll withholding will be handled by IRS as the entire year independent of quarters.  

Update to fraud alert, credit freeze and credit freeze for minors

In September 2018 there were few changes regarding security measures by credit reporting companies. 

This is an update to my previous article about fraud alert versus credit freeze. 

The changes 

1. Credit freeze will be performed at no charge.

2. Fraud alert is now placed for 1 year (previously 90 days).

3. You can put a credit freeze for minor children, also free. 

By placing credit freeze on a child file it would make sense to check the credit report for fraudulent activity. But per Equifax the credit reporting companies do not knowingly keep credit files on children under 13. 
If you have suspicions and you can request it by mail from the reporting agencies. 

You can still place credit freeze on a child under 13 without requesting the credit report beforehand.  
Minors between the ages of 13 through 17 can order a report through the AnnualCreditReport.com website.

Preparations for the coming bear market

What am I going to do when the bear market comes?

It is easy to get good returns when the market is going up. It is just carrying you up. 
But the a bear market will come. And then you will find yourself on the edge of the waterfall and the strong waters will carry you down very fast.
And no one knows when the turn will happen.


We are in an extended bull market right now. There might be a couple of genius people out there who know when this bull market ends. I don't know that and I don't know anyone who knows that. So I am on my own here.

In the last 70 years, there have been 13 bear markets. The average length of a bear market was 13 months. The average decline was about 25%.
Compared to the bull markets for the same 70 years there were 14 bull markets. The average length of a bull market was 46 months. The increase was on average 125.3%.

We judge our success by comparing to others and that leads either to "better" or "worse" evaluation.
But what if you compare your results only to that what matters?

What if I compare my results just to the one goal I had in mind when I started the 'Cash flow" challenge - to cover the yearly expenses. As long as I can achieve this, it is all fine.

Without knowing when the bear market comes, what remains for me is to prepare for the unknown.

What I have to work with:
I don't know when the market turns down.
I know for certain that it is going to happen.
I don't know how deep the drawdown will be. It could be as much as 50-60%.
I don't know how good the recovery will be.
I don't know if some of the stocks will ever recover (some stocks still didn't after 2018).


What I can do:

I can try to cover yearly expenses with the income from "Cash flow challenge". It is certain that all stocks will go down significantly. What will be left are just the dividends some of which may be reduced. I can try to cover the expenses with dividends but I think that will not be enough.  

Also I need to make sure that the other income sources will cover the time when the cash flow is insufficient. The other sources are jobs and emergency fund.

As long as I have the job, the yearly expenses are covered.
As long as my husband has a job, the yearly expenses are covered too.
Our emergency fund will cover at least 2 years of  absent income.

That way we have triple safety in case if the bear market will not produce the sufficient cash flow. That way the pressure is off.

The second step is to optimize the investments for the time of the bear market:

1. I need to go trough my holdings and see how they reacted to the last bear market and maybe eliminate those which didn't recover from the last one in 2009.
2. I will only use dividend paying stocks that in case of the bear market, there still will be some income from the dividends.
3. Bear markets are temporary and shorter than bull markets so the savings for retirement should not be severely affected. Even if the retirement savings will be affected, I am not planning to retire early or at least not before the next bear market is over. That should give the retirement funds enough time to recover.

Do you celebrate financial milestones?

M. asks: Do you celebrate financial milestones? For example reaching 500k in total investments/retirement savings? I saw a list of goals in an article suggesting celebrating. 


The article she is probably referring to is the one from WCI: 14 financial milestones worth celebrating.  
The post suggests to celebrate 14 financial milestones as they are reached, including becoming student debt free,  paying off the mortgage and being financially independent. Reaching 500k in net worth is goal #6.

Yes, I celebrate all the milestones mentioned in that article and many more. 

I celebrate everything. And I support everyone who is celebrating. I like to celebrate whatever it is. For example for my Birthday I don't limit my celebrations to one day, I celebrate the entire month. 

People from Russia will know the Russian calendar which suggests reasons for celebrations for each and every day. I remember as a child I was looking at every new page every day to see what can I celebrate that day. 

One day I thought that if I celebrate so much, I must be a happy person. 
I found a psychological test online testing how happy you are.

I filled out all questions and my result was: "You are too happy. Please abstain from using drugs while taking this test." Imagine how surprised I was, I was laughing a lot. I am so boring in terms of drugs, I dont' even drink alcohol. That was just too funny.