2015 Highs and Lows

jessica490

What are the good things that happened this year?

What are the not so good things?

julieanne912

Lots of good things personally this year.  We bought our house Feb 2nd, got engaged Feb 3rd, got married Sept 12th.  

Financially, it was an awful year due to all the above mentioned events LOL!  2016 is the "rebuilding" year to prepare for 2017, which will hopefully be the year we have a baby.  

jessica490

The Highs:

Our cruise in May- It was awesome!

We sold the condo

We bought an awesome house perfect for us and were able to buy many new things for it to start

Doing well financially- having cheaper bills than the condo

My dad fighting skin cancer- he's cancer free!

My new car I'm getting this weekend

The Lows:

Some stress/annoyances at work. Found out we are merging further with our parent company..my job may not be safe in the future but I've started looking around anyway.

My grandma passing away in October

Having some illness scares with relatives and 1 family friend

Xstatic3333

Highs:

My dive instructor certification, and the opportunity to certify 20 new divers into the sport I love

A year of good health for our families for the most part, after a couple of years where we lost people close to us

Getting our dog, the new love of our lives

Financially, upping our retirement contributions in a big way

Deciding we're ready to TTC

Our trip to Maine

Good work developments for H and good compensation developments for me

The Lows:

The major dental work H required that slowed our budget goals in a big way

All the health problems our dog has had

Some tough times with friendships that were somewhat hard on both of us

A lot of on the job stress for me that I'll need to work harder on conquering

Overall more highs than lows this year, but when I look back on it it does kind of feel like a stressful blur.  Need to work on simplifying a bit in 2016 (minus, hopefully, the whole child thing, which if it works out will certainly have the opposite effect).

smetter04

Highs:
Our trip to Germany & Poland.
Celebrating our family and friends' milestones.
Paying off most of our non-mortgage loans.
Getting ourselves in financial order & planning better for future expenses.
Taking on a new role at work - not really a promotion but I feel like I've earned more respect and have also learned a lot.

Lows:
The time and stress of planning our trip to Germany & Poland.
The new role at work - it's good career-wise but it's also been stressful - process change is hard for people to deal with
Issues with the in-laws & boundaries
Our marriage hit a rough patch this year with communication, goal-setting, expectations, family. H and I both acknowledge that we need to work on it.

hoffse

The Highs:

-Going to Europe twice!  Once budgeted, once by leveraging points.  I'm going to have to make this an annual thing, lol

-Completing the two major remodeling projects we had for the house.  There are some smaller things we want to do next year, but nothing on the scale of what we did in 2015, and frankly if we don't do ANY of the things we have left.... I'm not too fussed about it.

-Starting to learn the piano - and completing book 1.

-7/12 classes completed for my LLM, and maintaining an A- average. I'm pretty damn proud of that, given that I work full time.

-Hitting my hours and earning bonus.

-H had an original composition played by the Alabama Symphony at a reading session they did back in May.  This was actually a really big deal, because fewer than 30 living composers in the world had their works played by professional symphonies this past year, and he was one of them.  I'm incredibly proud of him.

The Lows:

-H's grandma passed away.

-Relationship with H was strained through the remodeling and the crazy saving for it.  Thankfully things are a lot better now that we are on the back end of it, but it made for a rough year emotionally.  We are going to be less aggressive with our goals next year and work on enjoying what will hopefully be our last full year as a child-less couple....

-One of my goals for 2015 was hitting $100K in our retirement accounts.  Thanks to market corrections and the fact that I can't count unvested employer contributions... we're probably going to miss it by about $2K, depending on where the market closes today (it's down).  It's really frustrating because we are SO FREAKING CLOSE.  Oh well, whatever.

PurpleBookmark

Highs:

Birth of our daughter

Family vacation in February

All of the holidays this year, Easter, 4th of July, Christmas, etc.

Lows:

Costly car repairs on our former car

Finding out our former car couldn't fit 3 car seats and having to trade it in for a used car with a car loan months after spending thousands in repairs...

littlemushroom

Highs:
Buying our house.

I got a promotion and associated pay increase at work a month after we bought our house.

Went on a 7 day cruise with my DH's parents and sister.

Got to host my first Thanksgiving and it went off without a hitch.

Had an awesome birthday celebration including dinner and margaritas, seeing the new Star Wars movie and doing an Escape room with friends.

Lows:
The stress of trying to find our house. I swear all we did for two months was look at Realtor.com and run the numbers for our budget depending on house prices.

My cat got sick right after we moved into our new house. (She is fine now)

The drive to and from Texas for our cruise with the in laws (we live in Illinois).

Overall, it was an awesome year for DH and I. Looking forward to what 2016 brings.

simplyelise

Highs:

Our church has grown tremendously and we've been really involved through the stewardship team in finding a new building to rent on Sundays. Our commercial rental market is ROUGH thanks to Stan Kroenke, so it was a huge get to find a place big enough for our growing church without busting the budget so we can spend more on the community and long-term plans.

Just last week I got some positive news at work that they've recognized my contributions and want me to stick around and grow with the organization. I'll be getting a raise and formally taking on several duties that I've already been doing but now with more authority and autonomy.

It was a year of small joys not big ones, so just simple pleasures like learning to cook several new meals together, making new traditions for our family, and slowly making our apartment more of a home, have been the highlights.

Lows:

Health-wise, I've felt not great all year. I have a frequent pain in my upper abdomen and even after blood tests, a colonoscopy and endoscopy, and last week an ultrasound, they cannot figure out what's going on. I've just been told it's probably IBS and acid reflux, but I've already had those conditions for about 10 years and the pain is new. So that sucks. 

DH has had a hard time around the holidays with his family. We've just got one more visit in a couple weeks and then we shouldn't have any more family travel for awhile thankfully.

Figuring out how to make time for friends near and far during the first year and a bit of marriage has been difficult. I just like H a lot better than other people, so I'm not super motivated lol.

bmo88

Highs -Got a huge raise and promotion this July when I got my current position as Executive Director of my org -We paid off $24,000 in student loan and mortgage debt -We refinanced our mortgage to a lower rate and shorter term -We saved up to 5 months in our e-fund -Our 3 week trip to Europe Lows: -Stress of new job and adjustment -kind of a bummer to see all that money go toward debt -my 401k dipping when the economy dropped Not too bad overall!

julieanne912

I forgot to add that I started a new job in June.  While the salary is the same as my old place, I have opportunities for bonuses here during the busy months, and way better benefits, including a 401k program.  Also the company is a great atmosphere, and has a lot of opportunities for advancement (which I didn't have before).  Plus, my commute is 15-20 minutes less.   

blondie42107

Highs:  

-H has had some great accomplishments at work.

-I completed a few bigger training opportunities that I had on my bucket list for work/career.

-Getting three job offers in Dec and accepting one!  

-Lots of family milestones with our kiddos (school, soccer, t-ball, etc!

-Good health for us.

-A really good year of budgeting.

Lows:

-We had family that dealt with some poor health but everything is looking positive.

-Meeting with a realtor and having a nitty gritty chat about staying put in our house a little longer.

-Finding out after 8 years of owning our house, that the previous owner put the fence on the neighbor's property - thank you previous owners for hiding the encroachment issue...

-Leaving my job after being there over eight years.  I loved what I did but it was getting way too stressful and was no longer a positive work environment.

-H works for a huge world wide corp that has had some changes - unsure of what is to come but so far it looks like he'll be okay.  Stress of the unknown.

-Saying goodbye to our first furbaby - our 9 year old cat.

bparkhur

High: Finishing my dissertation!

Low: Writing my dissertation.

kmurphy2131

HIgh:

- H made a career change, to the job he has always wanted

- 6 months later H made a job change from a terrible job in the career field he wanted, to his dream job, where he will ride out his career (literally, actually, given he is a train engineer)

- Getting our dog in June - we couldn't have been luckier with her

- moved into our apartment that we love so much, and it's being here that allowed us to even get a dog

- the second job change H made has given us the ability to finally know where we can "settle" and move forward with buying a house

Lows:

- leading up to the career change was a lot of stress

- while this apartment is amazing, we had to terminate our old lease and lost $3000 on fees, plus the costs of movers when we had to move quickly for his new job.  now that we are going to buy a house a year later we are moving again.  but it all had to happen, as weird as it is.

- taking the second job change this year was a paycut for H for about 6-8months of training.  but then it will be more than before and the earnings potential is not limitless..but pretty darn close.

I guess it was a pretty balanced year.  A lot of change - more than I like for sure, but it was all necessary to get us on the right path.  Hopefully by the late spring we are in a house and can start to be a little more settled.

dragonstarjk

To be honest, H and I are over 2015.  It hasn't been the most fantastic year in our lives, but we are looking forward to 2016!

Highs:

Our road trip to CA in the summer

Getting our front porch built

Getting accepted into the UW Outreach program and starting work on my Bachelor's.

Getting a new president at work that seems to have a great vision for things that need changed.

Paying off H's truck and increasing his retirement contribution.

My best friend having a baby.

Lows:

Getting rear-ended by an uninsured driver in Denver while on vacation.

H having horrible digestive issues most of the year that we've hopefully got figured out now.

The bills that went along with H's numerous ER/doctor visits.

Our female dog getting bit by a rattlesnake (she survived and is okay now).  And the vet bill that went along with that.  Also, her getting diagnosed with hip dysplasia a month or so ago.

Having to get our A/C recharged ($$$) and finding out that it is on its last leg and will almost definitely need replaced next year.

My grandma passing away in November.

My best friend's newborn baby being nearly dying and having to be life-flighted at birth (spent 10 days in NICU but she is perfect now!)

Tons of change/turmoil at work.  Our former president was a huge mentor for me, and I miss him every day since he's retired.  New CEO, new president, department restructuring...lots of drama.

The ongoing saga of getting our front porch built--from having to get a variance from the city, to still not being finished to this day.

cbee817

Highs:
DH getting a new job with a great school district

DD#1 starting kindergarten and already reading at a 1st grade level

DD#2 doing well in her new classroom and starting to learn a lot in her pre-pre-K class

Being able to have time to sew/quilt- made 3 large, 3 baby size, lots of pillow shams, and a few mini quilts

Working out in the morning- usually get 45 minutes in before the girls are awake and we need to start getting ready for school/work

Mastering meal prep and well balanced dinners that DH can start before I get home. We also bring all of our lunches and eat breakfast at home

Lows:
Work kind of sucks for me- have gotten 3 offers from other companies, but it involves travel out of state that I'm just not interested in with 2 young kids and DH working full time too. Hoping to make 2016 a better year at work with our new CDAO bringing some much needed changes to our company

Realizing that we'll probably need to move in the next 2-3 years to DH's school district for the girls. It's much better than our current one and has a lot more opportunities for them. It means we'll have to leave our house that I have a lot of attachment to

Severe health issue with an extended family member that is very young

AprilZ81

I'm very happy that 2015 is in the rearview mirror because there was a lot more bad than good.

Bad:

Getting laid off in March.

My Dad having chest pains on vacation (a cruise) and ending up in ICU for a week before they could do the triple bypass he needed.  He is fine now.

Being diagnosed officially with PCOS (I had suspected for awhile) and knowing that I would need help getting pregnant.

Having a contract job that was supposed to last 6-8 months last 3 weeks.

An early miscarriage at 6 weeks in September.

Good:

Celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary with a cruise in January

Being able to live on DH's salary while I was unemployed and save 95% of my unemployment benefits.

Starting a new job in October that allows me to work from home full time.  It was a $6k salary cut but the convenience of working from home are worth it, plus the paychecks are a ton higher than unemployment.

Being unemployed for 6 months really did teach us that we don't need to have as much fluff and fun money in our budget.  We are now saving more than we were before even with the salary cut.

I'm very much looking forward to this year and hoping it is better than last year (not that it would take much).

BlueBirdMB

Highs

-H moved to a different group at his company and has to travel less, loves his boss, and the team has a fantastic sales record leading to larger bonuses

-Found a new teacher to work for me who is fantastic and super reliable

-Finally finished repainting the house

-Found a healthier balance between work and personal life and am feeling so much emotionally better

- Despite having a brief set back in the spring, I finally got back on track health-wise after a mess of issues in 2014

- Mexico trip in April

Lows

-Unexpected car expenses

-Dealing with a work issue.  New dude is buying the building where I work and he's being so difficult negotiating a lease.  I think he's trying to push us out.  I don't know what's going to happen there.

Overall, it was a pretty good year!

als1982

Highs:
Vacations to London/Paris/Norway and Florida/Caribbean
Bathroom remodel
Continued professional growth and expansions of both our respective roles
Paying off my student loan and then blazing through the first half of H's loan

Lows:
Losing both our paternal grandmothers

KatieCutie05

Highs:

-The birth of my son!

..and the next 11 months of watching him grow up  

-H getting a new job and a big pay increase.

-paying off my car and small student loan. 

Lows:

Losing my Dad.

Going back to work after maternity leave and realizing I want to be a SAHM but i'm forced to work full time because i've got way too much debt. I just don't care about my career at all anymore.

orangehills

Highs-

-We paid off our student loans and car payments, so are now debt free (minus the mortgage)

-Got our finances in the place we wanted them, finally

-Got to see my family in Oregon and make a vacation out of it 

-Sold our house and bought our new "forever" home

-Continued watching my baby girl grow and learn! Stayed home for the first 4 months of the year on maternity leave with her too. 

Lows- 

-The stress of selling/buying at the same time

-Lots of fighting between my husband and I because of said stress... getting better now. 

-Lots of sickness, daycare germs suck!! 

brij2006

Highs

- Birth of DD

- Paying off all of our debt

- Having a net worth of $1.2mil

Lows

- Death of my brother

- Death of my grandmother

- Another chemical pregnancy

- Having a bad review at my job, and my worst year in commissions and bonuses.

short+sassy

Highs

--Week long trip to NYC in May.  First vacation since our wedding/honeymoon over two years ago!

--Bought a duplex for a great price and ROI (return on investment)

--Paid off car and credit cards

Lows

--For as good a year as 2015 was overall, it ended so badly.

--Construction on new duplex dragged on too long.

--Awful tenants broke my happy string of great tenants, right at the end of the year.

--Lost my free cable because the FCC sold out the American public.

--Technically, this was the first week in 2016, but I was the sickest I have ever been.  Still feeling pretty bad.