I’ve returned after a long break, during which I’ve been busy traveling, crafting, and transferring my domain to a new web hosting company to cut costs. We’re continuing to push forward with our plans for North Carolina, and I want to ensure we remain on track. Last month, we took a close look at our recurring monthly expenses and discovered significant savings opportunities by eliminating unnecessary costs.

I’ve always felt that we should have started saving for our 401(k) at least a decade ago. While it sometimes feels like we’re late to the game in planning for retirement, the feedback I’ve received about our 15-year plan and our progress toward becoming almost debt-free suggests we’re in a much stronger position than I initially thought.

The next year and a half will be tight as we save up to build our cottage in the mountains. We’ll be cutting back on dining out, traveling less, and adopting a more economical lifestyle to curb our spending. However, these small sacrifices are only temporary, and the rewards will be well worth it.

A year and a half might seem like a long time, but I remember feeling the same way several years ago when we decided that becoming debt-free was the first step toward building our dream home. Now, we’re almost debt-free, we’ve refinanced our Florida home to pay it off sooner, and we’ve secured our land in North Carolina. All that’s left is saving for our down payment to build.

This next stretch may seem daunting, but as long as we take it step by step—month by month, day by day—we’ll reach our goal.