So how was your 2014?

[IndyColtsFan]

The good:
-Vacation to Germany and Austria
-Finished a couple of successful projects at work
-Bought a few new toys to geek around with
-Saved a ton of money
-Insurance replaced my roof

The not-so-good:
-Vacation to New Orleans -- meh
-There is some uncertainty around my contract extension at the moment but hopefully that will be cleared up soon
-The Colts keep pissing me off
-Getting older and my vision is really starting to suffer

All-in-all, I've been pretty blessed this year. Next year brings with it a lot of uncertainty and I may not be so lucky.

 

[JM Aggie08]

The Good:

Got engaged
Bought our first home
No deaths in the family (compared to the last 2 years)


The Bad:
2 days left...so far nothing to report.

 

[Slew Foot]

Good:
both businesses are still operating
everyone still healthy
got son into Star Wars

Bad
both businesses are in dying industries and could close at any moment
wifes business still making 25% of projected profit and im sure a bunch of people are stealing from her.
no other real complaints.

 

[JEDI]

Fixed wife - WIN!
BMW burned to death - FAIL!
TV died - FAIL!
Got smart TV twice the size - WIN!
Daughter graduated from high school - WIN!
Wife got a job - WIN!
Got world's funnest Mini Cooper to replace BMW - WIN!
Got a new job with huge pay increase - WIN!
Wife got a new job with a huge pay increase - WIN!

Overall, this has been the best year I've had in a decade. Still sad over my poor BMW though

RIP

what happened to your bmw? glad you're ok.
pic of daughter?

 

[minendo]

Just a few positives:

1. New Job with huge pay increase
2. Relocated to Houston area
3. Bought a house
4. Remodeled above house
5. Got married
6. Baby girl Mykah is due in February

On a personal health note I kicked the habit of smoking just about 1 year ago. Can't believe I subjected myself to that disgusting habit.

 

[JM Aggie08]

Just a few positives:

1. New Job with huge pay increase
2. Relocated to Houston area
3. Bought a house
4. Remodeled above house
5. Got married
6. Baby girl Mykah is due in February

On a personal health note I kicked the habit of smoking just about 1 year ago. Can't believe I subjected myself to that disgusting habit.

Where did you move from? Assuming somewhere other than Texas, I'm sure housing prices were a pleasant surprise.

 

[Platypus]

2014 was great for me but in general a bad year for the world imo.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Either the best or worst year of my life depending on how I bounce back. I'm optimistic it's the best.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Well I'm making a lot more money than I did in 2013 but I'm not much more happier.

 

[vi edit]

Good:
- Wife took a job that she loves a lot more
- No more second shifts for her a lot less weekends
- Moved to an area with a lot more more to do
- Only have to drive 100 miles a week for work for my wife and I and not close to 100 miles a day
- Great benefits with new jobs for us
- My oldest kid is getting a lot better help and support at her new school than she did at her last one
- Fortunate to get involved with a good gaming group and helping organize some fun events

Bad:
- All the above required us to move 6 hours away from where we were.
- Moved away from a lot of great friendships
- Grandkids are 6 hours away from my parents
- House isn't as nice as we had before
- Took a $30,000 a year household income paycut
- My job is a lot more stressful than my previous and I'm not really happy where I am

 

[clamum]

Good
- Was hired as a full-time employee (started working in Nov. 2013 as a contractor).
- Closer to finishing the mobile app I've been working on for a couple years (off and on; I'm lazy).

Bad
- Still single and lonely.

Guess that's it. It's been a good year, overall.

 

[Sonikku]

Good
-finally started transition, got on hormones
-losing weight
-getting closer with my mother

bad
-still all alone with a seemingly endless ways to go until I'm ready for a relationship
-social anxiety got worse
-upkeep expenses way up
-stressful work situation has a uncertain future

 

[CountZero]

Good:
1) Finally cleaned up credit report of all the false negatives, years of effort to get it to all drop off.
2) Bought a new car. Got great loan terms thanks to good credit so took that and made my money work for me.
3) Paid off 6.8% APR student loans
4) Went to England, partially on the company dime.
5) Went to Maui in addition to the annual Oahu trip to visit in-laws.
6) Job still interesting, company doing ok
7) Went to lots of concerts (more this year than 5 years in Dallas)
8) Making the most of living in the crazy expensive SF Bay Area.

Bad:
1) Great Aunt and Uncle died within months of each other. Big part of my childhood and the last of my relatives that I know from England that were still alive.
2) Dropped weight, got in better shape, hurt self, put back on weight, went from pre-hyper tension to hyper tensive. Got to start again and starting is by far the hardest part.
3) Parents, step parents, in-laws all getting older. Up into those years where the big bad stuff increases in likelihood. Nothing super bad yet but a constant build up of little things. This year more than ever before was a reminder that they have crossed from older to just old and won't be around forever.

 

[Fritzo]

what happened to your bmw? glad you're ok.
pic of daughter?

There's a part in a lot of German and GM cars called a Final Stage Resistor. It looks like this and it sits behind the center console:

It's used to regulate the climate control. The heatsync on it will often get over 200F, and sometimes it will melt the wires around it. When those wires touch each other, they short out, cause a fire, and you get the result above. I think they've replaced this part with something less "burn-y" in newer cars.

Also, I'm not going to lie: my daughter is smokin' hot, and that's why I won't post a pic of her here. She looks a lot like Kat Von D. SO...this is a representation of my daughter:

Bad
- Still single and lonely.

Guess that's it. It's been a good year, overall.

Dude, stop being sad about being single. You can sit around and eat ice cream in your underwear, watch anything you want on TV, don't get forced to visit people you can't stand, and don't get your expenses scrutinized.

Relationships in a nutshell:
"What are you doing wearing your pajamas at 11am????? Go get dressed! We have stuff to do!!!"
"You can't watch "Cosmos" on TV right now. The DVR is recording The Real Housewives and Keeping Up With the Kardashians, so all the tuners are in use."
"We're going out with my friend and her husband tonight. He's a staunch republican, so don't bring up anything related to politics."
"You bought comic books??? HOW OLD ARE YOU AGAIN???"

 

[mmntech]

Started off good, ended crappy. I have a superstition about even and odd numbered years. All the negative life altering things in my life always seem to happen on even years, positive things on odd years. Just weird it's worked out that way. So I'm hoping 2015 is going to be a great one.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

2014 was great overall for me and the family.

Good:
1. Got out of social work and back into my original field of land use planning
2. Substantial raise compared to that of a social worker. (almost $40k raise!)
3. Got a new truck and travel trailer.
4. Refi'd the house for lower rate AND lessened the loan time from 25 years to 20 years while the payment only went up about $50.
5. I am now the most senior planner we have in our dept because the other guy who was here for 12 years up & quit. I won't be laid off anytime soon that's for sure

Bad:
1. Aunt passed away on the 17th. Hit the family pretty hard and services are being held this coming Monday.

Hoping 2015 will be great for everyone!

 

[BurnItDwn]

Ehh, stressful, but otherwise good

Good:
income is at a level I am comfortable with
I can breathe (cops did not murder me, also, no more cigarettes)
2nd mortgage down by another 5K this year. Got under 15K left to pay off.

Bad:
Woman lost her job
Womans mom has too much financial trouble
My video cards and CPU could use upgrading, but, no video cards really worth it yet to replace crossfire 6870 for cheap and huge improvement. I have an i5 2400, and it really only has trouble with dwarf fortress. Dwarf fortress only depends on the speed of the fastest core. To get better Dwarf Fortress performance, i would like a dual core in the 50 to 60ghz range. But, we are still stuck with 3-4ghz for the most part.

 

[highland145]

And you came to SC. Win.

 

[BurnItDwn]

And you came to SC. Win.

Yes, had tons of fun with my buddy Brad in Columbia & lexington SC. We feasted upon many animals of the land and the sea, and tasted of the fermentation of malt with much voracity!

Then the woman and myself travelled to the uneven terrain and drank and ate and enjoyed the amazing views minus the intense fog over about 3000 feet where vision was not possible.

 

[Imp]

Good:
- Quit my dead end job I hated but still stayed at for over 5 years.
- Sort of committed to my side business I still enjoy that uses my skills.

Bad:
- Worked at shit job with ~3 hour total commute daily for 3/4 of the year.
- Let shit job hollow me out further.
- Technically unemployed, currently low income.
- Bad bet on oil stock.

 

[minendo]

Where did you move from? Assuming somewhere other than Texas, I'm sure housing prices were a pleasant surprise.

Although we only moved across the state (Lubbock to Houston) I was shocked at the housing prices. I purchased a 2100sqft split level for less than $130k. Similar house with same features in Lubbock would easily have been over $200k.

 

[shortylickens]

Poo.

But 2015 is more optimistic.

 

[MongGrel]

Better than the prior 4, and worse than the 9 before that.

Somehow in the middle of that mess I managed to save my Grandmother from my asshole brother, and got her into an assisted living place and improved her life a lot other than letting my brother basically kill her passively.

To long of a story to go into, I think he's in jail atm, but if I never see him again I wouldn't cry, have no idea where he is atm.

The wife is confirmed at a BIG pay raise raise next year and I should be getting one myself.

She has almost caught up to me again pay wise, the brat

I'm being optimistic.

*edit* yeah my eyes getting worse too, might be bi focal contacts soon.

 

[Engineer]

Meh....

 

[highland145]

I think I'm about 20% behind. Have to see after the final reports.


Meh, the lights are on and I have coffee.