My primary goal is to double up on my undergrad student loan payments. I've been doing this for the past 6 months, and am amazed to actually see progress on the principle Bulk up savings/cut out unnecessary spending
We’ll have 2 in daycare starting this September (to the tune of $3800 a month, barf), so I’m basically just hoping to get us in a good position before then by:
1) beefing up savings and investments. I set up auto withdrawals yesterday to be more proactive versus transferring leftover cash each month.
2) estate planning once DD arrives (the trust thread here has been helpful, thanks!)
3) potentially pulling the trigger on a home remodel once we get estimates.
I need to make some concrete goals, but I want to get a better handle on our random spending, usually take out and Amazon. I bought TurboTax from Amazon yesterday and it came with 1 free year of quicken starter, so I’m giving it a shot.
We charge everything for rewards and pay it off every month, but I’d like to get it so we’re current and not a month behind in paying for the charges.
I want to figure out a set amount we can put in savings each month to boost our emergency fund. We just paid off DH’s truck and got rid of PMI so those amounts for sure are going into savings, but I think I can find another $600/month or so. Hopefully quicken can help with all that.
Post by covergirl82 on Jan 1, 2019 19:39:46 GMT -5
Primary goals: Use DH's bonus (end of March) to pay off my car. That will give us $1100 back each month (payment of $600 and we pay an additional $500 to pay it down). Also focus purchases on necessities and find free activities to enjoy as a family (playing board games at home, playing outside, going for walks on trails close by), which will help us to have more money to put in savings and/or pay down debt.
DH's job may be eliminated, and we'll most likely find out around April. If that happens, he'll receive around 40 weeks of severance. We will save money by not having to pay after school care for the kids, as well as saving on gas because DH won't be commuting everyday. We won't make drastic changes right away (although we'll definitely cut extras out, like dining out), and we'll put the $1100/month (from no more car payment) into our e-fund until he gets another job. We would hope he'd find a new job before his severance is done. (He is a financial planning & analysis manager, and would look for anything from an analyst to director-level job in that field.) If we do have a few months where he's back to work and still receiving severance, we'll use the severance to pay off our travel trailer and potentially pay some extra on the mortgage principal.
If DH keeps his job, we'll plan to pay extra on our travel trailer to pay it off by the end of the year. That would leave us with only DH's student loan and the mortgage. Next year I'd like to increase our retirement savings and pay extra on the mortgage principal.
I think the biggest things that are going to influence our budget are new jobs. I am hoping to find a job with a slight pay raise - I took a 5k pay cut when we moved, so I hope to at a minimum get back to where I was, but I am hoping to find something that pays even a little more. My H will also have a decent bump in income this summer when he finishes his PhD and gets a regular job (assuming he can find something, but I don't have any reason to think he won't).
Due to the above, I feel like it's really hard to plan on anything. Ideally I want to save for a summer vacation, we both new need laptops, and at some point we need to start planning to add a second car because I have a feeling once we get new jobs it's going to be hard or impossible to keep sharing one. Our car is also over 8 years old so it's always a concern that it will need a major repair or replacement eventually.
If all goes well and H gets a good job (vs a post doc, which is a possibility) our HHI should go up something like 40-50k this year. His SLs will go into repayment (and I have no idea what that payment will be!) but in theory we should be more easily able to set goals mid year when things are more figured out. Until then I feel like we're just treading water and trying not to have to pull from savings every month. This winter should be a little less exciting than fall was, so I am hoping we might be able to throw a few hundred dollars into savings here and there but I'm not going to sweat it if we don't.
I'm going to wander back over to here. I REALLY need to take charge of my finances again. I got a new job that is a 40% (!!) raise over my previous job. It's awesome. On the negative side, DH has been out of work since June. I'm in a really weird financial place where I feel like I have money because of my increase, but we still aren't matching what we made when DH was working. I dealt with this by sticking my head in the sand and spending like crazy while telling myself surely DH will get a job SOON, and that needs to stop. My financial goals are:
-Figure out a budgeting system that works. DH WILL NOT update a spreadsheet or record his spending. I need something that will import his credit card for me. I'm trying out YNAB, but I really don't understand this system. -Save for DH to go back to school for his masters without taking on student loans. -Pay my student loans off by half. -Open and fully fund a 529 for DD. -Deal with old 401k's. DH has 2 that are just sitting there, and I have my 1. I'm absolutely open to suggestions here. My mom is a financial advisor who says that I should roll my old one into my new one. My actual financial advisor wants me to give it to her to invest in her funds.
- Spend less. This goes for both of us. H buys crap online, I wander stores with C during the day. It adds up fast. - Dont take money out of our inheritance account. We use it to fund fun things, but between a market downturn and our withdrawal this year we are getting close to being back at principle. - Fully fund IRAs. We have been, but at 12k a year on one salary it's a big chunk of money. - Figure out housing. Whether we add on or move, it'll cost so we have to figure out what that will look like.
Pipe dream goal - pay off truck. Only possible if H gets a lot of OT or my dad feels generous (not likely given the market).
- Finally get a will created. We’ve been putting this off for years. - Get umbrella insurance. It’s supposed to be inexpensive so no need to procrastinate.
No major changes planned for our spending and savings.
Keep a very tight cap on our spending and stay in budget each month - I think I finally got my point across to DH so he is on the same page. We built a new house this past year and start paying the actual mortgage next month (have been paying interest only during construction) so we need to adjust to the increased payment (thankfully some of our other budget line items went down by moving closer to work and having a more energy efficient house). I keep reminding myself that we just have to survive the next two years of private school for DSs and then we will see a $12,000 increase in available funds.
Otherwise we will focus on paying down debt and cash flowing some of the remaining projects needed to finish the house (i.e., finishing the inside of the mudroom, insulating the basement, building a deck). DH's loss of use WC hearing for his shoulder will be in May so we will be getting a check for his various appt mileage and possible payout which will help with some of our goals.
We started FPU last year, but we’re not quite “gazelle intense”. We are in a place where we can really focus on our debt repayment but don’t want to live like paupers in the mean time. So our goals are:
Cash flow: Yesterday we purchased for a new Washer/dryer set ($1700) This month we’ll get new carpet for upstairs bedrooms ($2000) This summer we’ll put in a new patio and landscaping ($6000)
Debt repayment: All consumer debt beside mortgage ($15000)
After all debt is paid if there is anything left for the year we’ll order the carpet for the rest of the upstairs ($3000)
Buy nothing more for the house until we’ve completely cleaned out and organized our basement and attic storage.
Stop buying food we don’t eat, and stop buying fancy desserts we (I) DO eat way too much of. Stick to our meal plan/budget.
Up our retirement fund savings by 1%. We should do that this week!
Since we keep getting priced out of homes in our hot market, save the $15K a year we would have been spending on a larger home to finish our basement in 2 years.
I want to be more mindful of where our money is going and making and checking off goals. 2018 was a net neutral year for us though we accomplished some stuff but I want to make a list and check things off to have a better idea of what we have done.
This is very FWP, but my goal is to actually use ALL (or near all) of the money we set aside annually for travel/vacation. We’ve done well at committing to one week long family trip per year, but DH and I could both use an adults only trip.
I need to get on the same page with DH when it comes to our financial goals, so we will sit down and establish our 1 to 5 year goals, and really work together to achieve them.
I wouldn’t say I’ve completely had my head in the sand, but I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and kind of waiting for life and our budget to normalize. We’ve been in survival mode with 2 natural disasters and cross state moves over the past 3 years. Our financial situation has improved, with more income and lower bills in the last few months, but we still have debt from previous months and replacing our belongings. We spent money on things we probably shouldn’t have over the past year, and there were reasons for it, but they were wants, not needs. We’ve talked about some big goals but we aren’t ever going to achieve them at the rate we are going. Here’s some goals I know need to happen this year.
#1 Debt payoff plan with significant progress this year
#2 Lower grocery budget that we stick to
#3 Get organized - this includes our home, paperwork, finances, and knocking out the low priority things on my never ending to-do list
#4 Decide what is really important to us in the long term and what we should sacrifice in the short term to make it happen. I feel like we spend a lot on little things here and there that really add up, and in hindsight we would trade all of those little things for something better and more meaningful.
-Spend less on alcohol and eating out and make sure that goes to savings instead. -Keep new car savings going. Currently doing 150 a month, but will be paying off an interest free home depot balance from a home reno project early in the year and can then put that amount in new car fund as well.
My husband is having surgery and will be out of work for several months. I'm either really hopeful or completely in denial thinking we can do ANY saving. I'm hoping once he can get around a bit I will be able to find some temp admin work. Or something. I'm going to research a bit and hopefully have some prospects set up.
mskitkat, years ago I was the 401k administrator for my employer, and the plan was set up to start charging higher fees to former employees (starting at around 6 months after they were no longer employed). I would check into that, as your old accounts may have higher fees deducted than if you rolled them into a current employer's 401k or an IRA. DH and I have rolled over our 401ks as we've changed employers for ease of keeping track of our retirement savings as well as not potentially paying higher fees.
I realized I never responded, but our first 2019 goal was to pay off Mr. P's student loan. I sent the payment this morning! Woot. Finally....he is 48 years old and went back to college at 26.
Now we are saving for renovations to our Michigan cottage and more money for investments. However, I was not looking forward to doing our taxes...now that I've read the discussion posted, I am really anxious to get past that.
We are also setting aside money to gift niece and her fiance for their 2020 wedding. We have 3 nieces so we will be starting a fund for each of them (they are like our own kids). Now have one with a facility booked, it is time to get on it.