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Background: - 26 year old single woman - Salary: $41k/year - Moved back in with my parents in December 2014 to un-gently caress my finances - Started off the year with ~$2700 in cc debt - 401k: vested in ~$19000, $21k total - Roth IRA: ~$1700 at the beginning of the year - Emergency savings: $400 at the beginning of the year It's embarassing to type out my background but at least I'm trying to improve.  Progress on my goals: 1) Paid off my credit card. No more debt for me! 2) Better retirement savings: - I've kept up with putting 10% of my paycheck into my 401k. My company matches up to 5%. (I purposely have my 401k so high because I used to have a very bad impulse spending problem and I still don't really trust myself to make decent decisions with money that I have easy access to) - I've put ~$1000 in my roth IRA thanks to my tax refund and auto-transferring $30 from my checking on my paydays. I know this number is too low and my goal is to increase it to $100/paycheck after I hit my emergency savings goal. 3) Ride the bus to work to save on gas and extend the life of my car. I've been doing this a couple of times a week. 4) More grocery shopping, less eating out. This is helping my weight, too! 5) New goal: Make a folder to keep track of receipts for little medical expenses from my myriad of doctor's appointments. I had no idea that I could deduct hospital parking costs, copays, etc and such on my taxes. I have health insurance, but I easily spent hundreds of dollars last year on copays for specialist visits, hourly rates for parking garages, etc. I probably won't have that much this year but it's still worth tracking... 6) No monthly subscriptions to services such as Netflix, Spotify, etc. I have my free trials set to cancel at the end of this bill cycle so I won't get charged. 7) 6-month emergency fund. Put four months of that emergency fund in a high interest checking account. Right now I only have $800 saved up. In December I moved back home with my parents to get my finances straight so I haven't focused on this one as much as I would have if I didn't live at home. I've been putting most of my paychecks into paying off my credit card, which was how I paid it off in early February. 8) Save $4000 for LASIK, which I've wanted for over a decade at this point. The surgeon quoted me at $3500 and I've read online that you can expect to pay hundreds of dollars on eye drops and random fees that insurance won't cover. 9) I'm saving my Southwest and United points by taking surveys! I nearly have enough for a free trip to Cancun. I'm specifically aiming for Cancun because I want to use my advanced PADI SCUBA certification (this SCUBA certification was another impulse purchase from my past). Bonus Pie in the sky goals: save a down payment on a new car for when my current car's engine falls out, save money for a SCUBA trip, save money for a trip to one of my international goals (Germany or China), save a down payment on a 2-bdrm condo so I can buy and rent out a room when I move out (lol), teach myself CSS and JS so I can make more money and actually be able to afford these pie in the sky goals (double-lol), learn to hangglide I'm getting a $2489 bonus in a couple of weeks and I think it needs to go into my roth and my emergency savings. I should have done all of this years ago, but at least I'm doing way better than I was a few years ago. legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 06:38 on Feb 24, 2015 |
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Feb 24, 2015 06:13
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 15:52 |
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Progress post! Background: - 27 y/o single child-free woman. - Moved back home with my parents in December 2014 to un-gently caress my finances - Income: $42,000 - A note for people kind enough to give advice: Thank you all so much for reading and being sweet enough to give advice! But when you give advice, please remember that I am extremely impulsive. Ideally I would be a disciplined person that makes good long-term decisions based on my understanding of money, but I'm not there yet. For now the best thing to do is to hide things that are bad for me. I know it's childish and doesn't make sense, but if any advice you give relies on my making decent decisions with large amounts of money, it is probably just advice that would result on my blowing it on a trip to China or on extra sushi for lunch. 1) Paid off my credit card, been doing great at staying away from it! I did put some car related expenses on it when I got into a car wreck last month, but I paid it off right away. 2) Savings goals: - 401k: Total ~$25000, vested in ~$21,500. Continuing to put 10% of my paycheck into my 401k, company matches 7% with 5% additional matching in stocks. (As a follow-up to the note above--I purposely have my 401k so high because I used to have a very bad impulse spending problem and I still don't really trust myself to make decent decisions with money that I have easy access to.) - Roth IRA: $2687.90, up from ~$1000 at the beginning of the year. I increased my automatic biweekly transfer between my checking and Roth to $100, so that starts in May. - Savings: $2522.68. Yay, for the first time in five years, I have more than $500 in emergency savings. *** On 6-month emergency savings goals: I live with my parents so I don't really have any large bills, but I'm saving this with the assumption that I'll move out into a 1-bdrm within 30 minutes of my job, that there will be at least one $1000 car repair... Sigh ._. It sounds crazy, but I feel like my six-month emergency savings should be at least $7500. *** After I save my emergency expenses, my next goal really needs to be maxing my roth and then saving a down payment for my next car, and putting the extra savings in some kind of high interest account. I have a Toyota at 80.6k miles so the car down payment isn't super urgent, but it's something I shouldn't let sneak up on me. *** I feel like I shouldn't have easy-access to more than $1000 in cash at a time, and once I break $3000 in savings, I should move $2000 to some high interest account. I have a savings account with Ally bank that had a $1 minimum deposit so maybe I can see about moving to that. Then as I save more, I can find accounts with better interest rates/higher minimum deposits. *** I really want to spend this poo poo on a trip to China, but really my next goal after emergency savings really needs to be maxing my roth, saving a down payment on a car, and then a down payment on a condo. ._. 3) Began driving a lot more in March/early April during a busy time at work/recovering from my surgery/getting super sick. I miss riding the bus! 4) After my surgery I had to stop working out over lunch, so I began eating out again. ._. I'm working out over lunch again with my doctor's clearance, so way less lunch-time eating out 5) Medical expenses folder: dang it, I didn't end up starting this. I even have the folder too... 6) Canceled all my monthly subscriptions. 7) I ended up canceling my LASIK surgery because my prescription changed again. Also, it's pretty scary to me that I was seriously planning on spending my *entire* savings on LASIK so I'd be back to 0 again. More proof that I'm not really over the impulse spending thing. 8) Potential career development: Finished CSS tracks on two different training websites. I'm now moving on to Javascript, which succcccccccccccccks. I'm really glad that I haven't had to spend anything at all on new clothes besides a cute $60 sailor costume and some temporary tattoos I treated myself to on my birthday (which is bad now that I've typed it out, but depressingly this is actually an improvement considering that my typical costume budget would usually be around ~$200... yeahhhhhhhhhhhh.......). I've lost 20 pounds since the beginning of the year, but I picked out my new work clothes carefully (lots of stretchy dresses, skirts) and they all still fit really well despite the weight fluctuation! I also have old smaller-sized clothes that I expect to fit me better as I lose more weight. Part of why I moved home was because I was scared I would need new work clothes every time I lost 10 pounds, so I'm glad this is turning out way be a way smaller expense than I expected. legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Apr 23, 2015 |
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Apr 19, 2015 23:15
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District Selectman posted:There's that classic trick of freezing your credit card - but that's pretty old school for 2015. Putting large amounts in your 401k to protect you from yourself is a good idea! I did it too. What also helped me for some reason was to split my paycheck into both savings and checking. I put a specific amount in checking to cover my budget. That way, when I needed to pay credit card bills over my budget, I had to dip into savings, and it made me feel dirty. Also if you online shop a lot, try just adding things to your cart and then only allowing yourself to make purchases one day a week, like Sunday. Normally I PM people who respond to me because I don't want to distract from other people's progress posts, but I see that you don't have PM so I'm responding. I rarely use my credit card except for necessities that cost over $500 (I'm thinking the car repair from last month) and then I pay it off right away. I already have automatic transfers from my checking to my savings and to my IRA. This post also motivated me to finally transfer money over to my online savings account so I'll have a more tangible sense of "Car down payment/emergency savings/DO NOT TOUCH" money. I can ask my company if they could split my paycheck between the online savings and my regular checking, but I doubt it since they said they couldn't put a portion of my check into my IRA. I definitely quit online shopping. I basically don't shop/windowshop for fun anymore and I think that's helped a lot. I have been casually looking for a date-type dress since I've lost 30 pounds since the last time I went shopping for casual clothes but I'm super picky about the price (since I have to lose 50 more pounds) and about the type of outfit so I basically keep going into thrift stores and leaving emptyhanded. Thank you for your advice! legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 16:36 on Apr 29, 2015 |
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Apr 29, 2015 16:34
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Progress post! Background: - 27 y/o single child-free woman, very few bills since I live at home. - Income: $42,000 1) Doing great at staying away from my credit card except for emergency expenses that I collect for points and immediately pay off. I'm avoiding putting daily small expenses such as gas and food on it because that feels like something I would start to abuse. 2) Savings goals: - 401k: Total ~$26000, vested in ~$21,500. I'm a dummy that increased my 401k contribution to 22%, when goes into effect starting on my next paycheck. The rules on my plan say that I can change the contribution only once a month, so it's going back down to 12% in July. I asked the financial adviser at my bank to give me some savings goals since I feel I need direction and he told me I should aim to have $40k (including gains from stocks, interest, match, etc) in my 401k by the time I'm 30. I saw an infographic online that said you should aim to have half of your annual salary saved by the time you turn 30, and you should aim to have your entire annual salary saved by the time you turn 35. The infographic might assume that the reader is making more money than I do, but it's a little comforting that I've already hit it's goal for 30 year olds. - Roth IRA: $5342, up from ~$1000 at the beginning of the year. Adviser told me to max this out each year. - Savings: $1100. Adviser told me to temporarily slow down the retirement savings and increase my emergency savings to at least three months' worth by the end of this year. I've requested to decrease my 401k deposit to 12% so it will be easier to save. I've decided I'll keep $1500 in the regular savings account, and anything extra will go into the Ally savings account or possibly another flexible option suggested by my adviser. 3) I've driven to work every day since my surgery even though I know the bus is a better choice! 4) Still buying lots of snacks and eating out for lunch. I reconnected my mint account to my bank accounts so I can better see how much I'm spending here. 5) No new medical expenses for my folder. 6) I'm doing really well about not spending unnecessary money on clothes since the last update. I've 25 pounds since last December (60 pounds lost in total), with 40 left to go. I want to feel accomplished and satisfied when I buy clothes, not worried about how much longer they'll fit. 7) Looking over this, I feel like I need to really set myself up for a promotion at my job or some other increase in income. I'm certainly able to provide for myself as a single 20-something without kids, but I'm realizing that it'll be very difficult to save as I get older. I already feel constantly overwhelmed and afraid sometimes when I think about things like buying a house or raising kids. When I talked to the adviser at my bank about getting on track with my savings, he also told me to remember to enjoy life. It made me feel a little better about how far I've come from my really bad spending days if a financial adviser was telling me to relax a bit about savings. Between this and my annual physical showing significant improvement in various metrics since I lost 60 pounds, I'm finally starting to feel like I'm crawling out the rut I created for myself. I also did a great job at preventing myself from buying a theremin over the weekend! It would have been my first multi-hundred-dollar impulse purchase in a long time.
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Jun 4, 2015 04:13
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moana posted:Congrats! This sounds terrible, but does the 529 get refunded if you end up not being able to have a kid? I've been trying to find information on this too and it's surprisingly difficult to find. According to this website, it looks like you can withdraw the principal, but earnings are subject to penalty (Source). The funds could also be used for another relative's education.
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Jun 12, 2015 19:21
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I've delayed this progress post because I honestly feel pretty embarassed by my spending habits. Progress post! Background: - 27 y/o child-free woman, very few bills since I live at home/stay with my boyfriend during the week. - Income: $42,800 1) The only thing I pay on my credit card now is my phone bill. I'm considering switching to lower data on my phone--I have a 5GB data plan because I figured I would watch a movie or stream audio books on the bus to work every now and then, but I tend to rarely go over 3GB. It's always super close though, which makes me hesitant. 2) Savings goals: - 401k: Total $26,972.39, vested in ~$24,878.39 after my second year anniversary! - Roth IRA: $5,149.99. It took a hit from the market, I guess. - Savings: $250. Extremely embarassing. And depressingly, even this amount is still a huge improvement over where I was last year, especially since I had to replace my laptop. I also talked to my boyfriend about how often we eat at restaurants, and I now keep fresh fruit and vegetables for myself in his fridge so I'm less tempted to take him up when he wants to eat out with me.
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Sep 17, 2015 18:35
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I can't believe it's already December! I still am pretty bad with money, but overall I'm very proud of the improvements I've made. I've lost 30 pounds this year (65 pounds total) and I no longer spend endlessly when I'm sad. I've started cooking my meals and enjoying healthy food more than fast food. I still drink too much tea at cafes, but it's one habit at a time. Where I was at the beginning of the year: - ~$2700 in credit card debt on a crappy cash back card - 401k: vested in ~$19000, $21k total - Roth IRA: ~$1700 at the beginning of the year - Emergency savings: $400 at the beginning of the year Where I am now: - No credit card debt besides what I put on my Chase Freedom card for the 5% points and pay off every month. - 401k: $28,286.18 total, vested in $25,988.35 - Roth IRA: $5100! I transferred from Merrill Lynch to Vanguard (thank you again goons) and I'm not sure how much I lost in fees so I left it alone here. - Savings: I currently have $900 in emergency savings, and $1500 in car-down-payment-savings that I keep in my Ally bank account. I saved a lot for retirement this year, but I've decided to focus on my emergency/car down payment savings for the next 6-12 months. I hope my car lasts for 10 years, but it's currently at 91,000 miles so I'm scared that if I got into an auto accident in the next couple of years it could get totaled by the insurance company due to the mileage and the fact that I've gotten into two other accidents already (I know...)... I feel like if this worst case scenario occurred and I didn't have savings, my bad habits with credit card/stress spending will start over again. But hopefully my 2011 Toyota Yaris keeps on going until 2021. Until I have six months of emergency savings and $5000 saved up for a car down payment, I decreased my retirement savings to 6% for my 401k and $60 transferring to my Vanguard every two weeks. A lot of my goals changed over the year: - I stay with my boyfriend during the week so I live super close to my job. I don't spend nearly as much on gas and maintenance for my car as I used to. - I decided that I didn't want LASIK and put the saved money into my roth IRA. I did reach the following goals: - I shop at the grocery store once a week and no longer eat out every day. - I paid off my credit card debt - I have put off my airline points expiring until 2017 by taking surveys online and refreshing the balance! I failed to reach the following goals: - I do NOT have six months' of emergency savings. :\ - I canceled my monthly subscriptions, but I did sign up for the 99-cents-a-month for three months of Spotify. I tend to do this and cancel the subscription before the full price starts. - I did NOT max my roth. I still am doing way better than at the beginning of the year!
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Dec 20, 2015 16:25
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 15:52 |
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BFC has been so incredibly helpful for improving how I manage my money. Even better, two of my friends told me that they started saving more for retirement after watching the changes in my behavior.
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Dec 20, 2015 17:26
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