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2015 GOALS Reduce dining out spending to $150 every paycheck (two weeks). Based on my Quicken categories for last year, this will reduce my dining out expenses by about $1300 for the year, depending on how much I travel for work.* Of course, my actual savings will be somewhat less than that since my grocery bills should rise. * Restaurant spending when I'm on work trips (and thus on per diem) won't count against this goal, so it should be pretty easy on pay periods where I'm travelling. In theory I should prorate the amount by the number of nights I'm home in a pay period, but I'll keep it simple this year. Finish paying off my student loan by the end of June. I owe about $5K (down from $89K!), and I've been throwing about $1000 per month at it (after maxing out my employer 5% 401(k) match and my Roth IRA) for the past few years, so this wouldn't be too challenging -- except that my old paid-off truck got to the point where I'd had it in the shop six times in two months, so I ended up buying a car last October, and I have a car payment again. Fortunately, literally doubling my fuel efficiency has offset the car payment somewhat, but it's brought down what I can contribute to the loan a little. At least both the student loan and car payment are under 3% interest, and I have no other debt. Save up enough for an overseas vacation by the end of the year. My sister just moved to Germany last month, and I'd like to take her up on her invitation to come stay with her for a couple weeks. Given the schedule of the project I'm on at work, I probably won't be able to actually take two weeks off until early 2016, but I'd like to have the money saved up by the end of this year. Back of the envelope calculations tell me I'll need to save about $3250 (no lodging expense, but a lot of margin for error built in for the other expenses). Hopefully I'll be able to cut that down by cashing in some frequent flier miles, but I'd rather save too much and be pleasantly surprised, so $3250 seems a reasonable goal. If I can get the student loan paid off by June, I figure I can immediately start throwing the amount I was putting toward it into a savings account; anything left over will likely go to extra payments on the car.
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Jan 6, 2015 04:43
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 01:23 |
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Thanks! The end is in sight.
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Jan 9, 2015 04:38
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Monthly updates, eh?P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:2015 GOALS Restaurant spending is on track for the two data points I have.  For the student loan, I was able to throw a bit over a thousand at it at the beginning of January (which was already counted when I posted the goals).  Overseas vacation savings is on hold until the student loan is paid off.
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Feb 2, 2015 20:59
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Congratulations! That moment of net worth crossing above zero is a great feeling.
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Feb 18, 2015 01:37
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Exactly! I was initially doing it in order to get the employer max ASAP, but now I figure I may as well do it until I hit the limit (and then drop to 0% for the rest of the year)/ Is the employer match per year or per paycheck, though?
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Feb 19, 2015 01:39
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Nocheez posted:- Reduce stress levels and amount of clutter in the house. I actually have found (work) travel and reducing clutter to go hand in hand. Once I began spending a significant percentage of my nights in hotel rooms, I learned very quickly how little stuff I actually needed.
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Feb 24, 2015 03:55
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P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:2015 GOALS 1. Restaurant spending is still on track and pretty consistent. It's been a lot easier to stay under my $150 limit than I thought it would be.  2. I didn't get to pay as much on my student loans as I'd hoped for my February statement. But I've already paid $625 on my March statement, so that one should look better. I'm still not certain that I'll be able to hit zero by the end of June, though.  3. Won't start until #2 is paid off.
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Mar 1, 2015 19:19
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Since my student loan payoff is my primary goal, and my student loan statement comes in the middle of the month, I realized it's a little silly to be reporting my progress at the beginning of the month since it's already out of date. Starting in April, I'll be reporting my monthly progress once I receive my student loan statement in the middle of the month.
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Mar 28, 2015 02:25
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P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:2015 GOALS  Doing well here. I had a couple paychecks where I was traveling for work at least part of both weeks, dropping my personal restaurant spend. P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Finish paying off my student loan by the end of June. I owe about $5K (down from $89K!), and I've been throwing about $1000 per month at it (after maxing out my employer 5% 401(k) match and my Roth IRA) for the past few years, so this wouldn't be too challenging -- except that my old paid-off truck got to the point where I'd had it in the shop six times in two months, so I ended up buying a car last October, and I have a car payment again. Fortunately, literally doubling my fuel efficiency has offset the car payment somewhat, but it's brought down what I can contribute to the loan a little. At least both the student loan and car payment are under 3% interest, and I have no other debt.  I was also able to pay off quite a bit of the student loan this month. P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:
Still on hold; student loan not yet paid off.
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Apr 18, 2015 03:59
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legsarerequired posted:It sounds crazy, but I feel like my six-month emergency savings should be at least $7500.
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Apr 20, 2015 13:16
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P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:2015 GOALS  I went over budget once due to our anniversary dinner (that all alone cost more than the budget). However, I've been far enough under most periods this year that my biweekly average is still only $119. P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Finish paying off my student loan by the end of June. I owe about $5K (down from $89K!), and I've been throwing about $1000 per month at it (after maxing out my employer 5% 401(k) match and my Roth IRA) for the past few years, so this wouldn't be too challenging -- except that my old paid-off truck got to the point where I'd had it in the shop six times in two months, so I ended up buying a car last October, and I have a car payment again. Fortunately, literally doubling my fuel efficiency has offset the car payment somewhat, but it's brought down what I can contribute to the loan a little. At least both the student loan and car payment are under 3% interest, and I have no other debt.  Doing very well here; I paid off nearly half of the remaining balance in one payment. I don't think I'll quite be able to finish it off this month, but it should be gone in two months. P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:
Still on hold; student loan not yet paid off.
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May 22, 2015 16:35
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P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Reduce dining out spending to $150 every paycheck (two weeks). Based on my Quicken categories for last year, this will reduce my dining out expenses by about $1300 for the year, depending on how much I travel for work.* Of course, my actual savings will be somewhat less than that since my grocery bills should rise. Still doing good.  P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Finish paying off my student loan by the end of June. I owe about $5K (down from $89K!), and I've been throwing about $1000 per month at it (after maxing out my employer 5% 401(k) match and my Roth IRA) for the past few years, so this wouldn't be too challenging -- except that my old paid-off truck got to the point where I'd had it in the shop six times in two months, so I ended up buying a car last October, and I have a car payment again. Fortunately, literally doubling my fuel efficiency has offset the car payment somewhat, but it's brought down what I can contribute to the loan a little. At least both the student loan and car payment are under 3% interest, and I have no other debt.  Success!  My student loans are completely paid off as of this month. P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Save up enough for an overseas vacation by the end of the year. My sister just moved to Germany last month, and I'd like to take her up on her invitation to come stay with her for a couple weeks. Given the schedule of the project I'm on at work, I probably won't be able to actually take two weeks off until early 2016, but I'd like to have the money saved up by the end of this year. Back of the envelope calculations tell me I'll need to save about $3250 (no lodging expense, but a lot of margin for error built in for the other expenses). Hopefully I'll be able to cut that down by cashing in some frequent flier miles, but I'd rather save too much and be pleasantly surprised, so $3250 seems a reasonable goal. If I can get the student loan paid off by June, I figure I can immediately start throwing the amount I was putting toward it into a savings account; anything left over will likely go to extra payments on the car. So I suppose I have no excuse for starting this next month.
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Jul 1, 2015 01:28
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Thanks! It does, though my first paycheck without having to put anything aside for the student loan felt really weird, like something was missing.
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Jul 1, 2015 23:50
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P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Reduce dining out spending to $150 every paycheck (two weeks).  Still doing good on this. Had one pay period's spend slightly over, but the average for the year is still $121.16 spent per two weeks. P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Finish paying off my student loan by the end of June. Finished in June. P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Save up enough for an overseas vacation by the end of the year. My sister just moved to Germany last month, and I'd like to take her up on her invitation to come stay with her for a couple weeks. Given the schedule of the project I'm on at work, I probably won't be able to actually take two weeks off until early 2016, but I'd like to have the money saved up by the end of this year. Back of the envelope calculations tell me I'll need to save about $3250 (no lodging expense, but a lot of margin for error built in for the other expenses). Hopefully I'll be able to cut that down by cashing in some frequent flier miles, but I'd rather save too much and be pleasantly surprised, so $3250 seems a reasonable goal. If I can get the student loan paid off by June, I figure I can immediately start throwing the amount I was putting toward it into a savings account; anything left over will likely go to extra payments on the car. And here's where I didn't do well. I don't remember if I posted about it yet in this thread, but I actually had a smaller summer vacation planned this month (half a week in Tucson and half a week in Vancouver) -- I already had saved for it, so I wasn't including it in my statistics. But there must have been some sort of euphoria from having the student loan paid off, because I blew the budget on that trip, mostly by booking an unbudgeted rental car in Vancouver a couple weeks before the trip. I'd just been planning on transit, my girlfriend didn't want to and asked if we could get a rental car instead, and since I was feeling good about my finances and the exchange rate, I said yes. So, long story short, what I was planning to put into vacation savings ended up going to covering overspending on a previously planned trip. I was fortunately able to about break even, but I was not able to contribute anything to my Germany vacation. No excuses, though. Lesson learned: just because I don't have an enormous student loan payment anymore doesn't mean I don't have to be careful with money.
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Jul 31, 2015 16:00
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Congratulations on a six figure net worth! It felt really good to pass that threshold.
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Aug 4, 2015 12:54
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P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Reduce dining out spending to $150 every paycheck (two weeks).  Restaurant spend went slightly over last pay period, mostly due to an anniversary dinner. The average is still $125, so I'm still well on track for the year. P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Finish paying off my student loan by the end of June. Goal met. P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Save up enough for an overseas vacation by the end of the year.  I'm started, though we'll see if I can maintain this pace.
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Sep 2, 2015 04:06
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I've considered (principal) debt repayment as counting toward my savings, as it's increasing my net worth. I counted the interest portion of my payments as an expense, though.P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Reduce dining out spending to $150 every paycheck (two weeks).  I'm still doing well – my year-to-date average is $126 per paycheck. P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Finish paying off my student loan by the end of June. Completed. P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Save up enough for an overseas vacation by the end of the year. My sister just moved to Germany last month, and I'd like to take her up on her invitation to come stay with her for a couple weeks. Given the schedule of the project I'm on at work, I probably won't be able to actually take two weeks off until early 2016, but I'd like to have the money saved up by the end of this year. Back of the envelope calculations tell me I'll need to save about $3250 (no lodging expense, but a lot of margin for error built in for the other expenses). Hopefully I'll be able to cut that down by cashing in some frequent flier miles, but I'd rather save too much and be pleasantly surprised, so $3250 seems a reasonable goal. If I can get the student loan paid off by June, I figure I can immediately start throwing the amount I was putting toward it into a savings account; anything left over will likely go to extra payments on the car.  Progressing well; I'm now at $2194 saved, and I've used some of that to buy the transatlantic flights. The vacation plans have changed a bit - my girlfriend will be coming along, and we'll be going to more than just Germany, so I'll have some hotel expenses and twice the expense on flights. However, we're also pushing the vacation to the end of March to give us time to save, and I was able to get two of our four transatlantic flights on miles. Right now, it looks like I'll need to save about $6000 by the end of March (depending on exchange rates), but the needed savings rate doesn't change, so I'll keep my end of 2015 goal the same.
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Oct 2, 2015 02:52
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P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Reduce dining out spending to $150 every paycheck (two weeks).  Earlier in the month, a pipe in the apartment above mine burst, soaking my carpet and forcing me to spend a few days in a hotel while my landlord fixed it. Supposedly, the check's in the mail for reimbursement for the hotel. Regardless, a couple nights extra of eating out put me a little above where I ought to have been one pay period. I made up for it the following pay period and my average is still good for the year. P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Finish paying off my student loan by the end of June. Done. P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Save up enough for an overseas vacation by the end of the year.  My savings rate went down a little because of having to float the hotel bill during the above carpet flooding, but I'm still doing pretty good against the vacation goal. I also went ahead and prepaid most of my hotel rooms out of the vacation savings I've saved already – I'd rather lock in the exchange rate now rather than trying to budget around a changing exchange rate for the largest expenses on my trip.
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Nov 1, 2015 16:47
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 01:23 |
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End of year update!P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Reduce dining out spending to $150 every paycheck (two weeks). Based on my Quicken categories for last year, this will reduce my dining out expenses by about $1300 for the year, depending on how much I travel for work.* Of course, my actual savings will be somewhat less than that since my grocery bills should rise.  Success, sort of. When setting this goal, I didn't take into consideration all of the November/December people visiting from out of town for the holidays, which really jumped up my restaurant spending at the end of the year. However, I was enough below my goal for enough weeks that my average is still $137.12. I'm counting it as a victory, but I'm taking the lesson that I need to be more specific in my future goals as to whether average counts. P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Finish paying off my student loan by the end of June. I owe about $5K (down from $89K!), and I've been throwing about $1000 per month at it (after maxing out my employer 5% 401(k) match and my Roth IRA) for the past few years, so this wouldn't be too challenging -- except that my old paid-off truck got to the point where I'd had it in the shop six times in two months, so I ended up buying a car last October, and I have a car payment again. Fortunately, literally doubling my fuel efficiency has offset the car payment somewhat, but it's brought down what I can contribute to the loan a little. At least both the student loan and car payment are under 3% interest, and I have no other debt.  Success! P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:Save up enough for an overseas vacation by the end of the year. My sister just moved to Germany last month, and I'd like to take her up on her invitation to come stay with her for a couple weeks. Given the schedule of the project I'm on at work, I probably won't be able to actually take two weeks off until early 2016, but I'd like to have the money saved up by the end of this year. Back of the envelope calculations tell me I'll need to save about $3250 (no lodging expense, but a lot of margin for error built in for the other expenses). Hopefully I'll be able to cut that down by cashing in some frequent flier miles, but I'd rather save too much and be pleasantly surprised, so $3250 seems a reasonable goal. If I can get the student loan paid off by June, I figure I can immediately start throwing the amount I was putting toward it into a savings account; anything left over will likely go to extra payments on the car.  Success! Saving for a vacation is much, much easier without that student loan. And yes, I'd be interested in getting that tag!
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Dec 30, 2015 19:10
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