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Here's what I recently posted in the incremental improvements thread:pig slut lisa posted:Thankfully I didn't come close to bottoming out. In addition to the above, my wife will be starting a postdoc in the fall that will pull in somewhere between $45,000 and $60,000 (as opposed to the approximately $20,000 she gets as a PhD student). So here are my financial goals for 2015: -Max out both Roth IRAs and my 457(b) -Have wife begin contributions to 403(b) at new postdoc in the fall -Increase frequency of grocery shopping trips made by bicycle instead of car, especially between April and October -Keep home alcohol purchases below $50/month
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Dec 14, 2014 09:47
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Granted, we're not going to be able to do quite so well next year, since some of that cash came from uninvested 2013 earnings. Still though, I am very proud of that number. 
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Zuph posted:5. Save enough to take the first honest-to-god, leave-town-and-do-something-recreational vacation of my adult life. Where do you want to go?
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Dec 19, 2014 04:35
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Zuph posted:My fiancee and I have thrown around the smoky mountains, Chicago, Montreal, Colorado, and the gulf coast of Florida as places we would both like to go, and could reasonably afford. Of course, the final decision would be based on cost, budget, time available, weather, and all sorts of other stuff. Cool, and congrats! I really like working towards travel goals. They take a backseat to retirement goals, but I still love planning and saving for it.
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Dec 19, 2014 05:39
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pig slut lisa posted:-Keep home alcohol purchases below $50/month Talked with my wife about this yesterday and she's totally on board. I was planning on just tracking our spending via online credit card statements, but she suggested keeping a tally on the fridge which is of course a much better idea. For comparison I estimate our monthly home consumption purchases for 2014 at around $70-80 so this should represent a significant savings.
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Dec 29, 2014 17:52
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:May I ask what you usually drink and where you purchase it? I may be able to give you some tips on cheaper acquisitions Ehhh, it's really just a question of quantity control. This will represent a drop to one six-pack a week vs one every 3-5 days. It'll be good for non-financial reasons as well. Thanks though. etalian posted:You can also try a website called Mint.com, it basically links all you investment, bank and credit accounts into a single place making it much easier to track your monthly spending/income flow. I'm hooked up to Mint, but I rarely look at it. Given that we already save approximately 50% of our income, I don't feel that it provides a lot of value to us. Since I'm targeting this one specific expense, I think the fridge tally will be most effective for us.
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Dec 30, 2014 16:42
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It's 2015, has everyone achieved all their financial goals yet?
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Jan 1, 2015 14:45
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The Experiment posted:I went and already put in an order to max out my Roth IRA contributions for the year. It will take a day or two to process but so far so good! same 
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Jan 1, 2015 20:22
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Aerofallosov posted:In 2015, I would like: Great goal! How are you planning on achieving it?
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Jan 8, 2015 01:33
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Aerofallosov posted:Lawyer up, clear out the identity fraud, get a new SSN. When I get work, I intend to have a no over draft debit card and a small (~200 dollar) credit card. I am likely going to have to declare bankruptcy, and it sucks. But that's where the lawyer comes in to talk to me and see what we can do (as well as what the best option is). And hey, thanks to Obamacare, I won't have to be uninsured and deal with the monster medical costs that entails. That sounds like a great plan. Excited to hear how it turns out for you this year! 
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Jan 9, 2015 06:15
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moana posted:I charge $100-$200 for covers for other authors. If you send me Fabio pics that I end up selling as covers I will give you half of what I make, but you're not getting your grubby hands on my book royalties  Oh no, you just gave him the pricing information he needs to set himself up as a competitor and undercut you!
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Jan 12, 2015 19:43
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dreesemonkey posted:I have about the most halfassed goals, and I even cheated because we paid off our car prior to 2015. But progress is progress! Don't look at it that way. Imagine how embarrassing it would be if you didn't meet even the goals you view as easy! By that measure you're a smashing success so far.
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Jan 26, 2015 19:58
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dreesemonkey posted:I'd like to set something a bit more challenging, but it's such a giant question mark with a newborn and adjusting to spending $1200/mo on daycare. Suggested new goal: Come back to this thread on July 1st with a more challenging goal, whatever that means to you.
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Jan 26, 2015 23:13
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pig slut lisa posted:-Keep home alcohol purchases below $50/month January's total: $17.99 I'm pretty pleased with that. I would be surprised if we end up that low again but I'm pretty confident we can meet our original goal.
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Feb 1, 2015 01:53
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SpelledBackwards posted:Are monthly updates a regular thing for this thread? No mention of it in the OP. I'm cutting some of my goals down to more digestible versions so the quote block isn't so huge. Click the linked post to read them in full. I just did it because I have a monthly goal and it helps to know that I need to check in 12 times with it.
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Feb 2, 2015 00:05
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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)/ I'm a big fan of front loading contributions if you plan on maxing out anyway, although I'm not as aggressive. I'm just doing $750 per paycheck, which gets me to $18,000 at the end of November.
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Feb 19, 2015 01:20
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Sundae posted:#4 - FAILED. I failed to take time off for stress-relief activities in January, and I BS'd it in February. I suck. How do you plan on enjoying time away from work in March? P.S. Good job on your other goals!
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Feb 23, 2015 01:22
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slap me silly posted:Yeah, it's a real pleasure for me to check into a hotel room and have 4x the room I need for all my stuff in the drawers and whatnot. *Statement does not apply to Japanese business hotels
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Feb 24, 2015 04:57
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slap me silly posted:Haha! I've done the capsule thing too and you are exactly right. They gave me one locker at the reception desk and I was barely able to cram my backpack in it. Oh I'm not even talking capsule, you're more adventurous than I am. I'm 6'4" and there's no way you'd get me in one of those. I stayed in this hotel and I fit in the bed and shower well enough but I think there were literally like 4 hooks on the wall to hang things and that was it for storage space. Maybe there was a little something under the TV too. Certainly no closet. On the topic of packing light though, that trip was my first long trip where I only had a carry-on size bag and that is totally the way to go. Sure you have to laundry every five days or so but it's so worth it to not have to schlep heavy wheeled luggage between destinations. So it was pretty nice to stay in the hotel and be like "huh, no room for stuff, but I don't have any anyways".
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Feb 24, 2015 05:07
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pig slut lisa posted:-Keep home alcohol purchases below $50/month January's total: $17.99 February's total: $43.47 (includes a 12 pack we bought on the 28th to boost us into March) Monthly average: $30.73
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Mar 1, 2015 19:54
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District Selectman posted:It's the seemingly frugal people that confuse me the most. These are people who don't own nice things, don't drive an expensive car, live with roommates, eat noodles and canned tuna fish, don't travel the world, and make $75k a year. WHERE IS YOUR MONEY GOING?? The Bad With Money Thread formally requests an investigation of these people you know
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Mar 7, 2015 17:41
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District Selectman posted:It took me years to even put together the clues that they are indeed quite broke, and I'll never be like, "Hey friend, so I was wondering. How are you so broke? I ask because you have a good job, but no nice things and also no money." Tell them it's for an internet forum. They'll understand.
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Mar 7, 2015 20:59
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Congrats on getting married within your financial goals 
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Mar 22, 2015 21:12
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March update My wife will be starting a postdoc in the fall that will pull in somewhere between $45,000 and $60,000 (as opposed to the approximately $20,000 she gets as a PhD student). Update: Instead of the original postdoc, my wife will be taking a position at a local federal agency. This means another year or so of a student salary instead of a postdoc salary, but it comes with a guaranteed full-time position afterwards if she wants it. We like living here, my family is in town, and she likes the work she'd be doing, so our short term financial loss is a long term gain and a net win overall. Financial goals for 2015: -Max out both Roth IRAs and my 457(b) Status: done -Have wife begin contributions to 403(b) at new postdoc in the fall Status: It's unclear if this student position will have a 403(b), but it probably won't. -Increase frequency of grocery shopping trips made by bicycle instead of car, especially between April and October Update: the weather is finally nice, so we've started biking for groceries again. I could have tried harder at this during the cold months. -Keep home alcohol purchases below $50/month January total $17.99 February total $43.47 (includes a 12 pack we bought on the 28th to boost us into March) March total: $46.28 Monthly average: $35.91 April should be an easier month for this. Passover lasts 8 days and means we can't drink beer, and we each are away at a conference in the second half of the month. I'm going to make a sub-goal of not buying or consuming any at home beer while my wife is away at her conference. That should spur me to do more useful things with my alone time than watching Netflix (probably bike rides if the weather's good). -New goal: Designate a purpose for the few thousand we should be getting back in our federal tax refund. Leading contenders here are starting a 529 or holding the money in savings for a lump sum boost for the 2016 IRA cycle. -New goal: Devise a plan for earning enough points/miles for free international business class airfare and at least 4 free hotel nights for a 2016 international vacation.
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Mar 31, 2015 18:25
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Veskit posted:MARCH SUCKED Are you burned out from budgeting because you're having to make a lot of manual entries, or because you're not making as much headway on #1 and #4 as you'd like? Maybe something else?
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Apr 2, 2015 13:24
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pig slut lisa posted:March update It's mid-month, but I'm a couple updates behind so here we go: -Max out both Roth IRAs and my 457(b) Status: done -Have wife begin contributions to 403(b) at new postdoc in the fall Status: Still waiting to find out if this new position will have a 403(b), but it probably won't. -Increase frequency of grocery shopping trips made by bicycle instead of car, especially between April and October Update: We've been doing better with this, although we were recently out of the country for 2.5 weeks and so our most recent grocery trip was via car. On the plus side we've started receiving weekly produce from our CSA. We pick it up at the farmers' market which is only a few blocks away. -Keep home alcohol purchases below $50/month January total $17.99 February total $43.47 March total: $46.28 April Total: $35.50 May Total: $42.66 Monthly average: $36.98 I also met the goal of not drinking anything at home while my wife was at her conference, and didn't go to the bar either. -Designate a purpose for the few thousand we should be getting back in our federal tax refund. Leading contenders here are starting a 529 or holding the money in savings for a lump sum boost for the 2016 IRA cycle. The refund was around $3,000. We've decided to start a 529 for our as-yet-not-conceived first child to the tune of $2,000. We're 95% sure about this, not 100%, so I'm going to move the $2,000 to a separate account and see what it's like to have that hole in our assets for the next couple months. Once I feel comfortable I'll start the 529. The 529 is also a little lower than what I originally thought we might do since we will both need new computers relatively soon, although we're both going with fairly inexpensive Chromebooks. -Devise a plan for earning enough points/miles for free international business class airfare and at least 4 free hotel nights for a 2016 international vacation. We haven't moved much on this. We'll probably do another round of Alaska Airlines card apps in a couple months since we're leaning towards Asia again, and Alaska miles have a great redemption rate on Cathay Pacific.
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Jun 12, 2015 05:27
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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? Congrats to you as well! It's a good question, re: 529, and one I thought about. I decided to go ahead for the following reasons: 1) There's a possibility I'll never have a dependent who incurs qualified educational expenses, but that could happen a number of different ways: kid never born, kid born but dies (  ), kid is first pick in the MLB draft coming out of high school, etc. So since risk still exists even after birth, I figured why not start now.2) We plan on having a kid in a few years. If we find out that we can't conceive we won't have too much socked away, so it won't be a major hurt to pull out. 3) I have two siblings (one twin, one younger) who will likely have college-bound kids. So I'd probably redesignate the beneficiary to their kid(s), maybe pulling some back out for my wife and me and taking the gains penalty on that portion. Obviously the best case (and, I like to think, most likely) scenario is that I'll have at least one child who will be able to use this thing. But in the event that we don't have a kid, I'm pretty comfortable with my options and anticipated situation.
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Jun 12, 2015 23:22
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Omne posted:Well, things have gotten interesting. In late May, the little lady and I got engaged, so now there's a wedding to plan. We'll be paying for it ourselves, which makes my goals dificult... Congrats on your engagement! I hope you are able to do things in a more BFC fashion than my former law school classmate: pig slut lisa posted:Here's something from Facebook:
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Jun 21, 2015 17:34
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pig slut lisa posted:It's mid-month, but I'm a couple updates behind so here we go: July 2015 update: -Max out both Roth IRAs and my 457(b) Status: On pace. It was inaccurate to call this done in my last update; the Roth IRAs are maxed but the 457(b) is only on pace to be maxed. I'm at $12,000 for the year and should hit $18,000 on the 24th pay period of 26 in total. -Have wife begin contributions to 403(b) at new postdoc in the fall Status: This goal is alive again due to a change my wife's post-graduation plan. Instead of a postdoc, she's going to take a job with the USGS. This will start as a part-time job and transition to full-time some time in early 2016. So she'll have access to the TSP (jealous...) and the matching that entails. The job starts in late August, so maybe I'll have a hard number for her contributions by next update. -Increase frequency of grocery shopping trips made by bicycle instead of car, especially between April and October Status: Still doing OK with this, not great. Having the CSA every week definitely helps though. -Keep home alcohol purchases below $50/month January total $17.99 February total $43.47 March total: $46.28 April total: $35.50 May total: $42.66 June total: $45.79 July total: $73.45 Monthly average: $43.59 First month we've gone over this year  July is hot! Running average is still under $50/month though. And most importantly we haven't bought a bottle of liquor for the house all year. No $20 whiskey, no $60 scotch, no nothing. So I'm proud of us for putting that expensive hobby to bed.-Designate a purpose for the few thousand we should be getting back in our federal tax refund. Leading contenders here are starting a 529 or holding the money in savings for a lump sum boost for the 2016 IRA cycle. I will be starting the 529 sometime this month (hopefully), since removing that $2,000 from our reserves has not been an issue at all. As for the 2016 IRA lump sum boost, I have a couple taxable funds totaling roughly $2,000 I want to use for the purpose. These are the last remnants of my college/grad school fund (graduated in 2013) so all I need to do is get my dad to sell them. He's still the designated custodian so I can't do anything with them on my own. -Devise a plan for earning enough points/miles for free international business class airfare and at least 4 free hotel nights for a 2016 international vacation. This is going swell. We don't have firm plans yet, but mileage accrual continues apace. I'm gunning for enough Alaska Airlines miles to book first class on the Emirates A380 so I can shower in the sky  I need to set up my wife's next round of credit card applications in a couple weeks.Still feeling very positive. Great to see how others are succeeding as well.
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Aug 1, 2015 04:41
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Moneyball posted:As the third quarter comes to a close, my situation is embarrassing, as I have essentially made no progress with my net worth from my original post at the beginning of the year. Still hovering in the high 20s. I've found new and creative ways to cost myself and waste more money. Why do you think this is? Have you considered starting a thread to ask for help/accountability?
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Sep 30, 2015 13:19
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Awesome. Sounds like a great plan.
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Oct 1, 2015 02:34
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pig slut lisa posted:July 2015 update: September 2015 update: -Max out both Roth IRAs and my 457(b) Status: On pace. Roth IRAs are maxed. My 457(b) is at $15,000 in contributions for the year and should hit $18,000 at the end of November. -Have wife begin contributions to TSP at new part time job Status: 98% sure she is contributing enough to get the full TSP match. It's not a huge amount of money since she's still working part time, but once she graduates in May she'll go full time. I'm sure one of the 2016 goals will be to try and get her as close as possible to maxing her contributions during the last 7 months of 2016. -Increase frequency of grocery shopping trips made by bicycle instead of car, especially between April and October Status: Our CSA ended early and we got a refund check of $50. Will probably bike to the farmers' market a couple more times to buy from other farmers, although the season is rapidly drawing to a close. Now is the time of year when biking to the grocery store gets tougher, so I'm going to try to bike to the grocery store at least twice in October. -Keep home alcohol purchases below $50/month January total $17.99 February total $43.47 March total: $46.28 April total: $35.50 May total: $42.66 June total: $45.79 July total: $73.45 August total: $45.00ish September total: $45.00ish Monthly average: $43.90 I'm quite confident we stayed under $50 each month, but I did a bad job tracking precisely -Designate a purpose for the few thousand we should be getting back in our federal tax refund. Leading contenders here are starting a 529 or holding the money in savings for a lump sum boost for the 2016 IRA cycle. Started a 529 in August when the market dropped, initial contribution of $2,000. Not even gonna check it til maybe next fall if we have more money to chuck at it. -Devise a plan for earning enough points/miles for free international business class airfare and at least 4 free hotel nights for a 2016 international vacation. This is going great. Still no plans made but I have approximately 95K Chase UR points, 100K Amex MR points, 165K AAdvantage miles, 58K Alaska Miles, 55K BA Avios, and decent balances with IHG and Hilton. My wife also has a decent balance in several programs, including 75K Amex MR points, 200K AAdvantage miles, and 50K Alaska miles. I'll probably one more update before the end of year check in. I'm very pleased with everything so far this year. Next year's goalsetting will be more of a challenge since we'll be getting a big income bump partway through the year and my tax situation remains screwy so who knows what my refund will be.
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Oct 2, 2015 04:47
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Not a Children posted:November update! Sounds like you're doing really well! Can I ask what field I'm in that pays you $75K/year while you're in an academic program that it's paying for?
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Nov 4, 2015 14:22
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Claverjoe posted:Living 1000 miles away from your spouse sucks, and flights are expensive. On the positive side, long term, she graduates with no med school debt (hooray MD/PhD.), and I'll be saving an extra $600 a month in travel related expenses come this time next fall when she moves to where I am to do interviews for residency and the occasional visiting rotation. Flights, dinners out when I see her, and buying groceries for a wife who works 14-18 hour days all add up to a hell of a lot. At least I have cash for an emergency and to cover our honeymoon expenses this December. I hear you on this, and I haven't even had to live it. My wife is finishing up a PhD here in town and for awhile it was looking like she was going to do a two year postdoc elsewhere. I really like my job and the postdoc location was not going to be a long term settling spot for us, so we were preparing to do the long distance thing for awhile. No flights would have been involved (4 hour drive instead) but I was looking at the potential budget hit and not pleased with what I saw. Fortunately she ended up getting a job with a federal agency locally, so she'll be starting that in May/June. We can both keep biking/busing to work and saving a ton. Where are you going for your honeymoon?
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Nov 22, 2015 18:35
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Jon Von Anchovi posted:Possibly a dumb question; but about ready to start posting ITT and just realised, you guys are all doing goals for the financial year aren't you, not calendar. I'm in Australia so fin year is July 1 to June 30 but ive mentally been doing goals for calendar year it's a Jan-Dec thing, I'm guessing the 2016 thread will start up in a couple weeks
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Nov 30, 2015 08:35
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The Financial Goals 2016 thread is open
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Dec 14, 2015 01:46
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 06:00 |
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pig slut lisa posted:September 2015 update: End of 2015 Final Update: -Max out both Roth IRAs and my 457(b) Status: We did it  -Have wife begin contributions to TSP at new part time job Status: She's contributing enough to get the full match, and slightly more besides -Increase frequency of grocery shopping trips made by bicycle instead of car, especially between April and October Status: On balance, we did not do as well with this as I would have hoped  -Keep home alcohol purchases below $50/month Status: Final average was right around $50. Good enough. -Designate a purpose for the few thousand we should be getting back in our federal tax refund. Leading contenders here are starting a 529 or holding the money in savings for a lump sum boost for the 2016 IRA cycle. Status: Started a 529 in August when the market dropped, initial contribution of $2,000. -Devise a plan for earning enough points/miles for free international business class airfare and at least 4 free hotel nights for a 2016 international vacation. Status: We have enough points/miles to do this and more, although we probably won't take a trip til 2017. e: I do not deserve the gangtag because I went to Las Vegas last week and broke my rule about not dipping into previous days' winnings/remainders on following days. Ended down $300 farther than I would have had I not done this. Stupid stupid. pig slut lisa fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Dec 31, 2015 |
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Dec 31, 2015 06:52
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