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My main goal for the year is to get to a positive net worth. I don't have a ton of debt, compared to some - no mortgage, no car payment, no outstanding credit card balance (I make most of my purchases on my two cards but I always pay the balance in full) - but I don't have a lot invested and I have a $20K+ student loan debt. 1) Grow my emergency fund to $3,000 - My job is secure at least through another year so I don't feel a lot of pressure to have this cover 6 months of out-of-work looking-for-a-job time, but I would like to have it sizable enough that I can draw on it for a medical emergency that hits me or my cats. This should happen automatically due to automatic transfers I have set up. 2) Pay off $10K student loan debt - The loan is actually 4 separate loans, two of which are sub-5% interest and two which are over. Currently I'm signed up for auto-debit for a modest interest rate reduction, so $185 is split four ways, and then I do a larger targeted payment to the one with the highest interest rate. Stretch Goal) Pay off both of the highest interest rate loans. This is doable if I get the usual 3% cost-of-living raise and throw all of that at loan debt, or tighten my belt/raid savings near the end of the year. This puts me in a position where raising my IRA contribution becomes slightly more advantageous (assuming average yield) than paying off the remaining loans. 3) Be prepared for trips and holidays. - I already have budget categories for all of this, so it's just a matter of sticking to it and letting those accumulate (and not dipping into them for other stuff, which I had no problem doing last year) 4) Eat out less and stick to my current restaurant / food budget - I was good with this last year until I got sick, hurt my back, stopped going to the gym and let my diet get out of control. I usually cover overages to groceries and restaurants out of other categories (rather than spending to the limit there as well) so this is more a matter of bringing my diet, exercise, and budgetary goals back into alignment and re-establishing old habits. 5) (Optional/stretch goal) Get 1 month ahead in my checking account - I'm a little under a paycheck ahead now, which is still a sufficient cushion, and it's hard to conceive of a situation that requires me to be more liquid than I am now, but I would still like to get here eventually. Everything else takes priority, so this is more a matter of cutting what corners I can cut in my variable budgets over the course of the year to gradually get as far ahead as I can. Come 2017 I should be in a good position to start maxing my IRA and work on my longer-term goals.
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Jan 23, 2016 16:41
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CaptainRat posted:1) Grow my emergency fund to $3,000 On track I'm still on target and executing the plan I set out, with one small adjustment: instead of letting unspent remainders of variable budgets (bills, groceries, entertainment, etc.) accrue into my checking account I'm pouring that into an additional student loan payment at the end of the month. I've been going to the library on a weekly basis and reading a lot more, which helps with not going out so much and keeps entertainment budget expenditures low.
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Feb 27, 2016 23:21
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CaptainRat posted:
I'm doing well on most of my goals, up to less than -$3K net worth so positive is in sight in 4 months or so at my current rate. Goal 4 slipped somewhat the last couple months, I ate like a monster, compensating for spending too much on food by spending less in other categories. It was nice to keep within my overall budget and not overspend the money coming in even if I wasn't keeping to my category goals as well. Student loan 1 of 4 should be paid off by the end of June at this rate.
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May 4, 2016 01:57
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CaptainRat posted:
I paid off the first loan of four mid-month and confirmed how the automated payments will work now that that's over (I wasn't sure if it was going to stay the same payment amount and just retarget the overage to other loans or if the amount that was directed to the now-paid loan would just disappear, and it's the latter), and I've recalculated what the targeted payment will be for the next loan. Our yearly trip to GenCon turned into a yearly trip to Origins, and I had saved for that; however, I had back problems that, up until about a week or so ago, precluded me from doing things like standing or walking while carrying a bag for longer than around 10 minutes, which would have seriously made Origins miserable, so instead of going to that I used the savings to pay off back-related medical expenses and put the rest back into my actual savings account, the consequence of which is that I'm ahead on that savings goal. I also have to adjust my budget slightly because my gym is closing and I need to find a new one; I'm going to sign up at my local Y that's literally right next door, but the monthly payment is going to be a little higher so I'll need to find that somewhere, so now that my savings goal is met I'll likely make up the difference from part of that automatic payment and use the remainder to further pay down the student loans. I'm probably a month away from positive net worth at this point (I might have technically gotten there, with a subsequent drop back into negative once the rent check cleared, if not for Brexit causing the markets to poo poo themselves, but that's fine, the primary method for increasing my net worth right now was going to be debt reduction and not asset growth anyway).
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Jun 30, 2016 23:07
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CaptainRat posted:
I hit positive net worth in July, and am still on track with paying down my debt. My boss is getting me involved in a new project at work that will hopefully lead to a title bump (and maaaaybe a raise? we'll see) so at the very least my job is secure. I did a cheat week during a deload because I was feeling run down from eating at a calorie deficit for so long; I had a little spike in weight and spent a little more on food than normal (covered from other budget categories) but once I went back to the lower calorie level I was at before I dropped down to my lowest weight in a long, long time.
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Aug 31, 2016 23:38
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