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Just transferred $900 into my Roth, maxing it out for the first time ever. Gonna keep setting aside money for the rest of the year so I can dump it all into 2019 contributions and start the year off right. Plan is to throw most of my tax return in there as well and hopefully max Roth out before end of May, and then crank up my 401k contributions, which are at 10% right now to maybe like 20%. Received a big bill from my doctors office for some x-rays I had, but got it sorted with them and the insurance company and now only owe $9. Also, physical therapy has only been charging me ~$50 or so a visit after insurance, which is a lot less than I thought it would be, so that's good. Net worth mostly stagnant due to market, but whatevs. Still getting fatter. My workload has increased substantially due to a number of reasons and unfortunately that has meant longer days. Diet has suffered and finding time to exercise has been more difficult. It's also getting colder and darker so opportunities to run outside are waning. Need to start hitting the gym. Also time to start looking forward at goals for next year.
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Nov 2, 2018 13:57
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October update Goals: - - Meet company match on HSA On track - Meet company match on 401k On track - 50/month in daughter's 529 On track - 50/month in son's 529 On track - - Help my wife make money on Etsy She is quitting her part-time job at the end of November to devote more free time to making this a reality. I still think the actual goal won't be hit until early next year. - Maybes: - Finish cleaning up the basement and turn it into a play area. Not going crazy with finishing the basement, but getting carpet remnants and some cheap furniture will make it nicer Not going to happen. - Release another iPhone app. Actually monetize this one This is definitely not happening. -
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Nov 2, 2018 14:21
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Progress: 1) Increase NW by at least $50,000 Not on track. Market took a big hit. Probably with bonuses I will come close. Right now up by $11,300 over last year 2) 3) Another $24,000 in to housing downpayment fund Nothing yet, but I think we'll make it at end of year based on my bonuses etc. 4) Max wife IRA Will happen, she made enough money this year through work and school stipend. I don't think she's moved the money yet, though. 5) 6) adding the additional goals of running 6 mi/week in September, 8 mi/week in October, and 10 mi/week in November September success, october not success, november I will revise to 8 mi/week
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Nov 2, 2018 15:28
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I have a bit of a dilemma as to how I should be allocating my savings. I understand that typically the mantra is "pay down debt first once you get an emergency fund", and given a long time-horizon I absolutely understand the wisdom of that way of thinking. My current issue is that my wife and I are saving for a down payment on a house, and would like some thoughts on our particular situation as a gut-check as to how to proceed. We currently live in a rental house owned by a church who have stated in the past that they may want to sell it sometime in the future, and our lease is up in about 14 months. There's no guarantee they'll sell it then, and we may go month-to-month, but I'd say there is a greater than 50% chance they will sell when our lease is up. Ideally we'd like to have our down payment squared away by then to avoid having to incur the costs of moving again and to not have to roll the dice in finding a new rental. Housing in Seattle is $$$$$$$, so our down payment is going to have to be pretty hefty ($75k+ at least to even scratch 12%, ideally I'd like to get to $100k but I'm not sure we'll have time). Both our professional and personal lives are very tied to the central city so moving north or south where it's cheaper is out of the question for the purposes of this analysis. We're currently saving around 17% of our gross income a month and have around $20k saved. By my math we can get to about $75k give or take by the time our lease is up if we continue at our current rate of saving from our paychecks, and saving 100% of my bonuses and our tax returns. The big question is regarding our credit card debt. We don't have tons relative to our income, about $8k total between the two of us. We're currently paying $475/mo to reduce our balance, though because we mainly use them around the holidays so as not to impair our liquidity/savings rate, the balance will probably not drop considerably by the end of the year on a net basis. If we had another couple years to save for a down payment I'd say we should just use our savings to zero out our CC balances rather than pay interest, but we can't use CCs to help with the down payment so does it make sense to violate the "pay down debt first" rule in this time-limited case? Just from a purely mathematical standpoint, we're paying $475/mo to our cards, and if we paid all $8k off it would take 17 months to save that money back if we didn't have the CC payment, so it seems like keeping on our current path nets us more savings at the end of our lease. Interest is a waste of money though, so I'm torn. Thoughts? tl;dr do we pay off our credit cards and hamper our down payment savings or let it ride and get to home ownership before our lease is up? Now that I'm typing this out it seems like paying off the cards and saving the cc payment still seems like the better choice as a few grand isn't going to make or break a down payment...
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Nov 3, 2018 00:29
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:The end of October!!!
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Nov 3, 2018 00:41
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himajinga posted:
Personally I would pay it off now and save on the interest. That's gonna be an extra couple hundred a month saved I would imagine. You could also try opening a new card with 0% intro APR and pay down quicker by saving on interest that way, just make sure to get it paid off before the introductory period is over. How much interest do you pay each month?
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Nov 3, 2018 00:59
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BAE OF PIGS posted:Personally I would pay it off now and save on the interest. That's gonna be an extra couple hundred a month saved I would imagine. Not certain, I could check, but back of the napkin probably 15% avg APR on $8k is in the ballpark of $100/mo at the current balance. I know that over the long run it'll save us probably a grand in interest which is why it's tempting to pay it off outright, but in liquid cash terms for the down payment it's basically net negative by ~$1350 at the end of 14 months to pay off the CCs up front. Like I say though, $1300 on $75k is basically a rounding error so I may have answered my own question. Thanks for listening to me talk it out anyway 
himajinga fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Nov 3, 2018 |
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Nov 3, 2018 01:11
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Pay the credit cards, amigo. Especially if you're carrying a balance on them.
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Nov 3, 2018 13:22
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moana posted:Hold up, you got a baby cooking up?!? Congrats dude! thanks moana we couldn't be more excited and our first thinks she's "very ready" to be a big sister lol she's got no idea what she's in for.
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Nov 3, 2018 13:23
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Happiness Commando posted:2018 Goals: 2018 is pretty much over, so I'll check in. I started a new job with a startup that I thought was pretty dreamy, but they let me go after three months of no funding and no clients. I got a new job within a month that is actually and legitimately dreamy, and even better, has given me access to a 401k for the first time. The match is poo poo - 25% on 6% with a three year vest - but the tax advantaged space is pretty amazing. Also there are bonuses and profit sharing plans (admittedly with a five year vest, but still). I had almost no income in 2017 for some GWL reasons, so 2018 involved maxing out two years worth of IRAs, one 401k and one HSA, plus some extra in a taxable brokerage account. When my HSA is maxed out at the end of this month, I will have socked away just under 42% of my gross income - $35500. I should have most if not all of next year's IRA deposit saved up and ready to go by January 1st. Im hoping to break 50% savings in 2019. Conservative estimates of future savings with no career growth indicate I only have to work for another 12 years or so - not short but definitely not long. Life happens and all that, but I'm feeling like I absolutely won the gently caress out of this year. I'm still thinking about putting some small bits of money into a 529 plan next year, even though I have no concrete plans for future education. It seems like a wise hedge, given how well I feel I'm doing, and I will accept any feedback you all want to suggest
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Nov 3, 2018 16:10
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himajinga posted:We're currently saving around 17% of our gross income a month and have around $20k saved. By my math we can get to about $75k give or take by the time our lease is up if we continue at our current rate of saving from our paychecks, and saving 100% of my bonuses and our tax returns. hold up, i'm trying to understand this. what is your combined gross income? in 14 months you plan to increase your savings for a downpayment by $55K. this means on average saving just under $4K/mo. You are claiming that this represents 17% of your gross income, but there's a chunk that comes from tax returns and bonuses. OK. assuming that, say, half of that $4k/mo contribution is coming from your direct monthly gross income, when I do some rear end backwards math, I get that your monthly income is around $12K now i recognize that this is based on a fairly swaggy assumption about your planned contributions to your downpayment but if you are grossing $12K/mo what the gently caress are you doing with $8,000 in credit card debt and how did you get in that position in the first place?
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Nov 4, 2018 16:10
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OctGuest2553 posted:1) Save 24k saved Met monthly contribution but still a couple g's behind for the year. Probably won't make it in Nov due to some planned above-average spending (kid stuff, house stuff, hobby stuff we're willing to splurge on)
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Nov 8, 2018 02:41
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We're going to come out of this year having accomplished like a 37% gross savings rate. Not too shabbeh. Can't wait til the debt's gone and THAT money can go in this direction also.
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Nov 8, 2018 13:55
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OK, so here goes. I just got a low five figure inheritance from my mom passing. I work a high-paying contracting job with zilch benefits, then take night class twice a week, so I don't have much time at all to do much of anything. I live in NYC, the home of overpriced... everything. I'm leaning towards saving up the 10% down-payment to buy a place (50K I can easily save) by the time my lease is up in late Oct 2019. I am sick and tired of flushing money down the toilet renting. ...But then I remember I have some long forgotten 401k with maybe 1400 in it. That's it. I cashed out one from last year because it was either that or starve and get evicted. I do want to retire some day... So I'm open to any and all advice. I'm an IT dorko, I major in political science, because those are what I love, I'm 35, and my mom's passing made me realize I've pretty majorly hosed up my saving and planning for the future and time has that habit of moving inexorably forward. I've just lived day by day. I've also got a "Rainy Day" account with about 20K in it in savings. I just keep it there because I've walked off the job more than once, emergency medical bills, etc. So long story, I've got about... 30K to do with as I see fit. One week's net pay covers about.... 90ish percent of bills, maybe 95. My apologies if I'm babbling, I already know this job I started two months ago won't last much longer due to the "So that's why this city has so many bars" poo poo I see and my mom's passing kinda was a steel-toed boot to the stomach for me. 
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Nov 8, 2018 20:47
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First off very sorry about your mother's passing. Don't make any decisions about the money until you have had some time to grieve, process, and are in a state of mine to make a considered unemotional decision about it. Second, if I were you in apparently constant anticipation of losing your contracting gig, I would probably keep an absolute minimum of 6 months of rent and expenses in high-yield savings and never consider dipping below that amount, even for a down payment on a house, and perhaps especially for a downpayment on a house.
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Nov 8, 2018 20:55
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CHEF!!! posted:OK, so here goes. As far as housing goes, renting is not "flushing money down the toilet." Rent is the most amount of money you have to pay to live somewhere. A mortgage is the least amount of money you have to pay to live somewhere. If you feel a little behind on saving and planning for the future, buying a house - an incredibly complicated and expensive process which results in an incredibly complicated and expensive asset to maintain - should not be your next step. In the near-term, focus on continuing to save, making a budget so you have a handle on your finances, calculate out how much you need to save to have a stable retirement, get your systems in place to achieve that savings, and then move onto looking at buying a house (if you decide it's something you really want to do). There are a lot of little things that are worth mapping out first before you get to that one.
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Nov 8, 2018 21:01
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Echoing Hoodwinker here, it is definitely not "throwing money away" to rent. If you truly want to buy a place (meaning you can't move away for 5+ years, and it doesn't sound like you're a big NYC fan) then you need to start saving money like crazy, especially given that you're way, way, way behind on retirement saving. It sounds like you make enough money that you can catch up (how much is "high paying"?) but you need to, after taking a good amount of time to process your recent loss, figure out what your real priorities are. Also, start your own thread or post in newbie questions or something, this one doesn't get a lot of traction outside the first of the month and everyone's really only posting about themselves
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Nov 8, 2018 23:02
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I’m a bit late to join in for 2018, but I figure I might as well get started in preparation for next year. I posted a bit in the retirement planning and student loan threads some time ago asking for advice, and since then I’ve fired my financial planner, taken charge of our retirement, student loans, and general financial management myself. We’re 37 and 38, to give a context to the retirement saving situation. My wife is a physician in a field with high burnout risk, and she’s been depressed for a while. As a result my overarching goals are to reduce our liabilities as much as possible while also trying to plan retirement. We’ve got a fair amount of student loan debt from medical school as well as two homes we’re paying on, the old one we’re renting at a slight loss to relatives. I’m a scientist and make a good income as well, with good benefits. Overall Goals: 1. Pay off Wife’s student loans Status: In the last twelve months, since I started actively targeting this we’ve paid down the balance from 122k to 84k. We presently owe 54k in 3.25% interest loans and 30k at 6.55%. My goal is to eliminate the 6.55% loans in 6 months, paying 5k extra each month to achieve that. Once this is done we’ll have a fixed 1200/month payment for the remaining 50k, which should pay off in four or five years. Whether we pay it off faster depends on the burnout situation. 2. Maximize 401k and IRA contributions. Almost done. The 401ks have been maximized (at 18500) for years for both of us, but I just started the IRAs two months ago. Because we’re over the limit I’m using a backdoor Roth for each of us. One of the good things our financial planner did was encourage my wife to convert her 30k residency IRA to a Roth. However, he neglected to tell her about the tax implications, which led to a fun April tax bill a few years ago, since it happened immediately after we bought our house. We currently have 130k and 70k in our 401Ks and 34000/4000 in our IRAs. 3. Emergency Fund: Because of the large liabilities we have from two homes + loans, I’m targeting an emergency fund balance of 50k. Our fixed monthly liabilities should drop to 6-7000 in six months, so I feel comfortable with that amount in a low risk (VMMXX) account. We’re at 34000 now and I’m adding 1500/month. 4. Investment Fund: I put 10k into VTSAX as a starting taxable brokerage fund a few months ago. It doesn’t really make sense to do this while also paying off loans, but I viewed it as another ancillary source of emergency money. I’m not adding more to it until the loans and emergency fund are satisfied, but after that I want this to be the primary spot for additional income to go, since I have concerns about the sustainability of our income long term. 5. Mortgages: Our first house was bought shortly after we had our first child, and it was near my Wife’s family. Unfortunately, it’s in a bad school district and the house is now worth less than we paid for it. We’re renting it, but it’s losing a few hundred/month. Long term we’ll sell it at a loss, but we have another year of renting for it to potentially be tax-advantageous to do so. Our primary home has PMI, so my last real goal is paying down enough extra to remove the PMI and save a few hundred/month. I’ll switch to a biweekly payment scheme for both houses at some point too, since my wife and I are both paid biweekly and it will be advantageous long term. Velius fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Nov 9, 2018 |
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Nov 9, 2018 17:03
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It sounds like your priorities are reasonable and you are taking the correct steps to take control of your situation. Good luck with your wife's work situation, I hope she's able to strike a balance and find something that is sustainable long-term. I totally understand how bad it must suck to grind through medical school and residency and worry about burning out after all of that. With respect to the student loans, luckily you are now almost out of your relatively high-interest debt, but you no doubt cost yourself thousands of dollars in interest over the last several years by not seeking to refinance medical school loans at historic low interest rates. With regards to the mortgage situation, are you really losing money on the rental after mortgage principal or are you simply in a negative cash flow? If you have the opportunity to eliminate expensive PMI that may change your calculus of keeping the home and that should be one of your next goals. You can calculate the effective interest rate of PMI by dividing the payment by the amount of principal you would have to pay down to eliminate it. I would not be surprised if it was effectively more than 10% if you are in the 80 to 90% LTV range and therefore a high priority to pay down.
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Nov 9, 2018 17:53
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:hold up, i'm trying to understand this. what is your combined gross income? in 14 months you plan to increase your savings for a downpayment by $55K. this means on average saving just under $4K/mo. You are claiming that this represents 17% of your gross income, but there's a chunk that comes from tax returns and bonuses. OK. assuming that, say, half of that $4k/mo contribution is coming from your direct monthly gross income, when I do some rear end backwards math, I get that your monthly income is around $12K Long story short, we got married and paid for it all ourselves out of savings, not counting some cash gifts for the honeymoon etc and then moved right when we got back with all the expenses that entails, and then like a month after we moved I got laid off because my company's Seattle office closed. I had just finished my CFA and so was at a turning point in my career and wanted to hold out for the position I really wanted so getting a job took ~6 months and Seattle is hella expensive (rent+WSG+heat+internet alone is $2300/mo), we both have student loans, etc. etc. You are correct that we're saving like $2000/mo, first thing we wanted to focus on was rebuilding our emergency fund, which is why we let the cards ride, which may not have been the right order of operations but here we are. I think we'll just pay off our cards first and hope the impending recession craters home prices again which should hopefully convince our landlords to not sell and will allow us to swoop in and buy the dip.
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Nov 9, 2018 19:09
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BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:It sounds like your priorities are reasonable and you are taking the correct steps to take control of your situation. Good luck with your wife's work situation, I hope she's able to strike a balance and find something that is sustainable long-term. I totally understand how bad it must suck to grind through medical school and residency and worry about burning out after all of that. You’re not wrong about the student loan interest. It doesn’t seem likely to be worthwhile at present, though, since I would need to consolidate the 3.25s up and the higher rate stuff will be gone soon. Regarding the mortgages, the PMI is on my primary residence, not the rental. The rental is $1400/month for the mortgage including tax and interest, and we’re getting $800 from a cousin who is renting it. The cousin is finishing nursing school soon at which point we will be raising the rent to cover the mortgage in full. I’d still like to ditch the property medium term because I’m not sure they’ll stay indefinitely. They’re on my wife’s side or I’d be more comfortable checking in on their long term plans. Maybe during the holidays I can catch up. For our primary residence PMI is 142.50/month. We’d need to pay 43k to get to 80% principal balance relative to the closing price/appraised value, so that’s looking like a ~4% interest rate, or slightly worse than the mortgage alone. Am I correct in considering this as additional interest to the 3.625% I’m paying for that 43k already, so really it should be treated as a 7.625% rate? If so then clearly that should be prioritized once the student loan debt is gone, probably above a taxable brokerage account. Velius fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Nov 9, 2018 |
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Nov 9, 2018 19:46
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himajinga posted:Long story short, we got married and paid for it all ourselves out of savings, not counting some cash gifts for the honeymoon etc and then moved right when we got back with all the expenses that entails, and then like a month after we moved I got laid off because my company's Seattle office closed. I had just finished my CFA and so was at a turning point in my career and wanted to hold out for the position I really wanted so getting a job took ~6 months and Seattle is hella expensive (rent+WSG+heat+internet alone is $2300/mo), we both have student loans, etc. etc. You are correct that we're saving like $2000/mo, first thing we wanted to focus on was rebuilding our emergency fund, which is why we let the cards ride, which may not have been the right order of operations but here we are. word sounds good pay off those cards ASAP, i'm a pretty firm believer that if you're carrying any consumer debt that you are not in a position to buy a house
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Nov 9, 2018 22:16
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:word sounds good Cool, thanks.
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Nov 9, 2018 22:28
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After you’ve bought the house, of course, fill your boots.
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Nov 10, 2018 03:58
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Guest2553 posted:2) Get recommended and selected for a promotion at work   
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Nov 20, 2018 04:06
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Congrats!!!
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Nov 20, 2018 05:26
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Way to go!
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Nov 21, 2018 01:39
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Thanks! It won't be effective until next year, but when it does it'll be an immediate 7% pay bump (increasing to 20%) and a probable jump from junior to middle management in a field I like. While I'm posting, might as well mention that I won't make savings goal this month. We recently figured out that our bed is exacerbating my wife's back issues, so we're getting a new mattress. Not a necessity, strictly speaking, but the one-off 1k price tag is worth the increased quality of life. Which is more than I can say for the hunting rifle I've been eyeing...
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Nov 21, 2018 22:33
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November -  Raise net worth from 101k to 134k: $126.7k Increase house fund from 11.2k to 20.7k: $22.3k SURPASSED! Contribute $2.6k to Roth IRA: $2420 (On track!) One more paycheck after this. Just tossing as much into the house fund as I can.
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Nov 28, 2018 06:12
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November update. No real changes. Picking up some holiday shifts to grind out goal $$$.BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:Long time reader, first year poster. Editing a little bit to clarify and operationalize some items. Thank you to all posters in these annual threads as well as the rest of this sub for sharing your goals and successes. I have in many ways patterned my goals and financial life off of the advice and plans set forth in these threads.
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Dec 1, 2018 15:06
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November update Goals: - - Meet company match on HSA On track - Meet company match on 401k On track - 50/month in daughter's 529 On track - 50/month in son's 529 On track - - Help my wife make money on Etsy She quit her job, and now has 3 days a week completely free from kids and work. December is crazy, though, so I still think the actual goal won't be hit until early next year. - Maybes: - Finish cleaning up the basement and turn it into a play area. Not going crazy with finishing the basement, but getting carpet remnants and some cheap furniture will make it nicer Not going to happen. - Release another iPhone app. Actually monetize this one This is definitely not happening. -
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Dec 1, 2018 18:17
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Current Liabilities - /bragging, but seriously we are incredibly grateful to have experienced so much amazing good fortune in the past 24 months. I'm incredibly indebted to many, many of you here in BFC for helping me and my family begin to think like adults about finances, and I try to pay it forward as much as possible with my colleagues, friends and family. I'm looking forward to formulating new goals for next year. I liked the format of crafting "SMART" goals as New Years Resolutions, and by and large it has really helped me get what I wanted to accomplish, accomplished. To another year as good as this one. EAT FASTER!!!!!! fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Dec 3, 2018 |
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Dec 3, 2018 20:03
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cars are your bane, man, the thing you always gently caress up is the cars
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Dec 3, 2018 20:33
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Congrats on the bebe. What kind of car?
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Dec 3, 2018 21:16
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AndrewP posted:Congrats on the bebe. What kind of car? Volvo XC60 T8 plug-in hybrid. KGJ specifically told me not to. 
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Dec 3, 2018 21:33
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goteborg's chinese overlords thank you    you complained incessantly about how much you were paying on the XC90 so why not do it again??
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Dec 3, 2018 21:57
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Volvo XC60 T8 plug-in hybrid. KGJ specifically told me not to. I agree with him only because it's not the the new V60 wagon  Still nice though. I've been online-window shopping a new car for months but so far have successfully kept myself from actually going to a dealer.
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Dec 3, 2018 22:12
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Hey I also threw my Financial Goals out of whack by buying a Volvo! No regrets, I’m loving my V60.
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Dec 4, 2018 13:10
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Financial goals are thrown completely out of whack (in a good way).. thanks grandma, I really miss you. 
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Dec 4, 2018 13:47
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| # ? May 8, 2024 20:27 |
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Been a while since I updated.DJCobol posted:
I'll start a new thread for 2019 planning in a few days.
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Dec 4, 2018 13:48
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