I just finished the January finances. I had 3 paychecks this month, which is 3 paychecks more than I had last month or the month before, etc. Anyway, we were able to fill our “non-emergency emergency fund” with $2,000. That is for things we should have seen coming, so they aren’t really emergencies, but we still need to have money for them, but we don’t normally put away money for them. Plus, I got the November family get-together paid for and I have the money for our upcoming April trip totally set aside! And I paid an extra $900 toward the mortgage on this place. (That wasn’t ALL from my paychecks, of course!) Next month we start paying extra towards another mortgage, as well.
There is no way to express what a great feeling this is, considering that only about 4 years ago, we thought we would never be able to retire because our finances were such a train wreck. And I don’t tell you this to brag or anything. I just don’t want any of you to worry about having to take care of us in our retirement because we were so out-of-control with our spending and finances.
The year of my not working was a good lesson in what it will be like to get by with less money coming in. But we were able to prioritize and make good decisions, so we still finished our emergency funds, even on much less income. That said, it is great to have more money coming in again!
That is, if I get hired on Tuesday. Only two applicants for the position. I know who the other person is and am not too worried, since he has no experience and I have 8 years experience in this exact senior center. But I know there is no guarantee, so I’ll be glad when it is all settled.
That is very cool! We have big plans to finish our Emergency Fund this year and put more in our car replacement fund. It will feel so good to finish that!
Sounds great! Sometimes I feel guilty that these things are so much easier to do when you don’t have kids to feed, clothe, etc. But, on the other hand, we have a lot less time to prepare for retirement, so we have to throw all the extra money that way. Basically that is the way we look at paying off the mortgages on the rentals, because we got them as a retirement money source, so it would be best if they were totally paid off by then. So, instead of putting extra into retirement funds, it goes toward the houses. Hopefully they will be paid off in 6 or 7 years. When that happens, the rent that isn’t needed for taxes will be actual income, and should be around $2,000 a month, so we’ll be able to retire somewhat! We hope to put off using social security until we are 70, because that way we’d get more each month.
The way you guys are going, you are going to have an awesome retirement fund some day!
Because finishing the Efund has been taking for.ev.er. , Nathan and I agreed that we shouldn’t put off putting away money in retirement any longer. We have some money in retirement accounts from when Nathan and I were working and contributing (it wasn’t a lot), but we put it on hold about 4 years ago. We’re back to putting some away again– just 3%. It’s better than nothing and Nathan’s employer matches up to 4%. Everything we are putting away now is matched and that’s a great feeling.
We’re hoping with our house drama behind us (soon?) we will have less money going out to emergencies.
Wow! That is really great. I’d been wondering where the house saga is. Still not settled, I take it. Some things just take sooooooo long.
I’m so proud of you two! I used to be really worried about what was going to happen when you both weren’t working anymore — and then you totally turned things around! You’re amazing! Justin and I are working on getting our debts paid off this year, and when I tell people that (typically because I’m declining to do something that they’ve mentioned that would cost more money than we’ve got available at the moment) and they’re understanding of it, I usually tell them that YOU are our inspiration in this because of how well you paid things off and got money saved up now.
We have about $10,000 in credit card debt left and we were able to put $1650 toward it yesterday. Our tax return, because of the move and some other reasons I don’t really understand, is going to give us another $2000 that we can throw at it above the money I’m already planning to put there. We intend to be out of credit card debt by the end of the year, at the latest, leaving us with just 2 very low interest school loans that we can pay off by February 2016.
That is our current plan! We’ve had to decline offers we really didn’t want to decline (like going up to visit with Nathan and his family in mid-January), but I think it’s going to be SO WORTH IT.
Love you lots!!!!
Kylene
You are right. It is like a huge weight being taken off your shoulders to have that debt gone. But, even more important, during the process you learn to take control of where your money goes. You develop much more of a sense of money being finite and you being in control of telling it where to go. I used to think that the idea of putting $2000 toward one thing (like a credit card) at one time was just asking for trouble, because you would probably need that money as soon as you had spent it. But life usually doesn’t work that way. Even when an emergency comes up, you have a month or two to respond to it, financially. (Unless it is car trouble, which is why it is good to have money saved for car emergencies.) So I am very glad to hear that you are learning the behaviors that are going to make your future very secure financially.
Don’t forget to start saving for retirement now. It probably seems a long ways away (and it is), but better to put a little money aside each month now and let compounding interest do all the work, rather than waiting until you are 50, like we did, when you have to pretty much put away most of the money you are going to need, because there is no time for compounding to work for you. Seriously, if you just put $100 a month in a Roth IRA starting now, you will be amazed at how much that will have grown to by the time you are 70! Even starting with $25 or $50 a month would be good, so you get in the habit, then you can add to it as things get paid off. It isn’t so much that you don’t have time – we thought we had plenty of time and we did. But your money just sitting there does so much of the work for you, if you start young enough.
Yeah, we are working on retirement. I have a 401(k) through work. They to a 1-to-1 match up to 3% and 50% match up to 6%, so I’m putting in the full 6% and it’s on a fairly aggressive plan, stocks-wise. And I might be putting 3% into a work Roth IRA account, too, but I can’t remember if that’s still active or not… I have to check that. We also have two IRAs set up that are with Edward Jones that we’re not funding right now, but as soon as we’re out of debt with credit cards, we’ll be putting into those.
Sounds like that is well under control. Good job!