Women in Red SAVERS 2019

[Deleted]

Nov 30, 2019 14:23:48 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

Nov 30, 2019 13:15:21 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Your knowledge of the system and how to do the most with the least is so impressive, and you've helped me out in very material ways on a number of occasions. And I thank you!

It's been mostly out of necessity.  I'm not sure I would have been so motivated otherwise. 

I must say, I'm getting tired though.  I'm beginning to realize I'm never going to actually "win" at this life thing and have the lifestyle of my parents, and that's been bringing me down a bit lately.  The whole "work hard and be frugal" stuff only gets you so far.  

Probably not the best motivational speech to put on the savers thread!  

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Dec 1, 2019 10:32:23 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Nov 30, 2019 14:23:48 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

Your knowledge of the system and how to do the most with the least is so impressive, and you've helped me out in very material ways on a number of occasions. And I thank you!

It's been mostly out of necessity.  I'm not sure I would have been so motivated otherwise. 

I must say, I'm getting tired though.  I'm beginning to realize I'm never going to actually "win" at this life thing and have the lifestyle of my parents, and that's been bringing me down a bit lately.  The whole "work hard and be frugal" stuff only gets you so far.  

Probably not the best motivational speech to put on the savers thread!  

I am right there with you! I have worked so hard and feel like I have relatively little to show for it at 55. 

I really tried to save a lot in 401k and Roth in earlier years, I don't think I could have made those sacrifices if I didn't think I was going to get to a much better financial position in the future, but somehow, I think I missed that boat. 55, and not even the first million banked. I'm at my peak earning - but who knows how long that will last? I think 40's is most peoples peak decade? 

I do think I can keep this going for at least another 5 years! Maybe! After the big eat, I've spent the entire weekend working a on Rukh, Inc. project. There was a lot of stress with it as I wasn't able to parse the data and it took me a long time - maybe 10 hours - to get it right before I could start the analysis part.

I super need this money for wiggle room, Christmas, and savings before 2019 closes, but all this work is adding up, and looking back I see where the zig instead of the zag would have me financially independent by now.  I know everyone has those events by the time they get to 50's, but it is surely wearing on me now.

15-20 years ago, my goal was 3m invested, a paid off home, and then buying a brand new car right before retirement. I thought that was attainable. Now it is pie in the sky, and I'm not sure where I went wrong!

Well - I have some ideas! I join you on the floor!

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Just adding:

Hopefully - a cautionary tale for you youngsters on the thread!!

Keep saving! Save more! Invest aggressively!

[azucena]

Too lazy to go back and find my last post. Paycheck update deposited $1559 to get to $23,484. Probably up and down a bit since the last posting, work has been busy so I haven't been monitoring as closely.  Projected out to yearend and we can just make our goal if we don't overspend on Christmas which is probably a good goal to have too.  Thinking that $25k is the right goal for next year as well as our circumstances should be the same and it felt like enough of a stretch to keep spending in check.

Azucena 12/2/19 $23,484 of $25,000 goal (94%)

[snapdragon]

Well I should have things handled later this week. Money is going to be flowing out soon and I am excited to see what the changes in the kitchen will do to my contentment in the future. Actually money is already starting to go but it is not in a account that is on my list.   

I ordered the lighting for the kitchen and dining room along with 2 lamps for my bedroom. I have short lamps and to raise it higher I have a HUGE book of Shakespeare under it and it is taking up way too much room on the nightstand.  I have been living with this for the last 10+ years. I decided that getting taller lamps would really help me increase my enjoyment. So the old lamps will be going and the book will be moved to a bookshelf and I will be able to enjoy the cleared area in my bedroom. 

[seriousthistime]

I hope your changes in the kitchen add a lot to your contentment at home, snapdragon.  I had my shower redone last summer and it was pricey but worth it.  I still get a "pop" when I get into the shower. 

And I also replaced my shorter bedroom lamps with some taller ones.  The others were too short to facilitate reading in bed. 

[steph08]

Decent update this month, but it should have been bigger as it was an extra paycheck month. However, you know, life. 


UPDATE: steph08 12/2/2019 $7,319.36 7/31/2019 $5,431.10

Savings	Start	Previous	Current	Difference	Goal	Percentage Saved
Emergency Fund	3,664.15	4,287.66	5,490.45	1,202.79	$10,000.00	54.90%
DD1 529 Payback	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	$2,700.00	0.00%
DD2 529 Payback	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	$2,700.00	0.00%
DD1 Savings	1,766.95	1,827.72	1,828.91	1.19	$2,500.00	73.16%
DD2 Savings	1,195.06	1,253.96	1,254.78	0.82	$1,500.00	83.65%
TOTAL	5,431.10	6,115.38	7,319.36	1,204.80	$19,400.00

Saved this update $1,204.80

Total Saved $7,319.36

Total Percentage Saved 37.73%

[shanendoah]

shanendoah [Q4] $1450 11/20/19 (Goal: $1,800 12/31/2019)
[Q3] $1,020 9/24/2019 (Goal: $2,020 9/30/2019)
[Q2]: $3,010 6/25/2019 (Goal: $3,020 6/30/2019)
[Q1]: $8,994 3/26/2019 (Goal: $300 3/31/2019)

Okay, so after C's first paycheck, I got a little too excited and overambitious. And I forgot things like, as a part-time employee, he does not get holiday pay, so his paycheck for the second half of November was $150 less than his paycheck for the first half. And his first December paycheck will also be short a couple of days because it is a small company and their inventory did not arrive when it was supposed to, so they haven't had work for the warehouse associates to do. This means C went home early on Monday and didn't work yesterday. He doesn't work Wednesdays, so the fact that they are closed today won't make a difference, but there is not even a guarantee they will have their inventory/supplies in by tomorrow.
Anyway, because of this, and because of end of year giving/gifts, I went ahead and adjusted my goal down by one full paycheck for C ($750). I've also readjusted paycheck and savings expectations for January, just in case they keep being really slow.

[teachermom]

Update:

My savings total overall looks great but ending balances....not so good. That's ok. That's why I saved the money.....to eventually be spent. Just has all happened quickly so my account just keeps going down. I believe all my larger purchases are done except ordering and paying for my Corian counter tops. That will be done this month. I will probably start the new year at zero and transfer everything I can to my student loans and start fresh in January.

Teachermom $50,922.72 12/4/2019 ($18,458.28 1/1/2019, Goal $107,000)

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and is blessed in the New Year! Enjoy your family!

Teachermom

[seriousthistime]

Updates

Stars	Name	Amt. Saved	Goal	% Saved	Roses	Smilies
	azucena	$23,484	$25,000	94.0%
	bobosensei	$2,008	$18,750	10.7%
	chiver78	$216	$910	23.7%
	debthaven (S)	1,713€	1,713€	100%
	debthaven (K)	8,100€	10,000€	81%
	finnime [1]	$9,660	$24,500	39.0%
	finnime [2]	$3,000	$5,000	60.0%
	forwardwego	$21,750	$24,000	90.6%
	kindthatjingles	$1,000	$3,500	28.6%
	minnesotapaintlady	$33,109	$40,000	82.8%
	nikiz628	$3,695	$7,300	50.6%
	paynointerest	$66,700	$65,400	102.0%
	plugginaway22	$45,440	$36,000	126.2%
	Rukh O'Rorke	$276	$20,000	1.4%
	Saving4Norway	$18,800	$18,101	103.9%
	Saving4Norway [2]	$4,250	$4,000	106.3%
	sealy	$1,000	$25,000	4.0%
	seriousthistime	$42,373	$42,000	100.9%
	shanendoah [Q1]	$8,994	$300	2998.0%
	shanendoah [Q2]	$3,010	$3,020	99.7%
	shanendoah [Q3]	$1,020	$2,020	50.5%
	shanendoah [Q4]	$1,450	$1,800	80.6%
	snapdragon	$16,289	$16,500	98.7%
	steph08	$7,319	$19,400	37.7%
	teachermom	$50,923	$107,000	47.6%
	TheHaitian	$34,835	$60,000	58.1%
	tobinikui	$46,556	$105,658	44.1%
	trimatty471	$14,424	$14,424	100.0%
	trimatty471 [2]	$4,097	$4,355	94.1%

I think I have this right, finally, after losing the chart twice.  Let me know if you see any problems with your numbers, roses, stars, and smilies. 

[shanendoah]

Apr 26, 2019 12:58:03 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

Goal	Goal Date	Goal Amount	Saved	% Saved	Months until Goal	Amount needed/month
General Savings	July 2019	$2,500	$2,320.50	92.82%	2	$89.75
Car	January 2020	$6,000	$0	0%	8	$750.00
Pop Tart Launch	August 2022	$10,000	$500	5%	40	$237.50
Canary Islands	August 2028	$30,000	$500	1.67%	113	$261.06

The General Savings is my top priority, and if I spend money out of that, it will be replaced instantly. After that is the car fund. Our car is 12 years old with close to 200k miles on it (diesel engine). It needs some body work. We had to replace the cam shaft last summer. The $6k should cover any one specific thing that needs to be fixed. If there is something wrong that costs more than $6k, we should be considering a new car. And then the $6k will be used for a down payment. We're still paying off the cam shaft (that's a big part of the debt on the 0% card that will be paid off in October), but I'd like to have that $6k fully funded by the end of this year. So that will be the primary target of most of my savings once I get the general savings to $2,500 next month.
The other two goals are long term goals. I've got lots of time to meet them, but the more money I get in them early, the less I have to try and find later, and I know I have the goals, so I might as well track them. I am certain that between now and each of those goal dates, other savings goals will come into the mix, but that's okay. Those can be added.
Right now, this puts me at needing to put $1340 in savings each month in order to meet goals. Obviously, that's more than the $800 in my budget. But, I've got the plan of $2k coming into savings when I get my retainer back, and that will cover a third of the car savings and chance those numbers pretty drastically. 

I posted this chart and plan back at the end of April. I haven't updated it since then. I figured now that we're almost at year end, I should post the updated chart. It has changed a bit, since we made some decisions during the year that I did not know were coming when I made the first chart/plan. But that's okay.
Here is what the chart looks like at the end of the year.

Goal	Goal Date	Goal Amount	Saved	% Saved	Months to Goal	Amount Needed/ Month
General Savings	July 2019	$2,500	$2,500	100%	-	$0
Car	January 2023	$30,000	$1,027	3.42%	37	$775
Pop Tart Launch	August 2022	$10,000	$510	5.1%	32	$294
Canary Islands	August 2028	$30,000	$500	1.67%	105	$280
Charitable Endowment	July 2020	$2,500	$2,500	100%	7	$0

Obviously I am not going to have $6k in the Car account by January 2020, which was the original goal, but, I have also spent $2,000 from the car account on the car (annual insurance payment and body work). I have also spend money from the general savings account, and that then gets replaced immediately. We also decided to do the charitable endowment, and I am just crediting the full amount as already being in savings, in case I decide to stop doing monthly payment and just pay it all at once.
These number say that from now forward, I will need about $1,349/month to go into savings. There should be about $750 more going into savings this year, with a plan of $1,580 going in each month next year. In addition, next year will add a new line of a ROTH IRA for C, which we should be able to fully fund at $6k, so there will be $500/month going toward that. This is pretty aggressive, but most of it will be coming from his income (about $1,500/month).
There also the note that we started this year with less than $1k in savings, and we will end it with over $7k in savings.

[TheHaitian]

I will be updating before the end of this month promise!

At least my savings abilities surpassed my “lowering” spending abilities

[teachermom]

Welp.....all my extra money for this year....just went to plane tickets....students loans will have to wait. Please keep my boyfriends family in your prayers. His mom has cancer and it has spread throughout her body....prognosis is 2 to 4 weeks. Making a trip to see her this next week while she is still coherent and budgeting for the next trip.

Teachermom

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Very sorry to hear this, teachermom. Best thought to you, boyfriend, and his family - and especially his mom, that her final time is as good as can be.

[nikiz628]

Safe travels, teachermom. Prayers for your BF's mother. 

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Dec 4, 2019 21:01:23 GMT -5 seriousthistime said:

Updates

Stars	Name	Amt. Saved	Goal	% Saved	Roses	Smilies
	azucena	$23,484	$25,000	94.0%
	bobosensei	$2,008	$18,750	10.7%
	chiver78	$216	$910	23.7%
	debthaven (S)	1,713€	1,713€	100%
	debthaven (K)	8,100€	10,000€	81%
	finnime [1]	$9,660	$24,500	39.0%
	finnime [2]	$3,000	$5,000	60.0%
	forwardwego	$21,750	$24,000	90.6%
	kindthatjingles	$1,000	$3,500	28.6%
	minnesotapaintlady	$33,109	$40,000	82.8%
	nikiz628	$3,695	$7,300	50.6%
	paynointerest	$66,700	$65,400	102.0%
	plugginaway22	$45,440	$36,000	126.2%
	Rukh O'Rorke	$276	$20,000	1.4%
	Saving4Norway	$18,800	$18,101	103.9%
	Saving4Norway [2]	$4,250	$4,000	106.3%
	sealy	$1,000	$25,000	4.0%
	seriousthistime	$42,373	$42,000	100.9%
	shanendoah [Q1]	$8,994	$300	2998.0%
	shanendoah [Q2]	$3,010	$3,020	99.7%
	shanendoah [Q3]	$1,020	$2,020	50.5%
	shanendoah [Q4]	$1,450	$1,800	80.6%
	snapdragon	$16,289	$16,500	98.7%
	steph08	$7,319	$19,400	37.7%
	teachermom	$50,923	$107,000	47.6%
	TheHaitian	$34,835	$60,000	58.1%
	tobinikui	$46,556	$105,658	44.1%
	trimatty471	$14,424	$14,424	100.0%
	trimatty471 [2]	$4,097	$4,355	94.1%

I think I have this right, finally, after losing the chart twice.  Let me know if you see any problems with your numbers, roses, stars, and smilies. 

needed some.....adjustments....

[forwardwego]

November Shoutouts Part 1 of 2:


snapdragon hey there! Congratulations on being at Sweet $16K+! I agree with those who encouraged you to give yourself credit for saving up the property tax money. Just because the taxing authorities pick your pocket as soon as you've filled it doesn't mean you didn't accomplish the goal  . I'm very happy that you treated yourself to the Victoria BC getaway, and looking forward to the results you get with the home improvements. New lighting can be a real transformation. You may very well fall more in love with your home. What's the outlook on your Lasik surgery?


Rukh O'Rorke A temporary reduction (on paper) is not fun feeling, but it should come back around. It seems you keep yourself on a tight budget with a keen eye on retirement. You are definitely a Saver at heart. Congrats on getting the job/bid for your RI Company. It sounds like the bidding process is mentally tough. I think a lot of us struggle not to undersell ourselves and need to continue working on that and supporting each other to believe in our worth. Looking forward to your plans and progress in 2020. 

minnesotapaintlady Kudos on growing your savings another $2777 & achieving nearly 83%!! Thanks for sharing your experience and perspective on growing retirement savings too!  


shanendoah Nice work with $1450 and 80.6% of Q4 goal! You set a good example of tweaking your plan to challenge yourself, while also keeping things realistic. I'm with you, excited to start mapping 2020 savings 

plugginaway22 Excellent work tucking that unexpected bonus into savings, and earning as a buddy for your . 


seriousthistime Woohoo so happy to see you snag that dancing banana, and your 8th and 9th roses! Thanks for sharing your saving experience...Buying out your XH because the savings were so low, and then step-by-step building toward a retirement that provides for living your life, not just existing. I appreciate you too, and the WIR Savers. I feel supported and understood here and that motivates me. I agree also that thinking about savings leads to savings that actually happen! That is why we find ourselves as WIR Savers getting so excited about the planning stage. We aren't afraid to dream, and believe. 

nikiz628 Good job getting yourselves started on retirement savings. You've come a along ways in your time as a racer and saver. I think you will soon be a strong retirement saver too. You and your DH have done a considerable amount of shifting and reorganizing this year, I'm looking forward to seeing your 2020 goals, watching you get the mastery of the new pay periods, and being excited about your retirement savings.  

[forwardwego]

November Shoutouts Part 2 of 2:

teachermom Congratulations on nearly $51K saved, and on planning and tracking so that it goes where you want it to go. I'm sorry that your BF's mother's health is failing, and sad for all who are close to her. I am glad you had the ability to shift your finances and manage this very important trip to see her. Thinking of you. 

paynointerest Nice work scoring your dancing banana with 102% of your enhanced goal. Thank you for sharing about your wisdoms gained from your father on money & saving. Your financial interest, and his fostering of that interest have really paid off. Thanks for your candor regarding things you wish you'd done differently. I am tempted to kick myself too for some of my past financial moves, but instead we learn to do better with the next opportunity, and share and learn from each other. 

azucena Good job at 94% to goal, with 100% on the horizon. 

Saving4Norway   Nice work saving $4250 to achieve 106% of your second goal! The Sons of Norway Convention sounds like a really good and memorable opportunity. 

steph08   Good work saving over $1200, and breaking into the $6K range!

trimatty471   Hey! How's it going? Hoping you have at least $258 up your sleeve to nail down your 2nd goal and earn another banana!

If you had a November update and you've been overlooked in the Shoutouts, please message me. Thanks!

[seriousthistime]

Rukh O'Rorke, your changes  are unorthodox, but I suspect they reflect how you feel.  Hopefully you'll feel   soon. 

[snapdragon]

Dec 7, 2019 11:43:40 GMT -5 forwardwego said:

snapdragon hey there! Congratulations on being at Sweet $16K+! I agree with those who encouraged you to give yourself credit for saving up the property tax money. Just because the taxing authorities pick your pocket as soon as you've filled it doesn't mean you didn't accomplish the goal  . I'm very happy that you treated yourself to the Victoria BC getaway, and looking forward to the results you get with the home improvements. New lighting can be a real transformation. You may very well fall more in love with your home. What's the outlook on your Lasik surgery?

Lasik is on hold due to my eyes still adjusting and changing the last few checkups -- But I now have the money to be able to pay for everything when it does happen but that is a 1 year plus down the road. 

Speaking of lighting  -- So I ordered a lovely dining room chandelier and a great kitchen light besides the lamps. Everything has shown up besides the lamps so I am still in a holding pattern up clearing up my nighttables. Hopefully they today. *** fingers crossed *** 

[snapdragon]

Snapdragon 12/09/19 Update - $16,570.09 / $16,500   

Car/House $ 3502.87 / $3500 

Savings $ 4066.30 / $4000  

Travel $ 4500.72 / $4500  

Lasik $ 4500.20 / $ 4500  

New Totals $ 16,570.09 / $16,500

I actually did it!!! I reached 100% of my goals for the year... I will be lowering my goals for next year due to wanting to pay as much of the renovations as possible -- I will be doing a HELOC but I want money accessible to make the payments instead of stressing about payments. So I will work that up later on this month. 

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Dec 9, 2019 14:12:30 GMT -5 snapdragon said:

Snapdragon 12/09/19 Update - $16,570.09 / $16,500   

Car/House $ 3502.87 / $3500 

Savings $ 4066.30 / $4000  

Travel $ 4500.72 / $4500  

Lasik $ 4500.20 / $ 4500  

New Totals $ 16,570.09 / $16,500

I actually did it!!! I reached 100% of my goals for the year... I will be lowering my goals for next year due to wanting to pay as much of the renovations as possible -- I will be doing a HELOC but I want money accessible to make the payments instead of stressing about payments. So I will work that up later on this month. 

[snapdragon]

My new lamps arrived last night so I have already set them up... If you want to see them here is the product code -- Delacora SC-L312564 they are just so pretty. 

Little things that will increase my contentment are just making me smile.

[seriousthistime]

Dec 11, 2019 14:06:03 GMT -5 snapdragon said:

My new lamps arrived last night so I have already set them up... If you want to see them here is the product code -- Delacora SC-L312564 they are just so pretty. 

Little things that will increase my contentment are just making me smile.

Very nice, snapdragon!

Suddenly, I find my bedside lamps are not bringing me joy. 

[azucena]

Dec 2, 2019 10:55:44 GMT -5 azucena said:

Too lazy to go back and find my last post. Paycheck update deposited $1559 to get to $23,484. Probably up and down a bit since the last posting, work has been busy so I haven't been monitoring as closely.  Projected out to yearend and we can just make our goal if we don't overspend on Christmas which is probably a good goal to have too.  Thinking that $25k is the right goal for next year as well as our circumstances should be the same and it felt like enough of a stretch to keep spending in check.

Azucena 12/2/19 $23,484 of $25,000 goal (94%)

DH and I both got paid.  Payday deposit $2150. 

I feel disingenuous if I don't disclose that we put about $10k worth of windows on a 60 month 0% interest credit plan which will be almost $200/month.  Our overall liquid savings sits at $70k so we could easily pay for it, but it didn't make sense to pass up 0%.  Part of the work is to enlarge 4 windows in our walkout basement which will increase our house from 3 bedrooms to 5.  I think we would still need to put in some sort of closets to make them officially official but this gets us really close, and we don't plan to sell any time soon.  DD11 will likely move into one of them in the next couple of years.

A huge benefit of tracking savings here is that I was able to share with DH that we tucked away $25k.  He was surprised as he doesn't pay too much attention.  Hoping to post one more savings update next paycheck.  Then, will likely siphon some of the "excess" off to replace carpet in two bedrooms.

Azucena 12/13/19 $26,364 of $25,000 goal (105%)

[Rukh O'Rorke]

awesome azucena !!


105%!! 

[finnime]

 azucena!

[seriousthistime]

Thinking ahead (but only a few weeks ahead) about savings goals for 2020, I think I'm going to start here:

Replenish the gift account to $2,300.  I'm not sure where it will be after this Christmas season, but some of it I managed to cash flow.
And save $5,500 for 2020 property taxes; $4,000 for travel; $3,000 for the car fund; $6,000 for the Survival fund; $1,378 for Weekly Savings; $2,000 for Household/Misc./EF; $6,000 into Mortgage Savings. 

I'm not ready to put it into chart form. 

[debthaven]

Y'all are doing so well! Congratulations to all of you!

I have been very absent from this thread. I did manage to put the 200 euros I got (profit-sharing) back into savings as promised, but nothing else.

I gave up two classes for Sem 2 because I'm doing another play. In retrospect, financially, that was a mistake. If all goes well I'll have extra hours in the summer term which will more than make up for that class, but I still shouldn't have done it, I should have only given up one class, not two.

So no financial updates for now, but I'm following all your progress with great admiration.

Thank you forwardwego and seriousthistime for tracking us and keeping us in line.

[snapdragon]

teachermom -- I am sending best wishes to you and your SO.