Women in Red SAVERS 2020

[Rukh O'Rorke]

UPDATE! Rukh O'Rorke [1] 09/18/2020


2020 goals: $31,706.96  (Start=$0 / Goal=$43,600)

                                            

Saving Goals for 2020

Account	Goal	Added	Saved	Percent
401k	$26,000	$1,424.75*2	$16,153.07	62%
HSA	$7,600	$292.31*2	$5553.89	73%
EF:MM	$5,000	0	$5,000.00	100%
EF:ETFs	$5,000	0	$5,000.00	100%
Total	$43,600	$1,717.06*2	$31,706.96	73%

continuing to try to max 401k by year's end, 7 more paychecks to go.....


Rukh O'Rorke [2]  Multiyear EF Goal

$20,014.08 (Start=$500 / Goal=$20,000)

met my multi-year goal within the first year.

Feeling super low energy right now, not sure what is up. can't even get excited about meeting a goal. missed my update last paycheck and almost missed today as well. so just put *2 on the amounts contributed...

been a bit out to lunch all week with work, skating by on just the bare minimum, maybe not even that. Very unlike me. 

Thankfully, it's friday.

[seriousthistime]

Seriousthistime [3], 9/18/20, $14,750 (Goal $28,000) 52.7%

I increased my goal from $25,000 to $28,000 because I decided to make it part of a larger goal to have a certain amount in liquid savings by the end of the year.  Whether I make either the old goal or the new one remains to be seen. 

Update on retirement: I have notified my supervisor and have told a few people at work (including the other manager I work closely with) about my December 31 retirement.  It was not nearly as scary as I thought. I have not filled out the retirement paperwork yet, but it doesn't need to be done this early. 

People keep asking me, what will I do when I retire?  Will I stay where I am, or move -- across town? or across the country?  How will I fill my time?  The answer is, I don't know.  I don't have the brain power to figure this out in advance.  I need to be "in it" before I can make any big decisions.  I need to see what my life will look like, and then tweak it to make it as satisfying as possible.  

Volunteering is part of the plan.  I am trying to investigate some options. 

[plugginaway22]

Serious, I love hearing about someone making the decision to be done with work!  Congratulations, can't wait until I give my notice.

[debthaven]

Serious you have been preparing for this for a LONG time! I hope it brings you great joy my friend.

[snapdragon]

Sept 8, 2020 13:22:43 GMT -5 snapdragon said:

The house went live late last week and I signed paperwork in 1 day! If inspection pans out than I should be done with everything by early October! I am so relieved to get this box checked and am looking at what I need to do for moving and getting the house cleared out.

I spoke too soon.  The buyers backed out on Friday and the house went back on the market Saturday. It was supposed to close Friday the 25th. 

Onward and hopefully the next buyers will follow through on the sale.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

sorry snapdragon! Hope the next one works out!

[nikiz628]

seriousthistime- Congratulations! I know you will find something perfect to do with your free time! 

[teachermom]

Hi Savers! 

Been a while since I checked in. Took the last few days and read through all the updates!! Congrats to all of you on your saving!! You guys are killing it!!!

We are still working on the house. Covid allowed us both (my boyfriend and I) to be at my house for awhile. I am back at school teaching remotely and he still works from my house. This has allowed us to progress on the remodel at my house. Since March, we have put up the wood fence all the way around the yard, new gates too, totally gutted my kitchen, new cupboards, counters, sink, painting, flooring and lighting (need to install the dishwasher and back splash), torn out the old carpet on the basement stairs and downstairs living room (glued so lots of work to get it all up), put up some walls, removed some walls, new electrical, some new plumbing, added shiplap, and started tiling the floors. We still have a ways to go but getting there. We also had 2 yard sales, trying to get through all the stuff at my house and his as we move towards consolidating households in the future. 

All of this has been paid for in cash.....I haven't had to take from savings but very little going into savings......$350 a month (Christmas, auto maintenance, home maintenance, tires, etc.). We haven't gone anywhere and pretty much always eat at home although we did take out a few times and very little spent on gas as we aren't driving much. This has helped the budget. 

Once we are completed with my house....probably spring....we will be putting it on the market. I will move to his house (1 hour away) and commute for a few years until retirement. Goal is 60.....so that is 4 yrs after house sells. I will take some of the proceeds to purchase a new to me vehicle or at least have it in savings until I need it as my car is pushing 300k for miles. Love my Honda Pilot!! It runs great but you never know! The rest will go to finally pay of the balance of my student loans. (Oh what I wish I could tell the 20, 30 year old me!!)

Then, the remodel will start on his house. Ultimate goal is we will sell it (too big for 2 of us) as the kids are gone, and pay cash for our retirement home. We are thinking about a new build on an acre or two. We will start with the shop with a living area and then build the home with cash. Then we can both be retired!!!

That's the plan right now! Things change so we will see.

Teachermom $6378.90 9/24/2020 ($1320.51 1/1/2020, Goal $75,000) 

Note: Not sure $75,000 is my actual goal anymore as I have cash flowed so much of the repairs, etc, but I will deal with that next year!!

Keep up the good work everyone!

Teachermom




 

[resolution]

Update: Resolution 09/24/20 $32,700 (Goal: $35,000)

We are continuing to stay home and not spend a lot of money. 

We have reached the initial goals that I set for the IRAs and brokerage account, and the 457 plan is on autopilot through payroll deduction. I sat down with my husband to discuss our options on what to do with the extra income each month, and we decided to work on paying down the house. For the past few years I have been paying $500 per month extra on it, and this month I paid an extra $2500. I will probably do that going forward through the end of the year. Our balance is $22k, so I think its a reasonable goal to have it paid off by the end of next year. I would make a line item for it, but it doesn't really fit with the savers theme.

Account	Goal	Saved  YTD	% of Goal
IRA 1	7,000	7000	100%
IRA 2	6,000	6000	100%
457 plan	10,000	7700	77%
Brokerage	12,000	12000	100%
Total	35,000	32,700	93%

[seriousthistime]

Seriousthistime [3], 9/24/20, $15,750 (Goal $28,000) 56.3%

The march to retirement continues. 

I had a major tech hiccup today at work.  I wanted to just say FINE! I'm retiring now.  Don't bother me with this stuff.  But I think I'll be dealing with the aftermath of the lost files for a bit, and can put it back together little by little.  I have a newer computer, but it was obviously not new (it had files loaded on it that maybe they would not want people to see, but I've seen them through legit access in the past so it's okay, and also gives me a clue whose old laptop I have) and it seems to be slower.  So now I have to get my printers loaded on this laptop.  And all my desktop icons and shortcuts are gone. 

The very good thing about this is that three months ago I got the brand new laptop that just quit.  It was to replace a perfectly fine laptop that was getting old, and I was next up for laptop replacement.  We were able to back up all my files onto a central drive before transferring them to the new laptop, so I have my files from three months ago on that central drive that I can put back onto my personal drive.  But this is not how I wanted to spend the day.  And transferring all those old files to my laptop drives takes time. 

Such is life. 

[seriousthistime]

Attention Savers: It's getting close to the end of the month.  I'll do updates/smilies on Saturday morning, October 3.  Please get your updates in before then. 

Thank you,
Seriousthistime

[plugginaway22]

Plugginaway22 10/01/20 $23,901 ($12,000)

2020              Saved                Goal

Jan                831.00              1000.00

Feb              1626.00              1000.00

Mar              3948.00              1000.00

Apr              1409.00              1000.00

May             4700.00               1000.00

June             2972.00              1000.00

July              6965.00              1000.00

Aug              1050.00              1000.00

Sept               400.00              1000.00
subTotals    23,901.00           12,000.00

Thankfully, we got the Sept. week away and spent some money $$!!  So much fun to all be together at the beach. I've been back to stocking up when going grocery shopping, for the coming winter months, so have spent more there. More rumblings about a buy-out of my company, so anything could happen in the coming months. My father is very ill and I have told my boss that if needed, I may take a short leave of absence. Grandbaby #3 is coming in Dec, so a busy end of 2020! (won't be sorry to see 2020 DONE).

[seriousthistime]

I am so short on kitchen cabinet space that I can't really stock up too much in there.  But I do have an attached garage with shelves and some plastic bins I've never used, so I could actually clean up that area and put those shelves and bins to more productive use.  I watched the Home Edit series on Netflix and they talk about having a "backstock," a place where you keep your extra stuff.  

So after watching Home Edit, I emptied my most cluttered cabinet (a pantry cabinet with pull-out drawers), by pulling out everything in there and putting it on my DR table (where it stayed for a week).  I then organized the three shelves for savory (pastas, rice, dried beans, jarred sauces, vinegars, oils) sweet/baking (flour, sugar, baking powder/soda, cocoa, chocolate chips, nuts), and canned (fruits, veggies, soups). 

I did manage to grocery shop inside the store the other day, and managed to stock up on my favorite brands of paper towels and TP. With curbside pickup I could never get the brands or package size I wanted. 

[debthaven]

seriousthistime I use two of our basement storage shelves as the "pantry" ... one shelf for food, the other for household goods. Sounds like your garage would be good solution. I love "shopping in the basement" because it's convenient, and cheap lol.  

Congrats on the upcoming new grandbaby plugginaway22 !

[TheOtherMe]

I keep my supply of paper products on shelves in the garage.  I don't anything out there that might be harmed by freezing or being overheated.  Paper products are fine.

[plugginaway22]

We were never big on keeping all stocked up before COVID, but since Feb/Mar I have been pretty focused on buying ahead.  I have all the paper products piled on an old ping pong table in the basement. DH added a shelf to my very small kitchen pantry, and I moved seldom used appliances and 'crap' from there to the basement, so there is now more room for food items.

[debthaven]

We were never big on keeping all stocked up before COVID

Same. But they're talking about another lockdown here, so I want to keep certain items stocked up (paper towels/toilet paper/hand soap/disinfectant wipes).

I always aimed to have one item on the go, and one in the basement pantry. These days I aim to keep two of the things we use most in the basement pantry. Also, huge packages don't exist here.

I rearranged both pantry shelves this weekend so that it's easier to see everything.

[debthaven]

I have a question for seriousthistime  , forwardwego and anyone else who is retired or will soon retire, but I don't want to derail this thread. Also hope to hear from  paynointerest because teaching remotely was a major goal well before Covid (maybe she's psychic?!)

I will be eligible to retire in 15 months, at 62. But I'll get a bigger pension for every year I keep working up to age 67. 

I do NOT plan to continue to 67. But I'm wondering if I shouldn't continue to 64 or 65, especially with the state of things today. Not much opportunity to travel these days. 

If you had/had had the option of working part time, (ie two or three days/ week) would you prefer/have preferred to continue working?  

I work 4 days/week, but I work a LOT more hours than what is considered full-time for a university adjunct here.

I'm considering working past 62, but reducing my hours (ie going down from 4 to 3 days for a year or two, then 3 to 2 days for a year or two, etc.) instead.

Any thoughts?

I plan to start a thread on YM about this, but I wanted to hear your thoughts. :-)

PS My DH always says he'll retire when he's dead. DH is a graphic designer, so he can truly work from anywhere in the world as long as he has an internet connection. So there's that too. Although he does work when we go away, it's never (or rarely) disruptive. 

[plugginaway22]

If I enjoyed my work like I think you do, by all means it makes sense to scale back gradually. My job evolved over the years as more responsibility was added along with bigger paychecks that were needed when 3 kids in school. My position now is something I never would have sought after. As soon as DH and I hit 62, we are finished. There is something related to his work that he says he may do part time if he gets bored. I do wonder about us being home together so suddenly, another reason you may want to keep working, haha.

[debthaven]

Thanks plugginaway22

I do wonder about us being home together so suddenly

Yes there's that too ... it's not easy suddenly being together 24/7. Amazingly we did fine being just the two of us during lockdown, much better than either of us expected.

 

[TheOtherMe]

Sept 27, 2020 15:30:22 GMT -5 debthaven said:

We were never big on keeping all stocked up before COVID

Same. But they're talking about another lockdown here, so I want to keep certain items stocked up (paper towels/toilet paper/hand soap/disinfectant wipes).

I always aimed to have one item on the go, and one in the basement pantry. These days I aim to keep two of the things we use most in the basement pantry. Also, huge packages don't exist here.

I rearranged both pantry shelves this weekend so that it's easier to see everything.

Since I moved here, I've ordered things like toilet paper, paper towels, kleenex, etc. by the case from Amazon.  I get toilet paper delivered quarterly and, so far, I've gotten every order.  

Living in an apartment, that was not plausible.  With a double garage and one car, it is.

[forwardwego]

Sept 27, 2020 15:47:10 GMT -5 debthaven said:

I have a question for seriousthistime  , forwardwego and anyone else who is retired or will soon retire, but I don't want to derail this thread. Also hope to hear from  paynointerest because teaching remotely was a major goal well before Covid (maybe she's psychic?!)

I will be eligible to retire in 15 months, at 62. But I'll get a bigger pension for every year I keep working up to age 67. 

I do NOT plan to continue to 67. But I'm wondering if I shouldn't continue to 64 or 65, especially with the state of things today. Not much opportunity to travel these days. 

If you had/had had the option of working part time, (ie two or three days/ week) would you prefer/have preferred to continue working?  

I work 4 days/week, but I work a LOT more hours than what is considered full-time for a university adjunct here.

I'm considering working past 62, but reducing my hours (ie going down from 4 to 3 days for a year or two, then 3 to 2 days for a year or two, etc.) instead.

Any thoughts?

I plan to start a thread on YM about this, but I wanted to hear your thoughts. :-)

PS My DH always says he'll retire when he's dead. DH is a graphic designer, so he can truly work from anywhere in the world as long as he has an internet connection. So there's that too. Although he does work when we go away, it's never (or rarely) disruptive. 

I would have preferred to go to part-time and continue working. I had wished my workplace would have permitted job sharing, but it is a very structured rigid workplace. My only choice if I stayed on was whether I accepted OT or wanted only 40 hours per week. In my case, the workplace was becoming increasingly chaotic and oppressive. I chose to go at my earliest opportunity that would not incur penalties. The first year of retirement I caught up on some house projects. Then DH retired and it was too much togetherness. I now do a lot of part-time jobs pet sitting, house sitting, appointment sitting, and child care/transport. I'm happy with how it turned out. I am very appreciated by the families I work for, it gives me purpose & money for projects and builds a little savings. I agree with plugginaway22, that if you find satisfaction in your job cutting back on hours is a wonderful way to transition into retirement.

[shanendoah]

shanendoah [Q3]: $6,500 9/25/2020 (Goal: $4,500 9/30/2020)
ROTH [Q3]: $1,500 9/25/2020 (Goal: $1,500 9/30/2020)
Savings [Q3]: $5,000 9/25/2020 (Goal: $3,000 9/30/2020)

I feel like I've been setting my savings goals too low this year. For the most part, I like goals that I have to stretch to make, and I've been just kind of blowing past them this year. We are at $16k in liquid savings right now. If we stay at this level (or close to), I will switch $6k of it over into a ROTH for me at the end of the year.
We're refinancing again. That should close in October, so no October mortgage payment, which means I should be able to stash more into savings, but I'm waiting until we have actually closed. I'll be back probably next week with 4th quarter goals.



[Q1]: $7,037.28 3/25/2020 (Goal: $5,040 3/31/2020)
[Q2]: $5,475 6/25/2020 (Goal: $2,500 6/30/2020)

[paynointerest]

Sept 27, 2020 15:47:10 GMT -5 debthaven said:

I have a question for seriousthistime  , forwardwego and anyone else who is retired or will soon retire, but I don't want to derail this thread. Also hope to hear from  paynointerest because teaching remotely was a major goal well before Covid (maybe she's psychic?!)

I will be eligible to retire in 15 months, at 62. But I'll get a bigger pension for every year I keep working up to age 67. 

I do NOT plan to continue to 67. But I'm wondering if I shouldn't continue to 64 or 65, especially with the state of things today. Not much opportunity to travel these days. 

If you had/had had the option of working part time, (ie two or three days/ week) would you prefer/have preferred to continue working?  

I work 4 days/week, but I work a LOT more hours than what is considered full-time for a university adjunct here.

I'm considering working past 62, but reducing my hours (ie going down from 4 to 3 days for a year or two, then 3 to 2 days for a year or two, etc.) instead.

Any thoughts?

I plan to start a thread on YM about this, but I wanted to hear your thoughts. :-)

PS My DH always says he'll retire when he's dead. DH is a graphic designer, so he can truly work from anywhere in the world as long as he has an internet connection. So there's that too. Although he does work when we go away, it's never (or rarely) disruptive. 

Hey Debthaven,

As you know, I'm a long way from retirement -- now I'm thinking 12 years so I can get the healthcare benefits offered by my employer to carry me over until I can access the US government healthcare -- medicare.

From what I have read on the Financial Independence threads, they looked at their income, weighed the amount of additional income they would get by continuing to work vs the time they would get to work on projects that they want to pursue.  My thought is to ask yourself the following questions to help you with your decision (plus meet with a financial advisor to help with the money side of things)

• Would you have enough money to live on without the extra years working?  Are you comfortable living on that amount?
  
• What value would continuing to work have for you?  Is it to keep your mind active? Interacting with coworkers? Or do you feel resentful of the time work is taking away from doing the things you want to do?  If the last question resonates with you, then the financial gain for continuing to work is a serious thing to consider.
  
• Do you have a plan for what you would do with your new found free time? Do you have hobbies? would you volunteer? From what I have read on financial blogs/threads is retirement is difficult for people who don't have a plan of what they will do once they retire.

In addition to the YM thread, if you are on Reddit, you might read through some of the posts on the Financial Independence thread.  This topic has come of there a few times.

Good luck!

Teaching Remotely

In regard to your question about teaching remotely and my desire to teach online in the future, I'm not sure yet.  Teaching remotely is different from teaching online because I do have regular interaction with the students on Zoom.  To be honest, I'm starting to enjoy the flexibility I have to work and teach from home -- but I don't like teaching remotely. It is definitely less work to teach in person and I form better connections with my students.  I think either need to be 100% online  where the expectation is for the students to "self-teach" or to be in the classroom. 

At this time, I can't decide what I want right now. I think if I can keep my current schedule once we go back to in-person teaching, plus the fact I know longer carry the guilt for not going into the office each day and I won't be expected to be there when I am not teaching, I could enjoy staying in-person for a few more years.

[TheOtherMe]

Sept 27, 2020 17:04:29 GMT -5 debthaven said:

Thanks plugginaway22

I do wonder about us being home together so suddenly

Yes there's that too ... it's not easy suddenly being together 24/7. Amazingly we did fine being just the two of us during lockdown, much better than either of us expected.

 

My parents could wait to retire at 62 and that is what they did.  They came to Colorado to visit me in October and I could tell they were not getting along.

My mom later told me that was the first and only time she considered divorce.  She said it took about a year for them to learn how to be together 24/7.

[Blonde Granny]

I really enjoyed the posts regarding looking forward for your pantry supplies etc. Sometimes with my friends it makes me feel like I'm the weird one and they are so smart.

I've also started taking inventory of the pantry and garage shelving. I was caught the first time and that caused me to make some poor decisions on what I was buying. I now have started 1 list that I will purchase items later this week. Keep going ladies......you are so good.

[debthaven]

Big news!!! We had a general assembly tonight with all the other owners in the wonky building. (The sole shitestirrer was absent but we had the vast majority of votes.) Long story short, everyone was thrilled that our buyer is volunteering to manage the building association (for free!), everyone voted yes on all his suggestions to make things legal, and now we can legally sell the studio to him!!! We are THRILLED!!!

We're selling at a loss but we can live with that. And he was only willing to do all that legwork because he got a great price. It'll take a few months, closing takes ages here.

So in a few months I should have a nice little sum to add to my savings! 

And thank you for your comments! I really do like what I do, but I'm really struggling with the dual/hybrid teaching. I don't really have many things I'd rather be doing (except for seeing my family). I do a lot of amateur theater, but that's on hold now of course. 

So I am coming to the conclusion that working less would probably be the better option, rather than completely retiring in 15 months.

Again, thank you for your thoughtful posts, they are greatly appreciated!  

ETA: paynointerest I may have the terminology wrong ... to me, teaching remotely = teaching on Zoom. Since I teach English my classes are all only "interactive". I don't give lectures, so I don't have the option of recording lectures.  

Here there is also what they call synchronous and asynchronous teaching. I'm wondering if that's what you mean. What I meant was, doing my class on Zoom rather than in person.

I definiitely agree that in person is best!!! But having half the class in class while the other half is on Zoom is the worst of both worlds IMO. 

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Sept 27, 2020 15:47:10 GMT -5 debthaven said:

I have a question for seriousthistime  , forwardwego and anyone else who is retired or will soon retire, but I don't want to derail this thread. Also hope to hear from  paynointerest because teaching remotely was a major goal well before Covid (maybe she's psychic?!)

I will be eligible to retire in 15 months, at 62. But I'll get a bigger pension for every year I keep working up to age 67. 

I do NOT plan to continue to 67. But I'm wondering if I shouldn't continue to 64 or 65, especially with the state of things today. Not much opportunity to travel these days. 

If you had/had had the option of working part time, (ie two or three days/ week) would you prefer/have preferred to continue working?  

I work 4 days/week, but I work a LOT more hours than what is considered full-time for a university adjunct here.

I'm considering working past 62, but reducing my hours (ie going down from 4 to 3 days for a year or two, then 3 to 2 days for a year or two, etc.) instead.

Any thoughts?

I plan to start a thread on YM about this, but I wanted to hear your thoughts. :-)

PS My DH always says he'll retire when he's dead. DH is a graphic designer, so he can truly work from anywhere in the world as long as he has an internet connection. So there's that too. Although he does work when we go away, it's never (or rarely) disruptive. 

how would that impact your travel plans? are you anticipating remote being more of an option going forward?

If the pandemic is still affecting world travel in 15 months - seems an easy yes to continue working but scaling back a bit. If travel is open, how much would 2/3 days a week affect longer trips?

Or - what is it you really want to do when you retire? And how would the additional money factor in? is it just more is safer? or will it really boost your enjoyment/security throughout retirement?

[teachermom]

Teaching face to face is definitely better for building relationships and interacting with the kids. My high school kids hate their cameras on and don't say anything. Then the assignment is turned in and they obviously didn't get it but didn't ask. So far we are 100% online but the district is looking at bringing k-2 back starting Oct 19 and see how that goes and the covid rate, we will go back not long after that. We will do an AM/PM schedule with half the kids in class daily....so kids will have our classes every other day at the high school level. That is currently what they have during 100% remote so that won't change....just some will do AM and some will do PM. Our district told families they needed to sign up for our new Online school if they wanted to stay online, otherwise when we go back they have to be in class. We won't have to do in person and online at the same time.....so they say. We will see when the time actually comes for it. 

They do however, make us teach from in building everyday. Supposedly so they can help with tech support but I think it has more to do with the face the community was complaining about building not being used.....so this way they are used everyday. I miss the kids everyday, because teaching on Zoom definitely isn't the same!

Teachermom

[debthaven]

Great questions Rukh! Sorry but too tired to answer tonight, I need to go to bed now.