Women in Red SAVERS 2020

[plugginaway22]

2020	Saved	Goal
Jan	831.00	1000.00
Feb	1626.00	1000.00
Mar		1000.00
Apr		1000.00
May		1000.00
June		1000.00
July		1000.00
Aug		1000.00
Sep		1000.00
Oct		1000.00
Nov		1000.00
Dec		1000.00
Totals	2457.00	12,000.00

I decided to simplify this for tracking only 2020. Today is going to be spent gathering documents to prepare for a meeting with financial advisor this week.
We have never done this in the detail that he is asking for, so should be eye opening.  Had a nice break at the beach this past weekend.

2/29/2020  plugginaway22 $2457 (goal $12,000)

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Feb 21, 2020 15:14:50 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

I think I used to always update after last paycheck of the month when I knew nothing else was going into savings, so I think I'll try to keep doing that. Employer did their quarterly $250 contribution to the HSA today, so that was nice to see.  This is my first time with a HDHP and I'm going to TRY to keep the HSA rather than use it for medical expenses, but that won't work beyond a couple urgent care visits and some prescriptions.

Same on the HSA. I can try anyway!!


Since including 401k and HSA into the mix, I've been updating every paycheck - that is the only savings happening for me right now....I'm hoping to turn a corner on that in April.....we will see. 

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Rukh O'Rorke 02/23/2020 $3,251.57 (Start=$0 / Goal=$43,600)


Saving Goals for 2020

Account	Goal	Added	Saved	Percent
401k	$26,000	$328.79	$2,082.33	8.0%
HSA	$7,600	$292.31	$1,169.24	15.4%
EF:MM	$5,000	0	0	0%
EF:ETFs	$5,000	0	0	0%
Total	$43,600	$621.10	$3,251.57	7.5%

EF Multiyear Goals

Emergency Fund	Goal	Added	Amount	Percent
Money Market and ETFs	$20,000		$901.40	4.5%

Spending Targets

Spending  Categories	Goal	Amount	Percent
Vacation	$3,000	0	0%
Holiday/Gifts	$2,000	0	0%
Rukh Discretionary	$1,000	0	0%
Total	$6,000	0	0%

One more baby step forward. Better than going backwards!!!

But - speaking of going backwards...... ......I am going to need to virtually drain my current EF to pay for March student loan payments.    Upside is the Upromise transfer went through so while I will use up nearly all my savings - I have the money to pay it! Payday is the next day and then all is solvent  through end of June - have not projected out any farther. Of course - further hiccups along the way are possible!

But - will be upping the 401k and that changes projections. Maybe I will wait until April to up the 401k and rebuild a little EF in March. But by April, I'll need to do a much larger percentage to max by year's end. Tis a pickle!

The HSA contributions are level through the year - because I don't know how to monkey with that one!! So that % gives me the % that should apply to all if doing an equal portion every payday/month.  Shows me how behind I am on 401k. And it's only February.....

The other savings goals will rely on my RI income. So hopefully - I can keep that up.

[azucena]

Not entirely caught up on the financial front after DH's surgery (see chronic illness thread in off-topic), but here's where we stand as best I can tell.

I was able to add $1538 after my check friday.  Since our FMLA changed to run concurrently with PTO, I did not miss any checks like I expected.  I also burned thru 15 days of PTO that I didn't expect   I would have much rather been unpaid and could have easily weathered it giving our savings growth the past few years.

I feel like I missed savings opportunities in Jan and Feb, but it was nice to just let the cashflow ride and not spend any energy on finances.  I'm still not sure I didn't miss a bill or two along the way.  DH has a bit more energy this week so will ask him to look things over for me.  Mortgage got paid.  Although I have to call them when they open because they didn't apply the funds correctly and also increased our monthly payment by $170 without notice.  Doing the math, seems escrow for last year was sufficient, so I need them to explain.  I'm pissy about having to add that to my to do list.  Anyone know if I can get out of escrow without refinancing?  I could totally cashflow insurance and taxes and am tired of being jerked around by escrow.

I feel like with all of the eating out we've done to survive that we still have too much money left.  If I didn't miss a bill or two, it's a sure sign that DH (and probably me too) were overspending on the credit cards that I do payoff every month.  Both have held a $0 balance since 1/24.  Need to talk to him about that and revise our game plan about cc use.

$30,000 goal might be tight with a lost month, but I'm still shooting for it.  We will be replacing DH's 2006 highlander before AC season which is $700 to fix and maybe worth $1500 with 225k miles.  We're calling it done especially considering the one time I drove it through all of this, I learned the back window is down and won't go up again - nice to know when it's 20 degrees outside!  We could prop it closed but then it'll be even more miserable without AC.  He is going to look online at Carmax and Carvana for a used highlander with 100k to spend a max of $15k which will come out of savings but still leave a comfortable cushion since we have met our savings goal several years.

Anxious to see bonus and raise.  Thinking my raise may be unexpectedly good because I already got the notice for how much my employer paid life insurance death benefit increased.  I can divide by the 2.5 times salary

Azucena 2/24/20 $3173 of $30,000 goal (11%)

[Rukh O'Rorke]

sympathies on DH's health struggles azucena  

Congrats on the raise and bonus!

Re - having large goals that are difficult to get to with any wrinkles that pop up:

I knew my goals were ambitious given everything else I'm juggling financially. I was thinking better to have big goals and fall short than undergoal myself. Not sure if that is making me feel differently about my situation or not though.


I'll see where I am mid-year before considering any adjustments. and maybe think a little more about this before setting 2021 goals

[forwardwego]

2/29/2020 $6900 (begin $3200; goal $20,000)

  

GOAL	AMOUNT	STARTING	$$ TO DATE	% OF GOAL	$$ TO GO
JPPCU CUSHION	1000	100	100	10	900
RENTAL MARGIN	12000	2100	2100	17	9900
PERIODIC EXPENSE	6000	1000	4600	76	1400
CASH STASH	1000	0	100	10	900
TOTALS	20000	3200	6900	34	13100

Once again our rental account will sink way down. The new roof will go on in March. $7880, plus the cost of any wood repairs that present themselves. Have paid the down payment of $2500, with balance due upon satisfactory final inspection, but have already subtracted from the Rental Margin account in anticipation. Next we will need a new well in the spring @$950, and the yard is due for attention @$500? Surely hoping the plumbing and HVAC will behave until next year. 

[Rukh O'Rorke]

right there with you forwardwego!

Hoping for no more expensive 'surprises'.....

[jenpen]

Woohoo, congrats on the bonus and raise, azucena!

I'm still waiting to find out if we're getting a raise for 2019.  The state legislature failed to pass a budget when it was due in June. Continued to fail in July, Aug, Sep, Oct, and again before they went on break in Nov or Dec. Came back last month and failed again before going on another break until April. F#$&ing politics. Crappy thing is both sides were writing in the largest raises for state employees that I've seen in 18 years (and half those years were 0%). But maybe that's because they never intended to actually pass anything After so many years, though, I barely pay attention to this anymore. That way I can be pleasantly surprised if my paycheck suddenly goes up by 50 cents

[Deleted]

So, I know I vowed to put the Roth on the back burner the next 2-3 years, but I'm very tempted to bring the EF down some to fund it during this downturn. 

[steph08]

We are those horrible people that get a tax refund instead of getting that extra money in our checks every month...

UPDATE: steph08 2/28/2019 $16,382.41 7/31/2019 $6,626.16

Savings	Start	Previous	Current	Difference	Goal	Percentage Saved
Emergency Fund	$3,664.15	$6,703.34	$10,000.12	$3,296.78	$10,000.00	100.00%
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	$1,884.89	$2,469.06	$584.17	$3,000.00	82.30%
DD2 Savings	$1,195.06	$1,310.45	$2,005.55	$695.10	$2,000.00	100.28%
401K Savings	$0.00	$583.33	$1,076.92	$493.59	$7,000.00	15.38%
401k Employer Match	$0.00	$233.33	$430.76	$197.43	$2,800.00	15.38%
DD1 529 2020	$0.00	$100.00	$200.00	$100.00	$1,200.00	16.67%
DD2 529 2020	$0.00	$100.00	$200.00	$100.00	$1,200.00	16.67%
TOTAL	$6,626.16	$10,915.34	$16,382.41	$5,467.07	$32,600.00	38.52%

[forwardwego]

Feb 26, 2020 14:49:52 GMT -5 steph08 said:

We are those horrible people that get a tax refund instead of getting that extra money in our checks every month...

 

We did many years of getting tax refund, then after I joined WIR in 2010 learned the benefit of using the funds, now am back to the sizeable refund. Personal finance is done best with consideration of all the "persons", and at our house we are better off with a refund. The "bigger" concern for us is applying our money wisely.

[jenpen]

Update

Jenpen, 2/29/2020, $10,548 (Start $895, Goal $52,600)

	2020 Goal	Start 1/1	Prior 1/31	Added	Current	% saved	Needed
403b	24,000	0	2,000	2,000	4,000	16.7	20,000
457b	12,000	0	1,000	1,000	2,000	16.7	10,000
Roth IRA	7,000	0	17	265	281	4.0	6,719
Taxable inv	2,400	0	185	400	585	24.4	1,815
LT savings	2,400	0	0	500	500	20.8	1,900
ST to spend	4,800	895	2,500	682	3,182	66.3	1,618
Total	52,600	895	5,702	4,846	10,548	20.1	42,052

My last paycheck for the month deposits tonight and I've already set up all transfers to savings for tomorrow. Fed tax refund gave me an extra 500 to split between LT savings and taxable investment account. At some point I need to adjust the ST saving-to-spend account since I really need to -- and so far this year have been -- putting in $500/month for expected periodic expenses. I have my $2k/month budget set up to do that, but I'm still mentally adjusting to my drastically reduced take-home pay.

[nikiz628]

Jan 27, 2020 15:54:29 GMT -5 nikiz628 said:

Jan 3, 2020 0:18:35 GMT -5 nikiz628 said:

UPDATE 2/27/2020

2020 Savings	START	CURRENT	GOAL	STILL NEED
Emergency Fund	$1,000.00	$1,402.58	$2,000.00	$597.42
DS1's Savings	$1,960.29	$2,061.00	$2,200.00	$139.00
DS2's Savings	$734.55	$835.00	$850.00	$15.00
TOTALS	3,694.84	$4,298.58	$5,050.00	$751.42

NikiZ628 2/27/20 $4,298.58 (Goal $5,050.00 WIRS2)

[resolution]

Update: Resolution 02/28/20 $5700 (Goal: $35,000)

It's a bit depressing to see all my balances going down this week,  but I'm still plugging away putting new money into it. 

Account	Goal	Saved  YTD	% of Goal
IRA 1	7,000	1000	14%
IRA 2	6,000	1000	17%
457 plan	10,000	1700	17%
Brokerage	12,000	2000	17%
Total	35,000	5700	16%

[seriousthistime]

Happy Leap Day, SAVERS! Isn't it nice we get one extra day to save this year?

I want to give everyone a chance to post an update for February. I'll update the smilies on Tuesday evening, March 3.  

[Saving4Norway]

Month	2020 Goals	Saved	% Met
B of Jan	1000	1000	100%
E of Jan	1	200	20000%
B of Feb	1000	1000	100%
E of Feb	1	140	14000%
B of March	1000	1000	100%
E of March	1	0	0%
TOTAL	3003	3340	111%

Saving4Norway 3/3/20 $3,340 (Goal $3,003)
    

[debthaven]

No new update for me, alas. Things slow down for me in Sem 2, plus my salary at Job 1 (my main job) gets divided by 7 in Sem 2, instead of by 5 in Sem 1.    So I get crappy paychecks until late spring when the extra work I do gets paid.

We are currently in negotiations to sell our "wonky" studio. Please send good juju!

[teachermom]

Update:

Slowly building things back up, although soon the Home Improvement fund will have some spending happen from it. Also, need to save up for new tires soon as well.

Savings 2020
Fund	Goals	Beg Bal	Feb 2019	YTD	Spent	End Bal	% Met
Emergency Fund	$25,000.00	$1,000.74	$1.43	$1,002.17	$0.00	$1,002.17	4.01%
Vacations	$10,000.00	$315.05	$0.42	$315.47	$0.00	$315.47	3.15%
Home Improvements	$8,000.00	$687.17	$391.39	$1,078.56	$0.00	$1,078.56	13.48%
New Car	$25,000.00	$10.66	$0.01	$10.67	$0.00	$10.67	0.04%
Car Maintenance	$3,000.00	$50.81	$0.00	$50.81	$0.00	$50.81	1.69%
Gifts	$4,000.00	$220.08	$100.42	$320.50	$0.00	$320.50	8.01%
Total Savings	$75,000.00	$2,284.51	$493.67	$2,778.18	$0.00	$2,778.18	3.70%

Teachermom 2/28/2020 $2778.18 (1/1/2020 $1320.51, Goal $75,000)

Great job savers! Keep up the great work!

Teachermom

[idlechatter]

I'm late, as always.  But here it is for 2/29/2020!

Savings Account	Goal	WIRS Start 1/19/2020	2/29/2020	Difference from WIRR Start	Remainder to Save
Emergency	$4,000.00	$0.00	$665.00	$665.00	$3,335.00
Car/Moto Maintenance	$1,500.00	$4.80	$1,500.27	$1,495.47	-$0.27
Christmas	$1,200.00	$3.09	$1,200.22	$1,197.13	-$0.22
House	$1,000.00	$0.47	$0.47	$0.00	$999.53
Car/Moto Purchase	$1,200.00	$0.00	$200.00	$200.00	$1,000.00
Dad (long term)	$1,000.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$1,000.00
Vacation (slush)	$4,500.00	$2,300.00	$3,300.00	$1,000.00	$1,200.00
401K	$15,600.00	$550.00	$7,644.39	$7,094.39	$7,955.61
Total	$30,000.00	$2,858.36	$14,510.35	$11,651.99	$15,489.65

[speechchick71]

I feel like I hit the jackpot yesterday. I just made my 1 yr anniversary at my job so I got the last portion of my $5k sign on bonus which was $1250 on top of my weekly pay. Then I had another check!  I have been taking some classes, still in an effort to get out of the speech field. Because IT is considered a critical area for my hospital system, they do tuition reimbursement. I applied for the class I'm in this semester and they covered the whole class!  Boom! They paid me the money yesterday. I get the points on my credit card and I have that money set aside to pay off the tuition bill now. I am going to start hitting up my friends to reimburse me for all the concert tickets I've been buying too. I love having big numbers in my accounts, even if I know that the money is being applied to bills. That sure was a nice perk to find out about!

[snapdragon]

Snapdragon Update 3-05-20 - $8055.50 / $9500

Car/House $ 3803.48 / $5000

Savings $ 4252.02/ $4500

New Totals $ 8055.5 / $9500



If things align up just right my kitchen is getting demoed tomorrow and the rebuild starts on monday. 

[seriousthistime]

Sorry everyone, I'm running late on posting the Smilies.  Soon, I promise.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Mar 1, 2020 18:33:06 GMT -5 debthaven said:

No new update for me, alas. Things slow down for me in Sem 2, plus my salary at Job 1 (my main job) gets divided by 7 in Sem 2, instead of by 5 in Sem 1.    So I get crappy paychecks until late spring when the extra work I do gets paid.

We are currently in negotiations to sell our "wonky" studio. Please send good juju!

good juju sent!!

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Rukh O'Rorke 03/06/2020 $3,874.67 (Start=$0 / Goal=$43,600)


Saving Goals for 2020

Account	Goal	Added	Saved	Percent
401k	$26,000	$328.79	$2,411.12	9.3%
HSA	$7,600	$292.31	$1,461.55	19.2%
EF:MM	$5,000	0	0	0%
EF:ETFs	$5,000	0	0	0%
Total	$43,600	$621.10	$3,874.67	8.9%

EF Multiyear Goals

Emergency Fund	Goal	Added	Amount	Percent
Money Market and ETFs	$20,000		500	2.5%

Spending Targets

Spending  Categories	Goal	Amount	Percent
Vacation	$3,000	0	0%
Holiday/Gifts	$2,000	0	0%
Rukh Discretionary	$1,000	0	0%
Total	$6,000	0	0%

Baby steps again!

The usual HSA, the minimal 401k, and replenished 500 of the EF I used.

Keeping 401k minimal while I see where the job situation is going..... 

[seriousthistime]

Update!

Stars	Name		Amount Saved	Goal	% Saved	Roses	Smilies
	azucena		$3,173	$30,000	10.6%
	bobosensei		$1,554	$25,430	6.1%
	chiver78		$52	$910	5.7%
	debthaven		552€	2,000€	27.6%
	debthaven		8,000€	8,000€	100.0%
	finnime [1]		$0	$0	0.0%
	finnime [2]		$1,000	$18,500	5.4%
	flamingo		$7,400	$13,000	56.9%
	forwardwego		$6,900	$20,000	34.5%
	idlechatter		$14,510	$30,000	48.4%
	jenpen		$10,548	$52,600	20.1%
	minnesotapaintlady		$5,586	$26,000	21.5%
	nikiz628		$4,299	$5,050	85.1%
	paynointerest		$15,600	$59,000	26.4%
	plugginaway22		$2,457	$12,000	12.3%
	resolution		$5,700	$35,000	16.3%
	Rukh O'Rorke		$3,875	$43,600	8.9%
	Saving4Norway		$3,340	$3,003	111.2%
	seriousthistime		$17,441	$30,478	57.2%
	shanendoah [Q1]		$5,537	$5,040	109.9%
	snapdragon		$8,056	$9,500	81.3%
	speechchick71		$4,137	$28,500	14.5%
	steph08		$16,382	$32,600	50.3%
	teachermom		$2,778	$75,000	3.7%

[debthaven]

We agreed on a price for the studio! I hope the sale goes through because there are issues with the building. The buyer is a lawyer, he can deal with the building situation (hence the low price). So hopefully it will go through! Apparently he wants to buy several apartments, so it looks like he has a plan and the money to make it work.

It takes 4-5 months to close here (crazy, I know). Fingers crossed that I have a fabulous savings update this summer!

 

[debthaven]

seriousthistime , thank you for the update! To be honest I feel ridiculous for getting the dancing banana when I haven't contributed anything to savings for several months.

Please don't redo it, but for next month, here is a more realistic update. It's thanks to this thread that I haven't spent any of it (yet?!)

Debthaven 7 March 2020 8000 euros (Goal 10,000 euros)

If the sale goes through I'll blow that goal out of the water!

Also, seriousthistime , any news on your retirement date?!

[seriousthistime]

Mar 7, 2020 15:39:55 GMT -5 debthaven said:

Also, seriousthistime , any news on your retirement date?!

I've not officially done anything yet but I am planning on December 31 of this year.  If I stay beyond that, it would be for a few months to pump every bit of money I earn in 2021 into the 401(k).  Then I'd leave after I maxed it out. 

As it is now, I will max out my 401(k) contributions and meet my Savers goals by August 31 of this year. I calculated that after the year is half over, if I'm staying beyond August 31 I need to adjust the amount withheld for 401(k). 

I could keep it as is and be done with it by August 31, but I would not get 5% matching contributions from my employer if I don't contribute from each paycheck at least 5% myself. In other words, they "match" up to 5%.  If I put in 4% for one pay period, they match 4%.  If I put in zero, they put in zero. I found this out the hard way a while back, when I decided to contribute over 25 paychecks instead of 26, figuring that higher 26th paycheck would come in handy for the holidays.  It did, but I didn't get the match.  So I've calculated the date by which I need to decide this.  It is June 1. 

[bobosensei]

Account	Goal	Saved	Percent
401k	8430	1405.28	16.67%
HSA	3500	500	14.3%
Roth	6000	0	0%
House Projects	3000	1070.65	35.7%
Sinking Funds	2400	200	8.33%
Christmas	2000	0	0%
Total	25430	0	0%

Last weekend I spent 469 getting most of the carpet in my house steam cleaned.  I paid extra for a pet treatment and to protect the carpet afterwards.  When my pup died last summer he couldn't control his bowels the last couple of months.  There were 3 rooms in particular that he was prone to go in.  The carpet was brand new when I moved in so it is almost 2 years old now, and something I feel like is good to do periodically to help make the carpet last longer anyway.  They got out a bunch of spots, and it smells and feels so clean now.  

I have 1200 extra bucks in checking and will have 2300 by the end of March.  Initially my idea was to it in the roth, at least enough to catch up with a 500 a month contribution to get me on track for the year.  However, I've been considering refinancing my house.  I bought with a 5% interest rate for a first time homeowner where I only needed 3% down.  I'm seeing rates as low as 3.25% which would save me hundreds a month, and would save me the PMI in a few years when I could drop that.  I'd need that 2300 for closing costs though.  I'm going to a credit union tomorrow to discuss.  Only thing in the back of my mind is whether the recently dropped interest rates by the fed will lower mortgage rates in the near future.

[flamingo]

I'm a little behind on updating. Oops!


UPDATE



                            Current          Goal          Change



Savings/Efund.      $7,618          $10,000.      $200



Vacation Fund.      $200               $3,000.       $200



Total.                   $7,818.          $13,000.      $400





I have made a little progress in February. I'm hoping for a little more in March. I have a vacation planned in April, which will stall things out a bit, I'm sure, so I really want to be mindful in March. 


Flamingo, 3/9/20 $7,818 (Goal $13,000)