Money Matters
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Money Goals

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Re: Money Goals

  • @brij2006: 2 years is really good! We're on the 5 year plan... we considered selling our cars for beaters but it just didn't make a large enough dent to make it worth it. Sometimes I really wish I could just stop caring.... ignorance is bliss.


    You will get there, don't worry. One of the things that has helped me is plugging extra money into the snowball spreadsheet and seeing how much quicker we will be done.  Then I try to find a way to make extra money to have that number happen. 

    I feel you on stop caring.  We were always those people who thought we were doing just fine.  We paid our bills with no problem, invested into retirement, had a mortgage payment of less than 25% of our income, and had 6 months E-fund.  But in the end we realized that we were wanting to go on trips and do things with friends that cost $3-5k (we love to travel) and it would take us all year to slowly save to make it happen.  We realized that on our income that shouldn't be a problem and was rediculous that we had to pinch in order to get that amount saved. 

    Just remember that you've made this decision to better your life and your future.  You now know what to do with your money and tell your money how to act.  There's so much more to Dave Ramsey's plan than just getting out of debt.  It's the mental/emotional part of money too.

    TTC since 1/13  DX:PCOS 5/13 (long, anovulatory cycles)
    Clomid 50mg 9/13 = BFP! EDD 6/7/14 M/C 5w6d Found 11/4/13
    1/14 PCOS / Gluten Free Diet to hopefully regulate my system. 
    Chemical Pregnancy 03/14
    Surprise BFP 6/14, Beta #1: 126 Beta #2: 340  Stick baby, stick! EDD 2/17/15
    Riley Elaine born 2/16/15

    TTC 2.0   6/15 
    Chemical Pregnancy 9/15 
    Chemical Pregnancy 6/16
    BFP 9/16  EDD 6/3/17
    Beta #1: 145 Beta #2: 376 Beta #3: 2,225 Beta #4: 4,548
    www.5yearstonever.blogspot.com 
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  • Right now we are working on my last student loan which has $5,000 left. With all the snowballing we can put $850/mon plus my extra pay In may. Should be paid off this summer.

    Then it's focusing on efund until the baby comes. We should still be saving after baby, just not like before.

    In January, H is opening a 401k with his company with a 5% matching. I've had mine for 7 years.
    Eliza Mae - September 16th, 2014

    Lilypie First Birthday tickers
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  • @brij2006, my wife is finding it funny that anyone who pays attention is guessing that we are currently pregnant and hoping it will stick.  So far so good, but we will know more with her first ultrasound on May 1st.
  • Right now our goal is to build emergency fund to 3 months expenses, which for us is roughly 15,000. Secondary goal is to pay off our car, almost there! Lastly, distant goal of being mortgage free by my 50th birthday. So we have about 13 years roughly.
  • @wulfgar Congratulations to both of you!  FX for a happy and healthy 9 months and you find that everything is growing perfectly on the 1st!

    TTC since 1/13  DX:PCOS 5/13 (long, anovulatory cycles)
    Clomid 50mg 9/13 = BFP! EDD 6/7/14 M/C 5w6d Found 11/4/13
    1/14 PCOS / Gluten Free Diet to hopefully regulate my system. 
    Chemical Pregnancy 03/14
    Surprise BFP 6/14, Beta #1: 126 Beta #2: 340  Stick baby, stick! EDD 2/17/15
    Riley Elaine born 2/16/15

    TTC 2.0   6/15 
    Chemical Pregnancy 9/15 
    Chemical Pregnancy 6/16
    BFP 9/16  EDD 6/3/17
    Beta #1: 145 Beta #2: 376 Beta #3: 2,225 Beta #4: 4,548
    www.5yearstonever.blogspot.com 
                        Image and video hosting by TinyPic

  • I made my first $3000 loan payment last month! This month's will be more like $2000, because I only started salary about halfway through the month. Continuing to save to pay for H summer and fall tuition, as well as contributing to E-fund ($1000 now). We are on baby step 2-3 at the moment. Question, though: does anyone know if you can rent the dvd version of Financial Peace University? 
    PersonalMilestone
  • brij2006 said:

    @wulfgar Congratulations to both of you!  FX for a happy and healthy 9 months and you find that everything is growing perfectly on the 1st!

    Ditto this!
  • Congrats @wulfgar . And Ditto what @brij2006 said!
  • @jessica490 @hoffse : 25% is just one year - next year you many only make 2%.... its not going to average 25% for the next 30 years...  Although 8% is on the low average end and it would hopefully be more like 12% but you never really kno... i'm still really only earning 4% then. Because right now i essentially have compound interest working against me. My student loan payment each month is more then our house payment! ..and thats essentially paying maybe 100 more then interest only. Once the student loans are paid off i'll have an extra 800 a month to put in retirement.

    Although, right now my husband invests 3% in his 401k and he doesn't get any match for 6 years and thats IF his stays with his company for that long which he isn't sure he wants to. However I am now fully vested and my company would match 50% of what we put in, up to 6%. So right now our plan is to move the 4,000 he has in old 401ks over to an IRA and then he will close his 401k and i'll open one and contribute the same. That way we are actually getting matched. Id happily wait a few years to pay off debt faster but my husband is insisting on the 3%.

    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • @vlagrl29: Were those private loans? Because Federal loans even when consolidated just take the average interest rate on your loans and then give you a .25% deduction from that.... not a whole new rate.

    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • We have a couple goals right now- all long term.
    1. save for retirement- I feel like we are in catch up mode because DH wasn't saving much before we were married.
    2. save for college. I'm feeling pretty good about this after looking up our account balance the other day. Based on tuition not raising exponentially over the next couple years, I realized we should have DS's 1st year of college paid for when he is 3. That was really exciting for me because it means that this may be do-able for our kids, not matter how many we end up having.
    3. save for a new house. We will be moving between now and when DS enters school- or middle school at the absolute latest. Our school district is good, but we ended up in a very bad school zone. The elementary is ok, but the middle school and high school are not acceptable to me at all. This is a big one because it will be pretty expensive for us to move into the area I want us to be in- talking about doubling the price of our home. But it will be worth it.
    Short term goal would be saving for a vacation. We are trying to go to either Costa Rica or Aruba in either January or February.
    image
  • vlagrl29vlagrl29 member
    Sixth Anniversary 2500 Comments 500 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited April 2014

    @vlagrl29: Were those private loans? Because Federal loans even when consolidated just take the average interest rate on your loans and then give you a .25% deduction from that.... not a whole new rate.

    They are federal loans.  I paid off my private loan as soon as possible because the rate was 8% and it was variable.

    I remember I got a promotional letter from sallie mae at the time for that low rate, so I took advantage of it.
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • vlagrl29 said:



    @vlagrl29: Were those private loans? Because Federal loans even when consolidated just take the average interest rate on your loans and then give you a .25% deduction from that.... not a whole new rate.


    They are federal loans.  I paid off my private loan as soon as possible because the rate was 8% and it was variable.

    I remember I got a promotional letter from sallie mae at the time for that low rate, so I took advantage of it.


    I haven't heard of that either! Maybe one of those great programs they don't do anymore. Mine are all 6.8%. I could drop a little by doing auto pay but I don't trust auto pay for anything that matters (ie anything other than Netflix).

  • @vlagrl29: Were those private loans? Because Federal loans even when consolidated just take the average interest rate on your loans and then give you a .25% deduction from that.... not a whole new rate.

    They are federal loans.  I paid off my private loan as soon as possible because the rate was 8% and it was variable.

    I remember I got a promotional letter from sallie mae at the time for that low rate, so I took advantage of it.
    I haven't heard of that either! Maybe one of those great programs they don't do anymore. Mine are all 6.8%. I could drop a little by doing auto pay but I don't trust auto pay for anything that matters (ie anything other than Netflix).
    remember i'm much older than you guys….34 next month so this was almost 10 years ago when rates were super low on student loans.
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • The market has averaged about 10% growth per year overall for the last 100 years or so.  It's averaged about 12.5% per year for the past 25 years.  That includes 2008 in those averages.  I invest in funds that typically "beat" the market - some years they do better than others.  2013 was a fantastic year.  2014 is probably going to be pretty damn good too - perhaps not as good as 2013.

    Again, it's not as much about the average rate of return you get in the market, as the time you are losing when you aren't sending your extra money to investments in your 20's.  5 years or 10 years can make an absolutely MASSIVE difference in how much you end up with.  I'm talking hundreds of thousands of dollars.

    It takes TIME to build up a critical mass of money in your investments so that it starts to really grow quickly.  And your biggest asset in your 20's is your time.
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • 1. Pay off credit cards

    2. Increase regular savings to $1,000

    3. Build E fund to $1,000



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