Money Matters
als1982
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
October/November monthly check-in.
Another month = more financial progress! Please share your successes, reflections and ways you can improve in the coming month here:
October
1. What were your financial goals for the month?
2. Were you able accomplish them?
3. What were your greatest achievements?
4. What were your biggest downfalls?
November
1. What are your money goals for this month?
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff
2. Savings success
3. Net worth watch
GTKY Bonus
In celebration of American Thanksgiving, what are you most thankful for?
HeartlandHustle | Personal Finance and Betterment Blog
Re: October/November monthly check-in.
Wow, October flew by so fast!
October
1. What were your financial goals for the month?
2. Were you able accomplish them?
3. What were your greatest achievements?
4. What were your biggest downfalls?
November
1. What are your money goals for this month?
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff
2. Savings success
3. Net worth watch
GTKY Bonus
In celebration of American Thanksgiving, what are you most thankful for?
I am thankful for our health, our dogs, our home and our careers.
October
1. What were your financial goals for the month? Keep paying off H's student loan, and keep contributing toward retirement.
2. Were you able accomplish them? Yes, but in looking at this month compared to last we put less toward both goals. (Although I'm not sure how/why...)
3. What were your greatest achievements? Just keeping on it. We're at a point in the student loan payoff where things feel stagnant. I'm ready to have that "light at the end of the tunnel" feeling, but I think we're still a few months off from that.
4. What were your biggest downfalls? Booze and eating out. Both together and separately. H had a long work trip this month, and I "treated myself" a few times during. Plus a few more work happy hours than usual, plus I took my staff out to lunch this past week (worth it, but not MM).
November
1. What are your money goals for this month? Our goal is to hit $75,000 in retirement by the end of the year, which we're on track to do. And put at least $3,000 toward student loans.
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals? Keep staying the course.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month? We're actually in the middle of refinancing our mortgage right now. We talked about it a few years ago, but weren't sure we would want to stay in our current house long enough to make it worth it. Now that we have a shiny new bathroom, we've decided to take the plunge. We're going from a 30 year/5.25% to a 15 year/3.25% loan. In total our payment is slated to only increase by $150 a month. According to the calculations I've done, it should take 17-19 months to recoup the closing costs.
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff: $3,114.02 to H's student loan. Balance is now at about $37,800.
2. Savings success: $2,453.96 to retirement. Nothing to liquid savings.
3. Net worth watch: According to Mint, just over $74,000. (We definitely benefited from a good market month!)
GTKY Bonus
In celebration of American Thanksgiving, what are you most thankful for?
My incredible husband, who is ridiculously kind, hard working, smart and funny. My mom and brother, who aside from my husband are my best friends. An incredible network of college friends, who accept me for all my flaws. A great job working for an inspiring mission. And the posters on this board, who offer thoughtful insight, great motivation and genuine encouragement.
1. Goal was to stick to budget, not have to withdraw too much money from savings for this spendy month.
2. Nope, pretty big fail I believe I'm transferring $250 tomorrow to cover all the extra expenses - 2 baby shower gifts, 1 housewarming gift, treats for two school parties, treats for Bible study, Halloween candy (and we had ZERO trick or treaters, ugh).
3. Greatest achievement was coming $10 under on groceries today.
4. Biggest downfalls were gifts, grocery shopping and gasoline. Gifts are hard, everyone is so generous to us, I feel bad not getting a baby gift for example when we were just given a bunch of gifts as we had our third child. Not in a shower setting, just people mailing or bringing us gifts. Groceries I'm worried our budget isn't realistic but we're at least close on that. Gasoline we're changing the budget on because the fact is with preschool and DS's OT we are just driving a lot and I can't change that.
November
1. Money goals are to stick to budget and put money in savings.
2. We're tightening up groceries by nixing snack foods, it will be hard but healthier anyway. Add money to gas budget as our current amount is impossible.
3. Finish reading my money book and implement some of the strategies.
Ongoing Goals
1. 2 car loans, payments are on time, but no extra progress
2. Goal to have tripled emergency savings by next year, no progress this month
3. No clue on net worth
I am most thankful for my kids' health. 3 safe, healthy kids are truly a miracle I thank God for every day.
October
1. What were your financial goals for the month? Spend less eating out; rework our budget to include payments for the front porch (even though it's not finished because it's apparently delayed for eternity.....)
2. Were you able accomplish them? Yes. We haven't been eating out much and we've adjusted our budgets. We will do a big overhaul for January.
3. What were your greatest achievements? Not overspending on little odds and ends so we have more money to pay towards the porch.
4. What were your biggest downfalls? We didn't have any huge downfalls this month. Now that the porch debt is a reality, we are more focused on making sure we start chipping away at it.
November
1. What are your money goals for this month? H's truck will be paid off Nov. 21st (yay!) so we are going to direct that $417 right into his retirement.
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals? Set up the auto contribution to his 401K the day the truck is paid off, so we never see that extra money and get tempted to use it for something else.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month? We're traveling for Thanksgiving, so it will be a challenge to not want to do some shopping while we are in Washington
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff--not really tracked because we are not debt-averse. Just paying everything as agreed.
2. Savings success--We came up with an extra $200 in October that will be applied to the front porch.
3. Net worth watch--I don't keep track of this.
GTKY Bonus
In celebration of American Thanksgiving, what are you most thankful for? I am most thankful for my husband. We first met when I was in college, going through a rough time family-wise. He has been my #1 fan the whole time I've grown, found myself and my independence, and followed my dreams.
October
We generated our biggest cc bill of the year (to be paid in Nov) mainly due to the dog's vet bills for her early Oct cancer diagnosis. However, we also had our highest BnB income of the year this month and that will pay for the cc bill allowing us to stay the course and not dip into savings. Because of low spending in all the other categories we actually are in a position to increase savings a little.
November
We should be able to continue keeping bills low overall and I am still feeling motivated with menu planning. I'll probably do a few soups this month which are great for low spending but also nice for this time of the year.
We want to take a break from BnB but I think I will try to get at least $200 more over the next month so we have extra money to pay for our Christmas travel.
GTKY Bonus
I don't think I can choose one thing when there is so much to be thankful for: health, DH, family, my job and our stable financial situation, and the ability to travel and enjoy a good life.
October
1. What were your financial goals for the month?
Continue sticking to our budget. We also deducted from our eating out budget to allow FI to start saving for an Xbox One instead.
2. Were you able accomplish them?
Yes on both. It got a little tight toward the end of the month. FI needed to replace a pair of shoes that were coming apart, but he hadn't told me to budget for them so I needed to rework things a bit. We got it figured out though.
3. What were your greatest achievements?
Sticking to $25 for eating out, and reducing our electricity usage despite the weather continuing to be in the 90's.
4. What were your biggest downfalls?
Just the issue with FI's shoes.
November
1. What are your money goals for this month?
Just continue sticking to the budget and paying my last credit card.
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?
Credit card is on auto-pay to be paid off the month before the 0% promo expires. For other spending, we're just going to focus on asking ourselves, "Is this a necessary purchase?" and "Can this purchase be made at a later time?" ETA: I printed out a cool picture to color in as we pay off debt, so that's gotten FI a little more excited and involved too.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?
We've gotten our budget down pretty close to bare-bones, so we can't improve much more than that...it's a challenge just sticking to it! Though, I'm trying to finish an iOS development course this month, and since I pay for that monthly, our expenses will decrease a bit once I finish.
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff
After today's payment, I'll have $1350 left on my credit card. $22,400 left for my car, which will be tackled next.
2. Savings success
Not much while still in debt-payoff mode.
3. Net worth watch
I don't watch it currently.
GTKY Bonus
In celebration of American Thanksgiving, what are you most thankful for?
Definitely my family. Nobody else has been as supportive and loving, and helpful in allowing me to accomplish my goals. My daughters have quickly taught me to be more responsible and to be a good role model.
October
1. What were your financial goals for the month?
Pay down student loans, save a little for car replacement, save most of the christmas budget, stay on budget
2. Were you able accomplish them?
Yes.
3. What were your greatest achievements?
Just avoiding temptation to buy stuff and planning ahead for family events.
4. What were your biggest downfalls?
No downfalls this month.
November
1. What are your money goals for this month?
Pay down student loans, save a little for car replacement, save the rest needed for christmas.
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?
Just sticking with the budget strictly.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?
It's as tight as it can get. So just continuing to be creative with food planning and toiletries.
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff
SL's are at 23,991 today down from 55,421 exactly a year ago when we started paying off debt.
2. Savings success
We're up to $1100 in our car replacement fund.
3. Net worth watch
I finally sat down and figured this out instead of just guessing. It was significantly better than my previous guesses! We're at -$8400
GTKY Bonus
In celebration of American Thanksgiving, what are you most thankful for?
October
1. What were your financial goals for the month? Major goal was to save up $500 in my personal savings account to act as a buffer, other goals were the same as usual
2. Were you able accomplish them? Yes! I got the $500 in savings, so I'm happy.
3. What were your greatest achievements? Adding $850 overall to savings ($350 in joint savings towards our 6 month e-fund and $500 in personal savings as a buffer)
4. What were your biggest downfalls? Eating out, like usual. I really need to get better about meal prepping during the week.
November
1. What are your money goals for this month? Start savings towards a trip in Feb and be mindful while Christmas shopping
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals? Stick to my budget I have laid out for the month. I'll probably avoid getting large gifts this year for family members and maybe try making some homemade gifts instead.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month? I don't have any real plans for this, just want to stick my budget and try to limit eating out.
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff- Put $300 towards my student loan owe around $8500, cash flowing some CC purchases
2. Savings success- Put $850 in savings. Still have to save $12,750 for our e-fund but I'm trying to get my SL paid off first
3. Net worth watch- I'm not sure, I haven't calculated it recently. I'll have to for next month.
GTKY Bonus
In celebration of American Thanksgiving, what are you most thankful for? My family. I just really love all of them and I'm so thankful to have them in my life. We've had a crazy year and I'm just thankful to have their love and support thru it all.
October
1. What were your financial goals for the month?
Basically to get settled in our home and new house budget. Aside from small projects, I think our overall monthly costs of owning this home will be cheaper than the condo!
2. Were you able accomplish them?
Yes, I think so!
3. What were your greatest achievements?
We paid off our shed, we got a snowblower, leafblower, replaced our electrical panel (all in cash)
4. What were your biggest downfalls?
Going to Home Depot too much LOL. It's 5 minutes down the street!
November
1. What are your money goals for this month?
Maintain our budget. Now that the biggest projects/items are done, we are going to work on painting/flooring for the 2 bedrooms.
Start saving for our cheap Florida vacation in May
Get back to building our savings account
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?
Just be careful with what we spend. Have H work OT when he can
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?
Nothing different that the usual
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff- None
2. Savings success- We need to get back to this. We stopped once we moved into the house. We just started again this week.
3. Net worth watch- I don't track this
GTKY Bonus
In celebration of American Thanksgiving, what are you most thankful for?
Family, friends, jobs and health
October
1. What were your financial goals for the month? Our goals were to look into life insurance, and use the extra surplus (3 paycheck month) to pay off our entry doors and pay down H's car.
2. Were you able accomplish them? Yes, and then some! We met with the advisor that my life insurance is through and transferred ownership from my parents, as well as made H my beneficiary. We will be purchasing additional life ins for H and myself, but are still in the process of deciding how much coverage we need. It's also a plus that the advisor is also a wealth management advisor so we'll be working with him on investing/how to accumulate wealth!
3. What were your greatest achievements? Our entry doors are paid off (credit card w/0% interest til Dec 2015), H's car is paid off (way sooner than I thought it would happen!) and we had extra leftover to put toward H's SL's. So now our only debt (besides mortgage) is roughly $1500 of SLs. Paying things off yesterday felt great
:)
4. What were your biggest downfalls? Although it was good that we had extra leftover to pay down debt, we had planned on spending a little extra on things we've been meaning to do to take advantage of 3 paychecks. Like a chimney inspection, dry cleaning my wedding dress (finally), and getting my wedding rings soldered. These things were coordinated in October but won't be paid until November, ugh.
November
1. What are your money goals for this month? Decide how much life insurance to purchase, decide how much to allocate to SL payments, decide what to budget for Xmas, work on 2016 budget. Also, eating out less (as is always the goal...)
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals? Keeping lines of communication open with H, prioritizing the decisions, and meal planning better.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month? Going to try to eat out less and meal plan better so that we don't feel the need to eat out.
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff About $1500 left on SLs. Of course the mortgage is debt but we don't view it as such and have no plans to expedite its payoff (except to get rid of the PMI).
2. Savings success Halted until we pay SLs off.
3. Net worth watch Don't track this yet, although I'm curious
GTKY Bonus
In celebration of American Thanksgiving, what are you most thankful for? I'm thankful for many things, but mostly my husband and our happiness & success thus far in our life together.
October
1. What were your financial goals for the month? We did pretty good this month- savings is back on track, sewer repair bill has 2 payments left.
2. Were you able accomplish them? Yes- we got DH's paycheck figured out for the rest of the year and were able to get $500/paycheck back to savings.
3. What were your greatest achievements? Getting back on track
4. What were your biggest downfalls? N/A - we've been so busy with work and the girls' school, we haven't had much time for shopping or an occasional meal out.
November
1. What are your money goals for this month? Keep saving, get a better idea of how much the bathroom gut is going to cost.
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals? Stay on track, price everything out that we want, get some estimates.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month? Same as usual
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff - Mortgage is $94,295, Car is $22,326, and Sewer bill is $1400
2. Savings success - $1,000 went to savings this month, November should be $2,500 more.
3. Net worth watch - doing better with stocks kind of leveling out $334,210.
GTKY Bonus
In celebration of American Thanksgiving, what are you most thankful for?
I'm always thankful for my amazing DH, my beautiful, healthy girls, and a safe, stable home to live in. I feel so thankful that DH and I are a team/on the same page and for what we have created for our family.
October
1. What were your financial goals for the month?
Staying the course.
2. Were you able accomplish them?
Yes
3. What were your greatest achievements?
Reworking our savings goals so that we could enjoy life a little more. Turns out we didn't spend much more than previous months, but it felt much less tight.
4. What were your biggest downfalls?
The Allen Edmonds went out of business so we spent a lot on new shoes for H. On the upside, he's set for the next few years.
November
1. What are your money goals for this month?
Just stay within our new budget.
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?
Keep doing what we're doing.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?
Do Thanksgiving for under $100.
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff
As always, $3200 went to non-mortgage debt.
2. Savings success
I got an extra paycheck this month, so we saved it along with leftover money from our budget.
3. Net worth watch
+$12,000 this month! Still negative though, lol. On the bright side, I think we'll be positive by mid-summer next year, so before I turn 30.
GTKY Bonus
In celebration of American Thanksgiving, what are you most thankful for?
Family, health, and happiness.
October
1. What were your financial goals for the month?
we are in the process of buying a house, so just wanted to save some money
2. Were you able accomplish them?
yes... not as much into savings as i wanted because of some moving costs
3. What were your greatest achievements?
Getting through the home buying process!
4. What were your biggest downfalls?
spending too much on eating out, but couldn't be avoided really because we had to be out of the house so much since we are selling our house...
November
1. What are your money goals for this month?
save a good chunk of money! and once the house is ours, pay off the last student loan. we have the money sitting, we were just advised not to do such a big payment during the loan process.
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?
stick to our budget
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?
to just watch our dollars and not get carried away buying stuff for the new house
GTKY Bonus
In celebration of American Thanksgiving, what are you most thankful for?
my family! and being able to buy a new house, very exciting
1. What were your financial goals for the month?
I wanted to bulk up my savings to $750.
2. Were you able accomplish them?
No
My bonus at work was less than I was expecting, and I also sent my mom some money to help pay for her dog's surgery. She just paid for my wedding so I figured it was the least I could do.
3. What were your greatest achievements?
Not having to dip into my savings to pay for anything, I did better staying on budget.
4. What were your biggest downfalls?
I spent too much on a top from Stitch Fix. I returned 4 of the 5 items they sent me, but the one top they sent me was just adorable and is great for both work and non-work and could even work if I got pregnant, so I kept it and spent way more than I normally would on a clothing item.
November
1. What are your money goals for this month?
Just continue on budget to beef up my savings, and to cash flow Thanksgiving instead of having to dip into my savings. I budgeted a little extra for food to help.
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?
Do some extra leg work to shop at grocery sales to save money on Thanksgiving food, instead of just going to one store. I pass by a Safeway on my way to the other store, so it wouldn't be extra gas or anything to shop at 2 stores, just a bit of extra time.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?
I guess the above goal of cash flowing Thanksgiving is the biggest.
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff
Not really in debt payoff mode, as my only debt is student loans and a car at low interest rates. More concerned with building up savings right now.
2. Savings success
See above
3. Net worth watch
I don't keep track of this since there's no point. I have no assets individually.
GTKY Bonus
In celebration of American Thanksgiving, what are you most thankful for?
As with everyone else, thankful for my family. Also thankful that overall, H has had a better health year this year than he did last year.