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.
December/January monthly check-in.
Happy New Year!! I know there's been a lot about 2016 money resolutions, but would other posters also be interested in a 2015 year in review thread? In the meantime, here's the same monthly progress report I've posted the last few months:
December
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?
January
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
What financial accomplishment are you most proud of from 2015?
HeartlandHustle | Personal Finance and Betterment Blog
Re: December/January monthly check-in.
January is planned as our month to re-energize and buckle down! January is also the month we tend to spend less since we're over shopping/spending.
December
1. What were your financial goals for the month? Our goals were to keep credit cards low, pay off new Xmas décor bills, increase vacation savings, and our e-fund
2. Were you able accomplish them? Yes and no. Xmas stuff is paid off, we put $200 in vacation, bumped up our savings account 2K, but in the meantime we bought a Bose radio with H's uncles work discount, (H's uncle bought us a Bose theater system for a housewarming gift!),a new TV for the man cave, and furniture that we are financing for 6months (did it for a discount, and will be paid off 3 months early). I am also buying a new car this weekend and will be taking 2K out of savings towards the down payment (at least I have my current car to trade in too- it's paid off)
3. What were your greatest achievements?
All of the above and not going broke! LOL
4. What were your biggest downfalls?
The above could look like a downfall but we can afford it all so we are good with it. As long as we have plenty of $ in the bank and can have fun, we can buy, buy, buy lol.
January
1. What are your money goals for this month?
Keep paying off furniture, keep bills low, add to vacation fund and savings account, and get some small projects done around the house (painting etc)
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?
Keep spending in check
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?
Just keep plugging away
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff- We will finish paying off furniture by March, no consumer debt other than this
2. Savings success- Keep adding to savings every month
3. Net worth watch- Don't track this
GTKY Bonus
What financial accomplishment are you most proud of from 2015?
The fact that we sold our condo in a crappy market and broke even at least- we worked hard to get to that point
Bought a great house for a great price in a crappy market and had a good down payment
We were able to stay with my parents in between the condo sale and house purchase and save up cash towards the down payment, closing costs, a new shed, snowblower etc.
Being financially able to furnish H's mancave with goodies, buy a new tree and house lights for our first Christmas and buy me and new car! Sometimes I don't know why I feel broke, but man I guess we do pretty good for ourselves...I can't complain really! I'm just so proud of us....
December
1. What were your financial goals for the month? Stay the course
2. Were you able accomplish them? Kind of
3. What were your greatest achievements? We were on pace to have a really low spending month especially since we spent a week away and the majority of those expenses were already paid for (plane tickets)....but then...
4. What were your biggest downfalls? $600 something in car repairs that were unplanned for. But these types of repairs were due to happen sooner or later and now we have it taken care of. The pet hotel was also kind of expensive. They raised their rates but we had a coupon to offset. The bill will come next month on our cc so I'm not really counting for this month. I have an extra pay on Friday that should help offset that anyway.
January
1. What are your money goals for this month? Stay the course and make up ground from recent expenses.
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals? Use extra paycheck and most of Christmas money gifted to us for planned expenses instead of fun stuff. Continue to buckle down and meal plan. We will get together with friends next week and instead of going out to dinner like usual we are having them over. I figure we can menu plan a meal for 4 that will cost less than the bill for the two of us going out. It helps that they are vegetarians so we will make a meatless meal.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month? Less eating out unless it is at a great discount like the completely free meal we have coming our way from Chick fil A.
Bonus
What financial accomplishment are you most proud of from 2015? Our biggest downfall was finding out H had racked up a personal credit card debt. When I found that out he let me advise him on his personal finances and he is making some improvements now and started driving Uber so that was an accomplishment.
Overall our biggest accomplishment was finding ways to create more income like Uber mentioned above. For our household budget I recognized this need early in 2015 and inspired by the MM board decided to rent our guest room. We grossed over $6K in rent for the year which was a huge help paying for some wants and needs.
December
1. What were your financial goals for the month? Pay off sewer job, $1000 to regular savings, $1000 to vacation fund.
2. Were you able accomplish them? Yes for all 3
3. What were your greatest achievements? Getting our sewer job bill ($8200) paid off in 12 months using a 0% credit card.
4. What were your biggest downfalls? N/A
January
1. What are your money goals for this month? Save $1,000, DH's 403b is up to 5%
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals? Keep to budget
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month? DH's paycheck will decrease slightly so we need to make up for that change by making sure we keep his credit card to essential purchases (gas, groceries).
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff - Mortgage (4% at 15 years: $93,025), Car Loan (0.9% at 48 months: $21,350)
2. Savings success - 10 months of expenses saved plus $8,500 in vacation savings account.
3. Net worth watch - $332,850
GTKY Bonus
What financial accomplishment are you most proud of from 2015?
There's really nothing specific from 2015- it was a good year in general. DH got a new job with a great school district, DD#1 started kindergarten (which cut our day care bill quite a bit starting in September), we booked a vacation to Disney world for February 2016, and we paid off our $8,200 sewer bill and re-landscaped the yard ourselves. DH had to buy a new car this year, but we got a great interest rate (0.9%) and my 2003 civic is still going strong. We owe less than $100,000 on our mortgage and if we stay here, it'll be paid off in 2025 at the latest. The girls' 529 plans have over $7,500 each and our general savings account have over 10 months of expenses available if we need it. Good year all around and we're looking forward to 2016!
December
1. What were your financial goals for the month?
Stay within budget for our trip and hit year-end bonuses and hour requirements.
2. Were you able accomplish them?
Yep!
3. What were your greatest achievements?
Probably staying under budget for our trip despite the last-minute booking for Amsterdam, and spending an obscene amount of money on chocolate. I also bought myself a Christmas gift in the form of a Longchamp purse that I've been eyeing for the past year or so. I ran into the color/size I wanted at the duty free store in Frankfurt and paid 80 euros for it, as opposed to the $145+tax it retails for in the US. Even with the exchange rate we came out way ahead, so I considered it a win.
4. What were your biggest downfalls?
We bought a ton of things on Amazon that I had been saving for the end of the year when the CC rewards were better. Only thing is I didn't put money away for them like I should have, so we were cash flowing them. We managed it, but just barely. The good news is we are finally caught up on some much needed items for the house that I've just been refusing to buy until the time was right.
January
1. What are your money goals for this month?
File our taxes early? Other than that, we don't really have any. We're going to be furniture shopping but may not be purchasing until the end of the month or February.
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?
I'm starting our tax return this weekend.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?
No plans.
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff
Same as always - $3,220
2. Savings success
Pretty good - We ended up getting bigger bonuses than expected, and I actually hit the social security contribution cap in early December (which I had completely lost track of), so my last couple of paychecks were bigger than expected. That was the first time I've ever had good feelings about social security.
3. Net worth watch
+$12,243, after our trip spending is subtracted out.
GTKY Bonus
What financial accomplishment are you most proud of from 2015?
We tackled two major remodels and got through them. In retrospect, it was probably stupid to cut it that close, but we managed, and I'm proud of that.
On top of that we also had several thousand dollars of unplanned expenses for my H pop up, primarily related to his job. Again, we got through it, and we have planned 2016 to include them so that we don't get derailed this year.
I also had to frontload tuition payments for my LLM to the tune of about $5,500. We've been floating that amount all year, and we will finally get it back in 2016. It's going to feel great when those last reimbursements come in.
And finally, the thing I'm most proud of is finally letting my stranglehold of the budget go a little bit the last couple of months. I have spent years squeezing money out of the budget, first to buy the house, then to remodel the house... and sometimes it has strained my relationship with H. Now that we are on the back-end of everything, I'm trying to loosen the purse strings a little bit. It's actually been a difficult adjustment, but I'm getting there and my marriage is much better for it.
December
1. What were your financial goals for the month?
Pay down debt, save some for car replacement, stay on budget, cashflow medical bills.
2. Were you able accomplish them?
Yup.
3. What were your greatest achievements?
We paid off $2159 in debt and put $100 in savings even though we had about $310 in medical bills and about $175 in property taxes.
4. What were your biggest downfalls?
Being a sickly individual that perplexes doctors with her ailments certainly doesn't help lol. Thankfully I scheduled all the tests they wanted done for December because I've met the deductible already. But I'm still going to be looking at over $500 in co-insurance costs whenever the bill comes.
January
1. What are your money goals for this month?
Pay off medical bill, save for car replacement, and pay off as much debt as possible.
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?
We'll sit down and do the budget tomorrow and set the plan for the month. We each received a $100 gift card from H's F/SM and we are using a cash gift from my boss combined with our xmas gifts to each other so that we'll each have about $145 for clothes purchases at the beginning of the year.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?
I got a raise that will begin in January, so I think it's just going to be about using the extra $200 a month take home the best way we can.
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff
DH's total loan balance is now under 20k! We're sitting at $19,566.23 in debt. We're on track to pay it off by the first week of August 2016.
2. Savings success
Up to $1200 in the car replacement fund. That $100/month really adds up!
3. Net worth watch
About -3000. We'll be positive in February!
GTKY Bonus
What financial accomplishment are you most proud of from 2015?
No contest: paying off a ton of student loans. We started the year with $47,000 in student loan debt and paid it down to under 20k while making about $73k gross this year with DH unemployed for awhile. Most months we were putting 48-50% of take home towards debt. Also proud of getting H 100% on board with a frugal lifestyle. He is so adorable now looking for special buys on meat and rationing his blow money for the month.
December
1. What were your financial goals for the month?
Mostly just stick to budget, and continue debt payoff.
2. Were you able accomplish them?
Yes. We came in just under budget, and credit card payment was made on the 1st.
3. What were your greatest achievements?
Being able to cashflow the rest of the gifts we bought and still stay under budget.
4. What were your biggest downfalls?
I honestly don't think we had any this month.
January
1. What are your money goals for this month?
Make final credit card payment at the end of the month (paying off 1.5 months early), and start rebuilding our emergency fund.
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals?
Making the last credit card payment will be easy, and for the emergency fund, I have a large glass jar with a paper taped to it to write down how much we've contributed each week. FI does better when he has a visual of that kind of thing. Halfway through the year or at the end of the year I'll put it into a high interest savings account.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month?
I'm still searching for a better paying/more stable job. I have an interview on Sunday, and I was emailed about another one, and I'm just waiting for the recruiter to get back to me to confirm the interview. I'm also starting a graduate-level certificate program through Harvard Extension School at the end of the month, which will open a lot of job opportunities for me.
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff
$440 left to pay on my credit card, then I'll be moving on to my student loans ($38k).
2. Savings success
Savings will start up again this month.
3. Net worth watch
I don't watch it at the moment.
GTKY Bonus
What financial accomplishment are you most proud of from 2015?
I was able to pay off $7k in credit card debt in 6 months, despite being on unemployment. I also rolled over my old 401k into a Roth IRA. I would call that an accomplishment in the sense that I've learned a lot about finances and investing this year, and before I would have left the 401k where it was and wouldn't have known that converting it to a Roth would benefit me.
December
1. What were your financial goals for the month? I don't remember. Staying on budget for the holidays probably.
2. Were you able accomplish them? I only went $80 over budget, and it was on giving tree gifts.
3. What were your greatest achievements? Fully funding our new $1000 liquid efund (in addition to our $2K CD)
4. What were your biggest downfalls? Eating out too often
January
1. What are your money goals for this month? Increasing my Roth IRA contribution from $20 to $100/month. Selling a few things from around the house.
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals? I have already changed my auto contribution to my Roth IRA.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month? I'm going to try to have a near-no spend month.
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff--Not a huge concern right now, but we have already paid off about $2K of our front porch.
2. Savings success--Fully funded e-fund, started building back up the vacation savings.
3. Net worth watch--I don't keep track.
GTKY Bonus
What financial accomplishment are you most proud of from 2015? Paying off H's truck and getting him to increase his retirement contributions.
I'm late to my own party - but this is the first time I've sat down at our home computer since creating this post nearly a week ago!
December
1. What were your financial goals for the month? Stay under budget for Christmas.
2. Were you able accomplish them? No, we failed miserably. Our gift budget was $1,200, but I'm guessing we spent closer to $1,500. We also both took advantage of the Nordstrom and Cole Haan after-Christmas sales to stock up on work clothes and shoes.
3. What were your greatest achievements? We had a line item budgeted to have our vents and ducts cleaned, but when the company got here (we also scheduled them to tune-up our furnace) they said we didn't need it done. So, that extra $600 helped offset our Christmas gift and post-holiday shopping binge.
4. What were your biggest downfalls? The holidays.
January
1. What are your money goals for this month? Get back on track with being more diligent with every dollar.
2. How do you plan to be successful in your goals? Basic will power.
3. How do you plan to improve or challenge yourself financially this month? Not a challenge per se, but we'll need to revamp our 2016 budgets once we get our first 2016 paychecks because of some pretty drastic changes in retirement holdings.
Status of Ongoing Goals
1. Debt payoff: $3,225.49 to H's student loan. Balance is now at $29,175
2. Savings success: $2861.68 to retirement accounts - but it sure doesn't feel like it! Guess I'll comfort myself in the fact we're buying low.
3. Net worth watch: This feels pretty stagnant at a little over $85,500.
GTKY Bonus
What financial accomplishment are you most proud of from 2015? Paying off my grad school loan in May and then moving full steam ahead with H's loan. Since May, we've already been able to cut the balance in half. I look forward to having it gone completely this summer!!