Money Matters
csuave
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.
September/October check in
September
1. What were your financial goals for the month and were you able to accomplish them?
October
2. What are your financial goals for the month and how will you accomplish them?
Status of Ongoing Goals
3. What are your short, middle and/or long term goals, and what are you doing to accomplish them?
GTKY Bonus: MM Lurker Advice
4. What MM frustration do you have and how do you deal with it/work on it?
GTKY Bonus: Pets
5. Do you have a pet?
Re: September/October check in
September
1. Our main goal is to increase savings but Sept was a spendy month and had high bills from the vet and our Chicago trip. We did pretty good considering. BnB income was high and did a lot to help achieve our ending balance for Sept.
October
2. We will continue to try and increase savings. Oct was lining up to be a low spend month but now our dog needs to have a lump removed and that surgery will probably offset any savings gains.
Status of Ongoing Goals
3. Building savings is the main goal right now; we will stay the course.
GTKY Bonus: MM Lurker Advice
4. I never lived by a budget before I got married. It has been an adjustment but knowing that we can change the budget as needed helps keep the frustration down. Some goals just need to be pushed out when things like vet bills come up.
GTKY Bonus: Pets
5. We have a dog (Westie). She is getting close to 10. I was a cat person before marrying H but this dog is great and has made me appreciate dogs more than I ever thought I would.September
1. What were your financial goals for the month and were you able to accomplish them?
Yes! I think we are officially back on track. We paid off our Home Depot 0% credit card for our doors, We paid off our grill, and we were able to start adding back to our e-fund and vacation account
October
2. What are your financial goals for the month and how will you accomplish them?
We will need to pay for our furnace cleaning, and soil/seed the landscapers did a few weeks ago. We need to watch our spending and keep adding to our e-fund and vacation account. Our household goal is to get new white outlets for our bathroom and maybe hang 2 more pictures up to complete this room.
Status of Ongoing Goals
3. What are your short, middle and/or long term goals, and what are you doing to accomplish them?
Short- Just to keep savings (e-fund, vacation)
Middle- By the end of December we want to bring our e-fund back to $10K and have our 2017 Antigua trip paid for.
GTKY Bonus: MM Lurker Advice
4. What MM frustration do you have and how do you deal with it/work on it?
My frustration is always how to balance savings for multiple things/goals! We just bought a new house so it's going to be a slow process to get all new furniture, decorate, and change out exterior/interior things that we don't like. We do a little at a time, but I feel like it will take years and I just don't have the patience! I want it all done now! This is all on top of trying to savings for future vacations and retirement. To help me calm down about it, we automate our retirement so we don't really have to think about it and increase it every year. Then we set monthly house goals for items that we want/need for our house. We 0% finance them or we save up the cash depending on what it is and do it a little at a time.
GTKY Bonus: Pets
5. Do you have a pet?
Yes, I have a 10yr old Maltese. He's adorable!
September
1. What were your financial goals for the month and were you able to accomplish them?
Yes! We saved the majority of my paycheck and socked it away in savings.
October
2. What are your financial goals for the month and how will you accomplish them?
Well my income just got cut in half so we could play catch up on our federal tax withholding so the goal is just to put whatever we can into savings which will be significantly less for the next three months. Our secondary October goal is to stick to our new budget, we've been pretty lax lately.
Status of Ongoing Goals
3. What are your short, middle and/or long term goals, and what are you doing to accomplish them?
Short term - Save up another 6 months of expenses by April.
Mid term - After the secondary e-fund is complete, save $11k to contribute to Roth IRAs for myself and H.
Long term - Ongoing savings for retirement, we had a baby discussion this weekend so I guess we would need to figure out what money we want to start working into the monthly budget to allow for the additional costs of a child.
GTKY Bonus: MM Lurker Advice
4. What MM frustration do you have and how do you deal with it/work on it?
Budgeting. Like others have said, I never lived on a budget prior to getting married and while I was saving for retirement, it was nowhere near the level I am saving now. I work on it by having regular budget talks with my DH, we talk about our mutual financial goals and where we are at in relation to that. Having a partner in all of this helps immensely.
GTKY Bonus: Pets
5. Do you have a pet?
Yes! A 3 year old lab/border collie mix named Cinders.
September
1. What were your financial goals for the month and were you able to accomplish them?
Move $5,000 total to both Roth IRA accounts, get bathroom ready for fixture install. We're good with both!
October
2. What are your financial goals for the month and how will you accomplish them?
Finish bathroom, keep with usual withdrawals (401K, 403b, 529 plans)
Status of Ongoing Goals
3. What are your short, middle and/or long term goals, and what are you doing to accomplish them?
short: complete bathroom, fund $6,000 more to both Roth IRA accounts by the end of the year. Set up monthly withdrawals for Roth IRA in 2017.
middle: Figure out exterior work- we have 2 estimates for about the same price.. hardie vs. certainteed will be the biggest decision. Keep saving, start to pay off mortgage faster. Get through the final 9 day care payments for DD#2. Add 1% to 401k in April when I get my yearly raise (usually only 3%), re-evaluate 529 plans for the girls.. make sure we're contributing enough.
long: pay off house by the time I turn 40, look into "retiring" from current employer at 42 (will have 20 years of pension at that point).
GTKY Bonus: MM Lurker Advice
4. What MM frustration do you have and how do you deal with it/work on it?
My biggest problem is probably having too large of a e-fund. I need to realize that the money is better off in other places. Need to get over that hurdle- baby steps.
GTKY Bonus: Pets
5. Do you have a pet?
We do not. I always had a cat growing up and DH always had a dog growing up. My cat passed away about 5 years ago (she was 14) and our dog passed away about 4 years ago. Ever since then we've just decided to put our focus on the girls- it's easier with both of us working. We aren't home enough for a dog and DH doesn't really like cats... makes cleaning a lot easier too!
September
1. What were your financial goals for the month and were you able to accomplish them?
Our goal was to put $550 toward Hawaii. We put $750 toward it, so even better.
October
2. What are your financial goals for the month and how will you accomplish them?
We want to put $1,000 toward our Hawaii fund.
Status of Ongoing Goals
3. What are your short, middle and/or long term goals, and what are you doing to accomplish them?
Short: Save for incidentals in Hawaii, then for birth of baby #2.
Middle: Find other avenues of income so that I can stay home, and continue to contribute some of my income to retirement.
Long: Retire between 50-55.
GTKY Bonus: MM Lurker Advice
4. What MM frustration do you have and how do you deal with it/work on it?
My frustration is with telling myself no. There are a lot of things that I want and that I feel would give us a more functional life or it would be easier to just buy and have. But I have to remind myself constantly that they're just "things" and "things" don't matter. I tell myself no a lot in regards to clothes, eating out, having the latest techy gear, etc.
GTKY Bonus: Pets
5. Do you have a pet?
Yup. An 11 year old cat named Spooky that never comes out, and an 8 year old Collie named Sadie that is our first child. She's also my running buddy and DD's best friend.
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
September
1. What were your financial goals for the month and were you able to accomplish them?
We were in maintenance mode and we were able to do it plus save about an extra $1k.
October
2. What are your financial goals for the month and how will you accomplish them?
This month I finally have my Roth 401(k) starting! I set it to 10% so the big goal will be to be able to maintain our current set weekly savings amounts and have the difference come from the random "found" money and our former car payment (which up until now I was paying to our efund once a month).
Status of Ongoing Goals
3. What are your short, middle and/or long term goals, and what are you doing to accomplish them?
Short term is just keep cash-flowing IVF co-pay costs. I need to stop stress eating-out because I'm too lazy to cook and it should be doable.
Mid-term is to either do some bigger renovations or buy an income property next year. We just keep adding to our investment account so that we can hopefully grow the money for these things faster (and if not then it's not the end of the world to keep waiting).
Long term is to be financially secure by our mid-40s so that working is an option, not a requirement.
GTKY Bonus: MM Lurker Advice
4. What MM frustration do you have and how do you deal with it/work on it?
Not having enough time and money to do all the house renovations I want. I deal with it by reminding myself that we have forever to fix this house and I actually have everything I need.
GTKY Bonus: Pets
5. Do you have a pet?
ETA: I'd love to show you a picture but it won't attach! Rawr.
September
1. What were your financial goals for the month and were you able to accomplish them?
October
2. What are your financial goals for the month and how will you accomplish them?
Status of Ongoing Goals
3. What are your short, middle and/or long term goals, and what are you doing to accomplish them?
GTKY Bonus: MM Lurker Advice
4. What MM frustration do you have and how do you deal with it/work on it?
GTKY Bonus: Pets
5. Do you have a pet?