January 5, 2007
I never conveniently have a cold fighting arsenal ready when I get sick. I really should because I’ve been getting sick WAY more frequently at this job than I ever have before. Wait, I do have a leftover packet of cough drops from when Savon was having that sale and coupon deal but other than that, I had to get a second carton of OJ after finishing off the first one and the Minute Maid Kids with extra vitamins (I don’t know why I needed that one, I take a multivitamin at night) cost $4.39!! Ridiculous. Actually, it was my own fault for asking MaDucky to pick it up for me while I was at work, thinking it was still on sale. MaDucky just assumed it HAD to be that brand, regardless of the sale.
Man, being sick is one thing, but messin’ with my budget is MUCH less ok!!
January 3, 2007
BigPuppy doesn’t like her picture taken, but she’ll do it if Mom makes her. Reaaaallly makes her with disapproving noises and scolds. LittlePuppy wanted me to know that he was entirely disinterested. He posed for the photos in his younger days, but no more. Anyway, these are my furry little medical expenses =)
It’s a work in progress, it turns out. I’ve been working the numbers and trying to find a happy medium between my projected base salary without overtime and a realistic salary including overtime. The reason I’d rather not just use my base salary is because it’s extremely rare for me NOT to work overtime. And I frankly don’t make enough just with my base salary to meet all bills and savings goals.
My compromise is not to set savings goals SO high that I feel obligated to work 50 hours of overtime every two weeks but keep them high enough to account for the inevitable overtime. I think I can get away with about 30-35 hours and still make these goals.
Ideally, I’d like to save the following amounts and categories:
Mini e-fund for non-critical emergencies (asap): 5k = 416/month
Roth (12 mos): 4k = 333/month
House and/or Wedding (24 mos): 15K-20k = 625-833/month
Vacation/Travel (12 mos): 3k = 250/month
Car maintenance, starter fund for next vehicle (12 mos): 5k = 416
= 2040-2248/month
= 24,480-26,976/year
I think my new, most realistic, goals will be:
1. Mini e-fund: 3200 (01/07-04/07)
2. House fund: 6400 (05/07-12/07)
3. Roth: 4000 (1/07-12/07)
4. Car: 2640 (01/07-12/07)
= 1353/month
= 16,240/year
while budgeting 28,320 for bills and rent and increasing the pre-tax 403(b) contribution to 500/month. Any extra monies will go straight to the House fund. The increase in bill money is not an indication that I expect expenses to go up, but rather to give myself a teeny tiny cushion in that account so that I don’t feel like I’m always running on empty each month. This, and all continued efforts to keep regular expenses down, should prevent any borrowing from the e-fund, as well.
Still to come:
Opening my Roth IRA – Educate me, Vanguard! I’m having trouble picking a mutual fund.
Submit my increased contribution to the 403(b)
*Note: I’m rather disappointed to realize that I’m only projecting a 36% savings rate (not including the pretax retirement 403[b]) this year. Well, whatever I make over the allocations will go towards savings as well.
January 2, 2007
One of the new gals broke our no-gifting-pact and got us matching shirts. Well, if we must…..
December 29, 2006
I’m not at home today, as I’m usually not when trying to access my accounts online, and I find that Citibank has decided that, occasionally, they will ask for additional information to access my account. That information? No, nothing that I could just remember offhand like additional security passwords. No no, they want your banking card number AND an account number of any account that is associated with that banking card. Of course.
I tried clicking on cancel to see if there are other questions I could answer instead, and it adds another question. AND THEN when I click on the link asking “what if I can’t answer these questions?” in hopes of getting some reasonable explanation for this idiocy, I find their smarmy mouthed answer to be: The answers of these questions are readily available to you as an account holder.
Um, NO, they’re NOT “readily available” you jerks! I’m not at home and I don’t carry account statements in my back pocket! With nearly a dozen bank accounts, it’s completely unreasonable to think that I’m going to just memorize the account numbers. And now I have to sit on hold for an eternity. I really have better things to do, Citibank.
December 27, 2006
If I seemed to be forgetting something, or more accurately, someones in my holiday bonus posting, I haven’t. The problem of what I’m going to do about my parents’ retirement is definitely still on my mind. I just haven’t come up with a good solution. Initially I thought that I could just save my butt off so as to have money for them, considered opening Roth IRAs for them, and even pondered a living trust. I still haven’t created a feasible solution.
The main problems:
1. They haven’t saved anything for retirement. I’ll be starting from scratch.
2. Neither BoyDucky or I are exactly poised for high income lives. I’ve got grad school and career development sometime in the future (which is an expense) and he’s got a comfortable start to his career but it’s a mid-level sort of job that’s not going to become a 6 or 7 figure income. Neither of us are currently entrepreneurial. Our parents were and while his are now quite well-off, mine certainly aren’t. Whatever I come up with cannot vaguely depend on our becoming ridiculously wealthy. I’m not opposed to that, though!
3. I cannot depend on BroDucky to help.
The goal:
I want my parents to have a comfortable life in their older years but I don’t know what that’ll consist of, exactly. Ideally, I’d really like to be able to purchase a small home for them, and provide a small income for their use. At the least, I don’t want them to have to worry about payments: housing, car, or otherwise. Maybe they won’t get to travel extensively and dine finely but so long as they’re able to get around, aren’t in debt, are well-fed and feel loved, I’ll be happy.
I’m going to look at Vanguard and Charles Schwab to get an idea of what a living trust requires and if that’s even an option.
December 26, 2006
I’m still working on my financial goals for 2007!! I’ve been laboring over the figures today but I’m still not quite there yet. Anybody else already done? I see that several people got the jump, check out the list at Flexo’s!
