Pics of this fabulous robe requested. I am currently investigating robes for myself, though at below that mark.
I think the birkin is meant to show you are Valued by a person so wealthy the $$ don’t matter to them. Pretty much it’s crap.
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it’s one of the ways I process the unreality of money and help myself stay on track with savings and not feel deprived. I could go out and buy x, is that what I really want to do with that set of money? because once I’ve done that I won’t be able to use that money for something else.
I add absurd things in because it increases my decision paralysis/procrastination, reminds that I’m doing this by choice when I see my more affluent sisters going off to London/Paris/NYC
or buying a cottage, and I hope helps me hold onto gratitude as to the abundance in my life. And it reminds me that this is about my priorities, and other people would think the things I choose to spend money on look equally ridiculous to them & try to have more empathy. I mean, I’ve spent $150 on a hat.
I started out playing this game in the grocery store. I could buy that magazine, but…
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Back to a more typical amount of savings for May. ~225% of goal.
Do we stop posting once we’ve reached our goal?
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You can keep posting if you want!
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Oh. I’m a dingus. I figured out I already have the numbers I need to use 
I track our NW delta sans market action (mostly goes into 401ks or sits in cash until we put it into IRAs), so I just added those up for the year so far (and it’s even missing Dec to Jan since I started a new spreadsheet and didn’t link them up). So far this year, our “direct action/sans market” delta is $22,605. A decent chunk of that was tax returns lol, but we’re also $2-5k/month in the black generally.
I guess we already hit our goal then 
honestly, I don’t understand how we save so much, I feel like an exploding volcano of waste most of the time. 
Eta $675 extra for Dec to Jan. Thank you SirB.
Also means we’re at a 45.5% savings rate (from gross pay) for the year looks like.
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It wasn’t even fabulous. It was a red cashmere robe. Very plush, but not something I would ever really wear. I sold it online and used the money to buy books and fancy lotions. So still honoring the intention of something frivolous and self indulgent without making me angry at a robe costing more than my wedding dress.
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Total to retirement accounts YTD: $8,700. We’re not halfway through the year yet, but I’m halfway through my paychecks (I get a total of ten, monthly pay but no pay June and July). So whether we meet the $20k goal is probably going to depend on whether/how much we save in a savings account to put into a tIRA at the end of the year.
Or, you know. I am owed a substantial raise because of my promotion to full professor, which goes into effect in August. With the crisis all around, I don’t really expect to get it, though. Which sucks mightily; it would be $10,000-$15,000, and there won’t be any chance to make it up later, so it’ll impact the rest of my career quite substantially.
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Oh no that sucks. Is there a possibility they will do anything retroactively later or is that a never-gonna-happen sort of thing?
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Don’t know; we’re in uncharted waters here. But you can bet I’ll push for it if it comes to that. Just don’t have much hope. We’re not going to have any money year after next either.
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Oh, but you guys don’t feel too sorry for me: if I go the Chief Data Officer route in a couple years ( which I’m leaning toward), pay will spike above the max I’d expect to get to as a full prof. So I probably have options, and if I were in this for the money, I’d be at an entirely different institution.
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It’s payday week again so time for another update
June: £1000 to investments, and £306 to my pension. There’s likely to be a bit of spare cash that I can put into cash emergency fund, but I’m probably going to buy a new phone so holding some back for that.
Total for the year is at £8001 , so ~£300 ahead of target, which is great.
My spreadsheets appear to have jumped up by a bunch this month - I am not sure I quite understand how the markets are all doing well again, but it means my numbers tick over the 10% to FI number for the first time which is pleasant (though I will do my best not to get attached!)
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We are up to $11,300 in our savings bucket. Expecting to boost that with our tax returns sometime in the next couple of weeks.
ETA: I went back up to check what I wrote last time.
So, being consistent:
$11,300 budgeted savings
$ 6,100 net income according to YNAB (they are finally starting to catch up!)
Also I am still super impressed by @QueenAlice’s graphs and am looking forward to working out how to replicate them.
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I stuffed up a few months and forgot to count some stuff.
So my June update is $20424.70
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Let me know if you want to zoom for a chat when you’re working on it!
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No June pay so no real updates. Husband should get paid for teaching two classes in the next couple of days, and he’s been getting the pandemic unemployment payments, so cash reserves have gone up, which may make the IRAs more likely.
But no contracts for next year yet from my institution (or any in the state). Those are due to us in April, so for the moment no one knows if they’ll ave a job or how much it will pay if so.
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June Retirement Savings
- $1,800 457 plan
- $142.78 mandatory employee contribution
- $414.54 employer contribution
- $0 403(b)
Total YTD: $17,804.10
89.02% to 20k!
Next month is a 3 paycheck month so we are definitely going to hit the 20k mark. The rest of the year is kinda on autopilot at this point and assuming I still have my job through the end of the year, I should finish up right around 32k in my retirement accounts. Which is insane because only 7 years ago I made about 32k total. Very lucky to be in a position to be able to save like this. Also could not do it without having a dual income household with a similarly frugal partner.
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This would be super helpful once I’ve had a go at it.
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Oh, December Ramona, casually throwing out that “I can’t predict what the markets will do.” Although it seems like pretty much everything has rebounded for me from this spring.
I am right on track, and actually a bit ahead. My goals were:
- Max out 457b (at about $9700, deductions are automated so nothing to do here)
- Max out Roth (maxed out last year’s Roth, which I hadn’t finished and wasn’t officially a goal, but it made sense to do it before contributing to it for 2020, and contributed $3500 to this year, so I’m right on track for that if I keep doing $500/mo)
- In addition, I’ve added $5000 to my emergency fund
I am saving about 66% of my income if I include employer contributions. And my net worth is climbing. I feel like I’ve hit this point of no return where my money is just growing without me trying very hard. It’s a weird feeling.
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Update for June
Cash Savings YTD: $12,811.64
Traditional IRA: $1,431.84
YTD Total: $14,243.48 /$20,000 (71% Total of goal at 49% of the way through the year)
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At the end of June we are $9975/AU$29 425
It was to be expected. I had large medical bills and we decided to spend money while also taking a 20% income reduction. It could have been much worse. I got some cute dresses to wear while pregnant too…
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