Hey y’all! I’m gonna join in over here. Thought I could hit $20k for the year but an honest look at my budget and plans for 2020 made it clear that was unlikely to happen without a windfall.
So far, I’ve saved $3150.11 (8.5% of my income). This included an annual deposit into my HSA from my employer for $1300. My employer also contributes $391.67 to my retirement each month.
Annnd here we are! I made so much money this month.
YTD post-tax income: $8,421.83
February post-tax income: $4,696.16 (tax refund + 3 jobs)
Cash Savings YTD: $4,787.21
Traditional IRA: $434
February Percentage: 69% of post tax income
YTD Percentage: 61.9% of post tax income
??? of pre-tax income; will calculate end of year
February!
We got profit sharing bonuses in February, which means extra in my 401K this month. I’m not sure if that’s all from my profit sharing, or partially from January being a 3 paycheck month. Maybe I need to actually log into ADP and look at my pay stubs more often? Meh??
The majority of my bonus is being earmarked to buy things that I’ve either been putting off or coveting for a while. I’m going to buy myself some hobby related items - climbing and biking gear isn’t cheap. I also need to do a big stock up at Target on household goods. Anyway…
$1094 - 401K
$20 - Roth IRA
$320 - Emergency fund
$150 - Car fund
Annual running totals!
$1663 - 401K
$40 - Roth IRA
$770 - Emergency fund
$350 - Car fund
Total: $2,823 / $11,250 = 25% of the way there
I am rolling in the dough right now, so this kind of savings won’t continue, but it sure is nice at the moment!
It’s really hard for me to calculate an exact percentage this month because I took out a second personal loan to consolidate my high interest credit card debt. I did that after paying all my regular monthly payments though. I paid a bit more toward debt than is reflected here, but these numbers are still getting me well over 20%.
27.82% for debt payment alone
8.47% for retirement and other straight savings. (Shit I just realized that doesn’t count the 10% of running store paycheck I started putting in a 401k this month!)
36.29% total in categories that count for this challenge!
I just put the tax deductible limit in my HSA - does that count as savings?
ETA: yes.
So in March I will be at:
Gross income: $4609.83 ($1536.61/month)
Net income: $4258.83
Debt repayment: $1200
HSA investing: $8200
Year to date savings:
(note: this is just the money that I have put in. I am NOT looking at my 401k right now because I know it’s plunged because of market nonsense. I’m assuming that events like that don’t count against our savings rate.)
401k: 726.85
Moving fund: 1548.64
E-fund: 1107.55
Total saved YTD: $3,383.04
20% of income = $12,600
$9,216.96 to go!
Yep. You may or may not spend it in the short term, but can use it like an ira after 65(?) if not. I’m up to 45k in mine so it’ll probably be either Ira or medicare premiums.
I am using it for investing / tax relief now, trying to save up for future higher health care costs. I pay for things out-of-pocket now, luckily that is not much $ for me.
Yes, we mostly pay from the HSA, but only one large expense in the last several years (ambulance and ER for chest pains that turned out to be GERD).
I haven’t paid from the HSA yet - but the day will come. I can invest all but $1000. Of course the value has gone down recently, but I am hopeful that long term the market will help build up the $ needed for future issues.
Makes sense to me.
And, since it’s payday, I’ll double post with actual challenge deets.
Saved pretax
Which looks like just about a 75% savings rate if my math isn’t too wonky.
I also moved $12K into two tIRAs today, so the annual savings rate is way more than I’ve made so far. That will come out in the wash as the year goes on, though. It’s almost entirely leftover money from last year, but next year’s will be this year’s leftover money and etc. We’ve been doing this for several years now.
But it’s pretty fun to have a 300% savings rate, at least for a little while. 
February results! We got a tax return that was 70% of our monthly income (!!! I guess I need to adjust withholdings) and our savings rate was 60%.
I put $1k of the tax return in my IRA, the rest we’ve kept in cash to fill out our emergency fund.
Well, the rest of the world is cray, but I can still control my savings (sort of). The extra baby/grocery/anxiety spending this month amounted to $300 out of the sinking fund, but I’m not counting the sinking fund–until I suppose it sinks down so low I have to pull from savings. Hopefully not. But the last few years I used tax money to replenish the sinking fund and this year not, so maybe yes. Maybe I’ll just use the COVID money to do that.
Anyway, March is over enough to do savings numbers.
March:
Salary: $4,382
Other: $1,500 (state tax refund!)
Total Income: $5,882
Loan: $150
Reserve: $1,600
403b: $219
IRA: $1,000
Total Savings: $2,969
March Savings: 50%
2020 Savings: 45%
2020 Total: $7,707
I’ll have to figure out how to classify COVID money. It’s not fair not to count it as income, even if a big chunk goes to the sinking fund. I shaved off (basically rounded) the fed and state tax refunds and put the little non-round number amounts in the sinking fund without counting them as income, but a big, replenish-drawdowns chunk should be actually accounted for, I think. That makes sense…for now.
March
Ummm, yeah. Hello, March. The good news is that I still have a job. The other good news is that I’m still throwing money into the market like normal. That pretty much ends the good news. I put nothing into savings this month and I’m okay with that. I stocked up on pretty much everything and overspent, but that’s just how these things go? I mean, maybe? I’ve never been in a pandemic before!! I’m also planning on spending my COVID money, so I’m not going to count that anywhere. A part of me wants to take a couple thousand bucks out of my e-fund and put into my Roth, but I also don’t want to reduce my e-fund in case something stupid happens. I don’t know.
$578 - 401K
$20 - Roth IRA
$0 - Emergency fund
$0 - Car fund
2020 annual savings running totals:
$2241 - 401K
$60 - Roth IRA
$770 - Emergency fund
$350 - Car fund
Total: $3,421 / $11,250 = 30% of the way there
I think everyone probably had a bit of an overspending month in terms of stocking up on things. This is uncharted territory, and I feel like people are just doing whatever makes them comfortable to prepare for the unknown. I know I went over my grocery budget, and I also decided not to put any money in savings this month, and to just keep it all in a more accessible account. Normally I’d put money in my IRA and my long term savings, but it seems prudent to have a checking account buffer at the moment. I’ll probably hang on and/or spend my stimulus check, instead of putting it in my IRA which is what I should do.
Snort, well, I have to take a 20% pay cut so I guess that means my savings goal is now lower? Thppppppppt.
I’ll figure out some numbers later. I’ve still been throwing money into the moving fund even though moving is now put off indefinitely. I can always use that for expenses if they end up shitcanning me (they haven’t ruled out layoffs later this year, just not now) and I blow through my e-fund on coronavirus medical bills or whatever.
Last day of the month. Made a lot of money, but spending a lot of money stocking up/etc because gestures broadly.
I will probably not count my $1,200 as income, but not sure yet. My compulsion is to save it, but I think the best thing I can do is to donate + spend at small local businesses that have been hit hard.
YTD post-tax income: $12,566.98
March post-tax income: $4,086.68 (2 jobs)
Cash Savings YTD: $7,628.02
Traditional IRA: $579
March Percentage: 62% of post tax income
YTD Percentage: 69% of post tax income
??? of pre-tax income; will calculate end of year
March pre-tax income: $2472
March all saved: $644.44
26.1%, yay!
First quarter total including tax refund
Income: $10,034
Saved: $3989.53
39.8%