Thank you!
October / Final Update:
Income to date: $15366.10
Annual Income: $18439.32
Debt Repayment: $1200
HSA: $8100
Roth: $4000
Total saved YTD: $13300
Status: Goal met
@anomalily - DONE - Badge me (when convenient)
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Are you saying you’ve only spent $2,000 this year?
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Oh no, last I looked I had spent about $21K. I am retired so I am drawing down my stash. The income is a pension payment. Spouse is still working (hence the Roth contribution) but our monies are kept separate. There are still household bills I pay for, he pays for some others. And our personal spending is separate (which sounds obvious, but might not be). I had a lot of cash when I retired, but I will soon have to pull from investment account(s).
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So you didn’t actually save all this $$ this year, you saved it in previous years and just put it in designated savings buckets this year.
@Crow The challenge allowed FIRE’d/retired folks choose how they wanted to designate savings, since many are drawing down their stashes. Gdogg got to define how they wanted to do it, just like everyone else!
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Well money is fungible, so… I transferred money from one place to another place (debt or investment).
ETA: former employer funded the pension, I didn’t put any $ into it - if that makes any difference to anyone
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End of October!
Must have been one of those 3 paycheck 401K months because that’s higher than usual. But I’ll take it. Haha!
Added this month:
$880 - 401K
$30 - Roth IRA
$150 - Emergency fund
$100 - Car fund
2020 annual savings running totals:
$7,191 - 401K
$210 - Roth IRA
$1,820 - Emergency fund
$700 - Car fund
Total: $9,921 / $11,250 = 88% of the way there. I’m on track to finish in December right on schedule. 
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Ok
Well, part time daycare lasted about eight weeks, which isn’t too bad, but it turned out to be not enough work time (especially with random cancellations and quarantines). So in order to actually sleep during sleep time, I switched to full time for the last two weeks of October and ongoing. Though I was able to float the extra expense from checking this month, savings will be decreased for the rest of the year. I should still get to 20%. Will I get to 20K? Who knows (ooooh, the suspense!).
Nothing else is likely to be different in November. Maybe some Christmas money in December that I’ll have to count. If the baby gets Christmas money, I won’t count it in either column. I could start her 20% challenge in the last week of the year. I bet she’d get there, that freeloader.
October:
Salary: $4,515
Match: $113
Total Income: $4,628
Loan: $150
Reserve: $500
403b: $339
IRA: $500
Total Savings: $1,489
October Savings: 32%
2020 Savings: 36%
2020 Total: $18,030
$1,970 to go to $20,000. I might make it, but the projected margin is $200, so almost no wiggle room left. On the other hand, the $200 convertible car seat I want to get her may go on sale for Black Friday for $175… (Suspense!)
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October pre-tax income $3090
October all saved $790.00
25.6% saved for the month.
I have never actually tracked my savings before, and it has been really interesting. If asked, I would never have said that I saved as much as I do, so that’s a nice surprise. At this point, I have already saved well over 20% of my projected income for the year, (I DID IT! YAY!) and will land right around 41% without counting any possible commission check that I will get right at the end of Dec. I do not yet know what my commission check will be, but am hoping for around 8k. I should know more in a week or so when I figure out my sales for the month at work. If I get what I am tentatively expecting, I will also have saved over $20,000. I did not join that thread, but it sure would be nice to hit that!
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Two months later, time for a progress update. Despite my regular income being reduced, my savings rate has increased.
October:
spent $1,579* of $2,622 incoming (39% savings rate!)
Year to date:
spent $22,403 of $31,849 incoming (29% savings rate)
Things are looking good!
*October was my lowest-spend month so far this year, beating April by $10.
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I am a couple days early, but nothing will change.
November pre-tax income: $2472
November all saved $632
25.6% saved for the month.
I am also getting closer to the $20,000 challenge, which I never expected to hit.
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So exciting! I’m getting surprisingly close too, but not counting any chickens yet.
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I did some grading, so my reward is updating. I don’t even remember if there is anything big this month. I’m T-2 days from the end of the term and I’ve had daycare an entire two days in the last three weeks.
Oh wait, yes! I paid off my student loan on impulse and opened a bank account for Larva on less impulse. And apparently I finished my 2020 IRA contribution…but that won’t show up until December’s numbers? I need to stop making sleep-deprivation-fueled financial decisions. They’re worse than the anxiety-fueled financial decisions because at least those have some kind of reasoning.
Okay, so, this is November? Yes.
November:
Salary: $4,515
Match: $113
Total: $4,628
Loan: $3,200 (hahahha, wth late-night brain)
Reserve: -$2,950 (lolololll, these numbers better match!)
403b: $339
IRA: $500 (expect shenanigans next month)
Total Savings: $1,089
November Savings: 24%
2020 Savings: 35%
2020 Total: $19,119
Soooo close. The savings % difference this month is from the switch to full time daycare, but I didn’t have full time daycare the whole month technically, so I have a little extra in checking. I suppose if I have to I can shove that into savings next month. Is that cheating?
Also, speaking of cheating, Larva’s numbers:
Total Income: $500
Total Savings: $500
2020 Savings: 100%
She’s definitely not making it to $20,000, though.
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November
Absurdly high income month as I finally got paid from a gig I did back in August.
YTD post-tax income including stimulus : $45,220.43
November post-tax income: $6,462.33 (Day Job + Business)
Cash Savings YTD: $20,314
Traditional IRA: $6,000
YTD Total: $26,314 /$20,000 (131% Total of goal at 91% of the way through the year)
November Percentage: 76.2% of post tax income
YTD Percentage With Stimulus: 58.1% of post tax income
??? of pre-tax income; will calculate after I do taxes
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I just calculated in the other challenge that I’ve saved over $18K pretax alone this year, out of income so far just under $52K. We also maxed two IRAs early in the year, so it’s pretty save-y over here. Doesn’t account for his income, but we’ll still be over 20%.
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November
Debt payments (principal only): $275
Cash savings: $780.75
Roth IRA contribution: $1200
Expected/estimated total 2020 pre-tax income: $56,000
Goal: $11,200
YTD debt payments (principal only): $9,408.77
YTD cash savings: $3,070.20
YTD Roth IRA contributions: $1,550
YTD Savings: $14,028.97
125% of goal
25% of expected pretax income saved!
Still just blown away at this. The mindset shift that paying off debt is the same-ish as savings has really had a meaningful effect on how I feel about my financial life. It’s allowed me to let go of the feeling that I have to put everything that I can save towards paying off the debt and now I’ve got the beginning of an emergency fund and an IRA. Even though I haven’t paid off the rest of the debt, I’m in a much safer financial position right now than I would have been if I just kept throwing everything I had at the debt.
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YES!!! I am so glad to hear that.
<3 This is the truly important thing. Making sure you take care of yourself financially is multi-faceted, it isn’t JUST about making that debt number get smaller.
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Admin note here: can you call out in your post if you’re due for the badge for this challenge?
Some people are close, some people have finished it, and some people won’t know til end of year. I want to make sure you get your badge.
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