I must have tried to start a blog a thousand times by now. Blogs about my goals, about weight loss, about creativity, and about writing. Even one about my journey into pregnancy, though that was never published and ended with my second miscarriage.
In fact, that event is the reason I’m starting this blog. It happened a month ago at this point, and I’m doing better… but I’m not 100% me. I took my time with it, as one does. Played a lot of video games, read some really good stories, and got myself back into the swing of things at work. The truth is, though, I am never more myself than when I am working towards a goal. Obsessively. Especially if it’s a huge goal, with very little hope of accomplishing much in the short term, one I would need to focus on every single day and can work on in my spare time order to achieve it.
So that’s the purpose of this blog. It isn’t to brag about my financial success or to give advice (though there may be some of both due to the nature of the beast). It’s to help myself hone in and focus on who I am when I’m and at my best and working toward something better.
What I really want financially is a mortgage to replace my rent. I am 32 years old and plan to work until I'm 65 barring the unforseen, so a 30-year mortgage would give me at least a few working years free of house payments. Currently, I have a very nice, if pricey, apartment. $1024/month after pet rent, plus it's being jacked up this year as par for the course. Expensive, right?
This was an upgrade that husband and I chose to make after I got a raise at work, because our previous apartment was a shithole. We lived there for two years - it was right on the highway so you heard sirens every night, there was no washer/dryer in the unit, the machines at the laundry facility worked only if you were lucky (or if someone didn’t open the dryer you’d paid for and stopped it), we saw domestic violence from our living room window, our door was kicked in by an overzealous security guard, and a murdered woman's body was dumped at the homeless tent camp just outside of the gate. So yes, we have a fairly expensive apartment right now. I have no regrets. But I would prefer to put that monthly payment toward equity than an apartment, even if it is lovely and safe and has a washer/dryer in unit.
The problem is that with our rent so high, we’re having difficulty saving anything up. Now that’s not to say that we’re living from paycheck to paycheck. In fact, we’re doing okay. The problem is that things are stable, instead of on the upswing.
So to be completely honest about everything, I’m going to share my financial situation with you. It’s all in approximates, obviously, and I’m not not going to say where my accounts are. That’d be ridiculous. But it’s a way for me to hold myself accountable and keep things realistic. And hey, if I end up with a reader who starts in my financial situation and has goals similar to mine, so much the better.
Debt: $13,000
We purchased a second car in December 2015 on a 48-month lease at 2.99% APR financed through our credit union. The car was $10500 but we chose to get a few warranties for safety's sake. We managed a $1k downpayment at the time and have made 4 monthly payments and 1 extra payment. I'm not as nervous about this because it's our only debt - no credit card bills or student loans.
Retirement: $4000
Putting 2% of each paycheck to my Roth 401(k) + $100/month toward my Roth IRA. It isn't much, but it's also not something I'm willing to sacrifice for anything else. I look at it as a bill. I'd love to max out my contributions every year, but I think that might have to come after we get the rest settled.
Savings: $1100
This is the part I'm a little embarrassed about. It's better than it could be, but this includes our total savings, so emergency fund, Christmas gift fund, everything all in one. It might dip a bit as soon as I get the rest of my medical bills from last month in the mail. Also doesn't help that I ate out a lot last month after everything happened.
Budget: $3200/month
Contrariwise, this is the part where I feel we've made the most progress. See, we've finally managed to get to the point where we're not spending the money we made on the last paycheck - instead, we spend from the money we made last month. All the money we're making this month is going to be allocated to our budget at the end of the month. We use our goodbudget.com account, but we aren't always great at sticking to the plan, so things do get a little disjointed sometimes. More or less, though, that $3200 is our 0-sum budget, using up all of our income from the previous month but not over-using it, and our retirement fund is a part of it.
So there you go. Obviously, in a perfect world, this would be a lot different. My goals are admittedly pretty lofty:
$0 Debt
$5500/year to Roth IRA (instead of approx. $2000/year)
$10000 in Emergency Savings
$20000 for House Downpayment (+closing costs, inspection fees, etc)
$25000/year Superfrugal Budget
Also I'd like to lose 65 lbs and have 2 kids.
I'm serious about all of this. These goals are, admittedly, crazy, but I'm not getting anywhere with them right now. So that's the purpose of this blog. Rae Wants a House. And without working harder on those goals than I am right now, Rae ain't gonna get what she wants. Time to get to work.
No comments:
Post a Comment