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Archive for January, 2012

Jan coming to an end

January 21st, 2012 at 09:15 pm

The bills are all paid. I paid off BoA and two small credit card balances from Christmas. I also put $1000 to my Roth. I have about $20 waiting to clear on my checking for a prescription.

I have $140 in my purse to deposit into my checking, $90 coming back into checking from Paypal (two returns from Christmas), $62 coming from my mom for car insurance and $140 from Rite Aid rebates. Nick is going to "buy" a couple gift cards from me for $100. That's about $550 I'll send to Roth at the end of the month. Smile

Gas and groceries for the rest of the month will come from gift cards.

Plan to max Roth for 2011:
I already have $1000 in the account
I have $550 set aside
I set up monthly contributions of $100 so that'll be $300 by April 17th.
37% of the way there.

I'll need to average $1050 between now and April 17th. I'll probably file my taxes somewhere in there so it should be no problem at all. I just talked to my boyfriend about borrowing money for my bills if I see that I don't have enough by April 17th. I'm thrilled to have a plan to pull this off!

Now that I have a Roth IRA, I don't know what to do with it!

January 20th, 2012 at 05:02 pm

So I easily opened my Roth with Fidelity the other day. I transferred $1,000 into it with the leftover bonus money instead of paying Discover extra. I realized I'm better off maxing my Roth for 2011 and worrying about the CC debt later. I think I'll be fine paying them off before the interest increases so it makes more sense to me.

But now I have this Roth and no idea what to do with it. My Traditional IRA is also with Fidelity and they do all the work with it. I've seen it steadily increase over time but there are people trading, etc. I put the money into a Freedom 2050 account and am being aggressive with the money since I'm young.

I need to do a lot more research on my IRA. Looking at basic investment account information, I know I want a Roth but I don't know how or what to invest in or if I need to do any work at all.

That'll be my project for this weekend. I'm also talking to my BF, trying to get him to also get a Roth and fund it by April. He has the cash sitting in his account so it wouldn't be too hard for him. Open account, transfer money. In fact, he could fully fund 2011 and 2012 right now and pay off his truck and student loan if he had the motivation to make the transfers. It might take more prodding then I think.

Opened a Roth IRA account!

January 18th, 2012 at 04:19 pm

After reading a post about retirement contributions, I decided that I wanted to change my debt repayment schedule. In order to maximize my newly opened Roth IRA account, I will still pay my credit card minimums but max my 2011 contributions of 5k.

I will make this another 2012 savings goal as well. I've always known that I wanted to contribute more to my retirement but wasn't sure how or when to do so. I'm confident I will still meet my goal of paying off my debt by next June and contributing to my retirement and other savings goals.

Under 12k in CC debt!

January 17th, 2012 at 03:52 am

I made my final payment to BoA today. It should post tomorrow. That's another credit card: GONE! I'm so excited. As I mentioned before, I have a feeling my goals to pay these cards off will go much faster than anticipated.
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I've been doing well using the gift cards mentioned here: http://gettingoutofdebt2011.savingadvice.com/2011/12/20/gift-cards_88461/

So far, I used $125 to pay for gas and groceries. I transferred all of that to savings from my checking account to put to CC debt. It feels good to be using these cards for good things instead of just using them for fun. I have about $1000 left in my savings that I can use to make a big payment to my next card: Discover. That'll put me at about $2800. It would be awesome if I can get under $2500 this month. We'll see; it might happen. Smile

And on that note, I'm under $12k in credit card debt. Big Grin

When I started in August I owed $25301.28. I've paid $13698.64 in 6 months!!!!!!! What an incredible feeling.

How I'm going to spend my bonus check!

January 14th, 2012 at 01:56 am

I just bought a GPS for $109. My bf found me a great deal on a Garmin Nuvi. It was on sale and we had a coupon code for $40 off. It retails for $249 so I'm happy with that price!
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I'm making a payment on Monday (once I deposit the check) for the BoA balance of $1208.01. So that leaves me with about $900. I also have an extra $300 from rebates. I think I'm going to use the $1200 and pay a big payment to Discover. I'd love to get Discover under $2500 this month, if possible.
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That said, I feel like SUCH a fool for not paying off this debt sooner. I really did feel like I never had enough money and was never going to pay the cards off. Now that I'm serious, it feels SO easy. Sometimes, I'm annoyed that it took me so long and other times, I'm glad I figured it out at all.

Holiday bonus check finally came!

January 10th, 2012 at 06:05 pm

My boss gave me my 2011 holiday bonus check last night. It was for $2900 pre-tax, $2200 after taxes!!!! I'm super excited! I was hoping for something in this range and I'm glad our company is doing so much better than we've done in the previous two years. I've already earmarked at least $1200 for debt repayment (goodbye BoA). I'm debating on whether or not I want to put the rest towards EF, car fund, or more debt repayment. I'm going to crunch some numbers tonight and figure out where I stand for the rest of January. That'll help me decide how I should use the rest of the money.

I am planning on one small splurge: a GPS. I've needed one for a long time!

Now, I'm excited to see what my tax refund is!

More 2012 goals...

January 9th, 2012 at 07:12 pm

Aside from my financial goals, I'm adding some other goals to my list for 2012.

Lose 5 pounds
Drink 50 oz of water a day (empty my water bottle twice)
Take yoga class once a week
Save more money at the grocery store with coupons
Make more meals at home
Save $25 in piddly money every month and put towards Christmas 2012
Keep better track of my passive income
Make blog posts twice a week
Start $20 challenge

Advice: Getting on the same financial page as your partner...

January 5th, 2012 at 08:07 pm

I'm not sure if I mentioned on here before that I moved in with my boyfriend in July/August. The living together part has been awesome! We love spending a lot of time together especially cooking. I was kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop but the adjustment hasn't been hard at all. We are both laid back and supportive of each others wants and needs. It's been pretty seamless.

We will be moving again next summer since his job is relocating so I'm sure we will start having more conversations about finances. It's got me thinking about our financial situation. I want to talk about our financial goals early and often but I don't know what to even talk about!

We're not entirely on the same page financially. For instance, he makes considerably more money than I do and has a large amount of money saved (~$50k). He leaves it all in his checking account. I would be doing so much with that money if I had it!!! I don't know exactly what because I have no real knowledge about stock/investments, etc. But I would at least have it in a CD or high yield savings!

Our apartment is much nicer than I can really afford. We have an agreement that I would only pay a portion instead of splitting it. I have mentioned downgrading (within reason) to something less nice (our apartment is beautifully furnished with stainless steel, granite countertops, etc.). We don't really need all of that extra stuff but he doesn't really want to. He makes well over $100k per year and doesn't mind spending $1450 (or more) per month on rent. I would rather live in an apartment that's less nice and save for a house. It would be awesome to have a HUGE down payment.

He really wants me to pay off my debt so that's been my/our financial focus. He told me that he's really proud of me for doing so well and I am really proud of myself. Once this debt is paid off, I'd love to put all of my income into savings ($45k per year) and rely solely on his income to support us. That savings could help buy a house or support our family so that I can stay home when we have kids.

I really want to get on the same page as him. Any advice? Did any of you have differing financial goals/expectations before settling into a commitment with your partners? I'd be curious to know how it worked out, etc. Thanks in advance for any insight!