Comments on: 10 Resolution Ideas for 2020

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 11:56:55 +0000

In reply to Chickenwizard's DivBlog. Love the new goal! Will you let me know how it's going later in the year? Thanks for stopping by the blog :)

By: Chickenwizard's DivBlog

Chickenwizard's DivBlog — Sat, 28 Dec 2019 04:11:23 +0000

I love this list, especially #3. I pay my bills asap. I hate having any debt at all hanging over my head. Pay the bills before paying myself..
This is how I kept my spending in check…

I get paid every other week. The first thing I do is give my wife $400. She’s a stay at home mom and it covers groceries and most household spending. She’s good at budgeting that stuff.
I then take $200 and transfer it to my Fidelity account for stock purchases.

I take what is left and divide that by 14. I usually have about ($115 per day left) That’s my budget for the day. The leftover goes to savings. I deposit $ into my savings almost every day. I I have a bill over my daily limit, I wait a day or two.

This year, I am switching it up. I have a goal of saving $16K to cover all expenses for 2021 (with 1500 buffer). I am transferring $615 on payday to savings. So now I will give my wife $400, $200 to stock, and the 615. I’ll be left with about $935. That’s $66 per day to live and pay bills. Doable.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Fri, 27 Dec 2019 18:04:54 +0000

In reply to Pinch. Each month - even better!! :) You'll be at 50% in no time at that rate!

By: Pinch

Pinch — Fri, 27 Dec 2019 17:01:57 +0000

Hi J,
Apologies but I meant “Continue to raise the money I invest each month by 1% each month”.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Fri, 27 Dec 2019 12:14:14 +0000

In reply to Pinch. Merry Christmas! Love the "upping it by 1%" every year route! small moves that make big impacts! :)

By: Pinch

Pinch — Wed, 25 Dec 2019 11:27:03 +0000

11) Continue to raise the money I invest each month by 1%. Over time this will, again, prompt a review of how I am spending my money in general and where I can cut back / negotiate lower rates.
12) As my personal pension now generates enough dividends each months to make a full, cost efficient, purchase each month – open a 2nd pension with Vanguard at the beginning of the new tax year in April. Advantage of the Vanguard pension is going to be commission-free purchases if I use their bulk-buying service. And on the ETF I buy there is also no tax payable.
13) Consider moving a large chunk of my workplace pension into either my personal pension I already have or the new pension with Vanguard. My workplace pension currently costs 0.17% per year which is okay but they are changing funds and with it come higher fees. I think the new fees are between 0.25% – 0.30% – not terrible but Vanguard and my personal pension both only charge 0.15%.

As for the list from the post – # 2 and #9 are the main points to focus on for me next year. Everything else is already in place and my score in the quiz was B- – undoubtedly due to me not knowing the finer points of insurance questions in the US.

Merry Crhistmas to all!

Regards, Pinch

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 24 Dec 2019 14:57:24 +0000

In reply to Simon.

Totally! Try it out and see how it makes you feel! And fwiw I’m the same with with debt stuff – I’d much rather put it on a card for a while or something and pay off with cash flow than tap investments. Guess it just depends on how much you hate debt or not :)

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 24 Dec 2019 13:51:01 +0000

I am think for me it has to be number 4 but tracking net worth more than anything else. Were currently in a fortunate position of having a decent sized investment portfolio, but also have some interest free credit card debt. This came from covering some big costs such as a house move etc, so rather than selling investment s we put it on an interest free card.

I think by tracking net worth to get the overall picture it should put the small interest free debt into perspective as it’s covered several times over elsewhere.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 16:57:50 +0000

In reply to Tina. AHHHH so exciting!!! And well worth it for just *one* year too! Gonna set yourself up GOOD with that - I hope you do it!! Will you email me over the year to let me know how it's going?? What a great challenge! :)

By: Tina

Tina — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 16:14:13 +0000

This is my year of saving – maybe even to the point of some slight deprivation. Just this one year. I will dump at least $50K into my various accounts. I say at least because I’m also up for a promotion that seems pretty secure and if I receive that, I am also committing to every additional penny each paycheck from that raise to also go into my accounts. This is build up to next year when I will max out my retirement accounts and then save the cash to live on the following year and plan for an April 3, 2022 quit date (by that time, it will be worth putting in a few extra months to get my 2021 bonus and since I’m not “eligible” to retire, I have to be employed at the time of the March payout to receive it). After years of saving with the end goal feeling so far away, it’s crazy to think I could have 50+ hours back in my life in just a little over 2 years!