Comments on: Our New Monster Cash Account ;)

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 13:54:14 +0000

Haha yeah!! Great way to put things in perspective, I like that :) And awesome about all your flipping of houses and craft stuff too! You’re a full-blooded entrepreneur, I love it ;) And it’s all gonna add up over time and turn into something bigger!! Keep it up my friend – thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!

By: Nancy

Nancy — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:09:38 +0000

Dude!! Isn’t it the most awesome feeling in the world when you’re suddenly hit with such an easy, yet earth-shattering epiphany like that? I love it when suddenly you realize exactly what you need to do and how to do it, and the solution has been staring you in the face so long that you really should’ve gotten goosebumps from the intensity of that stare!

Congrats on your major accomplishment! I know it took a lot of hard work and discipline to get there. My husband and I are doing our best to hustle our way to a sense of financial security as well. We both work full time. This year I finally opened an online shop to sell crafts that I create and I’m constantly trying to add more to my shop. So far I’ve only sold to people here at work, but I make them go online to pay so my shop doesn’t look completely neglected! I’ve also started a blog but I haven’t even thought of trying to monetize it since I don’t write frequently enough. Right now it’s more like just a “see what I’ve just completed” list of crafts.

We are also working with a high school buddy of ours who is a realtor, trying to flip houses. We teamed up with a friend of my husband’s as well to spread out the financial burden and risk among the 3 of us. So far we’ve flipped 2 houses in 2 years. The income is very modest, but it’s more than we had before! And we’re doing this slowly so no one gets spooked! (By which I mean mostly me, I’m the financial scaredy cat in this trifecta!)

So far our emergency reserves seems to hover somewhere between $0 and $5,000.00, depending on the progress of the flip. We’ve paid down our credit card debt from a whopping $30k to a tiny little $20k. Ok, it’s still kinda big, but there’s progress at least. And our goal is to pay it off with the next flip or two. Which translates to about the next year to 18 months at the pace we’re going. Wish us luck!

Keep up the great work and keep those inspiring and funny blogs coming! It always helps to remember that this is work and everyone else has to work at financial independence too. Just like going to the gym, it’s always good to look around and see all different sizes of people working right alongside of you.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:19:18 +0000

@Mark – Awesome! I’ve always wondered how people work it with CDs, so this is great hearing your strategy (and recommendations) like that. Thanks man :) To be honest, right now we just have it all in a simple barely-interest savings account. Mainly for convenience on my behalf, but also the Mrs. likes having straight up cash stored away too – so we’ve agreed that’s okay, since I have permission to do whatever I want with all our other money outside of that too ;) I don’t care if we lose a few dollars here and there if our overall goals are being met.
@SavvyFinancialLatina – You and my wife would get along great :)
@Em – Yeah, I think that’s be great actually! 6 months is more than fine now, and in general, so I’d be investing and using your extra cash in other departments too if I were in your shoes. You gotta be well-rounded for sure, so I think you’re being smart over there :)
@Joe @ Retire By 40 – Yeah doggy! Work it!
@Evan – No, not today at least. I’m gonna let extras build there until I know what I want to do with the rest of it and then jump ASAP. Which will probably be either investments into our future 529 for the kid, or more against our mortgages again. All depends on my mood at the time ;)
@MoneyMateKate – Holy crap girl, you are RULING IT!!! Good for you, talk about being sexy! :) And I fear that whole “freeze” thing too sometimes (another reason we have a few hundred stashed away just in case) but I don’t know the likelihood of all that either… better to be safe though, right?
@jefferson – Haha, what if I just filled my entire bed w/ dollar bills and slept on it every night? That would be cool! :) But nah, it’s just in a plain ol’ savings account right now. We’re gonna keep it there to make wifey happy and my minimalism happy, and then invest/save/move the rest of future extra money into smarter places… I don’t mind losing a few dollars just holding it liquid like that.
@Brian – Thanks man! I can’t wait to say that we don’t have any housing expenses too one day :) Must feel nice!! (well, no mortgage expenses at least – we’ll always have maintenance and insurance/taxes/etc…)
@Donnie Lawson – For sure. It’s taken me 32 years to get to this point and it’s still hard to hold on to it all sometimes ;) And I imagine even more so as our child grows up!
@Ornella @ Moneylicious – Hehe, I try! It takes me a while sometimes, but eventually I get it :) I’m sure YOU’RE awesome at it too!
@Jenna, Adaptu Community Manager – Great! And smart!
@Financial Samurai – Who said we haven’t already done that?? :)
@MrsGreen – I like that it’s harder for you to get to over there, I’ve heard others do that and it works well ;) Our $5,500 number includes everything you already mentioned, plut other random stuff that adds up to a few hundred every month too (presents, extra outings out, clothes, etc). Some of the things were canceled out of this equation when I started working from home (like transportation costs/gas/etc), but other than that I think our calculations are pretty similar. In a PERFECT world it would include savings and money for investing too, but figured that’s not really an “emergency” situation so we’re gonna keep that out for now ;) As for mid-range savings goals, that’s a toughie as we’re now just using our main one for everything and keeping it all condensed like that… I do know that others just open up another savings acct though with the same bank so it’s easier to track/maintain and use THAT one for these kinds of expenses – maybe you can do that? Or just keep it on top of your main one too? Just depends on what you’re more comfortable with, and how you operate w/ your money :) Great questions though!
@Jacob @ iheartbudgets – Yeah dude, sounds like you two were the same way we were before our talk :) It really helps! (And adding in beer/wine does too, haha…)
@RichUncle EL – Thanks man! That’s the only real downside to it all too, huh? Losing $$ through inflation. But you gotta do what you gotta do! We’ll see how it works over time…
@Jen @ Master the Art of Saving – Houses do that to you :) I don’t miss that at all! Haha…
@LB – Wowwwwww, haha, that is awesome!! Congrats on settling on your major :) Naturally we’re all loving you being an accountant, haha… nerds definitely uniting! (And I say you rock those credit cards too – no shame in that at all! Big fans of them when used properly)
@Stephanie – Yup! But more SMART than lucky ;) It takes initiative and patience to build up all that money!
@StackingCash – Haha… I think you officially have the world’s record of emergency funds :) That is all kinds of awesome, my friend – I hope we know each other when you hit 30 years!! :)

By: StackingCash

StackingCash — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 07:54:41 +0000

This post belongs to me! I would have thought my name and money philosophy would have had an affect on you a long time ago ;) Regardless, we are probably over our 5 year emergency fund right now, low expenses help. Working on our 30 year emergency fund, however :P

Right now I have about 5 bank accounts because of certain perks I get from each bank. Free safe deposit box from one, good history with another, bribed with money to open with another, good history with the 4th, and “good” interest rate with the 5th. I’ve been wanting to consolidate like you, but I find it hard to give up those perks.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 02:03:27 +0000

I would loooove to have a year’s worth of income saved up!! In the meantime, though, my bare minimum number is 4 months. My husband and I currently have almost 6 months set aside, but a little bit of that will go toward a car downpayment soon. *sigh* But I can’t even imagine how scary it would be to NOT have that money saved up to cover expenses like this, so even if I won’t be happy about seeing that balance knocked down to my 4-month minimum, I just try to remember that I’m lucky to even HAVE 4 months of savings set aside in the first place!

By: LB

LB — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 21:29:00 +0000

Congrats on all the hard work you are putting into your accounts/saving time and energy, etc. Oh and the big savings account!

My safety number is around $30,000, but is more of a joke. Like haha I will never get there, at least not for another 5 years. I think right now $1000 and a credit card with a $10,000 limit makes me happy.

The reason for the credit card (not mine) is because I have $2000 as an emergency fund, but had to plunk $4000 down on this semester of school from the rest of my savings fund. Once I finish school I will save more, but here’s hoping to holding on with my teeth and making it through school without something bad happening! (please no one lecture me about how emergencies always happen or why credit cards are the devil, I get that, I know that, this is a different situation and all the details would scare even the toughest money person away.)

But on the bright side I finally settled on a major!!!!!!! WHOOP WHOOP! I picked a safe major and is something I am absolutely loving. Accounting. I think the scary part about it is that I am finding business law very very interesting. So interesting in fact, that I have already read my school book and class doesn’t start until next week! I must be a nerd HA!

By: Jen @ Master the Art of Saving

Jen @ Master the Art of Saving — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 21:19:11 +0000

Sounds like a great plan, 66k and the Money family feels secure. :-) That’s good stuff.

I’ll just be happy if we can ever get our emergency fund up to 5k LOL. The whole buying our first house thing means our dough is going into our house fund instead. I’m sure after things settle down, we can start throwing money at our emergency fund again.

By: RichUncle EL

RichUncle EL — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:45:31 +0000

Glad you are happy living a simpler financial life and that you now have your magic number. If I were you I would add about 3 grand for inflation purposes, ha. Thanks for Bobbi for setting you straight. Oh wait you already thanked her, lol. Well that’s one massive emergency account J. Good luck.

By: Jacob @ iheartbudgets

Jacob @ iheartbudgets — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:44:23 +0000

Our cash number for me was about $20,000, but we’ve never really talked it through. My wife wants a big number, but we haven’t worked out the details of why. This is a good conversation to have for us, I think I’ll schedule it in :)

By: MrsGreen

MrsGreen — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:32:57 +0000

J$, I was curious how you came up with your number. What expenses did you calculate? I did a calculation a while back and have that amount sitting in a local community bank’s MMA making pitiful interest, but at least it wasn’t with one of the big evil banks and the interest was better than USAA. I also liked that it was slightly inconvienent to get access too, so that it really does just sit there un touched. Looking at your number makes me think I might have forgotten something in my calculation – mortgage, taxes, food, healthcare, transportation, insurance, utilities, student loans… what else did you account for?

Also, I keep my savings for a new car in the same place, what do you suggest for those midrange savings goals? The car could go at anytime, or hopefully a few more years…