It is said that we pick up our money habits from our parents. I think that how your parents look at money says a great deal about how you will someday look at money.
My father never incurred debt. Debt was "evil," and if you could not afford it, you shouldn't buy it. Now, that is definitely not a bad way to live, and is a quality that I am striving for as well. Most of the money problems we face are caused by too much debt. For instance, 100% of all home foreclosures occur on houses with a mortgage!
But, my father took it to another extreme. He hoarded cash, just to hoard cash. Any money that he spent had to make more money. This was his passion, earning money, and that is where all of the resources went. Very seldom was money spent on something fun. Then again, very seldom was TIME spent on something fun, and I think that could have made up for spending money on enjoyment.
You see, his money was just to be there. His goal was, and still is, to hoard large piles of cash. He has no vision, or end goal for that cash. I think that he is looking towards a day when he can't work anymore, but the key is, when he can't work anymore. Not when he doesn't want to. He has never taken a vacation.
His love of his money has driven him to have to always be doing something that can make money. If it does not make money, it is not worth doing. Unfortunately, some of the things that he couldn't be bothered with that don't make money was spending time with his children. Unless, of course, that involved making money. But making money with the children wasn't teaching them about money, and how to do it. It was employing them in his own form of slave labor. Commissions for us from his money making ventures were not to be found. He figured that he supported us, and it was our duty to work to make him money. Unfortunately, as he has aged, he has not learned anything, and is simply carrying on the same attitudes. He hasn't seen his granchildren, to actually come and visit, for several years. When questioned about this, he will tell me that "He is always so busy, and can't possibly be expected to come and see them. However, if we would like to bring them down to him, he can take minute or two between jobs."
I have gotten over the bitterness some time ago. As I build my own "fortune," (a major goal for 2009 is an emergency fund of $20,000), I stay challenged to remember that money is just a tool. It is a way to accomplish a goal. My $20K stash has a goal... the security of my family, so that we do not have to worry about as many things. It is not a bank balance that I will worship. In addition, we have a goal to fund a vacation to Disneyworld for our family in early 2010. Of course, I also want to fund our retirement, so that I can stop working and enjoy life while I am young enough to do so. And, not be a problem for my children and grandchildren.
The lack of a realistic approach to money by my father built up a desire in my to consume, and to aquire stuff. I mean, when you grow up, and don't have stuff, perhaps there is a great deal of pent up demand.
Teach your children right about money. Debt free is excellent, but teach them that money is a tool to take care of the things important to you, and to have some fun with as well.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
The Grocery Budget
You have read some of my posts, no doubt, about budgeting, and the peace that it brings to know what you have to spend each week, month, or year.
However, I have been having a real struggle, it seems, with our grocery budget. It is tough to explain why, or to even track why. I mean, we have a family of five, so I know, it takes some money to feed us. Also, what works well, is the fact that we are buying more regular staples, meats, vegetables, and the like. We are also finding deals on things, and stocking up. For instance, we found boneless chicken at Sam's club by the 40 pound case for $1.05 per pound... usually we spend $1.79 at the discount grocery store, and it is upwards of $3.49 per pound at the regular grocery stores. So we grabbed a case of it, bagged it up, and in the freezer it goes.
So maybe I am too hard on us. We are still working at it. I comment to my wife that we are spending a bit on groceries, but we are eating better than ever. Also, when you factor in that we are spending close to $400 less per month on eating out, the savings are even better.
Well, maybe we will tighten up a bit on the groceries. It is hard to when you find deals like the boneless chicken.
One last thing... I always look at groceries in the freezer like money in the bank. It is a storage facility for an asset. And, when you save money on it, even better! But, having a freezer full of food is great when you have a tight week, and want to skip grocery shopping. That way, you can. In fact, you have to skip it every few weeks, to realize the savings that you are getting from buying in bulk and on sale.
However, I have been having a real struggle, it seems, with our grocery budget. It is tough to explain why, or to even track why. I mean, we have a family of five, so I know, it takes some money to feed us. Also, what works well, is the fact that we are buying more regular staples, meats, vegetables, and the like. We are also finding deals on things, and stocking up. For instance, we found boneless chicken at Sam's club by the 40 pound case for $1.05 per pound... usually we spend $1.79 at the discount grocery store, and it is upwards of $3.49 per pound at the regular grocery stores. So we grabbed a case of it, bagged it up, and in the freezer it goes.
So maybe I am too hard on us. We are still working at it. I comment to my wife that we are spending a bit on groceries, but we are eating better than ever. Also, when you factor in that we are spending close to $400 less per month on eating out, the savings are even better.
Well, maybe we will tighten up a bit on the groceries. It is hard to when you find deals like the boneless chicken.
One last thing... I always look at groceries in the freezer like money in the bank. It is a storage facility for an asset. And, when you save money on it, even better! But, having a freezer full of food is great when you have a tight week, and want to skip grocery shopping. That way, you can. In fact, you have to skip it every few weeks, to realize the savings that you are getting from buying in bulk and on sale.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Sorry about the lack of posts....!
I am hoping to get back on a more regular schedule now! It has been a bit crazy lately, and it is good to know that people are reading. Thank you for that!
Have a great day!
Have a great day!
Wow, am I glad that December is almost over!
I mean it! I love the Christmas season, so that has nothing to do with it. We had Christmas mostly funded in October this year, with a bit added on in November, so Christmas was not a real stretch for us. We did not go overboard spending with our children, but they all were very happy with what they received.
No, it is just the fact that my income has taken a real beating this month! My take home income is off by about $1100.00 for the month of December over the month of November! This is even with there being five paychecks in November!
One of the things that I am grateful for is that I am doing a "written" (computerized) spending plan, because it certainly has made this into just a minor inconvenience, instead of a major crisis. You see, I am paid a bonus based upon profits for the month. I would receive that bonus based on profits for November, in December. I knew when I received my November bonus (which was pretty good), that it was likely to be considerably less in December. I fund several bills that are due quarterly, twice a year, and yearly out of my monthly bonus, so I really had to take a careful look at what was going on.
Since November's bonus was good, I made the election to fund an extra half a months share of these expenses in November. Then, December, even with its lower bonus, would be fine, as there were five weeks in that month. The first week of the month, it was no problem funding the other half of the monthly amounts.
So, when m December take home bonus came in at less than twenty percent of November, it was not nearly the crisis that it could have been. Given that, and the fact that Christmas was all funded, and that I did expect a small ($250) tenure bonus, I might still be able to add some money to my emergency fund.
Then, an email came from payroll. "The value of the personal use of your company provided vehicle is $4800 for the year. Although we do not withhold federal and state taxes, we must withhold FICA and Medicare taxes. This will be $380.00."
Well, that offset the tenure bonus, and definitely made me re-consider what I am reporting for vehicle use! Not really, but it did at least let me know in the future that I needed to be careful of that hit in December!
But you know, even with all of that, and the fact that we have spent some of prior months surplus on Christmas this month, and a vehicle repair bill that I need to pay, we are almost at a break even point for December... equal money coming in to what is going out. Definitely not too bad at all!
Thank goodness for the spending plan! Without it, my December would have been trying to buy Christmas presents out of December's money (I certainly would not have set much aside from October and November, let alone September!), as well as dealing with the hit to my income. I have to say... I never want to go back to that again!
If you are not on a written spending plan, you need to get on one today!
No, it is just the fact that my income has taken a real beating this month! My take home income is off by about $1100.00 for the month of December over the month of November! This is even with there being five paychecks in November!
One of the things that I am grateful for is that I am doing a "written" (computerized) spending plan, because it certainly has made this into just a minor inconvenience, instead of a major crisis. You see, I am paid a bonus based upon profits for the month. I would receive that bonus based on profits for November, in December. I knew when I received my November bonus (which was pretty good), that it was likely to be considerably less in December. I fund several bills that are due quarterly, twice a year, and yearly out of my monthly bonus, so I really had to take a careful look at what was going on.
Since November's bonus was good, I made the election to fund an extra half a months share of these expenses in November. Then, December, even with its lower bonus, would be fine, as there were five weeks in that month. The first week of the month, it was no problem funding the other half of the monthly amounts.
So, when m December take home bonus came in at less than twenty percent of November, it was not nearly the crisis that it could have been. Given that, and the fact that Christmas was all funded, and that I did expect a small ($250) tenure bonus, I might still be able to add some money to my emergency fund.
Then, an email came from payroll. "The value of the personal use of your company provided vehicle is $4800 for the year. Although we do not withhold federal and state taxes, we must withhold FICA and Medicare taxes. This will be $380.00."
Well, that offset the tenure bonus, and definitely made me re-consider what I am reporting for vehicle use! Not really, but it did at least let me know in the future that I needed to be careful of that hit in December!
But you know, even with all of that, and the fact that we have spent some of prior months surplus on Christmas this month, and a vehicle repair bill that I need to pay, we are almost at a break even point for December... equal money coming in to what is going out. Definitely not too bad at all!
Thank goodness for the spending plan! Without it, my December would have been trying to buy Christmas presents out of December's money (I certainly would not have set much aside from October and November, let alone September!), as well as dealing with the hit to my income. I have to say... I never want to go back to that again!
If you are not on a written spending plan, you need to get on one today!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Fixing a love seat
Where we are getting on our budget here, and working very hard to build our emergency fund ($20,000 is our goal by the end of next year), and saving for a vacation (just wrote about that), furniture is NOT one of our budget priorities at this time.
A love seat in our living room set recently broke. The springs gave way underneath it. My wife asked me to help her take it out, so we could put it out to the trash. I told her that I felt that we should give it another chance, in that I might be able to save it.
I turned the love seat over, and looked under it. One of the braces along the rear, where all of the springs attached, had broken. It broke right in the middle of a knot. Whoever built this piece of furniture probably should not have used a length of wood with a knot (or at least the knot should not have covered over 50% of the width of the board), but they did.
I began looking for a fix, and figured that I could cut a piece of hardwood, and just brace the broken piece back together. When I went to do this, the force of the springs pulled the board off from the other side of the arm of the loveseat. My wife was ready to take it out to the trash again, but I talked her into waiting. I had knocked many things off my to do list that day, and was tired, so I figured that I would wait until next weekend.
When the time came, first, I pulled a bunch of staples holding the bottom netting to the frame, as well as staples holding some of the upholstery. I disconnected the remaining springs from their clips, which were fastened right into the board that broke. I took the board out, and measured it. Wow, simple, it was 3 1/2 inches wide, which meant that a standard sized board (4 inches nominal) would fit right into the groove that was cut for it. I do have a tablesaw if I needed to rip a board down, but this made it even easier.
I had a piece of poplar in the workshop that would have fit for the size. Poplar is a hard wood, but not quite. I figured that if I was going to take the time to do this, I might as well make an effort to do it right. So, I went off to Lowes. I found a piece of maple that was $8.00, that would do the job. A piece of poplar was $5.50, so I figured the extra $2.50 was well spent on something a bit harder. The piece was clear, with no knots, so it should be nice and strong. I could not find any of the clips for the seat springs, so I figured that I would have to re-use the old ones. That should not be too difficult.
Just a cut to lenght, a measurement and instalation of all of the seat spring clips correctly, and I was ready to install the board. The trickiest part was bolting the board in place. The prior one had been installed with staples, probably before the back of the couch was built, but I would need to bolt this one in with sheet metal screws. This was painfully slow with a 5/16 wrench (my socket wrench was too deep to fit in), but I got it done. I rolled each of the springs into place, and into the clips. Then, I stapled the covering (upholstery) in place covering the springs. I turned over the loveseat, and stapled the bottom netting back into place. Then, I had a seat, gently, I will admit at first, but all is well.
How often in the past would I have just gone out and replaced the set? Back when I used credit that is probably how I would have purchased it! Also, I am not a staunch enviromentalist, but I was also able to save something from just going to the landfill. It was also just as easy, in the long run, for me to fix it as it would have been to go out and purchase a new one, drag it home, carry the old one out, and carry the new one in.
Now, it will have to be replaced someday, and probably within the next two to three years, but by then, I should have the emergency fund in place, and I will be able to cashflow a new one.
The only thing that I did not do, was that I didn't take pictures of the repair, to detail how I did it. I will have to remember to do that next time!
A love seat in our living room set recently broke. The springs gave way underneath it. My wife asked me to help her take it out, so we could put it out to the trash. I told her that I felt that we should give it another chance, in that I might be able to save it.
I turned the love seat over, and looked under it. One of the braces along the rear, where all of the springs attached, had broken. It broke right in the middle of a knot. Whoever built this piece of furniture probably should not have used a length of wood with a knot (or at least the knot should not have covered over 50% of the width of the board), but they did.
I began looking for a fix, and figured that I could cut a piece of hardwood, and just brace the broken piece back together. When I went to do this, the force of the springs pulled the board off from the other side of the arm of the loveseat. My wife was ready to take it out to the trash again, but I talked her into waiting. I had knocked many things off my to do list that day, and was tired, so I figured that I would wait until next weekend.
When the time came, first, I pulled a bunch of staples holding the bottom netting to the frame, as well as staples holding some of the upholstery. I disconnected the remaining springs from their clips, which were fastened right into the board that broke. I took the board out, and measured it. Wow, simple, it was 3 1/2 inches wide, which meant that a standard sized board (4 inches nominal) would fit right into the groove that was cut for it. I do have a tablesaw if I needed to rip a board down, but this made it even easier.
I had a piece of poplar in the workshop that would have fit for the size. Poplar is a hard wood, but not quite. I figured that if I was going to take the time to do this, I might as well make an effort to do it right. So, I went off to Lowes. I found a piece of maple that was $8.00, that would do the job. A piece of poplar was $5.50, so I figured the extra $2.50 was well spent on something a bit harder. The piece was clear, with no knots, so it should be nice and strong. I could not find any of the clips for the seat springs, so I figured that I would have to re-use the old ones. That should not be too difficult.
Just a cut to lenght, a measurement and instalation of all of the seat spring clips correctly, and I was ready to install the board. The trickiest part was bolting the board in place. The prior one had been installed with staples, probably before the back of the couch was built, but I would need to bolt this one in with sheet metal screws. This was painfully slow with a 5/16 wrench (my socket wrench was too deep to fit in), but I got it done. I rolled each of the springs into place, and into the clips. Then, I stapled the covering (upholstery) in place covering the springs. I turned over the loveseat, and stapled the bottom netting back into place. Then, I had a seat, gently, I will admit at first, but all is well.
How often in the past would I have just gone out and replaced the set? Back when I used credit that is probably how I would have purchased it! Also, I am not a staunch enviromentalist, but I was also able to save something from just going to the landfill. It was also just as easy, in the long run, for me to fix it as it would have been to go out and purchase a new one, drag it home, carry the old one out, and carry the new one in.
Now, it will have to be replaced someday, and probably within the next two to three years, but by then, I should have the emergency fund in place, and I will be able to cashflow a new one.
The only thing that I did not do, was that I didn't take pictures of the repair, to detail how I did it. I will have to remember to do that next time!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Saving for a vacation
This is the time of year that it is good to look to the future. We should, of course, do this all year long, but I want everyone to get out of the habit of doing your next year planning in that week between Christmas and New Year Day.
My wife and I said that we would like to plan for a vacation. We went to Niagara Falls last year on July 4, and did not take a vacation this year. With the changing of jobs, I decided not to take one this summer (even though my company arranged for me to have 5 paid days off at the end of July.) Therefore, I will have ten paid days off as of January 1, and will earn 12 paid days off per year after that.
We have done vacations where we go shorter distances away, and further away as well. A short vacation may be 100 miles, and a longer one will be 800 miles or more. We used to make these travel trips with our travel trailer, but we do not have that any more. Someday, I will get into a comparison of RV vacations VS. Hotel vacations.
We were thinking of doing a short (four day) vacation to New Hampshire in the summer. This is about a four hour trip away for us by car. Before we had our RV, we used to rent a two bedroom house there, so we had a kitchen, living room, and a yard for the kids. My wife thought that it would be good to go back there again. We also would like to plan a trip to Florida, to Disneyworld, Universal, and Seaworld. In addition, we could go to visit some relatives as well. We set a tentative date of the middle of July, 2009, for New Hampshire, and March, 2010 for Florida. Our oldest son will be fifteen at that time, and it could very well be our last long vacation with him.
I opened up another tab in my 2009 financial control spreadsheet (Where I keep track of all spending, saving, and budgeting accounts), and began to plan for the summer vacation. It was amazing that with our family of five, including spending money, we came up with $2200 for our trip! We sat down and sharpened the pencil a bit, and were able to trim it down to $1810. We would have to fund $65 per week, or $258.00 per monthly bonus to have the money in time. Certainly not out of reach.
We began a quick plan for the Florida vacation, including airfare, lodging (probably will spend a few days with family as well), themepark tickets, extra for food, spending money, rental car, and the like. I was pretty generous in spending money, and theme park tickets as well. Our projected expenses for this trip came to just shy of $7000!
Well, at least we have 62 weeks, and 15 months to put away for it! I figured out how much was needed with funding coming from my weekly pay, as well as my monthly bonuses. $25.00 per week, and $356 per monthly bonus, will put us right where I figure that we need to be.
This is in addition to some other pretty agressive goals for this year, one of which is to build and accumulate a $20,000 emergency fund by the end of 2009. This will definitely be some work!
Well, we have decided that we will probably cut the projections for our summer vacation a bit short, maybe a weekend away, and work hard towards the emergency fund and the Florida trip. But, my point is, by taking the time right now to sit down and plan for events that are anywhere from eight to fifteen months away, we can make the decisions that we need to make, and set our priorities. It will be great to get on that plane, knowing that we will be gone for twelve days, and having every dime of it paid for in advance. No debt! That feeling, to borrow the Mastercard line, is PRICELESS!
My wife and I said that we would like to plan for a vacation. We went to Niagara Falls last year on July 4, and did not take a vacation this year. With the changing of jobs, I decided not to take one this summer (even though my company arranged for me to have 5 paid days off at the end of July.) Therefore, I will have ten paid days off as of January 1, and will earn 12 paid days off per year after that.
We have done vacations where we go shorter distances away, and further away as well. A short vacation may be 100 miles, and a longer one will be 800 miles or more. We used to make these travel trips with our travel trailer, but we do not have that any more. Someday, I will get into a comparison of RV vacations VS. Hotel vacations.
We were thinking of doing a short (four day) vacation to New Hampshire in the summer. This is about a four hour trip away for us by car. Before we had our RV, we used to rent a two bedroom house there, so we had a kitchen, living room, and a yard for the kids. My wife thought that it would be good to go back there again. We also would like to plan a trip to Florida, to Disneyworld, Universal, and Seaworld. In addition, we could go to visit some relatives as well. We set a tentative date of the middle of July, 2009, for New Hampshire, and March, 2010 for Florida. Our oldest son will be fifteen at that time, and it could very well be our last long vacation with him.
I opened up another tab in my 2009 financial control spreadsheet (Where I keep track of all spending, saving, and budgeting accounts), and began to plan for the summer vacation. It was amazing that with our family of five, including spending money, we came up with $2200 for our trip! We sat down and sharpened the pencil a bit, and were able to trim it down to $1810. We would have to fund $65 per week, or $258.00 per monthly bonus to have the money in time. Certainly not out of reach.
We began a quick plan for the Florida vacation, including airfare, lodging (probably will spend a few days with family as well), themepark tickets, extra for food, spending money, rental car, and the like. I was pretty generous in spending money, and theme park tickets as well. Our projected expenses for this trip came to just shy of $7000!
Well, at least we have 62 weeks, and 15 months to put away for it! I figured out how much was needed with funding coming from my weekly pay, as well as my monthly bonuses. $25.00 per week, and $356 per monthly bonus, will put us right where I figure that we need to be.
This is in addition to some other pretty agressive goals for this year, one of which is to build and accumulate a $20,000 emergency fund by the end of 2009. This will definitely be some work!
Well, we have decided that we will probably cut the projections for our summer vacation a bit short, maybe a weekend away, and work hard towards the emergency fund and the Florida trip. But, my point is, by taking the time right now to sit down and plan for events that are anywhere from eight to fifteen months away, we can make the decisions that we need to make, and set our priorities. It will be great to get on that plane, knowing that we will be gone for twelve days, and having every dime of it paid for in advance. No debt! That feeling, to borrow the Mastercard line, is PRICELESS!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Weekly Budget Planning - This week.
Payday is tomorrow...
Well, it is actually Thursday, but with the magic of direct deposit, it should hit my checking account in about two hours, well, that is if the Veteran's Day holiday doesn't mess it up.
This is a good paycheck week! This, is my bonus week. Every month, I get a bonus based upon the profitability of my department, as well as the business. If you listen to the news, the automotive business is almost dead, but apparently, we are the exception to the rule, because we are doing OK, or at least up until this month.
So, I used my Excel spreadsheet that I have custom made to plot out where the money should go. Since I am salaried, my base pay is always the same, so it is easy to plan that out a day in advance. I have a spreadsheet that calculates my bonus based on the formula that the company uses. I am usually within a couple of dollars, but the withholding amounts are always a bit confusing.
At any rate, I inserted what I thought would be my bonus amount (I estimated a bit low), and proceeded to plan my spending. We put another couple of hundred into the Christmas fund for the kids. We have funded most of Christmas last month, but we wanted a bit more, just to be sure. If we do not spend it all, it can be re-allocated. What a feeling it is to get to the end of my accounts, and have some extra money!
I fund quarterly expenses (life insurance payment, water bill, and a couple of others), semi-annual expenses (property taxes), and yearly expenses (homeowner's insurance) out of my monthly bonus checks. I fund most of my weekly and monthly bills out of my weekly paychecks, such as the mortgage, food, doctor's co pays, etc. I decided to do this back when I started this planning. The thought was that if I had a month that we didn't do so well, and I did not make a profit, and therefore no bonus, that I would have some more time to adjust over the next month or two, and make up for it out of future bonuses. Of course, this could be a bit more of a problem if I had extended months without bonuses, but there would also be some serious issues if this were happening, and it would call for strong measures anyways.
At any rate, where I was getting at, was that I had some money left over. I also love my budget plan, because I can look ahead. I really think that the bonus situation will not be as good next month. So, I funded my life insurance fund with two months worth of payments, as well as the water bill. I was able to put 1 1/2 months of payments into property taxes.
But all is not lost, as December is a five week month. In addition, there is a Christmas bonus next month, as well as (hopefully) a year end discretionary management bonus. And, I still should make a regular bonus. And hey, with many of my accounts funded, I should be continuing to get ahead. My goal is to take the Christmas and discretionary bonus, and invest them in my emergency fund. I have a pretty aggressive goal for an emergency fund... $20,000 by the end of the year next year.
I definitely encourage you, if you don't do so now, to make a budget, a financial control, and stick with it. The changes in your life will be amazing!
Well, it is actually Thursday, but with the magic of direct deposit, it should hit my checking account in about two hours, well, that is if the Veteran's Day holiday doesn't mess it up.
This is a good paycheck week! This, is my bonus week. Every month, I get a bonus based upon the profitability of my department, as well as the business. If you listen to the news, the automotive business is almost dead, but apparently, we are the exception to the rule, because we are doing OK, or at least up until this month.
So, I used my Excel spreadsheet that I have custom made to plot out where the money should go. Since I am salaried, my base pay is always the same, so it is easy to plan that out a day in advance. I have a spreadsheet that calculates my bonus based on the formula that the company uses. I am usually within a couple of dollars, but the withholding amounts are always a bit confusing.
At any rate, I inserted what I thought would be my bonus amount (I estimated a bit low), and proceeded to plan my spending. We put another couple of hundred into the Christmas fund for the kids. We have funded most of Christmas last month, but we wanted a bit more, just to be sure. If we do not spend it all, it can be re-allocated. What a feeling it is to get to the end of my accounts, and have some extra money!
I fund quarterly expenses (life insurance payment, water bill, and a couple of others), semi-annual expenses (property taxes), and yearly expenses (homeowner's insurance) out of my monthly bonus checks. I fund most of my weekly and monthly bills out of my weekly paychecks, such as the mortgage, food, doctor's co pays, etc. I decided to do this back when I started this planning. The thought was that if I had a month that we didn't do so well, and I did not make a profit, and therefore no bonus, that I would have some more time to adjust over the next month or two, and make up for it out of future bonuses. Of course, this could be a bit more of a problem if I had extended months without bonuses, but there would also be some serious issues if this were happening, and it would call for strong measures anyways.
At any rate, where I was getting at, was that I had some money left over. I also love my budget plan, because I can look ahead. I really think that the bonus situation will not be as good next month. So, I funded my life insurance fund with two months worth of payments, as well as the water bill. I was able to put 1 1/2 months of payments into property taxes.
But all is not lost, as December is a five week month. In addition, there is a Christmas bonus next month, as well as (hopefully) a year end discretionary management bonus. And, I still should make a regular bonus. And hey, with many of my accounts funded, I should be continuing to get ahead. My goal is to take the Christmas and discretionary bonus, and invest them in my emergency fund. I have a pretty aggressive goal for an emergency fund... $20,000 by the end of the year next year.
I definitely encourage you, if you don't do so now, to make a budget, a financial control, and stick with it. The changes in your life will be amazing!
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