Stacking Pennies . . .

This is my first month of tracking expenses and it has helped me to limit my spending--i know if i buy something, I have to record it!

Still, it's not going so well. This month I have a paycheck income of about 2700. I've subtracted out rent, planned payments to student loans, planned automatic savings to my Roth and my HSBC account, bills I already have paid and bills that will come due this month. Then I have subtracted money I've already spent. All that is left for the rest of the month for food, clothes, entertainment, gifts, etc is $311! I expected to have more!

The reasons for this are explainable. I had an auto repair this month, something unusual, of about 200. I also went on a long road trip, driving about 1000 miles more than I usually do, which increased my gas expenditure by about $80. Also, I really need to ditch the expensive cable and go back to basic!

Still, tracking this month will help me see if my savings goals are reasonable. On my salary, is it reasonable for me to be able to save 600/mo in savings, 350 in a Roth, and also pay 250/month on my loans? That is about $1200, just under 50% of my take home pay. It is tight, and I'm not sure, but that is what I'd really like to do in order to get where I need to be.

Also, the 250/mo on my student loans is arguably a stupid financial move. I took two graduate classes while working, which put me in "school status" which means that interest doesn't accumulate on the loans. It is MUCH smarter financially to throw that money elsewhere.

The reason I am paying anything on them, much less extra, is two-fold. First, I'm not interested in paying student loans for the rest of my life, despite the fact that the rate is low. It's psychological, and I know this, but I would like the freedom of not having them. The second reason is because of my boyfriend, whom I am expecting to soon be engaged to. He is fortunate enough to have no student loans, and actually a few thousand in various savings as a college graduate of just one week (congrats, T!). Debt makes him anxious, and he doesn't even have a credit card yet. After about 2 years, I think I have finally convinced him he needs one in order to have a credit history and he plans to get one soon. That explains how he feels about debt! Since we plan to unite our finances in the next year or so, I sought his opinion on what I should be paying on them, since I was considering reducing payments. I informed him they weren't accumulating interest at this time, and that I could easily put the money into my savings and my money would work for me there. He still argued to pay them off as fast as possible, so I compromised and said I'd just keep it at the same level.

I had second thoughts about my compromise, and since it is still my money and my debt, I came up with an alternate plan. I will continue to "pay" $125 out of each paycheck to the loans, except I'll funnel it into it's own separate high interest savings which will be untouchable. As soon as interest kicks in, I'll dump the money into the loan, plus any accumulated interest. Arguably, this interest could be minimal--even if I have it in there a whole year, maybe just 100 or so. Still I just can't justify paying off a 0% loan.

This is my first month of tracking expenses and it has helped me to limit my spending--i know if i buy something, I have to record it!

Still, it's not going so well. This month I have a paycheck income of about 2700. I've subtracted out rent, planned payments to student loans, planned automatic savings to my Roth and my HSBC account, bills I already have paid and bills that will come due this month. Then I have subtracted money I've already spent. All that is left for the rest of the month for food, clothes, entertainment, gifts, etc is $311! I expected to have more!

The reasons for this are explainable. I had an auto repair this month, something unusual, of about 200. I also went on a long road trip, driving about 1000 miles more than I usually do, which increased my gas expenditure by about $80. Also, I really need to ditch the expensive cable and go back to basic!

Still, tracking this month will help me see if my savings goals are reasonable. On my salary, is it reasonable for me to be able to save 600/mo in savings, 350 in a Roth, and also pay 250/month on my loans? That is about $1200, just under 50% of my take home pay. It is tight, and I'm not sure, but that is what I'd really like to do in order to get where I need to be.

Also, the 250/mo on my student loans is arguably a stupid financial move. I took two graduate classes while working, which put me in "school status" which means that interest doesn't accumulate on the loans. It is MUCH smarter financially to throw that money elsewhere.

The reason I am paying anything on them, much less extra, is two-fold. First, I'm not interested in paying student loans for the rest of my life, despite the fact that the rate is low. It's psychological, and I know this, but I would like the freedom of not having them. The second reason is because of my boyfriend, whom I am expecting to soon be engaged to. He is fortunate enough to have no student loans, and actually a few thousand in various savings as a college graduate of just one week (congrats, T!). Debt makes him anxious, and he doesn't even have a credit card yet. After about 2 years, I think I have finally convinced him he needs one in order to have a credit history and he plans to get one soon. That explains how he feels about debt! Since we plan to unite our finances in the next year or so, I sought his opinion on what I should be paying on them, since I was considering reducing payments. I informed him they weren't accumulating interest at this time, and that I could easily put the money into my savings and my money would work for me there. He still argued to pay them off as fast as possible, so I compromised and said I'd just keep it at the same level.

I had second thoughts about my compromise, and since it is still my money and my debt, I came up with an alternate plan. I will continue to "pay" $125 out of each paycheck to the loans, except I'll funnel it into it's own separate high interest savings which will be untouchable. As soon as interest kicks in, I'll dump the money into the loan, plus any accumulated interest. Arguably, this interest could be minimal--even if I have it in there a whole year, maybe just 100 or so. Still I just can't justify paying off a 0% loan.

This is my first month of tracking expenses and it has helped me to limit my spending--i know if i buy something, I have to record it!

Still, it's not going so well. This month I have a paycheck income of about 2700. I've subtracted out rent, planned payments to student loans, planned automatic savings to my Roth and my HSBC account, bills I already have paid and bills that will come due this month. Then I have subtracted money I've already spent. All that is left for the rest of the month for food, clothes, entertainment, gifts, etc is $311! I expected to have more!

The reasons for this are explainable. I had an auto repair this month, something unusual, of about 200. I also went on a long road trip, driving about 1000 miles more than I usually do, which increased my gas expenditure by about $80. Also, I really need to ditch the expensive cable and go back to basic!

Still, tracking this month will help me see if my savings goals are reasonable. On my salary, is it reasonable for me to be able to save 600/mo in savings, 350 in a Roth, and also pay 250/month on my loans? That is about $1200, just under 50% of my take home pay. It is tight, and I'm not sure, but that is what I'd really like to do in order to get where I need to be.

Also, the 250/mo on my student loans is arguably a stupid financial move. I took two graduate classes while working, which put me in "school status" which means that interest doesn't accumulate on the loans. It is MUCH smarter financially to throw that money elsewhere.

The reason I am paying anything on them, much less extra, is two-fold. First, I'm not interested in paying student loans for the rest of my life, despite the fact that the rate is low. It's psychological, and I know this, but I would like the freedom of not having them. The second reason is because of my boyfriend, whom I am expecting to soon be engaged to. He is fortunate enough to have no student loans, and actually a few thousand in various savings as a college graduate of just one week (congrats, T!). Debt makes him anxious, and he doesn't even have a credit card yet. After about 2 years, I think I have finally convinced him he needs one in order to have a credit history and he plans to get one soon. That explains how he feels about debt! Since we plan to unite our finances in the next year or so, I sought his opinion on what I should be paying on them, since I was considering reducing payments. I informed him they weren't accumulating interest at this time, and that I could easily put the money into my savings and my money would work for me there. He still argued to pay them off as fast as possible, so I compromised and said I'd just keep it at the same level.

I had second thoughts about my compromise, and since it is still my money and my debt, I came up with an alternate plan. I will continue to "pay" $125 out of each paycheck to the loans, except I'll funnel it into it's own separate high interest savings which will be untouchable. As soon as interest kicks in, I'll dump the money into the loan, plus any accumulated interest. Arguably, this interest could be minimal--even if I have it in there a whole year, maybe just 100 or so. Still I just can't justify paying off a 0% loan.

This is my first month of tracking expenses and it has helped me to limit my spending--i know if i buy something, I have to record it!

Still, it's not going so well. This month I have a paycheck income of about 2700. I've subtracted out rent, planned payments to student loans, planned automatic savings to my Roth and my HSBC account, bills I already have paid and bills that will come due this month. Then I have subtracted money I've already spent. All that is left for the rest of the month for food, clothes, entertainment, gifts, etc is $311! I expected to have more!

The reasons for this are explainable. I had an auto repair this month, something unusual, of about 200. I also went on a long road trip, driving about 1000 miles more than I usually do, which increased my gas expenditure by about $80. Also, I really need to ditch the expensive cable and go back to basic!

Still, tracking this month will help me see if my savings goals are reasonable. On my salary, is it reasonable for me to be able to save 600/mo in savings, 350 in a Roth, and also pay 250/month on my loans? That is about $1200, just under 50% of my take home pay. It is tight, and I'm not sure, but that is what I'd really like to do in order to get where I need to be.

Also, the 250/mo on my student loans is arguably a stupid financial move. I took two graduate classes while working, which put me in "school status" which means that interest doesn't accumulate on the loans. It is MUCH smarter financially to throw that money elsewhere.

The reason I am paying anything on them, much less extra, is two-fold. First, I'm not interested in paying student loans for the rest of my life, despite the fact that the rate is low. It's psychological, and I know this, but I would like the freedom of not having them. The second reason is because of my boyfriend, whom I am expecting to soon be engaged to. He is fortunate enough to have no student loans, and actually a few thousand in various savings as a college graduate of just one week (congrats, T!). Debt makes him anxious, and he doesn't even have a credit card yet. After about 2 years, I think I have finally convinced him he needs one in order to have a credit history and he plans to get one soon. That explains how he feels about debt! Since we plan to unite our finances in the next year or so, I sought his opinion on what I should be paying on them, since I was considering reducing payments. I informed him they weren't accumulating interest at this time, and that I could easily put the money into my savings and my money would work for me there. He still argued to pay them off as fast as possible, so I compromised and said I'd just keep it at the same level.

I had second thoughts about my compromise, and since it is still my money and my debt, I came up with an alternate plan. I will continue to "pay" $125 out of each paycheck to the loans, except I'll funnel it into it's own separate high interest savings which will be untouchable. As soon as interest kicks in, I'll dump the money into the loan, plus any accumulated interest. Arguably, this interest could be minimal--even if I have it in there a whole year, maybe just 100 or so. Still I just can't justify paying off a 0% loan.