Any time
I've ever wanted something that would cost some money I've saved up for it and
once I had the money I would get it.
Fear of debt and the possibility of not being able to pay my bills has
been a great motivator for me. I
literally become a super saver. Every
spare dime I can find goes into savings and I make it happen. I suppose it is how I'm wired.
When I
decided to prepare for early retirement I once again became a super saver. I decided in 2020 to expand my emergency fund from $3000 to $5000,
I started putting extra money into my HSA,
and I started putting more money into my regular savings account. In 2021 I raised my 401(k) contributions and
reassessed those investment accounts tweaking them so I could maximize my
growth but still remain somewhat conservative as I'm very close to
retiring. Then later in 2021 I raised my
contributions once again. At the end of
2021 I raised my contributions a third time in preparation of 2022
investments. Now I will let that ride
for the duration.
In 2022 my
goal is to stay healthy (Lord willing) and continue to add funds to my HSA and save an entire
paycheck each month into savings. I plan
to live entirely off of the second paycheck and any monies left at the end of
each month will go into other planned savings categories for 2023 - $1200 =
groceries, $300 = non food, $200 = gifts & Christmas, $1500 = auto
insurance. Any additional income,
bonuses, tax refunds, overtime pay, income from my Etsy store, eBay sales, etc. will also go directly into savings
once my "other planned savings" goals are met.
In order to
make all of this happen this year I will be living a rather frugal life, employing
a lot of money saving tips and tricks to do so.
I will share with you a lot of the things I do on this blog in hopes of
inspiring others to meet their goals as well.
It is going to be fun and yes, it is going to mean making some hard
decisions and some sacrifices. It also
means I'm going to have to put in some hard work to make it all happen, but it
will be well worth it, I'm sure of that.
Do you have
any big savings goals you are working toward?
I'd love to hear about it.
I retired early at 58 so I live on allowance from my savings/investment tools. At that time I had 1 year expenses in my emergency fund. I've drawn that down now and convert IRA $ at a rate of 6m average expenses at a time and put it in a cash reserve fund and my monthly allowance comes from there. When a larger expense comes along, I draw extra from it: prop tax, home/car insurance which all hits in March/April.
ReplyDeleteI just had the annual service appt for my 6yo car. They called wanting to do a full transmission service-drain, clean, reassemble. $700. I declined, did my research and learned I really should do it on a 6yo. I'll save that up from my monthly allowance and get it done before May as I don't want to withdraw savings for this.
I'm excited for you to meet your 2022 and make your plans and decisions for 2023.
Happy Friday to you!
Thank you for sharing your life with us. My husband unexpectedly went on disability in 2020 which cut his bring home by 2/3. I am still working and plan to retire in 5/6 years. Following you here (I have followed your other blog for eons...) will help me keep focused.
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