Woo, I reached the halfway point! EF & investments now equal $25,000. Could have been higher but November was a spendypants month for me. I did also move some more of my EF over to my Roth. I think this was the right call, but I should leave my EF alone now. On track for $40,000 by end of summer 2018. $50,000 in early 2019. Gotta stay focused!
Woohoo - halfway there is sweet victory:) CONGRATS to you westtoeast! I'm practically green with envy:)...
Update: Ending the year 2017 with $10,117.
OUTLOOK: 2018 - no debt except car loan (grrr) and I'm back in the game - which means I can contribute a solid $1K in January. Things are looking up again.
All other goals and financial surprises are sorted out and I think January may turn out to be a good month.
REVISED UPDATE FOR DECEMBER and it is oh so much better:) instead of $10,117 I'm ending the year 2017 with $11,642. I'm ecstatic and quite proud of myself that I pulled this off after so much financial upheaval - both planned and unplanned.
Hope y'all are doing well going into 2018 - slow and steady wins the race!Current status and plans for 2018:
1. To re-state my original goal of saving $1,666 mo x 30 mo = $50K by Dec 2019. Did not happen that way - lots of wild swings throughout the year.
Current status: $11,642 as of Dec 2017
2. Seven months in, I am at $11,642 with 23 months and $38,358 to go to my ultimate goal of $50K.
If I continue to manage to save $1667.74 a month - on average - I will be right on track.
3. 2018 will be harder since I now have a $256.05 car payment that I didn't have when I started this challenge in June (car loan happened in late Aug). Plus, I added a second goal of saving $200 to bolster my travel fund - Jan to July.
So I need to become a badass MMMer at least until July and I definitely need to find a bit of side income to make it all happen.
Trouble is both plans are equally important to me - the travel fund is a sort of bucket list, let's do this while I still can and I plan to have a lot of fun doing it, so I do not want to skimp on my trip with my longtime girlfriends, if I can help it.
Perhaps I could find a zero percent credit card to help with the travel fund? - not too fond of that route, I prefer to have enough money for all of my travel expenses before I leave. I've just never been able to justify going on a trip when you don't have the money to do so - but this is also my mom's 90th birthday and will be my last trip just to see her (alongside spending time and money on a trip throughout Europe with my old friends while I am there).
Maybe I could figure out how to travel hack - all I need is the ticket for one person, the rest is cake, I've already saved $3,258.
However, I realize that I really do not want to give up my retirement fund goal either - so wish me luck and tenacity:) - I will find a way - god willing and the river don't rise:)
Happy Holidays everyone and the best of luck with your own goals!:) 2018 here we come - we can do this!
I really want to see $50K in my statement by Dec 2019!