Planning to Save

Summer Vacation What happened this last month? This month we took a weeklong family vacation to Disneyland. We had visited California between Christmas and New Years last year and thought about going to Disneyland for a day, but realized that a day’s worth of tickets would cost almost as much as a week’s worth of tickets some other time of the year. When we were looking at options this year, we…

Goal Number Updates What happened this last month? You’ll notice that some of the numbers that said they were completed no longer do. That’s because I updated our goal number to be 50% higher than what it was before. We should be able to meet this number sometime this year hopefully. It also more closely aligns with where I expect our annual expenses to land. The old number was out of date…

Rubber band month What happened this last month? April was a relatively quiet month. I call it the rubber band month because while our investment balance went down quite a bit in March, it shot back up to the highest number yet this month. It just goes to show that you can’t predict these things, all you can know is the general direction things will go over a long period of time. We’ve been…

Small month, big spending What happened this last month? February was a bonus month, so it makes the numbers look a lot better, especially when it comes to how much we saved. As for expenses, normally February is a low expense month. This month breaks the mold. Some of the expenses were optional. For example, we planned a trip this summer and paid for some of the expenses such as hotel and…

New year, final stretch What happened this last month? January was pretty non-eventful. I guess that’s how most final stretches are. Our only large expense this month was property taxes. We didn’t really do or spend on anything else out of the ordinary. This is all part of the final stretch, where you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and you’re continuing on because you know you’re…

Eliminating expenses What happened this last month? Our expenses dropped considerably this past month because December of last year was when we bought the truck. I expect our expenses to continue to drop this year and get us into a good position long term with what we’ve saved. As I said last month, we decided to do a trip between Christmas and New Years to the Los Angeles area to experience…

Optimizing for the future What happened this last month? In November, we went an a trip to several national parks for our 20 year anniversary. It was nice to get away now that the kids are old enough to be on their own for a while. I’m personally looking forward to more in the future. I know for this trip I didn’t feel like I had to the time to fully optimize for costs, but I feel like when I…

The planning begins What happened this last month? As the months count down, it’s time for the planning to begin on how we’ll make the transition. If our current expenses continue at this rate, we will not have enough saved to transition to financial independence. That’s why we’re assuming that we won’t be purchasing two vehicles in a 12 month timespan in the future. We also plan on continuing…

Progressing slowly, trends emerging What happened this last month? Many of our numbers improved this month primarily because the market has done well. We now need our expenses to decrease in order to get in line with our savings number. It’s quite possible that the markets are being held up by a few companies that are doing well. Whether the market’s performance are related to an AI bubble or…

Catching up from last month What happened this last month? After purchasing a car last month, this month we spent much of it catching up from last month. This meant that any additional money we would have normally invested this month, we ended up using it to rebuild accounts. Because of this, it ended up bringing down the 12 month average of what we’ve been investing. As for expenses this…

Another car and layoffs What happened this last month? We’ve went through several 12 month periods where our expenses have been increasing. First, it was to put siding on the house, then a new roof. That was followed by a horse, truck, trailer, and another car. Fortunately, we can’t foresee there being any additional major expenses (items over $5000) coming again anytime soon. This is important…

Investments and expenses climb What happened this last month? We’ve begun to notice that our expenses continue to be higher over time. A lot of this is likely due to the fact that we’re not tracking things very well or dividing up expense categories. We already have what seems like WAY too many budget categories, but YNAB makes it so much easier to ensure you save enough towards the annual…

Horses are not an investment What happened this last month? I think the only certainty in the markets right now is uncertainty. On the bright side, that uncertainty has driven markets higher right now. From an income perspective, this month was a bonus and stock vesting month, so the amount we were able to invest was higher than usual. We also opted to use some of that additional income to…

Life, death, and TAXES! What happened this last month? Our investments recovered a small bit this past month, but we’ve also been making contributions the entire month as well to offset losses. From an expenses standpoint, there weren’t too many extreme ones. We paid the rest of the amount needed for our vacation in June. We also had some car repairs. Unfortunately, it was a large expense and…

(Tariff) Rollercoaster of a month What happened this last month? We have went from record months to below our goal number this month. It’s not a huge setback considering that we’re still savings and all saving that we’re doing will hopefully one day be worth more than it is today. The stock market has been a rollercoaster since the tariffs have been announced, rolled back, adjusted, postponed,…

A month of many expenses What happened this last month? On the income side of things, we had a pretty good month because of it being a company stock and bonus month. Because of that, we used this as a good month to pay for some things we had been waiting to buy. First, we paid to reserve a place for our summer vacation. Second, there were expenses related to a horse show weekend for one of our…

New Year, New Goals! What happened this last month? This month welcomes in a new year. We saw our expenses drop this month quite a bit from the previous year. Last year we had several one time expenses, the largest being paying off orthodontics. This year, we really only had some smaller unplanned for expenses for auto maintenance and a college deposit. Our oldest has finally decided on where…