Wow, this month was a mess. And of course, it came right as I’ve been having trouble dealing with things. Ugh.
The issues came down to:
- I still hadn’t finished using the stimulus funds for donations/spending at small businesses. So I had to make sure I left the remaining funds in the account.
- My insurance hadn’t deducted my yearly premium, which was $1,107 that needed to be left in the account.
- The guest house rent needed to stay in the account too, though that’s usually calculated.
- I had only used about half of my financial week’s funds, which means I had to make sure the amount I had spent stayed in my secondary account for when I was ready to make a credit card payment.
- I had spent significantly less than usual this past month, so I hadn’t used up the full monthly spending amount.
But even accounting for all of that, I had around $480 more than I should’ve in the account (for a total of $880 in extraneous funds) and no earthly idea why it was there. Which is nice, of course, but also stressful because it makes me wonder if I forgot a bill or something.
As best I can tell, I didn’t. So I just rolled the funds into the money allocations for the month. That said, the saving rates (pre-tax, post-tax and post-tax plus additional mortgage principal) will be exclusive of those funds, since they’re based on how much money I put into savings from actual income over the course of the month.
So let’s see how that all shook down, shall we?
Car fund
Every month I put $300 into an account in anticipation of having to buy a new vehicle at some point. I’m just barely below 80,000 miles, so hopefully that’s a long ways away. I’d love to have enough to pay for a new vehicle outright. I’m getting close to $15,000 in the account, so it may very well happen. Time will tell.
Since this goal is more than a year away, the money counts in my saving rate.
Car insurance fund
I switched insurance, so I now only have to put away $100 a month. It’d be even less, but I got in an accident two Decembers ago, so that’ll keep my rates higher for a bit longer.
Since I pay yearly, this isn’t a long-term goal and doesn’t count in my saving rates.
Credit cards
Obviously not a savings issue, but it is where a chunk of my money goes every month.
The business card balance was a little higher due to renewing this site’s domain and a few things. But overall the balance was pretty low — around $765.
Taxes
Again, not a saving goal but where a big part of my check goes. Between both halves of FICA (yay, self-employment) and state/federal taxes, I put away $1,853 toward quarterly tax payments.
Not fun, but paved roads and schools are nice so…
Pet fund
I put $100 into a fund in anticipation of future vet bills for Josie. My goal is $1,500, which I’ll hit next month.
I was anticipating having to draw down this month, but Josie was exceedingly uncooperative and hostile at the vet. So they couldn’t really run any tests without sedation. I’m supposed to collect some urine (whee) for them to test and then we’ll go from there.
Anyway, having funds for the vet is a long-term goal, so it counts toward my saving rates.
Guest house rent
I have a small guest house (very small) that I rent to a love gal and cute (and surprisingly not very yappy) small dog. I get $500 a month there, which I add to my mortgage payment. As such, this counts toward the third savings rate, which includes additional mortgage principal paid.
B’s fund
A teenage relative came out as transgender recently. I know that the surgery for that isn’t cheap, so I’m putting away $50 a month for an eventual gift when she’s ready for that step.
Since this isn’t going to me, ultimately, I don’t count this in my saving rates.
HVAC fund
My unit is getting older, so I’m saving $145 a month for a replacement. This is (please god) a long-term goal, so it counts toward my saving rates.
iPhone fund
I have an iPhone 7. It’s working perfectly well, but from what I can tell, it likely won’t be able to do updates starting when they release the next model in September.
Eventually, this can cause problems with apps, so at that point, I’ll bite the bullet and replace it. So I’m putting $50 away each month in anticipation of a new one.
Since I don’t know how soon the problems will start, I assume this isn’t a long-term goal and don’t’ count it in my saving rates.
Termite fund
I pay $332 a year for termite protection. They seem to like this house, so it’s definitely worth it. But I was tired of taking the $300 hit every year. So I’m putting away $27.67 a month into this sinking fund.
This is a yearly bill, so not a long-term goal. Thus it doesn’t count in my saving rates.
Roth IRA
I put $500 a month into a Vanguard account to make sure I max out my Roth. Since retirement is obviously a long-term goal, this counts in my saving rates.
Emergency fund
This one is a little complicated.
My goal is to save a year’s worth of my emergency budget. To that end, I put $200 a month in the account. But to speed up the goal a little, I take the amount left from my check after all of the above have been accounted for, and I round it down to the nearest $100, putting the difference in my EF.
For example, $1,550 would become $1,500 and the $50 would go into this account. This month, that was $87.86.
Obviously, this is a long-term goal, so the money counts toward may saving rates.
Savings
In addition to my emergency fund, I also have a savings account for general expenses. Which I only recently realized is kind of weird, since I pay from my savings account for most “emergencies” people use their EF funds for.
But I guess I treat my EF as more of a last resort. Like if I got laid off, I’d have it to live on. Savings for everything else.
Anyway, this month $300 went into that account. This counts toward my saving rates.
SEP-IRA
This is the retirement account that my S-corp business contributes to. It can put in up to 25% of my salary as an employee. Once I max this out, I will start contributing as an employee to the 401(k) I opened last year.
After all of the above amounts were deducted from my check — and accounting for some money the blog made — I was able to put $1,723.86 into this account.
Thanks to a really good money month in January, which allowed me to make another big SEP contribution, two monthly paychecks into 2021, I’m 27.6% of the way toward maxing out the SEP. Woot!
Saving rates
When calculating the rates, I make sure to account for all income in a given month. So this includes not just my paycheck, but also the guest house rent and any income the blog gets.
So how did I do?
Pre-tax: 30.6%
Post-tax: 39.9%
Post-tax plus additional mortgage principal: 52.4%
Since my goal is 50% for that last rate, I hit my mark so yay! It’s especially nice because this paycheck was a little smaller than normal ones.
Okay, so normally I have a whole extra section here, but I’m still recovering some of my mental/emotional fortitude (Aaron and ktiten-time helped but still…) so I’m frankly out of gas at this point.
So short version: I have many advantages that other people don’t, so if your results are different than mine, please don’t let it make you feel bad. If you’re doing the best you can — even if that means “doing the best you can while still enjoying life a bit” — then be proud of that. It’s what matters.
Ooh I love your breakdown because it reminds me of things I might want to save for mentally as well. I just keep large general buckets now but I like to have a list of things that bucket might cover. I treat my EF as a last resort like you do, so we have the EF and a smaller general savings for more routine stuff account.
revanche @ a gai shan life recently posted…Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (37)
Aww Josie i know the feeling. My cat Lucky won’t even let me get near clipping his nails but they are so sharp so i was thinking of taking to vet or groomer to get his a nail trim. He’s drawn blood accidentally but jumping up into my lap but nails were so sharp. How do you collect urine from plastic litter? Ewwww….. lol
Allegedly it falls through the litter so you can just kinda pour it? I really don’t think it’s as easy as they’re trying to pretend
“Rescue a cat!” they said.
“The cat will be your lifelong buddy and so much company!” they said.
NO ONE SAID: “….and you may have to pour urine.”
Donna Freedman recently posted…Giveaway: Aliy Zirkle “dog fan.”
I think they thought it was implied haha
Your worries about an iPhone 7 not being able to update properly and keep apps functioning is making me worry about my iPhone 5s not being able to update properly and keep apps up to date, ha!
Maybe I should start putting funds and contributing towards a new phone.. It is about dang time that I got one.
David @ Filled With Money recently posted…Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty?
Yeah I had a 4s before this (I got the iPhone 7 as a replacement because it was significantly cheaper and most of the same functionality as the latest) and there were a ton of apps I couldn’t use. I couldn’t bank on my phone (not huge but it’s nice), couldn’t use Lyft instead of Uber, couldn’t download food delivery apps… It just got silly.
Oh noooo! I have an iphone 7 too! I hadn’t heard that.
A well I had been resigned to getting a new one recently anyway. Luckily a full reset of my phone did the trick and it’s working again for now, but it is getting pretty ancient…
NZ Muse recently posted…Money & marriage: Navigating the awkward conversations and more
Where do you keep a years emergency fund? I have a money market account that pays a tiny bit of interest, but I’ve been thinking about looking into options that pay a little better. I have been thinking that I should be able to make a little more on the money.
I have it in Ally, which is of course right now not great. But I prefer the funds to be accessible and not subject to loss, so I’m just grumbling about the lack of interest and keeping it there.
And of course this is based on my emergency budget. So while $14k is hardly a small amount, it’s not as big as a lot of people with a one-year fund have. If it were a more robust amount I might be more proactive about making sure it earns me money. But I’m also anxious so maybe I’d still leave it in Ally.