Finances are still at the forefront in my life right now. In fact, it still takes up the bulk of what I think about. I've been tracking every penny since December 1st, and there haven't been any big surprises about where my money is going (not my first tracking rodeo this year, so that's probably part of it) it's easy to see that my priorities have shifted and that's a good thing.
While 2015 wasn't like, the best year EVER!!, it certainly wasn't the worst and for the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm ending the year on a much better note than how it started...and doing something as simple as tracking my finances made that really clear to me.
For most of the year I spent a lot of money buying coffee and eating out (because I didn't really have time to cook in between working two jobs and commuting 2 hours a day,) getting massages (because I was so stressed out from working two jobs and commuting two hours a day) buying clothes (because I was miserable trying to work two jobs and thought it would make me feel better...it didn't.) I'm making $600 a less a month, and yet I'm coming out ahead. Of course, part of this is because I shifted high interest debt into a low-interest personal loan, but part of it because I no longer feel the need to spend money I don't have to make myself feel better and keep my head above water.
Sometimes I get discouraged because I'm so far away from the financial freedom that I crave. There's no way I'll hit FIRE (financial independence, retire early) in my 30s. I'm nowhere where I want to be or should be in terms of earning income and saving. However, when I look at where I was four years ago, what I went through in the last few years and where I am now, it's easy to see that I've come a long way in a short amount of time.
A few years ago a $500 car repair would have destroyed me. I know I'd desperately be trying to cobble together my credit cards to cover the repairs. Now? It would be annoying and upsetting...but it wouldn't destroy my finances at all and there would be no need to put the repairs on credit (thankfully my car repairs have been fairly low this year, but still.) My savings account, while not large, is big enough to cover me for at least a month...possibly two if I cut all spending back to the barest of bare bones. I'm not out of the woods by any means, but there is so, SO much peace of mind knowing that I have something to fall back on. I wish I could slap my 20-something year old self for being so reckless with my spending and living on the edge for so long.
I'm still not 100% ready to commit to 2016 goals yet (mostly because I dislike setting goals that I usually get too lazy to reach) but I really want to save six months worth of living expenses by this time next year (I currently save about 10% for retirement and I'll probably keep saving at that rate until I feel comfortable with my 'short term/emergency' savings account) and I also really want to look into opening some kind of non-retirement investment account.
Anyway, I feel like this blog is super-boring (but really, has it ever been exciting?) but just writing some of this out helps me focus on my goals and think about what I want out of life, at least in the short term. Anyway, it's time to hobble upstairs (maybe I can blog about the fall I took going downstairs the other night...it hurts like hell...also? falling in my 30s??!! WTF!!??) and pack my lunch for tomorrow...because I'll be damned if I go back to my old habit of purchasing junk food every day because I was too tired/lazy/bored to be bothered to do it myself.
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