Tuesday, 6 May 2008
It’s very easy to get complacent in life as well as with your finances. I’m definitely guilty of this. Therefore, i’ve decided to give myself a challenge. I hope you’ll join in and create your own challenge.
I currently save ~20% of my gross income for retirement. My challenge will be to increase that amount to 25% for this year. I think it may prove difficult (I’ll be honest, I like my standard of living and don’t want to cut back) but I’m going to try it anyway.
For the purpose of this challenge, gross income will be my gross salary and any bank account interest received as well as any miscellaneous or side income. I will not be including interest or dividends paid to retirement accounts as I have no access to those. Retirement savings will be defined as my 401(k), IRAs and taxable brokerage account NOT any general savings accounts.
I usually do a month-end financial statement so sometime this week I will add a status bar as of April 30th and then update monthly after that. What are YOU going to challenge yourself to do?
October 9th, 2008 at 9:58 AM
I’m just trying my best to stay disciplined with my money. Its hard not being able to buy things when you want them. I’ve been taking your advice from a past post and concentrating on paying off debt while setting money aside in savings at the same time. I know it will benefit me in the long run. I just hope that run isn’t too much longer.
October 10th, 2008 at 3:07 PM
I have many decade before I retire so I am going to ride this out and allow my money to stay right where it is. I spoke to a guy today who told me that he stopped his 401k contributions but I will stay put for now.
Like Mr. Savvy, business needs to be my hobby in these financial times so that is what I will throw myself into.
Have a great weekend.
October 12th, 2008 at 9:27 AM
I’m not happy about my 401k. I’m just trying to focus on the long term. Scary times.