Struggling to be debt free

1. Put a minimum of $11,000 to retirement.  ($6,000 to Roth and $5,000 to taxable). I am loving the increase in contributions to the Roth.  It's $6,000 this year, in case you have not heard!  The $11,000 goal is an increase of $500 from last year. ON TRACK!!! I have contributed $5,193 to retirement this year. Only $5,807 left to go.  While I am a little further behind than I would like I am happy to have contributed as much as I have.  This has been an expensive year!! I plan to max out my Roth next month.   2. Increase replacement car fund to $12,000. This is at $11,549!! I am almost at my goal.  I may scale  the amount I contribute after I reach $12,000, but I will keep contributing.   3. Give a minimum of $400 to charity. This is an increase of $100 from last year. I have donated $278 so far this year!! Over half way done.    4. Increase Emergency Fund to $20,000. I have not contributed anything to my EF fu...

I finally reached 78%LTV (loan to value) on my home.  That means no more private mortgage insurance (PMI) and I cannot be more excited!!! My PMI payments were $115.37 a month.  My first payment on this mortgage was on July 1, 2013 and it took me 6 years to reach 78%.  I plan to use that $115 a month to save for expected home repairs such as a new AC unit (pretty much a necessity in Florida).  I am already paying an extra $448 a month extra in principal each month.  The crazy part is that I reached 78% early.  I reached 80% LTV at the end of January 2019.  According to my mortgage payment, I was not supposed to reach 80% until September of 2020.  . I've already paid thousands for PMI since 2013. Imagine if I followed the schedule put forth by the mortgage company.  The process for reaching 78% LTV was simple.  I just paid extra principal payments on my mortgage each month.  At the beginning of February I received a letter from...

I am burning through money this year! This year has already been super expensive.  I paid off my new bedroom furniture and mattress which totaled over $7,000.  This was super expensive, but I don't regret one penny of it.  My back used to hurt every morning when I woke up and now I get up in the morning pain free! My 15 year old mattress (I'm pretty sure I got that mattress in 2003) needed to go.  In the past 2 month I paid:  $110 for the dentist  $338 for the eye doctor (exam and new frames)  $160 for another dentist appointment  $254 for car repair services  $212 for contact lenses Once I write it all out it is easy to see why I haven't even made half of my retirement contributions for the year. That is over $1,000 in expenses just for June and July.  It is expensive to live and work in this day and age.  I travel all over Florida so I need my car to stay in good repair and I will not sacrifice necessary car mainten...

Here's where the numbers stand. Savings- $12,916 Emergency Fund  $12,721 Online Savings Account/$7,721 of that amount is for my Car Replacement Fund/$5k is for my EF $4,282 Online Savings Account #2- all car replacement  $32,885 Retirement- Roth IRA  $7,966Taxable Brokerage (Retirement) $865 Travel Fund (Work) $875 pet fund  $39 medical fund $0 furniture fund $0 Slush fund $9 car repair fund $467 Freedom Fund $152 cell phone fund $1,375 A/C fund $11 Mom Fund Home- $294,334-per zillow               Total (not including home): $74,563               Total (including home): $368,897 Liabilities- Mortgage $192,594                                  Total (not including mortgage): $0                    ...

Just a quick update on my retirement savings for the year.  I am behind, but I am surprisingly okay with it.  Well okay may be too strong of a word.  I'm not as upset about being behind on my contributions as I thought I would be.  I just believe that I will hit my goal (or close there to) by the end of the year.  My contributions for 2019 are as follows: 1/15/19 - $1,000 2/18/19 - $500 3/15/19 - $800 4/15/19 - $1,100 5/15/19 - $750 6/15/19 - $443 All of these contributions have gone into my Roth. I have achieved a milestone, my retirement account balances hit over $40,000!!  My balance as of today is $40,852!!! My goal is to hit $50,000in total balances by the end of the year.  I have $6,407 left to contribute to meet my goal of $11,000 in contributions for the year.  I don't think the market will cooperate with my goal, but I just plan to get shoveling the money into my accounts.  Each year I raise my contribution goal an...

I apologize for the unexpected blogging break!  Please know that I have been reading along with your blogs (but unable to comment from my phone) for the past 2ish months.  I have had some family medical issues and an overload at work.  Things appear to be evening out for now and I am greatly appreciative.  I will do an update on my 2019 goals soon as it is almost the end of the 2nd quarter. However, I am down about 8lbs and my retirement account balance has hit a milestone of $40,000!! I was hoping that this would be the year that my retirement accounts hit $50,000, but I don't think that is going to happen.  There is too much turbulence in the markets. I still have over $6,000 to contribute for the year.  I have had so many medical expenses this year, I'm not sure that I am going to meet my retirement contribution goal.  I am getting new eyeglasses, contacts, I see the dentist quarterly now, I have to have a deep cleaning on my upper right teet...

Boy, I have I been busy lately!  I have been neglecting this poor little blog.  I hope to have a chance to catch up with my blog reading this weekend.  Frankly, I am considering calling in sick tomorrow.  I have 2 meetings and 2 conference calls on Friday. So if I don't want to go into work, tomorrow is my only day.  Anyways, on to the point of this post! I calculated my anticipated savings rate today,  it is about 22% of my net pay.  I've read a lot of FIRE blogs and most indicate that savings rate is the most significant factor in reaching financial Independence.  Based on my anticipated savings rate, I want to try and increase it to 25% by the end of the year.  I need to develop a new method to track my savings.  This will be a hard goal to balance with my goal to pay down my mortgage.  My job is crazy (it'll have to be a whole separate post) and stress ridden.   I really need to see the needle start to move to...