I enjoy following your budgets so much that I thought I'd give it a go at sharing mine. I know that I put more on credit cards than this budget accounts for, so I really need to get better at actually accounting for my expenses. Now that I write that, I realize that I had nothing in my budget for travel or shopping, which is definitely not correct. In fact I just spend $800 on booking ballet & plane tickets for NYC in July. 🩰 ✈️ 🚖 

rent $1712

utilities $100

auto insurance $143

cell phone & internet $143

food $400

travel $300

shopping $300

church $100

charities $100

Apple $1

IRA $500

savings $500

brokerage $500

Expenses $3399

Savings $1500

Total $4899

I now realize that in posting a budget how vulnerable you feel opening yourself up to others' scrutiny.

Since I don't know if I'll be able to recover my lost entries, let's try this for a third time. Third time's the charm, right?

Retirement investments $1,156,452

Brokerage investments $81,542 

Savings $26,551

Total $1,264,545

My brokerage account is set aside for a future home purchase and my cash savings is earmarked for future car purchases. I put $500 into each every month.

I hope to not have to buy another car until 2032, which is when all cars are projected to be electric. I know a hybrid CR-V today will cost approximately $35k with the trimmings I desire, which are nothing extravagant.

Not included in my net worth is my cash in checking accounts and car value, which amount to approximately $35k.

I got an email that my new checking account is now paying 5.25% interest which may finally motivate me to start using my debit card. I haven't used a debit card for a very long time. I have to make 15 credit card transactions in order to qualify, which seems like a lot!

Even though they cut me an off-cycle check all of my retroactive earnings were shown on this paycheck along with my current earnings. Thankfully, my match was accounted for from both pay periods. My premium for both health & dental were doubled up, but the FSA pro-rated for the missed paycheck. It will be just a few dollars extra every check for the rest of the year. All fine by me.

Investments are up for April, just waiting for monthly interest payments to post before my final tally.

I just checked Capital One's 360 performance savings went up 0.10%. I think it was 3.20% when I first opened my account then it went to 3.30%. So far it's just been very small incremental rates increases. I also noticed that their CD rates have not gone back up to 5.00%. I was worried when I opened my two accounts, after listening to Suze Orman speak, that they would have big rates increases right after I opened my accounts. The term was only 11 months, so it's not like I'm locked in for a long time either way.

I wish I had gotten some I-bonds when the past two years. Now it seems like inflation is finally slowing down. I can't remember exactly why, but there was a reason I was hesitant to invest in them initially. Maybe I was worried about cashing them out early? Not quite sure.

Well I did get a paycheck from my PRN job, but there was a snafu at work with processing time cards so I didn't get paid at my full-time job. No biggie. I'm actually carrying a little extra cash at the moment as I've been receiving reimbursements for planning work events. And since I got out of debt in 2021, I've kept a good amount of cash on hand.

I'll get a double paycheck on the next paycheck. I'm most concerned that they get my match on my retirement contributions correct since my contributions that should have been on this paycheck will be doubled up on the next paycheck.

I don't know if you recall, but about a year ago my medical center signed a 10% retention bonus for my occupation because we kept losing people. We later received a big boost after a salary survey which equates to a little over 16%. We've been able to hire some employees since then so I expect that the retention bonus will lapse this month. This year we also got a 4% annual increase & they are already discussing an 8% increase  for next year. 

The extra money was very nice, but I think I'll be fine without. Of course, I wouldn't turn it down! With it, I've been able to accumulate more than $40k in my cash accounts which is the highest I've ever seen, plus add another $5k to my brokerage account at the end of last year. Now I'd like to give more to church & charities. 

It's a federal holiday so I'm off. Not really a true long weekend as I worked at my PRN job. I slept in, then got a text from my co-worker a little after 8:30 asking me to call him. He had gone in to work on an annual report & encountered other issues. We spent 45 minutes on the phone going over how to pull reports in our server & other miscellaneous things.

Then I had my cup of coffee and my favorite cheese pastries from Trader Joe's. I tried to make a TJ run yesterday after I got off work, but they had closed early due to a Mardi Gras parade. Speaking of, Happy Lundi Gras as well! 💜💛💚

The only other things on my agenda today is to mop my floors, fold some laundry, and maybe see the new Ant Man movie. 

I contacted Mint & realized why my CD wasn't linking. With Capital One you have to authorize the linking of each account, so when I opened this account it wasn't going to link. Easy fix. Now my accounts will be ready when I do my end of the month assessment.

In my new efforts to make my money work for me, I opened up a new checking account at my credit union. This new account is paying 3.01% APY, dividend rate of 2.97% on balances up to $10k. I haven't closed my original checking account. I will still use my old account for deposits & check writing, but I may eventually migrate it all to the new account. As long as I maintain a $5k balance across all accounts I avoid any fees. That should be easy to do as I currently have close to $12k. I had $15k at the end of last year & moved $5k to my brokerage account. So I have accumulated another $2k in less than 2 months. I will try to keep around $5k and send the overage to my new account periodically where it can make a little interest.

Well after finishing my last blog I checked Capital One & saw that they had a 5.00% 11 month CD rate until 3/14/23. I moved $10,000 in and will hold the rest on my 360 savings until I get my sign-up bonus.

Happy Black History Month! The January market was good to us. I'm not at my highest number, but I'm not terribly far off either. I gained $86,805 last month including contributions which were $3,750.

Net Worth $1,221,125

I am reading that we can expect the feds to continue raising interest rates into the late spring/early summer. If Capital One has paid my bonus for opening my 360 savings account by that time, I can move some money into CDs which will hopefully be at their peak rate. Their 360 account seems to be stuck at 3.3% while CD rates continue to rise. I may need to move back to my credit union.

Happy Groundhog Day! What is your prediction? A short or long winter? Winter is a relative term in the Deep South, but I'm definitely okay with longer.

My H&R tax professional (my dad) finished my taxes. I owe $455 federal taxes and $309 state taxes. Not bad at all. I don't foresee my income going down significantly anytime soon and this paycheck I got a very unexpected cash award. I am very blessed indeed.

I noticed that my new salary posted yesterday. It's an approximate 4% increase, though I expect to lose the 10% retention pay next month. So overall about a 6% loss, but I know that I can make my budget regardless. 

I am updating my goals for 2023, which actually haven't changed from year to year. One thing that I did not do at all last year was to give to a church. I did end up joining a church. I'm still trying to make it feel like home. I joined a ladies group & we had a nice belated holiday party this week. I don't end up attending my new church often between working every other weekend & traveling home other weekends.

I did give to charity regularly, but I would like to give more & give to local charities more often - specifically food banks.

My 2023 savings goals looks like:

$22,500 to TSP

$6,500 to IRA

$6,000 to brokerage account (taxable investments)

$6,000 to savings

$41,000 to save in 2023

I saved $39,500 in 2022 so I'm confident that this is an achievable goal.

I expect that I'll keep coming back with year end blogs so I'm calling this part 1. I forgot to bring home my paycheck information yesterday evening, but I made approximately $119,500 gross last year from my two jobs. 

I checked my checking account yesterday & I had a balance of $15,740. Well over the $5,000 balance I need to maintain to avoid fees. I transferred $5,000 to make an end of year buy to my brokerage account to bring up my savings for the year to $39,500. With the market down yesterday it turned out to be a good day to buy.

The goal was to save $32,500 for 2022: $20,500 to my TSP, $6,000 to my IRA, and $6,000 to savings. I accomplished all that & added $7,000 to my brokerage account. This was the account I had opened to invest the profits from the sell of my condo.

I saved 33% of my gross income for the year. Pretty good even with a high rent of $1,632. I used to pay $617 a month for my mortgage. And honestly, it didn't even hurt to save that much. It's amazing how you can go from scrimping & saving to feeling such a generous income flow. I am very blessed.

My savings goal for 2023 is a little more ambitious: $41,000 for the year. I have allocated $22,500 to my TSP, $6,500 to my IRA, $6,000 to my savings, and $6,000 to my brokerage account. My parents gave me a check for $500 for Christmas so I will start the year off by contributing $500 to my IRA. I already have automated monthly contributions of $500 to meet the limit.

Now I'm off to have my first pedicure since sometime in 2021! I've been taking care of that myself, but lately I haven't been able to keep up so I'm treating myself today. I might even have my eyebrows done. I've avoided that in the pandemic but since I finally got Covid in November, I'll be happy that I have the antibodies to fight it for now.

Last week I ended up moving my emergency funds for 2 reasons:

1) My credit union no longer allowed Mint to sync with their instiution.

2) I found a better rate through information shared on the forums.

I suppose I could have put the funds in a CD, but I feel like I wanted them to be a little more liquid. Of course, I often change my mind so that's subject to change.

Sunrise Credit emailed me that they had no debts on their books with me. Experian and Transunion removed the negative account on their credit reports almost immediately. For some reason Equifax is dragging their heels. But while I was home recovering Monday I got a new call from another collection agency, Franklin Services! I'm so aggravated. Now I'm walking through the process with them of disputing this debt. It has not yet been reported to the credit reporting agencies so that's good.

I'm glad that I still have my paper statements from this time period. If it had not been for that how do you fight something that you thought was resolved over a year ago?! Everyone is going to paperless which I know is good for our environment & reduces fraud by mail.

I will never ever use DirectTV's services again & I'm looking forward to moving my cell phone services from AT&T. I spent over an hour on the phone with AT&at and DirectTV Monday only to get disconnected, transferred around, and hear multiple versions of my account history. I know that I could just pay the $112, but I refuse to at this time. I know that I canceled their services & this is an error on their part. 

I have never in my life been collections, but on November 6th Sunrise Credit reported me as in collections due to owing $112 to AT&T U-Verse DirectTV. Thursday I got the alert from Mint. I remember that I disputed a bill over a year ago and after discussions with the company they agreed to dismiss the debt and they even sent me a Visa card for $91 my trouble.

Recently collectors called & I explained that we settled the issue. They kept calling even after I explained the situation so I started blocking & hanging up on them. Then I got an alert that I had a collections account opened up. I immediately filed a dispute with Experian, Equifax, and Transunion. Experian & Transunion have already deleted the collections from my report.

I also emailed the company directly & they said that they don't have a collections against me on their books & I should contact AT&T. But it was Sunrise Credit that reported the debt so I didn't understand that response. I responded why then was I just reported as being in collections by Sunrise Credit? They didn't respond. I also complained that they didn't send me a Notice of Debt which has been the law since November 2021.

It looks like this will be fairly easy to resolve so far. It also makes my decision to leave AT&T, my cell phone provider for approximately 2 decades, easier. I've been wanting to move to Verizon as they seem to provide better coverage post-hurricanes, but I due to loyalty & a federal employee discount I had been reluctant to leave AT&T. No discount however is worth seeing my nearly perfect credit card drop by over 100 points in a day.

In other bad news, I tested positive for Covid-19 yesterday. I'm already feeling better, thankfully. I had spent Thursday night with my parents' and when I woke up feeling awful at 4 am I took one of their home tests. My first symptoms were actually sneezing, which had me thinking of allergies. I had slightly itchy, watery eyes. Then Thursday morning my nose started running, then by that night I was coughing. I went to bed then woke up with chills and feeling very unwell, which prompted my taking the test. I'm still recovering at my parents' home. I wanted to go home to isolate, but they didn't want me to be alone. Last summer we lost my cousin that was younger than me by 2 years due to Covid-19 & I think it made me parents more anxious.

I'm doing much better & will head to my apartment tomorrow for the rest of my recovery period.

I walked into my office Friday morning & the first thing my co-worker said was that we got our salary increase. It turned out to be a little over 16% which is better than I expected. I had hoped for at least 10% to make our current (temporary) retention pay of 10% a permanent increase. Once we start being able to fill vacancies due to the increased pay, we'll lose the retention pay. The increase to salary is more important as it impacts your retirement pay, matching for retirement contributions, and more. I am very excited & so thankful. 

I had made some stretch savings goals when I started looking at my budget for next year. I am going to be able to meet that & more. People that were looking to retire are also reconsidering as their retirement pay is based on their high 3 years of salary. We'll be able to retain employees when we've been losing them. Everyone seemed to be in a jolly mood all day.

We federal employees should get a 4.6% increase in January. It will be slightly less for us as we are on this special salary scale, but that is another added bonus. I'm glad that retirement contribution limits are increasing so I can take advantage of this increased income to save for my future.

It is August already! This summer is flying by. I don't like to wish time to pass, but I always enjoy the autumn. It is my favorite season. 🍁🍂🐿

I'm looking forward to our trip to Maine at the end of September. I am encouraged to read that airline tickets are decreasing in price. I need to book my ticket to Boston or Portland soon. 🦞⛵️

In June my investments & savings were down $83,439. For July I gained $90,928. I read this article this morning & a BoA executive predicts we're still at least 6 months out from an economic recovery. Who knows? I am glad that at least my cash savings, which isn't a huge amount, are getting more in interest. It can't combat this rapidly rising inflation, but it's something.

Net Worth $1,221,187

The Finance Buff has released his annual predictions for contribution limits for retirement plans. As he mentions, so far he has predicted these with 100% accuracy. I enjoy reading his posts every year. 

He is predicting an increase to the 401k contribution limit of $2,000, not the $1,500 I posted recently from another source. And an increase to the IRA congribution limit of $500. That would be an annual increase of $2,500 or a little more than $200 a month. 

https://thefinancebuff.com/401k-403b-ira-contribution-limits.html

So I calculated my Q2 & monthly losses.

Last month I was down $84,439.

Last quarter I down $188,231.

This included biweekly contributions of $800 to my TSP and monthly contributions of $1,000 to my savings. Last quarter I contributed $8,600. I maxed out my IRA in January, which in hindsight was not a good idea, but fortunately is a very small portion of my holdings.

If the 401k limit goes up to $22,000 next year I'll increase my contributions to $850 biweekly.

I haven't done the final tally, but I'm down again for Q2. I don't know if there's an end in sight so I just keep plugging away. I'm still north of $1 million overall, and also in retirement.

This is a strange economy. There seems to be no limit on jobs available, yet no people to fill the vacancies. So many people are leaving the healthcare field. It makes me nervous for the future of healthcare in this country. And I'm happy that I'm not traveling this summer as flights continue to be canceled due to a shortage of pilots.

I read an article that estimated that 401k limits will increase to $22,000 next year due to inflation. I am anticipating an increase to the IRA limit as well. We shall see.

I went home last weekend for the combined Father's Day/Juneteenth holiday. As a federal employee I was off on Monday.

I didn't plan Father's Day well. I thought we would go to the movies on Sunday since I figured the restaurants would be busy, then to a restaurant for lunch on Monday. We ended up doing the opposite. When we showed up to the theatre on Sunday I realized that I should have bought tickets in advance because the seats for Top Gun were sparse and not in a good location.

We ended up purchasing tickets for the next day, then getting take-out from Texas Roadhouse. My parents love Texas Roadhouse and order from them often. I avoid restaurants on busy days because of course, they forgot the butter and sour cream for my loaded baked potato. Also, my steak was a little undercooked. And my dad's baked potato was black through half of it. A little disappointing.

We loved Top Gun. I thought by waiting 3 weeks we would avoid crowds, but I realized that many were seeing it for a second time. I could definitely see it again myself. I think my parents thought it was a bit too long. My mom has pain when she sits for too long so she kept going back and forth between reclining and sitting upright. She still enjoyed it & was excited to tell the kids about the movies afterwards. I don't think their parents will let them see it until an edited version comes out. They are very conservative. Understandably so. 

And to make this blog financially related, I got a nice surprise on my paycheck yesterday. The 10% retention incentive did increase with my step increase. They told me that it wouldn't increase with any future increases, but would stay the 10% of my salary at the time. This is promising if we get a special salary increase this year. 

So much good news, that I forgot to share this! Last fall when we were having a lot of staffing shortages (still do) we were offered shift incentives for picking up extra shifts. Well leadership stepped in & made it difficult for our managers to get the incentives processed so we never got paid...until now!

I got another update to my employee file last week, but I thought it was a duplicate update of my retention incentive so I forgot about it...until another employee contacted me that people were getting notices of cash awards & she didn't receive hers. So I checked my file & sure enough I'll be getting a $600 bonus on my next check! This has been a very fruitful time for me. I'm very thankful.

The TSP website went down on May 26th to switch to a new management company & upgrade the site. Normally if this has happened on the 6th, rather than the 26th I wouldn't be bothered. But I like to chart my investments at the end of every month as you well know. Some people have been able to get into the new website, but many others including myself, are still having issues. I am trying to be patient & wait for the busyness to subside. Few are able to get through the helpline.

I am looking forward to seeing the new website. They have taken away one feature that I loved which was the historical look back. You used to be able to search to see your balance on a particular date & I hear that is gone. So I guess I won't be able to get my balance as of May 31st. Bummer. Hopefully the Daily TSP app has that feature when I can link my updated account again.

June 6th is my anniversary date for my new position so I'll be getting a step increase with the pay period starting tomorrow. $1.33 per hour or $106.40 biweekly will buy me a couple of tanks of gas so I'm thankful. ⛽️ 

We finally got paid our retention incentive & as a bonus they even made it retroactive! So in addition to receiving an extra 10% for this paycheck, we also got back pay for the 5 previous pay periods. It was a very nice check, even though they took out a lot in taxes. I am grateful for this added income over the next year. I want to make the best use of it.

So for the first time in a very long time I did some portfolio re-balancing. I've been using my contributions to slowly change my target allocations the past few years, but that is a slow process with the size of my portfolio versus the amount I'm contributing. With the market down I decided to make some changes. Long story short I went from 71% domestic allocation in my mutual funds to 78%, and from 29% to 22% international allocation in my mutual funds. This will still keep me on target for the 20-40% international stocks that most recommend. I had changed to a 60% domestic/40% international allocation back in 2017. Slowly I drifted from that allocation just due to US stocks outperforming international stocks. I was at about 34-35% international when I just stopped contributing to them entirely, then it had drifted down to 28% by the end of 2022 first quarter. I know that I wanted to get it closer to 20% so I just bit the bullet & did a re-balancing this week. Right now I'm just contributing to the S fund in my TSP and VTSAX in my IRA, though I still hold C,S, and I, as well as VTSAX and VTIAX. I also hold VHYAX in my taxable brokerage account. That is the money from the sale of my condo for a future home purchase. It is holding nicely despite the downturn. I'm actually still up from when I invested back in September.

In income news I still haven't received the 10% retention incentive that we signed for back in March, and the salary survey for our special pay scale has been completed, but mum has been the word on that. We shall see. Despite not doing any OT, I am still making extra at my PRN job. It would be nice if I can start contributing to the brokerage account regularly. I could scale back my monthly savings contributions and maybe split them between cash savings and the brokerage fund. I'll probably finish out this year of fully contributing to cash savings, though. Then maybe get back to investing in the brokerage account in 2023. I'm trying to get close to being able to pay cash for my next car and with these car prices, that could be a pretty penny!

According to Mint I am down $138,880 over the past month, but still holding well over $1.111 million in investments.

I've gotten in the bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night, in which case I end up on my phone, like now.

Still no retention bonus on our checks. I believe that once is goes through the process that we will get retroactive payments, which will be nice. We were under the impression that it could happen a lot quicker than it actually has so that leaves people feeling frustrated. 

I'm still not quite sure how I would like to allocate this money. I am saving $1,000 cash monthly already. I'm not sure that I want a lot of cash on hand, but at the same time I feel like my cash reserves are minuscule compared to my investments. Perhaps I should keep building it for a future car purchase? It's either that, or fund the brokerage for a home purchase.

In hindsight I do have a little regret about front-loading my IRA in January, right before the market started tanking. Maybe next year I'll go back to monthly contributions. If only we had a magic ball to predict these things!🔮

This month has had some big spending due to work expenses, most of which as being reimbursed for our laboratory's recognition week. I also paid the first installment of next season's theatre tickets.

I'm excited about the season which includes: Six, Moulin Rouge, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lion King, Tina, Pretty Woman, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Fiddler on the Roof. I passed on the season option of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I've seen it before (as I've seen many of these shows) and the holidays are busy enough as is. If the Christmas show was White Christmas I probably wouldn't pass it up. I love that movie. ☃️ 

Our Easter was nice & quiet filled with good food and beautiful spring weather. I love this time of year before it gets crazy hot. I am trying to think of a getaway before the temps start rising. I would say Maine, but we already have our trip to Maine booked for this fall. I am looking forward to it, rustic as the trip may be. I have been wanting to visit Maine for a while. Maybe I will venture further north, like Quebec. 🇨🇦 

We have not yet received our retention incentive, but I continue to work overtime and my PRN job. This month is also a 3 paycheck month, so yay! I'm not making any big money moves right now, but I may get back to adding to my brokerage account for a future home purchase. Right now it stands at $75k.