by Hope
My position is secure for the foreseeable future. An agreement has been reached for full time hours on a contract basis with an annual bonus based on gross sales. This agreement will be finalized shortly and begin within the next quarter.
I’ve received wonderful feedback from my part time job with a “promotion” in title only. They have been very pleased with the sales and marketing work and results I have been doing on their behalf. Sales from catering are up significantly over last year.
The kids are all doing well and mostly independently adulting. And I am able to focus.
I’m excited about my work. Passionate to serve the clients and help growing their businesses. Excited to grow and mentor a young team. And so grateful to work with someone I trust and who shares my faith.
The tides are turning…
Year End Goals
So let’s see what the latter half of the year will hold for me.
My end of year financial goals in order of priority:
- Grow my emergency fund by continuing to deposit at minimum 10% of all income.
- Grow my travel fund for Thanskgiving travel and in preparation for needing to get myself and my kids to Texas when my mother passes. (She has Parkinsons and has been on hospice for two years this coming month.)
- Pay off all my credit card debt. (My personal loan #2 will be paid in full next week so I’m not listing it here.)
- Stretch goal: deposit $7,000 into a ROTH IRA (that would be $307 a week so I know it’s a stretch. Right now I am depositing $35 per week and have only been doing that for 3 weeks at time of this post. I am continuing to deposit into my Stash investment accounts weekly as well.)
And then it will be time to start planning for 2025. The future is bright. And the tides are turning…
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 3 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
Congratulations!! Love reading your journey and wishing you all the best!
I greatly appreciate that. Thank you.
I don’t want to harsh your mellow or be unkind but we see this every few years Hope. You will get to a financially good place and you will gravitate from a $2500 a month spend plan to the $7500 spend forecast. Then what happens next is whoever hires you gets to a good enough place where they don’t need you and your back to needing a $2500 spend plan. Please start thinking about a future where you are not bringing in what you are now and prepare for it.
Suggestions: in addition to debt line items which should include your home by the way consider including a savings line item
True, true! And I have had this exact conversation with my current “employer”.
But yes, you are right. I have been working myself out of work since my college days.
This role, thankfully, is very different than past roles. And this client and I have a long history of working together.
I think this is a different place and therefore different future.
But I am preparing with savings, etc.
You can think its a different scenario if you want. But you should still prepare as if it is temporary situation because your 20 years of experience has proven otherwise.
DH is in an industry with recurring layoffs. It would be naive of me to think that he would stay at the next job for 10 years. Instead, I acknowledge that its possible to be laid off at the 1-3 year mark every time. I don’t ramp up spend or commit to new debts just because he got a new job with higher salary. Contracts can be lost or not renewed at any time and then you are screwed. I feel like you should know this by now!
Your financial goals are all over the place. It seems like you’ve hit another one of those Hope “I want to do it all right now” stages because of the new income. Take a step back and focus on 1-2 goals at a time. Once you hit one, enjoy the success and move on to the next. I think you should focus on the CC debt and emergency travel fund (for just yourself the kids who have moved out can deal with their expenses themselves). You do not have the financial flexibility to continue to pay for family travel. Then move to the Roth IRA. Cash out the stash investing nonsense and put it towards your CC today.
I think it would be helpful to attach a dollar amount to your Emergency fund goal and your travel fund goal to help see how you are making progress toward reaching those goals.
Good call.
I have no idea how expensive last minute airline tickets will be for my twins to get to Texas from VA and NV when the time comes. Any idea what I should estimate? I know that airlines typically give some sort of discount for immediate family funerals but again not sure. $500 per ticket or more? You think?
I think funeral rates are a thing of the past. Most airlines say “oh we’re so cheap and competitive all the time now so you’re already getting a great deal!” So, you know how much it would be for you, Princess, and Beauty, approximately, right, knowing that you won’t be able to bargain hunt. Look now for what it would cost to buy a ticket from Virginia and from NV and check periodically over the next few weeks to get a sense for the twins. Don’t forget baggage fees and your parking fees. Will you need a rental car? A hotel? If your kids want to stay at an hotel, while you stay at your parents’ house, would you pay? Are you expecting your kids to cover costs beyond airfare? How long do you want to stay? What’s your pet care plan? I’d aim toward at least $5K, maybe more toward $8K. If you have leftover $, you can put it toward debt or savings, but in my experience, travel is always always more expensive than you expect. The little bits here and there really add up.
I would suggest telling your kids to start saving now. You mention how well they are all doing so they should be able to put a few hundred dollars aside.
I am so glad you’re looking at more secured income. Will you consider investing in good work shoes now? Also, are you going to pay for ALL the kids’ tickets or just some? Either way, I think keeping to a minimal budget (2500) and then focusing on debt payoff/saving is the way to go.