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Day 24: Roth IRA

I opened two Roth IRAs last year – one for my wife and one for me – and I fully-funded them both for 2006 and 2007.  Contributions to a Roth IRA grow tax-free – because all contributions are made with after-tax income.  So, what if I invest $4000 (this year’s contribution limit) every year for the next 25 years, and I average an 8% return on my investments?

After 25 years, I will have contributed $100,000 dollars – but my account balance will be over $315,000.  Not bad.  If you are thinking about retirement, and you are eligible to make contributions, may I suggest that you consider opening and fully-funding a Roth IRA?

Please note:  I realize that the actual return on my investment will be greater than or less than 8%.  I simply picked a number and went with it.  The market could go up by much more than 8% OR it could go down by much more than 8% – but I think that the historical data will support that 8% is a reasonable figure.

If you have written a post about Roth IRAs, contact me and I’ll be happy to link to your post.

Leave a comment about funding a Roth IRA.

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Day 22: The Emergency Fund

A brief history of my Emergency Fund -

Before I decided to get out of debt, I did not have an emergency fund. I lived “paycheck-to-paycheck” and if things got “tight” at the end of the month, I would whip out the old credit card and “solve that month’s money problem”. Of course, all that I was doing was pushing one month’s problem into the next month, and so on and so on.

When I finally decided to get my financial house in order, the first thing I did was establish a mini-emergency fund. I sold things on eBay, I had a yard sale, and I started living on a strict budget. Very quickly, I was able to put $1000 into my savings account. (Click here and here to read about times when I had to dip into my emergency fund.)

After getting out of debt, my next goal was to build up a big-time emergency fund. I wanted enough money in my fund so that if my wife or I lost our job, our family would be taken care of and neither of us would have to rush out and take a job that we didn’t enjoy. After some consideration, I settled on the nice round amount of $20,000. I spent the next several months piling up cash and putting it into savings. I never really considered interest rates. My goal was to a have a readily available cash supply, set aside for a true emergency.

Now that I am maxing out my retirement contributions and education savings account contributions, my emergency fund is just “sitting” in my savings account, earning interest. I don’t really worry about how much interest it makes, because this money is not to be used for investing or spending. Nope. The money in my emergency fund is for – you guessed it – emergencies!

I also have a small amount of cash in non-retirement, long-term savings. I have divided this amount between a standard brokerage account and my online savings account. Each year, after I max-out my retirement and education savings contributions, I will then pile up as much cash as I can in my brokerage account and my savings account. This money will be used for future “major purchases” – cars, furniture, etc. My super-long-term goal is to buy a house – with cash!

If you have written a post about ‘an emergency fund’, contact me and I’ll be happy to link to your post.

Leave a comment about the security of having “an emergency fund”.

Click here to read all of the 33 Days And 33 Ways To Save Money And Reduce Debt posts.

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Edit: I noticed that Consumerist has linked to my post. If you are interested in my story, you might want to click here to read about my site and here to read about my journey out of debt.

If you are ready to get out of debt, may I suggest that you use the ‘Debt Snowball’? Made popular by Dave Ramsey, the Debt Snowball allows for rapid debt reduction. I used the Debt Snowball and managed to pay off $11,500 in 10 months. Here’s a quick overview of how the Debt Snowball works:

1. List your debts – either from lowest balance to highest balance OR highest interest rate to lowest interest rate – and make minimum payments to all accounts.
2. Make an extra payment to the first account on your list.
3. After paying off the first account, take the combined amount (minimum payment and extra payment) which had been going to the first account, and apply it to the second account.
4. Repeat until all of your accounts have been paid off.

The following charts illustrate the power of the Debt Snowball. Note: I have listed accounts ‘lowest balance to highest balance’ – but you might choose to list them ‘highest rate to lowest rate’. Pick the method that suits your personality.

Chart 1: The Setup

• Accounts have been listed by their balances – lowest to highest
• Monthly Interest is an approximation – annual rate divided by 12
• Extra payment amount is $300
• M – Month

Chart 2: After Six Months

• Account #1 has been paid off
• (Blue Arrow) Amount not needed for Account #1 is added to Extra Payment
• (Red Arrow) New Extra Payment amount = Account #1 Minimum + Original Extra Payment

Chart 3: After 10 Months

• Accounts #1 and #2 have been paid off.
• (Blue Arrow) Amount not needed for Account #2 is added to Extra Payment
• (Red Arrow) New Extra Payment Amount = Account #1 Minimum + Account #2 Minimum + Original Extra Payment

Chart 4: After 14 Months

• Accounts #1, #2, and #3 have been paid off.
• (Blue Arrow) Amount not needed for Account #3 is added to Extra Payment
• (Red Arrow) New Extra Payment Amount = Account #1 Minimum + Account #2 Minimum + Account #3 Minimum + Original Extra Payment

Chart 5: Complete Chart

As you can see, by focusing on one account at a time and then ’snowballing’ your payments, debt reduction occurs rapidly. In effect, instead of four separate ‘debts’, all accounts are treated like one ‘big debt’.

If you have written a post about using the ‘debt snowball’, contact me and I’ll be happy to link to your post.

Leave a comment if you’ve used the ‘debt snowball’ method to get out of debt.

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Day 21: Focus

I believe in ‘goal creation’.  Over the past three years, I’ve created three personal finance goals.  I started this blog because I wanted to get out of debt.  After getting out of debt, I decided to build emergency fund.  Now I’m working to save 60% of my income in retirement and education savings.  So, what’s the ’secret’?

Focus.

I create a goal and then I break that goal down into manageable micro-goals – and then I spend my days focusing on those micro-goals.

When I wanted to get out of debt, I put every extra dollar towards paying off the account with the lowest remaining balance.  Instead of splitting extra payments between various accounts, I focused on one account, and I bulldogged my way from account to account.

When I was saving for my emergency fund, I didn’t worry about “the goal” – I focused on my “micro-goals”.  If I wanted to save $20,000 in 8 months, that meant I had to save $2500 a month – which is $83 a day -and that means that everyday, every week, every month, I had to be ‘focused’ on finding ways to increase my income and decrease spending.  I had to make plans and execute.

Trust me, I know hundreds of people who have decided to ‘get out of debt’.  I only know a handful of people who have been successful in doing so.  After a month or so, it’s very, very easy to get discouraged and quit.  During my debt reduction process, I had to dip into my emergency fund THREE times – and I missed my goal date by more than FOUR months.  But, I remained focused.  I refused to give up or give in.  I made a decision to get out of debt – and I got out of debt.

It might take you five months to get out of debt, or five years, of twenty-five years.  But, I can absolutely assure you, no matter how long it takes, it is absolutely worth it.

Pep talk over!

If you have a goal you would like to share with the world, consider joining the No Credit Needed Network.

If you have written a post about ‘goal creation’, contact me and I’ll be happy to link to your post.

Leave a comment about the power of ‘goal creation’.

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Click here to read all of the 33 Days And 33 Ways To Save Money And Reduce Debt posts.

Day 20: Create A Binder For Manuals

Have you purchased an item, like say, a lawn mower – and promptly lost the owner’s manual?  Well, this tip will help you keep up with your manuals.

Here’s what you will need:  A large three-ring binder and a hole punch.

When you buy an item and it comes with an owner’s manual, simply punch three holes near the spine of the manual and put it into the binder.  Whenever you need the manual, simply flip through your binder – and bingo – there’s your manual.

Looking for a more ‘high-tech’ version of this tip?  Create a folder on your computer and label it “Manuals”.  Then, go online and download PDF versions of all of your manuals – and put the PDF files into that folder.

If the item you purchased came with warranty, slip that information into the binder as well.

(Be sure to go through the binder, every so often, and get rid of manuals you no longer need.  Remember, the point here is to make life less cluttered, not more so.)

Do you an interesting organizational tip? Leave a comment and let us know. If you are a blogger, write a post about keeping things in order, and contact me. I’ll be more than happy to link to your post.

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