So I have to apologize because I have not been posting updates because during the last year we have not had any extra money to deposit and I thought it would be boring. But, I was wrong. I was sending money in, once in a blue moon, by using my FIA card services AMEX which gives me 2% into my IRA. We had a lot higher expenses this year, because of daycare and did put a lot more away than I expected. We redeemed enough points to fund our Roth with $339.85. It is a big lesson to me, that every penny adds up. I pay attention to that in regard to spending, but I forgot that it would also add up for savings. Also, it is a lesson how how much we spend in daycare, lol. We spend $240/week and that adds up. It actually is our largest expense, costing us about 1/3 of our income.
And being able to put it on a credit card really helped us. We did not have over three hundred dollars to put in to retirement. We were barely keeping our heads above water. Even one cent was too much, yet our credit cards funded it while I was not paying attention. I truly believe that credit cards can help and help a young person. In my opinion, a young person should find a good cash rewards credit card and use it for needs only, and then the rewards are there for you. Some people use the rewards for fun, but in the beginning, I think it is important to use credit cards to build yourself up.
As of March of 2013, we only had $14,441, and now, 11 months later, we have $16462. We benefited by the market as well as that nice chunk of change from our credit card. We now have six months of expenses including COBRA but minus daycare. We only four months if we include all expenses. To get up to six months of all expenses it will cost $21,000, so that is our next goal. I think we can put away more than $4538 this year.
I promise I'll keep up these updates this year.
That's really great! Every penny really does count when you have a tight budget!
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