We have beaten our $21,000 minigoal! We are now sitting pretty at $22,599. I feel like I should add a dollar to make it even, lol. So now on to the next mini-goal! That goal will be my annual gross income of $25,000. It is funny, at the beginning of this year I hoped to be able to hit $25,000 by December but did not really think I could, but now, I feel it is so close, I could taste it! So, what changed?
Well, of course the market was nice to us but also, our FIA AMEX card rolled in some extra cash. Then, when we changed daycares I added the savings to my retirement contributions. Then, because I could not use my AMEX at this new daycare, I got a Visa from FIA which gave 1.5% back and we used that for daycare and tuition payments. Between the two cards we got $300 this year in "free" retirement contributions. That is over .5% of our entire wage income. Given that people are suppose to save between 10-15% of their income, getting .5% for free is great! That is a benefit of a credit card, helping you save unlike the commonly stated benefit of allowing you to pay bills over time. That is not a benefit, you pay for that.
So, what happens after we reach $25,000? Our next goal will be $40,000, a full year of expenses, without COBRA/health insurance. How is everyone else doing on their goals? Check out the others on J Money's millionaire club to get some more ideas: http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/2008/04/my-millionaire-to-do-list/.
Thanks for sharing this great goal you have achieved in your savings. I'm curious to know if you plan on investing in dividend paying stocks as you go towards your goal of reaching $1M.
ReplyDeleteI am planning on investing in dividend paying stocks, but for now I am not choosing stocks, just buying a mutual fund to do it for me.
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