From the looks of it, you are a super saver. So congrats on that. And you are nearly done with the mortgage. I think I got down to about $5k and just chose to pay the darn thing off.
Besides the raise, could you perhaps find other ways to cut back expenses in case that doesn't work out? You probably know better than anyone where there's room to save. What else besides food does that $9,000 pay for? That number seems quite high to me. As a single person, I spent last year $5,200 on food. I would agree with mumof2 about maybe nixing the $2k for charity, just this year. I mean, you are saving 51% of income, helping out your folks in some way and by all measures are doing well. You could loosen the belt a bit.
You did not indicate how this came about, but could it be perhaps just an increase in cost of living? You could temporarily stop or decrease your IRA contributions until you weather the issue you are dealing with, like getting the raise. It also looks like you are putting extra funds into your HSA and 50% into extra savings. Good luck!
Mumof2 - while the charity portion is one of the items to consider when it comes to budget cut, it's the most difficult one to tackle. So I'm saving it for last. I have my fingers crossed on the raise .
Patientsaver - Thanks, I'm really tempted to just pay it off right now . Utility and food budget are for three people and they're a bit on the low end. My only options at the moment are to either ask for a raise or reduce saving. I probably won't be able to cut any expenses unless my income is reduced by 25k or so.
Anonymous - this came about because I budgeted 10k to Ibonds, which I didn't have previously.
Terri77 - the 10k is a gift. I expect to increase that to a maximum of 12k a year eventually. A 1/3 saving rate is pretty good and more than sufficient. I pushed my rate up because I managed to increased my income more than I initially forecasted, although it's still below market rate in my area. Plus, I'm trying to make up for the additional years of working that I added in order to afford the gifts to my parents.
March 16th, 2024 at 01:38 pm 1710596290
March 17th, 2024 at 11:04 pm 1710716680
Besides the raise, could you perhaps find other ways to cut back expenses in case that doesn't work out? You probably know better than anyone where there's room to save. What else besides food does that $9,000 pay for? That number seems quite high to me. As a single person, I spent last year $5,200 on food. I would agree with mumof2 about maybe nixing the $2k for charity, just this year. I mean, you are saving 51% of income, helping out your folks in some way and by all measures are doing well. You could loosen the belt a bit.
March 22nd, 2024 at 01:35 pm 1711114543
March 23rd, 2024 at 04:51 pm 1711212689
March 24th, 2024 at 12:51 am 1711241496
Mumof2 - while the charity portion is one of the items to consider when it comes to budget cut, it's the most difficult one to tackle. So I'm saving it for last. I have my fingers crossed on the raise
Patientsaver - Thanks, I'm really tempted to just pay it off right now
Anonymous - this came about because I budgeted 10k to Ibonds, which I didn't have previously.
Terri77 - the 10k is a gift. I expect to increase that to a maximum of 12k a year eventually. A 1/3 saving rate is pretty good and more than sufficient. I pushed my rate up because I managed to increased my income more than I initially forecasted, although it's still below market rate in my area. Plus, I'm trying to make up for the additional years of working that I added in order to afford the gifts to my parents.
March 24th, 2024 at 12:08 pm 1711282132