#Goals

Just as I am open with my personal budget I am going to be open about my savings. Every month I will do a check-in and see where I stand in regards to savings. But before we get to the numbers, here is an insane long rambling spoken word poem about money, from my mind grapes to yours.

I have known a few friends who have successfully lost significant amounts of weight. Whenever they're asked how they did it they always answer the same way: diet and exercise. Then the asker is like "...ok. But what's your trick?"

When something is so simple it can be hard to grasp. Now, I'm not implying that losing weight is easy by any means, I'm just saying that the method is so simple it's hard to believe. Put our more calories than you take in; diet and exercise. Not easy, but simple. It's the same with money. Want to save money? Spend fewer dollars than you make. Not possible? Make more dollars.

The method is simple, but sure as hell isn't easy.  When people think about saving they think they have to be the nasty F word -- frugal. Frugal has a bad rap. Frugal isn't denying yourself the things you enjoy because they cost money, frugal is realizing that some things are more important to you than others, so you put the money where your heart is.

Never going out to eat because it's too expensive isn't being frugal, that's being cheap. Eating at a fancy restaurant during lunch hours to take advantage of smaller prices and portions is frugal.

Hoarding 400 bottles of mustard isn't frugal, that's cheap and crazy. There is no show called Extreme Frugalskate 1. because that isn't a word and 2. a show about people eating leftovers for lunch isn't very exciting.

I do not hoard mustard. I do not deny myself pleasures in life. Neither should you. The sad fact we all need to settle up with as adults is this: you can have what you want, but you probably can't have it right now. It sucks. But it's probably the truth, unless you are deep in some illuminati shit. (if you are, please email me!)

 So in an effort to not deny myself, or my family, and funtimes down the road, we are saving. Here are my goals:

Short-term goals
Mini-vacations 2016: $3,000
Emergency fund: $8,000

Mid-term goals
Family trip to Italy: $5,000
Down payment on LA house: $250,000

Long-term goals
Retirement: $1,000,000 LOL at that, but that's what they say! I am actually not including this in my weekly check in, but I didn't want anyone to think that I had forgotten it. I will do a semi-annual check in because the value fluctuates too much to matter. The only important thing to do in saving for retirement is to do it and do it all the time, no matter what. At least 5% of your salary! AT LEAST.

So here's where I stand for this week:

Mini-vacations 100% Fully funded! The proceeds from my super successful yard sale helped to round out this account. We are planning 3 trips over the summer to San Diego, San Jose, and San Juan. We'll drive and stay for 3-4 days in each town.

Emergency fund 65% This fund is low because we had to pay both a mortgage and rent for two months. Without this emergency fund I honestly have no idea what we would have done. Put a mortgage payment on a credit card? Taken a cash advance to pay the rent? So, so glad this safety net was here.

Family trip to Italy 0% Sad trombone. This was fully funded until about a week ago when we had to pay to put a new sewer line in our old house before we sold it. That's fine. Instead of zipping around Rome on a scooter and eating pizza three meals a day people I don't even know will get to flush a toilet. It's fine, really.

Down payment 28% We have no plans on buying any time soon, so this fund will slowly grow over the next 5 years or so. This money is kept in several short term cd's in chunks of money so that if there is an emergency that our first fund won't cover we can access some money without penalty.

Now that all of this information is out there I suppose I can't blow all this money in Vegas without answering a few questions. Accountability! I like it.