For quite a while, especially when my wife wasn't working at all for several months last year, our cash flow was kind of tight. We were still doing all of our standard saving and investing, but there wasn't much of anything left over each month, a situation I wasn't really used to.
Since she went back to work part-time, and 50% of her gross goes to her 401k, her actual take home pay is minimal, but it is enough to give a cushion to the cash flow. I guess partly as a result of that and also from watching our spending a little better, we're finally building up some surplus in the budget again.
I keep thinking I'm forgetting something, like some bill or expense that is coming that I haven't accounted for, but I really don't think that's the case. In fact, as I posted earlier, I paid our auto insurance bill in full recently instead of paying it over a few months like I had been doing. Plus, I put our entire tax refund into our Roths and plan to do the same with the tax stimulus payment next month. Also, the final payment for my daughter's braces is due in May. After that, we'll have an extra $150/month to work with.
We do have our daughter's Bat Mitzvah coming up in September, but we already have money set aside for those costs.
I guess the bottom line will be that we'll be able to have our Roths maxed for the year by the end of May, a month ahead of schedule. Then, I'll work on making extra payments to our home equity loan. I'd like to get that repaid by the end of 2009. That will free up another $218.01/month. Of course, by then, we'll probably need that money to fill our tanks and our pantry if prices keep climbing like they've been lately.
Surplus building in checking account
April 19th, 2008 at 03:19 pm
April 19th, 2008 at 04:32 pm 1208622779
P.S. - Are property taxes and homeowner's insurance accounted for?
April 19th, 2008 at 04:37 pm 1208623022
April 19th, 2008 at 09:20 pm 1208640019
I agree with you about gas and food prices. Once I have our little mortgage paid off, I'm sure that money will be taken up by those 2 categories also.
April 19th, 2008 at 10:51 pm 1208645519
April 20th, 2008 at 01:22 am 1208654548
Nic - Disney trips are always sweet, and always paid for with cash.