Why?

Why

@Sara B. That definitely sounds like it could be frustrating. Congratulations, though for being able to continue growing your emergency fund. I find it amazing to be able to cash-flow unexpected expenses. Though it might not be as fast as you would like, you're still reaching for it, so it will happen eventually.

@Roosevelt R. SaverLife is not a quick fix, and it won't be able to help a person change one's finances without that person trying. But I find that it has a very good compilation for beginners. Mainly, now, I use SaverLife for motivation and reminders to keep working towards my goals. No, SaverLife is not a "one stop shop", but it does allow for people to discover or look into options one might have overlooked.

Hmmm

Not sure how many of us remain here on this forum, but I recall making connections to a few of us who posted on this thread our updates and questions.

I recently got a raise and have increased my retirement contributions to 8%. Last Friday was the first paycheck I got with the raise, and I think the one after next will have my increased contribution. If all goes well and inflation doesn't get too out of hand, I may be set to increase to 9% come January.

Side Note: I know taxes are a long way off, but this year may be my first where I won't be doing it by hand (the backlog for one, and my situation becoming more complicated for another). I've read tax preparers are anywhere from $225-$450 on average.

I've started a new sinking-fund to hopefully prepare for tax-season.
Does anyone have a tax service they recommend? (The online services confuse me because their questions are just vague enough I never know what all they're asking in their totals.)

Congrats Kristen!! I haven't done my next increase yet, but I hope to be at 9% by the end of the year (currently at 7%). Our benefits just rolled over in May, so I've just gotten my first paycheck with the new benefit amounts. I think I should be able to comfortably hit that 9% without changing the budget too much. I got a small bonus at the end of last quarter and I am hoping I will get another small one at the end of this quarter (I'll find out July 1st). Things have been pretty good for the company, so its looking possible!
Everything else is going pretty good here; luckily we haven't had any emergencies in the past couple weeks. Hope everyone is doing well!

Update: I got my tax-refund yesterday! Emergency-fund is now fully-funded.

Next Up for Focus: Education repayment.

I've been quite a bit behind from my initial goal for this year's aim (half-of-what-I_planned). But it looks like I might make it, now, if I can continue to put what was for emergency towards it.

Why what ?

@Blessings A At the very start of this forum, when it had originated, SaverLife had implemented an experimental incentive to get people to be more active and helpful on the forums. The "Why" of this forum's title was in response to that.

Please, note: As many users started simply posting periods, letters, or unhelpful comments the daily "Post/Comment in the Forums" was taken away. You can no longer receive points for participating in the forum[s]; however, on the bright side, it is easier to find/receive helpful comments.

If you wish to see the original explanation of this forum's title, there should be an arrow/button that says "First." If you click on that, it will bring you to the first page and you can go from there.

Hey @Kristen O.! Awesome Job on fully funding the emergency fund! I'm still working on mine. We've had some big medical expenses this summer, so its been hard to save. I've been able to cashflow most, but its been super frustrating. I really wish my employer offered an HSA. The plan we have doesn't let me qualify on my own to open one. I've been splitting my savings between a HYSA and a brokerage account. So far between the two, I have about a month of EF. My goal has evolved into building three months in cash in the HYSA and a minimum of three months in a brokerage account.
I'm very curious to see what the announcement on education will be at the end of this month. I have one federal loan left with a fairly reasonable interest rate (4.75%), but if there is any type of loan forgiveness, that would be awesome! Not having that payment each month has definitely made it easier to save. I've paid the majority of my education off, this final bit is mostly my grad school.

Posting to the forum. Yay!

@Sara B: Hey, I believe you mentioned expecting a decision on your loan forgiveness application little less than three months ago. Care to share (assuming you've heard) what the decision was?

I'm still behind on my plans to repay a [familial] loan. But my employer surprised employees by deciding to pass along some of the exceeded expectations revenue in the form of raises. I'm hoping to be able to catch up to the amount I had planned to pay (as increasing contributions to a retirement account is only available twice a year).

Hope everyone is doing okay.

Lol

@Kristen O. I don't think that was me, but I do qualify for the new federal loan forgiveness. I applied already and hopefully will have most of my remaining student debt knocked out! I have ~25K left and received a Pell Grant so I qualify for 20K of forgiveness. It also says my loan will be re-amortized when they deduct the 20K. My payment per month will be much smaller. I am very excited and relieved because I thought I would be paying that for another 10 years. Now I have the ability to use some of that wiggle room to increase contributions to my 401K, my daughters 529 or our investment account.
I'd also like to add, that for this particular loan, the original principle was just under 40K, and I've made 32K in payments over the last 16 years and my balance is still pretty high (and that's with a reasonable interest rate of 4.75%). I feel like I'm really just getting credited for the interest I feel like I have paid.
All in all my net worth will automatically shoot up and hopefully it will be a boost to my credit score.

@Sara B. It is possible I just misunderstood your August 16th post (Paragraph starting: "I'm very curious to see what the announcement on education will be at the end of this month"). Thank you for answering me anyways.

That is Awesome! (Yes, it does seem like it is interest reimbersement; still, it got you that much closer!) I hope all goes well for you.

Update: I'm getting closer to my education repayment goal, but still a bit behind (by about 22% [for this year's goal. Long ways still for total repayment]).

Some big-ticket-items are coming on the years where it is likely they'll need repairs or replacement, so my housemates and I are trying to figure out how much to increase our sinking-fund payments to cover the potential need (or if increasing is even necessary).

Hope Everyone has their plan to vote today!

@Kristen Awesome on making progress, even if you are behind by a bit! You still made progress and that's always a great thing.

I keep a tracking sheet of all big ticket house stuff (appliances, roof) and use it to calculate a sinking fund. I googled the average lifespan of each item, its average replacement cost (although given inflation right now, I should probably reassess lol) and calculated a per month cost for each. It took a bit of work, but I ended up with a target of $250/mo for our newish house (built 2020). I make some assumptions, the biggest being that things will actually last as long as they are supposed to. This was proven wrong when my fancy pants microwave broke (in wall mounted unit) and I had to buy a new one. Luckily (or unluckily?) it happened at tax return time, so we had cash to cover and I used rakuten to get some cash back on the purchase (bought same model online). I also have a handy husband, who can fix mostly everything, so we didn't need the extra cost of install. This is one thing I exclude out of my calculations, but you might want to include if you don't have someone who can donate their time/skills.

I hope everyone is ready to have a great holiday season! Its gonna be a little less for us this year, but for a good reason. My husband's father is retiring and is selling us his woodshop equipment. My husband was a stay at home dad, then a farmer and has kind of been in limbo since we sold the farm. He's super excited and its a great opportunity to bring in some extra income. I am nervous about getting it all to us (we have to rent a truck and its a 1000+ mile drive) and where we are going to put it. We have a house with a three car garage and will likely have to fill up most of the garage. Eventually we'll have to build a small shop on the back of our small property, but I am super nervous about the cost of that (again, inflation). We'll be using my Christmas bonus to cover the cost of buying the stuff and moving it. So my present budget is a bit smaller than I would like. I'm thinking we are going to do small homemade gifts this year but I've never been the best that kind of thing. I'll have to take my time to research!

Why not?

Amazing, rewarding and learning website!

@Sara B. My housemates and I have a similar housing fund. It was actually my housemate that calculated the cost, so I'm not entirely sure what all she thought to include but I know it factored in Property Taxes, Annual housing bills [such as weed control, insurance, car insurance] and some extra for when things break down (we have a 1980s house). Overall, it came out to be $300 a month per person-who-earns-income; though I'm thinking it's about time to reevaluate.

I'd be interested to know how the equipment/shop goes. Sounds like you've got a plan. I'd try giving suggestions for presents, but that might get us off-topic of SaverLife's purpose.

Pintrest is good for ideas. My initial idea was crocheting or drawing, but the first might be out-of-question with the time-frame. Remember, though, a gift of time is appreciated, too; someone to talk to and spend time with.

@Kristen well our first pass didn't go so well! My husband decided to fly up to his parents and rent a one way truck, but his flight hit a massive delay and was cancelled. Luckily I was able to get a good rate through Skiplagged and the airline was able to reschedule us for the same flight tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to get the truck picked up tomorrow and loaded and on the road before the big thanksgiving travel push.

Slightly off topic, but I love to crochet! I was thinking about picking it back up again, but with everything we have going on, I don't think I will have the time (or wrist dexterity) to get everyone presents made before Christmas. Work is keeping me busy (no complaints) and the little has started Girl Scouts so now we've added a whole new layer of events (and budget items). I'm really looking forward to her learning how to sell cookies (apparently they do a whole workshop) since I think it will be a good experience and opportunity to talk about how business works. She was too young to learn anything when we were running the farm. It'll at least be a good jumping off point to start teaching her more details about how finances work other than the basics we've covered. I didn't get much financial guidance as a young person, so I'm hoping to give her a better jumping off point than I had.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Also, @Sarah B. I hope your second pass (if it has happened) went much smoother than the first. I had the opportunity to be in Girl Scouts, but my mom was the opposite in that she wasn't excited for almost all efforts to go towards cookie sales. I still haven't quite pinpointed what financial lessons I picked up from my family, but fortunately I had a few economics classes which helped. Regardless, I hope your little enjoys being a scout and learns many helpful (and positive) lessons.
P.s. Sadly, wrist dexterity or is it stamina? is a major limiter for me and my crocheting, but I do enjoy it.

My husband managed to get the truck loaded and back home (14 hr drive) before Thanksgiving. We were able to do most of the unloading by ourselves, but we had to enlist help with one very heavy and awkward to move piece of equipment. We now have an entire woodshop tetris-ed into our garage, lol. Unfortunately, we will need to hire an electrician and rewire our garage in the short term(not sure how much that is going to cost). Long term, we plan on building a shop in our back yard. We are still a long ways from that. Luckily, husband has the know-how to mostly build it himself. I've set a goal this year and am going to try to save enough cash to get started by the end of next summer. We still have several things we are saving for at the moment (expanding emergency fund included) so it will be challenging but I think we are up to it.

Just posting. I hope that I earn points.

I wonder why this forum is titled Why. posting to hopefully gain points

@Arlinda G: Originally, when this forum was created, SaverLife had started a **testing/trial phase where users could earn points for posting daily. This forum was titled "Why?" to ask why daily and not weekly (because on topic and useful posts were hard to come up with daily).

PLEASE NOTE: As many users simply started posting daily nonsense or paragraphs, it cluttered the forums making it harder for users to get useful information to their inquiries. Because of this, users NO LONGER receive points for posting on the forum. While you may see people mentioning this, that feature has been discontinued (and I doubt it will ever be back).

I hope this answers your question about this forum's title and clarifies why you are not receiving points for posting in the forums.

@Sarah B. I'm glad that you were able to get the tools home and to all fit in a sheltered space (even if it is tetris-ed). Best wishes for the savings goal! I know it can seem daunting, but sounds like you have a plan.

Update: I've decided I'm going to ask for full-time sometime next year (probably after my yearly review). There are a lot of unknowns that come with it that I cannot really get answers for until I try, but I think it's about time I take that step.

As for my [familial] education loan repayment, I still fell below the $2000 I aimed for but did much better than expected.

Saving vehicles (Possibly) of interest:
Also, if anyone is looking into a High Yield Interest rate, Wealthfront's cash account is currently (as of Dec. 11, 2022) at 3.30% APY.
I-Bonds also currently have a 0.4% fixed rate.