Wow, I just happened to stumble across this site this morning searching for new ideas on how to save money on a tight income. A pretty neat idea.
Anyways I guess I should get started. I'm using this at a way for me to keep on track with my savings goal of someday retiring early (I don't want to work forever).
So here are my facts.
I'm 22 years old.
I just graduated from college a year ago. After all my grants and scholarships I was left with roughly $17,500 in student loans. My current balance on my student loans $15,487 (paying on it since October 2007).
I have 4 credit cards with a combined balance of roughly $650.00 (I really try to pay off my balance each month).
I still live at home unfortunately. I don't mind really because it's ALOT cheaper than living on my own, Northern Virginia is EXPENSIVE! Pay $150.00 in rent a month (I know that's nothing, my parents decide to give me a break considering that I'm paying $200.00 a month for my student loans).
I pay for my cell phone which is $65.00 a month
My car insurance is $500 every six months.
No car payment I paid that off my junior year in college, woo hoo.
Unfortunately I recently left my full-time job at a bank, in search for something more in my field of study. Unfortunately the job market is really slow. Luckily I still have my part-time job working retail with flexible hours, that will allow me to do my job search while still earning some kind of income.
My take-home pay dropped from $2000 a month to roughly $500 a month. A big difference.
I really want to continue saving.
This is my savings situation.
I have 3 savings account at 3 different institutions.
My savings #1 (my online savings that earns the higher interest) : $10,813 (this is the money I DO NOT touch, the money I set aside for my future, or... my emergency fund in case something happens I know I have this month to cover my student loans. [note: when I had my full-time job at the bank I was saving about 40% of that income, this is where most of this money came from]
My savings #2 (my oldest savings account, for everyday things) : $1,569 I'm trying to build this back up again, I took a big chunk of this out when I paid off all my credit card bills from college. This is the month that I'm allowed to touch if I need to cover some bills at the end of the month.
My savings #3 (my newest savings account, not quite sure what I'm going to use this for yet, just knew that I needed another account): $879
I have a 401K plan my with my part-time job, which I contribute 15% of my gross pay (pre-tax every two weeks) with a 4% company match. I just started this in January the balance is $378.
Another 5% of my gross pay from my part-time job goes towards an account set aside for employee stock purchase.
So with just $500 a month... how will I stretch it out so that I can still save after roughly $400 in monthly bills? Maybe I can pick up more hours at my part-time job between job searching to earn a little bit more. I figure it out and give bi-weekly updates on how I'm doing.
My first personal finance blog!
April 30th, 2008 at 07:44 pm
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So, what have you done today to get a job? And what are you doing tomorrow to get a job? And if you can't get one in XX weeks, what are you going to do?
In others put a plan together and work the plan. Once you get the job, start paying off those student loans. You don't need to be dragging that debt around for 20 years
April 30th, 2008 at 09:58 pm 1209589133
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One of the best things I ever learned about searching for a new job was: treat the search like a job. If you are not working get up and a set time each day, get ready for the day and be "at work" by say 8:30 looking for a job.
I think what you have planned sounds great and you are doing well with the saving. With the PT job, it might be tight but definitely doable while you look for a job in your field.
Again, welcome aboard, these folks are great!