Fiscal and FInancial Diet Starting Now

While I'm actually semi-OK with the state of the emergency fund, I want to get more aggressive with paying down debt. I'm not OK at all with the state of my waist and I'm vowing to do something about that. Starting now.

I won't post the amount of my waist goal, but I will do for the fiscal budget when I crunch some more numbers. I swear that's all I've been doing in the last month as I was calculating watching refunds owed by my FSA. Ick. I really want to boost the emergency fund. I'm not worried about my job per se, but with the state of the economy, I'd rather have a bigger emergency fund since my consumer debt is 2.9% and 3.9% for life. I'm making above-the-minimum there because I want to retire them, but I think I need to snowball if I want them gone. 

Taxes are done and with my refund I'm going to replenish a recent loss on my emergency fund stemming from emergency car repairs, put a little more in savings, and then put the rest in my Roth IRA. Yes, refunds are bad, I get that, but I really am bad about calculating withholding especially as it relates to student loan interest, etc.  That said, my refund isn't large enough to retire a significant enough portion of the above-mentioned consumer debt, and I don't want to pay it on student loans in the event that something happens and I need it. 

So stay tuned... Hopefully.

Emergency Fund

At the time of writing, my emergency fund (in a Citibank Ultimate Savings Account, so fully liquid and accessible) is just north of $7k at $7,013. That's approximately an $1K increase in six weeks. While I think that's a good amount, it's well less than the recommended, which is keeping me from using that to pay down debt. On many levels, it doesn't make sense to do so -- credit cards are 2.9% and 3.9% respectively for life. Student loan is higher but it doesn't make sense to pay that down more than the ~$100 over the set payment I'm making already I don't think. 

That said, I couldn't pay myself first out of the last paycheck (expected due to holiday spending) and I'm not sure what the 1/15 check will look like with the change in FSA contributions. We'll see. We'll see. 

Emergency Fund

Seems to be one of those topics frequently discussed. Through college, I was luckier than some. I had an emergency fund, even though I didn't know that's what it was called, because my parents helped me and I used my work earnings to pay for what I needed. The first time I ever saw a real dip was senior year because I'd worked primarily unpaid during the summer and then traveled to London over Christmas. Still, I managed to get it back up. 

My first year overseas (working) I got my emergency fund back up. I also had my first moment of having to call my parents to help because my credit card had expired and I didn't have money in my bank account to afford train fare home. When I made the call for a "payday loan", my mom asked if my card was maxed. I was horrified. I had an ~10K limit, I couldn't fathom being maxed out. Not having access to credit hurt because I've always used it as my back up without it hurting me.

A 2004-2005 trip that culminated in a six-month contract more or less wiped out my emergency fund. Turned out to be a good thing when completing my FAFSA for grad school. Through school I managed to get my emergenct fund back up to a decent amount in preparation for my move this summer. I was happy.

Today, I'm even happier. Post pay-day and paying rent, utilities, and accounting for some upcoming payments: credit cards and overpaying student loan I made a transfer to my Ultimate Savings account that put me above $6K. Woohoo. That's not the that's recommended but it's almost six months of rent which ensures I won't be homeless while job searching should it ever come to that. 

I'm watching the Suze Orman show and a caller has a $1,200 payment for her car. That's more than my rent.