Layout:
Home > Interesting

Interesting

August 6th, 2014 at 04:30 pm

One of my facebook friends is working through a book called "Wild Money" by Luna Jaffee. I'm interested enough to want to take a look through it, but none of the libraries in my area currently carry it. She does have a website and will send you a sample chapter, so I did that.

I just love personal finance books. I somehow think they are going to have the secret that's going to magically make everything perfect. Ha!

She has 8 steps to building and growing your nest egg. They are similar to Dave Ramsey's steps with one big difference. She has a specific amount to have in savings, then steps 4-6 are all about different retirement funds. Then she talks about just investing for the future (non retirement funds) and then college savings. There isn't anything about paying off the home early and giving money away. Of course, this is only about building a nest egg, not about a whole life plan.

I like that she actually breaks down the retirement part. She talks about getting the employer match, then going to a Roth, then back to the 401k to a 10% level.

I admit, I've been doing this a bit backwards. I paid off my debt, then started saving in my 401k and saving for emergency fund at the same time. A big ole' $7000 emergency happened and wiped out my savings. Then I fixed my car and the camper and went back into debt. Boo hoo, boo hoo.

During all that I kept putting in 15% of my gross into my 401k. Great! But Luna made a point that smacked me right in between the eyes. If you save up all your money in your 401k, then it is hard to get to when you have an emergency. DUH! According to her, I'm back at step 2, paying off the car & camper fix it debt. But I'm still saving 15% into my retirement. My company puts 8% of my gross into my retirement. Yay! I'm definitely catching up from not saving much before age 36. I look at it like I have 23% of my gross income going into 401k, which is awesome.

So, can I drop it down a bit? Decisions. Do I drop down my retirement by 5%, pay off my debt and save up the $5000, then push it back up to 15%? Leave it at 15% and just do my best by being frugal to save up the emergency fund? I'm torn. I currently take home about $2080 a month, with $1033 in scheduled bills that won't go away(rent, student loan, cell phone). The student loan is 1/3 mine, 2/3 ex husbands and he sends me a check for his portion, but I don't dare count on that money like I do my paycheck.

So why doesn't it seem like that is enough money? Wait, is there ever enough money? ;-) I can survive on where I'm at. I was even doing well at saving some money before the car/camper happened. So maybe I just need to be patient and not mess with my retirement. Slow and steady, slow and steady.

4 Responses to “Interesting”

  1. SecretarySaving Says:
    1407343726

    I follow the DR plan. Smile I've been through FPU, EntreLeadership and the Living a Legacy classes. I went to the Smart Conference here in Texas too. I'm a fan!

  2. Carol Says:
    1407367538

    Slow and steady sounds right.

  3. Beawealthywarrior Says:
    1407372681

    Another Dave Ramsey fan here!

  4. MonkeyMama Says:
    1407441291

    Thanks for sharing. I saw the author's website said something like, "The first ever PRETTY finance book". Appealing to more artistic types and so on. I think it is a great idea - will keep an eye out at my library.

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]