This weekend I've been trying to determine how to budget our 2010 income. It's quite disheartening to see that we've increased our life style quite substantially as our income has gone up. We've done a great job becoming debt free and also building our emergency fund. BUT...whew...we spend a lot of money.
My goal for this year is to begin saving 15% towards retirement. (While we were becoming debt free and building our EF we stopping retirement savings). I also was to make a fast-start to our children's college fund with a deposit of $12k and then save $100/month towards that. That brings my savings goal up to almost 22%. Oh, and I forgot that I want to top off our emergency fund. That brings the percentage to 27% of our gross income.
Well...I'm not sure how to get there. Or if we can. Budgeting, with just the 15% retirement savings and the $10,000 to go towards our EF, I have a shortfall in the budget of $5432.
Topping off the EF is a must. Also, DH's company matches his 401k at 6%, but he's only allowed to contribute 3%. So, the 3% going into his 401k is a keeper too. Today I'm crunching the numbers to see what we can do to cut back our lifestyle and to reach our savings goals.
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