My Balanced Money Formula

Wait, I am not a cheat if this is the conclusion you have come to from my last two posts new budgeting style and goals for 2013.

 

Remember how I confessed that I need my own balanced money formula. And then I go ahead and say I will be doing budgeting again with all percentages.

 

Actually those percentages define my balanced money formula.

 

20% - Retirement

30% - Midterm Savings/Mortgage prepayment etc

50% - Needs + Wants

 

Goals for 2013

2012 was year of learning’s and new beginnings. Some of the key take away were:

 

1. I finally took the plunge and joined back my job. It was tough but some thing I found immensely fulfilling.

2. I took a strong stand for myself. I have never been a diplomat to begin with but taking stand this time was tough! 2011 was a rough year financially and that obviously made this whole thing more tough, but I am glad that I did it. My old job which I re-joined after my baby proved to be a disaster. They had a new manager for me who was a complete jerk. (In all my life I can count on fingers the number of people I have ever judged or declared that I can't bear them AT ALL. Yes, he made it to that list.) I decided for once and for all that it's not worth to even talk to him anymore. Hence, I just told my other manager that either change my team or me leaving.

3. This proved superb thing at right time. I got an interview call from one of my dream companies for one of my dream profiles and all that drama in previous office just gave me a right kick needed. Hence I was able to join, finally, my dream job.

4. We bought a new house and moved to same.

5. I learnt so much of patience. That’s what a baby teaches you every minute of the day.

6. I also learnt that GOALS are very important to me. After long time I set some not-so-quantitative goals for me and I failed badly in achieving them. Worst I even stopped tracking them somewhere in last year.

7. And last learning was more of a refresher but still worth noting here. I hate inflation more than taxes. Taxes might give you some refunds and exemptions but inflation spares no one.

Over to goals for 2013.

 

I kept on procrastinating on goals for this year because I don't want one more bad year in row. Here are my goals for 2013.

 

I am calling 2013 year of Self-Love.

 

One of the key things I observed in 2012 were that I need to love myself more than what I do now.

 

I need to learn to say no to the things that I don't want to do, need to do the things that I want to do, need to prioritize time for myself, take care of myself better.

 

I am not claiming I am most generous person on this earth but I have realized that I (in fact DH as well) go out of our ways to help / please others. It's a good thing to do when done in limits but I have realized that now it stretches me (in fact us) both financially and emotionally. This is high time I tackle this problem in my household. Hence, this year all my goals will be revolving around one theme: "Love Yourself."

 

Financial:

 

High time we handle this category. 2012 was an average year where we barely managed to save little shy of 30% (29.7 % to be precise). Given we bought a new house, got its wood work done, and me not working for almost 5 months, I know this is an achievement. But let's have some stretch goals this year.

1. Networth: I aim to increase my networth by 20% in this financial year.

2. Savings: Save 50% of our joint take home.

3. Retirement: Save 20% of our joint pay cheque for retirement. This category really needs some blood because of no new oxygen for last 2 years. :(

4. Budget: to achieve goals 1-3, this year we have to go back on budget. So, be on budget for most part of the year.

Personal:

 

Remember "Love Yourself".

 

1. Learn one new dish to cook/bake per month. (Bonus if some months it can be two.)

2. Aim to not disturb baby's schedule on day to day basis, specifically when we have visitors.

3. Spend at least one hour on my new job related studying.

4. Get rid of TV from my life. I watch very little of it but even those 2-3 hours per week have to be used somewhere else for now.

5. Pick one bad habit of myself every quarter and work on it for full one quarter hoping to improve it eventually.

6. Will not spent more then half an hour on my Google reader. Reader is to me what Facebook is for most of the people, addiction and major time consuming thing.

10 goals might look like too-much-on-my-plate again to some but to me I know I will either achieve all (or most) of them or none. That’s how this gals mind works, either super focussed or super lost.

Please wish me best of luck and I promise to try and update regularly on my progress. 

Time to explore next step in budget

I have always worked with detailed budget, watched every rupee coming in and going out of my system.

Now with a baby in picture, that is just too time consuming.

From last so many days I am working on seeing where my time is going and what all I can cut back to save on TIME.

And I know too much detailed budgeting is one thing which eats up time that I should free.

So finally, I am writing this post and ACCEPTING that it's time to change.

After exploring lots of things I have decided that I need to come up with something similar to balanced money formula as preached by JD Roth of Get Rich Slowly.

His exact formula is something like

     30% wants

     20% savings

     50% needs.

I have to come up with something similar.

I am going to come up with my own balanced money formula by November.

(This is because I am joining my job only on coming Monday which means no pay cheque at end of september also.)

If you have any suggestions on this, please let me know.

Every rupee saved is a rupee that earns 6%

This is my favorite line now a days.

I totally love all the advertisements of kotak bank on this theme.

• Save on petrol and that saved money is the money that is earning 6%.

• Save on eating out and earn 6% on your saved money.

• Even when you are spending, use their debit card and earn cash back which is then going to earn 6% for you.

If that doesn’t motivates you to save, I don’t know what else will.

P.S. I still don’t have any account with kotak bank. Go figure out!
 

2012 Goals Tracking - August End

These are my goals for 2012.
Health:
1H) Aim to get back to my pre-preg day’s weight.

Financial:
Goals to work on once I join back my job
1F) I want to bring our mortgage to such an extent where my house can service itself.
2F) Maintain my EF as 3 months of expenses.
3F) If I can save for retirement as much as I did in 2010, that will be a good punch to future expenses.

Newly Added(missed in setting goals but was always there in my mind)
Goals to work on till I am on leave (unpaid and would be bonus if can be continued even when I join back)
4F) Manage our all monthly expenses within my DH's salary.


Personal :
1P) To start the habit of getting up at 6:00 in the morning.
2P) I think one of the most vague yet most important goals is to maintain a WORK-LIFE balance once I join back my job.

It's August end and let's see how am I fairing in these goals.

Over to tracking now:

Goal 1H - Bringing my weight and stamina to pre-preg days - FAIL. I still have my weight lingering at 2KGs above my pre-preg days. But its not that unhealthy given I was underweight a little earlier. Now I need to work badly on my stamina because there are some days that want me to cry. :(

Goal 1F - Bringing down mortgage - NA Yet. No more applicable actually as must have been clear from my March update. I did some changes in my long term savings and hence ended with some extra money in bank. We did some calculations and decided that we want to prepay our mortgage# 2 with that money. Bad news is I can't do that until end of september. I am going to do same after september ends for sure.

Goal 2F - Having EF as 3 months of living Expenses - FAIL. No Salary for mamma and 3 birthdays, all 3 of us, in this month means no room for savings.

Goal 3F - Save for Retirement - FAIL.

Goal 4F - Survive on DH's salary alone- FAIL. Same as 2F

Goal 1P- Getting up early - FAIL. With no job to goto, I am back to my pre-marriage days bad bad habit. I goto bed late and get up late. My BAD.

Goal 2P- Having a balanced life - FAIL. Well I was searching for job. That with baby was my only priority. Rest all, cooking at home, savings and everything else went out the window. But Good part is I got a job, which I am going to start 17th of September.
This was about me. How was your August?

Recap
January

February

March

April
May
June
July
 

2012 Goals Tracking - July End

I missed doing my monthly reviews for past couple of months. Will let you know why, but for now here is my July review.

These are my goals for 2012.
Health:
1H) Aim to get back to my pre-preg day’s weight.

Financial:
Goals to work on once I join back my job
1F) I want to bring our mortgage to such an extent where my house can service itself.
2F) Maintain my EF as 3 months of expenses.
3F) If I can save for retirement as much as I did in 2010, that will be a good punch to future expenses.

Newly Added(missed in setting goals but was always there in my mind)
Goals to work on till I am on leave (unpaid and would be bonus if can be continued even when I join back)
4F) Manage our all monthly expenses within my DH's salary.


Personal :
1P) To start the habit of getting up at 6:00 in the morning.
2P) I think one of the most vague yet most important goals is to maintain a WORK-LIFE balance once I join back my job.

It's July end and let's see how am I fairing in these goals.

Over to tracking now:

Goal 1H - Bringing my weight and stamina to pre-preg days - NO Clue. I don't even remember where I stood at the end of July.

Goal 1F - Bringing down mortgage - NA Yet. No more applicable actually as must have been clear from my March update.
Goal 2F - Having EF as 3 months of living Expenses - PASS. Ontrack for the first time in this year on this goal. YIPPEEE
Goal 3F - Save for Retirement - PASS.
Goal 4F - Survive on DH's salary alone- PASS. Cheating. My husband got his bonus, hence, again for the first time this year, I cracked even this one. ;)

Goal 1P- Getting up early - PASS. I got up between 7:00 AM to 7:30 AM almost all weekdays.
Goal 2P- Having a balanced life - Not Sure. Yes. I had a tiff with my manager and I quit my job in middle of month. Well I am known to work on my terms and conditions. Don't get me wrong. I have always got feedback that I am very professional and thorough with my work. I always expect basic respect in a job. Thats how I treat even my domestic help. Hence I quit and started another job search.

This was about me. How was your July? Well too late to ask this. :(

Recap
January

February

March

April
May
June