household finances and the cost of living

[fatboy]

In another thread I spoke about personal debt and our (Sue and I) journey to rid ourselves of some crushing debt. We are coming up on our 2 year anniversary being debt free. I want to say a few things on how this has changed our lives and where we are today.

Overall everything is great. We have internalized living below our means and have developed our savings muscles. What we had previously referred to as our "emergency fund" is now simply our cash savings. There is a full year's expenses in that account. On the investing side, I'm maxing out my 401K, Sue is contributing approx 20% into her 403B. We opened up a taxable brokerage account and are putting $800/month into that. That account has primarily index funds that should fill in the diversity holes we are unable to cover in our 401/403s. We have 3 single stocks but they are not well funded and basically just for fun. Finally as brought up in the discussion in the "personal debt" thread we have started buying some metals. Our stacking goals are 10 oz silver per month and 4 oz gold per year.

I'm always reading a book or something on the topic of personal finance or investing. This, and the lifestyle changes we have implemented has not gone unnoticed by some of our friends and my co-workers. As an example, one of my co-workers recently told me that he and his wife have stepped up to the plate and paid off a HELOC and will have their home paid off in November, a full 5 years early. So proud of this couple!

By the end of 2025, we are going to purchase a new car, we intend to buy a 2 or 3 year old car and pay cash. We are putting some money asside for that now.

Yes I hate that inflation is eating up our purchasing power. Still, when I read the news stories about the increase in loan defaults, car repos, mortgage foreclosures and general unhappiness, I immediately thank the Lord in heaven that he placed it on our hearts that urge to get our financial house in order when we did. This was a multi-year endeavor, not immediate satisfaction and really tested our will power but so happy that we stuck to it.

Anyone who has any past or recent financial victories feel free to share.

[fatboy]

Update May 2026

Almost four years debt free. My wife retired last December and I'm going to hang it up this December. We purchased a 2 year old car last May, paid cash.

Still maxing out my 401K and our brokerage account is growing well. I have a pre-tax rollover IRA, will start converting to Roth this year and finish  by Dec 2028. 2029  will have to start doing RMDs for my wife's 403B.  A solid retirement account system.

Because we waited to age 69 to retire and start our SS (and we have a small pension) and we have cut out unnecessary spending and have no debt, our fixed income will pay our expenses with a decent (and investable) surplus. I can say with a straight face that most of the progress we have made to secure our financial (and retirement) future took place during the last 10 years, from age 59 to 69. We plan on leaving our nest egg alone for the foreseeable future, let it grow and compound.

Have a great day everyone!