Changing the Whole Plan – Prioritizing Savings
I recognize the whiplash of my thinking. My apologies for not responding to the individual comments. It’s been a really challenging month with “busy-ness”.
However, I did sit down this week and read through many of them during some quiet times of reflection. And I am so grateful that you as a community keep hounding me. I need it.
Big Change of Plans
I recognize that you all only see the smallest sliver of my life here. There is so much more to it. And it’s just as much of a roller coaster. As much as I love the “adventure” my life has been, you are very right that this time of stability has me struggling more than I do in times of high stress.
Sitting down to write about my failures was hard. But what is worse is that even in recognizing my biggest failure, I didn’t do anything about it.
I’m still spending down to the last penny every month. I have done NOTHING of significance to prevent the biggest challenges that I have faced over the last decade…a couple of times. By that I mean, losing my largest source of income and having no real cushion to tide me over.
Here I am in a season of feast. And while I am paying down debt. And getting things of importance accomplished. I am not focusing on resolving this, my biggest failure.
And failing to do this seriously contributes to my high level of anxiety, fear, and lack of self confidence. I have to change this NOW.
Priority Change
I realize that this blog is Blogging Away Debt. But I feel like it’s important to switch my focus for a few months. And I need to focus on Building a Significant Emergency Fund. The recommended $1,000 just doesn’t cut it.
And I’ve learned this the torturously hard way over the last decade. But I didn’t really learn, because I didn’t change.
I have to change now. This will allow me to be more confident that if something happens with my income, I have time to replace it. (Goal = Peace of Mind that I can’t remember the last time I had)
SAVINGS GOAL: $36,000
I came up with this number by adding my forecasted monthly output for the next months outside of my aggressive debt payments and current savings plan.
Meaning, if I lost the bulk of my income, this is what I would need to meet all financial obligations for 6 months. (With a bit of wiggle room since I used averages.)
So my thought is, instead of pushing to pay off debt. I push to save, thinking 5 months to hit this goal. Then turn my eye back to the aggressive debt payments.
Thoughts? And if this is a good idea, what is the best place to put the bulk of this savings? I’m assuming high yield savings, recommendations? This is a I’m asking post, not telling. Guidance requested.
The post Changing the Whole Plan – Prioritizing Savings appeared first on Blogging Away Debt.