Let's Talk About ... Money

Several months ago, I met with a representative from the company who handles our 401k at work.  They send someone about once a year to meet with us one-on-one;  we get to ask questions about how we're investing, if we're on the right track for retirement, etc.  During our discussion, I asked her when I could retire. Her answer?  "As early as you want to."  Sure, you can't take money out of your 401k until you're 59.5 without penalty, and you can't receive Social Security benefits until you're around 65.  But there are a lot of other options to help you retire early.

I said, "Ok, I want to retire at 50 then."

I'll be 25 this year, so that's 25 more years of work.  I mentioned this goal to a coworker of mine.  He offered to let me borrow a few of his Dave Ramsey books.  I read each book in just a few days.  Drew and I have very little debt - only the house and my car.  We were very fortunate to escape student loans, and our first few years of marriage taught us the importance of a budget.  We felt like we were ahead of the game and didn't really give it too much more thought.

Then a few weeks ago, I was looking over our budget.  (Drew and I share the MoneyWiz app, in case you're curious.)  I noticed budgets we were continually busting (like eating out) and a catch-all category that things just got lost in (conveniently named "Extra").  While we save plenty, we both feel like we could be saving more.  And what about this retiring in 25 years goal that we had?  What were we doing to reach that?

I began by comparing our current budget and actual spending to two popular methods:  Dave Ramsey and 50/20/30.  The results?  Honestly, we weren't doing too bad.  We were saving more than both methods recommended, and we're "living within our means."  We should pat ourselves on the back, right?

Maybe not.  I started to notice even more what a problem some of our categories had become, like eating out, extra, and bills.  If I could reduce these, couldn't we save even more?

Now I feel like a woman on a mission.  I've retooled our budgets to reflect our actual spending, and my goal is to reduce our spending in a particular category each month.  After staying at these reduced levels for 2 or 3 months, we'll reduce that category's budget.  

Furthermore, I plan to start getting this ball rolling on financial independence and early retirement.  I hope to share this journey with you and that you'll benefit from it.  Here's to saving!

Obligatory Disclaimer:  I'm not here to tell anyone how to spend his or her money.  I feel like we each value different things and will therefore spend more or less on certain things than other people.  How you spend your money is a very personal thing.  Therefore I will most likely not talk "real" numbers and instead use percentages.  I think the most important thing is to know how you spend your money and then decide if you're ok with where it is going.