Yesterday I got paid and so did my Spouse. I get paid bimonthly on the 15th and the last of the month. My Spouse gets paid every Friday. His paycheck is a nice filler between my pay periods. I'm the breadwinner of the two of us, so my paycheck goes toward the house hold bills, groceries and such. My Spouses paycheck goes to his child support, savings and knocking down our debt snowball.
With this paycheck I've paid the mortgage and the car insurance will come out. I'll buy groceries for the week and gas in my car. The rest will sit in the account untouched. We're trying to build up our funds enough so that at the beginning of each month we can pay all of our bills the in full. Thus leaving our other paychecks for getting rid of debt faster. We're making a point of really living in less than we make. Just because we have those dollars in the account to spend doesn't mean we should. We've given ourselves $50 a month in blow money each. This is money we can spend how ever we want. It's not a lot by any means. But it makes us stop and think, do I really want to spend money on this item? Do I really want it or just think I want it because it's in front of me. We also have a set amount of money for eating out. $100 for the money that's it. In the past I would go out to eat at the drop of a hat. However I wouldn't spend money on things I needed like shoes or pants.
At my job we had a meeting about our new 401K program. I hadn't participated in the previous program when I became eligible last year because we were still getting back on our feet. I wasn't sure if we'd be able to afford to participate now even though I really wanted to. Typically with a 401K in order to get the employer match you have to contribute that specific percentage no less. But with this plan we were able to be matched up to that percentage rate. This meant I could contribute 1% of my paycheck to the plan and still be matched. This amount would be pretty small but would add up to a few hundred dollars over the course of the year with the match. I didn't want to leave that money sitting on the table. I'm comfortable doing only the 1% for now and ramping it up to 3% or even the 5% after we're out of credit card debt. At 33 years old I've got plenty of time before I retire. I also have other retirement savings in IRA's from a previously rolled over 401K earning money for me.
Eventually I'd want my Spouse to open up an IRA for himself to start contributing to retirement. He's five year older than me and has never saved for retirement. It would be nice to receive multiple streams of retirement income when we do retire instead of just relaying on mine. My goal is to retire with at least a million dollars across all retirement savings.
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