Here is a short list of our financial goals for this coming year:
- Grow our emergency fund from $5k to $15k
- Contribute the max ($5k) to each of our Roth IRAs
- Stay within our budget in every category* for two consecutive months
- Find ways to earn more beyond our “regular” jobs
*we are within our budget total almost every month, but there are usually a few straggling individual categories where we spend more than we budget.
Categories: Basics · Planning
There’s not too much to add recently. We managed to make it through the holiday spending season pretty well, and we’re still gaining ground in terms of saving for both our retirement and for emergencies. After almost 2 years of learning the stock market (I turned $1,000 into about $600), I’ve now started experimenting with trading options. I’m only using money that we can easily live without (i.e. not putting any additional money in the brokerage account), but my $600 is now up to $1,100 after reaching almost $2,000 a couple weeks ago. Even though options can be risky, that same risk allows for amazing returns (and some crazy volatility). So, gone are the days of watching our account value move up and down 1, 2, or 3% per day. Now everything moves 10, 30, or 50+% almost every day. Hopefully I can continue to do well and get us some extra money…
Categories: Basics · Options · Stocks
Progress towards our $100,000 goal