End of the Year Updates

Well it is December 1, 2015 and I still never got my 2015 savings/debt killing Excel spreadsheet chart from Mr. Sam.  It has been that kind of year, new baby, maternity leave, new baby expenses, balancing work with new baby, child care expenses, etc.  We also converted a rental property to a family property which brought along a ton of expenses as well.

These were my goals from May of this year, posted on one of the other personal finance sites:

(1) Max out 401ks: Goal $36,000
(2) Max out IRAs: Goal $11,000
(3) College fund for Baby Sam: Goal $5,000
(4) Add to emergency fund: Goal $10,000
(4) Pay off baby debt:  Goal $0, started with $7000
(5) Pay off Mr. Sam's truck loan: Goal $0. started with $7500
(6) Save for nused car for me: Goal is $20,000. This is two year goal, so this year's goal is $10,000)
(7) Get total debt under $500,000: $519,000 was thestart of the year number, goal is $499,000, difference of $20,000

Savings goal of $72,000 and
Debt killing goal of $34,500.

So let's start with the bad news.  We only put away $2100 for our 2015 IRAs, we can continue to invest for 2015 until April 15, 2016 so we have some time next year to finish this goal.

Baby debt, well it really morphed into debt, we have rental property conversion debt, some baby debt and just other cr_p debt that popped up this year since our finances were pretty crazy this year.  At present, the misc. credit card debt is $6275.  Can we kill it by year end?  Maybe, but doubtful.  But, I am working on it with renewed focus.

Nused car for me, didn't really happen at all this year,  I put away $400 and that is it.  I did spend some money on the car this year, about $1500 in repairs and the mechanic says I have about $4000 in repairs that could be done but were not necessary at the time.  Need to work on this goal in 2016 as the time is coming, car will be 10 years old as of next year.

The good news, we are on track to max out our 401ks by the end of the year.  At present we are at $33,009 and we will complete the $36,000 goal.

College fund for Baby Sam, we hit this goal as well and we have $5,781 in the 529 plan.  About half of that was from us and the other half from family as we have asked for 529 contributions in lieu of gifts for birthdays, Christmas, etc.

Emergency fund, we are also on track for hitting this goal.  We will have an additional $10,000 into the e/r fund by end of year.  At present we have $19,215 in our e/r fund which sounds like a lot, but it really isn't when you take into account our investment properties.  We have been working on rebuilding our fund after buying Mr. Sam's truck (we paid half in cash) and our IVF, pregnancy and birth expenses.  I've never really figured out how much I want in the e/r fund, but I'd be more comfortable closer to $30,000.  We do have $20,000 in other short term, liquid savings, for things like insurance, taxes, vacations, etc.  So that money is also available if we really got in a jam.

Mr. Sam's truck, we are paying $500 a month, 0% loan and at present we have a $2500 balance.  No current plan to pay ahead, but will be paid off early next year.

And as for getting our debt under $500,000, we easily hit that goal with $34,152 in debt paid off (even including the debts we added during the year).  Our present debt number is $484,848.

So grand, estimated, total for 2015 savings will be:  $53,881  (falling short by $18,119 of our 2015 goals).

And, grand, estimated, debt killing total for 2015 will be:  $34,152 (which does not include additional debt payments that I plan to make) so we basically hit that goal.

Thoughts, how did your 2015 financial year go?  What are you planning for 2016?

Update on Swap.com Experiment

Earlier, I posted about my Swap.com experiment.

Almost a month later and I have earned $80 in profit.  I've sold about 18 items (a couple of which were sets).  The least expensive item I sold was $3.00.  The most expensive item I sold was $15.00.  Initially, the first week or so that my items were posted on the web site (they do the photographing and posting), I sold several items that were lower priced.  Then my selling rate slowed down and I sold an item here or there but the items were more expensive.  I have 8 items (include a couple of sets) posted and priced that have not sold.

I did much better selling maternity clothes that I did selling infant/baby items.  In fact, I have only sold one baby item thus far.

At present, I have another big box of mostly maternity items to send off now.  The items I am sending in this time are my high end, business and fashion maternity items.  I also had almost all of these items dry-cleaned so I will need to price the items high enough to recoup my dry-cleaning expenses.   These items will likely be priced at $30 or more to account for dry-cleaning costs of $10 and original prices of $80 - $130 per item (and many were only slightly worn).

Wish me luck.