Navigate your life to Financial Freedom

I have been majorly slacking off on my blog, but I just had to inform you all about a t ax deduction that everyone needs to do for 2020 taxes. If there is one thing you do before the end of the year, you should read this and take action. For a pre-covid tax year, the only way that you could claim any charitable donations you have made is if you itemized your taxes. In December of 2017, Trump signed The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that significantly raised standard deductions. When I say significant, he nearly doubled it; It is the highest deduction in American history. Before this, 46 million people would itemize their taxes and charitable donations were included in this and deducted, it is down to nearly 16 million since this new Act. I do not mean to say that this Act is bad, it is actually great and very beneficial to many. But for those that can no longer itemize, it meant that they could no longer take charitable tax deductions ... until this year. For this year only, thanks to the CA...

We are in November, and the holidays will be here before we know it.  Not gonna lie, I cannot wait for Christmas. I just love this time of year! Last year, households spent an average of $1,536 during the Holiday season. With the holidays come a lot of spending, especially for those who host or have small children. And every year people will say how Christmas snuck up on them. It is literally on the same day every year, it did not sneak up on anyone, you failed to plan. Are you ready for the holiday season? Did you prepare financially? I have a friend who is not a planner or a saver and every year she would tell me how Christmas arrived so suddenly and she put all of her charges on her credit card. This family then had to start the year out with a cloud and burden hanging over them because they needed to figure out how they would pay off their credit card over the next few months. I finally sat her down and told her that they needed to save a little every month starting in January ...

Trump recently signed an executive order which includes payroll taxes. He is wanting to stop payroll taxes from being deducted from your paycheck effective Sept 1 to bring relief to the American people. The problem with this is that he is not forgiving these taxes, you will still owe this money, he is just delaying the tax. As someone who works with clients who are struggling to manage their money, I see this as a huge burden to the American people. What are Federal Payroll Taxes ? Federal payroll taxes are collected by federal authorities and are deducted on an employee's pay stub. Federal payroll taxes cover Social Security and Medicare contributions.  How much will I get from the payroll cut? The executive order applies only to the 6.2% Social Security obligation. Based off a salary of $50,000, you would receive about $258 per month during the Sept 1 thru Dec 31 period.  When is this owed? If these taxes are not forgiven by the federal government, individuals will be respon...

Have you heard the debate that getting Starbucks everyday is killing your finances? I once worked in an office where Starbucks was in the lobby, it was no big deal... until the fall came and so did the Pumpkin Spice Latte. I had received a gift card to Starbucks and treated myself to a few until my card ran out. But then I kept getting them. Not only did I spend way too much on Starbucks in October that year but I also gained 5lbs from all the sugar. This year I told myself I would not get Starbucks, and the only time I have is when we were on a road trip to/from Florida and I needed coffee on the drive.  I often debate with my peers about getting coffee everyday or even grabbing lunch out. My stance is it is a waste of money and your money can be working harder someplace else. In the last 3 years, I have paid to eat out lunch less than 10 times. My brain also works differently than most because when I eat out, I think about how much that meal would have cost me to make at home ...

You know how people always say that getting life insurance or a will is on their list of things to do but for some reason, they never actually get to it? That is how I am with online banking, but this past weekend I finally got to it! I don't know about my readers, but with coronavirus, you should really be stacking up that cash even more than usual because we really do not know what is going to happen in the winter from this. If you stick all of that money in your regular bank, say J.P. Morgan, then you are earning nothing on your hard earned money. With Chase , I am earning 0.01% on my savings which is pennies but you can find online banking right now with 1.25% savings rates. That can amount to a few hundred dollars for us. Of course, it all depends on how much money you are going to put in your account. But if you are stacking cash, like us, then this is the place you want to be.  How do you know what online bank is right for you? First, how much money are you going to b...

I know, I know, another post about reviewing your spending. BUT IT'S IMPORTANT! If you do not consistently check your spending habits and how you are doing compared to your budget, then you will never know when to pull back or indulge. Would you even be shocked if I told you that I look at our finances for at least 30 minutes a day? It's true. I also do not use Mint or any other platform that links to your banking because it does not break everything out enough. Plus, I am a huge nerd and just love spreadsheets and analyzing different scenarios. I really do find this to be fun. When it comes to finances, June was a great month. It was our highest income month this year, highest savings month, we went on a vacation under budget , increased our emergency fund and spending was down. I believe that when you become intentional with your money, you find money that you didn't think was there.  Below is our June budget for food, alcohol, cats, etc. In my May review , I sai...

Have you ever calculated your net worth? Have you really sat down and written all of your assets and liabilities to figure out your household net worth? This is something that I think should be done at least once a year.  When JP and I went to Tennessee with my brother to do our debt free scream with Dave Ramsey in 2016, my brother and I started a financial race. The first one to x amount of dollars, wins. Now, I don't know if he remembers this, but I have taken it seriously ever since. JP and I also have an age in mind where we want to accomplish this same goal, so to make sure we are on track, I check our net worth each month. Below is an average net worth by age : How do you stack up? Below I will put 2 examples, the first is a household similar to ours without debt except the mortgage and the second, a household that has the average amount of debt in their 30s. Do you see yourself in any of those situations? Write out your balances in those amounts and add any ot...

One of the biggest topics in our house right now is when we plan to retire and how we will accomplish this goal. Retirement for us does not mean we will stop working all together, and maybe I shouldn't use the word retirement but instead our goal is to become financially independent. What does that mean? Financial independence means we will have enough personal wealth that our assets generate income that is greater than our expenses. You can make this happen thru a variety of ways, but it's important to bring your expenses as low as possible to make this easier. The first thing you should do is pay off all of your debt. My readers will know that we did this in 2016 , except for the mortgage. We are currently working on our plan to pay off our mortgage before 2025. If we accomplish this on schedule, we will be around the age of 40. Our goal is to become financially independent between the ages of 50-55. This means we need some sort of bridge account from this age to the time w...

Just like how we review our finances after each month, we review our budget after each trip. We made a last minute trip to Florida this month to see my Grandmom and hang out with family.  75% of Americans have gone into debt to pay for a vacation. It was a great trip, even if I did get severely sunburned. Yes, I was wearing sunscreen, just not the one I should have been wearing. Below is our budget to actual and you will see that we saved over $580 on this trip. We were able to save on the activities because we decided not to go jet skiing since the costs were too high. $70 for half an hour? No thanks! The other large savings was for gas since gas prices are so low right now and from food since we did not eat out at any restaurants. We typically grill out the entire time we go on family vacations to save money. When everyone in your family knows how to cook, there is no reason to eat mediocre food out at the beach. (Plus with Covid, we were not willing to risk it!) W...

The first week of June we evaluate how we are doing for the year. We will compare our budget to actuals for the year and check in on the goals we put in place in January. We will then make any edits we see fit. As you are aware from our May review , we have overspent on our alcohol for the year. This prompted us to increase our budget so that we do not overspend the last half the year. Finances is like trying to eat healthy. Sometimes when we screw up our healthy eating goals by eating a burrito in the morning, we throw our hands up in the air and declare the day as a cheat day and continue to eat unhealthy for the remainder of the day. When we could have declared that a cheat meal and made better choices for the rest of the day. Spending money is similar. We could have said that we can no longer spend any more money on alcohol for 2020, but that is unrealistic. A budget is not in place to restrict you but to empower you and allow you to make smarter choices. I began this blog to ...

When our friend’s wedding had to be postponed again and my brother suggested we join my other brother in Florida, it was a no brainer, JP and I immediately jumped on board. What was even more exciting about planning this trip was that my Grandmom was going to be out of the rehabilitation center by the time we got there. She hasn’t seen family in months in person, and I know she will be just as thrilled to see us as we will be to see her. She is truly the sweetest, most amazing Grandmom ever. After securing the same rental property as last year, we set out to plan the rest of our vacation. Just like last year, we are going to drive to Florida… that is almost 24 hours of fun (as long as we do not hit a deer again)! Because we already had the money saved up for the Dallas wedding, we just moved that over to this trip. We have another 8 months to save back up for Dallas. One of the best things about vacation for us is the eating. So we picked out our route, investigated on the best plac...

Recap on our car life... Since moving to Colorado 7 years ago, JP and I have only had to take care of my car. JP always worked for companies that provided work trucks. When he left his job earlier this year, it meant we were down to one car. We started to save up in late January for a new car in case he got a job that did not provide a work vehicle. He started working for his new company in mid February and he and I would share the car. That meant, JP had to take to me to work each morning and pick me up each evening. It really was not that bad, but was simply an inconvenience. A month later, I was working from home due to Covid-19 and stay at home orders. JP was still going to work so he was able to use the car. Then starting May 3rd, JP was put on furlough and we both didn't need the car. I was still working from home and JP didn't need to go anywhere anymore. When JP got his first unemployment check with the CARE act payments, we had officially saved up to purchase a car wit...

This month has been a challenging one with obstacles that have tried to slow me down. I set myself a few goals for May: to hit every Apple watch activity goal each day (burn 340 calories, 1 min standing time, exercise for 30 minutes), to lose the weight I had gained from lock down, and to quit the late night eating. It was all going well until Memorial Day weekend. It rained all afternoon on Sunday and I had not yet finished my Apple watch goals, but I put a raincoat on and went walking in the rain to get it done. I was only a week away from the end of the month and was not going to let rain fail me. The next day, Memorial Day, we went out for our morning bike ride and I fell. Banged up my knee and a few fingers, we weren't sure if I was going to be able to go back on another bike ride or even speed walk but I was ok. After a few hours of rest, I got back on my bike and finished the goals. This made me think of other obstacles that get in my way for other life goals. Sometimes I co...

Even with the shut down, JP and I still meal prep each week. This week we meal prepped shrimp Filipino pancit for lunch, spam sushi for breakfast and even prepped some dinners. If we do not meal plan, we will end up getting take out or ordering in. And during these extraodinary times, we definitely do not want to be eating out that much. Although, we had ordered a lot of Pho and Pizza. Spam sushi is one of my favorite breakfasts. A few years ago some coworkers gave me this awesome spam sushi maker and it took me years to finally use it. Once we started, we cannot stop. But you do not need a spam sushi maker to make this delicious dish, it just makes it easier to put together. I could eat these everyday. I love everything involved in this dish. You just take cooked white rice, slice up and pan fry your spam, add some wasabi and wrap it up in seaweed. Delicious!  This week we meal prepped shrimp pancit , which is a Filipino noodle dish. This is a very easy and low cost meal. ...

Unemployment is at an all time high and if you hadn't heard of furlough before, you probably have by now. Americans are struggling to pay their bills and support their families. Life as we knew it is out the window, there is no returning back, only moving forward to a new standard of life.  Almost 20% of Americans are unemployed. JP was put on furlough this month. We have been so grateful that he was able to find a job before this shut down occured and now we are grateful that we have the stimulus package to help us thru these rough times. If you do not know, Americans are able to receive an extra $600 a week of unemployment. This is on top of your already provided unemployment benefits for up to 4 months. As of now, this stimulus will go thru the end of July. So, if you have lost your job or been put on furlough, claim unemployment and receive this extra money to help you thru these tough times. You have also probably received your $1,200 check that was sent out. Of course, ...

In times of depression, bad luck or uneasy circumstances, I always find myself looking for that silver lining. By staying positive, I can move forward confident that things will turn around. That seems to be the case lately for me and hopefully you too are looking for the good out of all of this bad. One of the positives that I have found during this stay at home order is our car situation. You may remember that JP and I only have one vehicle right now since JP left his job in January. When he got his new job , we were planning on him taking me to and from work while we saved up for a car for him. I have been working from home now for over a month but JP still has to go out each day. It is nice that we don't have to worry about my transportation to and from work now since I stay home. We are also able to continue to save each month for his new vehicle.  Working from home has never been an ideal situation for me. I have always been one who has enjoyed going into an office to wo...

What a beautiful day today is in Denver, Colorado. I went on a 4 mile walk/run and reflected on everything that is happening in my life right now. I can easily say this is the most stressed and anxious I think I have ever been, which means, most of you are feeling the same way. It made me realize the things that I am grateful for, unhappy with and things that need to change. I am so grateful that I have a job right now. I am grateful that I am allowed the opportunity to work from home. I am grateful that the job I have is with a company I am proud of and with a team that is hard working. I am grateful that my mom's workplace, a preschool, is still paying her even tho they cannot work right now. I am grateful that my family all have their jobs still. I am grateful that JP was able to find a job nearly a month before this CV shut down and that he continues to work for this company. I am grateful for the internet and cell phones. They bring me closer to my friends and family when ...

These times are insane right now. Everything seems to be collapsing before our eyes and people are losing their jobs right now. My heart goes out to those who have found themselves in a situation where they cannot pay their bills. If you are this person, you are among the, at least, 59%. 59% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. If you are tight on money, here are the only things you should care about until you get paid again and on your feet.  Food - groceries only  Shelter - rent/mortgage  Utilities - electricity, water, not cable I think that if you have money in your bank, those are the only things you should be putting your money towards. You should only care about food and the necessities. Of course, if you have medications or other required medical items in your life that you must pay for, add that as well. If you have credit card payments or mortgages that you cannot pay, call up the credit card company/bank. Many credit card com...

I have seen so many food prep pictures online from the Coronavirus, did you food prep anything for your freezer? The average American spent $178.44 on Coronavirus supplies. We prepped meatballs , dumplings and lumpia. We also split up any meats we bought into meal sizes and chopped up different vegetables like bell peppers and froze those too. This is such a weird time and staying inside all the time will make me stir crazy for sure. I have been able to find the silver lining by getting excited about trying new recipes, working-out from home, running again and enjoying working in my yoga clothes.  While I don't think we over-prepared like others I have seen online, I do think we have prepared just enough. I saw people out there spending up to a $1,000 on stocking up. Each time we went to the store, not once did we fill an entire basket up. It makes me happy to see that the average American spent less than $200. Our grocery stores are now restocking and although man...

Looks like we all are going to be having a ton of date nights in this month. Hope my readers and family are doing well during this time and staying safe. JPs favorite meal out at Pappasitos or Pappadeaux is always the shrimp brochettes. Since Colorado is unlucky and does not have a Pappasitos, we decided to bring this meal home. I will be comparing this to Pappadeaux today since that restaurant is in town. So, like all my date night in posts , let's break down the costs. Shrimp $12.99 Bacon $3.99 Jalapenos $0.15 Asparagus $1.99 Lemon $.25 Dirty Rice $1.00 Garlic Cajun Butter Sauce $1.00 Total $21.37 Plus ingredients not above that I already had... $23.00 This meal actually made us 16 shrimp brochettes so the next morning we were able to enjoy more of these. They were delicious. You can stuff these with cheese, seafood, whatever you want, but we chose to just do jalapenos with shrimp wrapped in bacon. We then topped it with a Cajun garlic butte...