I currently have a goal to save money as much as I can each month so I can pay down a significant amount of a mortgage in around 2 years (depending on what is available on the market at the time I am ready), and have some money left for investments and an emergency fund.
I have a limited salary as most people do and for purposes of this post I will say it’s around $50,000 (plus bonus) a year, which is the average salary for an Accountant in Utah, where I currently live. I say, “for purposes of this post,” because I would like to keep my salary somewhat private because I am still employed full time as a Senior Accountant.
I am writing this post because it hasn’t always been easy to save $20,000 a year. I worked for 16 years before I took a break from working full time due to a temporary health condition I needed to take care of, and in all of those years I only saved like $50,000 and that was because my previous employers matched part of my 401k contributions. Surprisingly, my salary was higher than what I make now. I had to take a pay cut to get back into a full-time job after being off the market for several years due to my health condition.
Thankfully, what I’ve lost in pay (for now), I’ve gained in contentment, which in my opinion, is key for not overspending. That’s what I was missing when I lived in Atlanta, the city where I lived in for many years, and what prevented me from saving. I overspent constantly in order to try to keep myself happy.
I found out through my recovery journey that I am happier being close to my parents as opposed to being alone in a different city and playing the singles game but making more money. After moving, I also met my current boyfriend with who I have a relationship that adds to the feeling of contentment that also keeps me away from overspending. Of course, this is different for everybody. This is what has worked for me so far.
I’ve published several posts related to happiness and contentment. You can find them below:
- 10 Important Lessons from Stoic Philosophy On Happiness, Gratitude & More
- Walk Your Way To Happiness and Better Health
- How To Avoid Buying Things To Fill A Void
- How To Be Happy
I like to focus on happiness first because I was so unhappy in my previous hometown that I overspent all the time to try to cheer myself up. So now that I am content and happy most of the time, I am saving more than I ever did when I made more money.
Now that I covered that important point, I’ll move on to the tools I am going to use to keep myself on track.
I will map my goals with an automated goal tracker that I built in Excel. I use Excel daily for my job. I find it easy to use. If you are new to Excel, don’t be intimidated. They are quick tutorials on youtube and any questions that you may have, can be answered through Google, Youtube, or Excel’s Help feature.
If you find Excel too complicated and technical to work on, I’ve created a printable PDF file that you can download to write down your goals and the tasks that you will complete to achieve them.
This is the automated Excel spreadsheet where I will write down my goals:
If you would like to use it to write down your goals as well, please click on the image and you will be redirected to where you can find it. 🙂
I have a video that shows how to use the Excel spreadsheet:
I’ve written down two goals for the remainder of the year:
1.- Save $3,825 for my college tuition. I work full time and I am currently in graduate school. I am currently on a break so I am taking advantage of it by writing a little bit more on here.
I have written down additional savings initiatives for this goal that I have budgeted for, which means that I normally spend for them but they are more wants than needs so I can save some extra money by not spending on them.
2.- Save approximately $24,367, which is what is left after saving for college tuition and budgeting for all other expenses.
I will create a budget on Excel so I can set realistic goals for the remainder of the year.
If you would like to create a budget as well, but don’t like Excel, you can use the free printable that I’ve created below:
I am currently using a combination of the automated goal spreadsheet and a budget spreadsheet.
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