My Mint Mobile review

I'm looking at all of my expenses to see where I can cut the fat. I really dislike paying $50 a month for cell phone service. I'm not a huge data user, I work from home so am connected to my wifi most of the time so it was really annoying to pay so much.

I heard Brad and Jonathan on the ChooseFI podcast talking about other phone services that use the same towers as Tmobile but charge much less. After some research I decided to give Mint Mobile a try. 

To set up the service initially you pay $45 for three months of service. I signed up and they sent me a SIM card and I was ready to go.

Changing out the SIM was super easy and in just a few minutes I was set up and ready to go. I've had the service for only two weeks but have not seen any difference in my calls or connection. The only issue I had was that when pictures were attached to text messages I received, they weren't downloading.

I tried messing with the settings but couldn't figure it out so I logged on to mintmobile.com and started a chat. They have a chat bot that is available 24 hours a day but for more complex questions you need a live person. 

I posted my question and the chat bot sent me to a live agent, the wait time was less than five minutes. I was chatting with Luis and in less than five minutes he had walked me through fixing the problem and all of my pictures downloaded.

So, in my opinion, if you are not a heavy data user, Mint Mobile may be perfect for you. When you renew you can pay for 3 months or a year at a time and pricing is dependent on the length you choose.

I'll update my review at the end of my initial three months but if you want to try it yourself, you can use my link and save $15 off your first plan. 

Let me know what you think, and I'll keep you updated as well.

Savings Goals

It's easy to get overwhelmed when I look at other people who are striving for financial independence. Most of those people are saving anywhere from 50-80% of their income.Gulp.

At my current income if I saved that much I would not be able to pay my living expenses. I've cut down as much as I can but just my rent is 50% of my income. I know that will change when I start earning commissions, but now, it just seems unreachable.

I love being able to look at other peoples successes and hopefully learn from them. Unfortunately, as often as it inspires me and I get excited about the possibilities, it just as often feels defeating. How am I ever going to reach FI when I am unable to save the way other people can?

One thing that makes it both harder and easier, is being single. It's much easier because I don't have to work with anyone else's money issues or beliefs. It's also much harder because there is only one income to try to stretch.

Today is one of those days when the mountain seems high. I'm making a list of "the bright side" so I can look at that when I feel discouraged. The bright side for today is that I have nine hours of overtime on my paycheck so that will all go to my credit card. It's a small win, but I'll take any win  I can get.

Signing up for my 401K

I am finally eligible for the 401K at my new job. I worried about it for weeks before finally deciding that I can afford to put 10% in the account every pay period.

Last pay period was the first time it came out. I was relieved to find that I must have ran the numbers correctly because I can live on whats left after taxes, insurance and 401K come out. One thing that is disheartening is that there really isn't anything left over after that. Well, not nothing, but about $200 a month. 

So that amount will go into my savings. I know I need to pay off my credit card, and I am paying a little extra each month, but I'm afraid if I don't put the extra money in savings I'll wind up running up the credit card again for little things..

And there are always little things. This month for example, it's time to renew my plates. In Utah you have to pay property tax on your vehicle every year when you renew your registration so between that and the cost of the emission text, that will eat up the $200 extra this month. 

It's discouraging because it's hard to see how I can get ready for retirement when I'm money is so tight, but I do know that once I start getting commission I will have more flexibility.

In the past, I would not have put money in my 401K  until I "had" money. That day would have never come. So I'm glad that I went ahead and started with 10%, which isn't a lot, but it's a start. My company matches 50% up to 4%, which is crazy math but basically they are adding about $60 a month to my retirement account. It's not a lot but every year it will add $720 to my retirement that I didn't have to earn.

It's a start. Now I just need to figure out how to look at my 401K account and see how things are doing. That's a job for another day!

A little too optimistic

So, my last post I was overly optimistic. It doesn't look like this virus is going away anytime soon, and as usual, life is constantly changing.

The last few months have been so confining, as in, we are not leaving the house, not seeing friends, all of the stuff everyone else is doing. However, it has also been a time of expanding change.

I was living with my daughter, son in law and the grandkids. It was wonderful. I was able to pay off one of my credit cards, build a little bit of an emergency fund and start on my way to FI.

Then the reality of three adults, working from home, with two elementary aged kids home all the time, made the house seem very small. We were talking about how to make it work if this was still the reality in the fall, and my daughter found out she was pregnant. Very quickly we realized that they needed the space I was occupying for their expanding family.

So I found an apartment and within two weeks was moved. This caused me to dip into my emergency fund a bit because I had downsized so much. Not only was I living in a smaller space, but I was planning to move across the country.

Now I had to replace all the things I had sold in preparation for the big move. It was a little stressful. For the first time in my life, I didn't want to spend any money!

I'm in the new apartment and it has come together very well. My expenses, of course, have gone up a lot, so I'm working on a new budget and trying to figure out how to still pay off my remaining debt, build a retirement fund, and rebuild my emergency savings.

It's stressful, but I feel like I have a better foundation since finding the Choose FI podcast. We'll see how the budget goes!