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!

I never thought I would be this old

That sounded really melodramatic. I didn't mean it that way. It's not that I thought I would die young, I just never thought I would get old so fast! Just yesterday there were still years until I had to think about retirement, so I didn't think about it.

I had  a 401K in the past, but I cashed it out to buy a house, not that there was much in it. I occasionally thought I should be saving for retirement, but I also thought that was something I would worry about when I was older, and had more time and more money.

Now, at almost 56, next week actually, I'm realizing that I'm totally unprepared. As a single woman, that is not a good place to be. I'm on a mission to create a retirement for myself and I hope I haven't waited too long.

I'm sure I'm not the only one in this boat. I have plenty of friends who don't have a retirement account, 401K, IRA or any of the other letters and numbers that responsible adults should have by now.

I'm starting this little blog to keep track of the things I do to get myself in a better financial situation so that my golden years don't involve living with my daughter and darning socks.

How did I get here? That's a story for tomorrow, I think.