Big step: living on my income

[corn18]

I have been toying with the idea of trying to live off of my salary and not include my bonus and military pension in my budget (as suggested by someone on here). It was always too hard because of the seemingly inextricable relationship of taxes and 401k withholding.

I pulled the bonus out in March. That wasn't as hard as I thought.

Today, I pulled out my pension. That wasn't as hard as I thought either.

Now I have a budget that is based only on my bi-weekly salary. That means I am saving all of my bonus and all of my pension. Holy crap. Never, ever thought we could make that happen.

Thanks to all on these fora that got me here.

Tom

[MonkeyMama]

That's awesome!

[Randomsaver]

You the THE man!

[corn18]

Just finished re-wickering the budget based on no pension income. It is all tidy and as it turns out, I am running an annual surplus even without the pension in there.

With the pension fully out, I am now having that direct deposited into a long term savings account from which I am doing automatic allotments into different savings:

EF
IRA
College
Vacation
New Car

Each month, there is a little leftover that will just accumulate for now.

I am finally to the point where I am comfortable with my budget. My salary covers all expenses (plus my 401k). All of my pension goes into savings (which makes it a lot easier to set up automatic savings allotments). I used to allocate the bonus to different savings, but now that the pension covers that, the bonus is just that: a bonus. Not sure how to deal with that new found freedom. We'll deal with that nice problem next March when the next bonus comes.

Sorry for the multiple posts on this, but it has been a very awesome day.

Tom

[disneysteve]

That is HUGE! Congrats! You have made incredible progress since joining the site. Keep us posted.

[snafu]

Tom, that is an Awesome leap forward. Good on you. You've made amazing changes is a short timeframe.
Over the remainder of the year you might look at ROTH possibilities for your bonus that meshes with your 401k.

[corn18]

Tom, that is an Awesome leap forward. Good on you. You've made amazing changes is a short timeframe.
Over the remainder of the year you might look at ROTH possibilities for your bonus that meshes with your 401k.

I started a monthly deposit into a self-directed IRA for me and my wife. $917 / mo, $11,000 / year. I plan to do a backdoor Roth with both at the end of the year.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

That's amazing good work.

[BuckyBadger]

Congratulations!!