The Good: I went on my "I can die happy" trip, three weeks to Thailand and Myanmar. I rode elephants and I got scuba certified and I learned some Thai and Burmese and I'm not sorry.
The Bad: With a perfect storm of this trip, Christmas plane tickets, and tuition, I took more than just a few steps back on my emergency fund.
The Ugly: My face while making up my charts just now.
Money money money, what will I do with you? I keep having this dream of "I will save up to quit my job and become a writer!" But then snowboarding happens, which is awesome. Thailand happens. My saving sputter. This trip cemented for me that yes, I do want to make money and travel the world. No, that is not exclusive of writing. I just have to work a little harder at hacking my life.
But now there is a shift in the game. I have paid off debts. Once you pay money, you can't really get it back. Now I must shift to saving money. Money that is just sitting there, that I can spend at any time. Money that I have said is just for emergencies, then used for non-emergencies. How to keep my sticky little fingers off it? I really don't know. (Though I'm still scared of disappointing Jeri!)
I keep thinking: I could lose this job at any second, because that is the truth. If I got fired, and I only had $2,000 in the bank, I'd be pretty mad at myself. Self-discipline. It's so hard for me. I have to remember what I'm saving for: travel, living, writing. My most expensive habit is laziness: going out to eat when I could cook, taking taxis when I could walk, drinking Starbucks when I could make my own coffee.
The next step I think I'm going to take is to deposit my savings safely away from my current bank, in another credit union, so it's not so damn easy to get to.
I added a Health Savings Account (an HSA), which I'm going to start adding to aggressively.
I started contributing more to my retirement once I got my emergency fund in order. Then that kind of got shot to shit.
Onward!
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