Making the Internet My Accountability Partner

The first step to this challenge begins before day one, or at least it did for me. I, in exploring Tiffany Aliche’s work, had to ask myself what did living richer mean to me and did I think I could achieve that. For me “living rich” has always meant not stressing about money about not feeling like one missed paycheck would set me behind on my bills. I have been laid off before (literally a month and a half into my first job post graduation) and while I was able to survive for the eight weeks it took for me to find a new job and get my first paycheck, it was as stressful as you imagine it to be.

Even while trying to pay down debt I knew that an emergency savings would be one of the greatest assets to curbing the anxiety of what if I lose a job again. Hence, when I heard that a LRC Savings edition was starting I signed on right away. My initial savings goal starting the year was to have $1000 dollars in off limits emergency savings. Part of the reason this number is so low is that I would also be saving up for bigger financial wants throughout the year such as vacation and gift giving. I also have never saved more than that in a savings account, when I was previously saving for specific goals, like a down payment on a car. However, in full honesty, I was so hyped on the motivation of starting a new task that at one point I commented on one of the challenge’s post that my goal was $3000. I also can’t wait to see where I end up in December.

Towards these goal the biggest impacts this challenge has had on my habits has been creating a savings account with separate bank, automating transfers, and deciding that any unexpected money goes towards savings goals instead of wants. When I initially set up my online only savings account (through a Goldman Sachs product because I’m not trusting just any app with my money) I automated $20 a week, which while not much was guaranteed progress and felt like a victory. To reach my goal of $1000 in untouchable emergency savings by the end of the calendar year I will need to manually deposit a little bit more money each month, but I’ve got a very good start.

Then I unexpectedly got a raise (I’ve only been at my current job for 7.5 months) and I knew right away that all of that extra money would be going to saving, so I set up an automated transfer. However, this money is right now going towards a short term savings “bucket”. So, while I am saving enough on my automated payments to hit a total of $3000 by the end of the year I already know part of that is being spent on a vacation. For me there is freedom in knowing that while the split of $200 a month to short term savings and $80 to emergency savings isn’t permanent, the act of saving is.

Additionally I thought the reflection and goal setting prompts were well considered and provided a good balance between the change your actions and change your mindset approaches to goals. This mindset shift is part of the reason saving my unexpected raise was such a no brainer. It also is what gives me optimism that these new skills and habits are here to stay because I no longer think about money, saving, and spending the same way that I did when I got into credit card debt.