Saving – My Investing Discoveries

To Think or Not to Think: The Financial Question

I hope you are all enjoying some crisp fall weather, wherever you are.

With my latest quarterly net worth check-in, I discovered that I have nearly doubled my net worth in the three years since I started tracking my progress! The beauty of compounding is at play here: The more money I have invested that is making me money, the more money it continues to make. It’s that simple!

Other than that, I want to update you on what I have been thinking about vs. what I have been (choosing) not to think about when it comes to my money lately. This is sometimes by design, as a behavioral finance trick. Each link in this list will take you to a category of articles on this blog for you to explore further.

Bank accounts—I think about them weekly, but don’t always check them that often. My checking account and regular savings account are my most visited; my two high-yield savings accounts are reviewed quarterly for my net worth update, and are regularly invested in whenever I have savings from a biweekly paycheck ✅
Budget—I don’t think about it as much as I used to; I have regular payments that aren’t accounted for in my budget ❌
Credit cards—I think about them a lot, sometimes multiple times per week. This is the primary focus of my finances: What am I spending and—when it comes time to pay the bill—how much do I owe? This is also a good way to prevent fraud, but your credit providers should be alerting you to any unusual activity ✅
Investments—I don’t think about them, but I check my Charles Schwab brokerage account periodically during market shifts (thanks for the heads up, AAII!) and review them for performance and potential deletions twice per year ✅
Retirement accounts—I don’t think about them because I check my progress quarterly, I have a system in place ✅

The aspects of my personal finance that regularly haunt me are my bank accounts and credit cards. These are top of mind since I handle them on a short-term basis, whereas my investments and retirement accounts are for the long term. The one area I need to improve is my budget, hence the “x” instead of the checkmark. At this point, it’s next year’s problem!

The state of my retirement accounts

My retirement accounts are doing well, especially when I don’t think about them! I still have my first 403(b) plan account with Vanguard from AAII, and it remains invested in the mutual funds I chose at the start of my retirement savings journey. My second retirement account is with Fidelity from my current job at Red Ventures. It’s a straight up 401(k), so now I have a fun collection of all these letters and numbers!

I’m actively contributing 5% of my salary to my Fidelity account on a biweekly pretax basis, meaning the money comes out of my paycheck before I even get to see it. Meanwhile, with my employer matching most of that contribution, I’m sitting on nearly $6,500 after over a year of steady contributions and positive returns!

I invested my Fidelity account in these mutual funds that were available to me, using the same weights I applied to similar funds in my Vanguard account: 30% invested in the T. Rowe Price Large-Cap Growth fund (TRLGX), 20% in the Fidelity Mid Cap Index fund (FSMDX), 20% in the Fidelity Small Cap Index fund (FSSNX), 20% in Emerging Markets II (ticker not listed) and 10% in the Principal Real Estate Securities Fund Class R6 (PFRSX).

When I invested in these funds back in fall 2024, two of them had higher expense ratios than I would like for my investments: the real estate fund’s was 0.81%, and the large-cap growth fund’s was 0.70%. My investing strategy is to find mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with expense ratios under 0.60%, otherwise we’re getting dangerously close to 1%, which is way too much to be giving any fund or money manager. Thankfully, the large-cap growth fund’s expense ratio has since decreased to 0.55%.

My petsitting venture

This year, I started petsitting cats and dogs. It took off when I started networking through the dogs, finding more animal friends to hang out with. My closest human friends also have some of the cutest cats ever, so I can’t resist spending scheduled time with them when they are required to pay attention to me 😂.

So far this year, I have made over $1,600 from this venture! Since I haven’t been as regular with saving this year as I would like, at the end of 2025 I plan to match the amount I’ve made from petsitting and move it into my emergency savings account.

When I initially drew up my rules for this savings account, I wanted to keep $10,000 in it at all times. However, I’ve learned since that I don’t really need that much money available, even for emergencies. I settled on maintaining my emergency savings at $7,000. In the current market environment, it makes more sense to keep money in my high-yield savings accounts so they can make more than the measly 0.01% interest my emergency savings will.

Some other financial decisions I made since we last talked:

I signed a two-year lease for my current apartment so I could lock in the increased rate of $1,450/mo. for the next two years to save myself another $50/mo. increase down the line
I chose my health insurance plan for 2026, and went with the lowest tier for around $30 per paycheck

I’ll be back in early 2026 for another portfolio review! Wishing you all a wonderful and safe holiday season.

More articles on rethinking retirement:
Retiring Early: Memoir or Fiction?
Should Young People Still Save for Retirement?
How Much Should I Contribute to My Retirement Account?

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Setting Goals With an Uncertain Budget

Hi all, I know it’s been a bit since you heard from me! I was a little busy changing my entire life there for a second, but I’m back. I wanted to wait until everything settled, but that’s not really how life or money works!

I moved into a new apartment at the end of August, and I’m still not sure what my monthly expenses are going to be since I’m paying for cooking gas. Now that my gas meter is readable after the guy from Peoples Gas came by twice to join me in the treacherous, spiderwebbed, possibly rat-infested basement of my 107-year-old apartment building, and I can take baths again without water leaking into my downstairs neighbor’s bathroom, I’m looking at fixed expenses upward of $1,550 per month. On top of all that, I got a new job and now freshly qualify for their retirement account, so my income is also in flux due to those contributions. Once I know the details, you’ll know. Promise you that!

My uncertain budget isn’t going to stop me from setting goals, though. The more I allow money to live in its liquid form in my head, the more I feel like I can actually do something with it. I have also been carrying this new feeling that everything is going to work out, so I’m happy to share that energy with you.

I have two relatively short-term goals that I want to save up for. One is focused on skincare. Back in the day when I was a wee lass with terrible acne, I used to get facials consistently. I’d like to thank my mom for being so understanding and funding that venture, because it really helped my skin at the time. Now that I’m in my 30s, the evil acne hormones are back and I’m about at the end of my rope with them! One of my friends is getting facials regularly again, and I know it’s the only thing that will help my skin in the long run. I just recently changed my skincare regimen to almost entirely Korean products containing rice water—please save me and my microbiome!

My plan is to save up for six facials in 2025, accounting for $150 per facial plus a tip. Being generous with my future facialist and my savings, I’m rounding up to $200 per facial. It will also add a cushion for these savings should I want to spend this money on other skincare next year, or visit a dermatologist. This amounts to $1,200 I’ll have to save for this goal. Honestly, I’ve spent more on travel expenses in the past. I was always so worried about spending too much on skincare, it annoys me that I didn’t do this sooner!

The beautiful thing about setting goals is it changes my mindset. I’m putting this money aside for a specific purpose, so I can think about it as if the spending isn’t really cutting into my overall net worth. I would have spent this money anyway, but having a goal for it gives the spending more structure. Then, when I finally spend the money, it can instead be a gift I’m giving to myself. Here’s to clearer skin in 2025, sheesh.

My second goal is to save up for traveling to the East Coast a couple times next spring. You guessed it, the Kills are touring again! This time, they’re opening for their friends Queens of the Stone Age, a band I’ve always wanted to see live. Also, St. Vincent is opening for the man who gave her a name, Nick Cave. It should be a great year for concerts, and hopefully new music and a Chicago show from Banks! I still have some budgeting to do on this goal, but I’m going to shoot for around $2,000.

The Kills live at Webster Hall in New York City, New York, February 27, 2024

I love being able to afford to see my favorite people whenever I want. I wouldn’t be able to without all this personal finance work I’ve been doing. AAII’s teachings remain at the forefront of my investing strategy. I would like to thank president John Bajkowski, editor Charles Rotblut and managing editor Jean Henrich for their support of the blog from day one and for giving me this amazing opportunity to continue it. Stick around for more of my investing discoveries!

Read these next!
A Money and Music Memoir
The Carrie Finances: Honey, I Shrunk the Budget
My Payday Routine

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Under Budget and Overwhelmed: Real Talk on My No-Buy Year Journey

I’ve been dreading updating you all on my budget and how the no-buy year is going, because it’s not going great! However, I want to be transparent with you all about my finances and how I handle the times when I don’t want to think about money. I split my money feelings into two categories below in an attempt to compartmentalize them, similar to how I distribute my savings to multiple accounts so I can see my goals clearer.

Top

I came in under budget for May, which after an expensive first few months of 2024 was much needed.
I only overspent by about $50 in June!
The loan I took out last year to buy a new mattress is finally paid off, which makes some room in my budget.

Bottom

Though I’m actively spending on one of my goals—moving—I still have the psychological toll of watching my savings decrease.
My new apartment is more expensive, which stretches my budget a bit, and some of my utilities charges for September are unknown.
I bought some clothes that I didn’t really need but made my life easier. Clothes were on my red light list for the no-buy year, but I thrifted them to maintain my sustainable strategy in that area.

Whew, I feel better already now that we’re all on the same page. Grace Nevitt, who gave me the idea for the no-buy year, recently posted a video with tips for readjusting and refocusing on the no-buy strategy over halfway through the year (we’re so in sync!). She highlights how she has been engaging more in do-it-yourself (DIY) projects instead of using money to solve a problem—and rewiring that connection in your brain. One example is she wanted pink nail polish and didn’t want to buy it, but she conveniently had a red bottle that she mixed with a white bottle. Mixing them also made the consistency of the final product smoother.

Grace also mentions that she is community sourcing from family and friends and relying more on her “buy nothing” neighborhood group. I’ve been trying to do the same with my family and friends for odds and ends I’ll need for moving, which has taken some adjusting as a Very Independent Person.

Remember Your Why

Grace mentions that we should remember our initial reason for doing a no-buy year. Her “why” is that she wants to save up for a homestead in New Zealand, but throughout the year she started focusing more on her relationship with shopping and overconsumption. My “why” is that I want to save up for my goals and generally not accumulate more stuff (especially since I’m moving, my back already hurts enough!).

Without further ado, here is my budget for September:

Though my rent will be $100 more, I will finally have a dishwasher (please clap!), which will save me time and energy. Don’t tell the dishes, but I’ve kind of enjoyed washing them recently—a whole new level of adulthood unlocked. My new place is also closer to some of my friends, which will cut down on travel expenses. I temporarily stopped one of my subscriptions for a vitamin since I have enough of it to last me a while. My sole monthly subscription is Spotify, which recently increased to $11.99. My whole life in music is on there at this point, so I’m not going anywhere unless they completely change the program.

Most importantly, I thought it was time to increase my monthly savings amount. Now that my loan is paid off and I have a little wiggle room, I increased my savings goal from $500 to $530 to begin replenishing the savings I’ll be spending on moving. Grace emphasizes that if we don’t know what we’re spending on, we can’t see where the problems are and where we need to fix the rules of our strategy. Not only do you have to be transparent with your budget, but also with yourself. I want to focus more on having experiences in the second half of the year. Though experiences are technically on my yellow light list, I still have to live my life to make all this budgeting worthwhile!

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The Carrie Finances: The True Cost of Spending

“Money is not just money, it is a representation of time, of opportunity.”
—Cara Nicole

While I was finishing up my recent rewatch of “Sex and the City” and finally embarking on my first watch of the reboot “And Just Like That,” the algorithm plucked the perfect video out of the abyss and presented it to me: “Financially Auditing Carrie Bradshaw” by Cara Nicole on YouTube.

Much like my first Carrie Finances post back in 2021, Cara’s analysis was spurred by the episode in which Carrie goes to the bank and is denied a loan for being an “unattractive candidate.” After spending $40,000 on shoes alone, she only has $700 in her checking account and $957 in her savings account! (About $1,250 and $1,720, respectively, indexed to inflation from 2001 to 2024.)

In Cara’s video, she notes that Carrie’s shopping addiction laid the groundwork for today’s influencers who have normalized overconsumption. The root of that is having an emotional relationship with money. When Carrie slips and falls in a Dior store in Paris in season six and returns to her Russian boyfriend with multiple bags of merchandise, she says it’s because she was too embarrassed not to. If I slipped in a fancy store, I would simply remove myself from the entire block and never show my face again—and definitely not spend thousands of dollars because I felt bad! (One cookie could probably solve that problem, let’s be honest.)

I’m so glad Carrie is fictional so we can drag her. As Cara notes, “judging fictional characters? That seems like fair game.” In one scene, Carrie says, “When I first moved to New York and I was totally broke, sometimes I would buy Vogue instead of dinner. I just felt it fed me more.” Of course, Carrie is romanticizing her past, but let’s not sugarcoat poverty here. What she’s really nostalgic for is the beginning of her independence when there weren’t complicated relationships and a whole messy life to think about. Scarcity made her decisions simple: food or fashion?

It reminds me of the White Stripes’ song “Little Room”: “Well, you’re in your little room / And you’re working on something good / But if it’s really good / You’re gonna need a bigger room. / And when you’re in the bigger room / You might not know what to do / You might have to think of how you got started / Sitting in your little room.”

The White Stripes was a band that limited themselves to the point of liberation. By setting restrictions on the art they could make as a two-piece band, they created something entirely new. As Jack White’s solo career took off, he had more and more resources available to him, including an entire record label to manage. Without limitations, the music wasn’t grabbing fans as much anymore, and many of my friends eschewed his solo career altogether. I don’t think he’s ever been able to get back into that little room.

Cara also pushes the importance of having an emergency savings fund of three to six months of living expenses, which Carrie clearly doesn’t have. The closest she gets to investing is in the first episode of season six. She is invited to ring the bell for the start of trading at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on the first day that the New York Star newspaper, in which her column is published, begins publicly trading on the exchange.

Afterward, Carrie says to her friends, “It was so exciting, it almost made me want to invest in something!” Miranda chimes in, saying that she doesn’t invest anymore because it’s “too volatile” (even though she’s a lawyer?) and Carrie spits back, “Exactly, I like my money right where I can see it: hanging in my closet.”

I cringed watching this scene of four educated women deny that they needed to invest simply because it’s something men do. Yes, this was the early 2000s, but even Lois Frankel’s book “Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich” from 2005 had better lessons than don’t save and “just invest in clothes.”

Though this is fiction, we consume it—that’s the operative word. We consume this art and expect our lives to mirror it. This also goes for what we see on social media, what we overconsume because we see people constantly buying things that we believe are improving their lives. There’s more value in what you do with your life than what you have. The true cost of spending is what you’re not saving it for, what you won’t have in the future because you want to build up your life now. It’s a trade-off, but do you want to start strong, or end strong? I’m going to try for a balance of both!

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Midyear Portfolio Review: Rebalancing for Sustainability

When my midyear portfolio review came around, I knew I would be selling one of my holdings: the Global X Wind Energy ETF (WNDY). It’s my worst performer, and when I checked its sustainability grades on As You Sow as of July 1, 2024, the fossil fuels grade had slipped to C—time to kick this exchange-traded fund (ETF) to anywhere but my portfolio!

Since I’m removing a holding, I thought it best to find a replacement. I want to be able to maintain investments in at least five ETFs in my Charles Schwab brokerage account for diversification purposes. On the flip side, I have to keep in mind the limit on the benefits of diversifying my investments. Going way back to the first book I read about investing, fittingly titled “Investing 101,” author Michele Cagan, CPA, says that “it’s usually not advisable to have more than six or seven mutual funds at a given time, or you can start to counterbalance your efforts to construct a strong portfolio.”

I started my search for a new sustainable ETF where I left off—with the VanEck Environmental Services ETF (EVX). Last I checked, this ETF fit my strategy on As You Sow with all A’s except for a fossil fuels grade of B and a gender equality grade of C. It also had an attractive expense ratio at 0.55%. To my dismay, the gender equality grade fell to D, disqualifying it from my strategy. This solidifies why I review my portfolio twice per year. An ETF might be attractive one month and then quickly lose its sustainable standing the next. Performing a monthly or quarterly review would produce too much turnover for what I can afford with the size of my portfolio (around $6,000) and the time I want to commit to investing.

Instead of planning my attack via the fossil fuels grade, I chose a different approach. Since it’s difficult for funds to grade well on gender equality, I filtered based on high gender equality grades of A or B. The first few contenders I found were quite colorful, with gender equality as their only A grade.

The Impact Shares NAACP Minority Empowerment ETF (NACP) certainly has a goal in mind: gender equality in addition to racial equality, investing in large- and mid-cap companies “with strong racial and ethnic diversity policies in place, empowering employees irrespective of their race or nationality.” As vital as this focus is to improving the world we live in, there is less attention to environmental issues, with a fossil fuels grade of F. It has been hard to find funds that can do it all, but I know they exist!

Further down the list, I stumbled on the IQ Healthy Hearts ETF (HART), which has grades of A for fossil fuels, gender equality, military weapons and tobacco, and grades of B for deforestation, civilian firearms and the prison industrial complex. Its purpose is a bit more focused: It’s “designed to deliver exposure to global companies that help people prevent cardiovascular disease.” Somehow, it manages to have attractive sustainability grades while also improving people’s lives.

Gritting my teeth, I checked AAII.com to see what the expense ratio was: a cool 0.45% with an expense ratio grade of B. This fits my strategy, and it will save me some money! The ETF hasn’t been around long, but it has grades of A or B for three-year, one-year and year-to-date returns.

Now that I have my portfolio actions, I just need the money to make it all happen. I liquidated the SmartyPig high-yield savings account goal I set up for investment funds. Unfortunately, I didn’t reach my goal of $2,000, but we’re going with what we have—which is just over half of that. With the proceeds from selling Global X Wind Energy, I should also be able to add some shares evenly across the rest of my holdings to ensure the cash in my portfolio gets put to work.

Now that I’ve been able to successfully find a fund that fits my strategy, I have a bit more hope for the future of sustainable investing. Because of this, I expect to add another holding to the mix to bring my portfolio up to six ETFs at my next portfolio review. Stay tuned to see how it all goes!

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The Carrie Finances: Honey, I Shrunk the Budget

Now that I’m in my 30s and my health app has officially launched me into the 30–39 age group, I thought it was time I rewatched my beloved “Sex and the City” again.

In the first episode of season one, Carrie Bradshaw rekindles things with an ex (who has been resurrected a few times) and her best friend Stanford Blatch says, “Are you out of your mind? What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Carrie replies, “Oh, calm down. It’s research,” after making a “date” for 3:00 p.m. to inspire her next column.

My own research boils down to what mistakes the characters are making with money, and how I can avoid them at all costs. By the time your 30s roll around, you are expected to have certain things figured out. But I’ve learned that this timeline can be restrictive—and, at times, misogynistic. Women have different reasons to spend money. As much as I would love to have a 3-in-1 shampoo instead of mixing three different ones to get my desired results, the majority of products marketed toward women are meant to only serve one purpose. This means we must buy more and more things to stay socially acceptable as we age. (I resent this fact, but the older I get the more I see it happening.)

When I started tracking my spending at the end of March, I was trying to figure out how I could be budgeting and still overspending. A lot of money went to my short-term goals, but there was still not enough room in my budget for what was needed. I got some new cleansers for my skin, trying to figure out my latest flare up. I was going more places and doing more things, which was good for my mental health but not my bank account. I still struggled to find balance and maintain my no-buy strategy for the year.

Later in season one, Carrie exclaims, “My new shoes shouldn’t be punished just because I can’t budget!” Once I saw the damage of March, I knew April could not be a repeat if I wanted to stay on track with my savings. When I broke my spending down by category (transportation, groceries, restaurants/coffee shops, clothing and pay later payments), I was able to see where the problems were. I managed to reduce the amount I spent on transportation by more than half in April. So far in May, I have been avoiding spending any money on transportation since I know that I have some activities planned for later in the month.

For my May 2024 budget, I am allotted $233 per week. My utilities have been steady with a mild start to spring, and I’m almost done with my monthly loan payments (as of publishing this, only three more to go!). So far, I have come in under budget, but I want to make sure I can keep this momentum going.

When I reflect on how hard it has been to both live my life and not buy things I don’t absolutely need, I think about how I used to spend all day at the mall when I was 12 years old and only spend around $20. Of course, this was the early 2000s, so everything was cheaper back then. The economy was good and even in my naive state I had some semblance of a community. The park, the public library and other places where you can be part of a community and not necessarily spend all your money are considered “third places” outside of home and work. The mall, a café, a bookstore and the gym are also on this list but have become places geared more toward spending money than interacting with others.

You could argue that tipping your barista gives back to the community, especially if you’re a regular at your coffee shop. But this still relies on spending money in order to build a community, instead of using the resources we already have to make connections with people.

Social media could also be considered a third place, but I’m not seeing much community there lately. If anything, social media has gone so far as to replace community with buying things in the way our outside world has monetized every interaction we have with others. In the same way, this transactional way of thinking can hinder us from getting together with others when there is no monetary incentive. Think of a friend charging you for having a home-cooked meal at their house even when they invited you over or sending you an invoice after hanging out in one of those public third places. Yikes!

Grace Nevitt, who gave me the idea for the no-buy year strategy, recently posted a YouTube video about how to discuss it with your loved ones. I never really ran into this issue since I announced it on the blog for everyone to see! But she cites the level of American consumerism and how ingrained it is in our society as part of why she thinks a no-buy year is important. If we can train ourselves to not feel the need to buy something just because it’s new, or because we feel like the world is doomed, maybe we can connect with each other in more meaningful ways than capitalism currently allows.

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My Payday Routine

Featured image credit: https://beyondspx.com

When I first started working, holding a physical paycheck in my hand wasn’t necessarily the cliché reward I thought it would be. Instead, it was more of a signal that I could buy things again. Back in the debit card days, I would say goodbye to $100 of my paycheck at Sephora almost immediately. I would put some money into savings, and at the time I was paying off some student loans, but it was never strategic.

Having a credit card has completely changed my mindset. Now, payday is a signal for me to distribute the money I don’t need to spend among my goals. With Beyoncé’s voice singing, “Wait, I hear you just got paid. Make it rain energy,” in my head, I open my checking account to make sure the money actually made it in there! You laugh, but one time that happened and I swear the world stood still for a few hours. If you receive a physical pay stub from your employer, make sure the number matches what was added to your bank account.

The first thing I do is type the number on my checking account balance into my phone’s calculator. Then, I determine how much needs to stay in checking for any fixed expenses like rent, utilities, etc. Take a look at what has gone through since your last paycheck to ensure everything looks correct and you haven’t been hacked.

If it’s not a paycheck that needs to be saved for rent, I go to my credit card statement and assess the damage. I subtract my credit card balance from the big checking account number. I almost always pay my card off in full if I have the funds to do so. Sometimes I wish Discover would let me pay off the pending payments too, so I’ll include them in my calculations just for fun!

Now that I have a better idea of what I’m working with after my fixed expenses and credit card are accounted for, I determine how much I can put in savings before my next paycheck. This time, I have $700 available to save. First, I move this amount from my checking account into my emergency savings account since they are with the same bank. Then, I distribute this amount to my high-yield savings accounts.

This is a good time to check in on your savings goals. Right now, my short-term goals of saving up to invest more and moving are the most pressing. My intermediate-term goal of buying property is nicely funded for now, so I’m going to leave my LendingClub high-yield savings account untouched. I set up a transfer so the $700 will be added to my SmartyPig high-yield savings account. This takes a few days to settle, but I like doing all these moves when I get paid on Friday mornings so they can make their way through the system faster at the beginning of the next week.

This money isn’t just going to sit in my account though, it’s going to be distributed to my two separate short-term goals using SmartyPig’s goals feature. This way, I can clearly visualize how much I have saved for each goal and how much more I have to save until they’re both funded. My goal for investing another $2,000 lump sum into my Charles Schwab brokerage account will need to be satisfied sooner than my moving goal. I have $500 out of $4,000 saved up for moving right now, so once my latest savings transfer has settled into my SmartyPig account, I plan to move $200 of it into the moving goal and $500 to start saving up for investing.

Depending on which payday this is, I will also take a look at my spending for the month, but I’ll save my findings for next time when we look at my budget. Stay tuned for more of my investing discoveries!

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Financial Goals to Accomplish by Age 30

If you’re reading this on the day it comes out, I have officially turned 30. I’ve been ambivalent about turning 30 for a while now, wanting to stay 27 forever (unfortunately, I never found a vampire to make that happen). The last time I felt I hit a big milestone was when I turned 19. At the time, I was in college and co-running a YouTube channel with my best friend Ilana. I filmed a video about what people can do when they turn 19, the most exciting of which was being able to drink legally in all of Canada! Inspired by this, I looked at the most common financial goals people should achieve by the time they turn 30. Of course, everyone will be on a different trajectory, but I always find benchmarks helpful when it comes to money.

1. Build and Replenish an Emergency Fund

The decade of my 20s was all about saving, and I’m so thankful I was able to focus on this goal. Building an emergency savings fund is the first step you can take to achieve financial independence. A common guideline is to have at least six months of living expenses saved in this fund, but you can work up to this. I have my emergency fund in my regular savings account that is attached to my checking account. This means it’s not earning me much interest, but that’s quite literally the price I pay for this money to be easily accessible in an emergency. If you end up tapping your emergency savings, be sure to set up a plan for building that fund back up to the amount you maintained before. Whenever your financial situation changes, you should reassess this amount to make sure it will still cover six months of expenses.

2. Pay off Debt

Once you have money saved up for emergencies, you have increased your net worth and also your ability to pay off debt. If you were trying to pay down debt before building up your savings, you would slip further into the red, and it would be difficult to get yourself out of debt in the future. It’s best to focus on your high-interest debt first—anything above 6%—since that interest will compound and add more to your debt if you don’t get it under control. Examples of high-interest debt could be on credit cards, personal loans and private student loans. Federal student loans are usually lower-interest debt, along with mortgages.

3. Maintain a Good Credit Score

Not only do you need to get yourself into a good credit score range (above 670), but you also need to keep that credit score up while you live your life. Your credit score can change at least once a month, but this can vary depending on how many lines of credit you have. You can keep your credit score up by paying your credit card bills on time, keeping your card balances low and only applying for lines of credit that you need. Over the last year, my credit score has stayed within the range of 770 to 780, which is considered “very good.” Maybe I’ll try to sneak into the “excellent” range (800 to 850) during my 30s 😉.

4. Start Saving for Retirement

I know most of us young people don’t even want to think about retirement half the time, but if you are actively contributing to a retirement account, you shouldn’t have to think much about your balance. The best thing to do once you choose your investments for your retirement account is to rarely check it. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but unless you have concerns about your account not making enough or you want to reconsider how your portfolio is allocated, it’s best to just let your investments ride their gains and only periodically check your balance.

One rule is to have at least half of your current income in your retirement account by the time you turn 30, but I’m not sure how achievable this is in practice. Especially with inflation, millennials and Generation Z are struggling to even hit what is considered the minimum. It might be more reasonable to shoot for having one-third of your income saved for retirement by age 30. For example, if you’re making $45,000, this would equate to $15,000 in your retirement account. I can honestly say that I have less than one-third of my income in my retirement account right now, but I have multiple savings and investment vehicles that together would cover this amount.

5. Know Where Your Money Goes

This is just a looser way to say “budget,” but by age 30 it’s important to know how much money you are spending relative to how much you are making. You probably have a general idea when you look at your bank account and credit card statements, but if you still feel a dark cloud over your head when you think about your finances, it might be time to break out the spreadsheets and take a closer look at the numbers. I yo-yo between finding my budget helpful and hurtful, but the truth is there’s no emotion that I’m not projecting onto these numbers. On their own, they’re just numbers. The sooner you face them, the better off you and your money will be.

6. Begin Investing

If you haven’t started investing, there’s no time like right now! For me, the hardest part of investing so far was the beginning. If you’re struggling to figure out where to start, it’s helpful to determine how much money you have available to invest. If you want to go for something easy that won’t take much of your time, put that money into an index mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF). It won’t beat the market’s return, but it will ensure that you have investments making money for your future.

How Do You Score?

By age 30, I have pretty much everything I need for financial stability. Out of the six goals, I would say I have achieved five and a half, for 91.7%, or a grade of A–. This means I have places I can improve in my 30s, so I’ll be focusing more on my goal of saving for retirement and optimizing my budget. If you’re turning 30 soon or you recently turned 30, how many of these goals have you achieved? What has been the hardest one? Let me know in the comments!

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Spending on a Goal

I reached one of my short-term savings goals back in December, and the time has come to spend that money! Though I am doing a no-buy year, my short-term personal finance goals still need to be funded for what I know I will need to purchase this year: travel and accommodations, moving and continuing to invest.

My goals are the reason I want to stick to my no-buy plan as much as possible. However variable they might be, compartmentalizing the amount I have to save in order to reach the goals has made the process easier, and it gives me less room to make excuses for not saving enough.

The Saving

This is the first time I have done a more intricate budget for a goal using the AAII PRISM Wealth-Building Process. Created by AAII Journal editor Charles Rotblut, PRISM is a five-step method for aligning my investing decisions with my goals. Whenever I need to be reminded of what I’m saving for, I return to my Prioritizing Your Goals worksheet.

I used my SmartyPig high-yield savings account to save the $2,000 I allotted for seeing my favorite band the Kills in New York. The idea is to accrue interest on my savings over time instead of moving $2,000 from my emergency savings into this goal all at once. I transferred three installments of $500 over two months into my SmartyPig account, and by the time I had enough saved to reach $2,000, I had earned about $15 in interest. At this point, I didn’t need to transfer as much money in my final installment to finish the goal. While I spend on this goal, the amount I haven’t spent continues to earn interest.

The Spending

Once I reached my goal, I started gathering up how much I had spent on concert tickets, transportation and hotels. When a group of these charges came due on my credit card, I moved money from the SmartyPig savings goal back to my emergency savings account to pay it off. I have my credit card connected to my checking and regular savings account, but I don’t want to connect any other accounts to muddy the waters. Logistically, even connecting my emergency savings account is one too many, but I have it as a backup in case of—you guessed it—emergencies!

After spreadsheeting it, I determined how much I had spent planning the trip and how much I had left over for food and anything else I feel inclined to buy while in New York. I can keep this number in my head whenever I spend $14 on a sad sandwich at the airport, or $20 on an appetizer at dinner. Even with New York prices, I don’t think I will spend the full amount that’s left over, which means there will be some money ready to go for my next short-term savings goal: moving!

The Psychological Tax

While having money saved specifically for this goal and spending it was the plan all along, there’s the psychological effect of spending on a goal to consider. Technically, I am lowering my net worth by spending money on this goal. Put into perspective, the entire amount saved is roughly 6% of my net worth. Before sitting down to write this (just kidding, I’m 100% still in bed right now), I decided it would be a good idea to beef up my savings outside of this goal. I calculated how much I could save and transferred some of it to my SmartyPig account, which is separate from the goal I have set up, and some of it to my LendingClub account for my intermediate-term goal related to property. This way, I’m continuing to save as usual so I can build more of a cushion while I spend down part of my savings.

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Preparing for a No-Buy Year

The January algorithms got me: I have watched so many videos about people planning for a no-buy or low-buy year in 2024. This entails only buying what you absolutely need and keeping any excess to a minimum. Grace Nevitt on YouTube suggests making green light, yellow light and red light lists to divide up what you are required to buy in order to survive, what you are allowed to buy and what you shouldn’t be buying and/or buying more of.

Given the green light are things like bills, groceries, hygiene and cleaning products, along with whatever needs to be replaced. The yellow light list is for going out to dinner with friends, checking out museums and engaging in other forms of amusement that are more experiences than material things. The red light list consists of what you will not be buying this year. For me, this means I’m enforcing a one-in-one-out policy on books and records, and I don’t want to buy any subscriptions this year. It’s definitely time for me to get a library card! The whole process of making these lists is meant to give you pause before choosing to purchase something and bring it into your home where it will eventually just take up space unless you give it purpose.

I also watched some videos on Swedish death cleaning, but I’ll leave death out of it for now!

As someone who enjoys physical media, I grew up wanting to hang onto every good book I had ever read and have all my favorite albums on vinyl. But as I get older and schlep my entire life from place to place every few years, I want my material things to be imbued with more intention. I don’t need to have every record by Ty Segall on vinyl—the man is beyond prolific and shows no signs of stopping! Instead, I can just have my favorites on hand that bring me the most joy. In the past I was quite the voracious reader, consuming more than 50 books per year. But in recent years I have slowed down to less than half that, and I recently discovered that I have the same number of books left to read on my shelves as I read in 2023—I truly don’t need any more books this year!

Upon declaring that I was in a no-buy year, I promptly fixed a four-year dilemma and bought myself a new desk. Technically, I have never had a proper desk since I moved out on my own. I had a vanity that eventually became my desk when I started working from home during the pandemic. Bless my dad for helping me put it together—because it was stressful for everyone involved—but the single drawer has never pulled out easily, and the top has always been such a diva to clean. I’m willing to finally part with it to have something functional with proper storage for an adult’s number of papers and problems!

While working on my green light list, I noted other things that I need to replace this year. I could really use a new kitchen pot and pan, but I have something in mind that will do the job of both those vessels and more. Another idea I picked up from these videos is to choose the option that brings the most value into your home. If there’s a gadget that can do more than the object it’s replacing, it will add more functionality and take up less space. I love organizing and decluttering, so this is my bread and butter. One day I will reach the final-boss level of efficiency, and I’ll spend my entire life getting there if I have to!

Overall, buying less in 2024 means that I will have more money to gain momentum on all my goals. Instead of causing dread, enforcing a no-buy year makes me excited to see what my money will do this year. Buying less is also better for the environment, so this ties into my sustainable investing strategy. Instead of having three or four backup toothpastes, I only want to buy toothpaste when I’m close to running out of it to avoid hoarding. I also don’t want to spend more time thinking about what I don’t have, feeding into a scarcity mindset. Focusing on using what I already have and still buying myself a little treat here and there is the goal. I’m choosing to limit any large/replacement purchases to once per quarter. My new desk was my first-quarter qualifier, and the amount of happiness it has already brought me solidifies that I made the right choice.

Do you think you would be able to do a no-buy year? What would be on your red light list? Let me know in the comments below!

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