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Across The Line

December 28, 2022 As the year comes to a close, so does Season 14 of Project Money. In preparation for writing our final blog post we reflected over what has occurred over the last 6 months and the strides our family has made. Below, in no particular order, are a few of the highlights from our journey:
  • Consolidating the overall number of financial accounts that we held, to increase visibility/transparency, and allow us greater leverage on our funds.
  • Paid off our vehicle loan early, allowing us to leverage those funds elsewhere.
  • Identified a tax strategy which will allow us to maximize our workplace sponsored retirement accounts while minimizing our tax liability.
  • Rebalancing of our workplace retirement accounts, college savings accounts and taking advantage of an employer stock purchase plan.
  • Further researching options of company structure for the rental property we are partnered with.
In addition to these highlights, Project Money has also made a lasting impact on our family’s financial situation from a more routine aspect. We have gained more perspective our on financial situation, and a greater understanding of the various impacts our saving and spending actions have on a more wholistic basis. The experience has not only broadened our financial knowledgebase and awareness of the various resources available to us, but it also served as the catalyst for the strides we’ve made. Without the extra “push” as part of the program I am not sure our we would have taken all the initial steps needed. We wanted to give a special thank you to our coach James, who has been a sounding board and a resource throughout our journey, and to Mark, the Summit Financial Advisor who worked with us to fine-tune some of our strategies. And we also wanted to thank all of you for sticking with us over the course of the season, and we hope that the experiences we’ve shared have been helpful or insightful to you in some way. Our parting nugget of advice:  If you are considering applying for next season of Project Money – jump at the chance, and if not, we would urge you to reconsider. Even if you feel comfortable with your current financial situation, there is always room for improvement and having access to the knowledge and resources available within the program is a benefit in and of itself – the $10,000 prize is icing on the cake. You might also be interested in As the year comes to a close, so does Season 14 of Project Money. In preparation for writing our final blog post we reflected over what has occurred over the last 6 months and the strides our family has made. Below, in no particular order, are a few of the highlights from our journey: In the last week we had to take Robin’s car, a 2019 VW Atlas, in for a couple of recall notices we had received. Nothing completely out of the ordinary and wouldn’t have any out-of-pocket costs – so it wasn’t something that we had put much thought or effort into – outside of scheduling the appointment. Unfortunately, what we anticipated being a ~1 hour visit ended up being 5+ hours and spurred a larger discussion. One of the topics we had mentioned in our posts from earlier this year was an employee stock purchase plan offered by Robin’s employer. We have never participated in any stock purchase plans before through our employers but being a bit more vigilant as part of Project Money, we decided to give the program further consideration. Being part of Project Money has pushed our family to take a more active role in managing our finances, necessitating weekly conversations that have spurred growth from both educational and fiscal perspectives. One of the topics we had discussed was micro investing, investing small sums of money in fractional shares of stock or ETFs. With Thanksgiving behind us, the countdown to Christmas has “officially” begin. This year, as part of our Project Money journey, we have been planning to approach things a bit differently when it comes to our holiday budgeting. I had been putting this off for a few weeks/months now, optimistic that Fall might stretch on a little bit longer – but this past week’s winter weather brought with it a reality check, it’s time to replace the tires on my vehicle. I’ve just started to research pricing at local tire shops and trying to narrow down which tire choices will be the best value – both in related to cost and performance in wet/winter weather. I’ve also been checking some of the retail stores, Costco in particular. Over the last few weeks, we have been working to refocus, and get back to some of the basics as we start to head into the end of year holiday season. Over the past few weeks and months, I had seen several news reports about I Bonds, usually with a corresponding endorsement of their attractiveness as an investment in today’s market. I’ll be honest, my only experience with bonds was a savings bond that I received as a child – and I can remember waiting for what seemed like an eternity until I (and the bond) were old enough to cash in. After that I haven’t given them much thought until the past couple weeks. We have reached the point of the year where we have one foot firmly planted into heating season and thought we would reflect on what energy saving tips we have used previously and are currently using to help reduce our bills. 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