Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

There Is No Ideal Time to Contribute to Retirement

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“Do you really think you should be voluntarily putting money into your retirement account?  It just seems like there are so many other things you could be using the money for right now.  Why don’t you wait to contribute to your retirement until you get more financially stable?”

Recently, I was lamenting our financial situation to a good friend.  I just had a dental procedure at a periodontist, I was just told my 6 year old has 8 cavities (that’s another story) that will cost $400 out of pocket to fill, and that my 10.5 year old will need braces to the tune of $5,000 or so.

Add on top of that the fact that our car has 150,000 miles on it, and we refuse to borrow for a new one, and well, I’m looking at a lot of financial stress.

Still, these expenses don’t have to be paid immediately.  I’m saving money every month for a new-to-us car when our old one finally gives out.  I may be able to wait a bit to get my son braces.

I just wanted to vent a bit to my friend and express my frustration.

I was really surprised by her answer.  She simply couldn’t understand why we would contribute to our retirement when we have so many impending expenses.

Yet, as Tracy Chapman sings, “If not now, then when?”

Good Time to Contribute to RetirementThere’s no good time to save for retirement.

You could always use the money for something else.

When my husband and I were newly married 14 years ago, I made a little over $30,000 a year.  We lived in the suburbs of Chicago, which wasn’t cheap.  My husband was a graduate student and didn’t work.  We were flat out broke.

And my employer had a mandatory rule that 8% of my gross income would go to my retirement savings.

I HATED that rule.  There were so many other things that I could have used that money for, but I had no choice.

Eleven years later, when I left the job and walked away with 11 years of retirement savings at 8% of my gross salary plus an equal match by my employer, I was ecstatic that I was forced to save for retirement.

Now, my husband is working for an employer who has the same rule, and we’re happy that 8% of his gross salary goes to his retirement account.

We’ve learned our lesson so well, in fact, we are also contributing to our Roth IRA even though money right now is T-I-G-H-T.

But really, for most Americans, money is almost always tight.

I would rather scrimp and save now, while we still have many working years left before retirement than scrimp and save during retirement, constantly worrying if I had enough money to last me until the end of my life.

So, no, my well-intentioned friend, I don’t think I should stop contributing to my retirement.  In fact, there’s no better time than now to save for retirement.

Oh and incidentally, if you are reading this and thinking about early retirement its important to consider the non-financial aspects, such as…what will you do with your time?

If not now, then when?

Do you continue to contribute to your retirement when facing large expenses, or do you wait to contribute until your finances improve?

 

Our Favorite Small Ways to Save Money

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Small Ways to Save Money

Even though inflation has tapered off a bit in the last year its long term impact is still being felt in households across the economy. We’re no different. Although we have improved our financial position over the last five years, we still aren’t where we want to be financially, so we continue to be cautious with our finances and not spend more than we need to. Lately, we’ve utilized small ways to save money that help us continue to improve our financial standing.

Let me clarify that we’re not saving a lot of money from any of these strategies, but, overall, they improve our finances.

Small Ways to Save Money

We try to save money in every aspect of our lives.

Discounts on Gas

We have a few ways we try to save money on gas.  Some of these work better than others.

Use a Grocery Store Rewards Card

Our local grocery store gives us points for our purchases. We can then redeem those points for an amount off gas. Last month, I redeemed enough points to get $1.00 per gallon off gas, bringing my per gallon price to $3.49 instead of $4.49.

Use a Credit Card With Cash back Rewards

One of our credit cards is giving 5% cash back on gas purchases for April through June, so whenever my husband and I fill up, we always use that card, so we get some cash back that we can redeem later.

Using Cash Back Gas App

We haven’t used these as much, but there are least two good cash back app that work for gas stations.  Upside is the number 1 in this space, followed by TruNow. The both work on the same model, you buy gas and scan the receipt, then you get credited for the purchase – usually pennies on the dollar.  Of these Upside is probably the better choice – they’re actively expanding their offerings and improving the app incrementally.   You can find them here.

Combining Errands & Staying Home

Not everyone has the luxury to stay home more, but we do because we both work from home. We try to limit our trips, but when we do make them, we try to combine errands so we’re not driving around multiple times per day or even per week.

Strategically Using Cash Back Credit Cards

I alluded to this above, but we strategically use our cash back credit cards to maximize the money we get back. We have three credit cards, all of which offer cash back. Every quarter, we opt-in for the cash back bonuses and utilize those categories for those purchases.

For instance, our Discover card offers 5% cash back for gas purchases from April through June, so we only use that card for gas. We use our other credit card that offers 2% cash back on all purchases for everything else.

Just as importantly, we also choose not to activate certain 5% cash back bonuses. For instance, one card is offering 5% cash back for dining out. We didn’t activate that one because we never dine out, and I certainly wouldn’t start dining out just to get 5% cash back.

Shopping Clearance Sales

I always like to browse the clearance section, but that’s more important now than ever.  The trick to doing this is finding out when the store posts the clearance sales.  Usually the good deals get taken fast.

Grocery Store Clearance

Recently, I have found some excellent grocery store clearance items. A week after Easter, I found a one-pound package of diced him on clearance for 49 cents. Yes, please! I bought two and used them as the meat in some soup recipes that I made.

Whenever I find clearance meat, I buy it and stick it in the freezer for later use. I also do the same with clearance dry goods, as long as they’re foods I know that we’ll eat.

Clearance Clothing

Small Ways to Save Money
Obligatory stock art showing a woman super happy with her clothes purchase after she used the methods in this article.

A few weeks ago, my daughters and I went to Kohl’s to shop the clearance winter clothes racks. We bought our clothes for next winter at a steep discount. We’ve packed them away and will take them out in a few months when the weather starts to change. To sweeten the deal, we received Kohl’s cash, which we redeemed to buy winter boots that were on clearance.

Incidentally, if you want a seriously good example of how to get discounts on clothing, read Lauren Bowling’s article on how she regularly gets 60% to 80% off designer clothing.

Canceled Excess Subscriptions

With two teens in the house and one pre-teen, we have a lot of streaming services. Most of these aren’t expensive–$5 to $10 a month. However, when you have several of them, the price adds up. I polled the kids to see what streaming services they use, and I cut the rest. That saved us $20 per month, or $240 a year. While this amount isn’t huge, why pay the money when the services weren’t even being used? That’s silly.

Waiting to Make Major Purchases

One of the biggest ways we’re saving money in this current economic climate is to avoid making major purchases. Our minivan is 18 years old and has 230,000 miles on it.  We’d like to replace it, but new minivans are out of our price range, and used ones now cost almost as much as new ones. In addition, we don’t want to take out a car loan since the interest rates are increasing. Instead, we are waiting to buy a replacement vehicle.

That means we spent $1,500 recently repairing the van. My kids are constantly embarrassed about driving such an old minivan. (To be fair, I understand their feelings. The paint is peeling off, and the hubcaps are off. One passenger side door no longer opens.) However, we’ve decided, for now, that holding on to our current vehicle is the prudent option. Besides, driving around in such an old vehicle is character-building for the kids.

Saving on a Rental Car

Small Ways to Save Money
More obligatory stock art.

We took a family vacation this month, so we opted to rent a car and saved two ways.

Use Our Costco Card

First, we used our Costco card to save more than 25% on the cost of the rental vehicle. We only book rental cars through the Costco travel section because the discount is enormous.  Incidentally, if you don’t have a Costco membership, I recommend getting one.  If you have a bigger family like mine the economics pan out. You can get it here.

Opted Out of Rental Car Insurance

We also opted not to purchase the rental car insurance. I called our insurance, and they confirmed that our insurance would cover any problems except for the rental car company’s loss of use charge should the vehicle be in an accident and unusable. We added a $6 rider to cover loss of use.

I also paid with our credit card that provides secondary insurance for a rental car. If we need to use our car insurance on the rental, this credit card would cover our deductible.

Final Thoughts

Living in a time of high inflation is difficult. We’re blessed that we’re both employed and are in a comfortable enough financial position that we can weather this current economic struggle. Even so, we’re taking these small steps to save money, so we can continue to improve our financial position.

The reality is that inflation will subside in the future, but if you’re able to consistently adapt these habits, you should save a ton in the long run.

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Are You Teaching Your Kids to Follow Your Financial Habits?

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My oldest is 10, and he does chores around the house to earn an allowance.  He works hard, and we’ve taught him to set aside a percentage for investing (10%), for saving (20%), and for giving (10%).  That leaves him to spend 60% of everything he earns.

And spend he does!

He finds it extremely difficult to let his spend money sit and grow so that he can buy something bigger.  Instead, as soon as the money hits his hands, he wants to spend it even if it’s a fairly insubstantial amount and can’t buy him much.

He just can’t seem to save up for the things he wants.

Instead, he’s enticed by advertisements.  He reads the newspaper and magazines to find free catalogs to send away for, and then he wants to spend his money on any little thing.

Teaching Financial HabitsIt’s driving me crazy.

His money, his life.  I should let him spend the money and be disappointed when he has no money to spend later.

Actually, that’s already happened.  When we first moved to Arizona, he saw a 2015 calendar at Costco for $15.  This calendar had scenic landscapes of Arizona and was quite pretty.  I told him to wait because as 2014 came to a close, he could get calendars cheaper.  But he couldn’t wait, and then in December and January, he was disgusted to find how cheap calendars got.

Still, his behavior hasn’t changed.

As a parent, I wonder how much I should interfere.

You see, when I was young, I was just like my son.  I spent every Saturday at the mall, my money burning a hole in my pocket.  I HAD to buy something, even if it was just a pair of socks I didn’t need.  Every week, I walked through the same stores, buying stuff I didn’t need, just like my son buys the stuff he doesn’t need now.

However, my mom never stepped in.  She gave me a wide amount of freedom.  Whatever money I earned was mine to spend how I liked.   She didn’t even ask that I set aside a portion of it for savings.

I was a responsible kid and bought my own car, paid my insurance, paid for gas, and also bought my own clothes.  I think she figured that I was handling my money well, so it was up to me to decide what to do with the rest.

When I was a teenager, my friend and I used our money from our job to go out to eat and see a movie every Friday.  Sometimes we’d go out to eat on the weekdays, too.

What a waste!

Imagine if I had instead invested just a small portion of that in a Roth IRA.  Or if I had saved it to pay for part of my college education.  Maybe I wouldn’t have graduated with $25,000 in student loan debt.

Even now, I have a hard time saving, though I am getting much better.  I’m finally able to stick to a budget and make saving a priority.  It’s taken me 40 years to break bad spending habits that I learned in childhood.  Let’s be honest, getting a hot deal isn’t really a deal if you don’t need the item and it robs you of the ability to save.

I want to teach my son this lesson now, so he can be more financially responsible than I was for many years.  But that lesson is oh so hard to teach.

How much do you guide and interfere in the way your child chooses to spend money?

For More Great Reads, consider checking out Kidwealth.com and kidsaintcheap.com.