I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

Archive for the ‘savings’ Category

I have a lot of little bookmarks marching across the toolbar on my browser. One of them is for ING Direct. I do, of course, need to log in once a month or so to do my monthly transfers to savings (no, I don’t have it automated and I like it that way) and I like to check when I get a referral to see which account it went to.

But sometimes, I log in just to check on my money. Not because I think it went somewhere, but just to say hi. And see my little interest counter and see how much it has grown since the last time I looked.

Is that odd? Am I the only one who wonders if my money would be lonely if I didn’t say hi once in a while? Besides, the web page always looks so happy to see me. Even if it is orange.

~J

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Today my spouse’s direct deposit of his paycheck cleared and I completed what we have been working towards for the past two months. I finished fully funding our $1000 emergency fund with a $100 transfer from checking to savings. I never knew saving could feel so good. For the first time in a very very long time, I don’t feel like I am standing on the edge of a cliff waiting for a disaster to push me over.  For the past few years, we had been using the college fund we started for my son as our “backup” emergency fund and even though rarely did an occasion arise that it had to be dipped into, and the money was always replaced first priority and as soon as possible, having this be our backup plan just stunk.  I always felt like we were just *this close* to a major catastrophe. Now my son’s (and daughter’s) college savings accounts are in totally separate ING subaccounts not at all attached to our emergency fund, and our emergency fund all on its own stands at the magic $1000 number.

I could, yes, use this $1000 to reduce my credit card debt and then use my credit card in case an emergency. From a purely numbers perspective, that does make more sense, and I do love the numbers. But I just can’t do it. I can’t rely on a credit card as an emergency fund. It doesn’t sit right in my heart and it makes me even more anxious and nervous and on edge than relying on my son’s college fund did (and that made me miserable).

Right now I can’t even begin to describe the feeling of peace and just mellowness that has come over me. If I knew it was this simple to feel so much less anxious I might have tried it a long time ago. I feel like our financial life is becoming ordered and adult and everything is falling into place. And by extension, the rest of our life feels more settled too. A whole lot of things tie into money after all.

You can’t buy this kind of peace of mind.  Or wait, maybe you can.  For $1000. 

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I just got the check for my deductible in the mail from when a truck hit my parked car in a parking lot!  Yay!  I got my $250 back!  I knew I would get the whole deductible (I wasn’t even in the car when it happened) but I didn’t know how long it would take.  It took… a while.  But whatever.  Yay!

This changes a few things.  I took that money out of my emergency fund to pay my deductible, so it is going back into my emergency fund.  This brings the emergency fund total to $900.  So, my $216.57 surplus from last month, I only need $100 of it to get my emergency fund up to $1000!  So the remaining $116.57 will be snowflaked to Capital One on Friday, over and above my minimum payment and any other snowflake earnings I have this month.  YAY!  This is so exciting!  I feel like I am making some real progress now.

Now the hard part will be waiting until Friday when my spouse gets his first August paycheck to get the ball rolling :).

~J

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Thanks to the person who used one of my ING Direct Savings Referral links last night! My daughter’s college account thanks you for the $10 bonus!

I still have two more referrals left up at Blogging Away Debt, so if you’re looking for a referral to earn $25 when opening an ING Direct Savings account with an initial deposit of $250 or more, head on over and check it out. :)  One of my kids’ college accounts will get a $10 bonus when a referral is used.  Thanks!  And thanks Tricia for hosting my referrals!

~J

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Tricia has put up more of my ING Direct Savings Referrals at her blog, Blogging Away Debt. If you open a savings account through a referral link with an initial deposit of $250 or more, you will get a $25 bonus (and I get a $10 bonus deposited to one of my kids’ college accounts).

Thank so much Tricia and Happy savings!

~J

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