Optimizing Our Finances
One of my least favorite parts of adulting is having to constantly switch up insurance providers to optimize my budget. Insurance, similar to taxes, seemingly has nothing to do with your personal actions and is often determined by factors that are completely out of your control. Random entities judge your situation and come up with arbitrary numbers that you’re obligated to pay without even giving you the option to negotiate your case or customize it to your lifestyle. It’s a pain and hassle, but shopping your insurance coverage is a necessary evil.
My husband is typically the one in charge of optimizing our finances and making sure we’re getting the most bang for our buck. He’s always been the one setting the course, while I manage the more subtle, but just as important, steering. Having this joint approach helps us to see potential landmines before we get there and provides multiple different vantage points to solve problems.
My husband likes to think big picture. He’s always coming up with our next big projects and breaking them down into actionable steps. For example, we like to get our mulch refreshed around our rose bushes each spring, but this year, we’re going to tackle filling in a bare section of our yard where the original builder failed to install sod. That’s a massive project and investment, but he reached out to our landscape guy to give us a quote eight months before we wanted it scheduled and created a plan for us to save the cash ahead of time. Without that prior planning, we would’ve had to figure out how to come up with multiple thousands of dollars in a limited amount of time, which is a situation we never want to be faced with.
He’s also the one making sure we stay within our 50/30/20 budget and sets the guidelines for what counts as needs and wants. Over time, certain things like face and hair products have been added to needs while other things like pre-workout or electrolyte powders are relegated to the wants category. He’s the one auditing our monthly expenses and figuring out ways for us to save any and every where we possibly can.
Most of the changes are long-term processes, especially since we usually have certain steps that have to be accomplished first. In fact, he already has plans to switch our phone carrier once we pay them off later this year. He keeps our collective goals in the forefront so we never forget what we’re working towards.
My role is less about setting our focus and more about completing the recurring tasks to ensure things get accomplished. On paydays, I log into every account to make note of due dates, amounts, and submit payments. I also created a spreadsheet to track recurring payments that don’t change like our mortgage, our credit card payments, any particular mandatory savings goals we’ve set for a project, and our bank account balances to get a quick overview of our financial health. It’s also my ledger and serves as a checks and balance system to ensure my math is correct.
I’m definitely much more in the weeds than my husband, who typically has a hands off approach. He never micromanages or questions me and I appreciate that he fully trusts me to manage the money. We do have our own personal fun money accounts that we can do anything we’d like with, but other than those two accounts, we never spend any money without consulting each other first.
We always volley off each other to make decisions and figure out the route we want to take. For example, we recently received a notice about a projected shortage in our escrow account and that our mortgage will be increasing in April. The statement gave us an option to pay the shortage amount, but after talking it through, we decided to just make up the shortage over the course of a year rather than to commit to paying a relatively large sum and have our mortgage go up regardless.
We handled switching our auto and home insurance in the same way. My husband handled getting the quotes and I handled ensuring our old policies were correctly cancelled. I also helped set up the online and app access with the new company so there was a smooth transition. It’s always difficult placing all of these required actions on one person, so we try to split things amongst each other as best as we can to prevent burnout.
It’s been a full year since we’ve gotten our budget completely in order, and I can honestly say it’s the best thing that’s happened for us financially. Not only are we contributing 20% to each of our retirement accounts, but we’re able to really save the majority of our income because our bills remain under 50%. We have a plan for each purchase, especially large ones, and we utilize sinking funds to cover things like vacations, car maintenance, dog vet appointments, and even home improvement projects like replacing furniture.
I definitely recommend the 50/30/20 budget. If you’ve never tried it before, it’s absolutely an adjustment and requires dedication to get everything in order, but it’s soooo worth it in the end. You can get the financial monkey off your back by living well beneath your means and actually start making progress towards your retirement and avoid falling victim to unnecessary credit card or auto loan debt.
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Signed,
Jessica Marie
