The adjustment of working more hours.
Okay, so my hours are more like 11-5 (yesterday) or as for today, 11-2. I also haven’t seen that old movie Nine to Five in what now seems like forever, but hey, I like the song and this business of going to work every day makes me feel like I’m working 9-5. Lol.
My additional hours are still not set, and I doubt they ever really will be. Fortunately, it isn’t an on-call type of position, so I do still have some flexibility. The job calls for anywhere from 5-20 hours per week, which makes it a perfect addition to the very part-time hours I was already working. Keep in mind that I do still work my side business and work full-time for a couple of months during the Summer at my seasonal job. I still need to figure out the logistics of next Summer but will cross that bridge when I come to it. For now, I am happy with more money for snowballing our debt!
Hubs is currently visiting his 90-year-old mother. She has had a “revolving door relationship” with the hospital for far too many years. Probably not a good time to think about money, but ugh, we really can’t afford for Hubs to be taking any additional extra time off. Hopefully, this won’t keep him off work too long. One can only keep pulling so many tricks out a hat.
The other day I was talking to a good friend about debt. She and her hubby are also on the same journey, so she understands our struggle. Impressively she is under the $4K mark (except for their house) and will be tasting debt-freedom very soon. We talked a lot about goals and our budgets, including what we are saving for and the order of our snowballs. She recommended that Hubs and I not only work on saving for our upcoming roof repair but also continue snowballing our lowest debt. She feels a win would do Hubs and I some good. I am giving this a lot of thought as I think she may very well be right. With December’s budget being pretty much a bust at this point, we wouldn’t be able to do this until January. I’m not yet sure on how much we could snowball, but I do like the idea of paying off a little extra on our lowest debt. What do you think? Good idea, bad idea or…?
Oh, while I have it on the brain, I do want to note that with my additional hours I am adding $200/month to my retirement. The increase is in addition to the 6% I currently contribute. I also receive a 6% match. I realize it might not be the Dave Ramsey way (he recommends stopping all retirement while paying off debt) but it is something Hubs and I felt we should continue. Even with the extra $200 taken out of my checks, with the additional hours I will still see a bigger check. My thought is that since I didn’t have that $200 before, I won’t miss it. Come the day I retire, however, I’ll be happy for the boost in our retirement accounts.
Now with Dolly Parton’s song in my head, I’m off to see if I can’t find that old Nine to Five movie on YouTube!
Now you put the 9-to-5 song in MY head!
Your friend may be right, but it sounds like an emotional thing, whether it would be a boost to your dear husband or not, and no one knows your husband better than you. Wow, a 90-year-old MIL! Sorry to hear she’s been in and out of the hospital, but it’s also impressive to be walking around at that age.
“Working nine-to-five, what a way to make a livin’. Barely gets you by. . . . “
Very true about it being an emotional boost. When Hubs and I get ready to do our January budget, it will be something to consider. As for the MIL, she has needed a full-time caregiver for the past several years. Sadly, she is a very controlling woman who guilted one of her daughters into taking her in. This after being in three different nursing homes and demanding the family come get her. My SIL is a saint. Ah, the MIL saga could be a blog in and of itself! Lol
Hopefully MIL will be ok. It’s tough getting pulled in so many directions! Congrats on the extra income. I think if it were me, since you already have a set amount going into 401k, I’d take that $200 and throw it at the debt each month. Maybe look at what monthly payments you have going out now will go all away when you are debt free……..then you will have that monthly amount that you can start socking away each month to retirement. I know everyone looks at how to tackle debt differently and there is no one right way – you are doing great!
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MIL is back home. She went right from ICU back to my SIL’s house. I did talk with my other SIL (the one MIL doesn’t live with) and she went as far as to say we are on the same page with our thinking. This SIL also happens to be a retired nurse, which I think helps, too. A sad situation all the way around.
We thought about having my entire increase go towards debt, but retirement concerns me. My income is so irregular, but I’m thinking I’ll still have an extra $400 or so to put towards debt even with the $200 going to retirement.
I am so glad to hear that you are continuing to add to retirement while getting out of debt and now increasing your contributions! I saw a quote the other day that was something to the effect of, “you can always get more money, but you cannot get more time”. It really resonated with me because I did not contribute to retirement for several years and now I am in the difficult position of trying to gather more retirement funds while trying to pay down my mortgage and save, etc.
I like that quote! Although we have been contributing to our retirement, I still feel concerned that we don’t have near enough. Even with the $200 added to our retirement, with my increase in hours, we still have a larger snowball.
I’m on Team Retirement Contribution. I understand the logic behind directing all available funds at debt payoff, but retirement is *close* for you. Particularly with much of the debt at zero interest for now, you need the gains on that contribution over the next decade as much as you need the debt paid off.
That is my thought. If we hadn’t been able to transfer our debt to zero percent, I’d think otherwise. With retirement not too far off, we need to make gains wherever we can.