Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Money filters for extra cash

While at Mysti's, she was talking about how there are more goals than money to go around. This got me thinking about what happens to any "extra" money as it comes in, and how it gets distributed. What gets priority. This by no means showed to be "most important goals" first, but the opposite. For illustration purposes, my most important goals are, of course, to move when the time comes. To have enough money for 6 month's worth of expenses saved up, no debt at all, and a new-to-me vehicle.

Below is a more accurate depiction of what happens to any extra money. Money that is not from my regular FT job pay:


Money comes in, goes through the filters, and if each filter is satisfied, it moves to the next. If there's anything left, then it righteously becomes "me"/spending money. So far, I have not seen that sort of money! And now, I don't have to wonder why.

First priorities are the shortfalls. Some months, I end up being ahead, but most months, I have a small deficit in there somewhere. Those get the first cut. After those two layers are satisfied, the next two are just my yearly goals. Christmas and some of my other monetary goals are met, leaving the certification and car funds to be completed. Any after that would go to the IRA I started. I can't be upset I haven't been able to fund it.

You may wonder why none of the filters deal with debt. That is because that is all my full-time job's non-bill income is dedicated to. I really don't feel like pouring every ounce of extra income into debt, especially not after throwing the biggest chunk of change available to me at it.

So, tell us: What are your money filters for extra income?

10 comments:

  1. Love the graphic!!!!

    You know....our "extra" money tends to go to the kids. I will be so thankful when just one of our big debts is paid off....we will then be able to control how much is really going to debt. We are so locked in right now. But the retirement loan will be paid off in May 2016 and the car will be paid off in December 2016!!! Those two will free up about $1000 a month ($760 for the retirement loan, and $230 for the car)

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    1. Wow, 2016 will be an awesome year for you guys. Imagine an extra $1,000/mo. I can totally see how kids would take the first share. There is always something extra they need/want, or something uneventful that comes up.

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  2. haha I like that graphic!

    Any extra money I receive tends to go straight to savings, because I'm a money hoarder and never feel like I have a big enough emergency fund.

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    1. Lucky you! I'd love to get to that stage where money can freely go into a savings account.

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  3. I really like that graphic too. It makes me think that maybe I should create a customized one of my own .... If we have any money left over at the end of the month, it goes into the emergency fund which has grown quite large now and should probably be split and invested in our Vanguard fund. As we only have a mortgage now, our savings accounts consist of paying off the mortgage and saving for retirement. Other than that, we have 2 very old vehicles that will need to be dealt with quite soon.

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    1. Haha, feel free to take it and make it your own. Sharing is caring! Maybe the EF can be split into a car fund? There's little worse than a car fully breaking down beyond repair and having to scramble to find a replacement. Bad stuff happens that way...

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  4. Hmmm, ours has varied quite a bit over the past few years. We've traditionally put all extra money in a 75/25% ratio into mortgage repayment & kids college savings. Whenever our emergency fund dips below our set level, that is the first place that extra money goes.

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    1. Those are great numbers! I need to bump my slush fund into gear so that money can actually flow elsewhere, but so far, funding the slush fund is the hard part. My EF remains at a low 1k, but at least it remains.

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  5. our extra income used to go to debt, grad school and vacation fund. Now our extra income goes to "saving up for a new car" fund and vacation fund. We have about 6k in 0% interest debt left so I honestly can't decide whether to pay it off (and lose the 1% interest I earn if the money just sits in the banks) or just continue to pay it when it is due (one of the loans isn't due until December 2014).

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    1. So jealous. 0% until December of next year!

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