When we started Pennies to Wealth, we were already close to being debt-free. We figured out what worked and didn’t work for us long before we started sharing our journey publicly. Fast forward to now and our financial lives are pretty boring. Yes, saving and investing is great but having everything automated leaves nothing to really talk about.  🤷🏽‍♀️

So, are we still budgeting? Yes. Are we still focused on living beneath our means yet still enjoying life? Yes. Do we feel inspired to post about it every day? No. I honestly always wanted this “boring” financial life. This is why we worked so hard to stop living paycheck to paycheck and being buried in debt.

I may call it boring but it is actually stability and stability is good and should be the ultimate goal for everyone. No more are we praying and hoping that we’ll have enough to cover a surprise bill. Emergencies are now only inconveniences.

Even with things being kind of boring right now, our financial stability has still allowed us to increase our net worth by $10,000 over the last few months. We haven’t done anything extra, but once we got in the groove of things, our progress just hasn’t stopped. Which is nice, because we don’t have to worry about our finances as much anymore.

If we do stress about something, it is no longer money-related. We aren’t perfect, even when it comes to budgeting, but the great thing about budgeting is that it is created by YOU. It isn’t rigid and should change as you and your situation changes so we handle the changes as they come.

Here’s a recap of our process:

1. We budget monthly and have budget meetings on the last day of the month
2. We keep a month’s worth of expenses in our checking account so we are always one month ahead on our finances. This money can also act as a buffer if we go over on something.
3. All of our bills are on auto-pay.
4. We track our variable expenses using the Good budget app and use credit cards for all spending.
5. We automatically invest in 401k and Roth IRA accounts.
6. We have a fully-funded emergency fund and life savings in a high yield account.

    What’s next?

1. Saving for wants 
   1. Lasik, laser hair removal, fancy vacations, pets, etc.
2. Increasing income
   1. To keep our savings rate the same and to spend on wants, we need to bring in more income. I’m currently gaining more work skills and researching work opportunities to increase my pay and joy.
3. Continuing to help all of you!

Yep, so we didn’t fall off of being financially conscious, we just don’t talk about ourselves much due to what I mentioned above and the need for privacy and peace.

I hope one day everyone in the PTW family can get rid of their debts, increase their savings and forget that it is payday. If you’re just starting, just know that if we can turn our lives around, so can you.

Cheers to a boring financial life!
— Dannie