Well, and a raise helps too. LOL.

I just had to say, knock on wood, everything is going so smoothly this year.

I think even I can take more credit than the raise, because a lot of our expenses have risen this year. Much more than my raise.

Anyway, I feel like the budget is a work in progress, and has gotten considerably easier with time.

So I just had to share. Keep with it, it does get easier.

Likewise, I don't think about it too much. Historically we have set up a budget when life changes, but we kind of fine tune things and buckle down, and then we mostly keep it in our heads. It works for us. I just don't think there has been ever been a time we had fallen so behind. So this round has taken considerable work. But I feel after a good 12 months that it has gotten considerably easier.

That's pretty much all I have been doing, and have been getting looser with time. Yet as we get looser our spending has gotten better. I know how much we have to spend on x, y, z. I don't spend a lot of time beating myself up if I was a penny over, or keeping track of each line item if I am under month to month. I just don't think overall it's good to spend a lot of time with this stuff. I guess I much prefer the "automatic" philosophy. I think your finances should really just be in the background. Not that you don't care for it and nurture it, but I don't see the point of thinking about it 24/7 either. Though I admit I spend way more time on it anyway because the whole thing is a hobby of mine. If I didn't like this stuff? Well I wouldn't be blogging here, for sure.

When discussing the benefits of HSAs, and 529s and ROTHs with dh he said the other day, "You make things so complicated." I had to laugh. I said, "No. The IRS does!!!" I just thought that was extra funny because I try to keep our budget and savings plans rather simplistic. I am sure they are complicated in an accountant sort of way, but likewise I am a very big picture person. I am not going to have 20 savings categories, I am just going to make sure we save enough for our long-term goals and our short-term goals. I am not going to count every penny either. The beauty I find with having cash is the flexibility it brings. If our priorities change and we want to go on a big vacation next year, we have the flexibility to say we will buy a much more modest car the next go round. I prefer that to saving x for cars and y for vacations and having 20 different things to save for.

So, I told dh I was actually quite simple. But he doesn't buy it. Of course I want to maximize the tax-deferred savings options, to our advantage. Which does make it complicated. But man, all that wasn't my idea - the government has made it all so complicated!!

Anyway, our finances are moving much more to the background and I think I am 10 times happier for it. This is the part I like to get across; that when dh and I both worked, and we just saved his income? We hardly thought about money, or worried about it, and didn't really need to. Well, my goal is to get back to that. Like I said, we will nurture and care for our finances. But they should be like a nice houseplant, not like an infant who needs 24/7 care.

Financial security can be quite relaxing!!!

I know personally we set the bar very high when we were younger. So I know a lot of people would read this blog and think, "gosh, that looks financially secure to me." But it's all relative I guess. I don't think we'll really "relax" until we get back to where we were a few years ago. But being so close I can taste it? The difference in how I feel is remarkable. I think my blog will take a much more relaxed tone as we get back to that bar. & as long as we can keep moving forward.

Which reminds me of something else I was thinking about the other day. Dh & I were raised quite frugally so a lot of what we do on a daily basis to save money is really just second nature to us. So I just had to add if you are new to this then maybe it will be a long while before a lot of it fades to the background. I have a good 20 years + practice, for the most part. But just another example of how practice makes perfect. If you stick with it? It does get easier with time.

& just to be clear we probably still do spend a lot of time on money saving endeavors. We just don't really think about it much. & that is the nice part.

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P.S. I saw this blog post a while back and thought it was really excellent:

http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2008/03/how-to-be-wealt.html

There were quite a few things I have seen that I have not had time to post, and then forgotten where I saw them, etc. But this one was a standout.

I think this part was the most eye opening:

"Invest Second Salary:

I strongly recommend waiting six years before having children. By doing so, both husband and wife can work full-time. Choose to live on one salary and invest the entire other salary. In six years you will have $261,737 and a couple of choices.

You could choose to have a perpetual income of $39,261 created from the interest and dividends so you can stay home and raise your own children. What a blessing that would be for your family-and the nation!

Another choice would be to keep the interest invested and compounding and in 14 short years (20 years total), your investment."

Everything else in the article WE have personally done. & we even did the suggestion above to a small extent. But we put all that money into a house and a cash cushion. (Maybe $80k or so over 3 years working, before kids...)

If I had seen this article before kids? OR really thought about it? I think we would have paid off our house before kids, OR followed this advice.

However, on the flip side, I have no regrets today. Even doing this for one or two years can make such a difference. There is a lot to be said for having kids while young. So I had to throw out the other side as well.

Also, for when I hear the arguments against quitting a career, etc. Well, it's a lot easier to quit in the beginning and start over, than to build up a career and then leave for a decade, and then try to get back to it. I keep thinking dh might go back to school and/or start his career over at 35 or so. ????? HE didn't like his job anyway... A lot of people don't start a career until much later in life. I think we hardly feel worse for the ware. He'll still have a good 30 years to build a career and catch more money on the back end. IF we did the 6 year thing we would have just prolonged his misery at his old job. Likewise I wouldn't have had so much flexibility while the kids were so young. These days I just have so much responsibility at work. But it's easier to handle as the kids age.

Today if I could go back in time and save dh's salary for 6 years? I never would. I prefer where we are today. Though it sounds SO appealing. But my kids are everything to me. I wouldn't have these particular, awesome kids if I waited 6 years!!!! But saving it for about 3 years was key to getting us where we are today. So there is a lot of middle ground... Well, and there are always trade-offs.