You know I started a Vegas post and never finished it. Too much business to tend to this week. It's crazy.

Anyway, yeah we had fun and we are back. More later... (I have to vent about those timeshares later - are they out of their minds?????? LOL. Was interesting. It was easy on us, but I had to share some of the funny, and insane aspects. They put us up in a nice room though and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Timeshares are horrible deals, but the "sit through a presentation for a free vacation" thing is not 1/2 bad. In this case it was THREE nights so the 3 hours "wasted" was hardly noticed. & we had REALLY nice accommodations).

Well, I got my books in the mail today (cashed out my Wish List since everything was on sale really cheap the other day and I needed to buy a few things for free shipping).

One book I got was "All Your Worth." I know this book is spoken of like it is the Holy Grail of personal finance. But I was raised with a very high level of financial literacy so most of these books almost bore me (as I have mentioned before). The subject is interesting, but rarely find these books terribly enlightening. (& I know I am BLESSED to already have known much of this stuff). Plus the 2-Parent Income Trap (same authors) bugged me quite a bit. I didn't really jive with it.

This book has my attention a bit though. & I really want to work through it because I think this could be a really good book to pass on to struggling friends. Because I identify with it so much. I could have never formulated such a book but it speaks well my unconscious spending habits.

#1 - First thing they say is no counting pennies here. Go for the big stuff. (Um yeah, that's me). Not only can it often make little sense but it can be really psychologically damaging. If you really struggle with budgets this book is for you. For sure. {I've always formulated and budgeted as a guideline but never particularly followed a strict budget. Just too constricting if you ask me. This book says, that's okay!!!! & I knew it was, but I think more people need to hear this!}.

#2 - This whole idea of balance. Well that is so "me" too. I always thought that was rather obvious though. Balance is important in all aspects of life. Of course it is the same with money. But I think they put into words well what I thought.

At first I was skeptical that the "50/30/20 rule works for most of the people most of the time." I was thinking all along, why would it? Personal finance is very individual; very personal.

But as I run through the #s and ponder it, it actually does make sense.

For one, I thought, well, this has got to be average over time. There is much time in our life where we saved little (college) and where we saved most of our income (2 incomes). & then there are times we saved little again (When we had kids). But as I ran through the #s I would say we have averaged around 50/30/20. I share this though to say I wouldn't get too caught up in the #s in one point of time. If you do go down to one income and can't save much, you would be best to save a lot beforehand, and plan to catch up afterwards. Etc., etc. The numbers should be kept in mind in terms of keeping balance; as far as never being too off balance.

For us, I had a goal in my mind to put 15% to retirement before I would consider letting go of 2 incomes on a permanent basis. The interesting thing with our other savings that would put us right at 20%. IT was my goal all along.

The other VERY interesting thing is I calculated our "needs." We're at about 60% today. The interesting thing psychologically is we worked really hard, unconsciously, to get that to about 50% of my income before dh stopped working. We allowed for a bit more (temporary), but quickly settled to 50% with raises and such. Anyway, when we had kids and our health insurance skyrocketed out of control, it is the one thing that stressed me out majorly. It has been the total bane in my side. Interestingly, it kicked our "needs" from 50% to 60%. Yeah, no wonder that is the thorn in my side. I knew we were out of balance. But I feel there is little I can do about that for now. Just hope it gets better when dh works again (if nothing else we can spread out to find better insurance through employment).

I've only read one chapter of the book thus far too, so bear with me too...

Anyway, at the same time, I didn't need to read the book to know we were out of balance. & we were already working hard on rebalancing.

I also had issue if dh did return to work. If he got a part-time job we could easily put 60% of his net check to savings and 40% to wants. (No need to up our "needs" at all). That would be quite an increase in lifestyle/wants. Yet we would be about 45/20/35. I was pondering how this would put us out of balance in the least. In the short term it wouldn't. I think we would be MORE in balance. Life would be simpler and we would be saving more. BUT I did ponder it a bit and realized I wasn't saving all this money to leave it to my kids. I think at some point if that was sustainable, we would cut back our working hours. Or we would retire early. Etc., etc. Eventually we would probably move back towards 50/30/20. I think there may be something to it. It really seems to be the "balance" point over the long haul.

Anyway, it's interesting. I'll try to read another chapter tonight.

Oh, and I was totally lost on the savings portion. (Only one chapter read thus far, maybe it gets clearer?). I really got the impression they were talking about 20% savings for retirement only. I got stuck on the stuff you save for the future that eventually will go to needs, wants, and maybe even retirement. Since most of it was rather long-term (5 year plus horizon) I just included it in savings. Maybe it gets clearer... Maybe I overthink.

I did find an exception to the 50/30/20 rule. When you are spoiled rotten by family. LOL. Without preschool, seriously, our wants are at 10%. & I am not sure they have ever been terribly higher. We did pinch so many pennies before kids. & probably even more since. I don't know. Does everyone need 30% wants? I like to think for one we are very happy with non-material things. I think some of that is true. I've never felt particularly deprived. But on the flip side, we get a lot of "wants" for free. Just look at our travel itinerary this year. Or how often we get to eat out for free. It's a pretty sweet place to be. It makes the 30% way too high for us, as an example. I am sure there is stuff in the needs section leaking over to the wants too. We don't "need" such a big house. So as much as I like to think the wants matter little, I think for us they are quantified in different ways. When you are spoiled rotten that # could go down. & hopefully the difference goes to savings. That is what we have been working towards...