Starting to Save

It's time to put some money into my savings. A lot of people say to start saving right away, but I wanted to wait until I got my credit cards paid off. Now (wohoo!) I'm free from all consumer debt, and I need to start turning the tides on the interest-machine, and get it working for me instead of against me.

I have a measly $327 in my savings account. My stretch goal is to get that up to $1,500 by the end of November.

When I finish school, which should be Spring of 2010, I want to have enough money set aside to quit this job, start working part time so I can write full time. I can, theoretically, have about $25,000 in the bank. I have a budget of $1,340/month. I need to examine the ol' budget again and see how much I'm actually spending, but using that number as a mark, I can go for 18 months without a job. With a part time job or a teaching gig, I should be able to stretch that for several years, enough to say I've given professional writing a fair shake.

Okay, so if you look in the upper right corner, you'll note the new line item for savings. Let's see what we can do with it.