I Finally Saved $10K (Again)

I’ve been hitting refresh on Mint for the past 90 minutes hoping the savings account transfer would show up. It hasn’t yet, so I did a little photoediting to show you what this graph SHOULD look like.

Every Friday, I transfer 25 percent of that week’s freelance payments into a sub-savings account labeled “25 Percent Taxes” and another 15 percent into a sub-savings account labeled “15 Percent Savings.”

As of this afternoon, the savings account balance is $10,073.75.

We used to have a series on The Billfold titled “The Year I Saved $10K.” (If you’re interested in reviving that series, feel free to pitch me.) I didn’t actually save $10,000 between October 2016 and October 2017; as the Mint Trends graph indicates, I saved $2,354 between October and December, spent some of my savings between December and April (that big drop between March and April represents the extra money I owed in taxes and my decision to start putting 25 percent of my income aside for taxes instead of 20 percent), and then saved $5,283 between April and October.

Still, it feels like hitting a significant milestone. $10K in savings, plus a $3K “savings buffer” in my checking account.

My savings account won’t stay above $10K for long; I’ll be pulling some of that money out for my Roth IRA, and I may end up spending some of it to move halfway across the country.

But then I’ll start building it back up again.

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