My money goal for 2020 was to pay off most of my car. The balance in the beginning of 2020, was about $15,500. I was making my minimum payments and an extra $1,000 on top of that. I used a pay off calculator if I kept up with the payments, it should be paid off by end of January 2021. My car had the lower balance than my student loans. But my car has a higher interest rate then the student loans.
In mid-March we were told to stop going into work because of the corona virus. I decided to stop paying extra on my car and put all the extra money in my emergency fund/freedom fund. I had about $3,000. Which I thought it was a decent cushion to have. It was more than $1,000 Dave Ramsey said to have. I wrote out all our bills to see how much we need for 1 month of expenses. It was about $4,400 that we needed to cover all of expenses including food and gas. It made me realize that the $3,00 was not enough.
In the last recession, I was laid off and it took about a 4 years to find a permanent job. So, when you hear about how many people filed for unemployment it made me fearful. I believe my job is stable, but you never know. Especially during the meetings, they keep talking about how much money they lost while the state been shut down for almost 2 months. I know they are readjusting their budget for the next fiscal year and I am sure they must make up the money they lost.
So, I decided to pivot of paying off debt, to saving every penny I can. I am saving gas money by not driving into work. Also not eating out for lunch, since I am home making my lunches. I am only making my minimum payments on all my bills. I am saving so I can have at least 3 months of expenses saved up.
I keep my savings in a high yield savings account. Their interest rates are better than a regular savings account. I use Ally. As of June 11, 2020, interest rate is about 1.10%. They keep dropping because of the economy but still better than the .05% in my savings account at the credit union. I also save in a high interest online bank because the money is not easy to access. It takes up to 2 business days to get the money transferred into your account. So I can think about do I really need that money.
As of June 15, I have 2 months of expenses and working on saving the third month of expenses.
Let me know below if you pivot your 2020 money goals.