Tuesday Challenge 03/18/25

@porwest I would assume you budget for food elsewhere in your finances and not in the money you are trying to save in your envelope. I don't touch the money I set aside in my envelope unless it is for two reasons: one, it's an absolute emergency; or two, I am moving the money into some type of investment account.

@moffittjc Generally speaking, money spent comes from proceeds from investments and other strategies. I have tried to make it so that a paycheck is unneeded, but a bonus if one comes in. So, we have a system for spending a portion of dividends (50%), proceeds from short term strategies such as short term investment positions with a specific return in mind, short selling, and covered call options contracts we sell on underlying shares (with the intention of not selling the shares) to produce income, which also has set parameters as to how much generated can be put into the "budget" for bills and other spending. Generally speaking, the principal is rarely touched, so what we essentially achieve is income AND growth, and of course the growth produces more as it grows and depending on how it is reinvested to produce more income. The system mostly works in our favor. But like most things, it's not 100%. Say, for example, when the market corrects or is more volatile, it's much harder to safely deploy certain strategies to produce the same results... So, because of that, there's also a cushion in savings we keep specifically to make up the difference when the time comes that it is needed.

99.9% of it will be invested. Like I always like to say, invest the principal and spend the proceeds. Granted, a lot of the proceeds do get reinvested somewhere. But I do have to eat. lol

April is a new month and is right around the corner. No time like the present to get started.

@porwest Yes, I think anytime is the best time

@rakski The longer you wait to get started, the less you will have, and the longer it will take to have something.

@porwest Way to go, to retire at 50 is a true blessing

@BACONSTRIPSXXX I am not sure it's a blessing at all. It's a well planned, calculated thing. lol But I get what you mean.

That's a good way to do it. The idea of the Tuesday Challenge is really not to save any substantial money, but rather for people who have trouble saving, it's a way to encourage saving and get into the habit of doing it. Most of the time it's not that people CAN'T save. It's that they aren't looking for the savings. When one is committed to saving something, amazingly... They find the money to do it. Beyond that, generally speaking, a 401k and even having IRAs is not enough. People need to have an emergency fund with 6 months worth of income in it and should have other investments as well. The goal of saving and investing is to eventually replace your paycheck entirely over time with dividends and interest. This allowed me to retire at 50. I still have my 401ks, but I have to wait another 7 years to begin cashing them out. Now they'll just be gravy when I do because my current investment income already covers the tab.