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What We’re Doing In This Market

March 17, 2020 By Thinking of Someday 5 Comments

You might be wondering what we’re doing given the current state of the stock market. Are we still putting extra money towards our mortgage? Are we cutting unnecessary spending to save money? Are we even still investing? Likewise, you might be wondering what you should do as well. Do you continue to pay off debt? Do you continue to invest?  Do you need to hold on to your money to see how things turn out? Lots of questions that hopefully we can provide some insight into. 

FOR US:

Are We Still Putting Extra Money Towards Our Mortgage?

Yes. Since our original plan was to do a 70/30 split. This means we send 30% of our leftover money (after our regular budgeted expenses) to our mortgage. Since the other 70% goes towards other things we may need or want (i.e. random household items, eating out, vacation, car repairs, etc.) technically we could choose to save all that money first. 

Another reason that we don’t feel a need to stop putting the 30% towards the mortgage, as opposed to saving that money, is that we do have a fully-funded emergency fund. 

Are We Cutting Unnecessary Spending To Save Money?

Yes and No. Lol. At the beginning of the year we were still spending as normal. It wasn’t until recently that I decided to slow down on spending. Why? Well for one, I was getting ready to slow down anyways in order to save for vacation (if we’re able to go anywhere this summer). But the other thing is I do a lot of online shopping. I ultimately don’t want to order a lot of stuff online and run the risk of not getting my package. However, so far that has not happened (although some of them have been delayed recently).

As far as shopping in person, it’s honestly not very fun to go out in these crowds given what’s going on currently (Corona Virus / COVID-19). With talks of social distancing, flattening the curve, quarantines, school closures, business closures, and a lot of people’s jobs telling them to work remotely, we’re just trying to figure out what’s best for us.

Are We Still Investing?

Yes. We’re still contributing to each of our 401k’s, and we’re also still contributing to a Roth IRA and 529 for each child. The reality of the matter for us is that we don’t currently need the money that we have invested.

Although our investments have dropped by almost 20%, we weren’t planning to pull any of this money until retirement age (with the exception of the 529’s). The history of the market shows that there are ups and downs, but over the long term, it always recovers. And investing is a long term plan. So we’re planning to stick with it.

A. Our investments from when we first started tracking it in 2016 until now. B. Our investments from the beginning of 2020 until now. Traditionally the market has averaged 10-11% per year. While that might not happen this year, we’re planning to stick with it.

Is This Affecting Our Mortgage Payoff Plan At All?

Yes. While we are still choosing to do our regular investing, we won’t be cashing out the RSUs that were helping tremendously with our mortgage payoff plan. The prices for them are considerably lower. While you shouldn’t try to time the market when it comes to investing, it’s definitely something to consider when it comes to cashing out. Hopefully, the prices will go back up sooner rather than later though.

If we have to stick to our 70/30 plan for the rest of this year, we won’t hit our goal of paying $37k towards the mortgage. If we have to stick to it for the next couple of years, then the worst case scenario is that we will pay off the house sometime before we’re 40 (we haven’t done any new calculations yet). In which case, we’re likely to flip flop our plan and put 70% towards the mortgage or maybe do a 50/50 split. Ultimately, we’ll cross that bridge if it comes to that. 

FOR YOU:

Should You Continue To Pay Off Debt? Should You Continue To Invest? Should You Hold On To Your Money To See How Things Turn Out? It’s kind of hard to give definitive answers without knowing each person’s exact situation. However, there are some things that hold true regardless.

Debt Payoff

Regardless of if you’re paying off debt or not, you should have an emergency fund. When we were paying off debt we had an emergency fund of $2000 – $2500. During this time, you might not feel like that’s enough. If that’s the case, you could make your minimum debt payments until you have more money saved up. And then after that, you could start back paying off your debt.

Investing

If you have money already invested then it doesn’t make sense to cash out now that the stock market isn’t performing as well as it had been, especially if you had no intentions of cashing out when it was performing well. It’s typically said, “You don’t lose money until you cash out.” If you’re cashing out during this current market, you’re definitely losing money. And if you did cash out, but you’re still contributing to your 401k or any other retirement plans, then what was the point of cashing out if you’re going to put new money right back in? If you’re going to start back investing once the market is doing well again, then you have committed the cardinal sin of buying high and selling low.

Another thing to keep in mind is that now is NOT the time to be checking your investment accounts every day. The value has likely dropped, just like everyone’s account has. And if you can’t handle seeing it, it’s best not to check often. As a matter of fact, you probably should only be checking quarterly, if that.

As mentioned above, investing is for the long term. With this chart, you can see the highs and lows of the market. However, over time it shows an upward increase overall.
Source: S&P 500 Index – 90 Year Historical Chart

If You Need Some More Encouragement…

If you haven’t cashed out, but are thinking about it, or if you just need some encouragement to stay the course, you can check out JL Collins Stock Series, parts 1- 4 specifically. He shares some facts as well as personal experiences that may convince you to stay the course.

Another place you can also find some encouragement during this time is the #debtfreecommunity and #firecommunity / #ficommunity on Instagram. A lot of people in these communities are still investing because they look at it as “stocks are on sale” and who doesn’t like a good sale?!

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, we’re going to do what we think is best for us just as you should do what is best for you. With all that is going on right now, it’s very evident that you should have your finances in order. If you don’t have your finances in order or if you’ve been putting it off and putting it off, it’s time to make some positive money moves (i.e. budgeting, getting out of debt, having an emergency fund, etc.)  that will help you when things like this happen. And lastly, stop checking your investments every day, especially now if it’s giving you anxiety (and unless you’re doing it to invest more). 

Feature Image: Unsplash

How are you feeling about what’s going on in this market? Is it causing you anxiety or are you smooth sailing and letting your investments do what they’re going to do? Or are you somewhere in the middle? How is it affecting your debt free or mortgage free journey? 

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Filed Under: Personal + Finance Tagged With: budgeting, emergency fund, investing, mortgage free journey

See what’s happening on Instagram…

thinkingofsomeday

#tbt To last Thursday (1/7/2021) when we became mo #tbt To last Thursday (1/7/2021) when we became mortgage free!! Yes, you read that correctly! We are 100% debt free! Like debt free, debt free. 🤣
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
To be honest, it’s been a week and it still doesn’t feel real to us yet. But it was real watching that money disappear from our account and no longer seeing our mortgage balance when we signed into our credit union account. We must say, our credit union works pretty fast! Lol.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We didn’t even get around to sharing our mortgage payoff goal for the year with one of the little cute pictures explaining how we were going to do it. But here’s a quick recap of the numbers that we were working with...
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
• mortgage principal: $54,507.37
• mortgage interest: $35.84
• reconveyance fee: $69.00
• paying off our mortgage... definitely not priceless, but oh so worth it!! 😂🙌🏽
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We’ll share more in depth details soon because you’re probably wondering how we came up with that amount of money 7 days into January. It definitely wasn’t from hitting the lottery! Lol. But until then, just know that...
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
WE’RE MORTGAGE FREE!!! #piecesofsomeday
So we took some Christmas / family pictures back i So we took some Christmas / family pictures back in 2020 (as if that was so long ago), but I never got to share them. 😩 So here’s one. I actually like the fact that it’s in front of our house. #piecesofsomeday
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
And I also wanted to add that we finally did another blog post after quite some time. Maybe we’re the world’s worst bloggers. 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♂️ But if you’re interested, we’re sharing a recap of quarter 3 and quarter 4 from our mortgage payoff journey. We’re also sharing what our mortgage payoff goal is for 2021. We’re a bit excited about it! You can check it out at the link in our bio.
2020. This has been a year that I’m sure none of 2020. This has been a year that I’m sure none of us will ever forget. While this year has been ok for us for the most part, there are many people that it’s been a really really tough year for. Whether it’s been financially, emotionally, health wise, etc. etc. etc. So here’s to hoping that next year will be much much better, for everyone, but especially for those who had a tough time this year. ✨♥️
We started 2020 off with owning 43% of our house a We started 2020 off with owning 43% of our house and we now own 69% of it. We had paid off 39% of the mortgage loan and we’re finishing the year out at having 66% of it paid off. (These 2 numbers are not the same for us because of our 5% down payment as well as when we refinanced to a 15-year mortgage.) It’s been really exciting to see these numbers increase this year.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
(Annnnnd this concludes our December numbers. I can’t believe I managed to share them all before the end of the year!! 😂)
Q4 was our best quarter by far, mostly due to the Q4 was our best quarter by far, mostly due to the RSUs that we were able to use. However, even if we hadn’t been able to use them, Q4 would have still wrapped up nicely thanks to us still being able to stick to our 70/30 plan.
For December we were able to color in 4 rectangles For December we were able to color in 4 rectangles. This puts our mortgage balance for the end of 2020 at $54,507.37.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
• 132 rectangles total
• 88 rectangles colored in
• 44 rectangles to go!!
The total of our mortgage principal payments for D The total of our mortgage principal payments for December was $3514.74.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
$995.13 came from our regular payment and $2519.61 came from our budget.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This put us at meeting our second stretch goal of putting a total of $45,000 towards our mortgage principal for the year! Yes, we did a little magic with our budget in order to get it at exactly $45k, but I’m sure that’s what we all do in when we’re trying to hit a certain number!! Haha.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We’re soooo happy that we were able to meet this goal because we really weren’t sure if it was going to be possible or not!
Am I right? Or am I right? Throughout parts of thi Am I right? Or am I right? Throughout parts of this year it seemed like the days, weeks, months were going soooo slow. And then all of a sudden summer was over and school was starting. Then it went drastically slower again, but yet here we are with only a couple of days left in this year.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
And as usual, time has gotten away from me when it comes to sharing our mortgage payoff numbers. So starting later today and over the next couple of days, I’ll be sharing our December numbers in the hopes of getting them all in before January 1st! 😆 We’ve enjoyed seeing everyone else’s numbers though!
Merry Christmas!! #christmas2020 #piecesofsomeday Merry Christmas!! #christmas2020 #piecesofsomeday
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Comments

  1. Luke says

    March 17, 2020 at 10:13 am

    great read ya’ll, taking the advice for sure.

    Reply
    • Thinking of Someday says

      March 18, 2020 at 2:22 pm

      Thanks, Luke. Just trying to share what we’re doing and put out some info for others in case they’re uncertain.

      Reply
  2. Steveark says

    March 18, 2020 at 7:02 pm

    Zero anxiety and almost no change to our daily activities. Running, outdoor tennis and fishing are our big three spring hobbies and they are totally isolation by nature. We did move a big chunk of cash into the market and rebalanced, trading bonds for stock but our cash bucket still has many years of expenses in it. Paid for house, zero debt. We don’t have jobs to go to and the kids are grown and gone. Lots of supplies on hand. It’s really not a thing for us as long as we stay well.

    Reply
    • Omar says

      March 19, 2020 at 7:11 pm

      I appreciate this comment Steve. It exudes peace and solidifies why we want to be completely debt free! WoooooSaaaaaa!

      Reply
  3. Yvonne says

    March 22, 2020 at 11:36 pm

    Great comment Steve…it is a great place to be during times like these. This ‘zero anxiety’ can only happen when you are debt free….if you have not yet started…. begin budgeting and follow the steps in previous postings to live the ‘zero anxiety’ life.. You will love it. We are enjoying it…Praise the Lord!!

    Reply

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A married couple making someday a reality all while balancing family + finances + avoiding debt. Find out more about us, here.

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See what’s happening on Instagram

thinkingofsomeday

#tbt To last Thursday (1/7/2021) when we became mo #tbt To last Thursday (1/7/2021) when we became mortgage free!! Yes, you read that correctly! We are 100% debt free! Like debt free, debt free. 🤣
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
To be honest, it’s been a week and it still doesn’t feel real to us yet. But it was real watching that money disappear from our account and no longer seeing our mortgage balance when we signed into our credit union account. We must say, our credit union works pretty fast! Lol.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We didn’t even get around to sharing our mortgage payoff goal for the year with one of the little cute pictures explaining how we were going to do it. But here’s a quick recap of the numbers that we were working with...
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
• mortgage principal: $54,507.37
• mortgage interest: $35.84
• reconveyance fee: $69.00
• paying off our mortgage... definitely not priceless, but oh so worth it!! 😂🙌🏽
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We’ll share more in depth details soon because you’re probably wondering how we came up with that amount of money 7 days into January. It definitely wasn’t from hitting the lottery! Lol. But until then, just know that...
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
WE’RE MORTGAGE FREE!!! #piecesofsomeday
So we took some Christmas / family pictures back i So we took some Christmas / family pictures back in 2020 (as if that was so long ago), but I never got to share them. 😩 So here’s one. I actually like the fact that it’s in front of our house. #piecesofsomeday
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
And I also wanted to add that we finally did another blog post after quite some time. Maybe we’re the world’s worst bloggers. 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♂️ But if you’re interested, we’re sharing a recap of quarter 3 and quarter 4 from our mortgage payoff journey. We’re also sharing what our mortgage payoff goal is for 2021. We’re a bit excited about it! You can check it out at the link in our bio.
2020. This has been a year that I’m sure none of 2020. This has been a year that I’m sure none of us will ever forget. While this year has been ok for us for the most part, there are many people that it’s been a really really tough year for. Whether it’s been financially, emotionally, health wise, etc. etc. etc. So here’s to hoping that next year will be much much better, for everyone, but especially for those who had a tough time this year. ✨♥️
We started 2020 off with owning 43% of our house a We started 2020 off with owning 43% of our house and we now own 69% of it. We had paid off 39% of the mortgage loan and we’re finishing the year out at having 66% of it paid off. (These 2 numbers are not the same for us because of our 5% down payment as well as when we refinanced to a 15-year mortgage.) It’s been really exciting to see these numbers increase this year.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
(Annnnnd this concludes our December numbers. I can’t believe I managed to share them all before the end of the year!! 😂)
Q4 was our best quarter by far, mostly due to the Q4 was our best quarter by far, mostly due to the RSUs that we were able to use. However, even if we hadn’t been able to use them, Q4 would have still wrapped up nicely thanks to us still being able to stick to our 70/30 plan.
For December we were able to color in 4 rectangles For December we were able to color in 4 rectangles. This puts our mortgage balance for the end of 2020 at $54,507.37.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
• 132 rectangles total
• 88 rectangles colored in
• 44 rectangles to go!!
The total of our mortgage principal payments for D The total of our mortgage principal payments for December was $3514.74.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
$995.13 came from our regular payment and $2519.61 came from our budget.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This put us at meeting our second stretch goal of putting a total of $45,000 towards our mortgage principal for the year! Yes, we did a little magic with our budget in order to get it at exactly $45k, but I’m sure that’s what we all do in when we’re trying to hit a certain number!! Haha.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We’re soooo happy that we were able to meet this goal because we really weren’t sure if it was going to be possible or not!
Am I right? Or am I right? Throughout parts of thi Am I right? Or am I right? Throughout parts of this year it seemed like the days, weeks, months were going soooo slow. And then all of a sudden summer was over and school was starting. Then it went drastically slower again, but yet here we are with only a couple of days left in this year.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
And as usual, time has gotten away from me when it comes to sharing our mortgage payoff numbers. So starting later today and over the next couple of days, I’ll be sharing our December numbers in the hopes of getting them all in before January 1st! 😆 We’ve enjoyed seeing everyone else’s numbers though!
Merry Christmas!! #christmas2020 #piecesofsomeday Merry Christmas!! #christmas2020 #piecesofsomeday
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