In this series, I’ve been reviewing a document I wrote almost 10 years ago called Mel’s Money Manifesto. I typed it out in the early days of this blog and as I’ve just celebrated my 10 year anniversary with brokeGIRLrich, it seemed like a good time to see how realistic some of those goals were.

Also, sometimes it’s super weird to see evidence of what 10 years ago Mel thought life would be like by now because I seemed to think a house and a husband were somewhere in that future and when I picture 10 years from now Mel I sort of laugh because like, who knows? That really might not ever be a thing. 20s are so optimistic, aren’t they? But also a bit of a narrow view on what life can be like.

Well, that philosophical aside aside, let’s delve into Manifesto rule 21 – I will remember it’s better to save in advance rather than charge it.

Finally. One I’ve done well.

I am a good saver.

I was actually at a fun Cocktails in the City thing here in London this past weekend and was joking with my boyfriend and two of his friends who are couple when she said she was a spender and he was a saver and the BF and I laughed and were like, that’s really every couple, isn’t it? And he and I both know I’m the saver.

Though, actually this summer I have really been YOLOing it. I talk about splurging kind of regularly, but I do usually have the income to back it up. This summer have largely been pulled from savings but, in honor of 21, it was all pulled from savings and no debt has been incurred.

Over the last decade, I prioritized my emergency savings. The first goal was to get it to $1,000. Then $10,000. And for quite a while now I’ve been (very slowly) aiming for a full year’s salary in there. My end goal for the emergency savings is $50k. That’s like… almost any emergency.

I was close to $17,000 though I did pilfer $2k from it this summer. And while the end goal is $50k, it hasn’t been my priority since I hit $10k. It’s like when things are really good and I have some extra money.

The last 5 years or so I’ve also prioritized two different savings accounts – a house down payment account and a new car account. Those two combined with my emergency savings are actually slightly over $50k now and at times I do borrow for them for other reasons.

Especially currently when down payment account has also become school tuition account. My hope is that by the time I graduate, I manage to have the same balance in the account that I started with but I’m pretty sure that hope is dashed. If I finish with it around $20k, that’s still a win. And, in theory, should I ever buy a house, if I have reliable income and am not a freelancer, that should be an ok down payment.

I also don’t have plans to buy a house right after graduating, so that gives me some more time to add to the account before attempting to buy a house.

The new car is more likely to be the next big purchase and my hope was to have enough saved up to buy a new Toyota Corolla. I completely accept that buying a slightly used one is the optimal financial choice and… I don’t want to. I want to buy a new car. Considering I have already been driving my last car for 15 years and I plan to continue driving it until maintenance costs don’t make sense anymore, I think this is largely an ok investment. I told myself, if I have enough money in that account to buy a new one when it’s time, I can buy a new one. If not, probably not.

And, to be honest, this rule is my rule and I’ve been incredibly fortunate it’s worked with how my life has gone – which as regular readers know included a significant amount of time living at my parents house over the last decade and 110% enabled that higher savings rate. It’s certainly not a judgement on anyone who is in debt.

But for me, I grew up in a house where there was a lot of credit card debt and a lot of stress over it and I wanted absolutely nothing to do with that in my own life. So thank God for the good decade of work and the opportunity to save a lot.

I struggle more with the fact that I should probably be investing some of this but… I don’t want to. I like the safety of the liquidity. And I do invest in my retirement accounts and a brokerage account in the years when things are very good (which, LOL, will not be these grad school years).

I suspect that this year I will pull a little bit from these savings to make sure my IRA is fully funded and possibly the HSA. I remind myself that if I had to I could take out a student loan but there are no loans for retirement and no way to turn back time to add in those contributions later.

Overall though, I’m pretty pleased with how 21 on the Money Manifest has gone.

If you’d like to check out how the other declarations on my Money Manifesto are going roughly a decade in, you can find those posts here:

1. ) I will pay off all my debt. 
2. ) I will tithe 10%
3. ) I will save at least 15%
4. ) I will build up a $10,000 emergency fund.
5. ) I will max out my IRA every year.
6. ) I will put effort into learning how the stock market works better.
7. ) Then I’ll invest in it.
8. ) I’ll put effort into learning how REITS work.
9. ) And then I’ll invest in it. 
10. ) I will own a home and it will not be a McMansion. 
11. ) I will pay for cars up front, in cash.
12. ) I will write a book. About a little man named Jorge who lives in a jar in an antique shop. He has a mustache. 
13. ) I will keep on learning thrifty and frugal ways to live and then actually use them.
14. ) I will make good decisions about how to spend my money, but I also won’t sacrifice all of the now for later.
15. ) I will travel. A lot. All 7 continents someday.
16. ) I will learn to side hustle. Especially to pay for #15.
17. ) I will start a roller derby team.
18. ) So I will always have good health insurance. And any other reasonable insurance to keep from bankrupting myself because of an accident or act of god or a drunken lunatic driving a car into the living room of my house.
19. ) I will be careful about who I date and open with my finances with them when it gets serious – so that we can come up with good money plans for our future together.
20. ) I will not panic when the stock market and housing value and any of my investments fluctuate over time, because they’re going to do that. And I’m just going to ride it out.