Fri, March 20, 2009 I checked our checking account the other day and it looks like the DH household got our tax refund (state AND federal) in already. It amazes me how quickly they were able to process our refund. I wasn't expecting it for another week or so at best.
What did I do with it? The mass majority (about 90%) went directly into our emergency fund. The rest is sitting in our ING checking for now.
Mon, March 9, 2009 As expected, we're scheduled to get a large (to us) sum of money back for our tax refunds. I had a figure in my head that I was hoping for and thankfully it ended up being about $1100 higher than that figure. This should give us a nice boost in our emergency and savings funds.
Update to: "Tax Time!"
Sat, February 28, 2009 Now that I'm a parent, one of my major goals this year is to establish an emergency fund. There are many different philosophies on the best size, but the general rule of thumb is to set aside 3 months expenses and keep it liquid.
Unfortunately, that figure is just too high for me to be comfortable with. That figure would be up near $20,000! And given that my wife and I are in pretty stable fields and have decent job security, I would rather focus on paying down debt before I reach that high of a figure.
Instead, what I'd like to do is reach about half of that over the course of the year. My current emergency fund level is sitting at a paltry $2000, so I have a long way to go. And given how tight funds are right now, this $10,000 figure is probably unrealistic. Regardless, I'm going to shoot for it. If I come up a bit short, I'll finish up in 2010.