Savings Goals in 2020

     A few weeks or even months back, I mentioned we have one long term account that for some reason was set up with our bank and not through other retirement fund management. Admittedly, I do not follow the details of our other accounts, the ups and downs, the earning rates, the loss rate, and what parts are doing better than others. Ignorantly on my part, DH is the master tracker, though I know the balances. For this small one though, I am not overwhelmed with the details, and it gives me a good idea of where our long term, retirement savings might be heading. By the end of April, we had lost over 1/3 of the balance with which we entered 2020. Over the weekend, it looked like the account was nearly back to the year starting point. I don't know if that means anything other than  the real money holders are happy that businesses are slowly starting to reopen, those that really drive the market. 

     Of course we experienced a lot of this loss, gain, and mixed volatility back in 2008/2009 before the economy started to improve again. Remember those fun times? In DH's industry it took another year for stuff to hit the fan and he was laid off in May 2010 for nearly six months before he started working again. That was with three kids, two of which were in college. Now, while neither of us have lost jobs, DH's earnings between March and now have been about 50% from last year, a 25% cut in our income. This also means a cut to his retirement savings as we both do an automatic off the top deduction. If this continues, or worsens, we'll have to decide if we want to top off his account to the max, which would mean most likely he'd have no take home for a few months at the end of the year, or just accept that we will put less in his retirement account. And then there is the Roth, the after tax account we can contribute up to $14,000 combined. Normally that has to be done by April 15th, but extended this year to July 15. Needless to say, we haven't been saving $14,000 extra to do this. Oh yes, we have college tuition to pay in August and again in January. All these decisions depend on how much prediction and faith we have in eventual recovery and then earnings again on our retirement accounts. 

     I'm not writing this to complain, just stating facts of where our 2020 goals will need to be rethought. As for home improvement, I've shelved the patio for now, and really trying to have a make do attitude, knowing the project and then some is there for us next year. I do want to still invest in my office, which really is just a good purge, clean, paint, and some kind of flooring, which for now, I'm leaning towards just seeing if we can find an inexpensive carpet remnant. There's stuff to sell in that room, if I'm a mind to, that could be reinvested back into the room. I'm not sure anyone is buying second hand things for a while though. 

     We need to make the Roth IRA decision by July 15th, but we can defer the decision on DH's work for another three-four months. That will give us time to see how our son's work situation pans out, with perhaps a little glimmer of hope that he'll be back to work by August. We'll have a small reprieve in tuition since the college gave a room and board credit for spring. Basically at the near halfway mark, our 2020 savings goals are to continue treading water until we get closer to land. Much different than 2008 though is the number of years before retirment, and we no longer have the factor of time on our side. How about you? Have you revisited your financial goals you might have set at the start of the year? Have they changed or remained  unaltered? Do you have any decision points on your approaches to savings?