My Cash Position

I've been building up a larger-than-usual cash position this year, since my goal was to stockpile it. Maybe I should've converted some of it to gold bullion a while back-- or maybe guns. It guess it all depends on the stability of American society for the next few years to come.

My goal was to end CY2008 with $100K cash. This goal was not without its challenges-- the most recent being the instability of the finance industry, which is where I'm working. Also, cutting overtime pay had a profound impact, as my early trend projections accounted for the extra cash. But all during the full course of this year, I kept a steadfast mindset to be cognizant of any and all extraneous spending.

So where do I stand today? I'm about $8K off my goal at the current rate I'm going. After my trips, that takes me down to about $10K off my goal. Plus, factoring in some funds which went into miscellaneous but emergency repairs to the Texas and North Hills, CA foreclosure properties, and some equity injected into an investment, I'd say these accounted for about $5K of my $10K difference. To me, that's a reasonably acceptable amount of statistical error.

If I stay at my current pay-rate, I should be on track to save up another $60K in cash. If I get hit with a 33% pay-cut, which could happen if my existing client drops me and I pick up an industry-wide median-pay job, that $60K shrinks down significantly to anywhere from $30K-36K.