Okay KathrynHannah, I took your hint

What is your personal plan for your finances?


My plan is not concrete, it is more a vision. Right now our focus is more on paying down debt that got out of hand with our move and my lack of employment in 2006. I have no problem with having some debt. I don't have a goal to pay of my mortgage early. My vehicles are both paid off, but will need to be replaced in a few years and will be replaced with a financed new vehicle. We prefer to buy new and drive it for 10+ years. Our short range plan is to: 1) Pay off Student loans (will finally be done in May)
2) Work on paying off Mastercard 1st, then Lowes, Then pay our Visa way down to a manageable amount.
3) Start a savings account. We are in our mid 40's and have never had one. This we will be starting at the end of the month when dh gets his bonus and plan to add a little ($20 to start) each time I get paid.
4) Cut out buying stupid little unnecessary things. I want us to really look at what we spend out money on and decide if it is something we really need or even really want.
5) Put up a fence and put in a pool by the summer for the kiddos
6) Raise my children (the ones still at home) to know the value of a dollar and appreciate the hard work necessary to have nice things.

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~Happiness is a large family~

I was just about to and my dd's front tooth just fell out! Now I have to find money for the tooth fairy and I only have a 20 dollar bill on a Sunday night! Will write more later....

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Our plan is really a combination of David Bach, Dave Ramsey, Crown Financial and the Millionaire next door.

1) We automatically save 12% of our income go into a retirement account every month. (In Canada we have very high income tax rates and this is one of the best ways to lower our taxes so even though we pay in 12%, we get back about 6% of that in income tax savings). We save 12% because we didn't start saving until our 30s. If we had started in our early 20's 6% would be fine, in our later 20's 8% but we started late so we have a lot of catching up to do.

2) Our goal is to pay for 1/4- 1/2 of the kids post secondary education (which is way cheaper in Canada) so we automatically put something towards that every month, in an account that the government adds 20% of what we put in.

3) Cars. We buy used and pay cash. Our first car was $750. Every month we paid ourselves a payment into an ING account. When that car died, we had enough saved up to buy a 2 year old car that is still going strong 6 years later. Every month, we continue to pay ourselves a 'car payment' ~ which is really good because our kids are getting older and we'd like to get a bigger car next time. In two years we'll get a minivan or suv, two years old and pay cash.

4) We live debt free except for the house which we are working at pay off as fast as we can (which really isn't very fast). In Canada there are no tax deductions for mortgages at all and with a high income tax on all investments, it is much more advantageous for us to pay off the mortgage early. In the US, as Kim says makes sense to invest more and not worry about paying off the mortgage quickly if you have a good rate. We also never have medical costs which helps us stay out of debt.

5) We have an emergency fund that covers 3 months net income.

6) If we want something, we save up for it.

The Dave Ramsey part .... paying off the mortgage, saving for the emergency fund, pre-loved cars.

The David Bach plan. ~ The Automatic Millionaire - We automate everything so it doesn't take any discipline to save.

Crown Financial ~ We give a % of our income (again automatically) to charity every month, and budgeting to tell your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.

The Millionaire next door. ~ Pre-loved cars, staying in a house long term (if we don't have to move to another city), living simply, not caring about the Jones'.

What I don't apply to our situation is Dave Ramesy's idea of working extra hours to pay things off faster. It might work for some but our kids are only young once and I want to spend these years with them. I'm happy living simply in a small home and working part time from home so I'm home more, rather than taking on extra jobs just to pay the house off faster.

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I took a Crown Financial class a couple of years ago and love it! Because of high living and medical expenses in relation to our household income we are just now getting to where we will have our first $1000 in the bank after our tax return comes back. Here are our goals:

Continual goals:

1. Continue with our "Spending Plan." I love being able to tell our $$ where it is going, not the other way around. Continue saving for annual expenses & home/auto maintenance & be frugal with our resources. Tithe 10% of our gross income, and save "5/month for special giving occasions.

2. pay as much as possible each month to keep medical/dental debt low. I do not want to get into the position again where we have a garnishment for large medical debt!


The following will happen in order:

3. Save $1000 (will have this completed next month!)

4. Pay off consumer debt: car loan & washer/dryer (11k)

5. Pay off house (14k). My inlaws helped us buy a doublewide.. but are refusing to put us on the title until we pay it off. I could get a much better insurance policy for less $ than what we are paying now, if only we had our name on the title.. so I want to get this one paid off quicker.

6. Start savings towards 6 months expenses, start truly saving for retirement & put house payment (from above step) into a savings acct for a downpayment for an actual house on it's own land (want 20% down)

7. Once we have saved for 6 months of expenses & our other debt paid off then we will start accellerating our student loan debt. (this is our only tax deductable debt)

8. When our retirement accts are fully funded for the year then we will save for the rest of the year for college educations for our kids.

We will start thinking about buying a home when we have the following in place:
*15% down in savings (we might not have to use this as dh will qualify for VA loan)
*car, w/d, current house all paid off.
*pretending to pay our new mortgage cost for at least 6 months (I will take that amount, subtract our space rent & put the rest into savings, to bring us up to 20% down).

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-Sarah

My "Forget the Joneses" Blog: Click Here

To have a Good 401k started and Contribute more and more each yr. - Ongoing.

Saving money out of each pay for Medical /dental /vet Needs. - ongoing

To have good medical Coverage - Done

To have good Life insurance- Done

To Have 6 months salary saved for emergency- Ongoing

To Save money for our kids Whether they go to College or not , I want them to Have Cash saved. - ongoing

Keep debt at a Manageable amount - always paying More than the minimum and Keeping our credit good and Keeping Credit options Open I don't Freak Over small Debt- ( 2- 5,000) - I don't Like it -but to Me this is Life! Ongoing

We will Always Have a Car payment until we are retired.

It will take us about 25 Yrs to Pay off our Next and Final house- If all goes well that will Put Dh and I In our late 50's and I think that is a Great Age to own a house free and Clear!!
I won't Sweat the mortgage payoff for many yrs. to come.

OK...I am a Dave Ramsey follower, but not gazelle intense.

Our financial goals are to be debt free in 2 years, except for our house. We refinanced when interest rates were really low 2 years after we bought. We raised our payments a little over $100 a month, but took 10 years off and tens of thousands saved in interest. After we are debt free (except for house) we will make double mortgage payments and pay it off in less than 15.....before our DS's graduate from highschool and DH and I turn 50.

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Illini Bob's wife....mom to 3 little chiefs

Thanks to a glorious blessing our plan is as follows:
1. Use the bonus money (coming tomorrow YAY) to pay off one credit card completely and start savings account
2. Use tax returns to pay off 2nd (and last) card completely and add to savings as well.
3. Start putting extra $100 per month toward car payment and start adding 500-750 per month to savings account
4. When we reach 15-20000 in savings account we're going to look for our new home. (probably 2-3 years)

DH gets a bonus every 3 months and we're going to put at least half of that in savings each time so our savings should grow pretty quickly. It's usually a couple thousand dollars.

We LOVE Dave! DH has started listening to it at night with me and between Dave and the Spending Freeze is now excited to getting on track. We've been discussing our finances every night before falling asleep!

Our plan...

1 finish paying off our credit card - hopefully by may (when I turn 30)
2 we may deviate at this point from Dave's plan and get at least 3 months expenses saved up
3 then pay off my van
4 finish up the fully funded emergency fund - we want 6 months expenses in total
5 start investing 15% (dh is looking forward to this part)
6 start the college fund for the kiddos
7 pay off the home

I also want to figure out exactly what I want to teach my boys about money and use those goals when I start their allowance, etc!

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Stay at home mom to my 3 boys... ages 5, 3 & 1!

I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13