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Christi Diggs
on May 23 2013 - 06:00 AM
A drop of spin, a cup of deception and tsp. politics=Apathy
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Lindsay Metcalf
on May 22 2013 - 06:00 AM
When that tornado siren sounds, I'm in the basement
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mara williams
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
Summer break has this mom on a house upkeep war path.
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- kim nakahodo - Profile | Pictures | Blog
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Debt.
There. I said the nastiest word I can say in my life right now.
I always make the same New Year’s Resolution of reducing our debt, but this year I feel a sense of urgency about it.
We have paid off two credit cards in the last two years and hope to have two more paid off by June. After June there will only be one more card… but it’s the card I have been “trying to pay off” for the last five years.
I really want to get out of debt, but things are a bit tougher now that we have a bigger house… with a bigger mortgage. If we are serious about having another baby next year, we really need to be in better financial shape than we are now. We will have two kids in full-time daycare for more than three years. Ugh.
I really like the show on CNBC, “Till Debt Do Us Part.” The host Gail Vaz-Oxlade is a financial expert and focuses not only on the debt part of the featured couple in crisis, but the results of the debt on their relationship.
We are in a lot less debt than the couples on the program, but debt is a slippery slope and I don’t want it to creep up on us.
She talks a lot about how debit cards make it difficult to tell how much money a couple actually spends in a week. She suggests switching to a cash budget for a month.
The concept isn’t new, Dave Ramsey preaches the same thing. The biggest difference is that she focuses on the marriage part of the picture as well.
I don’t know if we will do the cash budget part of her program, but I do like the five-year plan calendar she uses. She suggests that you buy and display a five-year calendar of financial goals that include debt payoff, investment goals and when all the bills are due.
I really like this idea. She says that if you never write down when you plan to be out of debt, you will never get there. I plan to get a calendar this week and start planning.
For the time being, I am selling off some items that I have had in storage for years. You never know how much unused junk you have until you move… and I have a TON of it.
Do you have any tricks/tips? Anyone using a structured plan for eliminating their debt?
We're snowballing and it's working GREAT...as long as we can STOP accruing more debt! We have mounting medical bills and that makes it psycho hard to pay down any debt. We're about to pay off one of my school loans, so our snowball will soon get a little bit bigger, and once it starts rolling, we'll really start to see progress. I have an outline of when everything should be paid off and adjust it every six months and look to see which are going to be paid off sooner or which are going to end up taking longer. I also have charts and graphs of each debt that I update each month, and it helps to be able to see our progress cause sometimes the progress is REALLY slow. :)I really like Dave Ramsey. Thankfully we have never been in debt besides mortgage but I really think listening to Dave at times on my lunch break has encouraged us to stay out of debt , not give into all the debt hype and setting us up financially that saved us from many situations that would have caused debt. We recenctly had another child and I never thought we would be able to have two in the daycare we currently have due to cost. I did his put a name to every dollar at the beginning of each month and it is amazing how much money I "found" that we are now able to have two at daycare without a feeling a ton of money pain. This is month 4 of two in daycare and I could kick myself for not doing this sooner. I do have to think more about all purchases but since neither of us were big shoppers, I didn't think we were wasting that much. Wrong! I wish you luck as it sounds you are on the right track. Keep your eye on the prize!Seems a "plan" is the foundation to everything one wants to achieve: reading a book a month, cleaning out closets and drawers, losing weight, more. We want to get out of "paper" and the accumulation of more paper each year. "Paper" here includes the good with the bad. Currently sorting pictures (40 years of them - plus inherited ones), all taken BEFORE the progress of digital cameras and downloading pictures on the computer. (the miracle of progress) Have plan in hand, goal is set. Sticking with the plan is the hardest part.yup, name every dollar. We did the Dave Ramsey plan and are debt free except for our house. It took us 3 years because we opted not to do the "gazelle intensity" that he talks about. It works, you just need to have a budget and stick to it. We never did the cash but I keep really close tabs on our debit card.We are debt-free, too, except for the mortgage. You can do it! One thing we use is a spreadsheet budget. It takes a bit of time to set it up, but once it's in place it is an effective tool. In truth, we have gotten away from it a bit. We have monthly sheets that include all of our spending/saving categories. We try to write down everything we spend in the correct category. Then (ideally) at the end of each month, I add up each category and transfer the totals to a master spreadsheet that shows the monthly budgeted amount for each category and how much we were over/under. I also have it set up to keep a running total for the year. Each December, I revisit it, adding and deleting categories as needed, and making adjustments to reflect any financial changes. Like I said, we've kind of gotten away from it 1) b/c we got good at watching our money and 2) time. If you want a copy, let me know.Do you ever read Michelle Singletary's The Color of Money column? She's got a new book out and advocates a "money fast" every so often, only using cash for 28 days and not spending anything on non-essentials. We have done that, and it's amazing how much money you spend without even knowing you're spending it. Here's a link to her web site: http://www.michellesingletary.com/This is awesome, and good luck! You have figured out at a young age what others may take a lifetime to learn :) And you may just be able to retire one day because of it!
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