Journey to Financial Freedom: Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail

Today’s a snow day and what better way to spend a day away from work by financial planning!

Over the past years I’ve been paying close attention to my spending habits and the debt that I’ve accrued over the years. I’m guilty of living above my means, having more month at the end of the month than money, and increasing my income, but not paying off anything.

I thought making the minimum payments were enough, but at the rate I was going I would never pay off anything. I was frustrated with never accomplishing anything financially and having no savings. I needed help badly!

A few years ago I was introduced to Dave Ramsey and his 7 Baby Steps to Financial Peace (I’ll talk more about where I am in the steps in another post). His wisdom and guidance is what I needed. I will admit, if you listen in on the podcast, he doesn’t hold back and is completely honest in his assessment of his caller’s finances. I listen to his podcast, I’ve taken his Financial Peace University small group (I didn’t complete it :-(), and I read his blog occasionally. I’ve been hooked ever since! Following the 7 Baby Steps is the reason I have weekly financial meetings with myself. There’s a bigger picture to these weekly meetings. They help me to stay on task and helps me to say “no” to purchases and outings that’s not in the plan. The goal for 2018 is to eliminate:

• Medical bill

• Credit cards (last two! Woo hoo!)

• Wireless bill

• Personal loan

Once these bills are eliminated, in 2019 I will focus on my two biggests bills: car loan and student loan. I’m not expecting perfection, BUT I am expecting myself to be dedicated to the process and not give up. I’ve created spending plans in the past and I would do great some weeks and really bad other weeks. I’m learning what works and what doesn’t work and I’ve become accustomed to checking the spending plan before I make any purchases. The initial setup can be quite time consuming! When I first started out I had to find old statements, pay stubs (for accuracy), account login information, etc. Now that I’ve got the hang of it, these are the basics of how I prepare for my weekly financial meeting:

1. I have a payroll calendar so that I can line my pay dates up with my payment due dates

2. Current balances of each account, due date, minimum payment amount, interest rates, etc.

3. Account login information to schedule payments

4. Monthly spending plan (this is based off my monthly income and my debt snowball- I’ll take more about my debt snowball in another post)

5. Calculator

6. List of upcoming expenses not related to the debt plan (car repairs, tag renewal, doctor visit co-pays)

7. I have four bank accounts, but only my bill account is used to pay bills

• checking 1: bill account (debit card)

• checking 2: spending account (debit card)

• savings 1: online savings account that I can’t access easily

• savings 2: no debit card

This was a quick post and I will go in depth on my financial freedom journey. It seems like a lot, but I’ve gotten used to it. It felt weird at first to tell my money what to do, but I see now how necessary it is that I do this.

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