The key to this success if you havn't already done so is to change your habits. Start with trying "one" new savings idea opposed to several. Give yourself time to adjust.
Financial Goals are a great example. I know that if you are anything like me there are several goals which can be listed. It can become overwhelming to think or even write down your goals while all along thinking.....so many goals, not enough money to contribute to each and make an impact. What do you do in a case like this? It is called "Prioritize".
Ask yourself what is a "Must save for now" and what is a "Must save for soon". You need and want to pay off your debt but at the same time you need an emergency fund while all along you are also wanting to plan for a trip for next year with your family. Wow! decissions decissions eh?
Dh and I are at the point where we need to figure out what will work for us. I feel like we are going in circles. What we are considering changing is this:
(1) I picked up a part time job and have been putting that extra money towards our debt pay off. I am going to switch things up a bit and keep paying debt as if we don't have my income. I will start taking my income and putting into our ING account towards our emergency fund.
(2) Now comes the "fun" part. After the emergency fund has been funded with a minimum of $1000 I will be taking 1/2 of my pay to go towards our fun money and put the other 1/2 towards paying down debt again. Say for example I can put aside $200 a month for our fun money, it doesn't mean that we have to spend all of our fun money at once.That is a lot of money compared to what we have been spending. It is an idea to at least try.
So, we want to pay off our debt,still enjoy living in the present while all along planning for our future. We are trying to figure out a way to really have it all.
What are you all doing?
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2 comments:
We are in the extremely fortunate position of being out of debt (except for the house) and being able to funnel a significant chunk of change into savings each month. This gets divided into lots of different savings accounts.
We have several "sinking funds" - pet expenses, gifts, home repairs, car repair/replace, doctor bills, and clothes. I put a chunk in each account each month. I also pay a little extra on our mortgage each month, about the equivalent of an extra payment a year.
Then we have our general savings account, which is basically our emergency fund. I put a chunk to that each month. When we get enough saved, I break off a chunk and put it in a CD, so we can get more interest.
Then we have what I call our "special project fund". We have a big list of projects that we want/need to do around here. Several times a year, we re-prioritize that list, and as we finish one project, we save for the next one. Sometimes we do things out of sequence, like this fall, when we bought our woodstove before our front yard was finished, but we'll just replenish the front yard fund and move on.
That's what we do!
Wow Karen! Thanks for sharing :).
Once we are back out of debt we will be able to do that too again. I miss having my freedom account etc...
I think that I feel like we are going in circles for the fact that most of our extra money has been going towards paying down this debt...it is driving me crazy especially since dh and I know what it is like to have the "freedom".
You are doing Awesome! I can't wait until we are where you and your dh are right now not to mention that you have been there for awhile :) .
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