Hi Everyone , huge Dave Fan . I've been a covert for two years now! I just believe he gives sound financial and life advice on working hard, having a plan, and achieving what you want. I also decided to take his advice and despite having a very good income, I've been inspired to increase my income by working from home, to speed up my snowball and build a legacy I can pass on to my family.
The great thing is I've done my research and aligned myself with a Forbes top 100 company that allows p
Because today my little man turns FIVE!
I don't know why this affecting me so much. I mean I wasn't like this when he turned three or four. But five......wow! Has it been five years since I brought this tiny little person home with me???
I think it is good that we are exploring homeschooling kindergarten this year (which I am excited about.....and a lot less scared than last year when we did preschool) because I am not sure I could let him go. I mean, sending him out into the world o
My grade is still at exactly 90.00%, how did I manage that 2 weeks in a row?!
Anyways my class is still going well, it'll start getting harder in week 3 because that is where I had to drop in Feb. But I'm feeling so much healthier and more energetic than I did over the winter that I know I'll finish up this time!
Counting down to April 28th, 3.5 weeks to go! Usually I like that my classes are short and intense, but I think math ones should be more spread out to allow new ideas time to
Well I'm a slowly working my way through baby step2 and I look so forward to throwing my snow balls. I just did my budget for next month and there won't be a snow ball. I am so disappointed. All extra will be taken up by car insurance coming due and a car repair that is on the horizon. It's so frustrating, my car. Every two months like clock work it seems I'm paying out another $500 or so on a repair. Of course everyone around me is telling my to just go out and buy another car. Well I don
Grade 90.00%.
My current class is a tough one, it's advanced statistics in 5.5 weeks. So I'm going to update here at the end on each week on how I'm doing.
Right now my grade is barely an A, I can live with that! It's better than the first week I took this class in January*, so I do learn from my mistakes and improve on my work
Also, everything is current, nothing is late right now. The second week started yesterday, wish me luck!
*Note, I was behind, then got very sic
What a week!
DH and I went on our first nice vacation in 3 years, we went on a cruise to the Bahamas, Key West, and Fort Canaveral. It was great, I really needed the rest for sure! The first 2 days I think I slept 12 hours each day counting naps! We had a lovely time and under spent our (generous) vacation budget by about $200.
We got back on Monday the 19th, pretty much had dinner and went to bed. When I got up to go to work the next day I never realized that my alarm clock had neve
As a planner I absolutely, completely, utterly hate unknowns. Unfortunately, we all know there isn't much we can do about that.
For me, this week, it's the employment unknowns that are slowly eating away at me.
I work for a small, privately-owned pharmacy. We have maybe 20 employees when everyone is there? Due to the economy and the fact that people are gravitating toward larger corporations as opposed to mom-and-pop places these days, our business has started to decline. The reality
Whoops apparently I forgot to publish last week's post. Oh well.
I did better at sticking to the budget but hadn't yet gone to cash only so did overspend a bit on groceries. Not too bad though. Additionally the ambulance cover came out of the bank for the whole year not monthly in the end so that wasn't accounted for. Seeing as I went some cash (without envelopes) and some debit last week things are a bit confusing for working out what I actually spent vs what I budgeted and I'm still "s
Many of us have and are working very hard to win our financial independence from debt. But on this date in 1836 a group of men, 59 delegates to the historic convention signed another type of declaration of Independence.
You see, 49 current states that or part of the current United States were annexed into the good old USA. However Texas was the only Country that was annexed into the USA by Treaty and without war elected to be be part of the USA in 1845 and officially becoming a state in 1846
We paid off all our debt. Except mortgage and a cabin i know dumb to have cabin.
We have 75k saved for DD college. She's 16.
We have a FFEF -6 months.
Putting 15% away for retirement
We have 44 k saved in an account.
dS is 10 need to put away for him.
Not sure where to go next. Or where to put 44k. Help us refocus.
Here are the goals I wrote out at the start of November, then my progress.
1. Pay Sallie Mae off by the end of this year, this should be relatively easy.
Done before 2012! Yippee!!!!!!
2. Fund Roth's enough to get to 15% before the end of Feb. I anticipate needing $3K for this. For next year we have the 401-K's up at 15% so there will likely be no Roth contributions next year, we needed the tax break in 2012 more than ever.
12.4% + 4.9% match for 2011, will be over 15% + 5.9% match fo
This blog will mostly be used for posting my weekly budget updates. Payday is Thursdays and DH's work is very variable so we don't have a constant to work with. He only worked one day in January, but then he's worked 50+ hour weeks the last two weeks.
I do have a standard budget that will be mostly the same with some changes from week to week that requires $535/week without a snowball. Most weeks DH will earn more than that I hope as that's only 24 hours of work, but there will also be so
It's hard to believe I only really get to come by here and play every 3 month or so, but here we are again.
Things are going fairly well financially. I had surgery this week (thus the extra time to visit the website!) but that is covered 100% by my insurance, so we're not taking a hit with that. My grandmother's estate is finally wrapping up and I got the check today from the sale of her house. There wasn't much left after repairs and that sort of thing, but we were glad to get it off of
We've now had 3 months of electric bills with the geothermal system. I know this year hasn't been typical with such warm weather, so the system hasn't been tested to the max yet, but so far so good!
November's electric usage was about 56 kwh per day, compared to between 39 and 76 over the past 4 years. So a bit higher than typical, but still in range.
December's electric usage was 68 kwh per day, compared to between 40 and 86 for the past 4 years. It was higher than the most recent 2
The blogs seem to be a little slow lately, and really I love reading about folks lives and stuff that is just happening... not a big problem that just happened, but a general life post....So I thought if I liked reading the blogs, I probably ought to post something on my own!
I'm doing a pantry challenge.... kind of, sort of. I can't do the "normal" challenges, because they seem to go monthly, and my paydays never coincide exactly with the calendar months. Not to mention that my grocery bu
Well another month, another monthly meal plan. Hoping we can stick to this and maybe come in a little underbudget this month.
1)Turkey Rice Casserole, Apple salad
2)Shepherd's Pie, Rolls
3)Shepherd's Pie, Rolls
4)Hot dogs, mac and cheese, green beans (this is supposed to be date night for us so this is for the kids)
5)Baked Potato bar
6)PM Pizza, fruit
7)Chicken Enchiladas
8)Ham, Augratin potato, veggie
9)Pasta Bake, Garlic Bread, salad
10) Pasta Bake, Garlic Bread, salad
11) Gril
I'm trying to keep that mantra going.
I really want to get solar electric this year before incentives in my state go away.
Either we can go with a smaller 2.5K system that will cover a bit more than 50% of our electricity cost, or a full 4.5 to 5K system that covers 100% of our electricity.
Either way it's a 6 year payback.
The main problem is you have to pay up front. I believe we could raise up the funds (instead of the slated new car fund) but the early fall and be able t
I am jumping on the decluttering bandwagon and someone on here had the idea of doing 2012 items for 2012!
I have no idea if that is possible but let's pretend and give it a go......
My list will have the few items I can remember and then we shall go forward from here. And since there aren't really any rules, hmmmmm, donations would count, as would things I throw out with the intention of decluttering. Things that I would throw away because they are trash (I am thinking of the banana p
Sweet,
I am getting a raise next paycheck and I'm also getting an extra week of vacation and my extra stipend for the year that I gave back last year!
This will cover the decrease from my additional health insurance, and the higher limit for 403b (like 401K) deduction this year and still put a little bit for my snowball.
We're also considering investing in solar electricity this year with the excellent incentives in our state and the 30% tax break! That could reduce our electricity
So, we didn't make much progress last year in the debt department. Now DH's dad wanted to see what our debts were when we asked him about when our pay would be after the house sells so we could start snowballing again. He looked at the list (I trust him, he doesn't judge... at least not that I know of!) and he said he would give us $20k for debt. I don't understand, I don't know if it's a gift or a payment to Alex from the business that we'll pay taxes on. I would prefer the latter... Alex t
