Aug 20, 2016 | Finance
This week, 20 years ago, I walked into my Financial Aid Office and signed my name on the dotted line to receive my first piece of debt–STUDENT LOANS. It was then and there that I became part of the American statistic. According to Student Loan Hero’s website,
- $1.26 trillion in total U.S. student loan debt
- 3 million Americans with student loan debt
- Student loan delinquency rate of 11.6%
- Average monthly student loan payment (for borrower aged 20 to 30 years): $351
- Median monthly student loan payment (for borrower aged 20 to 30 years): $203
(Source: https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics-2016/)
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And these stats only include student loan figures. Generally, Americans save the least and spend the most racking up tens of thousands of dollars of additional debt in credit cards, auto loans, personal loans and others.
Please believe I have had my fair share of spending frivolously, both while in college and after graduating; however, after getting educated about personal finances, I now know the consequences of “emotional spending”; the importance of buying what I need instead of what I want; and learning that “catching it on sale” doesn’t mean I am saving money, it means I am spending money. Through the good and the bad, and maturing financially, we are now on our journey to spending wisely, increasing our household income, saving for a rainy day, and getting out of debt.
So how have we paid off over $27,000 (and counting) in the last 18-months? Well, obviously, I believe in “Turning Your Hobby Into a Side Hustle” as a means to get extra income (which is what we did). But after that, we followed the steps in my “7-Steps to Leaving a Financial Legacy Cheat Sheet”, particularly #5. We tackled One Debt At A Time.
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May 15, 2016 | Finance
Emergencies are inevitable! Your car breaks down and you find out you need a new alternator. Your child falls off his/her bike and you have to rush them to the emergency room for a potential broken arm. A family member becomes ill and you have to fly out of town to check on them.
Emergencies will happen, but according to a Forbes article, 63% of us do not plan for it. Only 37% of Americans have $500 to $1,000 in their savings for the aforementioned emergencies. The remaining 63% have to borrow the needed funds from family or friends, put it on a credit card or get the money from one of those payday loan places.
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Why aren’t Americans saving money when many have household salaries reaching over and beyond the six-figure mark? The answer… the more we make, the more we spend.
When we get that promotion, we now have to live up to the “new title” and upgrade our clothes, our car, our house and our overall lifestyle.
Or when we have the extra money in our account, we feel compelled to spend it.
Yes, we should enjoy our money, have nice things while enjoying the fruits of our labor. We just need to make sure the “nice things” do not have us and we are storing some fruit for the dry seasons. We must always prepare for a Rainy Day, because trust me, the rain will come.
So how can you quickly save $1,000? Follow these steps.
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Mar 7, 2016 | Finance
According to Gallup’s annual Economy and Personal Finance survey, conducted in April of 2013, over 60% of Americans do not have a written or computerized budget for their personal finances. SIXTY PERCENT!!! At first I was astounded, that is, until I reflected upon my own finances. After looking back on the years when we accumulated excess consumer debt, I realized it was directly correlated with NOT PLANNING (or maybe even not USING THE PLAN). Although, by nature, I am a planner, there were months, particularly after having kids, when we just needed diapers, milk, or even medicine, and the diapers, milk and medicine just kept accumulating on our credit cards. Due to exhaustion, sleep deprivation and the newness of being a parent, going over a budget was just not at the top of my list. As a result, we paid for the poor financial choices we made. Thankfully, we have since acknowledged our damaging decisions and over the last few years have gotten back on track. But it was not without significant loss to our personal finances.
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I have now come to understand, at the end of the day, if you do not take control of your finances (no matter how sleep deprived you are), it will take control of you.
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Feb 1, 2016 | Finance
One of the most pressing goals for our family is to be able to say “We’re Debt Free” sooner than later. It is for that reason we have stepped up our “Eliminate Debt Game” in 2016.
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Last year, thanks to the grace of God, proper planning and hard work, we were able to pay off thousands of dollars of debt (blog coming soon). But this year, we have raised the stakes. We want to double the amount of debt we paid off last year. So how do we intend on doing so? The same way we did it last year…
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Aug 16, 2015 | Finance
For many of you who follow me, you know that I am a Dave Ramsey fan. My husband and I have purchased, read and implemented many of Dave’s financial strategies to get us on our journey to financial freedom. I recently purchased and went through Financial Peace University Home/Online course and I absolutely loved it.
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Although my husband and I have been following the “Baby Steps” plan, I was able to glean more information as to how we can ensure we are on the right path to building a financial legacy. Here are three tips I learned from Financial Peace University.
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Jul 25, 2015 | Finance
If you are looking to find more tools for your children to ensure they are more prepared financially and socially in life than you were, then this book is for you. In the book “Rich Kids: How to Raise Our Children to be Happy and Successful in Life”, Tom Corley (author) is taking a road trip with his son and goes into vivid detail about what he learned from his grandfather (a very successful author and financial coach) when he spent an entire summer with him.
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His grandfather promised he would teach him what he learned after studying the common themes of wealthy/successful people. So over the course of his summer break, Tom’s grandfather taught him “rich habits” one week and would splurge and have fun with him the other week—alternating work weeks (learning rich habits) and fun weeks (work hard, play hard).
During the “work” weeks, Tom Corley’s grandfather taught him the difference between the habits of successful persons (rich) vs unsuccessful persons (poor). The chart details some of the habits of each taken from the book.
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