LWM

Savings

There are a lot of reasons to save money, we have talked about the emergency fund and that is the first place we want to start but we cannot stop there. After we get through with paying off our debt we will begin savings for several different things.

Don’t not get the cart before the horse here, I do not want you to start savings on these other things until you have your $1,000 emergency fund AND you have paid off all of your debts (except the house).
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Emergencies

Last week we were slammed with an emergency. Just when you think things are going well is about the time something happens that you had not planned for and for us that was my daughter’s car breaking down. The mechanic told me it would be $1,200 to fix all the issues (motor, brakes, exhaust, tires, door handle) and my daughter has no money as she is a 21 year old living at home, working full time and going to college.

I pondered the value of the car and ...

Why spend cash when credit & debit is easier?

Over the past few blogs I have shared budgets and envelopes as well as getting rid of those blasted credit cards and now I am going to try to convince you to only use cash for your purchases.

The downside to credit cards is you run up debt, the down side to debit cards is your drain your bank account faster then you can replenish the funds. Cash works differently, When you spend cash you know you have to stop when your ...

Lose the Credit Cards:

Yes that is what I said, but I don’t mean to actually lose them. This is hard to do but trust me it will work, you need to take your credit cards TODAY and cut them up. You do not NEED credit cards to survive in life, in fact your current financial situation could very well have been avoided if you had never signed up for those cards to begin with. We seem to purchase things we do not need or cannot afford when we can put the purchase on credit instead ...

Eliminating Credit Card & Other Debts:

In my last blog I told you that my second goal (first goal was $1,000 emergency fund) was to be debt free except my mortgage, car payment & student loan. I experienced a blow to my plan when I had to replace my Air Conditioning at a cost of approximately $7,000 but was still able to meet my goal. I am sure you want to know how and I am now going to tell you…

Debt reduction is critical to having financial peace of mind, when ...