The Five Levels of Wealth

In the "Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Rich" the author Larry Waschka describes five separate levels of wealth.

This book grabbed my attention when I bought awhile ago, frankly because at the time I though, heck if an idiot can do it, I'll be a bajillionaire! Not so fast Wile E Coyote, there is the little issue of following that ACME plan!

Here are the paraphrased outlined levels:

1. Level 1 - You are able to maintain your standard of living while still saving your Target Saving Goal, which is the annual amount needed to fund your retirement.
2. Level 2 - Your Investment Portfolio (could be 401k too) is large enough on its own to deliver a return large enough to cover your TSG and keep up with inflation.
3. Level 3 - Your portfolio returns enough to cover your desired lifestyle and inflation.
4. Level 4 - You have enough assets to produce a return big enough to increase your lifestyle, now and in the future, while keeping up with inflation.
5. Level 5 - You have enough assets to produce a return well beyond what would could ever spend. You no longer have to work and can make large charitable gifts.

Quite a gap between Level One and Two, but this list makes sense from an investment focus. Once we are through Baby Step #2, paying off our consumer debt and Baby Step #3, saving 6-months worth of expenses we should be able to apply our snowball to reaching Level One.

Level Two is pretty tough. Given that we will try to deliver 8% returns we will need to have 12.5x our savings number to reach the goal. Say I wanted to save $20,000 per year, which means that I would need $250,000 saved. Not impossible, but like I said tough...

Level Three is gonna require some extra muscle. To replace $140K salary we would need the 12.5x again or $1.75 Million! To hit this I need to save $70K per year. Now compounding really helps here so it won't be actual salary savings used to do that, but it won't be easy at all.

Level Four is kind of based on your lifestyle choice, so if you have a high three reaching four is probably off. It is just you definition of what big is. For sake of comparison say I would like $200k. To pull that off I need a cool $2.5MM

Pipedream time. Level Five. Time to open the RacerX PF Memorial Library and Grille (the 'E' makes it Classy). I am saying...$100MM.

That is a fun exercise, but it really doesn't meet my personal goals. My goal is simple. Make sure that my family is taken care of and that we can spend our twilight years in comfort but not ostentatiously.

The only way we are gonna get there is to have that plan that is always a few steps ahead of us! It takes planning, budgeting, money management and most importantly...patience.

January Month In Review

January is over and it is time to fess up and do a little review.

It was actually a good month with some challenges, a crop of Ninja Bills and staying on track with all of my goals, I even got some great news last night!

High Points:

• Net Worth Increased $1,217 - This is from the debt reduction, got below my minimum that I keep in checking, but this was really artificially low as I was paid Friday and checking is back to normal levels
• Debt Decreased $1,310 - Car come down a chunk and this is the next Snowball debt after my State Farm CC. I am looking forward to no more car payment!
• Did my taxes Friday Night - My rebate is way better then I thought it would be. Between State and Federal I will get back $8037.15! This is good and bad news. The money will go to fully fund Property Taxes for 2008 (due in October) and Christmas 2008. The remainder will go towards Snowball #6 effectively cutting it in half! The bad part is I gave the government a non-interest loan of $8037.15! It was our first year in the house and we had unexpected medical bills as well that we could deduct, so I won't beat myself to bad.

A quick funny story; after I finished the taxes and e-filed then I went to my wife and said with a long face "well, guess how much..." as I poured a cocktail..."Looking that you are pouring a drink, we owe, huh"...I say, "How much do you think?" She says, "Well we have $2200 in savings, so $2300." I say "No, it is a much bigger number..."

"Great" she pauses, "not so much it will make us use our credit cards, we've been so good... (what a turn-around BTW)" I say, "it is $8037.15..." She goes completely white..."What are we gonna do..." I say, well first we are gonna put our 2008 property taxes and Christmas money away and pay off half of debt three :)"

She hits me smiling!..and calls me a jerk...then asks me to run it again :) I pour her one too, and we toast!

Points to Work on:

• Ninja's of my Own Making - Besides two of the kids needing new winter coats, we had a really high Gas bill and Electric Bill. We cut Entertainment and Dining to help pay them, everyone is more motivated to do better! However, I didn't plan for the following...my Mother-in-laws birthday, My step-Fathers Birthday or...my birthday, doh! We did a great job at planning the girls birthday funds in completely slipped my mind to build their gift amounts in to Microsoft Money...Won't make that mistake again. We all chipped in to cover the amounts, but we did go over budget there, effectively erasing other gains.
• Balancing out Payment between check - A bunch of my payments are due when our house payment is, and given that takes most of my check I need to do a better job planning when to pay debts and bills. Built a little tool into my master sheet in Excel to help!
• Got over zealous - Moving money into saving that looked like extra...not so fast Hoss...had to move it back due to NinjaBills and poor income allocation...Doh!

Goals:

• Pay Off StateFarm CC - $2836.22 - Payment is due 2/10 you'll see a good drop next month along with extra payment due to taxes
• Pay Off Car - $4594.87 - Down to $4316, or $280 less!
• Pay Off CC CitiBank Platinum - $8989.16 - Minimums here until the Snowball show comes to town
• Pay off all CC Debt - Working it!
• Save 100% 2008 PropertyTaxes - $5000 - w00t! Should be checked off by the end of the month...ahead of time!
• Keep Snowball 100% Intact - Yo Joe!
• No CC Use - For the Fourth month! Never thought it was possible! Now can't believe it wasn't!
• Increase Average FICO-Score to 720 - Moved from an average of 692.7 across the major three to 699.0, so close to my short-term goal. At one point 5 years ago we had a 510 score! You CAN repair your score, believe me. I check this every month through www.truecredit.com (I am NOT and affiliate - just like the service) For $14.95 a month they monitor and email me any issues with my credit report. In addition I can a report with FICO for each whenever I want, even multiple times a month. For a stat junkie like me it is awesome.
• Stick to Cash Budget System - Yep, and loving it!
• Net Worth increased by $20,000 - Only up $1200 this month, but a lot of pluses coming down the pike. 2008 Tax rebate, Tax Stimulus money (hopefully the Senate doesn't kill it!), my review is Monday and bonus in April...It will be tight, but I believe we can do it!

Well, that is about as full disclosure as I can get. I guess if I am gonna spew advice, the least you can do is see where I am. I am not a financial adviser, just a marketing slub trying to get out of debt and build a bright future just like you using our budget, debt reduction and basic money management to get there...it is a marathon, not a sprint!

(BTW - That pic is a calendar available from Barnes and Noble -thought it fit the article!)

You Need to Develop a Success Map

How many of you have paid off all of your debt before, only to say "Never Again" and then few years later do the same thing? I have. Not to the level I am working towards now, but multiple times I have worked for a bit until I paid it off and then went back to how I charged before!

What's worse is that each time its a bit deeper, isn't it. Well the Credit Card Companies raise your credit line since you paid it off! This becomes a vicious cycle. If this has happened to you before, or it you don't want it to, I suggest you put together a Success Map.

If I look back to all of those times I paid it off just to recharge again, there is one thing that happened each time. I thought I had reached my goal...heck I did, but I didn't reach my end-goal just a stage-goal. This is why I say often that Budgeting is a lifestyle, not a prison sentence to be hopefully paroled from!

This is were I really like Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps, or other guides that help you plan out what comes next. First, you really have to have your goals together. Is it buying a house? Saving for your kid's college? Retire early? Buying your own business? It doesn't matter, but you need to plan for it now, before you have paid off your debts, because you need to apply that same drive and moxie that killed those debts to the next project.

For us here it is:

1. Emergency Fund - Done
2. Pay off all consumer debt - In process
3. Save 6 months expenses -Next
4. Fully fund Retirement accounts - up to 15% of gross
5. Pay off house
6. Invest all available funds
7. At $1 Net Worth -Buy own business

You can go to step 10 or beyond, my brother is a planner like that, but the point is to have a plan for what to do next. If you don't, you could be restarting the process at step #1 all over again, and each time it is a deeper hole to get out of, with less time to do it.

So set your plan up soon if you don't have one and make sure that you review your goals frequently enough that they still match where you want to go in life, before you get there!

Performance Review Time

It is actually pass the time when my annual review is due. With a new outside management parent company things have been crazy. Since I am planning to NOT spend any raise and just apply it to our debt snowball, it really isn't like I "Have" to have a review now...I just want to get it over with.

I am one of the lucky few that gets and gives reviews...middle management my boy, middle-management :) However I thought that I would give some tips for being on both sides of the review desk. I have had tips on your career before, but this post is aimed at helping you during that once a year love-fest.


Tips for the reviewee:

• Document any and all victories - Throughout the year keep a $2 journal of all the things that you accomplished...do not be shy or humble. The ones that can document and show their value get the raises intended for the humble!
• Before your Boss writes your review - Make sure you get the information to him/her. If you format is the way reviews are done, by strength type, all the better. Bosses are people too and will use a lot of what you said if you provide it. Hopefully this leads to a more positive review, unless you are a horrible writer :)
• Push if you can, Pull if you must - Set a level of expectation to your salary requirements. You'll be surprised how much a, "Hope we are least looking at 5%, Bob!" Will go. First off it will gauge their reaction. If he answers, "Not likely" ask why and be prepped to go over your best points verbally. Even if you don't get 5%, you will set an expectation level of which Bosses are loath to break unless they have too. So give them a nudge up, or even a slight pull, but...
• Don't Threaten Everyone - Unless you are prepped to walk, greenmail is very tricky and you can wind up begging for your job back at a lower rate...I have seen it happen!
• Don't be defensive, but ask for clarification - If points come up that surprise you, like you think your productivity is high, but your Boss feels it is low, ask for direct example clarification and be prepared to have counter examples. This has to be delivered in a frank, non-confortational manner.

For Reviewers:

• Get the review done on time - It is not fair to make someone to wait to know what they got as an increase, which is really the main thing they want to know. You don't like it, so don't do it to others!
• Nothing in the review should be a surprise - If someone is not picking up the slack...tell them now and not a year later. All you did is make sure it didn't get corrected!
• Have weekly one-ones - I try to have weekly one-ones with each of my staff. I have my set questions, but the rest is their time. Whether it is to get me to finally sign the doc they need, or discuss their career path with the company. Want to increase retention and not be blindsided by someone leaving? Do this now! You will separate yourself from 99% of other managers
• Praise twice for every hit- No one feels motivated after a hour beating! Make sure to reinforce the good aspects, if they don't have any...fire them. You are better off with with NO-body than A Body.
• Don't blame other for anything negative - The "I think you are great, but Sara really doesn't like you". Take a stand. This is Your review of them, not their peers, or your bosses.
• Have clear examples of every criticism - if you say they are always late, have it documented. it should go, "Jill, on 14 separate occasions you were late". And have the back-up. Then it is the facts talking and not personal preferences.

The last piece of advise is to try and not take it personal, very few bosses (although I have worked for them) want to hurt or belittle you and usually genuinely want to be of help. Remember we all have two ears and one mouth!

I would also suggest that whatever bump you do receive, you do not start spending it. Forget it ever existed. We are adding ours to our snowball. If you continue to do this you will pay off debts faster, budget and manage your money better, and not get into the trap of spending every dime you make!

ps - The Carnival of Debt Reduction is now running over at My Dollar Plan it feature a special Life / Liberty post!

Top Personal Finance Necessities

If you want to get ahead in any endeavor there are always is a list of Must-Do’s. The list may look simple at first; however it is often the simple things that get forgotten. If you want to really get on the right path of money management and debt reduction, start today! So, in celebration of the 39th anniversary of a certain event…I humbly submit the following 39 Top Personal Finance Necessities.

1. Find out where you really are financially – This is a scary step but if you don’t do it you can’t fix it.


2. Decide that you want the situation to get better – If you cannot stop the bleeding you can’t be saved. Period.


3. Stop the bleeding – Lock the credit cards up, freeze them, give them to Mom, whatever it takes.


4. Be prepared to make sacrifices – The Van Gogh of the month club will probably have to go
   
5. Build a Budget – Build one that deals with the following: Consumer debt pay; Recurring Bills; Cash Items; Mortgage or Rent; and Targeted Saving
   
6. Make your budget realistic – If your grocery bill for the family is always $400, budget $400, not $200! You are better having a little fat on a budget then cutting muscle.
   
7. Build escape valves into the budget – Without having the ability to make some small person purchases, you are setting yourself up for a big failure later on.
   
8. Budget isn’t a four-letter word – It is a lifestyle choice. Not a club to get people not to buy stuff!
   
9. Emergency Fund –Do you have an Emergency Fund? If not It should be your first priority. You will never break you debt chains unless you stop using debt!
   
10. Build a Debt Snowball – This is for your Consumer debt pay, do this right after you fund your Emergency Fund
    
11. Kill the bills that you can – See #4 if you are confused. Wash your own car; mow your own lawn; read the paper online. The more you trim the easier it will be.
    
12. Develop an Envelope System – Pay cash whenever you can, not just when it is convenient. You’ll potentially save thousands a year.
    
13. Review your Mortgage – Are you in an ARM? When is it going up? Get a plan to refinance if your credit is good, or work on your FICO Score until it is. If you are in a fixed loan: How is the Rate? Know your deal backward and forward.
    
14. Check your FICO Score and Credit Report – Many people have inaccurate information on their report. It is easy to dispute and if they don’t respond it gets taken off.
    
15. Check your Insurance – Make sure you have enough coverage. It feels counter-intuitive to say save, save, save then go shop for insurance, but a great way to destroy your finances is to have a disaster and no way to recoup.
    
16. Get a career plan – Are you floating along, or do you know where you want to be in five years. So many people will return cans for $5, but then won’t be prepared to get the most out of their salary, the way we get the bulk of our income.
    
17. Understand you didn’t get here in a week – You aren’t getting out in a week
    
18. Get everyone in the house involved – If they aren’t they will never be bought in, and won’t understand why things are changing.
    
19. Full disclosure – Everyone needs to know how the family is doing financially. It will end the requests for vacations and extras that we will all cave on eventually, especially if we have kids!
    
20. Find a mentor – Great blogs are out there. Pro’s like Dave Ramsey, Suzy O, too. Find whoever speaks to you. Listen and Learn. But don’t be afraid to ask questions, especially “stupid” ones!
    
21. No matter how bad it is… – Realize it IS worse elsewhere…I guarantee that!
    
22. Track everything –You don’t have to go out and buy MS Money or Quicken (although they are great). You can do it with Excel or free spreadsheet programs that are out there. I use both, as I like the master sheet view I have created in excel.
    
23. Understand how you got here – Break your “vicious circle”…Be conscience of your issues and you’ll be surprised how much more manageable they are.
    
24. Tell your story – Doesn’t have to be a blog. Talk to a friend, you’ll be surprised how many have/are going through the same thing. Also the peer pressure of telling folks you are starting this will help you to not want to disappoint them.
    
25. Have a success mindset – If you tell yourself “you can’t do it, it’s too hard.” You will be right!
    
26. Avoid “Get Rich Quick” Deals – the only ones that make money on these are the ones selling them.
    
27. Do Not invest in Stock Tips – I don’t care if your Uncle Tommy knows this guy, eventually you will lose. You have way better odds in Vegas.
    
28. Do Not over invest in your own companies stock – Enron anyone?
    
29. Be systematic – Doing 1% of 100 things is not as effective as knocking out 100% of one thing
    
30. Retirement – Once your consumer debt snowball has worked its magic, try to maximize your retirement contribution
    
31. Invest in yourself – Need a degree to go to the next level in your career? Take night classes. Need some job/trade certification? Get them. I would just make sure that there is a ROI there, no professional students!
    
32. Health – Try to be healthy as possible. Exercise. Think of it this way…a heart attack is expensive!
    
33. No one is perfect – Dave Ramsey was once 100% broke! The only thing you can do is to move forward the best you can. If you make a mistake, or slip, jump back on the budget horse!
    
34. Your Net Worth – Is not the same as your Self Worth, easy to confuse the two, but they are not the same at all!
    
35. Shop around for everything – Make it a game of I bet I can get that cheaper!
    
36. Never buy a New Car – 20%+ depreciation for driving it off of the lot
    
37. Understand the Difference between Needs, Wants and Desires – Handle your base needs first, before you buy the Louis V private space capsule.
    
38. Understand that this is a marathon, not a sprint - The market drop today is the bull market tomorrow.
    
39. The Power of Compounding – Every dollar you save or pay-off today can literally mean hundreds later. The sooner the better!
    

Ok… this is a ridiculously long post. I also know that some of these feel very basic. But if it is so basic, why isn’t everyone doing it? Sometimes the most obvious stuff is right under your nose! Remember I am not a financial adviser, just someone going through the same thing as you! I hope this helps you on the road of money management and personal finance

Personal Finance QuickTake: Tax Rebates in May

As we talked about earlier this week, Congress and the White House have hammered out a final tax rebate stimulus plan that could have rebate checks in your hands as early as May, but most will recieve theirs by July.

The rebates will run as low as $300, as long as you worked and earned $3000 or more in 2007, up to $1200 per couple, with potentially a kicker per child in house.

Per the report:

"The rebates would phase out gradually for individuals whose income exceeds $75,000 and couples with incomes above $150,000, aides said. Individuals with incomes up to $87,000 and couples up to $174,000 would get partial rebates. The caps are higher for those with children."

For us that means we could get $2100 as long as the Senate doesn't change too much. This would be enough to pay off a Snowball debt, which would be great am get me my bigger snowball for my car (the next debt) faster.

While I don't like the Government robbing Peter to pay Paul, they are (for the most part)basically giving us our own money back. However if any of you want to protest this move feel free to give me your check!

Economic Stimulus Plan

Given the continued shock of the US economy the government is working on passing quickly and economic stimulus package. They really want you to go out and buy something with it is quick, to stimulate the economy.

The plan runs from a GOP led effort to be $800/$1600 for singles and couples respectively or the current Dem thinking of $500 per tax paying person. There are also cuts to business taxes as well as increases in welfare, Medicaid and unemployment benefits. This is being fast-track to pass within the next three week, with checks to follow fairly soon afterward.

For us, it would be nice! Although we will disappoint the government in their effort to glue our credit cards back together. Ours is going right to debt, if it happens. It would get us close to paying off Snowball debt #6!

On top of that I can see the prime lending rate continue to fall for awhile. The housing issue is big with a ton of inventory on the market, and what buyers there are, looking for the bottom before buying.

What about you? Any plans for you potential rebate check? It would go a long way towards an Emergency Fund if you haven't established one yet!

Personal Finance QuickTake: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Money Update

Gonna take one day off of our Personal Finance:QuikTake feature because today is a special day. Yesterday was the first month Anniversary of this Blog! It really has been amazing. To be able to share tips on Personal Finance, Money Management, Debt reduction and random acts of silliness has really help me focus on our finances and be more accountable.

There is so much great information out there and what started off as being curious about Blogging has turned out to be my new favorite hobby. It has been fun to tweak the look and feel of the site and to try and see if those tweaks translate to more visitors.

We have also achieved some mile stones over the last 90 days that I am proud of:

• 1000+ visits - I know some of your get this in a day, but I never though that many folks would come!
• Nearly 4000 page views - Wow!
• This is the 60th post! - Time has flown by!
• Great Comments - More Please! Thanks to CathL, Mrs M and Heidi (aka Bankergirl) for being the top commentators!
• Featured in many great Carnivals - This really has brought a lot of traffic, especially Plonkee's Current one and Mrs. M's recent Carnivals
• Featured on MSNMoney - The Micheal Scott piece has receive the most views so far of any piece, but the piece on your career is close!
• Great Blogs I didn't know about - "Good Karma list" started with 3 and now at 25 and growing fast!
• Supportive people - People have been very kind by giving the blog a chance to find it's voice and
• Starting to learn about AdSense and Affiliate Sales - It is really cool to see what works and what doesn't!

For anyone starting out I would say the following:

• Stick with it. Good content will attract readers
• Get good tools to help you - Blogger and Wordpress are great for the beginner! I got my site up in an afternoon
• Sign-up for Blog Rush - They are great about exposing your blog to a lot of people, and their bonus program help out new blog get extra exposure! IF you click on the tab on the widget on my blog you can sign up right away and, unlike other "traffic" helpers., it is free. If you sign-up through my widget I get extra bonus credits as well, and you will if other sign up on yours.
• Don't make a MFA (Made For AdSense Site) - Those Internet "deals" are scams and Google is cracking down. if you are doing this for big money, a part-time job will earn you more. You have to enjoy it. Not saying you can't eventually make some money, but it takes time and effort, no get rich quick here!
• Read about being an effective Blogger - ShoeMoney is a favorite. He gives you real facts, doesn't try to sell you anything and has great real-life tips.

Top 10 Traffic Buddy's for first 1000 visits!! - A Huge Thanks to them!!!

1. Mrs Micah
2. The Digerati Life
3. We're In Debt
4. Plonkee
5. Bankergirl
6. My Open Wallet - (First PF blog I ever read!)
7. Get Rich Slowly
8. Being Frugal
9. The Brightside of Debt
10. Collecting My Cash

Writing about helping people with finances, money and debt has helped my very much. I hope you have enjoyed some of the articles. If so please sign-up for my RSS feed, I try to update a couple times a day so it makes it easier to keep up! also if you enjoy the site and have your own blog please feel free to add me to your blog role too!

All the Best,

RacerX

Me vs Dave Ramsey: Using Debt to Pay Debt

I have heard Dave Ramsey say, "You can't borrow your way out of debt."

He is absolutely right, if you are constantly moving money around you can get burnt bad. However, I believe that debt consolidation can be OK ...sometimes.

When we were originally putting together our debts we were looking at 12 different credit lines (credit cards loans etc.) some of which had Interest Rates over 25%! As we were putting everything in order we received an offer from CitiBank for another signature loan (no home equity!) for $19,000 @ 10.49% interest.

After deep thoughts and mixed feelings, we decided to do it and we paid off our first four snowball items, our property taxes and got 100% caught up with any late bills. Since the payment was lower than the combined payments would have been, we had a larger snowball to start out with.

Where Dave is coming from is where I am usually on credit cards, cut it out of your life, you don't get a drunk to stop drinking by giving them a shot to cure their chest cold! However you WILL pay down your debts faster when you are paying a lower interest rate, it is simple math, when you apply more to the principle, you pay it off quicker!

All that being said, I have seen plenty of people in this vicious circle of debt: rack up bills, get a home equity loan and pay them off, swear it won't happen again, credit cards raise your limits since you are sooo responsible to pay it off, you rack them up again, but now even higher!

For our debt, we will still investigate credit offers to lower our rate on our remaining snowball debt, however even if we get a savings we will keep the total snowball number in order to pay them off faster, and to us that is really the point...

The Dark Side of Debt Reduction: What I Could Have Bought...

Saturday is bill paying day and I was feeling pretty good. We paid everything, our overflow (which is our cash leftover after two weeks) gave us the ability to refill our coffers from our recent Ninja Bill, and we have hit my initial savings goal for the month already.

Then as I was tallying something hit me. Over the last 60+ days we have been able, as a family, to pay off about $4300 worth of debt. This is due to my checks being a bit higher for those two months and applying all of that plus our budget savings to draining the debt pool.

Then it hit me...this isn't just a number, this is payment of a lot of things that we just couldn't wait for; dinners, rounds of golf, guitar stuff, a couple new furniture pieces, etc..

Holy smokes, if we were debt free, think what we could have done with that money!

• Taken a trip to Sandals, Jamaica - We have never even really had a couples vacation. we have wanted to go to the Caribbean for along time.
• Bought a second used car - Since I changed jobs, no more company car. It would be much more convenient to have two and it would be paid off.
• HUGE Christmas - Could of gone nuts!!! Lots of plastic pieces to step on YEAH!
• Killer Guitar - Their is a great guitar that I could get a great deal on, once in a lifetime deal in fact!
• Doubled our savings! - Nearly $7000 in savings for Emergencies or to help us begin our re fiance program.

Anyway you get the point...what I am paying for is dinners that were a long time ago, that we couldn't obviously afford and other stuff, most of which is gone!

Instead of depressing me it really helped to clarify why this is so important to accomplish. I just don't want to be alive, I want to LIVE and experience all the great things life has available to us.

Think about this the next time you pick up the plastic...are you alive or Living!

You deserve better...

December Final Debt Reduction Numbers...

Well the final numbers for December are in...and we did pretty well in regard to our debt reduction!

As of the end of December our Net Worth Increased $2570!

Here are the December high points:

• Paid off our #6 Snowball Debt! - Already rolled our snowball to our next debt on the list; The State Farm CC, we will now be paying about $100 over the minimum payment.
• Paid off a total of $1122 in Credit Card debt - Two more cards to go!
• Paid off $1191 in Loan Debt - Our consolidation loan has really helped to lower our average interest rate and minimum payments, so more can go into our snowball!
• Added $327 to savings towards 2008 Property taxes - Do not want to borrow to pay this off this year!

Points to Work on:

• Overspent Grocery/Entertainment this month by $100, due to hosting family for New Year's Eve - Well make it up over the next couple pay days
• Overspent Gas Bill -Ninja Bill Taking this out of January's discretionary fund (dining/Entertainment)
• Lots of travel coming up - Make sure to quickly process business expenses!

So we had a great month, especially by not going over on Christmas. The debt reduction will be out of the norm, but was paid for out of a bit of windfall on my check. Once you hit the maximum contribution to Social Security they stop taking it out of your check. In the past we would have spent this away as fun money or on Christmas, but now that we are on plan we took it all and applied it to debt retiring a credit card debt earlier than we hoped!

I don't expect January to move the budget needle as much, as my check goes back to normal and we have picked a lot of the low hanging fruit. I see Personal Finance and Budgeting as a marathon, not a sprint, but it does feel good to run every now and then...