I read a number of financial blogs. And most, if not all of them, will tell you the secret to wealth is to spend less than you make. Pretty much common sense. If your’re single, it’s up to you to make the decisions that will help you financially. Or if you are part of a “couple”, [...]
I was at a seminar on Tuesday evening and the speaker, Tim Suloff, a Stewardship Representative from a local college, shared the 3 laws of the Least. With his permission, I thought I would share it with you:
Borrow the LEAST AMOUNT of money possible.
Borrow for the LEAST TIME possible.
Borrow at the LEAST PERCENTAGE RATE possible.
The [...]
We have had a lot of wind storms in our area this winter. During one of them, our roof TV antenna was blown down and is hanging by a thread on our roof. We now only receive about half the TV stations we used too. So my wife and I discussed our options:
Pay someone to [...]
I can get discouraged when it comes to finances. Especially when in seems that it will take forever to get out of debt. That’s when I have to remind myself about the goal. For me, just getting out of debt is not enough - but what I can do once I get out [...]
Sigh. It looks like I am stuck for now with my Home Equity Loan. I had hoped to switch to a new lender for several reasons:
My current lender rate is a fixed 6.9%. I was able to find a fixed rate at 4.9% (for a limited time locally)
My current lender only allows for a direct [...]
This evening, a friend and I were discussing the economic stimulus package. She was saying that she wasn’t really sure what she was going to use hers for, that she’d probably end up just putting it in her checking account and using it for the mortgage, groceries, etc. I shrugged and said I was probably [...]
I feel like I’m kicking debt’s ass right now. Since the beginning of the year, I have put $1,667.82 towards my student loans. Of that, $143.14 went to interest and $1,524.68 went to reducing my principal. My current principal balance on my Federal Direct loan is $13,957.33.
One thing that’s been very helpful to me has [...]
I hate being in debt. Every monthly payment seems so minuscule compared to the principal balance. -$50,000. I’m very eager to be through with debt, but I know, realistically, I’m going to be in it until I’m almost 30. I’m 22, so that’s a long way off. There are still years ahead of me of [...]
I got my first grown-up paycheck on November 1st. It was for $1,977.99 after taxes and health insurance. I started my new job on Oct. 1st, so it’s been a long time coming! But being a paid on a monthly basis is not that bad of a thing from a budget planning perspective. It makes [...]
Well, we’ve successfully made it through our second full month of the Total Money Makeover. I say successful because we are making some great strides towards our goal of being debt free (except for a mortgage) and having complete control of our money.
In April, we ended up with a little extra income that we [...]
