Navigating life and finances
We are currently getting hammered with the white stuff. So much, in fact, that the preemie’s mom told me not to come today. She did ask me if I could watch the baby all day on Monday, so at least the white stuff isn’t going to cost me the green stuff! [Read more…]
Yesterday’s question and answer post about how much to keep in a baby emergency fund seemed to be a bit of a hot topic-well, at least compared to other posts I’ve written. Lol It was also nice to “see” some new faces. I appreciate all those of you who joined in on the conversation. [Read more…]
“This might be too personal a question, I’m not sure but how much do you like to keep in your savings account/emergency fund? I know Dave Ramsey says $1000, but even though we have debt, that doesn’t seem like enough to me and makes me nervous.” ~ Sue
Not at all too personal of a question, Sue. In fact, Hubs and I recently just discussed this. The short answer would be to have as much as possible. Keep reading for the long answer! [Read more…]
Plenty more boring posts to come!The consensus of the comments on the post from yesterday speaks volumes. It will be business as usual here at A Dime at a Time. I think Hubs was a tad surprised at how many of us do enjoy reading and talking about numbers! His loss, our gain. Now maybe he will leave us me alone. I guess it is a good thing he doesn’t comment, or at least not on the blog that is! Lol. [Read more…]
Choosing not to make sense of it all. $25,000 in debt and making $50,000. Live on half you earn and use the other half to pay off debt. You can have this mess cleaned up in no time.
No, these are exact quotes from Dave Ramsey. Hence I’m not using quotations. I have, however, heard Dave say similar things to callers on his talk show. In Dave’s defense, there is no way during a call of just a few minutes he could possibly understand the entire picture. Nor does Dave possess a magic globe to see into the caller’s future. [Read more…]
In need of some encouragement? Getting out of debt is hard work! I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t. There are days I find myself struggling and feeling frustrated with the entire process. On days like these, it would be super easy to throw in the towel and say the heck with it. But I won’t! Doing so would do absolutely nothing to help our situation. What I will do is look for some encouragement! [Read more…]
On average families who complete Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University pay off $5,300 and save $2,700 in the first 90 days.Wow! That is an $8,000 difference in just 90 days! I don’t know exactly how these figures are calculated, this is simply something I pulled from Dave Ramsey’s website. One thing I can say is that my husband and I did indeed see an $8,000+ difference in our own finances in the first 90 days of following Dave’s plan. While my husband and I didn’t actually go through a class, we did read The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey and we also listened to Financial Peace University (FPU) on CD. With my husband’s crazy work schedule, attending a class simply wasn’t a feasible thing for us to do together. I can’t help but wonder how much more we might have been able to do had we attended an actual class. Still, I am beyond thrilled with our progress. [Read more…]
“When are we going to start the snowball?” Yesterday my husband voiced his first words of frustration. We are now two and a half months into starting the Dave Ramsey plan and he is feeling antsy. No, he hasn’t changed his mind on wanting to do this. He is simply eager to start throwing those snowballs. He wants to go to battle! Our conversation got me to thinking. The war on debt really is a lot like going to battle. We’ve identified the enemy (our debt) and my husband is eager to take it down. I am too, but also want to feel fully prepared (or as best we can) to tackle this enormous giant. Over our years together, we’ve won a few small debt wars, but have never gone against one as big as the one we are currently facing. In order to be completely victorious (meaning ridding ourselves of ALL our debt!) there was some planning that had to be done. [Read more…]
Increasing the snowball.Today I accepted the seasonal position I had previously written about. It was actually a job I worked last Summer but was on the fence about doing again this year. Not because we don’t need the money, because we mostly certainly do! I simply needed to be smarter when it came to negotiating the position. This year I said no to being on salary and also when presented with the hourly wage, held my ground for more. I also wanted to have some regular hours rather than just being on call. While in the end I won’t necessarily make more money from this job for the season, I will be working a lot less hours. Less hours at the seasonal job means that my regular part time job and also my growing business, won’t be negatively effected as they were last year. Since we have been managing for the past 6 months without the pay from this seasonal job, it will all be applied to our snowball. [Read more…]
First it was save $1,000, then $2,000, then $3,000…now? When it comes to Dave Ramsey’s plan to get out of debt, my husband and I are avid fans. We do not, however, agree with his recommended $1,000 baby emergency fund which is baby step one. My guess is that he set it at that amount since it is achievable. To tell someone to save $3,000 fast would no doubt leave them feeling that the plan is impossible and just not for them. But when is enough, enough? That is the struggle we are currently facing. [Read more…]