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What Are YOU Going to do with the New Year?

what-are-you-going-to-do-with-the-new-year

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As we celebrate the new year we often decide on a few personal new years resolutions. New years resolutions are great except for the fact that we usually fail to accomplish them.
A few years back I decided not to set just new years resolutions but to set goals as well. It may seem like a goal is the same as a resolution but it’s not.

Definition of resolution: A resolution is a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.

Definition of goal:The purpose toward which an endeavor is directed; an objective

I think may of us set a new year resolution for ourselves without setting goals that will help us make changes. Without setting goals our resolutions are meaningless. You might as well not make resolutions if you don’t plan on setting goals as well. The best goals to set are small ones. For some of us we need to make each goal very small.

If your goal is to start your journey toward financial freedom I encourage you to set yourself some goals. If you are struggling with managing your money then maybe your first goal should be to find out how you are spending your money.  Or if you are struggling with spending too much maybe your goal should be to set a budget for yourself that will work for you (Dave Ramsey’s budgets are really easy to follow).

The year of 2009 could be the year that changes your life direction if you set resolutions that have goals attached to them. I for one will be making resolutions but will be focusing more on how I will fulfill my resolutions by setting small goals that will lead to success.

I wish you a Happy Successful New Year!

~Mona

December 31, 2008 | Filed Under Financial Freedom Journey Pep Talk, Financial Goals, Financial Peace Baby Steps | 1 Comment 

Resolving to gain financial peace. again. and again. and again

J and I have hit a few rough patches, that would have been doubly as bad before our Dave Ramsey days.  One of the first things we did when we joined FPU was to get rid of our 2 car payments by selling our cars.  We bought one car that has since blown an engine, and my parents gave us another, that blew a transmission on I-95 on one of the worst traffic days of the year.  We haven’t gotten a repair estimate for the latter, but the former is 3k.  We’ve not saved any money in this car.  What we’ve put into it could have easily paid for at least 5 or 6 months of car payments.  I guess I’m trying to rationalize what I must now confess.  We have another car payment.  We thought long and hard about it, but right now, it’s cheaper in the long run than to try to continue to fix these cars.  In the meantime, we’ll save money to fix whichever car is cheapest to fix, if either one of them is worth fixing.  It had to be done.  We were down to one car, and that car was gone.  It’s a given that J has to get to work.  We still have our baby emergency fund, which can be put towards fixing the transmission in the impala. I think we’re going to just let the Outback go to car heaven.

I did really good before Christmas.  I resisted overspending before Christmas to undo some of the damage on the after Christmas sales.  Listen to me rationalize again… it’ll save me money next year when I don’t feel the compulsion to by Christmas ornaments.  In the end, I didn’t blow that much money, but I hate it I hadn’t planned to blow some money.

We’re going to go through FPU again starting in January.  We’re going to play close attention to the insurance and annuities portion of the classes, and hopefully gain some more gazelle intensity.  Looking back over last years resolutions, we’re lightyears ahead of where we were then, or even 6 months ago when I was thinking of leaving J because I couldn’t take it anymore.  I’m such a perfectionist that I’m going to cut myself a break.  My resolutions next year will be to spend cash, spend cash, spend cash.  We need to plan for this because getting to the ATM is something we don’t do if we don’t make the time.  Some of my [over spending] over the last 2 days was in cash, but when I ran out, I whipped out the plastic. Ca Ching.

Here’s fishing you Financial Peace in 2009.

December 28, 2008 | Filed Under Financial Freedom Journey Pep Talk, Financial Goals, Financial Peace Baby Steps, Financial Peace University | Leave a Comment 

Back to basics: the fundamentals to Financial Peace

Dave’s website is full of quick little newsletter type articles. It’s all common sense advice that is reiterated, or somehow complementary to what has already been said. Yet, it isn’t unnecessarily repetitive. Why? Because sometimes we (i.e. I) need it said a variety of ways before we get it. Even when we do “get it”, we need someone reliable to say it again. and again. and again. Secretly, I have lofty dreams of moving to Nashville and becoming a writer for Dave. Maybe then I would actually REMEMBER the advice Dave dispenses. Today J and I took the fam to the local COSTCO with no budget, or even plan in mind. We spent $137 without even planning to do so. Not much of it was wasteful spending. However, it is still disappointing because we know better. I even used my debit card because we’ve fallen out of habit of using cash. Actually, that isn’t true. I continue to use cash, I’m just not using the envelope system.

Why oh why do I fall away from what I know works? It doesn’t require copious amounts of energy. But what’s comfortable, or “the way I’ve always done it” is hard to let go of, even if it is making us miserable. I know, it doesn’t make an ounce of sense. Before Financial Peace, I was not so blissfully ignorant of how better my financial life could be. I assumed it would be hard to be responsible. The truth is that it is in fact so simple that my ignorance is hard to swallow when I must confess to irresponsible financial behavior. Less stress is the result when you have an accurate and truthful screen capture of your financial life. It is hard to let go of the bad financial habits. We are absolutely light years of where we were when our minister first said the words “Financial Peace” in a sermon last January. Now at least I know better and have a little disappointment- even shame- when I don’t name every single one of the dollars in our income and outgo. I know now that I can blow all my hard work in one shopping trip, and that shopping trip might make the difference in how long it takes us to break free from Financial Peace. Dollars that are being frittered away because of poor planning aren’t going to pay down off our dept.

I hate balancing the checkbook. I hate paying bills (if you do like it, you’re weird). I spend more energy dreading doing the tasks than it requires to do them, and since starting Financial Peace, it’s never as bad as I feared. I’ve been conditioned to think the worse. But the truth is that the lessons really are sinking in, and one day of less than perfect (not necessarily bad) choices doesn’t throw it all away. I’ve just got to break the budget forms out again and sit down and have our budget committee meetings. We need a Financial Peace Check-up. It’s been our 3 months (actually a little less )or 30k miles.

There are a number of ways to get back on track. The easiest for me is to go to Dave’s website and do some reading. Today I read of How to Become a Stress-Free Shopper. There’s nothing new learned because the steps to Financial Peace are consistent and Biblically based. It isn’t a gimic, or membership dues. In fact, it is possible to take Dave’s advice for free. Check the books out from the library, download the budgeting forms for free. His radio shows and TV show is also free. The FPU course is reasonable, and it’s a lifetime membership. It’s necessary for hard heads like me to have accountability. I can’t begin to quantify the stress that we’ve let go of since making the commitment to start the program. I’m grateful that now, with Dave’s help, I have the common sense to know when I’m making bad decisions and can be responsible and accountable to my self. I have the fundamentals that are important to our financial plan, and must be in place in order for us to obtain Financial Peace. How long it takes us to get there is dependent on how well we stick to our plan.

~Manda

November 30, 2008 | Filed Under Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University (FPU), Financial Freedom Journey Pep Talk, Financial Goals, Financial Peace Baby Steps, Life Goals | 2 Comments 

Ownership: let go of a lie and create a financial truth

I’ve cheated on Dave. I’ve seen Suze Orman on television while flipping channels, and finally watched last week. Admitedly, I don’t know much about her, but her financial advice seems sound. Her guest was a woman whose husband wanted to declare bankruptcy. Their income was 9k a month. Their outgo was 19k a month. You see the problem. Suze gave her advice, which meant letting go of her 6k a month mortgage by doing a short sale on her house. The woman was adamant that she didn’t need to do so. I shook my head, and wondered why Suze Orman was wasting her breath. I found myself wondering how Dave would handle the situation. I speculated that he wouldn’t waste his breath. He’s about helping people who WANT help. The first step to financial peace is to resolve to never borrow again. The guest on this show was holding on to her lie. She kept making excuses, they could get 2nd jobs, she didn’t want to sell her “stuff”. She was probably the most clueless woman I’ve seen. Finally Suze told her that she didn’t have any stuff. She didn’t own anything. She’d created this lie, and was working to maintain it. I jotted down this comment “you have to let go of the lie and create a financial truth”.

Dave says the same thing when he gives the advice to live your wage. J and I have worked over the last 5 months to create a financial truth. We’ve let go of the things we couldn’t afford. Some days I do miss my van, and I know he misses his truck, but, honestly, they were not ours. We let go of that lie, and created a financial truth. Instead of being behind in our utilities and juggling which to pay. Our utilities weren’t getting paid because we were spending money we didn’t have. We’re fortunate to not have credit card debt. We’re fortunate enough not to have a house that we can’t afford. We still have some decisions to make. My student loans are monstrous. Do I go back to work, or stay at home with my babies. With Dave’s help, we’ve let go of the lie and are living a financial truth. We have that truth to be able to make informed decisions. We’ll be able to consider the cost benefit. Only time will tell which way we’ll go, but as Dave says, prayer does work, and we’ll rely on it to assist us in making decisions. This is a stark contrast to the lies we were trying to perpetrate. It’s less stressful, and more peaceful.

November 25, 2008 | Filed Under Financial Freedom Journey Pep Talk, Financial Goals, Financial Peace Baby Steps, Making More Money | Leave a Comment 

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