September Update:

Hey guys! We are just about to hit 20K in our emergency fund! We have $19,621.50. Unfortunately, it’s about to jump down a bit because we are REFINANCING!

This is actually a great thing though. After we have our emergency fund in place we will be starting with baby steps 4, 5, & 6 which is funding ROTH IRA’s, College funding & paying off the house early.

With having our future & long term goals, we have decided it’s the most important to pay off our house early. Obviously, we wont be going out of order here. Dave Ramsey has helped HUNDREDS of families & it wasn’t because they liked the FPU theory, it was because they took action. Since we understand the importance of going in order we will start funding our ROTH IRA. It’s not just to go in order for the sake of going in order, the sooner we start putting money into our retirement the sooner that compound interest can be in our favor. 🙂 A little bit will probably go to college funding and then we are going to really focus on paying off the house.

The main reason we are so intent in paying off the house is that our income is our biggest wealth growing tool. With our long term goals in place, the best answer for us is not having a huge chunk of our income going to a house payment. I love working, but I also would love the option to not work. It’s all about the option for me. 🙂

Now, if we had known all this stuff way back when we would not have “bought” our house. No way. I absolutely LOVE our house & everything about our house, but we would have paid off the debt, had an emergency fund and then saved to buy a house. At the very least we would have paid 20% down to avoid the PMI. We can’t go back, but we can help other people make smarter choices. Now only if we can get those people to listen. 😛 Hint hint little sister.

Refinancing

We are refinancing from a 6% 30 year down to a 2.75% 15 year!  The amount of money we will be saving from the interest alone is awesome. Wanna see?
I don’t know the exact numbers for our loan but it’s around 112,000 so we’ll use that for the sake of this.

$112,000  30 years
3.25%
Interest we would pay is $63,475

$112,000  15 years
2.75%
Interest we would pay is $24,810

Just by going with a 15 year it is saving us $38,665!!!

Now I know you will say you can just pay extra on your 30 year. The interest is still higher, plus the chances that you ACTUALLY pay extra on it is pretty slim just because ‘life happens’ and something will always come up that will put paying extra on the mortgage to the back burner. So we are doing the 15 year and we can still pay more on it. Our house payment only went up about $100/month and then when we get in that baby step we will be able to throw a ton extra on the house.

Saving almost $39K right off the bat is just awesome. Our goal is to save as much money as we can overall, not just right now because let’s face it, our incomes aren’t that high but we can still make it work in our favor.

Sorry to seem rambly. I feel like I’ve been stuck in this bubble of being debt free & not really having opportunities to help other people. I genuinely care about others making smart money choices so PLEASE feel free to message me if you are just getting started or would like to get started. Now is the perfect time! I highly recommend the class because it kind of closes all the gaps together of what you learn or think you know.

If you have a success story or want to share where you are in the baby steps message me below!

Are you ready for a change?

If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you will keep getting what you’ve been getting!

Classes are starting back up with the all NEW FPU! They shortened it to 9 classes (the others you can watch online at home) so it’s not as long as it used to be! I’m excited to help more families get started on the road to Financial Freedom!

Find an FPU class in your area!

DON’T WAIT!! Start your journey to Financial Freedom NOW!! Go. Hurry!! Let Dave save your money!!

Baby Step 1-

$1000 emergency fund in the bank. Completed September 2010.

Baby Step 2-

Pay off all debt (except the house) using the debt snowball. Completed September 2011.

Baby Step 3-

Fully funded emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses. (Because of our circumstances we are going for 12!) THIS IS WHERE WE ARE AT!

• We are still putting all ‘extra money’ into our baby step 3.

What’s in our savings account:

Baby Step 3b-

After you have a fully funded emergency fund you can start saving for things that you want. This is where you would save up for a house or something! ((We will eventually be saving for a newer vehicle possibly or something else, but this is when you will do it because your risk is decreased significantly with your fully funded emergency fund in place!))
COMING SOON

Baby Step 4-

Although we are no where near retirement it’s time to start investing 15% of our income!
COMING SOON

Baby Step 5-

Preparing the little guy (financially) for college
COMING SOON

Baby Step 6-

Start paying off the house early! What could we do without house payments?? Oh don’t even get me started! I cannot WAIT for that!
COMING LATER RATHER THAN SOONER I’M SURE 😛

Baby Step 7-

Build wealth & give

7 BABYSTEPS :

Baby Step #1: $1000 emergency fund ((Can be completed in 1-2 months))
Baby Step #2: Pay off all debt except the house using DEBT SNOWBALL. ((List your debts in order, from the smallest balance to the largest. The idea of the snowball is simple: pay minimum payments on all of your debts except for the smallest one. Then, attack that one with gazelle intensity! Every time you pay off a debt, you add its old minimum payment to your next debt payments. So, as the snowball rolls over, it picks up more snow.)) ((Avg time to complete this is 18-24 months))
Baby Step #3: 3-6 months expenses in savings completes your fully funded emergency fund
Baby Step #4: Invest 15% of household income to Roth IRA’s & pre tax retirement ((You do steps 4, 5, &6 all at the same time))
Baby Step #5: College funding for your children
Baby Step #6: Pay off your home early
Baby Step #7: Build wealth & GIVE!

This is our Journey through FPU!