Dumping Debt and Building Wealth with Dave Ramsey*~ September - Page 2

[MCsMom]

Hi Everyone! Financially, things are going well this month. It was nice to put a large chunk into our savings account. And I got some plane tickets and it was nice, I transfered the money right away to my credit card after I purchased them. It certainly frees up our money when we do not have to pay on any debts.

[Jilian]

Originally Posted by Bunnyflakes

Does anyone do the 0 based budget where you tell each dollar where to go? That makes me nervous, for some reason. Can anyone explain it better to me or tell me how they like it? I am always paranoid that we will run out of milk or something. Not that milk isn't something you *can* go without. I don't know, I just worry and think too much. Especially with gas, how do you know how much you will need for gasoline?

We do it and it has been GREAT! Before I started it I looked back at my last 3 mos to figure out how much to budget for groceries and gas. I also keep an "unexpected but necessary" envelope for unexpected extras like running out of milk or needing more gas than I budgest for. I try to keep $250 in that envelope at all times.

I also hang onto my snowball money through the month and send it in one lump payment. So there is always the option of taking extra from the snowball if needed. Try it out, it works very well. It makes me less likely to do unnecessary spending when I know where I am borrowing that money from. I'm less likely to go buy a Starbucks coffee when I know it comes out of our grocery budet for the week.

[erikaa]

anyone here real estate and stock investment savvy? my DH and I have 2 major assests that we could liquidate.
One is some Bank of America Stock my grandfater gifted to me, it's worth abuot 33k today.
The other is a rental property we own in Myrtle Beach. We'd make about $35k if we sold it.
If we did either one we could accomplish BS 2 and probably cover a good part of BS 3.
We are unsure about tax implications and which option would be the smartest way to go.
any thoughts? thanks! erika

[Nora_SEA]

Originally Posted by Jilian

I'm less likely to go buy a Starbucks coffee when I know it comes out of our grocery budet for the week.

Ditto! I can only wish I had seen the light before now!

I don't run that "tight" of a budget though. Our income can vary by up to 2500+/mo depending on how payroll falls. We normally have 6 paychecks/mo, but sometimes 8. I probably should run a 4 week budget to be more accurate, but I started by the month.

Erikaa - I would call in and ask DR!!! I don't know how much debt you carry, but it seems like he usually suggests to get out of it by all means possible. I would talk to your accountant regarding your tax questions.

[Contrariety]

BAH!! I finally got DH on board with Dave Ramsey!! How did I do it?? I'll never know! Unfortunately, it took a year to get him on board, and a HUGE wake up call when he scaled back work to go back to school. It had to take us having drastic budget cuts to make the commitment for him. Too bad he wouldn't commit a year ago, or we'd be just killing off my student loan debt. Oh well. He's committed. I'm committed.

Hi. My name is Lynette and I have *no* money in savings.

BS1- $0/$1000

We have a tight budget this month with DH's tuition due and textbooks to finish buying, but I'm going to try and at least put a few dollars away by the end of the month, even if it's only $50!

I *so* need this accountability!

[Purple*Lotus]

Originally Posted by lactivistmama

I am going to join in too
We are beginning Dave Ramsey! So excited! (except for the fact that we are on the get current step : ) But even at that, we see light at the end of the tunnel eventually (after my gazillion payments are made to my student loan I stayed home with my children for 4 years, and just went back to work last month. It was really hard, but we were digging ourselves into a hole financially with me not working, so it had to be done

Welcome!

Originally Posted by MCsMom

Hi Everyone! Financially, things are going well this month. It was nice to put a large chunk into our savings account. And I got some plane tickets and it was nice, I transfered the money right away to my credit card after I purchased them. It certainly frees up our money when we do not have to pay on any debts.

That is great

Originally Posted by Jilian

We do it and it has been GREAT! Before I started it I looked back at my last 3 mos to figure out how much to budget for groceries and gas. I also keep an "unexpected but necessary" envelope for unexpected extras like running out of milk or needing more gas than I budgest for. I try to keep $250 in that envelope at all times.

I also hang onto my snowball money through the month and send it in one lump payment. So there is always the option of taking extra from the snowball if needed. Try it out, it works very well. It makes me less likely to do unnecessary spending when I know where I am borrowing that money from. I'm less likely to go buy a Starbucks coffee when I know it comes out of our grocery budet for the week.

Thanks! I might just try that "unexpected but necessary" catagory. I am bad at tracking receipts. I need to attempt to do that as well!

Originally Posted by Contrariety

BAH!! I finally got DH on board with Dave Ramsey!! How did I do it?? I'll never know! Unfortunately, it took a year to get him on board, and a HUGE wake up call when he scaled back work to go back to school. It had to take us having drastic budget cuts to make the commitment for him. Too bad he wouldn't commit a year ago, or we'd be just killing off my student loan debt. Oh well. He's committed. I'm committed.

Hi. My name is Lynette and I have *no* money in savings.

BS1- $0/$1000

We have a tight budget this month with DH's tuition due and textbooks to finish buying, but I'm going to try and at least put a few dollars away by the end of the month, even if it's only $50!

I *so* need this accountability!

Welcome! You can do this

[Contrariety]

Woot! I just listed some furniture for sale on craigslist! Emergency fund, here I come!

[mamimapster]

WE DID IT!!! CC #1 with 30% interest rate is PAID OFF!!!!
BS 0-done
BS1 1,000 to start an Emergency Fund --DONE!!
BS 1.1- Adoption 500/2200-sent 1st pmt, in court 8/8-600/2200 as of 8/12
BS2 Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball

HBSC Cc-DONE!!!:
Elan Cc-2289.92
Working Assets Cc-3700/3650
Citi-7720/7620
Student Loans 39,000( Pie in the Sky!!)

BS3- (3-6 mos)looking forward to working on this.
BS4-15 percent of household income to retirement-not yet.
BS5 College funding for children-not there yet.
BS6 Pay off home early-Ditto
BS7 Build wealth and give! Invest in mutual funds and real estate-ditto

[Jilian]

Congrats Mami! I'll bet it feels really good to have that off your back!

I have engaged in an all-out selling spree! I am selling evrything and anything in order to get out of debt. I have reached a new level of gazelle intensity We should be debt free except for DH's massive student loan in one year. The loan will take us 39 more mos to pay off but I'm ok with that.

[phathui5]

We are on Baby Step 4-6, though dh is currently unemployed so we're at a standstill. Luckily, between my income, unemployment and the emergency fund, we're not stressing out about money.

[Purple*Lotus]

Originally Posted by Contrariety

Woot! I just listed some furniture for sale on craigslist! Emergency fund, here I come!

That is great!

Originally Posted by mamimapster

WE DID IT!!! CC #1 with 30% interest rate is PAID OFF!!!!
BS 0-done
BS1 1,000 to start an Emergency Fund --DONE!!
BS 1.1- Adoption 500/2200-sent 1st pmt, in court 8/8-600/2200 as of 8/12
BS2 Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball

HBSC Cc-DONE!!!:
Elan Cc-2289.92
Working Assets Cc-3700/3650
Citi-7720/7620
Student Loans 39,000( Pie in the Sky!!)

BS3- (3-6 mos)looking forward to working on this.
BS4-15 percent of household income to retirement-not yet.
BS5 College funding for children-not there yet.
BS6 Pay off home early-Ditto
BS7 Build wealth and give! Invest in mutual funds and real estate-ditto

Congrats!

Originally Posted by Jilian

Congrats Mami! I'll bet it feels really good to have that off your back!

I have engaged in an all-out selling spree! I am selling evrything and anything in order to get out of debt. I have reached a new level of gazelle intensity We should be debt free except for DH's massive student loan in one year. The loan will take us 39 more mos to pay off but I'm ok with that.

I hope you are able to sell a lot

Originally Posted by phathui5

We are on Baby Step 4-6, though dh is currently unemployed so we're at a standstill. Luckily, between my income, unemployment and the emergency fund, we're not stressing out about money.

Okay, today was pay day and I did a 2 week 0 budget. It is my first time telling every dollar where to go! I included a Unbudgeted but Neccessary envelope with $100 in it to help calm my nerves a bit

Here are my steps so far:
BS #1 Done
BS#2:
CC#1: 411.60- should be paid off next pay check
CC#2: 3681.66
Auto Loan: 5332.57
CC#3: 6306.49
Student Loan: 18732.52

I also cancelled an auto delivery for an item that I do not need more than I want out of debt. We are trying to be more gazelle. Trying to cut out everything that we can.

[Jilian]

Originally Posted by Bunnyflakes

Okay, today was pay day and I did a 2 week 0 budget. It is my first time telling every dollar where to go! I included a Unbudgeted but Neccessary envelope with $100 in it to help calm my nerves a bit

Here are my steps so far:
BS #1 Done
BS#2:
CC#1: 411.60- should be paid off next pay check
CC#2: 3681.66
Auto Loan: 5332.57
CC#3: 6306.49
Student Loan: 18732.52

I also cancelled an auto delivery for an item that I do not need more than I want out of debt. We are trying to be more gazelle. Trying to cut out everything that we can.

Congrats, I hope it works out well for you. You're probably going to feel like you've gotten a raise now that every dollar has a job.

[Contrariety]

Not that I'm even close to it at all, but when I get around to paying my student loans, should I snowball them individually? Right now, I only make one payment which is applied accordingly to all my loans... DH's student loans are like that, too (though we aren't going to pay his until we pay mine since he has not yet graduated and we aren't paying on them yet). What do you think?

I can't decide. I lean toward paying them individually, since, perhaps I will feel a greater sense of accomplishment...

[Nora_SEA]

We are NO WHERE near to snowballing our student loans either. They will be the last bills we tackle. Our student loans are all combined as well. (Like 4 different loans on the same Wells Fargo Student Svc. Stmt.) When the pmts are auto-deducted from our checking each month, they are applied to the oldest one first. Is that how yours is? I never thought about splitting them out. Besides they are all the same interst rates.

[Jilian]

Same here, DH has about 3 or 4 loans combined on one bill and right not it is deferred for another few mos. I never thought about splitting them. Can you split them back up after they've been consolidated?

[Contrariety]

My student loans aren't consolidated, but I financed them all from the same lender, so I only have to make one payment, which pays the minimum on all the loans... though I am paying at least $40 extra every month and have never paid attention to where the extra money is applied... I should check that out. When I make my payment online, I have the option of paying each one individually or making one lump payment that covers them all... so I assume it would be easy enough to single one out at a time to tackle? Maybe I should start paying the minimum and then manually put the extra 40 on the lowest one?

[heymama1plus1]

Hello! Longtime lurker, been a DR nut for a few years. We did "stupid with zeros on the end" via rental properties when we were first married 8 years ago (if we hadn't I'd be sitting in a paid off house not working, ugg!) but since we "drank the kool-aid" life's been good.

My DH and I are both nurses, which is a blessing both because we make good $ and the hours are very flexible... we both work 30 hours a week and take turns staying home with our kids (14m DD, 4yo DS). We don't get many days off together, but that'll come.

Thanks to DR, we had a nice big EF when I got pregnant with DD. We cashflowed a homebirth with all the trimmings (doula, tub, Hypnobabies, etc). However, we didn't know that she came with a twin brother named Murphy!!

On the day I went into labor, our car was totalled ($7,000 replacement). Then our kitchen flooded ($3000). Then our furnace died ($2000). Then (thanks to some bad tax advice from the rental property nightmare) we were audited and got a nice 5 figure tax bill (that was from the state... I'm sure the feds are coming). And our dog flipped out during a thunderstorm while we were gone one night and did $2000 of damage (thanks Hurricane Fluffy).

Had this happened pre-DR, don't know what I would have done. But we were able to cash flow it all except the car (bought it when my DD was literally 2 days old, not how I wanted to spend my babymoon-- test driving used cars). But we paid the car off in 8 months.

We don't use the envelope system per se... we have a spreadsheet where we start at the beginning of the month and list when all the bills are due (they come out automatically). We use our cash card only for gas. Every payday (we get paid opposite weeks, so that's every Firday) we take out our spending money for the week. It's not divided into categories, but we've been good about it so far. If we have a big car repair this week, no groceries. If we need new shoes, we have to wait with something else. We've found anything can wait a week, and it's easy to be patient when we know more money will be coming at the beginning of the month.

We also give ourselves an allowance at the beginning of the month. Since my DH has a lot of expensive hobbies, and mine (for the last 4 years) have been gestating and lactating, this avoids the fights of "no you can't do that". It also means I have a lot of money in my personal piggy bank, but soon I can start going back to some of my old hobbies that I had pre-kids.

I just LOVE Dave Ramsey. I keep trying to get people on board at work and I've had a few interested parties. I just think once you read the book I don't know how you could go back to the old way. I'm so excited to find a group that's as "abnormal" as I am!!

BS 1-- done!
BS 2-- done!
BS 3-- got about 2+ months in right now
BS 4-- have got some saved from pre-DR days, I'm doing 2% right now to get the free match; we both have pensions through our nursing union
BS 5-- doing a little bit; hope to cash flow most of it
BS 6-- at our current rate of saving, we'll have our house paid off in 7 years at age 40!
BS 7-- soon enough!

[phathui5]

I can't decide. I lean toward paying them individually, since, perhaps I will feel a greater sense of accomplishment...

If you can pay them individually, then that makes sense to me. When we were in Baby Step 2, I loved seeing the debts die off.

[kmb9906]

I'm in! I lurked in the Aug. thread! We have a pretty good headstart ... we just need to get serious about buying a house. I am taking a PT, WAH job to help bring in extra income.

BS1 $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund - DONE
BS2 Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball - DONE - debt-free! Woo hoo!!
BS3 Three to six months of expenses in savings - DONE
BS4 Invest 15 percent of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement - DONE
BS5 College funding for children - STARTED
BS6 Pay off home early
BS7 Build wealth and give! Invest in mutual funds and real estate

[llamalluv]

Hey, y'all! Checking in from ingloriously hot Phoenix! 108F today! How's that for a vacation?!

Here are our starting numbers for September:

September debt numbers:
Mastercard 2...3,393.02
Student Ln 1...2,963.13
Student Ln 2...6,773.58
Auto Loan.......9,789.16
-----------------------
Balance......$22,918.89

I believe we have set our goal this month at $1200, due to the vacation expenses, and we are also buying a freezer and 200 pounds of beef.