Steps 13, 14, 15 and 16

on Monday, April 20, 2009

Seems I have fallen really far behind on my steps. I am going to do my best this week to catch up.

Step 13 deals with debt. As we all know I am working hard on pay down our debt. We have all of our debts listed on the side bar. The step explains the two snow ball methods. The first one being start with the smallest balances and the second starting with the highest interest rates. I can see both of them having advantages and disadvantages. We are tackling my credit card first (which is paid off now), then medical bills (awaiting an updated bill), and then finally his credit card. As soon as we get the updated bill we will be paying the medical bill in full this month. After that we're on to his credit card bill. We will still have our student loans but are not in a rush to pay those off just yet. Once we have all of our other debts paid off we'll have a lengthly discussion on what to do with the student loans. I have a feeling we'll just pay them on time each month until they are paid off.

Step 14 deals with emergency funds. We are working on building ours up. I am trying to adjust our budget so that we are able to put at least $300 per month into our emergency fund to build it up. As I said above we are working on paying off debt but I feel we need to build our emergency fund first. If we were to have an emergency right now we'd need to use our credit cards which would just create more debt. Increasing this savings account is more important to me at this time than paying down S's credit card.

Step 15 deals with retirement accounts. We do not have any yet. I just started working at my company and they require you to be here at least a year before you can open anything with them. I haven't opened an IRA yet but will do so this year. I don't think I'll be able to fully fund it this year but will try my hardest. I will also find out more about my company's 403b. I'm not even sure who to ask about that. I will find that out first and then get more information about retirement accounts. S is currently not working and does not have any income so he does not have any retirement accounts either. Our goal for this is to both have at least once account by the time we are 25.

Step 16 deals with commitment. I have posted my goals on the side bar of my blog. I sign in almost every day to update the 101 in 1001. I see these goals often and keep myself motivated that way.

Ok, that's enough work on this for today. I have some other things I want to start covering here. I want to cover my 101 in 1001. I also want to write more posts about O. I don't think I covered her enough here.

-M

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