I am currently working through The Financial Peace Planner by Dave Ramsey. Right before, I had read through his Financial Peace book and More Than Enough both by Dave Ramsey.
Currently I started the section on saving. Thankfully, we are debt free and are building our full emergency fund.
He says there are 3 reasons to save
- Emergencies
- Major purchases such as cars or furniture
- Wealth Building: giving, retirement, estate planning
My 2019 Financial Goals are based on these three reasons.
The Key to Saving is SACRIFICE. You have to be willing to give up something now so you can have more later. Quote from the FPP.
I feel that saving isn’t taught enough. I recently saw my Social Security Statement and it blew me away. From 1990-1995, right before I went to my four year college I made $46,000. I had nothing to show for it. I had to get student loans and work 3 jobs in college so I could afford to go. If I had even saved 15% I could have had $7,000. If I had saved 20%, which would have been easy to do when you don’t have bills, I could have had $9200. Still not enough to avoid debt, but it would have helped. So I am teaching my children to save. I talk about saving and all time.
So here are my 2019 financial goals:
- Replenish my emergency fund. We had a set back last year so we used up our emergency fund. This year, I am on a mission to save it back up. I have several goals along the way including doing a NO Spend February. I guesstimated that if we only pay bills we could save $2,000 this month!
- My daughter and I will be taking a trip in 2021 when she turns 21. I am opening an account at ally.com and start putting money into it so that we have a good chunk saved. It will be a joint account so she can start saving too. Again, teaching her to save for what she wants.
- My third goal: To fund my accounts by selling things around my house. I have alot of stuff. This is why I am doing the Decluttering Diet. I will purge and sell. My goal is to have several garage sales (I actually enjoy doing them) and sell things online. If I can sell $300 a month that would be a nice chunk of change for our funds.
So, first step is starting the Decluttering Diet. Just this first few weeks I have already accumulated a lot of things for our first garage sale. This first week is just the detox. Every month after that I will be focusing on a room maybe even two.
Second step, is to cut back in our budget. I was going to do a NO Spend February but that fell apart. BUT! I am still doing a low spend February and trying to living out of our pantry as much as possible. Its a challenge but so far I have saved alot. First week I only spent $60 at the grocery store. And last week I spent around $112. Most weeks I spend $200.
Third step will be selling. I have so much homeschool curriculum to sell. I think it is at least $700-$1000 worth of curriculum. If I can sell most of it that will give me a good jump start for our savings accounts.
So for now, I am saving for emergencies and big purchases. Once I have funded all my emergency fund, I will move on to savings reason #3 which is build wealth and give.
Ligia
