Earn Double Swagbucks today!

Okay, so I have been meaning to let you guys know about Swagbucks for a while now… since it is Mega Swagbucks day today I won’t keep it a secret any longer.  Here goes…

Swagbucks is a search engine just like Google or Yahoo, except that you earn points when you search for things that you can redeem for giftcards!  I just earned enough points for my first Target Giftcard this past week!  Yay, free money for Christmas shopping!!  From what I am hearing you can also refer people and earn some points too!  You will be my first referrals,  so I will report back on this!  This is my link HERE … sign up and then refer your friends!!

*hint* I have this set as my hompage on our desktop so that I don’t forget to use it when I am searching for things!

My number one financial tip!

I have people ask me all the time what my biggest piece of advice is for their financial situation.  I tell them that the simplest, yet most important advice that I can give to anyone, no matter how much money they make is to spend less money than they earn!  It isn’t some fancy complicated advice, it’s simple…. do NOT have more money going out at the end of the month than you have coming in!  Last Friday, I posted about understanding the reality of your finances by budgeting HERE.  If you have a budget set up you should know two things:  how much money is coming in and how much money is going out!   If you have more money going out then you need to make some adjustments-either decrease your spending or earn more money!

I also want to clarify what I mean by spending less than you earn.  This does not mean spend everything that you earn!  No, if you are spending every dime of what you earn every month, even if you currently aren’t in debt, you are setting yourself up to find yourself in a big mess.  There needs to be money left over so that you can start preparing for the future.  For some that means saving a small amount for emergencies and then attacking debt so they can later really prepare for the future.  For others that means saving a larger emergency fund and then saving for goals, such as buying a home, saving for a vacation and saving for retirement.

The really cool thing about spending less money than what you earn is that you stop worrying about money!  Once you have a budget that allows you to have some wiggle room, you stop living paycheck to paycheck and you aren’t trying to figure out where the money to pay for everything is every month!  Don’t ignore this common sense principal!  It might be difficult at first to figure out how to cut expenses and/or add extra income, but if you change your mindset it will make a huge difference!  Yes, you can live without cable, fast food and new purses and you should until you have room to include these things in your budget! And there are almost always ways to earn extra income, even if it means having to take on a second job for a short period of time-this one isn’t fun either, as my husband and I can tell you from experience-BUT it did make a  BIG difference in our finances!  Make some changes and spend less than you earn!

Understanding the Reality of Your Finances

Knowing and understanding the reality of your finances is the first step to having your finances under control.  This is where most people make a mistake, even those who have a “good income” and are not in “financial trouble.”  The problem is when you don’t understand where your money is going, your financial future is at risk.

Starting with a reality check of your current finances will help you make the decision of where you are headed for the future.  In order to figure out where you stand you will need to create a budget, follow through with the budget and change it as necessary. 

CREATE A BUDGET- Many people cringe at the sound of the word budget, their mind immediately wanders to thoughts of having to live without the things that they enjoy most.  Although there may be things that you will have to go without if, creating a written plan will simply help you see where your money is going and decide for yourself instead of letting other things decide where your money is going.  Creating your budget should occur before the money comes in that month.  You should know where every dollar is going before you have the money in your account.  This doesn’t mean there can’t be any “fun” money or “blow” money as we call it, you just need to plan ahead.  When you create your first budget it will not be perfect and it might take several months for it to begin working.  Don’t give up, once you have it figured out you will feel more free than ever (totally opposite of what you expect starting out).  *It took Kevin and I 3 months before we were able to figure out a plan that worked for us, but we kept at it until it worked for both of us.*

FOLLOW THROUGH  It doesn’t make sense to have a budget and not follow it.  I have talked to many people who have set up a budget, sometimes dozens of budgets, but haven’t followed through with them.  I have seen several reasons for this.  Many times it is because they feel their budget is so restrictive and they can’t do the things that they want to do.  This is where planning is important.  If you know you have friends coming from out of town on a particular weekend, plan ahead.  Have a form of entertainment planned in your home or budget for an evening out.  We also have a discretionary spending category that we put money into in case something unexpected comes up.  Most of the time we don’t use this and it goes back into our account, but if feels better to have this security net.  Other times people give up because it doesn’t work the first time.  It takes time and practice.  Just as you don’t know everything about parenting just because you have a child, you won’t know everything about finances and budgeting just because you create your first budget.  It is a learning process and you will become better at it the longer you do it.  Keep at it!

SCHEDULE AND READJUST  This is another reason why people give up, but is important enough to be in its own category.  First you need to schedule time every month to work on your budget.  If you are married, one person might be better at numbers or enjoy working with budgets more than another.  If that is so then that person should be in charge of working with the numbers, but there still needs to be a time that the two of you sit down and review everything to make sure that everything is still working for both of you.  Life happens and changes will occur that force you to move your budget around.  Just because this budget worked for you in December doesn’t mean that it will still work for you in March.  It is really easy to give up if it isn’t working, but again if you plan ahead and are flexible with changes you will be more successful with your finances.

Financial Fridays!!

Okay, so I have had multiple conversations over the promised Financial Fridays posts in the last week.  I have so much to say, as many of you already know, that I really pondered where to begin.   Then it clicked!!!  I am going to start with our story and how I became so passionate about this subject!   Because really that’s is where it begins!   So….seven years ago, I married one amazing man right smack dab in the middle of our college years!  We then proceeded to have two children while in college, our first daughter during the middle of our junior year and our second daughter during our senior year.  Yes, we were totally crazy, but absolutely loved it!  So already you see where this is going financially.  We were absolutely broke!  We then graduated college, signed a loan for our first home (before Kevin even started teaching, yikes)!  Within the year after graduating we got pregnant with our son, so of course we needed that new minivan to hold our ever expanding family!  Well, with a new house, new car and a “big” family I completely admit that we were not being totally sane with our money decisions!  We got a credit card or two… let’s just say at the end of 2007 we had about $25,000 on those credit cards, along with a couple of vehicle loans and a huge amount of student loans, all in all we had over $100,000 that we were sort of starting to freak out about, not to mention a home loan.  In between our second and third child I had started working almost full time during the day to help us maintain our lifestyle (which was not really extravagant), and I cried many many days because I really wanted to be the one raising my children.

This is the part where I became very PASSIONATE!  After I took my 3 month maternity leave in the beginning of 2007 I was literally sick about having to go back to work.  I hadn’t worked when my others were babies and I didn’t want to with him either.  I prayed and prayed for something to change, I begged and cried out to God to show me how to do it.   Finally I realized that God was just waiting for me to understand that I just needed to trust Him.  In August of 2007 we started a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class and within 3 months I started staying home, working part time on the weekends for about 9 months and have been home with my family now for over a year.  We became very passionate about making wise decisions with our money, and we have paid off $48,000 of that debt in the last two years.  We plan to have the other half paid off in the next two and a half years.  The biggest part for us was realizing that we had to make a plan to decide where our money was going and also to be mature enough to continually make wise decisions on our spending.  Which we all know that being mature does not always come easily!!!  Many time it is still difficult for both of us, but we know where we would be if we were still driving recklessly down that path with our money and we definately do not like that thought.

This is the shortened version of our story.  There are many details that I left out, but I think this sums it up fairly well.  We are very blessed that we began taking care of our finances as early as we did, and I am glad that we have faced some trials in our finances because now we have become very disciplined and are sure of our financial future.