Aspiring to be Debt Free

It's been on my Bucket List for a few years to be debt free by 30, but beyond making minimum payments (which wouldn't get me there), I wasn't really doing much. Then I finally read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and got inspired. The updated version with all the stories of real-life people becoming debt free and wealthy (many of them younger than me!) was the push I needed to make a serious plan.

By the way, did I mention I met him once? In Times Square? At Jon Acuff's S**** Book Launch?

In March I sat down, added up my debts and faced the music: at 27-years-old I owed $25,393. That's a big number. A lot of money. No credit card debt (I've been good about using that thing wisely), but between my student loans and my brand new car, it really added up. Now I needed a great way to get rid of it.

So, I started to plan. While I know Dave Ramsey has some great advice, I don't love everything he advises. It just doesn't work for me. I also love Suze Orman, so I kinda threw their philosophies together and created my own plan that would work for me. For example, I didn't cut up my credit cards like Dave says to do. Suze says it's okay for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke to have and use credit cards as long as they do so wisely. And given that I have an irregular work schedule or sometimes only get 4 shifts a month, I like the security of back up just in case. (I also like the bonuses I get from my one store credit card. I only use it when I'm buying something anyways, and pay it off that same week). I also kept more than $1K in my emergency fund, for the same job-insecurity reason. I have one month of spending/billpay in my emergency fund.

I knew I wanted to pay off before I was 30, preferably even sooner, so I started doing some math to see how much I was really paying each year, and how soon I could get rid of all that debt. After playing with the math, I figured two years would be very doable (And it puts me debt free a year before 30!)

Before making this plan I had $50 automatically going from my checking to savings every week. I stopped that and now divert it to my Debt Snowball. According to the plan, for this year, I make all my minimum payments on each debt. I pay and $50 every week. Then I need to pay an extra $414 each month ($96/week). Based on Dave's Snowball technique, my student loan will be the first to go, so the plan is for it to be gone in one year. Then everything I'm currently paying towards that loan will "snowball" over to my car loan. I made a chart to visualize it, but it was too boring.

Now that I had my plan, I needed a way to keep myself motivated. I did the math and found that becoming debt free according to plan would take 244 payments. I started to think about making some kind of coloring page, but that didn't work like I wanted it to. So I started looking at puzzles. I found that Shutterfly makes custom puzzles of 252 pieces, and they were on sale for less than $20! So I hunted for one of my best Living-Life-to-the-Fullest pictures that represented why I want to be debt free. I settled on this one:

Once I had it in hand, I sat down with my boring chart and all the puzzle pieces and wrote $$ amounts on each piece. I went all out: minimum payments, weekly $50, extra $96, the rollover starting next year, every expected payment has a puzzle piece waiting, plus a few extra pieces. I started labeling the edge pieces with all payments for the first few months, so I can have that done quick, then just divided the rest. It was time and brain consuming, but worth it.

Now every week I make my payments and add the appropriate pieces to the puzzle, which is in a nice $3 frame from Walmart, where the glass pops out instead of the back! Now I'm only 3 months in and the puzzle is coming together. Look! I've got an eye and Kathryn's got hair! 

I also keep track of it all in my journal and take a monthly assessment of where I'm at. It's exciting to see the numbers going DOWN in a big way! I've also got the plan listed right next to the tracking page to keep it in front of me.

 So far in three months I've knocked out $1500!! That's $1050 more than making minimum payments would've gotten me!! I've also gotten into the habit of paying an even $100 instead of the $96, which is making a nice mini dent, too. Every little bit adds up! If I can keep up this pace I'll have it all paid up even before the two year goal date!

Swirling Bumping Thoughts

Ever feel like there's too much going on in your mind? Like you can literally feel it swirling around in there and making a mess? That's how I'm feeling this evening. Wish I could get it all out on paper, nice and organized and complete so it wouldn't bump around up there, but every time I get a piece out, ten more take it's place. I can't win! My mind palace is not as efficient as Sherlock's.

There's too many projects and plans and ideas and possibilities all floating around in my head. I don't have the brainwidth or calendar time to act on them all! And let me tell you, there are some really good ones trapped in there. Hopefully I'll find a way to organize them so I can share them with you.

I need to figure out how to better manage my time to get these extra non-work, non-church-work ideas and projects into real life. Jon Acuff may have it right with the 5Club, but I don't think my body will allow me to get up and hustling at 5am. Especially since I'm working 3-11pm this month. But I really do need to find some time (and shut off the tv) for dreaming and planning. Because usually if I have down time, I want to shut off. I sit on the couch and veg out with mindless tv and Pinterest. I've got some ideas on this, so I just need to put it into action.

Would you like to help me start on one of these projects? Leave me a comment with a conversion/salvation story from the Bible (reference appreciated). And when I say salvation, I mean a person turning to God and being eternally saved kind of thing, not like the Israelites were saved from Egypt kind of thing.

How do you find time to dream and plan for those extra things bumping around your mind?

New Year, New Goals

I realized that we're nine days into this new year, but I haven't shared anything about my New Year's goals! So let's share a little bit. I don't like to make resolutions because I feel like they always get broken. I mean, it's basically expected for you to not complete your resolutions. So I like goals better. Preferably goals that can be measured and have steps to get there.

This picture is from December when I was making my 2013 plan. My wrist was kinda sore from working out and stuff, so I was wearing the brace. I got a lot most of the "how-to" for my plan from this post (disclaimer: I don't agree with or condone the language/lifestyle represented in this blog, but there's also some great goal organization tips!) Now, if you don't want to read that whole thing (or did read it and got completely confused, like I did the first two times), let me describe how I planned my 2013! Note: I changed some of the things from Nicole's blog to better suit me.

First I sat down to reflect. Actually, I did this twice. This whole process of prepping for 2013 took me several sittings because I didn't want to rush into it. So I sat down and thought about my 2012. What were the highlights? What did I accomplish? Where did I fail? I used my blog and Facebook albums to remind me of some things I almost forgot about. And I wrote it all down. I took up a whole sheet of paper with awesome things! 

The post I was using as a guide uses step two to choose a word or phrase to motivate your year. I skipped this. Mainly because I couldn't settle on something! The closest I can come, even still, is "focus". Or "me". Or "passion". See, I can't decide! So I skipped this one.

Then, with the past in the past, I started looking to the future. I looked at my goals from 2012 to see if I wanted/needed to carry any over to 2013. Things like "reach goal weight" and "become debt free" fall into this category. But, before actually writing a list of goals, I made a list of "Life Buckets", or categories. These are the areas of your life that make up who you are, all the important bits. I ended up with 8 categories, such as "External Ashley", "Internal Ashley", "Relationships",  and "Adventure". 

Once you have your categories, make three goals for the year in each one. For example, under my Adventure category, my three year-long goals are 1) Try one new, slightly uncomfortable thing per month 2) Leave the country twice and 3) Learn Spanish. These are big goals, but that's what you want here! Something big but achievable in a year. If you have 8 categories as I do, you should have 24 goals. (I actually have two categories with an extra goal each...shh! don't tell!)

So how are you possibly going to achieve all 24+ of these goals?! Easy. At the beginning of each month (say, on the first?) you will sit down with your list and write one action step for each goal that you will accomplish that month. Which means you will have 24+ small action steps (which are basically baby goals) to do each month. Now, these won't always be done. In which case, you carry some over. But having them on paper is inspiring and motivational! I can't wait to cross things off my list and get closer to meeting these goals!! 

Finally, because I like things pretty, I made these goals pretty! I put my categories and goals on pretty paper, all scrapbook like, to hang up where I can see it every day to help motivate me. At the beginning of the month, I used my journal to record my action steps for the month. I even had space at the bottom of the page, so I will draw a smiley face for everything I complete on my list. Is it weird that that's a lot of motivation for me?! 

We're nine days into the year, and so far my new goal system is going great! I think I am actively working on half of my action steps at this time, so it must be working! To recap this: 8 Categories, with three goals each. Each goal gets an action step every month to get you closer to that goal. Easy Peasy. Good luck! 

Did you set goals for the year? How are you working towards them? What motivates you to keep going towards them?

Organization

Being sick on the couch and searching the internet has led me to the decision that I must clean and organize my house. I had started back in August, and did pretty well, but I need to finish it up! In my surfing, I've discovered these two blogs that have a TON of awesome ideas...plus, they make it all so pretty!

They have soooo many great ideas, with links to other great organizing ideas and products! With all these ideas, I can't wait to get started! Except....I'm still sick and barely getting off the couch. For now, scribbling ideas on a notepad for next week when I'm not sick anymore.

What's your best organizing strategy?