Frugal Friday!

In 2009, Matt and I took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class at our church.  It was a great class and completely changed the way we budgeted and looked at money.  During the 12-week class, we paid off Matt's truck and our credit card.  Since then, we have closed our credit card and haven't used one since.  We haven't even missed it!  Because of what we learned in this class, we were able to support our family of 4 on an income of $19,200 while Matt was a meter-reader, we were able to pay $5,000 that we had to bring to our home closing when we sold our house in Illinois, and we acquired no new debt during this time.  Don't get me wrong, there was A LOT of rice and bean eating and a lot of sacrifice, but we were determined to stick to the plan!   

We still have a loooooong way to go, but today I wanted to share Dave's 7 baby step approach.  Hope you find this useful!  :)  

(Taken from www.daveramsey.com)

Here's the process:

Baby Step 1

$1,000 to start an Emergency Fund

An emergency fund is for those unexpected events in life that you can’t plan for: the loss of a job, an unexpected pregnancy, a faulty car transmission, and the list goes on and on. It’s not a matter of if these events will happen; it’s simply a matter of when they will happen.

Baby Step 2

Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball

List your debts, excluding the house, in order. The smallest balance should be your number one priority. Don’t worry about interest rates unless two debts have similar payoffs. If that’s the case, then list the higher interest rate debt first.

Baby Step 3

3 to 6 months of expenses in savings

Once you complete the first two baby steps, you will have built serious momentum. But don’t start throwing all your “extra” money into investments quite yet. It’s time to build your full emergency fund. 

Baby Step 4

Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement

When you reach this step, you’ll have no payments—except the house—and a fully funded emergency fund. Now it’s time to get serious about building wealth. 

Baby Step 5

College funding for children

By this point, you should have already started Baby Step 4—investing 15% of your income—before saving for college. Whether you are saving for you or your child to go to college, you need to start now. 

Baby Step 6

Pay off home early

Now it’s time to begin chunking all of your extra money toward the mortgage. You are getting closer to realizing the dream of a life with no house payments. 

Baby Step 7

Build wealth and give!

It’s time to build wealth and give like never before. Leave an inheritance for future generations, and bless others now with your excess. It's really the only way to live!