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My Money Goals - Getting Honest with Myself

I have 4 main goals in my life right now. Most things that I do relate to achieving one or all 4 of these goals.

1. Establish an emergency savings
2. Get current on all bills
3. Get completely out of debt (credit card installments loans, student loans)
4. Finish construction work on my newish house

First things first, these are goals that both my husband and I agree on. Finances are literally one of the top reasons for divorce and discord in marriages. We both agree that these goals (yes all financially based) are important to us, our family and our lifestyle. Let's explore them one by one.

1. ESTABLISH AN EMERGENCY SAVINGS
Before any other goal we need cash in case of emergency. In the last 3 weeks we have had 3 pipes burst, furnace stopped working, flooded first floor of house and that's all in the first two weeks of the year. Emergencies happen (though usually not to this scale) and money is needed to fix things. If you have no cash reserve for emergencies then you take money from places where it's supposed to be. Bills don't get paid and you fall deeper into debt.

2. GET CURRENT ON ALL BILLS. I have been terrible my entire adult life with paying things on time. I blame my laid back personality. Nothing is ever a big deal until it's a big deal. Being late paying bills has been a bad habit that I have carried around for years. This goal is meant to create a fresh start for us. Having a zero balance on ALL housing, utility and other reoccurring bills will be empowering. Right now we're paying hundreds in late fees every month. This will stop. The plan includes, identifying total owed, keeping track of due dates in a calendar, setting up automatic bill pay accounts for just monthly bills and negotiating lower rates with all companies (especially internet, phone and cable). We're going to experiment with bundling insurance and adjusting our cell phone data plans.

3. GET COMPLETELY OUT OF DEBT (credit card installments loans, student loans) Americans have debt. They tell us it's healthy. They say it builds character. Man, forget that. Debt feels burdensome to me and limits my opportunities. So we're working together to get rid of as much of it as possible. Some steps we are taking:
- Increasing our income (side hustles, part time jobs, increased responsibility at day jobs)
- Reducing household bills (see above)
- Creating and sticking to a budget
- Cooking dinner nightly and taking breakfast and lunch to work daily
- Negotiating interest rates and settlement agreements with creditors
- Maintaining my car to reduce maintenance costs and gas needs
We're aggressively attacking this goal. We have a big number that we are trying to get down and are employing all avenues to pay it off.

4. FINISH CONSTRUCTION WORK ON MY NEWISH HOUSE We bought a house a year ago and have been doing work on it ever since. It has been a harrowing ordeal including a contractor who ran with a large sum of money and no completed work. Limited funds lead us to scraping together money however we could to get work completed. No emergency fund (see #1), lead to bills not getting paid (see #2) lead to overusing credit cards to get things taken care of (see #3). Everything is connected. We are closer to completion than ever and have a few thousand worth of work to put in to get it done for good. This will be a huge line item in our new budget but worth it. Accomplishing this goal will represent a peace of mind that we haven't had in a long time and once it's done we have a big chunk of money to reallocate to debt payoff.

So these are my money goals right now. My focus is 100% on accomplishing them. I'll check in about them periodically to let you know how I'm doing. Say a prayer and wish us luck!

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