To review the goal for the month: I will read two financial fitness books and apply what I have learned to my personal finances so I can have a solid get-out-of debt plan by January 31, 2018. (Books: Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover and Financial Fitness by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward). 1 Corinthians 16:2
In my reading, I realized I had missed a step: budgeting. Using percentage of my income, here is what I have been doing and what the new 0-based budget will reflect until I can get my debt paid off.
Step .5: Budget Plan
| Budget | Old Plan | New Plan |
| Tithing | 5% | 10% |
| Self (savings) | 0% | 10% |
| Cost of Living | 68% | 68% |
| Debt | 3% | 13% |
| Fun | 0% | 0% |
Step 1: Save $1,000 emergency fund – Complete
Step 2: Start a debt snowball. As part of the de-clutter challenge I’m doing, I will sell the stuff we have decided to get rid of instead of donating it. All money will go towards paying off the smallest amount on my debt sheet. Tax returns will also go to paying off the debt. I am going to have to suck it up and start applying for another part-time job and the money from that job will be directly applied to the debt. I was thinking about going back to school, but I now think that I can set school as my personal reward (given I get scholarships or grants to do so — NO MORE DEBT!) when I have paid off three of my major debts and gotten my first college loans forgiven. Without knowing how much I will be able to do with the selling of stuff (side note, Chris Brady has a fabulous story called “Stuff” in the book. Motivated me to do the de-clutter activity for the week in a day!) and another job, I calculated that I should be ready to go back to school by 2020 — ironically that is the year one of the schools I’m looking at will have another fast-track degree program open. Humm . . . God has a plan here after all!
If you did the goal with me, I’d love to hear how it went! Leave me a comment below. I’m working on getting a few book club groups going — one specifically about finances. These will have a fee, and we will have meetings on a regular basis. I will keep you notified as I get all the bugs worked out!
