0 Dark 30

Just checked my credit card statements online, and as I mentioned the other day, they are now officially a big ZERO!

One of my colleagues from work who’s also been on a quest to lose weight is fond of the saying “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” Well, I’d have to say that at the moment, I can’t think of anything I could buy that would feel as good as having paid off our credit cards completely. Again, there’s work to be done before we’ll be able to claim the mantle of debt-free family, but we’re making progress and that’s what matters.

Continue reading...

I’ve gotten in the habit of listening to podcasts during my workouts, since it’s pretty much impossible to read while rowing (I used to read while using the NordicTrack, since I had a book holder for it). Since I work in the software industry, most of what I listen to is stuff like DotNetRocks, Deep Fried Bytes, Herding Code, and similar stuff. But while trolling around on the Zune Marketplace the other day, I noticed that there was a Dave Ramsey Show podcast listed. It’s pretty much just a highlight reel from his radio show, but since I like listening to his advice to callers, I started subscribing.

One of the things that is helpful in listening to Dave Ramsey is being reminded of just how blessed our family is, and of the fact that we are pretty far along when it comes to implementing our Total Money Makeover, and getting control of our debt. In fact, once we get our tax refund (whether or not we should be allowing the feds to keep that much of our money is a topic for another post), we will be able to pay off the last of our credit card debt. While we didn’t start with as much credit card debt as some of the folks who call into DR, that’s still a great feeling, particularly since we really only got started with this back in late December.

It does make me kind of sad to hear many of these folks who call in who are clearly making some very bad financial decisions. One guy had filed for bankruptcy, and was asking Dave whether he should try to pay off the credit card he had been advised by a credit counselor to open to “build up his credit rating,” which he had gotten behind on. Another caller was 47, unemployed, and living with their father, while living off a severance package and being pretty casual about getting a new job.

Continue reading...

For years, my wife and I had our taxes done by a local (or semi-local, since we moved pretty far from them back in ‘04) CPA firm, in part because prior to joining my current employer, I ran my own business, and the added complexity was more than we wanted to take on. We continued using the firm because they did a great job, and we figured that the $500-600 that we were paying was no big deal compared to the headaches of doing it ourselves.

Well, with our starting on a Total Money Makeover, this expenditure, particularly given that I shut down my corporation several years ago, seemed extravagant at best, given that a copy of TurboTax or TaxCut (we ended up going with the former) runs about $50.

My wife ran the numbers, and thankfully, we’re getting a refund on both our federal and state returns. While I’m not particularly interested in letting either the feds or the state use my money free of charge, I’m also not keen on writing large checks on April 15th (then again, if we all had to write a check for our full tax burden on April 15th, would that perhaps make us look differently at how much our governments spend?). One thing to note if you’re considering the route of DIY tax software is that while either of the major players will allow you to e-file, and TurboTax provides up to 5 free e-file returns, e-filing for state is not free (or not included with the software license, if you prefer). This clearly comes as a surprise to most folks, based on some of the negative reviews I saw on Amazon. So just be aware, if you want to e-file both federal and state, you’ll get hit with an additional charge on top of purchasing the software. Still quite a bit cheaper than the CPA route, but something to consider.

Continue reading...

This story should be a wake-up call to anyone who has no savings:

Whatever happened to developing an emergency fund to cover rainy day expenses? Apparently many Americans haven't heard of this practice (or at least aren't applying it) and now with the economy in the tanker, their financial lives are hanging by a thread. US News reports that half of Americans are two paychecks away from hardship.

As I’ve discussed in previous posts, my wife and I have embarked on our Total Money Makeover, and the very first baby step is socking away a starter emergency fund so that life’s gotchas don’t totally derail the process of getting out of debt and off of credit cards. In this economic climate, it might be prudent to boost the starter emergency fund a bit, since the potential risks may be higher. But the point of the story, and of the Total Money Makeover is that you need to plan ahead and not count on your income always being what it currently is, or on being able to borrow to cover unexpected financial crises (what happens if you lose your job AND your creditors decide to cut you off?).

Continue reading...

In his book, The Total Money Makeover, financial guru and radio/TV personality Dave Ramsey recommends a tried and true strategy for getting rid of debt. Dave calls it the Debt Snowball. The idea is pretty simple. Create and stick with a budget each month that cuts expenses back to the bare minimum, and curtail all non-essential spending. Use what’s left to pay off the debt or credit card with the smallest balance, while making minimum payments on all others. Once you’ve paid the smallest off, take what you were paying on that one, and attack the next one. As you pay off balances, the amount you have available to pay down the next gets larger, thus the debt snowball.

Continue reading...

Getting on the path to financial fitness involves a major commitment. And if you’re deeply in debt, that commitment can seem truly overwhelming. But as the saying goes, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

That theme is echoed throughout Dave Ramsey’s great book Total Money Makeover, which takes the readers through a series of achievable “baby steps” to financial freedom.

Continue reading...