We have been trying to keep up with the changes happening in our family recently. Unfortunately, that meant taking on a new car loan. Our family had outgrown our previous vehicle and it was also beginning to have problems. With my husband’s new job and our improved credit scores, we both took time to think about it and decided a new car was worth it. Following that decision, we did a review of our finances. Here’s what things are looking like…

Income Changes for Last Quarter

First, there have been some changes in our monthly take-home income. My husband was extended an offer to become a full-time employee at the company he was temping with. This increased his salary and decreased the amount of money we are paying for insurance month-to-month.

How much of a change are we talking here? Well, it’s quite a bit actually. He is taking home $600 to $1,000 more each month. Plus, I have been taking on small projects to earn some extra cash to stash away too. So, we are steadily increasing the amount of money coming in.

Making the Car Decision

When it came to taking out a new loan for a car, we were both hesitant. We were pretty close to paying off our old car, but it was starting to have some issues. Not to mention, the backseat was a struggle when it came to getting the car seat in and out. On top of that, there was no way we could bring the dog along with us if we wanted to.

Budget wise, we wanted to make sure that the payment stayed in the same range we were paying before. This is because we know we can afford that payment, even on the tighter months.

Conclusion

Sometimes, it is going to feel like you are taking steps backwards in your debt-free journey. However, you have to take into consideration your own quality of life. For us, having one car makes sense because we both work from home. That being said, we need to ensure that the car we do have is reliable, safe, and fits the whole family.

Saying goodbye to our old car and hello to new debt was no easy decision, but we are SO happy with the new car. It will last us a long time and we will continue to keep you updated on paying it off here on the blog.

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It’s up to you to prepare your family for a better future and there are various ways you can invest in achieving your goals. You will probably be looking over your life, wondering how time flew fast, and regret if you don’t have a plan. Also, emergencies occur in life, so it’s best to stay prepared for your family’s future to be in safe hands. However, you can put yourself in a great position if you implement the following things most families forget to invest in and prepare for.

Family Ties

Besides building financial stability, investing in a family is an important goal everyone should implement. Having a happy family that relates peacefully with each other is a significant factor that many families lack. When a family is united, they are always there for each other, and their children acquire brilliant qualities from responsible families where they grow to be great men and women.

A united, loving family sticks together and cares for their elder ones, making them age gracefully. About 51% of care receivers reside in their own home, 29% live with family caregivers, and 4% live in assisted living facilities and convalescent homes. When a family is well invested, they find ways to take care of their own, according to research results shown above. Therefore, investing in your family should be a priority in every home.

Family Friends

While having a family may seem enough, spending quality time with family and friends is vital in several ways. Hanging out with family and friends affects your happiness and mental health. For instance, your family may be coping with stressful moments. When friends are around, you can be open and talk to them about the challenges you face. You can devise solutions for dealing with the issues and engage in fun activities to help you forget sad moments.

The grieved were inquired about how different death rituals helped with anguish. Up to 83% said family and friends assisted greatly, 60% said receiving consolation cards, and 54% said receiving flowers. As you invest in family friends, ensure you create healthy relationships that are long-lasting to avoid finding yourself in toxic friendships that can impact your family lifestyle.

Water Conservation

Water is among the resources you need to survive in life. Therefore, conserving water is essential to ensure that everyone gets adequate access. Investing in water-saving techniques can also save money that could be used in the treatment process, pumping, and heating. You can stop all the leaks by finding a professional to identify all the leaking parts in your home, like toilets, outdoor sprinkler systems, and treatment units. According to the Environmental protection Agency, an average family can waste about 180 gallons weekly or 9,400 gallons yearly from homestead leaks. That equals the water required to do more than 300 loads of laundry. Ensure you conserve water in the kitchen and bathrooms and keep the taps closed when not in use.

Financial Stability

Financial stability refers to a measure of all your valuable assets minus any debts and liabilities you possess. There are various reasons a family needs to build wealth and generate more. Some reasons include improved mental health and resilience when unexpected situations occur. After building financial stability, you can invest in various businesses to ensure positive cash flow that exceeds your regular value of expenses and savings that can be utilized in the future.

Health Insurance

Poor health can lead to premature deaths, and if you are passionate about your families, you need to invest in their health. Ensure your family eats healthy foods, enough exercise, and positive mental stimulation. Great health investment can enable you and your loved ones to work longer and minimize the expenses of personal insurance. If your family is not applied to the life insurance policies, ensure you find the right company offering better insurance deals to keep your family in a safer position.

You should start to plan your finances early so that as time passes, you will have a wide range of possible solutions to how to invest. Working with professionals can help you identify all the things you need to be prepared for and to invest in. Remember that consistency, hard work, and responsibility are ideas that can guide all your decisions.

I chatted a few weeks ago about needing to refocus on our financial goals. Sometimes the road to debt freedom isn’t straight. We have gotten off track and faced some setbacks with unexpected expenses, but we still make a little bit of progress every month.

However, we are both a bit tired of how slowly it has been progressing. Because of this, we’ve been looking for additional ways to make money to snowball our debt.

The Debt Snowball

If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you know all about the snowball method. Essentially, this method of paying off debt has you set aside an emergency fund. Once that is done, every extra penny you have goes to paying off your debts.

This involves having a set budget. Once you look at your budget and see how much excess money you have, you can see how much you can put towards your debts. It is important for people who are snowballing their debts to also budget for some entertainment. Not doing so typically leads to overspending or abandoning your budget altogether.

The debt snowball method oftentimes includes searching for additional work to throw at paying off accounts as well. For instance, if you can make a few extra bucks selling things in your attic or walking the neighborhood dogs, you’d use that cash to pay off debt. We’ve been looking for more ways to increase our income so that we can do this.

How We Are Hustling to Pay Off Debt

First, we have both been looking for ways to trim the costs of day-to-day life. This includes my husband coming home for lunch every day. This saves us between $25 and $50 per week, all of which goes toward paying off debts.

My husband has also been picking up small jobs to earn a little extra money on the side. For instance, someone in our building needed a battery put into their car. He went down on a Sunday. It took all of 10 minutes and he earned an extra $50 to go toward paying off his tool accounts.

I’ve also been picking up a little extra work here and there. Every once and a while a freelance article pops up and I take it. This usually only makes me between $25 and $100 per article, but every bit counts. I’ve also picked up a modeling side gig that pays $175 per photo. This is less consistent and doesn’t happen as often as freelance work, but it is still a great way to earn a little extra to put towards my student loans and other debts.

As the weather gets colder, we will also be cleaning out our closets. We will be trying to sell these items on Facebook Marketplace for extra cash to snowball our debts. All in all, each of these things seems very small but they are helping us tick down our overall debt tremendously.

Readers, have you picked up a side job or hustle to snowball your debt? What have you done? 

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At the end of Q2, household debt in America raised to $16.15 trillion. This jump was largely driven by the rise in mortgage balances across the nation. Credit card and auto loan debt are also climbing in the United States. So, what is the average American (like you and me) supposed to do if we want to pay off our debt? It seems impossible. The best advice I can give you is do you best to continue to avoid debt when possible.

Debt In The United States

The staggering numbers don’t stop there either. Overall delinquency rates continued to rise in Q2 as well, albeit moderately. Researchers said that they will be more concerned if they see the overall delinquency rates rise drastically or return to pandemic levels.

Some more of the jaw-dropping figures can be found listed below.

• Mortgage debt went up to $11.39 trillion.
• Credit card balances climbed up by $$6 billion.
• New auto loans increased by $33 billion.
• The interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage skyrocketed up to 5.74%.

“All debt types saw sizable increases, with the exception of student loans,” regional Fed bank’s researchers said of the increases. This is due to increased borrowing, which can be attributed to the higher prices everyone is the nation is seeing.

How To Avoid Debt Right Now

It may seem impossible to make progress on your debt-free journey right now. You are not alone in feeling that way. Many people have had to take on debt to be able to keep up their bills or cover emergencies due to the economy. A large number of people had already emptied out their practically non-existent savings during the pandemic. So, when something comes up, they are taking out loans or swiping cards to cover the cost. How do you avoid doing that when everything seems to be working against you right now?

1. Re-establish your emergency savings (and then some).
2. Don’t treat debt as an option. Take it off the table completely unless it is life-or-death.
3. Delay gratification. If you put off gratification, it can help you avoid debt. You will take the time to think your purchases over and save the money rather than making impulsive decisions.
4. Continue to focus on long-term goals. With everything going crazy in the world of finance right now, it is easy to focus on the short-term. I implore you to keep your eyes on your future and keep working to build your dream. That means avoiding debt!
5. Downsize your life where it is possible. The price of everything has gone up recently. It’s more important than ever to stick to your budget and be frugal where you can to save money.

Readers, what are you doing to avoid credit cards and loans right now with household debt in America on the rise? Let me know in the comments!

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• When Are Student Loan Payments Coming Back?
• Reflecting on the ‘Cost of a Baby’
• You Might Be Surprised By Our August Update (We Were)!

Every year or two, you should take the time to review your family’s financial plan and assess whether it is still relevant. There have been a plethora of changes for our family over the last several years. Because we hadn’t reviewed our financial plan since before our daughter arrived last August, it has been a topic of discussion in our household fairly often recently. So, what’s next for the Blankenships?

While much of our financial plan remains the same, some things have changed. Overall, we still aim to be debt free (minus our future mortgage). However, several things have changed for us.

Changes To Our Financial Plan

A couple of weeks ago, I updated our debt numbers here on the blog. We were pleasantly surprised with our progress. It is easy to feel like you are standing still in your debt journey, especially if you’ve been paying on a loan for years. Looking at the numbers re-motivated us in our financial journey.

However, if we want our financial plan to be successful, we need to be honest with ourselves. We don’t have all of the same goals we did four years ago when we started our planning (hell, four years ago we said we weren’t have children). A lot has changed, so changes need to be made to accommodate! Here are the things we are adding and taking away from our current plan…

• More savings – Saving money has become increasingly important for our family since adding our daughter last year. We want to be prepared for emergencies, have cash for her educations, money for a down payment on a home, etc. So, we are hoping to establish a five-figure emergency fund, open a 529 savings account, and set aside money in a separate back for our down payment. We also plan to have separate accounts for different savings (sinking funds).
• Investing – I’m not overly comfortable with the investing world, but we are educated enough to know that investing is how we become wealthy. We are going to learn more about what investments make since for our family and make them.
• Retirement – This kind of goes hand-in-hand with saving but neither of us has any retirement savings set aside (panic). I’m about to be 30 and my husband is 33. So, we need to get started ASAP!
• Debt – Pay more than the minimum on everything until it is gone. Have savings for unexpected expenses so we don’t stack up more debts.

Final Thoughts

As mentioned above, our bottom line is still the same: we want to be financially free. On top of that, we want to be able to work for ourselves and work on projects we care deeply about. Being financially free will make that possible. Having more money in savings will also help make that possible. We will have more peace of mind and, better yet, we will be setting a positive example for our little one.

Readers, when is the last time you reviewed your long-term financial plan? 

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• When Are Student Loan Payments Coming Back?
• Reflecting on the ‘Cost of a Baby’
• You Might Be Surprised By Our August Update (We Were)!
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