For the next week (or two), we’ll be sharing “audition” pieces from folks interested in being new staff writers at Get Rich Slowly. Your job is to let us know what you think of each of these writers. Pay attention, give feedback, and after a couple of weeks we’ll ask which writers you prefer. This article is from Meagan Van, a long-time GRS reader.
Sitting on my computer is a Post-It Note that was supposed to be motivational. When I started my journey to become more fiscally responsible, I set these goals:
- Mar. ‘10: Pay off first credit card
- Apr. ‘11: Fully fund our emergency fund
- Feb. ‘12: Pay off all credit cards
- Aug. ’12: Pay off my student loans
- Aug. ’13: Pay off my husband’s students loans
- Aug. ’16: Pay off mortgage on home
- Dec. ’17: Pay off mortgage on addition
I love planning — too much. In my plans, I am so focused on the goal that I do not have to worry about real life intruding. By this time, I had planned that I was going to fully fund my emergency fund and be fully be out of credit card debt. Yet here I am, realizing that I’m years behind where I was hoping to be. I still have one credit card left to pay off and don’t have a fully-funded emergency fund. While unexpected expenses are some of the problem, it does not account for all of the setbacks.
It is time for me to begin this journey anew and to be more accountable. But how? One of the tools that have been missing for me is a community to which I can be accountable. Prior articles on Get Rich Slowly have discussed the similarities between getting more healthy and fit physically and becoming more fit financially. Diet programs that have a high documented success rate include programs like Weight Watchers, where there is a weekly weigh-in and sense of community. Why?
People Are Social
In Weight Watchers, its members are joining with other people to fulfill a similar quest. Setting up a support group is one of the golden rules of dieting, whether you are part of an organized group or not. We need a support group. In fact, Susan Cain discussed the power of community briefly in the TED talk regarding the power of introverts.
When we’re in a group of people, we will instinctively mirror or mimic their opinions without even realizing what we are doing. Humankind is wired to attempt to fit in with our group, our tribe. How we react to sporting events is confirmation of this effect—we buy our team’s shirt or dress in team colors and gather together with others to enjoy the experience together. The sense of community is part of the fun.
In terms of goal-oriented activities, spending time working on a goal with others on a similar mission is so much more enjoyable and fun than trying at it alone. I have the ability to share my progress and setbacks with others. Working with others causes us to spend more mental energy on the task at hand and helps us plan better because we see the obstacles that others face and help plan our own strategies when we face similar obstacles.
Accountability
Having a community check-in with regard to our goals causes us to be more dedicated in reviewing whether we are on track to meet our goals. If I’m trying to meet a goal on my own, I can always postpone when I review my progress. If I’m working on a goal by myself and know I haven’t been diligent, I can avoid thinking about my lack of progress altogether. But if I’m a part of a group and we have a check-in, I have made a commitment that I don’t want to break.
Overcoming Obstacles
Being part of a group also helps to keep your commitment when progress is slow or when setbacks occur. And when doesn’t life throw that interesting curveball here and there?
Shortly after I decided that I really needed to focus on my financial discipline, pay off credit cards, and put more into savings, I felt life was laughing at me. I had one catastrophe after another. First our air conditioner broke. In replacing it, it became clear that all of the ductwork in the attic was too badly torn and needed to be replaced. Around the same time, the tires on both of our vehicles needed to be replaced. Shortly after that, my car’s timing belt broke, which would have been an inexpensive fix on a different car, but with mine, I wasn’t so lucky.
All of this happened within six months of each other. For a while, I wondered if my bad luck would stop if I just gave up on my goals. At other times, the lack of progress was my own doing. At Christmas, we found an amazing deal on a new television, and decided to take the plunge and replace our twenty-year old television.
Sharing Ideas
Finally, a community like Get Rich Slowly is a wonderful brain-storming session.
While we’re similar in certain aspects, we’re also different, with different values and priorities. In the context of getting rich slowly, we may not be aiming to get to our specific goal in a race-like intensity, but may be working towards a goal with moderation. For me, that is definitively the case.
I have two young children, but if I eliminated everything now other than getting more fit fiscally, I fear I would miss out on certain experiences like family vacations when they are still young enough that they enjoy such experiences. On the other hand, hearing from a person who has a different point of view can be very helpful in making me question my assumptions and beliefs.
Sharing experiences and ideas that worked for one is helpful to the group because we need to try on different approaches and see what works for our situation and goals. I think of the ideas we share like a clothing department—could you imagine if they had only one style in one size? I want to read ideas of all sizes, colors, and varieties so we can try them on see what looks best on me.
To this end, each month I plan to publicly announce one financial goal to which I will strive to meet. I invite you to take this journey with me. Together, let’s commit to getting more fiscally fit. Post the financial goal you’re seeking, either anonymously or not. At the end of the month, let’s check back and see if we made it and brainstorm how to do better if we miss that goal. Or are our goals not realistic?
In deciding your goal for the month, this prior Get Rich Slowly article may help. It discusses how to make a SMART goal, which stands for a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.
My financial goal for this month will be to put $750 toward my credit card bill. What’s yours?
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This article is about Psychology, Relationships, Self-Improvement
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Over the years, I’ve discovered that many times, budgets often underestimate everyday expenses.
Maybe you have a doctor’s appointment which extends into lunch, so you’re eating out today.
There’s a sale on ground beef at the grocery store, so you stock up.
The water bill is higher than estimated.
Gas goes up.
You never know.
I wish you luck on achieving your goal. I’m sure it is right around the corner.
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My financial goal every month is to put $209 into a charity fund.
However finding a charity/non-profits that is efficiently run is a huge problem. Most charities/non-profits spend 90% on overhead and 10% on the cause.
Perhaps getrichslowly can publish an article about worthwhile charities/non-profits to donate money to or volunteer at where most of the money is spent on the cause. And one where they do not do creative accounting.
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http://www.charitynavigator.org should help.
Also, once you find one good one you can stick to it – charities pretty much never wind up with too much money, so if you want to donate to the local food bank every month and nothing else, the local food bank will probably just really appreciate it.
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I checked out about charity navigator before but that does not help with the creative accounting part. A charity that spends 30% on overhead and 70% on the cause is good enough for me.
The reason that I am so cynical is that over the course of the last several years, I have met college graduates who purposely want to start non-profits because it will make THEM a lot of money, because get this that is what their parents advised them to do.
My charity of choice would be those saving the environment. At worst I will just donate to societies that keep planting trees. =)
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I can’t speak to recent graduates who want to start non profits to earn money– that sounds like ill guided advice to me, but I can speak to the need for non profits to spend 30% on overhead. Overhead includes things like rent, which is rising for organizations just as it is for individuals, health insurance for employees which can increase at any time by amounts that are hard to predict, as well as paying for evaluation of program effectiveness, something every foundation funder wants but few want to pay for. I agree you should be smart about where you donate your money, but % of overhead is not the only piece of data that should influence a decision.
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dunno if this helps, since their financial docs aren’t audited, but Trees for the Future spends 65% of their funds on actual programs (some in Haiti, which is why I started giving to them) and they do mostly agroforestry, planting fruit and firewood trees. They also hire local staff in the countries they work in, which is important to me. Charity Navigator gives them a bad mark for not disclosing how they decide to pay the CEO, but he was making $53k in 2010, well below even low-level managers at places like the Red Cross.
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=11443
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I went to college with a girl who is now raising a family and a long-term missionary in Uganda. They do amazing work with all their resources. They’re a Christian non-profit, doing real work, every day.
More about the team: http://touchtheworld.org/index.php/uganda
More about my friend: http://ttwuganda.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66&Itemid=5, and if you want current and updated news, pix, content: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Touch-The-World-UGANDA/279826035012?ref=ts
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My 2 cents about donating to such charities. In some countries, such charities are just a guise for converting the locals to Christianity.
For example, in the case of your friends group, their web page clearly says: Spiritual transformation is at the core of all that we do – offering the grace of God to those we interact with and to disciple them to become mature followers of Jesus.
That to me clearly sounds like: Sure, we’ll help you ONLY if you start following Jesus.
I may be missing something here, but I can assure you that religion is taken very seriously (and differently) in other parts of the world. For an example, look no further than the Middle East.
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Thanks for the feedback, Chet. I know this could be distracting from the main purpose of the original post, so I’ll keep it brief. Yes, they are a Christian organization, and yes, they believe that faith in Christ is the ultimate goal and good in life. Knowing them personally, I’m also sure that they keep their doors open to anybody in need, Christian or not. From one perspective, it is helpful to provide jobs, and increase comfort (however you define it). But those are incomplete–sort of like treating the condition and not the cause. I am not saying that a lack of faith in Christ leads to material poverty and destitution. In fact I believe that a true faith in Christ is much more dangerous to personal financial wealth than a lack of faith. But what I’m saying is, they are serving that community in every way they know how and with every dollar they receive. Education, jobs, healthcare, etc are one part of their service to their community. If you believe Christ is real and good, then why not also share that belief? It is any person’s option to disagree. But a Christian (a real one) always keeps the door open and serves all who need, regardless of a different creed.
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Exactly! Not only do I have to find a charity that efficiently uses money, I then have to find one that is not pushing their agenda. As some of us do not “have faith in christ” we work extra hard to make sure no one has to have their help with a side of religion.
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What about purchasing $200 worth of pet food every month for your local animal shelter, instead of making a cash donation? That way you don’t have to worry about whether your money is being put to good use.
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Actually, Cash donations are usually better. Charitable organizations can many times purchase needed supplies, such as dog food, at or below cost from the companies that make and distribute. Your cash donation would go farther than actually purchasing products.
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My local food bank prefers money over packaged goods purchased at retail. The food bank can buy in bulk ($) and use their storage space more efficiently. (Imagine dealing with lots of assorted sizes and shapes of cans of “tomato sauce” and a hundred other items.) The director at our local food bank said they won’t turn away a donation of items but that they hope people “move up” from items to regular monetary donations.
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Charity Navigator, which was mentioned earlier, is a good site to help you find a charity that is run efficiently. You may also be able to find out about well regarded charities within your own community.
I do want to say that it is a little unfair to expect charitable organizations to run without any or with very minimal overhead–they need competent people working for them and marketing/fundraising in and of itself is a cost. I work in the public sector and earn less than I could at a similar job in the private sector. I am happy (usually) to earn a bit less because I believe in what I am doing–and I earn a somewhat less, not pennies on the dollar, which would be frustrating. People should still be able to expect a reasonably competetive salary regardless of their sector.
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It is also wildly inaccurate to say that “most” charities spend 90% of their revenue on overhead/administration.
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Thanks for making this point, which I find myself making too often on this website.
We in the nonprofit sector would like to get rich slowly, too! Maybe we have to focus on frugality over getting high incomes, but it’s not fair to expect us to subsist on minimum wage for high-level work.
That said, I will say that many nonprofits certainly DO use “creative accounting”, and that Charity Navigator cannot account for that.
OTOH, please keep in mind that what you may consider “overhead” – i.e. paying employees’ salaries – is actually part of the cost of operating their charity programs. You need people to provide the services that the organization offers.
Even things like accounting are crucial to keeping the programs running efficiently and transparently. The only thing that should really be considered “overhead” is the cost of fundraising, but unfortunately that is a necessary cost of business for nonprofits.
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jw.org is a good charity. None of their management team are paid. Their work is entirely accomplished through volunteer labor.
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Sorry – Jehovah’s Witnesses do not do real charity work. Once in a while they do help out during a disaster, but that is about it. Their missionaries go to preach across the world – that is their one and ONLY mission. No offense to any JWs on here (I was raised one and was one for many years as an adult), but posting that link as a charity is laughable.
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Hi Meagan,
Great article. I appreciate the struggle between saving and having great “experiences” like family vacations, and paying off debt.
Given that interest rates are set to go up on student loans on July 1, I’m wondering about trying to pay off my student loans (about $12k) faster. I could probably scrape up enough to pay them back within the next few months, but I’m not sure how wise that is.
Although I’m from the US, I currently live overseas, and my only debt is my student loans. I also have one credit card that I use when I’m in the US and I pay off every month. So I’m worried that if I pay off my student loan debt too fast, I’ll have no credit and no ability to get a loan if I ever come back to the US, and my credit score will drop.
Do you have any insight on the effect of paying off all of your debt within 5-7 years on your credit?
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Allison, you mention student loan interest rates going up July 1st- do you have older variable rate loans that go up on July 1st? If not, your rate will remain the same. Much of the media coverage sounds like all student loans have a rate that will double, but it only applies to loans disbursed on or after July 1st.
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Student loan rates are only going up for newly originated loans. If you’re out of school and in repayment, this change doesn’t apply to you.
Most loans are fixed rate, but as recently as 6 years ago were variable rate. Finaid.com has a nice summary of what federal loan rates should be depending on what program you have and what year the loan originated.
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Really insightful article!
Community is all over the place — the relationships we’ve fostered over the years, both friends and family, have been key in helping us get our handmade soap business off the ground. Once we launched, we were so thrilled to have friends and family buy soap from us, even after they’d received so many test bars over the years (and probably had more soap than they knew what to do with).
But what was even more surprising was the support from online communities we are apart of, like GRS. When you’ve got so many people together working on a similar goal, financial freedom and happiness, the group as a whole bends over backwards to help out wherever they can. I think even in the internet age where communication is more likely to come through comments on a forum, tweets, Facebook, you still have real, living, breathing, human interaction. It’s really powerful, whether you’re starting a business, or working toward a financial or health goal.
Thanks for the inspiration Meagan!
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I like this idea – getting readers involved is a good way to get readers interested.
It’s very true, in my experience, that it’s hard to avoid underestimating basic but non-monthly expenses like car issues, medical, repairs, etc. My goal has been to get what I consider “personal spending” down for a while, which I feel like it should be possible to do by about 1/3 fairly easily, but then my “allowance” keeps getting eaten up by unanticipated things like replacing a lost transit card, to name last week’s example. (I could put these things in a different category than “personal,” but I’d still be spending the money….) In all honesty, I’m not really sure what to do to make this a goal, since I’m usually well under my “allowance” for fun stuff, but then I use it to cover these unexpected gaps, and I don’t think I have it in me to *only* use it for that and *never* on entertainment, books, etc.
So…create more surplus, somehow? I’m not sure that’s a great goal. Argh.
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I would be in a heap of trouble if I had not eliminated all debt ($35,000) from my life (don’t own a car or a house anymore.) I’ve got a major unplanned expense and even though I have two months in an ER fund, which of course is not optimum, the money that I would typically save is being used for medical purposes so that’s okay. And I thank God that I can still work and keep current with my bills. I guess my point is this, I am very grateful for the fact that I can use the extra income that I normally save to keep from owing anyone. It’s amazing what your priorities become when faced with adversity. All of this frugality is worth it folks, money is one less thing I have to think about.
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I think that staying on budget is made easier by having an emergency fund. That way, if unexpected expenses occur, they can come from your emergency fund instead of wrecking your budget. Doing this helps me to not be frustrated when I have to go slightly off budget.
Great article!!!
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My wife and I use ‘slush’ for this. At the beginning of our own personal financial year (it’s always been October because we never quite left universities). We make a plan for how much money we get per month – that should include everything one might expect to do in a normal month (e.g. a friends birthday) but nothing more than that. We then have a dedicated ‘slush’ account and a dedicated travel account (aiming to meet the basics – see family etc). At the moment we have £600/month after rent and our slush account is £4000 per year. In a nice year we buy furniture or more holidays, in a tricky year we fix the car, fix the boiler… but we plan in advance to have a pot around just for that. I find it a really good way to be prepared for nasty surprises without feeling like it’s an ‘emergency’.
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I can completely relate to this…my plan is much better than my reality!
I have yet to find a community to help…I have find online support to be very critical while I am still trying to figure it out, repair and rebuild. The GRS articles can provide a lot of hope and motivation, though! Thanks for sharing…It’s really nice to know that others sometimes miss their goals, too.
Best of luck to you!
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Have you checked out the GRS fiscal finance journals in the forums? Right here – http://www.getrichslowly.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=11. People tend to be more supportive in that section, although a few people will give you a good kick in the butt if you need it – but isn’t that what the community’s for, helping you keep yourself accountable?
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Yes, I used the forums while getting through some big goals: paying off credit cards, building EF, & paying off mortgage. Very helpful for helping you find your way and cut out excuses for getting where you want to be financially. I loved reading other peoples stories.
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Good luck to you. Our goals can be found here http://adventures-of-sam.blogspot.com/ Our goals are yearly not monthly, but we are working on saving $69,000 in 2012. Our debt, except for mortgage debt, is paid off.
I also post in the fiscal fitness forum here at GRS. A community can really be helpful, especially when you have forces pushing you in the other direction. I love reading about my fellow GRS posters who are working on paying off their student loans and their mortgages or saving up for a house or a wedding or travel. It helps to reinforce my own efforts and I often learn form them as well.
I’ve found that it is easier for us to work backwards. We have a system in which we pay our monthly regular bills, we put away our monthly savings, which includes savings for fund things like travel, vacation, the holidays (these are NOT part of our savings goals) and savings for annual, semi-annual bills (i.e. insurance, taxes, car expenses and the like, again these are NOT part of our savings goals) and then we work from an allowance system. If we have extra left over at the end of the month or pay period then that too can go towards savings goals, but we’ve already done our savings at the beginning of the month.
Over years, I found it was easier to save (or when were paying down debt, to put money towards debt) first. If I waited until the end of the pay period, guess what we were out of money.
So you may want to consider tackling your monthly debt goal at the start of the month, or if too scary, divide into twice a month, assuming you are paid twice a month.
Good luck to you.
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Community interaction is a great way to keep up on your goals. I have made more progress on my goals because I do a weekly update over on my blog. For the most part I have been pretty successful but having a community definitely makes me want to stay accountable. This month my goal is to continue getting things done on my townhouse.
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My youngest child, who suffers from major depression and is always able to find the cloud for every silver lining, told me last week that she had had a happy childhood. I was floored, wondering where I was while this was going on. However, she specifically cited all the trips and other things that we had done together, making me feel that we had at least done a few things right.
Definitely work on your financial goals, but perhaps make an additional goal of intentionally doing something fun and out of the ordinary with the children each month. It doesn’t have to be expensive — a lot of our activities were not. Just remember that these are their “good old days”!
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PB, I love this point. You do not have to lose track of your financial goals or give up on them at the expense of doing fun things with your kids and traveling. The key is budgeting in a reasonable amount & doing frugal activities. Maybe instead of a $10,000 trip to Hawaii you could take a week off and do all of the local touristy things as a whole family. I’d think that’d be less stress than a major travel involved trip anyway! Or take a “close” road trip somewhere; maybe to your closest “major” city. I’m not suggesting staying in hostels with your kids, it’s not the type of vacation I’d want to take either.
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Great Article! Social facilitation is a great source of power that has been largely untapped in personal finance. I always get more done when I am in conversation or competing with a friend.
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This is one of the reasons we read blogs, to get views from others in similar situation. This is how blogs are different than news sites.
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I gotta say, I am not a huge fan of this approach (that said, I do like your article)
It seems like this is a very popular concept right now, so I am inevitably bombarded by my friends’ progress on various endeavors, from financial improvement, to weight loss, to 365 photography projects, to Food Waste tracking; whether it be by email or Facebook, or some other means.
Maybe it frustrates me because I ‘ve never found it to work for me. Try as I may, I find it much more powerful to be quietly accountable to myself, and more willing to take the risk to accomplish goals if I can try quietly and fail, then try again and again without feeling as though there is an audience.
Although maybe there isn’t really an audience. If we are all bombarded by “I let one half a red pepper go to waste this week!”, “I did yoga this morning! 8/10 this month!” “I saved 4.09 on dog treats today!” maybe we need to wondering if anybody is really listening.
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I think there’s way too much oversharing as it is. It also tends to become competitive. “I’ve lost more weight than you,” “I’ve saved more money than you,” “I’ve lived a greener existence than you,” etc. I prefer to challenge myself to do better and measure myself against myself, not others. After all, every one’s metabolism, finances, and dedication to causes are different.
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Good article. i feel just paralyzed somehow from lack of knowledge or clear goals and GRS helps. My goal this month should be to get our money out of bank of America ( two Roth IRA,s , one regular IRA ) and put it somewhere else bc it just doesnt seem safe. But where-? I guess a credit union but shouldnt i pick two places? I get stuck on that one small thing I cant quite resolve and then my whole goal stymies. Im not like this with other things. I need a community!
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That sounds a bit like perfectionism.
If you are really unhappy with Bank of America because of your personal experience with them, any other bank would do. But if you are unhappy with them because of news articles or commentary on their business practices, you might be better off just leaving the money alone. Don’t move it just for the sake of moving it.
If you are not a savvy investor, retirement accounts should be (in my unprofessional opinion) with a handler that gives you plenty of different options – most importantly including low-cost mutual funds. Most civilians do very poorly picking their own stocks and will do better, over the long run, in a managed fund (but again, costs must be low).
Charles Schwab offers the Vanguard family of funds which typically have the lowest management fees. My 401(k) is with Schwab and the ease of use is pretty good. Plus, they have actual offices.
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You keyed in on something interesting. It isnt my personal experience that makes me believe i should move my money from Bof A- it IS what i read or hear- that big banks are not safe. Also i am fearful of losing money so all my money is in money market cash stuff that earns nothing. i dont know a trustworthy financial person or how to find one. I feel like I am being penny wise and pound foolish in my life- i am frugal in daily stuff, but am probabaly making big mistakes in the larger arena of retirement savings. And I am 53 and my husband is 62 so its not like I have years to figure it out. I think I am just fighting my own sense of inertia due to laziness and ignorance. I read here to combat that.
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You can do it!
Among other things, you can go to a fee-only financial planner and then, if you hate their advice, NOT TAKE IT. But you might like their plan, too. And at least you’ll have taken the step of contacting them.
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I think this is an idea that could potentially work, even better in person, if people were more open in terms of talking about money.
Maybe you can even work on getting the forums a little busier.
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This is a rhetorical question, but I expect it will trigger some responses. I think your goals are amazing. And obviously, you must have a spouse who is like-minded. But what if that’s not the case? What if a person has a spouse who has to have anything and everything right now, and when questioned about how to pay for it-after the credit card gets pulled out of the wallet AGAIN, the response, every damn time, is “it’ll get paid for”. No thought is ever given to waiting or making do with what is already owned. It’s maddening!
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CASH BUDGET
Cut up the cards & cancel the account. Except maybe one you keep open for a true emergency.
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Or maybe separate finances? But I doubt the “waster” would pay their share on time.
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My husband has never been financially irresponsible, but when we first got married, he was a lot less willing to wait for purchases than I was.
For some things that he’s really wanted (new TV), I didn’t bother trying to totally nix it. Rather, I relied on delay tactics. If it was something that was really important to him, he’d still want it and we would get it when money or a really good deal allowed. However, there have been a lot of things that just drop off the radar and don’t seem as important after a week or two.
When we’d talk about certain things, or when we were out, the biggest thing I did was to provide reasons why it might be wise to wait until X. (Hey, it’ll probably be on sale next month for the 4th of July. Can we wait a few weeks and see if we can save a couple hundred bucks? Or for us, we’re going to be moving next year. I don’t want to have to move and worry about it breaking. How about after we move?)
This sort of gave him a little bit of experience at a time with delayed gratification. Over time, he’s been able to delay big purchases for longer periods of time – which also allows us to save up for them.
BTW, I never asked him how we would pay for a specific purchase. I didn’t want to imply that he was somehow not good at making money and offend his sense of personal pride. I also managed to read The Millionaire Next Door each night before bed for a while. I knew that as an avid reader, he’d want to pick it up and read it after I was done.
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This is huge. Particularly if your subset of community is not “in” on it, it can make your goals very difficult to fulfill.
Friends want to go out for food and drinks? Roommates don’t want to cancel cable? It can definitely make things easier if we’re all on the same page.
This is particularly troublesome for “single” people in my opinion because you have no one to be accountable for. Much easier to eat cup noodle for a month by yourself if YOU blow your money than it is to ask your family to do it as well.
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This may be a different kind of financial goal, but mine for the month is to officially exceed expectations in a new role at work. This will help me lay the groundwork for future career advancement, which will help my finances in the long run.
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I only participate in one online forum but I think these communities do have value. For one thing, they are self-selecting. People only participate if they want to.
That said, finance is a little different from, say, fitness or decluttering. Major financial goals cannot really be “met” in a month or six weeks, or even six months.
Also, people in the online world have a tendency to read into what others are posting. In the absence of physical cues, it is easy to misunderstand each other. And the ramifications of financial decisions are so serious that people can get pretty judgy pretty fast.
This was a fairly solid article (minor editing needed) but I think it would have benefited from a survey approach.
More than one viewpoint, in other words.
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Meagan, you say that you “love to plan”, but I’m afraid I have to disagree with that. How does the saying go? “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” I respectfully suggest that you love to WISH.
New tires are a predictable auto maintenance expense, not a “bad luck” surprise (even if they did need to be replaced a little sooner than you expected).
On the other hand, I assume (based on your list of goals) you’ve managed to pay off some of your credit cards, and that is awesome progress! Congratulations. But — a new TV?? I recently read a great article over on Mr. Money Mustache (thanks to GRS readers who recommended that site) entitled “Your Debt is an Emergency!”. Please read it. The DEBT is the real emergency; the DEBT is “real life intruding”.
Having said that, I’ll also mention that I really DO like to read occasional GRS articles written by people who (like me) are NOT perfect and are still struggling to face our various financial demons.
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My goal this month is to find a new roommate or come up with an additional $600 to put towards my mortgage.
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My goal is to make more on my online biz in the next month than I have in any previous month.
I agree that it helps to work on goals with a friend, or even a group of friends. But we can never predict the future and sometimes life happens in such a way that we have to postpone and/or modify goals.
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I’m in! We undersaved for our daughter’s tuition and need to come up with another $3000 before September without tapping our emergency fund. It’s doable for us, if we cut out pretty much everything fun or convenient.
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What a nightmare! I just paid ours even though I could have waited until August or September because I want that money out of our savings account so I don’t feel like we have more money than we really do.
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I completely identify with you. I spend a lot of time making financial plans, reworking them, and trying to predict the future. I’ve even kept detailed spending histories from previous years, and used them to outline budgets that still fall apart a few months down the road.
Unexpected repairs, an expensive class trip that came up this year for my daughter, emotional spending, and medical surprises.
I’ve been trying to set up an emergency fund for years, and have never been able to. I’ve paid off my credit cards multiple times, and am about 9 months away from accomplishing that again.
I agree with you that I don’t really have anyone to be accountable to other than myself, and I’m not always reliable. My spouse has a very different financial ideals than I do, and is more willing to tell me to spend now/ pay later. The financial irresponsibility in my family goes way back, and money is a taboo topic amongst my friends as we are all in very different situations financially.
This month I will be paying off two credit cards ($1100) – again.
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I really liked this article and writer. I get tired of the “you should do this and be like me” tone of some of the writers auditioning. This one seems to have the potential of being more inspiring, and I can relate to having debt and small kids. As I said in a previous comment last week, we need writers here with kids. Sierra Black seems to have vanished.
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I really agree – this would be my top pick for a new staff writer. Someone with kids who is still working on achieving get out of debt goals, while still wanting to live a little – that would be really welcome.
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Love this article !! Def. one of my favorites out of all the audition pieces. I still like El Nerdo’s . Even though the month is almost over my goal is not pay any other draft fees/bank fees. So far so good.
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One of my fave audition pieces too
Well written… although I have to agree with some previous commenters – a new TV/AC are not emergencies and car tyres are not “unpredictable”.
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Very true. A new TV is certainly not an emergency, nor are car tires “unpredictable”. Though I’ll have to give her kudos for admitting that she’s hindered some of her own progress. (I mean how many of us do that without really wanting to admit it.)
Whether or not repairing the AC is a legitimate emergency really depends on the weather. I currently live in a climate with mild summers (Northwest US), so I don’t even have AC at all right now as a cost saving measure. If I were still living in the southern US, however, I would consider a broken AC to be a legitimate emergency expense – especially if I had small children.
I like this writer. It’s refreshing to see someone else struggling to do all the right things financially while caring for small kids.
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Great article.
Right now, our goal is to pay off our credit cards by the end of the summer. We had never carried credit card debt, but a run of unemployment meant we were putting bills like rent and power on credit… a $1000 emergency fund will only go so far! Now that things have stabilized, we’re trying to dig ourselves out. We’ve replaced our $1000 ef, paid off my partner’s card, and have $3000 left on mine. This month, the goal is to put $450 on my card. We’ve also put our second car up for sale this month, and when it sells, we’re going to put all of that on my credit card. Our insurance will also go down, and the difference will also go to debt repayment. Ultimately, our goal is to get out of debt in the next 5 to 7 years (student loans).
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This post is fantastic and I think adding her to the group would really help bring GRS to those people just starting out. One of the things I loved about GRS was J.D. was just a normal guy figuring it all out. The advice from experts and those that have “made it” is invaluable but I would really love the input of someone still looking to Get Rich Slowly, as it were. I also loved that her tone was informative and positive, she didn’t beat herself up over her mistakes. Definitely a great fit for the site.
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Well written. Positive question at the end.
We are retired, but I like that she is questioning giving up family vacations. I think Meagan can bring a different reader to the table- young family living normally and working through the debts that most people accumulate in life.
I like the accountability challenge as well. It used to be common on personal finance blogs- until the blog owners had plenty of money.
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Great article – I’m all for accountability.
My goals are to start tracking my spending and to pay $500 towards my debt this month (July).
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This is by far my favorite audition piece so far. It kept me interested the whole way through and got me looking forward to the (potential) monthly update. Good luck on your goals. I’m right there with you!
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