March Firm Determinations Update

At the beginning of 2010 I made a few Firm Determinations. I am very excited about my progress in some areas, and just a little disappointed about my lack of progress in others. Here is how I’ve done with my Financial, Health, Faith, and Blog FD’s.

Finances
Save $5000 towards student loan repayment by May – We have saved $4096.00 towards this goal. That’s 82% towards our goal!
Increase Emergency Fund by one month’s living expenses by May – We have saved $2726.70 towards this goal, which is more than one month’s living expenses for us. Consider this officially checked off the list.
Open a Roth IRA with retirement money in Money Market Account – We are still looking into this. I have the option of opening one up with the same people who do our company’s 401K so I’m going to set up a meeting within the next few months.
Reevaluate goals in May 2010 – this is one FD we are looking forward too!

Health
Run/log 600 miles – I logged 2 miles this month. Yikes. I guess it is an improvement over last month, which didn’t see any miles. It looks like I need to reevaluate this FD.
Ride my new bike to work 24 times – I rode my bike one time in March, which is short of the 2 times a month I need for this FD. Maybe April will be the first successful month.
Do back exercises/stretches 3 times a week – I’m still only doing this about once a week. Sigh.
Try one new meatless meal a month –Here is a picture of the surprisingly yummy black bean taco I had for dinner last week. Mr. DFx40 wasn’t excited about meatless tacos so I had to take my portion of the beans out before I added his beef.

Faith
Volunteer to lead college small group once a month – I volunteered to lead 7 of the 8 times we met.
Spend time with children from bus ministry once a month –This has been more difficult to fulfill lately. We had to make the very sad decision to stop volunteering on Wednesday nights. Maybe I’ll talk more about this later, but I’m still pretty upset, so I’m not going to go into it now.
Spend 3 hours a week reading and studying my bible – I count 30 minutes each for our Sunday and Tuesday college bible study and Sunday small group bible study in this. It is actually more like an hour for each, but I can’t make it that easy! I ended up averaging only 2 hours each week this month.

Blog
Post a new article once a week – I barely met this goal this month. I think I need to work on a schedule instead of whenever I get around to it.
Track all of my input/output and share it once a month – I successfully tracked everything in a spreadsheet, but I think there is way too much information to share, and I don’t see the benefit. I’m rethinking the last half of this FD.

Once again I fell short in some areas and excelled in others. It may take me all year to have a completely successful month. Maybe it’s the warm sunny days we’ve been having, but I am very optimistic for April.

What about you…how have you progressed towards fulfilling your Firm Determinations? Have you reevaluated or modified your goals?

February Firm Determination Update

At the beginning of 2010 I made a few Firm Determinations. I am very excited about my progress in some areas, and just a little disappointed about my lack of progress in others. Here is how I’ve done with my Financial, Health, Faith, and Blog FD’s.

Finances
Save $5000 towards student loan repayment by May – We have saved $3715.98.00 towards this goal. That’s 74% towards our goal and a 29% increase from last month.
Increase Emergency Fund by one month’s living expenses by May – We have saved $2665.22 towards this goal, which is more than one month’s living expenses for us. Consider this officially checked off the list.
Open a Roth IRA with retirement money in Money Market Account – We are still looking into this. I have the option of opening one up with the same people who do our company’s 401K so I’m going to set up a meeting within the next few months.
Reevaluate goals in May 2010 – Mr. DFx40 is on his second round of interviews at the hospital he wants to work for after graduating so I'm getting excited about this!

Health
The weather continues to foil my plans in a few of these areas. But enough excuses, on to the updates!
Run/log 600 miles – I logged 0 miles this month. Zero. That doesn’t even come close to the 50 miles a month it will take to fulfill this FD.
Ride my new bike to work 24 times – I rode my bikeone time in February, which is short of the 2 times a month I need for this FD. I’m expecting this to pick up once it starts staying above freezing at night.
Do back exercises/stretches 3 times a week – I’ve only been doing this about once a week, but it helps so much when I do! Hopefully this will be the month I fulfill this FD.

Try one new meatless meal a month – I’m looking forward to this FD, even though I forgot about it last month. Here is a picture of the delicious smoothie I had for breakfast last Saturday. It was made of strawberries, bananas, a handful of blackberries, and 6 oz of yogurt. Yum!

Faith

Volunteer to lead college small group once a month – I volunteered to lead 7 of the 8 times we met.
Spend time with children from bus ministry once a month – We took 6 of the kids to the local golden arches after church Wednesday night. You have never seen a group of kids so excited to get something off the dollar menu. And when they got three items each, I thought they might explode. If we could all be so thankful for such a small thing!
Spend 3 hours a week reading and studying my bible – I count 30 minutes each for our Sunday and Tuesday college bible study and Sunday small group bible study in this. It is actually more like an hour for each, but I can’t make it that easy! I ended up averaging just under 3 hours each week.

Blog
Post a new article once a week – I met this goal this month, without technicalities. If I continue to meet this FD I will expand this to include an actual schedule instead of whenever I get around to it.
Track all of my input/output and share it once a month – I successfully tracked everything in a spreadsheet, but I think there is way too much information to share, and I don’t see the benefit. I’m rethinking the last half of this FD.

Once again I fell short in some areas and excelled in others. It may take me all year to have a completely successful month, but I am still optimistic.

What about you…how have you progressed towards fulfilling your Firm Determinations? Have you reevaluated or modified your goals?

Financial Fast

I have participated in a few fasts from food. It was not easy. I love to prepare and to eat food. I did learn that if I can go without a necessity like food for a day or two, I can go without a non-necessity for a week, month, or even a year.

When I apply this idea to my personal finances, I call it a financial fast. It can include not purchasing soft drinks, not eating meat, not buying any new clothes, not eating out, etc. Everyone can benefit from a regular financial fast. It helps develop skills, and best of all, it helps you save money.

Self-control. Self control is essential to being successful with your finances (and in life!). But it isn’t something that can be developed overnight. It takes time. The key is to take small steps. Start out with a day or two. Then work up to a week. Eventually you’ll be fasting for a month without much effort.

Confidence. Sometimes we are fearful of doing anything because the risk of failure is overwhelming. So we stay in the same job, never try a new hobby, and don’t ever get out of our comfort zone. When I was successful in a small financial fast, it boosted my confidence and I slowly added the length of my fast. When I was successful in longer fasts, it built up my confidence until I gained control of my finances.

Money. At first I gave up something for short time, like a week. I didn’t see huge results from these short fasts. But as I developed more self-control and confidence, the results grew. Ten dollars I saved turned into twenty, which turned into fifty dollars. I discovered that when I completed a financial fast, sometime I never started purchasing that item again!

Just like with a fast from food, you have to be cautious when your fast is over. If you go out and eat a huge meal after a fast, it will be painful. I do recommend rewarding yourself when you meet a goal, but I don’t recommend splurging all the money you saved on your financial fast. If you give up buying soft drinks for a week, reward yourself with one soft drink at the end of the week. If you give up eating out for a month, reward yourself with one night out at the end of the month. If you decide you still want to!

What about you…what could you give up for a week, a month, or even a year as part of a financial fast?

January Firm Determinations Update

At the beginning of 2010 I made a few Firm Determinations. I am very excited about my progress in some areas, and just a little disappointed about my lack of progress in others. Here is how I’ve done with my Financial, Health, Faith, and Blog FD’s.

Finances
Save $5000 towards student loan repayment by May – We have saved $2.250.00 towards this goal. That’s 45%, so we are way ahead.
Increase Emergency Fund by one month’s living expenses by May – We have saved $110.00 towards this goal, which is just over 5% (you can do the math). We are a little behind on this, but I’m not worried because we’ll receive $1500 rebate in our taxes for energy efficient upgrades (our air conditioner died).
Open a Roth IRA with retirement money in Money Market Account – We are still looking into this. I have the option of opening one up with the same people who do our company’s 401K so I’m going to set up a meeting within the next few months.
Reevaluate goals in May 2010 – this is one FD we are looking forward too!

Health
Hmm. I really thought that this would be one of the easier categories for me. But it ended up being the worse one.

Run/log 600 miles – I only logged 4 miles this month. That doesn’t even come close to the 50 miles a month it will take to fulfill this FD. I don’t have an excuse except that it has been freakishly cold in Texas.
Ride my new bike to work 24 times – I did not ride my bike one time in January, which is obviously short of the 2 times a week I need for this FD. I’m expecting this to pick up once it starts staying above freezing at night.
Do back exercises/stretches 3 times a week – I’ve done my back exercises and stretches an average of 1 time a week. I saw results from the few times I did this. This will increase when my running increases.
Try one new meatless meal a month – I honestly forgot all about this FD until I sat down to write this update. But here’s a picture of the yummy chicken fajitas the three of us ate last night.

Faith
Volunteer to lead college small group once a month – I completely blew this one away this month. I volunteered to lead 3 of the 4 times we met. And it wasn’t that bad.
Spend time with children from bus ministry once a month – This is one of the FD’s I’m most disappointed with not fulfilling. I will have to schedule in a Saturday to do a home visit for February.
Spend 3 hours a week reading and studying my bible – I struggled with whether or not to include our Sunday and Tuesday college bible study and Sunday small group bible study in this. In the end, I decided to count 30 minutes for each. I ended up averaging a little under 3 hours each week.

Blog
Post a new article once a week – I didn’t technically meet this goal. I posted a total of 4 times in January, but I went an entire week without posting anything.
Track all of my input/output and share it once a month – I successfully tracked everything in a spreadsheet. My next post will give you the tally for each of the following items tracked for January:

Income/Expenses
Food/Exercise
Spiritual Growth/Live Missionally

Like I said, I fell short in some areas and excelled in others. It may take me all year to have a completely successful month, but I am still optimistic.

What about you…how have you progressed towards fulfilling your Firm Determinations? Have you reevaluated or modified your goals?

My Happiness Project

A few things have me thinking about happiness lately.

The first is the weather we’ve been having. We’ve had quite a few days of snow (at least for Texas), and many more days of overcast dreary weather. It always gets me in a little bit of a funk.

The second is a post from J.D. at Get Rich Slowly; It’s More Important to Be Happy than to Be Rich. J.D. makes the case that money doesn’t make our lives better, happiness does. And he makes a very compelling case.

The third is a site I stumbled on; The Happiness Project. Gretchen Rubin spent an entire year applying bits of happiness advice to her life and blogging about it. She also wrote a book about what she learned from that year.

On her blog, Gretchen encourages everyone to start their own Happiness Project. She outlines areas to focus on each month, and even posts weekly goals for each area.

January – Energy
February – Love
March – Work
April – Money
May – Mindfulness
June – Order
July – Spirit
August – Fun
September – Family
October – Friends
November – Attitude
December – Boot Camp Perfect

I know there are plenty of things I can focus on in each of her proposed areas. Since it looks like the sun isn’t going to be breaking through the clouds anytime soon, I should probably be a little proactive in increasing my happiness.

The first month, January, focuses on Energy. That happens to align with a few of my Firm Determinations for 2010, namely the ones related to my health. Running, riding my bike, stretching and exercising my back, and eating better are all likely to boost my energy. If I am going to keep up with all of that exercising, I’m going to need to make sure I get a solid 8 hours of sleep every night. And since I get up at 5am to run with Mr. DFx40, it looks like I need to get off the computer and head to bed!

What about you…how can you increase your happines by focusing on Energy?

Firm Determinations

I use to make New Year’s Resolutions every year. I’ll run every day, read my bible more, get more sleep, lose weight, etc. Let me be honest. I never made it past January. I think the reason why I failed year after year is that resolutions were either impossible, or too vague.

One of the areas that I have experienced crazy results in the last two years is my finances. Looking back, I am confident that the reason for this success was setting goals. Mr. DFx40 and I sat down when he decided to go back to school. We made some very specific goals for the short term and long term (the ultimate goal of course is to be debt free by 40). I don’t like to be like everyone else so instead of making New Year’s Resolutions I’m going to make Firm Determinations. Here are my 2010 Firm Determinations broken into 4 categories:

Finances
Since this blog is largely to hold me accountable, I should probably start with my financial goals. These goals are really just for half the year because Mr. DFx40 will graduate in May. Yay!

Save $5000 towards student loan repayment by May
Increase Emergency Fund by one month’s living expenses by May
Open a Roth IRA with retirement money in Money Market Account
Reevaluate goals in May 2010

Health
When I take care of myself my expenses are actually lower. Some of my friends argue that when they exercise they eat more. This may be true for them, but not for me. When I exercise regularly I pay closer attention to the food I eat, I plan out my meals, and actually spend less money on groceries. I also feel better and have more energy, which means I’m not sitting on the couch watching TV and snacking.

Run/log 600 miles
Ride my new bike to work 24 times
Do back exercises/stretches 3 times a week
Try one new meatless meal a month

Faith
I talked previously about why I want to be debt free by forty. I believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and I desire to live as he taught. However, I still get distracted with work and other things of this world. After being inspired by Matt at Becoming Last, I am determined to live missionally today instead of waiting until my financial goals are met.

Volunteer to lead college small group once a month
Spend time with children from bus ministry once a month 
Spend 3 hours a week reading and studying my bible

Blog
I am still new to the blogging world, and I know there are many ways I need to improve. I have a few things I would like to accomplish with and through this blog.

 

Post a new article once a week

Track all of my input/output and share it once a month

• Income/Expenses
• Food/Exercise
• Spiritual Growth/Live Missionally

I am very optimistic about my Firm Determinations because they are all SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timed). I am starting a few days behind on my resolutions, but I still hope to have a favorable report by the end of this month.

What about you…what Firm Determinations have you made for the new year?

How Would You Teach Others about Money?

When my cousin moved in a few weeks ago, Mr. DFx40 and I sat down and talked with him about his situation and what happened. After this talk, we realized that there were quite a few things his parents had never taught him. So we shared the vast amount of knowledge (please note sarcasm) we have gained from our 25 +/- years on this earth.

Routines
Cousin DFx40 tends to be a little forgetful. Sometimes he forgets to pay his bills even when he has the money. This seems to be a pretty common problem. Setting up a few simple daily, weekly, and monthly routines are the best way I can think of to solve this problem. I suggest putting these in writing, whether it’s on a piece of paper on your desk, on a calendar, or tattooed on your arm.

Set a regular wake up time. Even while he was searching for a new job (which took 5-6 weeks), we had him set his alarm and get up at 7am every morning. When he did find a job he was already used to getting up every day and it isn’t a big adjustment when his hours vary each week.
Eat three solid meals a day. Eating breakfast every morning is just going to make you feel better, and better equip you for the rest of the day. And since he was already waking up in time for breakfast every morning, this was easy to add to his routine.
Have a desk day once a week. I find it easier to keep up with junk mail and bills if I designate one day a week to deal with it. Set up a station (in an area you will use) to sort your mail and bills as soon as you bring them inside. For Cousin DFx40, this is just a corner of the desk in his room.
Review your situation regularly. At first we sat down with him every week to go over where he had applied, where he was still going to apply, and if he had any offers. Now that he has a job and is working regularly, we meet with him every other week (which happens to coincide with payday) to review his bills, savings, and goals.

Goals
After our talk, we realized that Cousin DFx40 was so overwhelmed with his situation that he had no goals. He was completely lost on what he wanted to do and what he was doing. This can be crippling, especially if you are in a situation your unhappy with. If you don’t have a goal (written down or not) you are not likely to change where you are.

Write them down. I think writing something down makes it real. We have our goal, DFx40, printed out and placed on our refrigerator. Since the kitchen is a place we visit frequently, we see our goal at the very least three times a day, but usually more.
Keep track of your goals. This goes back to reviewing your situation regularly. Find a frequency that works with your goals, sit down and look at where you are. If you find that you’re not quite on track, either readjust your methods, or your goal.
Celebrate the victories. This doesn’t mean go on a $500 shopping spree when you pay off your credit cards. It means if you’ve given up going out to eat to pay the cards off, celebrate by eating out.

Budget
I realize I am in the minority of people who love to budget. It makes me feel in control and I like to have a tool to measure how I’m progressing towards my goals. Also, it keeps me honest. This doesn’t happen to be something Cousin DFx40 loves as much as me. Thankfully, since he doesn’t own anything, and doesn’t have many bills, we were able to keep this relatively simple.

Write everything down. This means all forms of income and every reoccurring expense. Then total both of these up and figure out if you even have enough income to cover your expenses. If you don’t, you have no choice but to increase your income or decrease your expenses until you can cover everything.
Figure out how much is left. When your income does cover your expenses, figure out the exact amount you need. Don’t forget to take into consideration any fluctuating expenses you might have (food, utilities, etc).
Start automating savings. Once you figure out how much money you have left after paying all your bills, you can figure out a savings amount that you can afford, and that will allow you to reach your goals. Once you settle on an amount, set this up to automatically transfer at the beginning of the month. This may be scary but you already know your income will cover your expenses without this money. If it never stays in your checking account, you won’t even notice it is gone.
Budget entertainment from what’s left. I don’t’ think that anyone benefits from not having some type of entertainment fund built in to their budget. If you don’t have this allowance, you are much more likely to throw the budget away and give up. However, I do think that this should be determined by what is left after paying bills and saving.

Cousin DFx40 wrote down his routines, goals, and budget on a single piece of notebook paper and put it on a bulletin board in his room. We also have a copy of the paper so we can help keep him accountable. If you have someone you are comfortable with I recommend sharing some of your goals with them.

What about you…what advice would you give a friend or family member who is struggling financially?

What is Your Purpose?

Are there certain blogs that you read every day?  Have you ever thought about what keeps you going back?  Is it the delivery?  The topics?  The purpose?  If you look at my sidebar you will see the blogs that I read almost every day.  I find that I keep going back to certain blogs for two main reasons:  the writer's delivery and their purpose for writing.

Delivery
Let's face it.  Some people are just more taleted than others at delivering a point.  Everyone who writes honestly has a distinct voice; no one is going to write a post on a topic the same way.  One of the blogs I read in particular, Punch Debt in the Face, keeps me coming back every day mostly because of his outrageous delivery.  He makes a pretty boring subject a lot less boring.  Check out his financial mad lib and finance rap - awesome!

Purpose
It's pretty hard to keep getting up every day and going to a job if you don't have a purpose, whether your purpose is to receive enjoyment or to receive a paycheck.  In the same way, it's pretty hard to write a blog and keep coming up with new content if you don't have a purpose for writing.  For example, consider the following three blogs and what their writers say about their purpose.  

Jim at Bargaineering says the purpose of his blog is to educate, "both myself and others about the complicated topics in the personal finance world."
Bob at Christian Personal Finance says his mission and the mission for CPF is to, "make, save, grow, and give money."
Jen at Millionaire Mommy Next Door says her mission is to, "inspire and empower others through financial education so they too can enjoy the life they want to live.

This blog has a purpose too.  But in order to understand the purpose of this blog, you need to know a little bit about the goals I have for my life.  One of my goals is to be debt free fifteen years from now, before I turn forty.  But this goal is just a piece of the main goal of my life, which is to live missionally.  I believe that to live missionally you show love to your family, your friends, and people you don't even know.  One thing I've discovered is that to live missionally you have to spend time or money (I'll talk more about this in later posts).  With that said, the purpose of this blog is threefold:

To teach and be taught
To hold myself accountable as I journey towards being debt free
To inspire others to live missionally

What about you...what goals have you set for your life?