Fun day at the Stich's

Had such a lovely day yesterday! Mourning and early afternoon just easy breezy, a bit a grocery shopping and preparing salads to take with us to Jeff and Amanda's. We rather invited ourselves down but did offer to bring dinner with us! LOL
  Lovely dinner, Karen and Ralph joined us. Rousting game a baseball with Anderson! Love that kid so!! Fun, Family, laughs, good food! What more can you ask for!

Credit Cards

Another part Financial Planning will involve the getting rid of Credit Cards. I plan on slowly closing accounts until I am down to one or two, probably two. I will concentrate first on the store cards, I only use them occasionally and absolutely refuse to keep a balance on them as their Interest Rate is ridiculous!  Which to keep and which to delete of the major cards will depend again on Interest Rates and also perks. None of my cards have Annual Fees because that has never made sense to me. Feel I at least did something right!

So now to make a list of all my cards!

What's in a name

I’m thinking of changing the name of the blog. Any idea’s or do you like this one? Maybe just start a new one?Start a new one somewhere else?  Hmmm decisions decisions

 

This And That

The Road To The Road  (This is probably my choice)

Getting There

Gaining On My Dream

5 Years and Counting

 

Financial Planning

Financial Planning is a very important part in being able to pursue our dreams, regardless of what they may be. To be able to afford FullTiming or fulfill other dreams one of the important things to do is pay off all debts. And I have to admit we carry more than we should. Now there are many varying ways of accomplishing this, here are two I have come across the most. This pertains to credit card and loan debt. Mortgage debt would be a whole other story but fortunately that’s not a debt we have.

 

1) The first way is to gather together all loan/credit card amounts and minimum monthly payments. Next you need to figure out how much you can afford to put towards paying things down each month, You then substrate the minimum payments for all but the smallest debt from this amount. You pay the minimums on all higher balances and to the smallest debt you pay the remainder as well as any “found” monies each month. Doing this enables you to pay off the small amount quicker. The important part of this is when that debt is paid off you then take the full amount of what you paid each month plus the minimum payment amount of the next smallest loan/credit card and proceed to pay off that one. You continue to do this until all is paid off.

   The positive to this is quicker gratification of seeing a debt go away.

 

2) The second way is again gather all amounts and minimum monthly payments but now you also need to find the Annual Interest Rate of each. You apply the higher payment amount to the loan/credit card with the highest Interest Rate and proceed to pay each off in order of Interest Amount. If two happen to have the same Interest Rate you start with the highest balance due. Again as each is paid off snowballing the amount paid to the next.

  The positive of this method is paying less interest in the long run.

 

Both make sense, the biggest obstacle for me is paying only the minimum amount due on the others, that goes so against how I usually do things. 

 

***Very Important no matter which way is chosen:

 Remember to pay each one each month as you certainly don’t want any late fees added! Be honest with how much you can afford to put towards paying debt off.

Continue to snowball amounts as each is paid off (Remember your goals)

Be sure to apply “found” money to paying off debts as a way to get rid of them sooner!

And Stop Adding To Debt with unnecessary spending! (hmm define unnecessary spending!!!)

 

Our decision

As I stated previously, Paul and I have decided on a possible future and will spend the next five years (more or less) Planning, Investigating, and Preparing to go FullTiming! We are going to buy an RV and Hit The Road! This has been a dream of mine for most of my life and hopefully, as we explore the ins and outs, it will become more and more Paul’s as well. For now I am content, actually Thrilled, that he is seriously considering it.

Now the work begins. Of course of the first things I will be doing is making lists, I Love Lists!, and with an endeavor such as this there will be lots and lots of lists! Ah a List Of Lists!! SO many things to consider, so many things to explore.
And Plans!! Lots of Plans!! A financial plan being the most important and which is why the five years. Time to gather our resources, pay off all debts and of course buy and RV!!

So if there is anyone out there reading this, I welcome any and all suggestions for lists and things to plan. And of course any and all comments!

To the future

So Paul and I have made the start of future plans. Now I need to find a way to implement them.

"How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal and you have to be willing to work for it."
 ~ Jim Valvano