ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

October is our first month to use the Total Money Makeover plan so we just sat down and planned some things out.

- We budgeted every dollar of the month.
- We eliminated the housekeepers. I know it sounds bratty to say but I'm really sweating how to keep the house clean without them. I work too much and have too many square feet. I swear we'd be better off in an apartment.
- We're reducing our YMCA membership to not include the child care option. We don't use that option anymore so it's an unneeded expense.
- We're getting strict again on our food spending. When I've stayed at home in the past, I've been able to do this well so we're going to try it again.
- We've identified some ways of generating additional funds such as selling the hot tub we never use and selling some of the kids old items that are in good shape.
- We canceled our credit cards.

Best of all.....

we just paid off my student loans!!!!!!!!!

They have hung over my head for 10 years and I thought they'd never be gone but now they officially are. Gone. Done. No more. We had a chunk of money sitting in savings so we used most of it to pay off my loans, leaving enough to still maintain the emergency fund.

Now our only debt remaining is the second mortgage we got when we bought the house. We had an 80/15/5 arrangement where our main mortgage is the 80% part, our second mortage is the 15% part and then we paid cash for the 5% part. The Total Money Makeover plan says that the second mortgage should be part of your debt payoff step so that's our only remaining thing. We're attacking it until it's gone.

So if we're following along in the program, here are the steps we've completed so far.

1.) $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund
2.) Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball
- Pay off student loans
- Pay off second mortage
3.) 3 to 6 months of expenses in savings
4.) Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
5.) College funding for children
6.) Pay off home early
7.) Build wealth and give! Invest in mutual funds and real estate