Goals

Tina and Brad

04.02.09 11:42pm

Our top three goals are to eliminate our credit card debt, increase our giving and start to build an emergency savings account. We are confident we can meet these three goals over the course of the challenge.

Once we have these in order, we have a laundry list of longer term goals that we will need help prioritizing--increasing retirement contributions, paying off student loans, house maintenance, college savings, vacation fund--but one step at a time. :)

If I understand your question--certainly, working towards these goals will change our lifestyle in the short term. We now both drive older cars, we won't take a sunny vacation at any time during this endless winter, and the baristas at Starbucks might just forget my first name over the course of this year. But...we'll still go camping this summer with our friends and kids, Elisha and Kaylie will still take swimming lessons, and Brad and I have each chosen one concert that we'll go to this year instead of the several that we usually like to do. I feel like we're trying to find a good balance for our family, and we're still choosing things we can look forward to--but they are activities that we can pay cash for, will continue to help us build memories as a family, and do not totally derail us from the course we are on to meet our goals.

Tina

Julia and Danny

04.11.09 12:43pm

Because our incomes are limited due to being students, our goals are small to begin with.  We really want to pay down our credit cards to a "healthy" level because right now the balances are too high and they are negatively affecting our credit.  We also want to establish a solid emergency savings account that will help us with the little unexpected bumps in the road.  We're not talkin' 6-8months of expenses because right now there's no way we could accomplish that with our incomes but we can still start small and then once we have graduated and have "real" jobs that pay "real" money, we can work towards building that up.  I think our solid number one goal is to change our habits.  Without that, we will accomplish nothing in the long run.  Even though our savings account will be small and we will be unable to completely pay off our credit cards in the next year, we can start laying the foundation of healthy spending that will allow us to achieve greater goals once we can afford them.  For example (I'm making up numbers here) if we can find a way to live and save money on a $25,000/yr budget NOW and our household can make $60,000/yr once we graduate but we CONTINUE to live frugally (as if that extra income wasn't there) we can manage to really build up our savings and tear down our debt quickly.  Meaning that within 2 years of having "real" incomes, we can achieve that financial security that we can't achieve this year.  But that's ok!  Because it means that it is close and within our grasp, more than I ever thought possible!  It means that the light at the end of the tunnel is real and not imagined!  If that makes sense...so the biggest goal and challenge for us is that habit change.  Once we can do that, I think everything else will follow.  In a perfect world I'd like to pay down/off our credit card debt, establish a solid savings account and save money for the wedding.  Alas I think that's not realistic so we're having to settle for smaller yet equally significant and difficult goals.  I am worried about paying for the wedding...I am nervous that we won't be able to pay for all of it like I wanted originally and I'm afraid we will have to ask for help from our families.  I think we will still be able to pay for a lot of it but I would love to pay for all of it.  I would also love to take a honeymoon but it's looking like that won't happen right away but like I said, if we can continue with our newly discovered frugality, maybe we can take one sooner than we thought.  Maybe a year after the wedding instead of 5 years after!!  Whatever happens, I know we'll make do and find a way to the finish line.  We're pretty tough when we need to be.  ;)

~Julia

Erin

04.19.09 7:43pm

My biggest goal is to eliminate my credit card debt.  It won't be all gone by the end of the challenge, but I will have significantly paid the debt down.  I know that I am building better habits this year in terms of spending and I believe that this will be the key to future success.  It's already been pretty easy to stop unnecessary spending on my credit cards.  Not buying new things has made me appreciate the nice things I already own and to get real about my reasons for overspending.  It's definitely a journey to change habits, but I feel like I'm on the right path.

Ryan_FEO

06.01.09 1:48pm

When we’re out presenting workshops about budgeting we regularly ask – What are your top 3 goals (financial or not) and how does your discretionary spending help you reach those?  If it’s not, maybe there are some ways you can adjust your habits to help you achieve those goals.  Of course, looking at the big picture and trying to change small habits on a daily basis can be difficult.  If it’s a financial goal, try breaking it down to strategies you can implement either monthly or weekly.  For example if we have the goal to pay off a credit card balance by a certain date in time, how much will that take monthly?  What weekly compromises can we make to help us reach that goal as well?  Don’t forget to reward yourself for achieving checkpoints along the way- that will make it much easier to stay on track.

Willis and Adria

06.03.09 7:33am

Debt reduction is an obvious goal, but "utilizing buckets" is unique to this competition; for Adria and I, buckets present a distinct and difficult challenge.   A successful bucket strategy has the potential to eliminate the "hand to mouth" cash flow cycle that has continually plagued us.  Nevertheless, the challenge with buckets lies in having adequate funds to achieve and maintain approprialy stocked levels - therein is the key goal for this competition.