If you’ve read any of my past finance articles or spent any amount of time with me in a place that requires a purchase, you will know that I am a Dave Ramsey disciple. For those of you who don’t know me, let me take a moment to shout it out and make it clear: I am a Financial Peace University money nerd and proud of it! As always, Dave will be guiding our 2013 financial goals and unlike thousands across the nation, I’m not afraid to face my financial future.
Goal #1: Get started on Dave Ramsey step #3
After successfully paying off the last of our debt (except our house) in 2012, our next step is to set aside 3-6 months of living expenses. If in the future, either my husband or I get severely ill or laid-off of work, this step will keep up afloat for a bit and let us focus on our life emergency rather than a bank account crisis. While I don’t believe we will be able to fully complete this step this year, our goal is to get started. Hopefully we will be pleasantly surprised at our progress come December.
Goal #2: Take control with home business efforts
This past year was a tumultuous year for the United States economy. Add that to the general upheaval in the education world and my family income (made up of two teacher salaries) is in a less than desirable state. I have decided to combat this instability by starting small home business efforts. My writing is one and selling lessons, quizzes and educational material on teacherspayteachers.com is the other. My goal this year is to increase my efforts in these two endeavors and take the money-making aspect of them from minimal to a level than can help support my family’s budget.
Goal #3: Budget with less
Dave Ramsey’s plan has you spend every penny on paper (before actually opening your wallet) and put every available dollar down on debt. While this has helped us eliminate our debt , it leaves our bank accounts looking somewhat bare and my level of anxiety somewhat high. We trust Dave’s plan, but still it is something that weighs on my mind. To compensate for my personal fears, we plan to budget each month with a few hundred dollars less than we make. This way we can slowly bolster our savings account while still sticking to the plan.
Last year brought us a new healthcare system, a second son, a flooded basement the night he was born, a shattered car window, a broken furnace on New Year’s Eve and a fiscal cliff scare raising social security taxes. But you know what? We are okay and we’ll be okay. I only hope 2013 has a few more financial ups than downs.
