I love that song by Sublime by the way :) Ha ha...well the suspense has been killing some of you! I know. When I was told that my Aunt left 2 things for me specifically....I was puzzled. The first was a check for a VERY nice amount! Seriously- I was shocked about that! I wish I could say we are going to have some fun with it, but half is going into savings, and some to Student Loan Debt, and the other is going to pay for Misc. things that we have been saving for, like Hardwood floors (yay!!), Wesley's school tuition, plane tickets for Thanksgiving, and maybe some trees/fence for our backyard (which I really want!). We have been saving money for all of these things, so this extra bonus helps getting them faster!
We are following the Dave Ramsey plan for the most part. We don't necessarily agree with the "baby" steps order. These are Dave's steps.....
1. $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund
2. Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball
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!
We paid off all of our debt besides Nathan's student loans since they are only at 3%. We invest 15% of our income in Nathan's retirement account, and do Max contributions to our IRA's every year. We also now have 6 months worth of living expenses in our savings. I realize that we are supposed to "knock out" #2 before jumping to the other steps, but having that 6 months of expenses in a emergency fund makes us both sleep better. Also, Nathan's company matches dollar for dollar of Nathan's contributions, so we would be stupid to not invest money with them right now. Nathan and I meet with a financial planner, and he said that we are way ahead of the game in regards to retirement, so that made us feel better. Now....its time to focus on those darn student loans...and our mortgage. We are trying NOT to but any more cars until after the Student Loans are done. Which is fine, we both have 2005 cars....and I love no having a car payment! Man....one day I will be screaming- WE ARE DEBT FREE! I will say- I will Never NEVER have a credit card again. Ever. Life is great with out those! Asa matter of fact, I got a new Target Visa card in the mail a few days ago, my other one had expired, since my balance was at $0, I had 8K available....I held that card in my hand for a few minutes thinking how much fun I could had, and I thought about when I would get those bills in the mail, and hate seeing my balance, and immediately cut the card up, and called and canceled it!
Ok...so the other thing was really cool. My Aunt left an envelope for me in her dresser drawer. It said "Give this to Libby Misch when I pass away. Libby left me this dollar and this note in my suitcase on March 30, 1988. I wanted her to know how thoughtful it was, and I always kept it. I love you Libby, Love Aunt Liz."
The note had a dollar attached, and a note written by me at the age of 7, that said " To: you From: Me, Thank you for helping me. I love you, Libby." Pretty neat, huh?
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