Home Budgeting...

[mmmmmbeer]

For those of you interested in a monthly budget, you should really check out "Every Dollar" on the app or apple store. It's an electronic version of the Dave Ramsey zero based budget.

After this last shutdown, my wife (also a fed) and I realized we are really not maximizing our income. We have a little debt we need to wipe out and our fully funded emergency fund should have already been in place. Well... we had a pretty good wake up call with the shutdown and are "getting after it" now. This last shutdown shouldn't have even made us blink, but it did.

We downloaded the app (you can also sync a version on your laptop or home comp), worked up our February zero based budget and we're off to the races starting with our paychecks this week.

[jlozano042]

For those of you interested in a monthly budget, you should really check out "Every Dollar" on the app or apple store. It's an electronic version of the Dave Ramsey zero based budget.

After this last shutdown, my wife (also a fed) and I realized we are really not maximizing our income. We have a little debt we need to wipe out and our fully funded emergency fund should have already been in place. Well... we had a pretty good wake up call with the shutdown and are "getting after it" now. This last shutdown shouldn't have even made us blink, but it did.

We downloaded the app (you can also sync a version on your laptop or home comp), worked up our February zero based budget and we're off to the races starting with our paychecks this week.

Good information here and good lesson learns for everyone.

[SnareMV17]

We love the aevery Dollar app. The zero based budgeting (Thank you DR!) is great and the ability to sync it to multiple devices so that the wife and I can share it is great too. You can even set up sink funds that accumulate month to month, also!

[sgtnichols]

We're also working to grow our emergency fund a bit bigger after the last scare. That, and we have a baby on the way.

Following Dave's plan, my wife and I are DEBT FREE except for our house!!

Four years ago we swore off new debt in any form and chopped up our credit cards.

In total, we payed off about $86,772 including car loans , credit cards, furniture, and even the wedding ring. We even evicted Sallie Mae!!

FREEEEEEEDOMMMMMM!!!!!

How we did it:
After reading "Total Money Makeover" during our honeymoon, I was hooked. So I read it again. It was a good book and just what I needed the first year out of college. The book and podcasts were life changing. Once I learned how dumb I had been with money, I read every major money book I could. Never. Going. Back.

By budgeting every dollar every month, we broke free and have a six-month emergency fund. The payoff took a little longer than usual because I kept putting into retirement to get the match. Hey, it's free money! We are even on target to pay off our house in 20 years early. We're weird people!!!

A TSP take away: Dave's advice is to buy and hold with mostly US equities, and to ditch the bond market. That approach has worked out pretty well for us.

Keep up the good work!

[jlozano042]

Thanks for your advice and sharing your life experiences sgtnichols. More importantly, congratulations on the little one!

[Aitrus]

That, and we have a baby on the way.

Congrats, man! You're in for quite the ride, let me tell you. One day at a time, brother. One day at a time - enjoy it or endure it, depending on the swing of the needle. But always relish it, because each day is another day closer to them spreading their wings and heading out on their own.