Enemy of Debt: Where Behavior Meets Reality
Motivational Money Management
Discussing, setting, and reaching goals together builds trust and unity in a relationship. Having different goals and working against each other breaks down trust and fosters a feeling of "yours and mine" rather than "ours". That is why I'm a huge proponent of combined finances for married couples. I do not suggest combining finances when you are not married, but once you are legally married then your partners actions affect you even if you have a "yours and mine" accounting method. Read more »
Refund anticipation loans are loans given to you by the company that did your taxes in return for signing over your tax return. They give you a check, or prepaid debit card, and you sign over your refund to them. So you get cash right now, they get your refund later. I totally see why they are tempting. You are sitting there getting your taxes done. Mr. Tax Guy says you will be getting a $3,000 return. Yay! He then asks for his fee of $150. Boo! Read more »
I often meet with clients who are using credit cards to fund their daily life. With no money in savings credit cards have come through for them time and time again in emergencies. Their reluctance to get off credit is understandable. It's their friend. They know they can count on it. It's possible they have never had money is savings, credit has been their life line since they can remember. Credit is their crutch. Read more »
We are getting ready for our annual family vacation. We've been taking one family vacation a year for the last 5 years. It's a fun tradition for which we save up all year. Here are some ways we keep costs down and fun up. Drive Rock it old school family vacation style and load up the station wagon, or minivan, as the case may be. Sure, gas isn't cheap but it's way cheaper than buying a family's worth of plane tickets. Read more »
I was checking out at a store the other day and the checkout person was complaining to a co-worker that she couldn't meet her metrics. She was blaming the customers. She said she couldn't meet the handle time per order because customers took too long with their coupons. I wanted to interrupt and ask if other cashiers also get customers with coupons. I'm sure they do. I highly doubt that she is just that unlucky and gets all the slow coupon-ers that come through the store. I wanted to say "The metrics aren't the problem here." Read more »
I've struggled to get my daughter interested in money. She's 10 years old which should be plenty old enough to "get " money but for whatever reason she just didn't. She didn't care to earn it or spend it. I've tried all the tricks to get her interested. I give her spending money to spend when we are on vacation. Nothing. I pay her for chores. Nothing. The kicker is that she will do the chores but then doesn't even care to get paid! We have a chore chart on the fridge and after a chore is done the kids have to mark it off. Then once a week we pay them for the chores they have done. I know my daughter does her chores but she never has any marks on the paper and therefore doesn't get paid. Meanwhile my 5 year old son is all about checking off his chores and getting his allowance. Read more »
I know of a family who has the following budget. Income: $21,700 Expenses: $38,200 New Credit Card Debt from 2011: $16,500 Total Credit Card Debt: $142,710 Included in their expenses is $394 to charity and $7,930 in medical expenses. They also support both sets of grandparents which costs approximately $7,010 per year. Both sets of grandparents helped out a great deal financially in the past and did so expecting to be taken care of in their old age. One set is wealthy and one set couldn't survive without the extra income. Read more »
I thought I'd take you through my annual reveiw and hopefully inspire you to do one too; and if you are really feeling inspired feel free to share yours with the group. The exercise starts with two questions. •What went well this year? •What did not go well this year? What went well this year? I started my site, Money Talks. I'm happy with the progress my blog has made. I've met a ton of amazing people and went to the Financial Bloggers Conference, which was a total blast. I exceeded my very modest income goal this year and we avoided any major financial set backs. This allowed us to pay down debt and save more than I had been planning on. Read more »
The last class is about giving. There are some amazing stories about giving throughout the class. I won't spoil the surprise but I was pretty teary eyed at a lot of them. Ok, I cried. Jeeze. But they are very touching. My fears about the class being very religious were fulfilled in this class. All of the previous classes weren't overly religious. I was worried that because it's held at a church and intended to be given to people who attended church that it would be filled with religion. I mean, that's a reasonable assumption. And I don't have a problem with religion, it's just that I'm not religious. So for those out there who are like me and want to take the class but worry that it will be too "churchy" I can tell you that it's not... until the last class. Read more »
This week's class was on Real Estate and Mortgages. I liked this class a lot. Dave has a ton of great information about real estate since he's been in the industry his whole life. He has lots of funny and interesting stories. Dave is anti-mortgage, no surprises there. He would love it if everyone paid cash for their mortgages but he acknowledges that that's not going to happen. He does encourage everyone to pay off their house early, after paying off their debt and saving for retirement. In this lesson he gave tips for selling your home. Things like to clean it perfect, including the windows and the front door. Basically life in your house as if it was a model home. You are moving anyways so pack up most of your personal belongings. You want the new buyer to feel like it's their home as soon as they walk in. That won't happen if you still have your ceramic rooster collection on display. Read more »
This week was about making money, and was my favorite class so far. I'm really hooked on the idea of making more money right now. Dave talked about how we always must be learning new skills and information. Gone are the days of getting a job and working at that one job for 20+ years. He says "Find something that blends your skills, abilities, personality traits, values, dreams, and passions." Well that's the hard part isn't it? He goes on to give tips on job hunting and some tips for getting your resume seen. He says to first research the heck out of the company you are trying to get to hire you. Then send an introduction letter, then your resume, and then follow up. Dave also reminds us that most people find a job through someone they know, not through the classifieds. Read more »
This week's class is called From Fruition to Tuition, it's about planning for retirement and college. Dave talked about all the different kinds of retirement plans including traditional and Roth IRAs, SEPs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and 457s. He says you should invest 15% of your income in "qualified plans", which are the plans mentioned. Hey lays out the order of that you should attack your retirement planning; employer plan up to the match, max out a Roth IRA, then max out your employer plan. Read more »
I love Thanksgiving! It's my favorite holiday. One of the reasons is that I met my husband on Thanksgiving day in 2003. I had been invited to my roommate's parents house for the holiday. While I was there I met her brother... who is now my husband. But this great holiday was my favorite even before that. I like Thanksgiving because it's low-key. There isn't a huge lead up to the holiday. You don't spend WEEKS before the actual event listening to commercials and promotions so that you are sick of the holiday before it even arrives. Read more »
This week's class was called Of Mice and Mutual Funds. It was about investing, obviously. I liked this lesson quite a bit. Lots of good information. He gave a lot of definitions again, like in the insurance class. As I said during the review of the insurance class, knowing the lingo of investing is half the battle. He talked about the following investments. Read more »
Hello and welcome to Enemy of Debt! I founded EOD in April of 2008 in an effort to motivate and inspire financial discipline by focusing on behavior and truth. By teaching personal responsibility, debt free principles, and the importance of planning people can learn how to take control of their finances one step at a time. I want to help! :)
My journey to debt freedom and financial independence began in January of 2008. We became sick and tired of living paycheck to paycheck and were finally mad enough to take action. At that time, we did not have any savings, knew very little about budgeting and were buried under $26,076.75 of debt.
In the first two months we were able to throw together our very first emergency fund ever of $2,000. It took us only 18 more months to eliminate the retched debt from our lives and I can proudly say we never plan to borrow another dime ever again, for any reason.Read more
