How My Wife and I Communicate About Finances

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How do you and your significant other stay on the same page with your finances? How often do you talk about finances? There’s no right or wrong answers unless they are “we don’t,” and “never.” My wife and I recently revamped our financial handling plan, and committed to tackling our finances together. I wrote a post about it a few months ago, however we’ve honed our skills since then and have added some new aspects to our discussions such that I thought it warranted a new post. Paying Bills Our budget cycle is bimonthly since my wife and I are […] Read more »

We’re on a Spending Freeze!

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I’m about to do something I’ve never done before. In fact, I’ve often wondered about the reasoning behind why people do these. I’m about to find out for myself, as I’ve declared this week a no spend week. I’ve read about people who have gone long periods of time without spending any money except for necessities, but for my purposes the period will last about 6 days. Why Am I Doing A No Spend Week? We have an activity this weekend, and we need to make sure we have the funds for it. Our budget cycle is on a bimonthly […] Read more »

My Financial Goals for 2020

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Another year is coming to an end, and as many people do I’m setting some goals for the new year. This list of goals is purely financial, aimed at my financial position being better at the end of 2020 than it is now. I’ll review the progress of my goals every three months so you can help hold me accountable. Here’s my list of financial goals for 2020: Increase Emergency Fund In addition to the standard reasons for having an emergency fund, our appliances and vehicles are aging. I won’t replace them if I don’t have to, but if I’m […] Read more »

Teens And Money: Bills My High School Daughter Pays

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  Teaching children financial skills is crucial to their success with money as an adult. However, it’s also a parent’s responsibility to provide necessities of life and opportunities to participate in activities that will create well rounded individuals ready to take on the real world. Parents have to find a balance between providing their children with a comfortable life and teaching financial responsibility. Below I share the major categories of what my wife and I expect our daughter, who is a high school senior, to pay for using income from her of her part-time job, and what we supply for […] Read more »

5 Things That Happen When You Spend Only Cash

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In Friday’s roundup post, I mentioned that my wife and I were restarting our methodology of spending cash only for our day to day expenditures.   Here’s a brief look at how it works: Monthly bills are paid online out of our checking account Each Friday, cash for our personal spending is withdrawn from the ATM. Personal spending includes gas, groceries, allowance for the kids, and entertainment funds With this system we had been extremely successful managing our finances and staying within our budget.  As happens in life, we got lazy and began to let our structure slide in favor of […] Read more »

Don’t Be Fooled By The End Result

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I’ve been called crazy, nuts, stupid, inspirational, amazing and countless other terms. I’m a long distance runner. I’ve run 5 marathons, several 10 mile races, a handful of 10Ks and even a few 5Ks. This weekend I’ll be running my second half marathon. Many people cannot comprehend how I can run such long distances. The trap these observers have fallen into is they only see the end result. I don’t just wake up and decide to run 26.2 miles. What isn’t seen is my alarm clock going off at 4:15am to go for my training runs 5 days a week. […] Read more »

Nobody Likes Being Reminded Of Their Mistakes

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A high school science teacher from Iowa ate nothing but McDonald’s for six months. Maybe you’ve heard this story before, or maybe you’re thinking this was another one of those attempts to show the public the evils of fast food. If you fall into the later category, you might be surprised to learn that the man lost about 60 pounds, lost 21 inches off his chest, waist, and hips, and significantly lowered his cholesterol. The caveat here is that while he did eat fast food for every meal for 6 months, he also stuck to a 2000 calories a day […] Read more »

The Dangers Of Swiping A Card

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If you’re a regular reader here on Enemy Of Debt, you know that I’m a firm believer that cash is king. I’d much rather throw down some greenbacks than swipe a card. Every reason that I love paying for things with cash was reinforced by a situation with my daughter that occurred over the weekend. As I waded through my email, I noticed three email receipts from Apple for purchases made through iTunes. I hadn’t made any purchases during the week, so I was interested to see what had been bought, and by who. The agreement with my kids is […] Read more »

It Feels Good To Be In Control

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At the beginning of June, I recognized that we had let all the habits that helped us successfully manage our finances fall by the wayside. My wife and I had a long financial discussion and vowed to get back on track. We even reviewed the actions we needed to put in motion. Then along game a series of life events: Grandma’s Marathon Weekend Wedding Anniversary 4th Of July Vonnie’s Birthday Family Vacation to Wisconsin Dells It would have been fantastic to get our processes rolling in the right direction again before these events since they all required spending a significant […] Read more »

This Is Why You Pay Yourself First

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I’ve been generally keeping an eye on what my son spends his money on, as I can see his account details when I log into my bank’s online portal. The agreement was that he could spend his first two paychecks as he wished. After that, he must transfer $150 of each paycheck into his savings account. Transferring the funds to his savings account on payday is a great way to teach the concept of pay yourself first. We haven’t made it to the bank yet to open his savings account. But, I’ve been keeping track of how much of his […] Read more »

Small Victories- Getting Out of Debt One Small Step At a Time

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small victories get out of debt one step at a time

Getting out of debt can seem like a daunting task.  When you finally decide to take the step of getting yourself out of debt, it’s easy to be intimidated by the huge goal you’ve presented for yourself. And when you realize what you’re up against, you’re ready to give up on getting out of debt before you even get started. So how do you overcome that overwhelming feeling when you want to achieve your goal, but you’re so intimidated by all the work you know it will take to get it done? You have to chill out, take a step […] Read more »

Bad Debt Collectors and What You Can Do About Them

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Dealing with bad debt is no fun. Dealing with a bad debt collector can be downright terrifying. When you have a bad debt that has gone to a collection agency it can be very easy to want to avoid the pain of the situation or even totally ignore it when you know you can’t possibly pay it.  That’s why some collectors of overdue debt will do everything they can to get your attention, even if it’s illegal. Most debt collection agencies are legit and strictly follow the rules set forth by the FTC  (Federal Trade Commission). However, there are plenty […] Read more »

Instant Gratification Here, There, and Everywhere

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I felt myself becoming more agitated as I sat at the stoplight waiting for the light to turn green. I was on my way to the gym, and was anxious to get started. The light was seemingly taking forever, so I decided to figure out how long the light was red.  I was sure it would be a ridiculous amount of time. I remember that I had started a new track as I pulled up to the intersection so I would easily be able to calculate how long I was sitting there. After what seemed like an excruciating eternity the […] Read more »

7 Ways You Can Stay Motivated to Get Out of Debt

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7 ways to stay motivated to get out of debt resources

Over the years I’ve seen plenty of people get motivated to get out of debt, but they never end up following through with the process.  They are usually pretty fired up about getting out of debt and start out very motivated.  But not long after they start the process, their energy flags and it’s not long before they lose their motivation. I’ve seen a lot of other people make decent progress in paying down debt, but for whatever reason, they end up losing their focus and go back to their old habits, never finishing the get out of debt process.   How to […] Read more »