The Abundant Wife

It has been almost 5 months since my last financial update, so I thought it was time for another venture into our family finances.

The tagline of this website is “Living Abundantly on Less” and one of the reasons for that tagline is that we have debt.  Currently we owe:

1. $26,161.68 to Sallie Mae (4.5 Interest Rate)
2. $11,418.62 to Citimortgage (7.78 Interest Rate)
3. $108,100.53 to Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (6.25 Interest Rate)

Grand Total: $145,680.83 

Total of All But The Larger Mortgage: $37,580.30

If you do the math, we’ve paid off another $4300 since my last financial update!  Yeah!  This leap was in large part due to the sale of my car, which as you know also includes a refund on the car insurance and lower fuel costs each month (and no more repairs for our unreliable vehicle!)

Brad and I are following Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball, but in the case of our smaller mortgage, we have chosen to list that with our debts.  (Dave usually recommends saving your mortgage for last, but we have two mortgages, and our smaller one has the lowest pay-off and the highest interest rate.)

Our goals for our financial future include:

1. Paying off Citimortgage in the next 6 months.
2. Paying off Sallie Mae in the next 18 months.
3. Saving a 3-6 month Emergency Fund.
4. Financing our Retirement.
5. Creating College Funds for our kids.
6. Paying off Wells Fargo.

After moving 2700 miles two months ago, we are pleased to still be making steady progress on our goals.  Of course, we know obstacles will come up, and other priorities will take precedence (like a vehicle with more seats?) but we want to keep our eyes on the goal of becoming debt-free!

What are your financial goals, and how are you accomplishing them?

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