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Net Worth Update: September

October 6, 2014 Brian

Welcome to our September net worth update. September was quite the eventful month for us. We became debt free, making our final snowball payment. We purchased a new car with cash! We restarted our retirement saving, on the heels of being debt free. It was a busy and exciting month. We are hopeful that October comes back to normal a bit for us. Here’s how the month broke down:

Net Worth Details

Cash ($0.00): Even, Steven for the month and I’ll take it. Finally having a fully funded e-fund give us a warm fuzzy feeling deep down inside.

401K (-$1,595.00): Ebbs and flows of investing. The good news here is that we have started our savings again and our taking advantage of my companies 4% match.

Pension ($0.00): No interest income added this month, just a matter of timing. The pension contributions are now over. Once I have the ability to roll this somewhere else I will.

Autos (+$57,068.00): We say good-bye to our 13-year-old car for $700, we still have our 12 year-old van, but have added a new vehicle to our house hold. We paid cash and it felt good.

Home ($0.00): Still an estimate, as home prices are still fluctuating in my area. I’ll be very happy if we sold for $350K. We don’t have any plans on going anywhere soon.

Mortgages ($-266.00): Slow and steady. I hate being underwater, but we are getting closer.

Consumer Debt ($-2,689): With a final payment to Bank of America we are debt free! 50 months of hard work and we paid off $109K of debt! We are so thankful to be at this point.

I expect that our budget and net worth will continue to evolve over the net few months. There have been lots of discussions in our household lately surround the direction we are headed. We continue to research and collected information on education savings, and investments. We hope to have everything in place by the end of the year.

How was your September? Do you have any goals you are looking to accomplished between now and the end of the year?

Money Saving Resources

October 2, 2014 Brian

I recently have the opportunity to read the e-book Money Conscious Student by John Schneider and David Auten the Debt Free Guys and install a new budgeting App ZBBudget developed by Scott Enterprises. I wanted to share my reviews on these money saving resources.

Book Review: Money Conscious Student

Philosophy behind the book

The e-book Money Conscious Student by John Schneider and David Auten the Debt Free Guys is a general overview / guide for parents and student planning on perusing education after High School or Post-Secondary School (PSS) as they like to define it. The book takes a look at the multiple options for financing College, managing these expenses and being a money conscious student.

What I didn’t like

There wasn’t anything in the book that I did not like. The 60 page guide offers a great overview with particular advice.

What I loved

The e-book is fully of great advice and tips for your college bound child. They suggest a Job-shadowing technique for your young adult to get a feel for potential careers which I love. I also learned that some College’s offer the Testing Out ability for anywhere from 30 to 45 credits. Testing out tests you proficiency of college level material regardless of how you acquired the knowledge. If you pass you save both time and money. I had no idea.

Why you should read “Money Conscious Student”

As a parent of three children I found the extremely informative. I’m going to have my two High School sophomores give it a read. If you or anyone you know is considering PSS you should read this book. It’s an easy read with easy to understand information and will give you a great foundation to starting thinking about preparing for paying for college.

Money Conscious Student is the first in a series of Money Conscious books by John Schneider and David Auten.

App Review: ZBBudget

Philosophy behind the App

ZBBudget (Zero-Based Budget) is an iOS app designed to help you keep track of your spending every dollar of your income. A Zero based budget is where you assign every dollar of income to an expense category until your income balance is down to zero.

What I didn’t like

There is no Android version and there is a scrolling ad banner at the bottom of the app, but hey it was free. Also to reconcile the app between two phones, say if a couple was trying to keep track of their budget you need to share the same apple ID and store your information in the cloud.

What I loved

It’s very easy to use. You get download and get set up in a few minutes. It’s very convenient to have tracking ability in your pocket. It has an email feature that allows you to send a PDF file of all the information you have entered in the app on your device.

Why you should download “ZB Budget”

It’s free. $0.99 cents to disable the ad scroll bar. If you are just starting to get a handle on your budget and spending this is a quick and easy way to track your expenses. Having the tracking ability in your pocket gives you the flexibility to check your budget before you make a purchase, adding some accountability before spending.

What are some of your favorite money saving resources?

Information Gathering Mode

September 30, 2014 Brian

We’ve had a great week after declaring we were debt free last Tuesday. It’s an exciting time for the family to put the focus of debt repayment behind us and begin to focus on wealth building. We have gone into information gathering mode again, but this time I’m not the only one involved. My wife is also playing a big part. We are double checking our options on investing and college saving before jumping back in. We have discussed adding some discretionary spending to the budget too. We are taking a cautious approach as we need a bit of time to re-evaluate our budget. We just want to breathe for a week or two before we make any major decision. I expect that it will evolve over the next few months before we settle in for a bit.

Feels Different

Our family’s mood certainly had a different feel to it this weekend, there was something missing, oh yeah that huge pile of debt. All kidding aside I do feel different, in a great way, like some weight has been lifted. The family grabbed dinner out Friday night and we had a great time. We did manage to discuss credit cards and debit cards. My youngest son wasn’t totally clear on the difference. We cleared it up for him and I was surprise to hear his older brother and sister view on credit cards, stating when using CCs you’re using money you don’t have. On the ride home we all sang alone to the new U2 album, Songs of Innocence. It was a fun family night. I did some grocery shopping this weekend and it felt different. I still stuck to my list, used coupons, total bill was just over $76, but paying certainly had different feel to it in a good way. I really can’t explain it in words, but it’s a good thing.

Reality Check

There has been a lot of interest in our story since we have made our debt free announcement. I have several interviews and posts pending with our blogs. I’m proud of our accomplishments and I’m happy to share our story. My wife and I both posted statuses on our personal Facebook account and the response had been overwhelming positive. We have several friends asking how we did it. We are offering help where we can and supplying them with resources. I also had the opportunity to be interview by Libby Kane for Business Insider. We had a phone interview last week. After hanging up the phone with Libby I again felt good about what we have accomplished, exciting for the future for my family. The post was published yesterday on both BI and Yahoo Finance. What I wasn’t prepared for what all of the negative comments.

Ouch! The internet tough guys were out in full force. I guess I should have anticipated it, but I was just on such a high from the past week that it never crossed my mind. I guess I’ve been spoiled by the great community we have, because most of the comments on Debt Discipline have been from fellow personal finance bloggers. I’m trying to deal with it, as these internet trolls mean nothing in the grand scale of my everyday life and I need to reminder myself just that. I have offered the same advice to others, but when you start making comments about my wife and kids, it has gone a little too far. My wife was upset too and I apologized for putting us out their like this. I’ll chalk this up to a lesson learned.