Warm Delights and Pine Trees

How's that for a blog post title?! I better explain.

Warm Delights
I got the most awesome "freebie" in the mail yesterday: Betty Crocker Warm Delights minis! Mmmmm, chocolate :) Check it out:


Unfortunately, the offer is no longer available. If you enjoy getting free stuff in the mail, though, my favorite blogs that list freebies are Mommy Gets PAID and My Good Cents. Check them out and maybe you can get free chocolate in the mail, too!

Pine Trees
A guy came to our house today and took out a large pine tree in our backyard. He had to do it by hand since you can't get machinery back there. Pricetag: $275. The other estimate we got was for almost $1000, so we were pretty happy to pay $275.

The money came out of our New Siding/Home Maintenance Fund. It wasn't really a necessary expense, but the tree was oversized for our yard and I really want to plant some lilac bushes back there!

Bonus Material
A friend of mine sent me this really neat article titled All In A Days Work. Definitely a must read! I've always felt that we Americans are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to work/play balance. I thought this article made a good argument for a shorter work week. What do you think? Does anyone have a plan for getting American employers to implement this? Do we all threaten to move to France or Norway? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Financial Goals 2008: May Update

I'm afraid my posting is going to be a little erratic this summer. Life's been really busy lately, especially with going on two vacations in three weeks! My husband and I have our weekends booked almost every weekend from now until July. At any rate, I'm definitely going to keep blogging, just at a slower rate through the summer. I hope you'll stick around :)

Anyway, on to the goals update. You can read about my 2008 goals here if you missed it. Here's where we're at as of May 1st:

1. ROTH IRA's. We're pretty well on track with funding our ROTHs. As you can see from the progress bar on the right, we have $2000 out of $8000 contributed. We're funding $250 each month into each ROTH automatically now, and I'll fund extra toward the end of the year.

2. New Car Fund. This one is also on auto-pilot. I just increased the contribution from $125 per paycheck to $150 per paycheck with my recent raise. Now if only the stock market would help us out! We have $1098 added to this account so far this year with a goal of $3900 added by the end of the year.

3. Emergency Fund. We have 36% of our goal completed on this one, so I guess we're a little ahead of schedule! We have increased our balance by $950 so far this year. Our goal is to have an increase of $2600 by year end.

4. New Siding Fund. This one has been interesting. My husband has decided he might want to paint the house instead of putting vinyl siding on. It's still very much up in the air, so I'm still hitting this fund pretty hard with extra money. We have a lot of other home improvement projects we want to do, so if the money doesn't get used for vinyl siding, it will get used for carpeting and bathroom cupboards and paint and a new refrigerator... the list could go on for quite some time! :)
At any rate, we've increased this fund by $2150 with a bare minimum goal of $4000 by the end of the year. Hey! I hadn't realized I was so far ahead of schedule! We've funded over half of our goal and we're only 33% into the year! Awesome :)

How are you doing on your 2008 goals?

How NOT to Handle an Inheritance

After four years, she's finally done it. She's spent her entire inheritance.

Let me explain. I work at a financial services firm. A client of ours, let's call her Eunice, managed her finances well and left an inheritance of about $272,000 to her two children when she passed away four years ago. Both children were in their 40's and each received $136,000 when Eunice died. Both children also immediately began taking distributions from their inheritance.

The son started spending his inheritance money like it was going out of style. He passed away about a year after Eunice died. His wife received the inheritance and hasn't spent a dime more of it. She's saving it for her own retirement (very smart woman!).

Eunice's daughter, let's call her Jane, also began spending her inheritance immediately upon receiving it. About once a month, Jane calls us and says that she needs $2,000 (it varies every time she called, but probably averages out to monthly and $2,000 each time).

Jane also declares each time she calls that she needs the money "as soon as possible" for some bill or another that's due in 4 days. Because she needs the money so quickly, we have to wire it to her (costing her an extra $15 wire fee each time), and the process starts all over again in about a month. Jane never would agree to an automatic monthly withdrawal, which would have saved her the $15 wire fees.

Some of the inheritance money was in an IRA, so Jane has also had to pay taxes and early withdrawal penalties to the government on her withdrawals.

Well, Jane made her last withdrawal last week, just under four years after her first withdrawal. She's managed to blow through about $136,000 in four years, which averages out to $34,000 per year. Since Jane makes about $40,000 per year in her career, she has almost doubled her spending each of these past 4 years. And now it is gone. I have no idea how she plans on continuing her spendy lifestyle with the extra money.

Every time Jane has called "needing" more money over these last four years, I've wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. Didn't she realize that if she kept the money untouched, she'd have a really nice addition to her (probably nonexistent) retirement funds ($633,000 at age 65 with an 8% return)? Didn't she ever think that Eunice would be rolling over in her grave if she knew how fast her daughter went through Eunice's life savings?

I was actually glad when Jane called last week to take that last distribution (wired to her, of course). I'll no longer feel that frustration every month at her poor management skills, knowing what "might have been".

I don't know what the message in this post is, besides encouraging people to think about the future and not be idiots ;)

Do you know people like this, people whom you want to scream at for their stupid money decisions? I'd love to hear about them!

The Budget-Busting Meme

I've noticed that there's a meme going around asking people to list their top 5 budget busters, so I thought I should join in the fun!

1. Vacations
Being newlyweds, my husband and I are still working on "frugalizing" our vacations (I think I just made up a word!). So far, our biggest issue seems to be that we vacation where friends are living and then take them out to eat. This is going to be our big expense with the vacation we're taking this weekend to Raleigh, NC and Washington DC. We'll be staying with a friend for two of the nights (which saves money), but we'll be going out to eat a lot more because of that. We're going to try to be a little more frugal than the last time we visited this friend. I'll let you know how it turns out!
Also at issue has been the number of vacations we've taken. We're working on that one, too. :)

2. Milk
My husband and I love milk, and we drink a lot of it. I buy about 4 gallons of milk a week just for the two of us! The good thing is that we drink less soda because of our love of milk. The bad thing is that milk is more expensive than soda. This is a budget buster I can live with since I'm pretty sure we'd drink more sugary drinks if we didn't give ourselves free rein with the milk.

3. Bath and Body Products
This one is all me. I like the Bath and Body Works shower gels, lotions, and hand soap that have the same scent, and Bath and Body Works isn't exactly the cheapest option out there! I combat this budget buster by trying to only buy what I need when I need it, and to watch for sales and coupons. I also add some water to the products when they near the empty mark to help them last longer.

4. Scrapbooking Supplies
Another one that is completely my fault! If I could own every scrapbooking sticker that Hobby Lobby sells, I probably would :) I try to keep this one under control by only going to Hobby Lobby when I need something in particular. I also try to go when the scrapbooking supplies are on sale.

5. Tools
Like many men, my husband loves his tools. We're working on a bathroom remodel, so we've bought quite a few tools since we've been married. The nice thing about tools is that once you have them, they should last a long time. I feel like we're in the "acquiring" stage now. I'm hoping we'll soon move to the "maintenance" stage of tool ownership. Considering the look of awe and wonder on my husband's face every time we walk past the tool section at Home Depot, that might be wishful thinking. ;)
I'm a very strong proponent of quality when it comes to tools, though. I always encourage my husband to buy the high quality tool once he's informed me that he can't possibly live without *insert tool here*. We also agree to have a large tool purchase (like a power tool) become his birthday or Christmas present to save some money (and frustration on my part). It works for us!

Here are some other answers to the budget-buster meme:
What Busts Mrs. Micah's Budget
Mommy Gets PAID's Budget Busters

Now it's your turn!

Favorite Blog Post 4/11/08

My favorite blog post this week was from Mrs. Micah. I really need to get a little more organized with an "alien abduction manual". This is a fun way of saying that you (and I) should have our financial paperwork organized in case something should happen to us. That way, our spouse (or whoever will take over our finances if something happens to us) isn't at a complete loss during a difficult time.

I'm off on another vacation next week. I'm heading to Washington DC (which, ironically enough, is where Mrs. Micah lives)!

A Gambling Lesson

No, I'm not going to teach you how to gamble!

As I mentioned last week, Dave Ramsey was interviewed by Dr. Dobson on the Focus on the Family radio show last Thursday. Toward the end of that broadcast, Dr. Dobson and Dave went off on a little tangent about how gambling in the US, specifically the lottery, is an exploitation of the poor. They had a lot of neat statistics and stories to back this up, but one statistic really stood out to me.

The Claim

The average lottery player spends $35.84 per month on the lottery. Dave went on to say that if you invest that $35.84 in a decent growth stock mutual fund from age 22 to age 72, you'd be a millionaire.

How funny is that? People are willing to spend $35 a month trying to become a millionaire via the lottery and only one in about a billion will succeed. If you take that same $35 a month and invest it instead, you're practically guaranteed to be a millionaire!

Checking It Out

I was a little skeptical of Dave's math, so I decided to look into his claim. Since I work for a financial services firm, I randomly chose two funds I knew had been around for 50 years, which is the number of years Dave's calculation of ages 22-72 would work out to.

I entered two American Funds into my calculator, Investment Company of America (AIVSX) and the Washington Mutual Fund (AWSHX). I tried to enter in everyone's favorite, the Vanguard 500 Index, but it's only been around for about 30 years. Also noteworthy is that AIVSX and AWSHX are actually growth and income funds, so a growth fund like Dave mentioned should perform even better!

$35/month invested for 50 years with dividends and capital gains reinvested brought AIVSX to a value of $1,079,117. Investing into AWSHX would also make you a millionaire at $1,078,581.

The Conclusion

It works! I found it to be completely amazing that a mere $35 can get you to a million dollars eventually. This information should be posted at all locations that sell lottery tickets. Do you think it would make a difference?

Attention Dave Ramsey Fans!

I know there are plenty of fans of Christian personal finance guru Dave Ramsey out there. I thought I'd let you all know that Focus on the Family is doing a two-part interview with Dave Ramsey that is airing today and tomorrow. If none of your local stations carry Focus on the Family programming, you can also listen to the interview as a podcast.

According to the website, Dave is going to be discussing how listeners can avoid impulse spending and unnecessary debt. The title of his discussion is Let the Buyer Beware.

I've never read his books, so I'm looking forward to hearing him speak!

We Got Rid of Our Escrow Account!

My husband and I are not big fans of giving companies free loans. For example, we keep our tax withholding low so that we're not giving the federal government a free loan every year. Along the same lines, our escrow account on our mortgage has always bugged us because our mortgage company gets to earn interest on our property tax money all year long instead of us. Not anymore!

For quite awhile, I had been considering refinancing to get rid of our escrow account, but our fixed interest rate is as low as, if not lower than, any current rates out there. I wasn't convinced it would make sense financially to refinance.

Then, about a month ago, I read Prime Time Money's article about Saving For and Paying Your Own Property Taxes. PT suggested that his readers try calling their current mortgage company and asking them to remove the escrow account. It sounds silly, but I had never thought of that!

I was a little skeptical about my mortgage company, Wells Fargo, being willing to give up what was for them an easy money-maker. Nonetheless, I sent them an email asking about removing our escrow account. They sent a message back saying that we could do it if we qualified and that they would only close it out via a phone call.

About two days later, I received a letter in the mail stating that we qualified to have our escrow removed! My husband called Wells Fargo and asked them to remove the account. They said we should received a check for the balance in the escrow account within a week.

A week passed and our online information still showed the escrow account. Hmmm. I sent Wells Fargo another email, to which they replied that it was "processing". I'm pretty sure that meant that they had forgotten about it because the very next day our account showed that the escrow had been removed. Woo-hoo!

I did some math on the check we should be receiving this week, and the mortgage company was keeping about a $500 "reserve" in the escrow account. The amount I need to have saved for our property taxes (and insurance) at this point in the year is about $500 less than the amount of the check we're getting. That $500 will be going right into our new siding fund.

Thanks for the idea, PT. I owe you one :)

Has the personal finance blogosphere given you an idea that was able to save you money? I'd love to hear about it in the comments or, better yet, write a blog post about it!

Financial Goals 2008: March Update

I can't believe we're already two months into 2008! I thought this would be a good time to update you on our 2008 goals.


1. ROTH IRA's. As you can see from my progress bar on the side of the screen, my husband and I are really close to our goal of having our 2007 ROTH contributions maxed out. We are also automatically contributing to our 2008 ROTHs and have a balance there of $500 each. Our goal is to have $4000 in each of our 2008 ROTHs.


2. New Car Fund. We are saving for our next car in our brokerage account, which is invested in low-risk mutual funds. With additional investments and (amazingly) a little bit of market gain, we are up $389 in this fund since the first of the year. Our goal is to increase the balance by $3900 by the end of the year.


3. Emergency Fund. This is in a high-yield savings account. We currently have $525 added out of a goal of $2600.


4. New Siding Fund. As soon as our ROTHs are maxed out for 2007, I'm going to be working really hard on this fund. My husband and I also plan on putting our economic stimulus rebates into this fund since my husband really wants to put the new siding on by the end of the summer. We currently have $780 contributed of our $4000 goal.


So far, I'd say we're pretty well on track to meet our goals. How are you doing on your goals for 2008 (financial or non-financial)?

Raises and Bonuses

My annual review at work was last Friday, and I was pretty happy with my raise. I got a 6% raise, which is better, percentage-wise, than any of my previous raises in the five years I've been working for my boss. I was pretty happy with that! The extra money will be going towards our siding fund, of course!

My employer also decided to add a bonus program for my position. It's based on a combination of individual performance, company profitability, and tenure. I will be getting them three times a year (providing that my company is profitable) and my first one, which I got last month, was about $300 after taxes. That went toward our 2007 ROTHs, and future bonuses will probably also go towards either retirement or savings goals.

Yay for raises and bonuses!

What's the best/worst raise you've ever received?

Getting Our Free Credit Report

The other night, my husband and I went to annualcreditreport.com to get our free credit reports. Being newly married, we thought we were due to make sure everything was being recorded properly on our credit reports and that we knew about everything that was sitting out there.

About Annualcreditreport.com

Annualcreditreport.com is the FTC's official website offering you one free credit report per year from each of the three credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). It's a good idea to run your report every so often to make sure there are no misreported late payments and that no unauthorized accounts have been opened in your name.

When you use this website, you get to pick which of the three agencies you want to get your report from. Even though all three should have the same information, you might want to switch it up each time, just in case something has been misreported to just one of the agencies. Each of the agencies will offer to let you get your credit score, as well, but please note that you will have to pay to get your score. There are no legitimate free websites out there (that I know of) to get your credit score.

Also, beware of "copycat" websites like freecreditreport.com. Annualcreditreport.com is the only FTC official website. Trent at The Simple Dollar wrote about how freecreditreport.com is trying to rip you off.

What Did We Find?

My husband checked his credit report with TransUnion and I checked mine through Experian. Mine was completely accurate. All of the old accounts that I had closed showed up as closed and all of my current accounts showed up as well.
My husband found that he had three store credit cards open that he had no idea were open! None of them had balances or any activity, so we knew that they weren't opened by someone else. They were accounts that my husband opened years ago, probably to get a discount on something, and then never closed.
A nice feature of the credit reports is that they give the name and phone number of the credit issuer. We don't need to try to dig up old paperwork looking for information. My husband can just pull the phone numbers off of his report to call and cancel these cards, which is what he plans to do in the next couple of days.

I'm going to try to remember to do this at least yearly from now on. We don't plan on applying for new credit of any type any time soon, so there shouldn't be any need to check it more often than that.

When is the last time you checked your credit report?

A Good Example

I recently wrote an article detailing some reasons to not hold stocks in certificate form. I came across the perfect example last week.

Some clients came in for their annual review with my boss, a financial adviser. They brought along a letter they had received regarding a stock they owned. They bought the stock a number of years ago and didn't remember how many shares they owned. Also, they had lost the stock certificate. My boss made a copy of the letter and had me call the stock company's shareholder services department.

I spoke to a really nice gentleman who told me that our clients owned over 10,000 shares of the stock and it was worth almost $160,000! He then proceeded to tell me that the clients can't do anything with the shares (sell them, move them to our firm, etc.) until they either found their certificate or paid for a new certificate to be issued. The cost to replace the certificate? About $1,800. Yikes! Needless to say, they clients are searching their house for the lost certificate. Can you imagine losing a piece of paper worth $160,000?

Don't Hold Stocks in Certificate Form

Boston Gal recently blogged about some stock certificates her dad had forgotten he had. I work for a financial services firm ( I am NOT a broker) and we always recommend that clients hold their stocks at the firm and not in certificate form. Here are some reasons:

-If you own multiple stocks, holding them in firm name will allow you to receive just one annual tax form instead of a separate tax form from each stock company.
-Stocks held at the firm are easier to pass on to heirs. You will only need one set of paperwork for your entire account, no matter how many different stocks you own. If you held them in certificate form, your heirs would need to contact each company separately to get their paperwork.
-If you hold stocks in certificate form, they could be lost. Getting a replacement certificate often costs two to five percent of the value of the stock.
-Most firms will maintain the cost basis information for you and update it automatically when any change happens at the stock company. Ask your tax advisor how much he/she loves this!
-Firm will let you know of mergers, tender offers, etc. and handle them as you direct.
-Stock splits, spin-offs, etc. will be handled by your firm and will be updated on your next statement, making it easier to stay updated on how much you own of each stock company and the value of your shares.
-Holding stocks at your firm means fewer phone calls to make when you change your address (not to mention how easy it is for a stock company to lose track of you over the years if you forget to update your address!).
-Have you read any of the news stories about stock certificates found in desks bought at rummage sales, etc? It's a lot easier to forget about a certificate than it is a stock that's held at a firm who sends you monthly or quarterly statements about your account!

BostonGal's dad's situation is a little different, but if the stocks had been held at a firm with his address listed and he was getting statements from them, he at least would probably have known within a few months that the stocks had been sold from underneath him. As it was, he didn't find out until years later. According to BostonGal, he took it pretty well. I think I would have been furious :)

Please read the disclaimer at the bottom of this page and note that I am not a financial advisor. Please speak to your financial advisor before making any decisions regarding your money!

Good Things!

I love days like today! No, not because it's negative 2 degrees outside (I hate the cold!). Here is why I like today:

-My $500 employer match showed up in my 401(k)! It wasn't a surprise, my match always shows up at the end of the year. It's just nice to see my balance jump by $500 without my having to do anything :)

-I earned a 9.06% rate of return in my 401(k) for 2007! This isn't a fantastic number considering that I have some funds that have averaged over 12% per year in my ROTH. Still, I think it's respectable considering the blah way the market ended in 2007.

-I put the last $40 into our honeymoon fund! We finished paying for our all-inclusive honeymoon package last month (mostly with money we received when we got married), but we also wanted $1000 in spending money. I have been saving a little from each paycheck into that fund and with the $40 I put in today, it's at $1000! Now we can swim with a dolphin when we go to Jamaica in two weeks - yah :)

I hope your 2008 is starting out as well as mine is. God Bless!

Teaching Kids About Money

I recently read a cute post on Free Money Finance asking readers to comment about allowances and the tooth fairy. I really loved one of the comments left by a reader named Tom regarding what he does for his kids' allowances:

We give our 6-year-old and 9-year-old kids a $2 per week allowance… but with a catch. They have 5 different banks sitting on their dressers, titled "ANYTIME", "LONGTERM", "COLLEGE", "CHRISTMAS", and "GIVING". Each week they split their $2 into the banks like this:
* ANYTIME: $0.50 cents. This is the money they can use for ANYTHING, any time they want. Candy? Go ahead. Toys? Fine. We do not control their spending on this, though we do advise from time to time. Logan, you want to get a $2 popsicle from the ice cream jingle-jip man as he drives down the street? Go ahead. It’s your money.
* LONGTERM: $0.50 cents. This is money they save up to buy something special for themselves; usually a big toy or something relatively expensive (from a kid’s perspective). They can pick anything they want, and then they put a picture of the thing in the bank along with how much they need to save up. Then they save in this bank for months until they have enough to buy the thing. Once my older son saved for a year and a half to buy this incredible $60 Star Wars toy he HAD to have. Again this is something THEY decide on and the only rule is that they have to save for it.
* COLLEGE: $0.50 cents. When this bank accumulates $20 or so we take the money out and put it into their ING account. When that gets to a couple hundred bucks we roll it into their UGMA or 529b. Lather, rinse, repeat.
* CHRISTMAS: $0.25 cents. The kids thought up this category on their own. They save all year long and use this money to buy personal Christmas presents for their siblings and for us their parents. I think they get a lot of pride using their “own” money in this way, and the gifts they pick out are all the more precious to my wife and I than the ones WE buy for the kids to give us.
* GIVING: $0.25 cents. This money goes into the offering plate at church. Or the Salvation Army kettle outside the grocery store, or maybe a relay-for-life pledge. We think this may be the most important of the five banks, as far a building a child’s character is concerned.
My suggestion to parents is do something like this with your kids from an early age. Make up your own categories. Use whatever percentages you’d like. When your kids are really young, use this to teach them the value of money. Use it help them learn how much coins are worth and how to make change. Start by handing them 8 quarters and have them drop them into the proper banks. Later give them dimes and nickels. After that, dollar bills so they have to learn to make change from one bank to put into the other. Give ‘em a $2 bill and really mess with their heads! Eventually, hand them a $10 or $20 bill and teach them how to break that. When they get monetary gifts as, say, birthday presents, have them split those proportionally as well. If you increase their allowance (my teenager had his allowance doubled to $4 last year) keep the percentages the same.
So do this and as your kids get older watch them learn that, yes, if you spend all your ANYTIME money on candy, you won’t have any left to buy ; a hands-on Finance101 lesson. Watch your older children learn that a neat way to get that special LONGTERM item sooner is to apply some of their ANYTIME money to it as well! Watch your older kids be amazed at how those quarters saved for college at age 4 – through the miracle of compounding interest, regular contributions, and investing - have turned into thousands of dollars for college by the time they are teen-agers.
And if you are really really lucky, some day maybe your child will say to you, like my 9 year old daughter did to me one day: “Dad we are taking donations at school for Susie’s family whose house got burnt in a fire, but I only have $0.25 left in my GIVING bank… is it ok if I take out $5 from my ANYTIME bank and use that also?”
“Yes Lauren, that would be perfectly fine.” ;-)

What I liked about this idea:

- The amount is small. I don't think children need $10 a week unless you're going to put them in charge of some of their own expenses, like lunch tickets.

- The money is budgeted. Particularly with the LONGTERM bank, this seems like a great way for children to learn about delayed gratification, something our society seems to have some major issues with.

- It avoids the "gimmies". I don't have children yet, but if your kids have to buy all of their candy/trinkets out of their ANYTIME bank, you will hopefully avoid some of the whining that often happens at the checkout line!

I printed Tom's comment out and plan on filing it away for that day when my yet-to-be-born children are old enough to start learning about money.

Financial Goals 2008

With 2007 quickly coming to a close, I would like to give you my financial goals for 2008.

1. ROTH IRA's. Having just gotten married in July, my husband and I are playing catch-up for our 2007 ROTH's. In July, we set up automatic contributions for his ROTH and increased the contributions to mine. By April of 2008, we need $2580 more in my husband's ROTH and $2380 more in my ROTH. We're hoping a tax return with mortgage interest and property tax paid on two houses until September will help us out with this. We also plan to put $4000 into each 2008 ROTH by December of 2008.
A stretch goal for us would be to put an extra $1000 into each ROTH for 2008, which is the new maximum. We both started saving for retirement at an early age, so we don't need to do this, but it sure wouldn't hurt!

2. New Car Fund. My husband is very adamant about never having a car loan, and I agree with him. We're planning on a "new" car in about 3 years, one that will actually be about 2-3 years old at the time of purchase. We currently own a 1998 Honda Accord (hubby's) and a 2000 Ford Mustang (mine!), both paid for. I think my car, though newer, will probably be the first one replaced. I don't want to even think about attempting to get a car seat in the backseat of my Mustang or fitting a stroller in my minuscule trunk!
Our goal for 2008 is to add $3900 to the balance of our new car fund. Since we'll want to replace my husband's car soon after mine, our stretch goal would be to add $4500 to the balance of this account.

3. Emergency Fund. While we currently have at least 6 months of living expenses in our savings account, we don't have that much of it designated as "emergency fund" money. Our goal is to increase this fund by $2600 by the end of 2008.

4. New Siding Fund. My husband bought the house we currently live in about two years ago, and the paint on the exterior is beginning to peel pretty badly. The house is big enough to raise a family in, so we decided that we'd like to stay for the long run if possible. Given that, we've decided that instead of repainting, we are going to put vinyl siding on the house. Though more expensive, it should last a lot longer. We haven't gotten a quote yet, so we're not exactly sure of the cost, but we have a general idea. We would like to put new siding on by the spring of 2009, sooner if we can save up the money.
Our 2008 goal is to add $4000 to this fund. Our stretch goal is to save enough to put the siding on sooner, meaning another $2000 saved. We'd also then have to have all of this saved before the snow flies here in Wisconsin. This makes our stretch goal read "to add $6000 to our siding fund by October of 2008."

I will try to give updates on these goals throughout the year. Do you have financial goals for 2008? If so, what are they? If not, below are some other blogger's 2008 Financial Goals. Maybe they'll give you some inspiration!

Click. The Good News
No Credit Needed
Boston Gal's Open Wallet

Follow-up to "Our Saving and Spending Plan"

Someone left the following comment regarding my post Our Saving and Spending Plan:

How much, then, would you say your financial situation is driving the timing of when you plan to have children? Or, is it the other way around?

I've often heard it said that if you wait for the "perfect" time to have children, you never will. I think the same holds true for starting to save for retirement or starting to pay off debt. You can always say to yourself, "I'll do that after..."

While it will be nice to have 2-3 years of saving before I become a stay-at-home mom and we lose my income, saving is not the driving factor in our timing. There are two main issues that made my husband and me decide to wait to start our family.

1. Our marriage. My husband and I just got married in July, and we only dated for a year before getting married. We would like to have a few years to build a strong marriage before adding children to the mix.

2. My mouth. I have an underbite that was never corrected when I was a kid. My dentist has been encouraging me for years to get this fixed, as it is doing long-term damage to my teeth and gums. I am finally going to do this, starting right after our honeymoon at the end of January (the first appointment is already scheduled). I will have braces for a year and then oral surgery to break my jaw and reset it. Fun, huh? Needless to say, this is not something I want to go through while trying to care for a newborn at the same time!

As you can see, while waiting a couple of years before starting our family will be very beneficial to our savings balance, it really isn't the main reason that I'm still on birth control. ;)

Our Saving and Spending Plan

My husband and I just got married in July of 2007. To overly simplify our jobs, he is an engineer and I am a secretary. Once we have our first child, I plan on becoming a stay-at-home mom, so we decided to prepare for this right from the start by putting all of my income into savings and living off of his income. We are also trying to put some of his income into savings so that we don't develop a standard of living that has us living paycheck-to-paycheck once we lose my income.

I have to clarify something here. The money going into "savings" isn't going to be sitting in our savings account indefinitely. We do have various plans for it...some gets spent on vacations, some on funding our ROTH's, and we also use it for home improvement projects, etc. So we are using our "savings" money, but not on day-to-day living expenses or the necessities of life. What do you think of our plan?

An Introduction

Hi! I am a newly married 27-year-old woman who recently decided to try to start blogging! I titled my blog "Family and Finances" because those are the topics I am thinking of doing most of my blogging about.

On the "finances" topic, I have recently discovered financial blogs and find that I really love reading them. I decided that at the very least I can link to some of the best things I read so that more people can learn to better their finances.

Regarding the "family" portion, my husband and I are thinking of starting a family of our own in about 2 or 3 years, so I think I will blog about that. It will probably be mostly about the financial aspects for now and get more varied once we get closer to actually trying to start expanding our family.

I'm not sure if I will stick with this or not. I'm not really much of a writer, but I am a big reader. I guess we'll find out!