Now What?
Filed Under Debt, People You Should Know |
What have we been doing?
Since becoming debt free earlier this month, I needed a break from thinking about money and budgets…and blogs. But because it feels so great to be debt free and I want all of you to feel the same way, I’m back to the blog. Don’t worry, I’m back to the other things too.
So what have we done since we became debt free? We had been on the debt-free road for two years and now we needed to buy a few things that had been put off way too long! We didn’t go overboard of course and were still able to add a healthy sum to our emergency fund. Baby step 3, the emergency fund, is almost complete.
Your emergency fund should be 3-6 months worth of expenses, in an easy-to-access account. We have ours in a separate checking account we located through www.checkingfinder.com. We can easily access it, but it’s for emergencies only – not for clothes shopping, vacations, or the latest gadgets.
As Baby Step 4 outlines, we increased our retirement contributions to 15% of our paychecks. That was a shock when I got my next paycheck, but at least I know the money is going to the right place instead of being used toward debt.
So what do you want to hear about? Especially those of you still in debt, what can I write about that will help you out? You need to feel the calm and happiness that is going through our household right now!
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4 Responses to “Now What?”
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Quote of the Day
Another way to solve the traffic problems of this country is to pass a law that only paid-for cars be allowed to use the highways. Will Rogers
Here’s a question:
What is your advice on paying off a car loan on a 0% interest credit card?
We have 0 credit cards, but still have a car loan that is about $3700—
Hubs wants to, I don’t just because I didn’t want to ever have a CC again!
S.M
Hey, nice post, really well written. You should write more about this.
Are you saving 3 or 6 months into your emergency fund? We’re not there yet, but I’m interested to know what you think. I’m leaning toward 6 months since Doug is self-employed.
Sarah - The car loan should definitely be in your debt snowball if it’s the smallest loan you have. Percentage rates don’t matter to me - you still owe someone money and that’s what needs to go away. $3700 isn’t much, though, so you are almost there! Awesome job!
Jody - We broke one of Dave’s rules and didn’t go down to $1000 when we were getting out of debt, so we already have our 3 month emergency fund in place. Since Doug is self-employed, I would definitely go with 6 months because you never can tell when the next paycheck is coming in. I only have 3-4 months right now which is fine for my situation, but in the long run I’d like to make that more. At least I have this much so I can move on to the next step for now.