Monthly Financial Progress Report Series: June 2019 -

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Welcome to our monthly Financial Progress report series!

We started this journey of recording our progress towards Financial Freedom in February 2018. It was important for us to find a way to document our journey and hold ourselves accountable for our goals. Our Financial Progress Reports were created from this moment. We have been amazed to see the progress that can be made by finding different ways to decrease our debt, make more money and save more.

Each month once we receive all our financial statements we then review and update our financial data. From this financial data, we then compose our financial progress report for the previous month. This typically falls within the middle of the month as some bills fall on the 1^st of the month and many others towards the end of the month.

In our Financial Progress reports, you can expect to see an outline of our debt, savings, expenses, and income progress. Also, we will include a small snippet of what we did or what we need to do to improve each area. As time goes on, you can expect these progress reports to evolve and improve as we learn more about taking control and cultivating our money.

Budget

We currently use Dave Ramsey’s Everydollar website as our main budgeting tool. Below you will be able to see the main categories that we have chose to represent where we spend our money. Last month we mentioned that we added investing as a new main budget category. We have found it important for us to continue to analyze and adjust our budget categories as we develop new financial goals.

Now, what you may not see in this graphic are all the other subcategories that feed into the main categories. For example, our Insurance category is broken into our auto, home and life insurance premiums. This gives us the ability to see what we spend on each insurance policy and all our insurance policies collectively. By taking a few extra tracking steps, we are providing ourselves with knowledgeable information. Especially when it comes time to shop around for better policies. How do you create your budget categories? Have they served you well?

Tacking It A Step Further

In our June 2018 Financial Progress Report, we provided a small snippet of the methods behind our monthly budgeting and tracking. Each month we review our previous month’s expenses and evaluate where we need to adjust the amount we budget for. To keep track of our monthly bills so that they are inputted in our budget correctly, we keep a list of all our fixed bills, their amounts, and their due dates. We make sure that our bills are listed in order from the earliest due date to the last due date in the month. Then, as we pay each bill, we will check off by dating each item paid.

Our earned income pay periods vary throughout the year. My employer follows a bi-weekly pay schedule consistently throughout the year. However, my SO’s pay schedule transitions from bi-weekly to weekly and then back to bi-weekly. Due to these transitions, it has been important for us to stay organized and continue keeping track of every bill and expense that needs to be paid between pay periods. Doing this ensures that we are paying bills on time or sooner which also saves us money by avoiding late fees and unnecessary interest.

To keep track of every bill in between pay periods, we break our bills down into a weekly duelist. Since our pay schedules vary, this has helped us tremendously in our ability to manage our money. Keeping track of our spending on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis gives us so much knowledge and insight into our spending habits and staying accountable to our money goals.

Now that you have some background knowledge on how we budget, let’s take a look at our overall monthly progress towards Financial Freedom!

Debt

May 2019 Total Debt: $123,962.51

June 2019 Total Debt: $140,649.18 (+$16,686.67)

Credit Card Debt: $13,942.77 (-$273.42)

Auto Loans: $15,769.84 (+100%)

Student Loans: $110,936.57 (+$1,190.25)

Last month, our only debt repayment goal was to pay off our Paypal Credit Card. This card was our current lowest balance with just under $200. We managed to pay a total of $273.42 towards our credit card debt and moved us just below 14K! As we mentioned before, this is a big deal for us as we started our journey last year with over 20K in credit card debt plus a personal home loan and car loan. While there is a long journey ahead of us still, these reports help remind us what we can achieve when we transform our money mindset.

You may have noticed though that we added to our overall debt balances last month. We made the hard decisions to purchase a new used vehicle with debt. Our paid-for vehicle had extensive mechanical issues that would have wiped out the majority of our emergency fund. We weigh this decision very heavily and as much as we hate to see more debt, we are confident with our decision. This will prolong our debt repayment journey a bit, but we are motivated to continue getting creative and finding ways to know these debts out. You may have also noticed that my student loan debt increased as well, thank you interest!

Finding the best debt repayment plan

Over time we have learned how to alter our methods and find solutions for our money woes. Every few months we like to evaluate our current debt repayment strategy. When it comes time for us to review our current debt repayment strategy we head straight over to undebt.it.

We love using their FREE debt snowball calculator to track our journey! You only need to have a list of each of your debts, their current total balance, your monthly minimum payment, and your current interest rate. After you provide that information, the calculator will do the rest. You can determine which method will get you closer to debt freedom faster. It is hard to say where we would be on our finance journey if we had not stumbled upon undebt.it. They have helped us gain more focus and clarity when it comes to our debt-free journey.

Overall, this month may have seemed unsuccessful as we added more debt to our balances. However, we choose to look at this as a temporary setback and that our decision making and mindset have changed so drastically. We are still on course to have our credit card debt paid off within the next 20 months and perhaps sooner. Have you ever had to add more debt back to your total balance during your debt repayment journey? Share your story and how it impacted you.

Savings

May 2019 Total Savings: $9,960.30

June 2019 Total Savings: $11,304.11 (+$1343.81)

Emergency Fund: $6607.36 (+$330.27)

Sinking Funds: $717.58 (+100%)

C’s Retirement Fund: $3,985.96 (+$302.75)

Our savings accounts are continuing to see steady growth. Not only are we contributing more each month to savings, but we are also earning more interest as well. We feel more secure by contributing to both debt and savings at this time. There was a time when we had very little savings and we contributed to as much debt as we could. However, unexpected expenses kept popping up that caused us to either charge it or deplete whatever little savings we had. We never seemed to make real progress in either debt repayment or savings growth.

Over time the desire to be truly debt-free and financially independent helped guide us to learn more and change our money habits. This way we stopped using the credit cards and started saving for unexpected expenses because we all know life brings them.

Currently, our emergency fund still includes our sinking funds. While we have narrowed down the different sinking funds we need for the next year, we are still not quite ready to get them all separated into their own accounts yet. The sinking funds listed above include our online savings account and additional smaller savings accounts at local banks.

Gaining Control of Our Savings Accounts

Last month we moved forward in opening our first high-interest online savings account. We spent last month focusing on getting the account established and making a couple of small deposits. The process has been seamless and effortless as we set up automatic transfers. Additionally, we have already seen better interest earnings than any of our other savings accounts.

Our plan is to move forward with setting up our various sinking funds and creating automatic savings goals. We are excited to continue to see growth in our savings contributions. Finally deciding to set up automatic transfers to deposit into our savings accounts has been the best decisions so far. How did setting up automatic contributions impact you!

We are just so thankful for the opportunities that we have been given to develop better money habits. Our development efforts have started to help us make smarter financial decisions. We look forward to continuing to find ways to save more money and grow our savings passively.

Investments

May 2019 Total Investments: $60.11

June 2019 Total Investments: $75.16 (+$15.05)

Stash: $55.06

Acorns: $20.10

A few months ago I decided to start learning more about investments. Since I see myself as a hands-on learner, utilizing micro-investing apps seemed like the best fit. They both have built-in resources and tips for learning more about the investment world. This has been very helpful for someone who does not have any previous experience or knowledge about best investing practices.

As much as I was taught about persona finances growing up, I wasn’t taught much on investing beyond contributing to employer-sponsored retirement accounts. Additionally, I wasn’t able to take advantage of the economics classes due to other required class schedules. So due to my lack of experience and knowledge in investing, I wanted a low-risk but educational way to invest my money.

After some research, I found that there were many investment apps available. However, the Stash app and the Acorns app gained my attention the most. They both provided a simple and user-friendly process for investing and buying stocks and mutual funds. The two apps share many of the same features like setting up automatic contributions or enrolling in round-ups. However, they both have slightly different features that make it hard to choose just one of them. Why choose just one, though? Why not contribute to both? As you can see, I decided to contribute to both!

Expenses

Total Expenses: Largest Spending Categories

Debt: 14% (-3%)

Food: 14% (+1%)

MISC Expenses: 11% (+9%)

Savings: 7% (+2%)

Our debt and food expenses remained our top two largest spending categories in June. Interestingly enough, our debt and food expenses accounted for the same percentage amount of our income. Our food expenses increased by 1% but our debt expenses decreased by 3%. While we saw a decrease in our debt expenses we had the ability to cash flow some misc. expenses and increase our savings contributions.

This past month we had the ability to cash flow a birthday party for our daughters and take an impromptu camping trip. These are both things that we would either avoid because we couldn’t afford it or we would charge it all on whichever credit card had enough available credit. This turned those experiences into financially stressful times. Additionally, we allowed this stress to have a negative impact on experiences that should have been joyful and relaxing experiences.

It is realizations like this that make me know just how far we really have come. This journey to financial freedom has helped us grow in more areas than just our finances. We have seen an improvement in our time management, our outlook on life, and the other little habits we make every day towards a better life.

Some of the little habits we do weekly is tracking our expenses manually. This process has humbled us and forces us to be self-reflective on how and where we are spending our money. We have expressed the desire to automate the process of keeping track of our spending to gain more energy and time. However, we wonder if by automating this process we will lose valuable insight on how to improve our spending habits. What is your favorite way to track your spending habits?

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Income

May 2019 Total Extra Income: $39.75

June 2019 Total Extra Income: $315.30 (+$275.55)

June became another month where we put little focus into earning extra income. However, with the sell of our used vehicle, we still managed to bring in some income and meet goals in other areas of our lives. After reviewing our extra income earnings, we were reminded of how effortless Ibotta can be during our busy months.

Ibotta has always been consistent in allowing us to earn extra income each month. We love that our family receives cash back on our everyday grocery shopping trips. Since we started using Ibotta over a year ago we have earned just over $250. Are you interested in learning how you can maximize your Ibotta’s earning potential? If you decide to start taking advantage of cashback through Ibotta, we invite you to join our team here. By joining our team and redeeming one offer within the first month, you will earn $10.00!

Ibotta: $14.50

Mystery Shopping: $0.00

User testing: $0.00

Online Surveys: $.16

Quora: $.64

Misc: $300.00

Monthly Goals

Every year we set out to reach certain milestones. We learned last year that we must start setting monthly goals that build into our long term goals if we want to see success.

Every month, we try to break down the 5 biggest areas that are priorities for us for the year into smaller and measurable goals. Many of these areas for the 2019 year are financial, personal development, health & fitness, family and career. Each month we intend to share our results of the goals that we set for additional accountability. Below after we post the results of our past month’s goals, you can expect to read a snippet of our successes and our setbacks during that month.

June always seems to be a busy and interesting month for our family. With this in mind, I lowered the bar for a few of our goals by not making them specific enough. By doing this I could still work on each goal area, without the pressure to meet specific challenging targets. This method has proved to be successful in that I successfully completed 3 of the 5 original goals. For those goal areas that were not 100% successful, I still did make progress on the reading and exercise routines.

Overall, I continue to stay proud of the progress I am making towards these monthly goals. Even though, I mainly set and work to achieve these goals personally each month. I truly believe that they help me reach my personal goals and also help me develop progress towards our long-term goals.

We have really enjoyed using this process to commit and stay accountable to our monthly goals. This process helps us stay on track and helps to break our large goals down into smaller achievable ones. We look forward to continuing to do this each month. Check out our Instagram feed to learn more about our goal focus for July!

Financial Progress Recap

June felt different with many changes but at the end of the day, we know that these changes will bring progress and growth later on. The actions that we have been taking to decrease our credit card debt and improve our savings balances have become more and more apparent. Additionally, we are gaining more control of our spending as our budget categories align with our goals. This month has kicked our motivation up a notch and pushing us to keep moving forward. Month to month we are continuously learning to new ways to adapt our finances to our life’s needs. Perhaps we are truly making progress in the right direction.

Previous Financial Progress Reports:

2019

2018

With every new month that goes by we are so thankful for the support that we have gained from the debt-free community. Additionally, we have improved our accountability by reporting on our financial progress. This has really allowed us to remain determined and confident in our abilities to keep meeting goals. As we move into July, we plan to have very similar goals. While they are similar these goals will still help us make progress towards our journey to Financial Freedom.

Do you set various monthly personal financial goals? Are these goals aligned with your long-term financial goals? What is your biggest struggle in setting and meeting financial goals? Share Below!