December marks the 12th consecutive month that?we have completed a budget and for the most part lived by it. It seems like such an?easy and mundane task; yet its affects on our life have been indescribable. It is the main piece in the puzzle that has moved us from disaster to Financial Peace.
Developing this budget was a simple concept, yet difficult to actually implement. It took about three months before we really had the?system down. It was a frustrating process that made us want to quit; but thankfully we drove on. It is something that requires patience and focus. It is worth it to stick with it beyond the initial frustrations!
The last few months have been very difficult to budget because of the sporadic way I was being paid. I literally had separate orders each week which required a separate pay request and travel voucher. I could only estimate my pay days within seven days or so and even then there were occasions it was longer than that. Finally, this month marks the first month in a long time that my pay days are regular and sufficient to make up our budget. It finally feels like Financial Peace again!
Joel, I came across your blog as I was researching the zero based budget. I plan, along with my new husband, to start a budget in 2007. We make a very good living and our debt is generally low (although I want to pay it all off, except the mort. debt) and own 4 properties including the one we live in. I wonder what you think about credit scores and how your spending or lack of spending (lack of credit cards) impacts your scores. Do you not care about your credit score b/c you don’t plan to borrow any money from a lender, or is your credit score so bad that your present plan can only improve it. We need to maintain a good credit score in order to continue to invest in real estate.
Comment by Sam — December 22, 2006 @ 12:04 pm
Hi Sam, I’m Joel’s wife. I’ll let him answer most of your question. But I will say, that we don’t care about credit scores because we will NEVER borrow money again.
Comment by Amy — December 22, 2006 @ 2:21 pm
Hi Sam,
Sorry for the delayed response; life has been really busy lately.
My initial thought is I don’t care about my credit score because I will NEVER EVER again borrow money for ANYTHING! With that initial thought, I have discovered something amazing; somehow my credit score has not been damaged that badly. I guess the regular payments to so many accounts has kept my score above 600. Some day after everything is paid off, I will have it drop down to zero and will be very content; however, until that day I won’t think about it much.
I know it may be quite a paradigm shift for you; but I would recommend that you not borrow money for real estate investments as well. If you save over time and pay cash you are a lot more careful about what you buy. Additionally, when you don’t have to make a payment, the cash flow is incredible, and the equity goes through the roof. Just my humble opinion.
Comment by Joel — January 4, 2007 @ 10:22 pm