Fun Friday

I got to work from home today because of a Dr.s appointment. So I am reading and catching up on information I have not had tome to take a look at. One of my Favorite blogs is No Credit Needed. He wrote a post on his Savings account allocation. Wow. I really admire his commitment to not ever using credit again. Currently having diabetes and not having sugar is a tough commitment and sometimes I slip. To plan for the future so you do not have to use a bank. NICE. I really admire his persistence, and planning. So using a little inspiration from his own post I have added new categories to my budget. I have set aside $3500 for a down payment on a home. This is mixed in With my fully funded emergency fund. I have been sweating how to move the money to a money market account at another bank because I was afraid I might touch the money. Or I might confuse what category I was pulling it from because it is sitting in one lump sum in a savings account. The answer is so obvious TRACK IT. Duh! So By creating a break down and tracking the money I spend if I need to I fight the demon to spend from the house down payment. If I need to use money from my emergency fund I have it available. I know exactly what I need to pay back and what is allocated to a Home down payment. This way I am not going to rob my future for some crisis I am having today. I have done that enough in my life I stole yesterday from my today and I am mad that I made those choices. Compassionate with myself but I wish I had looked harder at solving the issues sooner. I don't regret the cards. They have taught me a valuable lesson and It is painful enough I am committed to not using credit cards in the same way again. My goals are along the line of NCN's I want to have enough cash in my bank account that if I need to use it I can. I expect this to take me about 10 years to accomplish given good times. If we have a few Murphy's law moments then It will just take longer. I am realistic and experienced enough to know that Murphy will call back.

So I am using the following categories for my savings...

Emerg. Fund $2000.00
Short term goals (Home Down Payment) $15000.00

They were reflected in the side bar on my blog but they were not line items on my budget.
For now I have no long term goals. Really The only other financial goal I want to focus on is paying off the credit cards. All raises and any extra cash will be snowballed to debt. The longest term goals are retirement. I am not ignoring it but I am primarily focused on debt. Once the debt is gone I will put more towards retirement and education. I want the intensity of the goal to work for me and the only way I can stay on track is to stay with it and keep paying on those bloody cards. One at a time. I have kicked one to the curb and I am praying that I will have card #2 done by March.