Building the snowball...

Were trying to find some creative ways to build our snowball since we don't have any debt besides our mortgage. The only way to increase is to either bring in more money, or cut back on lifestyle...

or sell things.

We have already life style cut to accommodate day care so our budget is what it is. Its not gazelle but its how I can keep the hubby on board.

So, we have started our annual purge a little early this year. With the selling groups on facebook and sites like Varage Sale, I've been able to post some items for sell and actually been successful in selling them.

Mind you this is stuff we probably would have tossed out for convenience sake to free up space at the end of the year or take down to good will or the DI trailer at church... so were not getting crazy and selling everything we own, but we are making the effort to selling things.

So far this month i've made $155 with my virtual garage sale. So things don't get overwhelming, I'm only posting 3 items at a time on 4 different sites that I can access on my tablet so I check them when I'm pumping. When something leaves, I pull the next thing out and take pictures while the Little guy is sleeping, price them out and then post them up.

We haven't dumped this money at the debt yet, but we are stashing it in our cash reserves at home... we may use it for a month when we don't have any added snowball to keep motivation up or we will use it to buy things for our little one second hand when something comes up that he needs.

Right now we aren't selling anything baby related incase we have a second or if my sister has any use for them, so its just stuff that survived the last purge that we haven't used.

So what have I sold?

• 2 crockpots 4 quart ($15) and 2 quart ($5) (we bought a larger one this month so I can do more batch cooking on the weekends)
• 2 beach folding chairs ($10) SCB hated them because they are too low to the ground.
• Old camping stove ($20) -- Our real BBQ is so portable we don't need a camping stove).
• Grain Mill / Wheat Grinder ($60) -- SCB's parents found us a used one out in Utah and gave it to us. Its more efficient and does a larger load which is what we need now that I bake and cook so much more than before. Ours shut off frequently to make sure the motor didn't overheat.
• 2 queen Bedding Sets ($25 and $20). These were the new ones we bought for our bed... but SCB hates them because they don't breath enough for him so his mom made us a couple quilts that work much better so these were just taking up space in the closet.

We currently have some fishing gear up. If it doesn't sell in a week, i'll drop the price to entice the person who is "watching" the post.... Soon well be adding some folding tables just sitting on our deck and a few other things in the upcoming weeks.

Not sure how much i'll get to do when I go back to work, but for now this is the game plan.

Met with an ELP

After finishing the Total Money Makeover, I though I would call up one of Dave's local ELP's (Endorsed Local Providers), just to meet and talk some figures on retirement, etc. It was a free consultation so I set up an appointment so i could touch base on where we are at and get some insights on my pension..

We brought in some financial statements and went over our goals and our 5 year plan with him, and while I was initially liking some of the things he was saying, I have to say I disagree with some of what he was saying in a major way.

Including our emergency fund, we have around 28k liquid at the moment. $18,500 is our emergency fund and our checking account padding -- the rest is our sinking funds (Insurance, Christmas, Birthdays, annual bills savings, and a few designated funds like vacation and medical.) Most of it is liquid for a reason-- because we will empty it at some point over the course of the year, but we probably have around $4k of it that isn't going to leave by years end.... but isn't money I would want to tie up quite yet. (1k is a tax buffer since my disability checks didn't have withholding, Another $1k is vacation,  and our $1700 our profit-share check)... yet, he was suggesting we "invest" these funds....

Then he seemed to think that pulling my pension at 55 was going to cause a tax event and penalties after he said he was familiar with Calpers and the teachers pensions. (it won't -- because I'll separate from the employer and take the monthly payments, not take the lump sum to invest because it has a survivor benefit so if I die, my husband continues to receive the payments and we will most likely make it beyond 67 years of age when the "lump sum" would be used up..)

...

So instead I came home and spent some time "re-balancing" my funds myself to put them in the 4 categories Dave recommends.

bought the book...

We actually bought a copy of the Total Money Makeover.... it came on the 4th of July. So I guess that is the official start of our own journey to financial independence.

I'm still making my way through it, reading a few pages when the baby lets me but it's gonna get real folks... Who knows maybe we'll be able to actually do a 15 year mortgage instead of a 20 if we can anchor down.

While we have never been commercial debt people and we don't have any debt but our mortgage, I feel like there is going to be a lot of life lessons along the way. I'm hoping the book will help us make better choices and learn more about making our money work better for us.

Since we don't have debt, we'll need to get creative with building our "snowball" but hubs is on board. He hasn't read the book and might not, but he sees the wisdom in moving in 5 years or less and he knows having a plan is better than not having one.