How Our Financial Goals Followed Our Family

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by Elle · 5 comments

Last week I talked about saving and paying down debt. Now I wanted to discuss how our family’s finances and goals have shifted with all of the changes.

Getting Rid of High Interest Debt

When we started with our joint finances, our focus was about eliminating high interest debt, which at the time was a car loan. That meant we placed a minimum amount of money and energy into our investments.

As we finished paying off the car loan, we then built up our savings for emergencies and irregular expenses. I also increase my contributions to my Roth IRA.

Buying a House

We also bought a townhouse and kept our mortgage within a budget of one of our incomes. Our mortgage and other housing expenses (property taxes, insurance, and so forth) is less than rent in the same area for a place the same size. That meant that after we settled into our new place we set up an automated system for paying down debts and investing a bit for retirement.

Even though we took out a 30 year mortgage, we started an extra payment system to bring it down to about 15 years.

Saving Baby!

We then found out the happy news that we were pregnant, so time for another goal! We want to increase savings to cover baby expenses. Between diapers, baby gear, and unexpected baby expenses, we wanted some peace of mind knowing that we can cover these bills as they come.

For us automated savings was the system- every paycheck meant we built it up and every windfall had a chunk allocated towards the account. Happy to note that so far that cushion helped us make the transition during the first couple of months as we adjusted our family’s monthly budget.

Working on Finishing Our 2012

Energized by our past success we again decided to switch our focus with our finances.

  1. Get our finances prepare should something happen to us.
  2. Purchase a family car.
  3. Pay down the student loan.

We made a few goals this year and while we’ve made progress, there’s a lot left to do. We bought our family car in April and we’ve worked at building the student loan debt snowball. Now we have to finish up with getting our finances prepared for our little girl. We have to meet up with a lawyer and get the paperwork done.

Thoughts on Finances and Family

How about you? How have your finances changed as the years passed? What were some of the biggest adjustments? Which changes weren’t as bad (or big) as you expected?

About Elle
Elle helps families at Couple Money achieve financial freedom by sharing tips for reducing debt, increase income, and building net worth. Learn how to live on one income and have fun with the second..

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  • http://twitter.com/Yakezie Yakezie

    Elle, have you found that having a baby recharged your financial life? A mortgage did it for me about 10 years ago, and I’m thinking if I had a baby, I would work harder than ever, and be disciplined to make sure everything would be taken care of.

    Sam

    • http://couplemoney.com Elle Martinez

      I think our baby girl has changed us financially. We’re focusing on being more aggressive with the student loan, so we can free up more money for investing.

      We’re approaching the end of the first year and our net worth has grown steadily (with the exception of the house’s appraisal). I’ve adjusted my work so our baby girl is with me when I work from home, saving on daycare costs.

      No idea of what the future holds, by a fire has been lit :)

  • http://twitter.com/Nivene_CashNet Nivene

    Great post Elle! While I was working part-time or temp jobs, I would always say I would save up some money…. but I never did. I really didn’t start saving large amounts of money until I got a job with benefits. I was able to send a certain percentage into my 401k and a certain percentage into my savings accounts.

    Since I do this almost immediately, I don’t feel that big “loss” of spending money because it is like I never had it anyway! It is a wonderful way to save and still enjoy a nice dinner out or buy a beautiful dress without feeling like all my money is gone.

    I also realized that another great way to get me to actually save is to have a definitive goal or reason to save. For example, you were saving for your new baby or a new car. I can’t put money aside without a specific goal (unless it is done automatically).

  • Moneylifeandmore

    So far my finances haven’t changed too much but I am not that far.removed from college either. While I would probably get married in the next year or so we already live together so other than combining finances things should stay the same.

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