How We’re Simplifying Our Finances

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Ready for next year? Now may be the perfect time to start simplifying your finances. I know it is for us!

Too Much On Our Plates

This past year has been quite eventful for us. We've accomplished quite a bit, but we've also had set backs.

One of our biggest failures was not getting rid of the last student loan.

I can give you a ton of reasons why that happened, but the gist is we were trying to do too much and this goal got pushed towards the back.

We'll fixing that over the next year.

The focus will be simplifying our finances and our lives.

To give us something objective and measurable to reach towards, our goal by the end of 2016 will be to bring our essential expenses down to $2,500/month.

Journey to Simplifying Our Money, Home, and Lives

While I'll be share most of our money stories and tips here, I've also launched a new site to record our progress over at Simplify and Enjoy.

Besides our finances we're also looking to simplify our routines and habits so we can have more time for people and projects that matter most to us.

Simplify and Enjoy will be covering all of our changes so if you want to join in on the fun, come visit the site or sign up here for weekly updates!

Simplifying Amid the Chaos

Simplifying our finances will be a challenge with the biggest the first few months. We're under contract to sell our current house and buy a new one.

We'll have so many things up in the air then, but it can also be a perfect opportunity to start off our lives at the new place with a simpler budget.

Focusing on One Goal at a Time

After finishing up Leo Babauta's illuminative book The Power of Less, I think it'll be best to focu on one project every month.

With two kids and so much going on I'd rather devote time and enjoy to doing one thing extraordinarily well than try to tackle on several projects.

Looking ahead, our current plans include:

• January: It's all about preparing our finances for both closings. We need to bump up savings in time for the move.
• February: New place means new beginnings! We'll be creating a new budget for our family.
• March: Since we're moving to an older home, we're expecting extra expenses. to counteract that, we will looking for ways to save money around the house.

We'll review our progress and set backs here ever month, adjusting as needed (and hopefully getting feedback and ideas from you!).

Thoughts on Simplifying Your Finances

How many of you want to simplify your finances? Where do you think the biggest changes in your budget will be?