Fun Saturday

Just a regular Saturday at the Brown household. William sang some songs for us, then William and Bret did some wrestling, of course.

William has been doing chores at our house to collect in his give, save, & spend jars. We went to the store and W spent some of the "spend jar" on post-Christmas sale trucks. He chose the trucks & handed his money to the cashier to make the purchase himself. He is so proud of his trucks.

Dave Ramsey - in PERSON

We got to see Dave Ramsey in person tonight! He was in KC with a couple others to speak on 'Outrageous Generosity'. It was so awesome to see him in person after following his principles & baby steps for so many years. We loved to message he gave and the stories he told about giving, both giving small and giving big!

2019 Goals

2019 Goals

Family

-Focus on being present in the moment & not being distracted by social media/phones or tv; spending quality time as a family

Financial

-Pile up money to purchase a new car for me (thankful for family to borrow cars in the meantime)

-Build back our emergency fund; we used a big chunk of the EF to make a larger down payment on our new home

-Start throwing more money toward our mortgage balance to knock some years off & interest total

-Use money wisely, thinking about purchases instead of making them with a "just because" attitude; Thought: Will this item make us happier? Will I still be happy I bought this item in six months? Could the money be better used elsewhere?

Professional

-Erin: continue to be the best teacher I can be, but having a good work/home balance as well

-Bret: continue to be a leader and example on the deputy team he works (9Side); adjust sleep schedule to new working schedule to maximize time with family

Couples' Trip to Nashville

Bret and I met Megan & Robert in Nashville, TN for a couples' vacation! It was a city none of them had been to & I hadn't been in ten years. We had fun exploring the area and visiting the bars & restaurants downtown. It was nice to get away for a bit and just be with Megan & the guys. I'm thinking we should do this more often!

plane rides are so relaxing without a toddler to entertain!

No way were Bret and I going to be in Nashville and NOT stop by Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Plaza & studio. It was a day Dave was out of the studio (of course!) so we didn't get to meet him, but we did get a tour of the facility and a free cookie & coffee cup for visiting. Bret and I wouldn't be where we are today financially or relationally without going through FPU. It literally changed our marriage.

We got to visit the Grand Ole Opry on our Nashville trip as well. It was so fun to see performers on such a famous stage!

LOVED having sister time!

Surprise: We Bought a New House!

In my mind, we weren't looking to buy a new home at this point. I thought we would be in our Spruce Street house for another year or two. We were working on paying down the mortgage to get it under $100K. Bret started looking around at homes and we talked with friends of ours whose home we have always loved. There were three more plots on their street; thinking we could possibly build a home and move next year. We tried to contact the builder, but never got much information from them (come to find out, they were folding their business). But, as luck would have it, a house on that sames street came up for sale! We went to an open house and fell in LOVE! We got in touch with the realtor Bret's sister worked with a couple of years ago. He's also a Jayhawk and I know his wife through Bret playing rugby at KU. We went and looked at some other homes for sale in Gardner and back to the one on our friends' street. Nothing compared to it!

Since we had been playing down our current mortgage so much, and had quite a bit of savings, we were able to put a lot down for a down payment & afford a good offer on the house. Before we knew it, we were signing lots of papers and the house is now ours. This all happened in the span of 3 months (open house to moving day!)

new playroom!

always a helper

our NEW home

Of course, moving out of our house couldn't be easy. The night before moving, there was a tornado warning. Bret and W slept in the basement til the all clear was given.

Kitchen Upgrade: Dishwasher

We have wanted to upgrade our kitchen appliances for a while now. Since we are on the Dave Ramsey life plan, we don't go out and buy whatever we want, whenever we want. We opened a Home Improvement account and have been saving a little each month. When we had enough saved, we headed out to find a new dishwasher. Installed Saturday and we are in love! It matches our clean steel fridge and runs so very quietly, there's even an 'Eco' setting. Next on the upgrade plan: stove & microwave :)

Dave Ramsey - Inspired!

Now that I'm on summer break, I try to listen to Dave Ramsey each morning. He's on in KC from 9-11am on AM710. The advice he gives and the stories people tell (the good and the bad) are so inspiring to me. I get all motivated to move along the baby steps! If you aren't familiar, here they are

My husband and I are currently on baby steps 4 & 6. Baby steps 4, 5, & 6 are done simultaneously and because we don't have kids, we are just on 4 & 6. When we started off, we didn't have a terrible amount of debt and we were first married. The biggest thing was paying off the student loan debt we had from college. Once we got that finished, we piled up money to have our 6-month emergency fund completed. That was such a huge accomplishment for us, as I am a teacher and my husband works at an early education center (read = we don't make a ton of money).

We are putting any "extra" money we have toward our home mortgage. Whether that is $15 or $80, every little bit means that we will own our house outright sooner and we won't be paying any more interest to the bank than we need to. To tell the truth, I can't wait for Baby Step 7, to be able to bless others with our wealth, but it will be a while!

Officially DEBT FREE

Although we have been living in limbo between Dave Ramsey's Baby Step 2 and 3 for a while now, we are now officially passed Baby Step 2! That means we are DEBT FREE except for our house. It feels awesome to know that we don't owe anyone any money and we can focus on moving upward and onward with our financial and life goals!

  

We are already a bit over halfway on Baby Step 3: three to six months savings. This is an emergency fund for emergencies only! If a job is lost or a car suddenly quits, not for a fun vacation or Christmas. Those things can be saved for.  Hopefully, we won't ever have to touch out 3-6mo fund, but knowing its there is very comforting.

Bring on the savings and climbing to Baby Step 4: Saving 15% of income toward retirement!

I {heart} Dave Ramsey!

Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps

My husband and I went thought Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University in January-April 2011. It literally changed our lives. We have known each other since we were 16, when we met in high school and were married in March 2010 (coming up on three years!). We were raised very differently financially and this became apparent when we combined our finances. Going through FPU changed all that! We got focused and have been on the same page ever since!

(source)

We are currently on Baby Step 2~3. We have kept three months of savings because my husband is applying for a new job. But we are also attacking our last debt, besides the house. When we started, we had a car payment, three credit cards, and student loan debt. This seemed like a lot to us, but I know that others are much further in the debt hole than we are. We have paid down the student loan debt and are able to make another big payment on it. We have changed our goal from paying off 70% of the loan by December to having it completely paid off by the end of the year. I hope we can stay on this pace!!