Our Big Financial Goal for 2011

I’m just going to start off by warning you guys that this probably isn’t going to be the most interesting or exciting post, in fact, even as I write this I am contemplating if I’ll even publish this. I’ve had New Year’s Goals on my mind recently mainly because our Pastor has been talking about Dreaming Big, and about setting not only realistic attainable goals, but on setting your sights high and trusting God for more than you could ever do on your own.

As my husband and I have spent time praying over our goals for 2011 there was one thing that kept coming back to mind, it’s something “We’ve” been working towards for a long time now and something that you kind of question weather it will happen or not but it’s something that we’ve really felt that we need to give to God this year.

Dreaming Big

About 4 years ago we began working towards this goal and 2 kids, & 2 job changes later we’re starting to see the fruits of that dedication but yet something in side of me questions if it’s even possible. Even after God’s faithfulness the past few years I wonder if we could ever reach the goal that’s seemed so far off for so long.

Most of you will probably roll your eyes when you read this, but my prayer is that others of you will come along side us and support us over the next year as we reach for something bigger than us. For the last 4 years we’ve been working towards paying off our Mortgage. And this year we’re hoping to see that dream realized. It’s not something that I can sit here today and tell you with absolute certainty that we will accomplish because in all reality it probably won’t happen, but just the goal in and of itself has caused us to re-evaluate so much of what we’re doing and to work and pray with increased fervency.

One of the reasons I hesitated to even go down this path and share our story is because I know that there are a lot of people out there who tend to criticize why or how people can accomplish something so big. My goal and desire is to be as real and honest through this process as I can.

I have talked before about our Financial Journey and about the Incredible Upbringing that my husband and I both had financially. My hope and prayer is that I can instill that same stewardship in my kids and that the legacy will continue long in to the future.

A Solid Financial Foundation

Really our story starts before there was even “Us”. My husband is the saver in the family, I’ve always said that I use coupons so I can buy twice as much rather than to save :) It’s kind of the little joke in our family because even though I spend hours talking about how to save, the truth is that I am a spender by nature so learning to save has been a process for me.

Before we were even married my husband had the desire to pay cash for the Lot where he would build his future home. He was blessed with Full Scholarships in college and he took his last 2 years of college to live at home while attending classes. He was one of the fortunate few who actually Made Money going to school. He was able to take all of his living expenses from scholarships and save those towards a future home. The summer before we were married he got to purchase the lot we live on today and build our home. He was able to pay cash for the Lot and he took on the mortgage for the house. The only reason that I share that is to give you a little bit of reality that we had a great start to paying off our home by having a mortgage that only consisted of our house and not the house and the lot.

The Beginning of the Journey

Even though the lot was paid for we really didn’t have a desire to pay off our home. Our original plan was to sell this house and build again in 2 years. We thought we could eventually build up enough equity to pay for a home; However, somewhere along the way the Economy and God started changing our hearts.

When we first started this process It was a dream, I’m not sure we even knew what we were starting. But one day my husband came home with this crazy idea that we should change our Mortgage from a 30 year mortgage to a 15 year mortgage. At this point we had been married about 6 months and I thought, Sure why not. We didn’t have Kids, I was working part time but we had committed to living off his salary when we got married so everything I was making was going into savings. We decided we could use some of that money to pay for the extra in the mortgage each month so it seemed like a good idea. So we got the mortgage changed over from a 30 year mortgage to a 15 year mortgage during the next few months and we really coasted along at that rate for almost a year.

Changes in Life

Over the next year we experienced many changes in life including becoming pregnant and having our first child. I quit my job to stay at home with my Son and we quickly realized that our plan was going to take a little more work on one income than it did on two. However, I will say that that tension in our budget made us evaluate what really mattered in life and we quickly cut back to the necessities.

My love for saving money and couponing was born out of our desire to stick to the budget we had set when we first got married. Towards the end of this first year we started realizing that paying even a little towards our mortgage each month would eventually make a difference. My husband also changed jobs around this time and we had to figure out what to do with the “Extra” Money that would be coming in each month. We also had the chance to move our mortgage to reduce the interest rate. As we were looking at the numbers it occurred to us that if we paid a little more each month or made double house payments we could see our mortgage reduced. At this time our goal was to go from paying on our house for 15 years to paying it off in just 8 years.

Crunching the Numbers

Just imagine two nerds sitting in front of an excel spreadsheet crunching all the numbers and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what we looked like :) We ran every possible number we could and at that time 8 years seemed like a feasible plan. So we committed once again to keeping our budget the same and putting all the extra income from my husbands new job towards our house. I continued using Coupons to stretch the budget and the better I became the more and more I started sharing and giving to others.

Almost 2 years ago I started a small blog on Blogger for my local friends and family. This was during the time when the Economy was crashing and I knew so many people without jobs and looking for ways to save. I started by sharing my personal deals, my shopping trips and any random deal I found at Walgreens or Walmart. As the site began to grow I had some incredible mentors who took the time to share with me how I could turn this blog not only into a ministry but also into a business. To this day I still consider it my ministry but it has also provided a means to additional income that we wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Because we were committed to living on my Husbands Income from the start and we had been living without a second income for almost a year and a half at this point we decided that anything I made from the blog would go towards paying down our house payment, so as the checks have come in over the past year we have put most of that income towards our house.

Still a Journey

Like I said in the beginning this is a process, it’s not something we’re finished with or even something we know that we will accomplish this year but it’s a dream, it’s a goal and something I wanted to share because it says so much of who we are. For us paying down our house has been a process of several decisions, not one thing alone. It’s not about getting some big promotion, but about the consistency of paying down debt little by little. Everything from Bonuses, to Raises, to extra income over the last 4 years has gone towards this goal and to me there’s nothing more exciting than starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

4 years ago when we started this process we thought it might take us 8 years at a minimum to pay off our house, so if we make it in 5 or even 6 we’ll be ahead of our goal. I hope you’ll follow along this year as we seek to live on less and dream big!