Monthly Financial Check-up

It's November and guess what that means? It's time for our monthly financial check-up. How did you do in October?

I've been waiting with bated breath to be able to post our monthly financial update because this is another huge milestone for us. And I finally get to share...

We began October at 69% of our house savings goal and we ended the month at 75%!

While it looks like we're likely not quite going to make our goal of being at 100% by the end of 2009, it is incredibly exciting for us to be at 75%! 

It is hard to go against the grain, to live counter-culturally, to be self-disciplined.

It's hard to forgo instant gratification and stop comparing yourself with the "Jones's".

It's hard when you're the only one packing a lunch, driving an old car, wearing thrift store clothes, and clipping coupons.

It's hard when you see other people just going out and buying whatever they want whenever they want it when you're barely able to afford paying $17 for groceries that week but you're committed to paying 100% cash for everything. 

None of where we are today has happened by taking the easy road. It's the result of God's grace and enabling, it's the result of our parents' wise examples and training, it's the result of a strong work ethic instilled in us from the time we were youngsters, it's the result of setting big goals and sticking with those goals day in and day out--even when we felt like giving up.

When I look at that 75% house savings number in our bank account, I know that it is worth it to choose to do hard things. We've learned so many valuable lessons along the way, our struggles have matured us, our victories have emboldened us.

And we know beyond any shadow of a doubt, that making short-term sacrifices to achieve long-term goals is every bit worth it.

(If you're new here, be sure to check out this post where I explain in detail why we've committed to this "crazy" idea to pay 100% down on a home. )

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How did you do in October? Whether or not you posted financial goals for 2009, please take a moment to post about your financial successes and/or failures in October and, if you'd like, the areas you hope to improve in November. Then, come back here and leave your link below. If you don't have a blog or would rather share anonymously, feel free to leave your update in a comment. Let's all keep each other accountable to be better stewards of our resources!

September Financial Update: It starts with the small things

Meagan left the following comment on my August Financial Update post:

I just wanted to tell you something. This morning I have about a week's worth of dishes piled up. We don't have a dishwasher and I hate it so much. Although this sounds weird, this post and others you've posted before have inspired me to get my life in order. We aren't in the position to be debt free yet but you've inspired me to do the dishes. I can't do the huge things yet, but I can do the little things, so that when we are in a position to do the big things, we will be ready to face the challenge. -Meagan

Meagan, your comment was right on the mark. You are so absolutely right!

My desire in sharing our financial goals and progress here is not to discourage others who are in different financial situations but hopefully to inspire everyone--no matter what your financial situation--to do something and start somewhere.

You'll never get anywhere if you don't stand up and take the first step. It's easy to dream big dreams and make big plans, but the execution of them must happen one step at a time.

Back whenever my husband and I first had this crazy idea to pay cash for a home, we thought it truly would be impossible. We crunched a bunch of numbers, talked about all sorts of money-saving and income-earning ideas, and we both wondered if we'd lost our minds to set this goal and then share it with the world by publicly posting it on my blog back near the beginning of 2008.

But we did anyway, because we knew that, if we were going to pull this off, we'd need all of the accountability and cheerleading we could get. And then we dove in and took the first step: we set up a house savings account and we started setting aside every penny we could squeeze out of our small budget.

The first hundred and then the first thousand we saved were very rewarding. Little by little, things started picking up steam: our efforts and years of work on various income-earning things started to produce real fruit; we found new ways to cut our expenses even more; and we were the recipients of some unexpected financial gifts. The snowball just kept rolling downhill and picking up more and more snow--at a much greater rate of speed than we had originally ever envisioned.

Last October, God supernaturally opened up the door for us to be able to move back "home" (where cost of living is low) and start our own law firm. We used some money we'd set aside for extras, made the move, took a big leap of faith to start the law firm, and watched in amazement as God has blessed it far beyond our wildest expectations.

We kept plowing forward and our momentum grew. We continued to live on a modest budget (see a basic idea of that here) even as our income increased and we were constantly on the lookout for ways to earn extra income on the side (we'll be talking more about these in the new Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom series).

One day last June, we woke up and realized we were half-way to our goal! Lord-willing, by the end of 2009, we are hoping to be at 85-95% of our goal--miles closer than we could have ever dreamed we'd be at this point.

How do you run a mile? One step at a time.

It is the same with financial goals or any goals, for that matter. They can only be accomplished one small step at a time.

It's takes faithfulness in the little things to eventually see big progress. For us that's been little things like: matching coupons with sales, planning a menu, purposing to live on a budget, reusing something instead of buying another new item, shopping around to get the best rates on insurance, making homemade pizza instead of ordering carryout, driving older vehicles, shopping at thrift stores, and learning to be content with what we have. All of these things might seem like a drop in the bucket when done individually, but, over time, each of those drops can start adding up.

Maybe you can't save up to pay cash for a home, but you might be able to save $5 on your grocery bill this week and set that aside for savings. Start with the small things, be faithful in the little things, and stick with your goals--even when it feels like you're going nowhere.

Start somewhere, do something, and don't give up! Over time, as you become more experienced and adept at saving and earning money, you'll likely start to see those little steps add up to a large amount of ground covered... and it will be worth every little sacrifice!

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Now for the numbers:

We began September at 65% of our house savings goal and we ended the month at 69%! 

(If you're new here, be sure to check out this post where I explain in detail why we've committed to this "crazy" idea to pay 100% down on a home. )

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How did you do in September? Whether or not you posted financial goals for 2009, please take a moment to post about your financial successes and/or failures in September and, if you'd like, the areas you hope to improve in October. Then, come back here and leave your link below. If you don't have a blog or would rather share anonymously, feel free to leave your update in a comment. Let's all keep each other accountable to be better stewards of our resources!

Monthly Financial Check-up

It's September and that means it's time for our monthly financial check up. How did you do in August?

Here are our quick stats:

We began August at 57.8% of our house savings goal and we ended the month at 65%!

I about fell over when my husband did the math and told me the final tallies. It's so excited to finally be getting really close to something we've long dreamed about, talked about, prayed about, and worked very hard towards.

Recently, a blog reader I had the privilege of meeting in real life was commenting to me about how difficult it must be for us to be waiting to purchase a house when we could afford to go out and pay 65% down on a home which is roomier and better-suited for our family than the rental we're currently in.

While having more than two bedrooms would be nice and having a larger yard that doesn't back up to a busy highway would also be a wonderful thing, neither my husband or I feel like we're in the least bit miserable waiting to pay 100% down. In fact, we both are very determined we want to stick it out to our 100% goal--even if it takes longer than we hope.

Why? Well, for one, we want to stand by our commitment to stay out of debt. We understand that this is not possible for everyone in every situation. That said, we do believe it is much more possible than many people believe it to be. And we hope that we might be an inspiration to some of you to set big goals and work hard towards them.

We also want to be an example to our children. Growing up, my parents had a dream of getting out of debt and then buying land and building a debt-free house out in the country. They worked hard towards that goal and when I was 12 years old, we not only had paid off our house, we had purchased land, built a house, and moved in.

Seeing their example made a major impact upon my life and this is one of biggest reasons we're currently aggressively saving towards buying our first home debt-free. It is our hope that our children can stand on our shoulders--just as we seek to stand on the shoulders of our parents--and, who knows? Perhaps they will be able to buy their first home with cash before they are even married!

In addition, we want to be the best stewards of the resources we have so that we can bless as many people as possible. We aren't seeking to pay cash for a house so that they we can go pursue some extravagant lifestyle. Instead, paying cash for a house is just the first step in a long line of goals we have for our family as we seek to make an impact in this world by giving of our resources to help those in need.

We feel that living a life without payments and with a strong financial plan in place will better enable us to reach out to those in need. And we're incredibly excited about the possibilities to give and serve with our finances--as God allows us to do so. (By the way, there's an excellent video here which has been a huge inspiration to us in this regard.)

So yes, our home might be a wee bit small right now, our yard even smaller, and it might seem very counter-cultural for us to wait just a little bit longer until we've saved up 100% to pay cash for a home, but we're willing to wait because we know that someday it will be worth the sacrifices!

(If you're new here, be sure to check out this post where I explain in detail why we've committed to this "crazy" idea to pay 100% down on a home. )

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How did you do in August? Whether or not you posted financial goals for 2009, please take a moment to post about your financial successes and/or failures in August and, if you'd like, the areas you hope to improve in September. Then, come back here and leave your link below. If you don't have a blog or would rather share anonymously, feel free to leave your update in a comment. Let's all keep each other accountable to be better stewards of our resources!

Monthly Financial Check-up

Due to the wedding and our vacation last week, I'm a little behind in getting the Monthly Financial Check-up posted. But I couldn't skip it, because we had a really good month last month and I am thrilled to be able to share this update.

We began July at 50% of our house savings goal and we ended the month at 57.8%!

Yes, that's a big leap and we are ecstatic to be moving closer and closer to our goal of paying 100% down on a house. In fact, we've started looking at houses on a casual level right now--just to feel out the market--and it is so incredible to look at many of them and realize we're almost able to pay the full price for some of them in cash.

Every month recently when we've run the numbers, my husband and I are amazed. We well remember those difficult law school days when we could barely afford to put a roof over our heads and food on the table. We remember going without so many things, trying to make the most of the little we had, pinching our pennies, and praying heartily that God would somehow make the money stretch to the end of the month so we could pay all of our bills.

It was so hard to not know how we were going to be able to pay for our rent or to only have $17 to spend at the store for our entire week's worth of groceries. It required a tremendous amount of determination to not lose sight of our goal (to make it through law school without any debt) and to keep living like no one else--even when we were really tired of doing so.

But you know what? All that scrimping and saving has paid off in bigger dividends than we could have ever imagined. And by the grace of God, we are only months away from paying 100% down in cash on our very first home.

I share this with you all, not to set ourselves up on a pedestal. We've made plenty of mistakes and we will make plenty more in the future. I share this with you to encourage you that--no matter what financial position you may be in today--don't lose hope and don't lose heart.

Success requires sacrifice. You will never get anywhere financially if you are not willing to do something: to get up, get moving, set goals, and see them through. It requires effort, commitment, dedication, and determination.

And it takes time. Getting out of debt or saving up to pay cash for something is not usually an instantaneous thing; it takes many months or years of work and sacrifice. But it does pay off.

So set goals, stay focused, and stick with it and you, too, will reap the rewards of discipline, determination, and hard work.

If you want to read more about our lean law school years and a few of the lessons we learned through those difficult years, be sure to check out this post.

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How did you do in July? Whether or not you posted financial goals for 2009, please take a moment to post about your financial successes and/or failures in July and, if you'd like, the areas you hope to improve in August. Then, come back here and leave your link below. If you don't have a blog or would rather share anonymously, feel free to leave your update in a comment. Let's all keep each other accountable to be better stewards of our resources!

Monthly Financial Check-up

It's July and guess what that means? It's time for our monthly financial check-up. How did you do in June?

We began June at 48.5% of our house savings goal and we ended the month at 50%!

I cannot even begin to tell you how exciting it is for us to have reached the half-way point in our house savings. We had set the bar a little high in our savings goal so we're getting very close to the point where we can actually start looking at houses.

We're going to begin our house search by doing more research into what our options are, what areas we'd like to live in, and what features we're looking for in a home. Once we've done that, enough time will likely have elapsed that we'll be able to begin looking at homes--for real!--which are in the price range of what we have saved up.

It is amazing for us to look back over the last few years and realize how far we've come. What once seemed like a "big, hairy, audacious goal" is starting to become reality. The beans-and-rice budget is paying off and it feels weird to realize how close we are. Yet, just because we're inching closer and closer to our goal, we don't want to let our resolve slide or our frugality slip--something we're having to guard against.

I'd really like to be at 55% of our goal by the end of July so that we will have saved over 20% towards our house savings goal this year so far. But we'll see how the month goes!

Thanks so much for encouraging and cheering us along. It's a huge help to have so much accountability in this! If you have recommendations for us when it comes to buying a home (books we should read, things we should consider, or any advice you'd like to give), please do pass it along. I feel like I have so much to learn and I want to be as well-researched as I possibly can be.

(By the way, if you're new here, you can read more about our financial goals for this year and our progress so far by scrolling down on this page here. And if you're wondering why we're attempting to save to pay 100% down for a house, be sure to read this post.)

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How did you do in June? Whether or not you posted financial goals for 2009, please take a moment to post about your financial successes and failures in June and, if you'd like, the areas you hope to improve in July. Then, come back here and leave your link below. If you don't have a blog or would rather share anonymously, feel free to leave your update in a comment. Let's all keep each other accountable to be better stewards of our resources!

Monthly Financial Check-up

It's June and guess what that means? It's time for our monthly financial check-up. How did you do in May?

We began May at 45.5% of our house savings goal and we ended the month at 48.5%!

We're almost halfway to our goal and I'm hopeful that by the end of June, we'll at least be at 50%, if not more. We'll see!

By the way, if you're new here, you can read more about our financial goals for this year and our progress so far by scrolling down on this page here.

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How did you do in May? Whether or not you posted financial goals for 2009, please take a moment to post about your financial successes and failures in May and, if you'd like, the areas you hope to improve in June. Then, come back here and leave your link below. If you don't have a blog or would rather share anonymously, feel free to leave your update in a comment. Let's all keep each other accountable to be better stewards of our resources!

Monthly Financial Check-up (and some thoughts on financial stewardship)

It's the beginning of May and guess what that means? It's time for our monthly financial check-up. How did you do in April?

I've mentioned many times here in the past that I believe one of the greatest keys to financial success begins with setting goals. As the saying goes, "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time." My husband and I have been amazed at how much harder we work, how much more careful we are in our spending, and how much more ground we cover when we set goals for our finances.

Most of you know that our big goal for this year is to save up enough to pay 100% down for our first home. However, our ultimate goal is not just owning a home free and clear; our ultimate goal is to wisely steward our money in such a way that we have as much as possible leftover to give to others. We see staying out of debt and owning a home as one step closer in the direction of being more financially able to help others.

It's wonderful to use coupons, bargain shop, take advantage of free restaurant meals, and so forth. But, for us, it's not just about the coupons, the sales, or the freebies--those are just a means to an end. Our heart's desire is to live on less than we make so we can take care of the needs of our own family first so we can then be able to give and reach out to others. Giving abundantly is our biggest goal financially.

In order to be able to "give like no one else" as Dave Ramsey says, we must first "live like no one else." If we are squandering all of our earnings and then living paycheck-to-paycheck, we will never be in a position to be able to help many others because we will just be barely eeking by ourselves.

Jesse and I recently watched this video by Dave Ramsey on giving and it gave us goosebumps--literally! To think of the impact we can have in this world if we are committed to doing all we can to be wise stewards of our finances. Just imagine the possibilities!

If you have yet to watch this short video, I highly recommend you go do so right now. It just might change your whole perspective on finances! Later this week, I'll be sharing a few ideas we've been implementing for giving which anyone can do--even if you have a very meager budget. Stay tuned!

With these things in mind, we're especially excited about the headway we were able to make in April:

We began April at 40.5% of our house savings goal. We ended the month at 45.5%!

I just can't even begin to express how thrilling it is to see our goal of owning a home debt-free becoming more and more a reality. God is good! And truly, setting goals makes a huge difference!

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How did you do in April? Whether or not you posted financial goals for 2009, please take a moment to post about your financial successes and failures in April and, if you'd like, the areas you hope to improve in May. Then, come back here and leave your link below. If you don't have a blog or would rather share anonymously, feel free to leave your update in a comment. Let's all keep each other accountable to be better stewards of our resources!

Get Your Finances in Line in 2009: Monthly check-up

It's April and guess what that means? It's time for our monthly financial check-up. How did you do in March?

After not making a lot of headway on our savings goals last month, we were determined to kick it up a notch in the savings department--especially since the end of March would mean we'd be a fourth of the way through the year.

So my husband and I sat down and had a "money meeting" of sorts and determined what areas we could squeeze a little more from our budget, possible things we could give up, and ideas for cutting corners. Here are a few significant changes we made as a result:

1) We didn't fund our envelopes for a month, outside of groceries. We had leftover money in all of our envelopes from previous months and there was nothing we needed to purchase which couldn't wait another month or couldn't be purchased with what we already had in the envelopes. (If you are unfamiliar with how the envelope system works, check out this post here.)

2) We skipped grocery shopping for two weeks and held an Eating From the Pantry Challenge instead. This was a fun challenge to take on and it not only helped clear out some groceries and pantry items we needed to use up, it also allowed us to put some extra money into savings.

3) We had a monthly Restaurant Night instead of a weekly Restaurant Night. We usually budget to go out to eat once a week as a family but we decided to skip three of the four weeks in March in order to have a little more money to put into savings.

I'll admit that this was probably the hardest for me as I enjoy the luxury of having dinner out once per week. However, it is definitely not a necessity--we lived without restaurant food for months when my husband was in law school!--and it's certainly something we can easily live without. So it was good to make the commitment to make dinner every night. I'm definitely thinking this is something we could do more often--especially once this pregnancy is over and I have a little more energy!

These were just a few examples of ways we freed up some extra cash in the month of March. There were a myriad of other little ways, too.

The good news? All of the cutting of corners paid off because at the end of this month we were able to put enough into our house savings to push us past 40% of our goal!

We're beginning to get excited as we're starting to little by little see the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to paying 100% down for a house. (If you're new here and are wondering why we've made this goal, you can read more on that here.) We've been looking at houses in the area just to get some ideas as to what is out there and we're realizing it's very possible we might be able to get something for less than what we were hoping to pay.

Armed with this knowledge, we've decided that as soon as we hit 70-75% of our goal, we'll be able to start seriously looking at houses. We plan to only look in the price range we currently have saved and then as we are able to save more, we'll continue to bump up our price range until we find a house.

So our current plan is to continue saving in earnest for the next six or seven months and then see where we're at. Depending upon the housing market, it's beginning to look possible we just might make our big goal of paying 100% down for a home in 2009.

It still seems very far off, but we're excited at the traction we're making and invigorated to keep on cutting corners, pinching pennies, and forgoing little non-necessities (and big non-necessities!) in order to make faster headway. It certainly can't hurt anything!

To recap our March progress:

We began the month at 37.5% of our house savings goal. We ended the month at 40.5%!

We're excited to see what April brings!

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How did you do in March? Whether or not you posted financial goals for 2009, please take a moment to post about your financial successes and failures in March and, if you'd like, the areas you hope to improve in April. Then, come back here and leave your link below. If you don't have a blog or would rather share anonymously, feel free to leave your update in a comment. Let's all keep each other accountable to be better stewards of our resources!

Get Your Finances in Line in 2009: Monthly check-up (and some thoughts on setting goals)

Is it almost the middle of March already? Time is flying! Now that February is well behind us, it's time for our monthly check-up to see how well we're doing on our financial goals for 2009.

After I shared specific reasons last month on why we've made it our goal to save up to pay 100% cash down for our first home (read them here if you missed that post), I realized by the emails and comments I received that a number of you are missing my point in sharing this.

The point is not that everyone here needs to save up and pay 100% cash down for a home (though I certainly hope we might inspire some of you to consider doing this), the point is to encourage you, by our own example, to work hard and aim high.

Perhaps you can't save up to pay 100% down on a home, but you can certainly do something and start somewhere. And that is what this monthly financial check-up is all about.

As you've probably heard it said before, "if you don't know where you're going, any train will get you there." If you don't have any financial objectives or goals, you'll likely spend most of your life aimlessly earning and spending and making little traction in the process.

You can choose to continue this endless cycle which will get you nowhere, or you can choose to start doing something and going somewhere today. Do you know where you want to be in a year from now, or five years from now, or ten years from now? Set down and map out some written goals and then make a plan to accomplish these goals.

If you've never set financial goals before, I encourage you to start small. Perhaps you could commit to sticking with a grocery budget for three months. Or maybe you could purpose to give up a particular small weekly expenditure and put that money directly into a savings account instead.

Whatever you do, do something. Even if it's something seemingly minuscule. Often, just taking a baby step in the right direction can propel you farther than you ever dreamed possible!

Setting financial goals and working intensely towards them takes sacrifice, self-discipline, effort, sweat, perseverance, and work. But it is so very worth it.

I remember back to our law school days when we were living in a little basement apartment and could barely afford to buy groceries. There were many days when I wanted to give up and give in. It was hard to wear the same clothes again and again, to drive old vehicles, to wonder how we were going to pay our bills that month, to forgo invitations to go out with friends because there was no way we could afford a restaurant meal that month.

There was many a time when I had had enough of the scrimping and scraping, but, by the grace of God, and the resolve of my husband, we kept on with our objective of finishing law school without any debt. And I can't even begin to express how grateful I am that we didn't give up when the going got tough.

So many people told us that it would be impossible to live on a part-time income throughout law school without incurring any debt. But you know what? I've learned that just about anything is possible, if you're willing to set your mind to the task, work hard, and not give up.

The financial freedom we have now because we're not carrying around the bondage of school loans is amazing and was worth every bit of sacrifice during those law school years. And tasting the victory of meeting a financial goal after long and hard toil has only propelled us on to setting bigger goals--in all areas of life.

So, wherever you are and whatever life situation you are in, may I encourage you to dream big dreams, set big goals, aim high, work hard, and persevere? And you just might find yourself completely surprised at what all is possible when you're willing to set your mind to do something, make the necessary sacrifices, and stop listening to the naysayers!

Related: I encourage all of you to read this great article on High Performance Achievement.

And now for the monthly progress report:

We started out February at 36% of our house savings goal. As of February 28, 2009, we're at 37.5%!

I was hoping to make it to 40% by the end of February, but at least we made some headway. In addition, putting less into our house savings than we'd hoped in February has motivated us to examine all areas of our budget to see how we could cut more corners--which is always a good thing to do!

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How did you do in February? Whether or not you posted financial goals for 2009, please take a moment to post about your financial successes and failures in February and, if you'd like, the areas you hope to improve in March. Then, come back here and leave your link below. If you don't have a blog or would rather share anonymously, feel free to leave your update in a comment. Let's all keep each other accountable to be better stewards of our resources!

Get Your Finances in Line in 2009: Monthly check-up (and some thoughts on why we're saving to pay 100% cash down on our first home)

January is behind us already--wow! That means it's time for our monthly check-up to see how we're doing on our financial goals for 2009.

As you will recall, our big goal for this year is to save up enough to pay 100% cash down on our first home. This has been a long-time dream of ours and we've been actively working the past year towards this. In actuality, though, we've been dreaming and working towards this even before we got married.

You see, six years ago when we go married, my husband and I both committed to stay out of debt during law school--something we knew would be a challenge, something which is rarely done, but something we both felt was possible, by the grace of God.

We made it through my husband's undergrad and three years of law school without debt--which was our first goal. And once we had done that, we had momentum and motivation to aim for our even bigger goal of paying cash for our first home. Because we didn't have school loans, car loans, or credit card debt, we realized that with lots and lots of hard work, lots of scrimping and careful sticking to our budget, and lots of perseverance, paying cash in full for our first home just might be possible.

So that's our big goal for this year. A lot of people look at us like we're crazy for attempting something like this--especially when we started out with almost no savings after law school. But we're pretty used to that since people thought we were nuts for getting married before law school, having a baby during law school, and staying out of debt during law school. I guess you could say that being weird has become our modus operandi!

At any rate, we're not just shooting after this to be weird; we've run a lot of figures and spent hours calculating the numbers and we realize that in our situation, waiting and saving for a few years--if it takes that!--to buy a home debt-free will allow us to be in a much better position financially than if we were to take the money we have saved and put it as a big down-payment on a home.

It would not only likely take us at least a few years longer to pay off that home than it will take us to save up to pay cash in full for a house, we also feel like we would lose some of our momentum in the process. We're highly motivated right now; we don't want to be renting any longer than we have to and we're willing to forego a lot of extras and luxuries which we could easily afford in our budget in order to sock away a much larger amount to savings.

In addition, we're learning a lot about patience and self-discipline. What you wait for and work for, you appreciate much more. Yes, we could go buy a home next week. Yes, we could put a good down payment on it. And yes, many folks would think we were being financially-savvy for doing so. But we wouldn't have the opportunity to learn all the perseverance we're learning right now.

We also know that there is a temptation to buy more than you can really afford when taking out a mortgage. (Which is one reason our country is having the housing crisis they are having right now--but don't get me started on that!)

In the past few years, we've experienced some total and unexpected financial setbacks. When my husband graduated from law school, it appeared he had a good and secure job that he'd hold for the next few years. Things outside of our control happened and within a few months, he was without a job. Another move, another job, and another eight months later, he was again without a job. God took care of us and provided for us very well during these times, but we learned that you can't put your security in a job or a paycheck.

Very quickly, we came to be so grateful we had waited to buy a home. It's quite simple and inexpensive to get out of a rental agreement and downsize to a small apartment compared to the headache and possible financial strain which could ensue if you have a house payment you can't pay in a house you can't sell.

So even if others think we're making a mistake to wait to buy a home until we can pay cash for it, we continue to press on, persevere, and save. Not everyone is in a financial position where they can save like we are blessed to be able to do right now. We have a good income, our expenses are low, and we don't have debt. Because of this, it's a no-brainer for us to do what we're doing.

We don't expect everyone to follow in our steps nor do we think everyone in every financial situation should. However, we do hope that we can be an inspiration to many of you out there--especially to those of you who are young and just getting started in life. Just because everyone tells you you can't, doesn't mean that you can't.

Be willing to dream big, aim high, and work hard. Don't let the naysayers get you down. Keep on, press on, persevere. And you just might be surprised at what can happen! I know we've certainly been!

And now for the monthly progress report:

We started out this year at 33% of our house savings goal. As of January 31, 2009, we're at 36%!

Only 64% left to go! Yes, it might seem like a small percentage step, but we are thrilled to be making headway like this. It still seems impossible that we might actually make 100% of our goal amount by the end of the year, but who knows? We'll keep working, hoping, dreaming, and saving all we can.

And we'll see what February holds!

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How did you do in January? Whether or not you posted financial goals for 2009, please take a moment to post about your financial successes and failures in January and, if you'd like, the areas you hope to improve in February. Then, come back here and leave your link below. If you don't have a blog or would rather share anonymously, feel free to leave your update in a comment. Let's all keep each other accountable to be better stewards of our resources!

Get Your Finances in Line in 2009: Our financial goals for this year

Would you like to live on less, pay off debt, and/or save more money this year? If so, I'd love to have you join me and many others here in the Get Your Finances in Line in 2009 Challenge--a year-long campaign to encourage families worldwide to live on less than they make and take personal responsibility for their finances.

Each family is going to have different goals, so I can't necessarily tell you what your financial plan should look like. I can, however, encourage you to make every effort to get on a written budget and start making your money work for you. This is the first step towards really achieving financial freedom.

If you're new to living on a budget, let me reassure you that it's not some ball-and-chain sort of life. On the contrary, we've found great freedom in purposefully allocating our money to work in the most effective way for our family. And we've learned a lot about this from Dave Ramsey. I'd highly encourage you to check out his website, read his books, listen to his radio show, watch his TV show online, and even consider enrolling in Financial Peace University, if you've not already done so. (By the way, I don't earn a penny of any sort for plugging Dave, we just have saved so much and been inspired so much thanks to him that I can't help but recommend him to anyone who will listen!)

Secondly, I think it is imperative that we all set financial goals--whether big or small. If we don't have a goals in place, it's very easy to just wander aimlessly about, with money slipping through our fingers like sand.

My husband and I have been amazed at how motivational it has been to set down at the beginning of each year and map out goals for our family for the following year. We try to stick with goals which might seem far-fetched, but which are achievable if we really set our minds to it.

We try to avoid impossible resolutions such as, "We will not overspend this year." and instead stick with doable goals, such as, "We will aim to have put an extra $200 in savings each month." We publicly posted our financial goals last year and found that to be a huge source of accountability each month. In fact, by God's grace and a variety of unexpected events, we ended up accomplishing all of our goals for last year. (You can read more about that here.)

Because of careful stewardship and living on a budget over the past six years of our marriage, God's blessing, and lots of hard work and zealous frugality, we are currently in a financial position where we have no debt of any kind, have a fully-funded six-month emergency fund, are investing an IRA and in our children's mutual funds, and are able to live comfortably significantly below our means. Because of this, our focus this year is on giving and saving.

We are so excited to see the fruits of frugality paying off so greatly in our lives and to be in a position to share more with others! It truly is "more blessed to give".

In addition, we are aiming to have saved up enough money by the end of 2009 to pay 100% down on our first home. At this point in time, we have 33% of our final goal saved up. With my husband's career change and our moving to a less-expensive area a few months back, we are very hopeful that we just might make 100% of our goal by the end of this year.

I'll keep you posted concerning our progress each month. And even if we don't quite make this very-ambitious goal, we hope that we'll at least be much closer to it by the end of 2009!

Note: If you are interested in seeing my personal goals for this year, you can check them out here.

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What are your financial goals for this year? Post about them on your blog and then come back here and leave your link below. If you don't have an anonymous blog, feel free to only share as much detail as you feel comfortable with. We'll be having a monthly check-up to track and report our progress in achieving these goals.