It’s the little things in life…
It has been one helluva busy week. With the kids spending time with relatives from out of state, I have a lot of free time. Of course, that free time gets eaten up at work by a project that is wrapping up and all of a sudden I find myself neglecting this place…
However, I did learn something good this past week. After moving my March numbers into my long term debt reduction plan (also known as my debt-snowball spreadsheet) I realized that I shot way ahead of my July, 2010 date. At this point, I would be shorting myself if I wasn’t debt free by February, 2010. This, again, is all debt minus the student loans and mortgage.
It’s nuts to think that you can adjust your out-of-debt date by so far (about 5 months) by such little events, like the ones that happened to me in March. I mean, really, what did I do? Got a few hundred dollars, adjusted my taxes? Cut my cable, smoking, and a daily diet-coke purchase?
All of the above?
Did I hit a windfall? A raise? A tax return?
None of the above?
I didn’t pull miracles, doesn’t seem like any divine intervention. I just did simple things that anyone could do to better their financial future. Anyone can do it…
Got a vice? Quit!
Got unnecessary entertainment expenses? Cut it!
Got some useless security-blanket habit? Drop it!
Got a tax refund check from overpaying each payday? Stop it!
These are easy steps you can take to keep more of the money you bring in. Keeping more money means more money to your snowball, and every little bit helps, even to the tune of shaving 5 months off your plan.
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March 27th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Well, said Mike. I think that there are a lot of things that we can definitely give up that will completely create, almost, a second powerhouse monster to defeat debt. I myself could have saved what I spent on my camera and apply that to debt if indeed I had bought it without first thinking about it. Honestly, I’ve saved up to get it … two years! lol But indeed I agree. And, congrats on your new date.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Wow - good for you. It really does prove that being frugal and thinking wisely can help. By just saving more carefully I have made a plan to pay off our mortgage and just by allocatng funds more carefully we should be able to pay it off 12 years early!
March 27th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Its always great to cut the red by kicking bad habits!!
March 27th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Wow. This is encouraging news! Congrats! What feels like the same size chunk of money to you every month looks bigger and bigger relative to your shrinking debts. $500 at the beginning of your loan doesn’t have the same impact as $500 later on.
Way to go. Good to hear that you’re still smoke free. Once you get past the hump, being smoke free feels great. I’m tired as hell, being new to parenthood, but I know my body would be even more wrecked if I was still smoking.
Actually, I learned smoking and alcohol did a great job of taking the edges off of parenting ;) J/k… Really! It’s weird, knowing the size of the snowball that’s rolling, you can actually see that that relates to how much it costs for a month of your freedom… interesting really… Hope the parenting and new job is going well! –Mike
March 29th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Well done on shaving 5 months of your goal. That’s impressive. All these tips are good points and anyone can try them.
Again, well done.
Mike
Thanks Mike! And thanks for visiting! Cool name, btw.. ;) –Mike