I agree with using the EF to go ahead and fix the house. HOA fees are no joke. It will save you guys in the end. 😊 You’ll have it built back in no time. You’re doing such a great job on debt. A small break sometimes is needed for various reasons, like you said. You got this Katie!
Thank you, Cheryl! In the grand scheme of things, it shouldn’t set us back too much, but we definitely will be cutting back on debt for a little bit to beef up the savings.
Money guys call this the messy middle and it’s definitely messy but it’s building resilience and look how far you’ve come that you can roll with these punches! Keep it up
I know it’s not the plan to shift the focus from debt payoff to increasing savings but what a blessing that you are able to do so. I think that’s the accurate reflection of the financial journey. While we would like to think it’s an upward trajectory the entire time, there are peaks and valleys where we have to shift our focus in the season. We recently had to shift our savings from all of our funds to focus on one particular fund as well and beefing it up. It pained me to not contribute to my kids 529s or putting extra on our mortgage. But I reminded myself that it was just for a few months and then we would get back to our normal contributions. So I say all that to say that you are doing amazing and it shows how intentional you are with your financial journey!
Thank you so much!! It’s so true that we want everything to keep going in an upward trajectory, but the reality is that we rarely get a straight line. There are always going to be ups and downs. I was a little bummed at first to know that our debt payoff wouldn’t be as much for the next couple of months, but I do feel that replacing the savings is important. Like you said, it’s only temporary, and then we’ll jump back on track!
Definitely check with the health insurance company! Things to find out from them are: how many more claims are in the system; if there are claims in the system which have cleared insurrance but havent been billed to you from the providers and what the patient responsibility has been assigned by the insurrance company; and also if the providers may bill you for more than what the insurrance company assigns as patient responsibility. Depending on the timing and process of the insurrance company's determination, insurrance company's money transfer to the provider, the provider's processing, and the provider's paper/ electronic customer billing- It can take between 5 and 20 days from the time a claim's determination is done until you the customer is notified via the regular process flow.
Noooo not the hoa! Soooo sorry! Why is the summer always like this? So sorry, friend! So agree about the debt! Termite 🤣🤣 thank you for walking us through this! 💚💚
You’re doing great, Katie. We had a lot of unexpected expenses, too, and it never feels fun to pay them, but we’re thankful for our different sinking funds 😊 hopefully Marc is recovering well, too!
About that Chrsitmas list and those gifts: When we had a much larger gift list, i gave out a mix of symbolic and more substantical gifts; each had a maximum dollar amount. We also gave a lot of family gifts. And we shopped both clearance and the used markets while seeking things we hoped our recipients would use and/ or like. For example, we were at a yard sale and came across a muddy but not rusty rototiller that fired right up for $25 and it became a Cnristmas present sans mud and grass entwined tines; at $25 it was less than our maximum budget but far more dollar and usage value than what we would have otherwise purchased. For one person one year, i scoured the 75% and 90% off holiday kitchen towel sales all year long and gave a some what sizable collection in terms of number of towels for year 'round holidays; at Halloween the year before that person lamented paying darned near full price for a towel and that being the reason they didnt have towels for the assorted holidays even if they could afford them. Often functional gifts are the same or less than non-functional gifts and i must confess ive only given one hat and glove set which was also at the request of the recipient. End of year lawn, garden, patio furniture, camping gear, and sporting goods sales/ clearance is another great gift opportunity. One Mother's Day years ago i loaded a truck load of barn cleanings from one mother in the country and unloaded it atop the garden of another mother in the city; both were estatic but it did extend to a few more load the next week-end. More than once when i was working the assorted Secretary's Day and Christmas gift giving was a social hierarchy experience more than anything else. For these events i came up with a symbolic gift and gave everybody the same things. For a while there it was a garden center color spot (annual) wrapped in tin foil for each secretary and clerk typist. I have done an apple each person with simple hand made card, a tangerine each person with hand made card, a candy cane with hand made card, a hand made book mark each person, and a couple of other hand made gifts each person with a cost cap each.
Thank you for the ideas, Terry! I really need to set a max per person and stick to it! I’m the type of person who goes in with a plan, and then I always feel like I’m not doing enough, so overspend and get more. I think it’s a great idea To give more meaningful and practical gifts though. Maybe I’ll do a little better this year!
I'm happy to hear there is a plan! Budgeting is fun when everything is going great, but making the tough choices are where you succeed or fail - I'm sure many would have to put this on credit and slowly pay it off.
That’s so true! I love budgeting when everything is working out my way 😂 although, I will say, budgeting allowed us to be in the position where we can handle things like that that come up. Before we started budgeting, we definitely would have been those people to add it to a credit card 😫
About that room for Marc: Take the time to write/ type out (or begin) a detailed list of all the things of all the things you want for this room from the paint to the air freshners; optionally let this list be open ended for the things you forgot to the things you hadnt thought of. Then like outlining a term paper: begin grouping like items with like items, related tasks, and a whole project outline or list of major task by major task. Group the sub tasks and "things" needed for each unless very clear to you what is needed. For an assortment of reasons, i like indented paragraph form. Within each major task, number (and eventually reorder) put a number beside each item to not only prioritize each sub task but also indicate the contingent tasks. In the case of painting prep, you must have enough tape and drop cloth to prepare for painting. If spot spackling for wall holes is needed/ wanted painting is contingent upon this task being done first. Once the sub tasks are ordered, its time to order the major tasks. - And then you are in the world of contingentcy plans, project planning, systems, and they even have software for this. Use Marc's room as a learning curve exercise in "project planning" and "contingency charts". Dont expect any one list, plan, or chart to be anything but messy; making these things clear and complete is the subject of more than one Master's thesis. The entire term term "milestone" comes out of this world. My suggestiin however is that you have a final goal in mind but also develop phases which once complete can stand alone never to be touched again; just in case they arent, or you come up with an alternative along the way. For example, you are in tne process of painting the room and i would call painting a major task and a phase. Even if you dont end up turning this room into a gaming room, a freshly painted room stands on its own. I would also allow some major/ sub tasks to be temporary solutions allowed or expected to be re-addressed before complete. For example, you want a TV/ TV monitor in there; im guessing the two of you have size, capability, and maybe even technological minimum criteria as well as ideals. If you were to come across a free item through Buy Nothing or another gifting site/ group which meets your minimum criteria which you could akso get rid of for free or an acceptable, nominal cost, is there room within your plans to stair step through "all the things" with intentions to cash flow an upgrade down the line? Another factor to consider which many dont think of amd that is cash flowing the materials and supplies phase by phase as determined by the available labor. A contractor and diy store with 0% loans thinks in terms of buying the entire job's worth of materials at once. When acting as your own contractor and laborer, reality is it will take a certain amount of work and time before you can get to each grouping of materials and supplies. This said, supply issues are such that I would have mixed and purchase all of the paint at once, all of the door handles and cabinet hardware at once depending upon how inportant matching is, all of the trim and base at once to get both consistent materials and profile, etc..
Hi thanks for being transparent with the house fees. I can’t believe paint is that much! I guess I read financial experts recommend saving per year 1-3% of your house value for home maintenance. I agree with you 100% and it’s almost like you can’t have too much savings lol. Rachel Cruze kinda talks about starter emergency that if you need more than the $1000 you can easily regroup and put the debt on pause. But not all of us can regroup that easily
I think we need to start using that rule because I have not been saving nearly enough! I feel nervous to put the debt payoff on pause, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that replacing the savings that we used is the most important thing right now, so July may be a very slow debt payoff month. It’s ok though, we’ll get back on track 😄
Life is “lifing” … the silver lining is that you have option…budgeting works!! I know it sucks, but I’m happy you can maneuver the budget to cover a lot of these pop-ups!! excellent example for the community to see!!!
Budgeting does work! I’m always thankful when things like this happen that we did start budgeting. I remember a time when we had $0 in savings, and this would be so much worse if we were still in that place. Great perspective!
Life is life-ing right now! 😭 seems like when we try to get a head a little, life comes with a curve ball and says “NO” lol You got this Katie! 💪🏼 happy to hear mark’s surgery went well
Thank you, Imani! I’m always so thankful that we have money in savings. It just makes me feel so much more at peace with our finances. Thanks for watching!
If you use a higher quality paint, it will not peel as much and should last a longer time period between paintings. Yes, the paint will cost more, but the cost of labor is much higher.
Yes! We are hoping it will help this time. We bought our house as a new build, and of course the builders use the cheapest materials possible, so we’re hoping it will last longer this time since we’ll use better quality paint.
When it rains it pours ☔️. So glad y’all have sinking funds for repairs. I think Asheville is a great idea you are so right much cheaper than Vegas (speaking from experience)😂
Hi Katie you’ve got this. Just remember it is a living budget if you need to move money around for one type of “ 😝 surprise” that’s ok. You can always refill sinking funds or emergency funds or even HSA accounts. I’ve had 3 home/ car repairs that were all over $2k.
Thank you, Debra! That’s so true. I’m going to not stress about it and just refill the savings as soon as possible. Debt payments might be slow for a couple of months, but that’s ok. ☺️
GM Katie, thank you for sharing. Im feeling the same way, it is always something. Were working on saving up an e fund and i thought id stop once we got to 1k but it is not enough. Im glad you are able to cover what you need with the money you do have. Great allocation for your SF!
Thanks, Stephanie! There’s always something for sure! I’m so glad we had the savings, and I definitely want to replace it as soon as we can. I know I’ll be sad to not pay off as much debt, but it will be ok!
FYI- I live pretty close to you in GA… I pay my car insurance monthly, and our car insurance just went up 30% this month. 😢 You may want to add a little extra just incase. We’re going to shop around. You’re doing SO great! I know that you’re thankful you have this system already set up to cover extra expenses instead of going in debt for them! My husband and I say all the time how thankful we are that we started seriously budgeting before inflation hit.
Ugh, I feel like car insurance goes up every time we pay. I can’t believe you had such a big increase in a month! We pay every 6 months, but last time it didn’t increase much, but I’ll try to save more in case it does for November. So frustrating!
Oh Katie, I relate so much. We just got evacuated (Thomson fire); hotel rooms for two adults and two dogs, plus restaurants every day, and then coming home to have to dispose of all the refrigerated food has been super expensive. I don’t have the final numbers yet (we just got home last night), but just the lodging and meals is probably $700-$800 and god only knows what we’re looking at to replace all the food, of course just days after we did our Costco run. What can you do? We’ll have to make some adjustments for sure, but I just remind myself the house is still standing and we’re all safe. Life happens, and sometimes it just really sucks. Sending you hugs, this too shall pass.
Oh, Laura! I’m so so sorry! First of all, that must have been so scary to have to evacuate and leave your home behind, not knowing what would happen. And then all of the expenses on top of it…so frustrating! I’m so glad you all are safe and that your home was untouched. I hope it doesn’t set you back too far 😫
@@KatieoftheHouse it’s always a nightmare (third time for us); I don’t know how many more of these we can take…But for now we’re safe and the house is fine. Every time is terror producing! I keep thinking I’ll get used to it but it doesn’t happen. We’re talking about moving again, but after an incident like this you can’t sell or even get insurance so you’re pretty much stuck. The second hotel didn’t charge the $70 nightly for the dogs for two nights so that was nice, and we only paid for three nights (we only stayed two) instead of the five we reserved, and Amazon sent the order that wasn’t delivered due to roadblocks at no charge, so those are all small blessings. We’re packed up and ready to go for the next time, fingers crossed we get a break for a while because frankly my nerves are shot! Emergency fund to the rescue, we won’t be investing as expected but we have a home to come home to so it’s all gravy after that.
Sorry to hear of the curve ball you’ve been hit with! The reason we have a HELOC is because a storm took out the siding on a portion of our house. The age of the siding was such that we couldn’t match the color and size to just patch the damaged siding. Insurance wouldn’t cover a whole house re-side. We decided that to keep the value of our biggest asset up was to do a whole house re-side. This was not planned, and we need a new roof as well. We certainly didn’t plan to have an added payment to make and our budget has to be overhauled and some of our goals are being re-assessed.
Adulting sucks sometimes. Yuck! these are not fun things to spend money on. I totally agree with you about the $1000 emergency fund just being a starter. I have all of my babes up that to $1200 or $1500. I also aim to get a separate Home Owners emergency fund with 10K. Our basement flooded and we had to replace everything it was closer to 20K all said and done but it made me realize the same things you just verbalized. Home Owners need a separate and LARGE emergency fund. Hang in there! You're handling those curve balls beautifully!
That’s such a smart idea to have a larger one for home owners. I guess if you were renting, you could get away with $1000-$2000, but owning a home definitely comes with major costs. I think I’ll strive for that 10K fund!
Thank God you have the money in savings/sinking funds. Geez I wasn't expecting to hear 2k for the painting but I guess that would be what it is 😩. Home ownership is so expensive! Trust me, I know cuz we've had things come it in the past and things will never stop coming up. It is very hard to use the savings even if it is there for the things that pop up. It takes so long to save it and it's like BAM! it's gone in an instant when issues arise. Great job organizing and relocating things, Katie! ❤❤❤
Ugh, it’s so frustrating how it takes us so long to save, but then it disappears so quickly! I know y’all have put so much money into your home, but it’s so beautiful and so worth it 😍 home ownership is so expensive though, for sure!
The HSA is a beneficial investment for setting aside money for uncovered medical expenses, ensuring financial stability for the present while saving for retirement. So beautiful sharing thank you✨💖
Katie, every month I am truly amazed at just how much you are able to whittle down that debt and put extra into retirement. I admire how laser focused you are. But life happens. I had a friend a loooonnng time ago that had just bought his first house, and I was envious because we weren’t there yet. His comment though has always stuck with me, “It’s like living in a giant Visa Card” the debt with home ownership is never ending, and it’s not just the payments. I have found that to be true in any house I’ve ever lived in and owned. It’s always something. HSA’s must be different than when I used to have one 35 years ago. At the time, you contributed money all year, but if you didn’t use it, you would loose it at the end of the end of the year! I didn’t know, that now, you can keep that money for retirement! What a concept! But that money is there to be used, use it for the boy’s braces. You and Marc are still very young and retirement is a long way away. I am retired, and have seen too many of my coworkers who have saved and saved and saved , and then die a year or two after they retired. They never got to benefit from all those saving’s. (or even SSA that they contributed to their whole working lives) 😫 Use the money, that’s what it’s there for. You won’t miss it in 20 years, or worse yet, never get to use it. And lastly, Asheville and the Biltmore are wonderful, much better than Vegas. Also, visit the Omni Park Grove Inn, that’s a nice place to see too. Sit in a rocking chair by the giant fireplace , have a drink and relax! The terrace is a nice place to sit and enjoy looking at the Blue Ridge. Good food too! Treat yourselves for your anniversary, you’re worth it! 😊
Hi, Vickie! Thank you so much! I agree with your friend that owning a home is kind of like living in a giant credit card. There is always something! I love your perspective on using the HSA money. You really never know how long you have, and you are so right that we should use it now if we need it, and I’m pretty sure that what we’ll end up doing! I think Biltmore is the best choice right now as well. I’ve always wanted to go, and it seems like the best financial decision as well ☺️
Hi Katie, as far as the thousand dollars for Dave Ramsey, his is more of a quick emergency fix not a roof blew off the house fix. The biggest thing Dave Ramsey wants you to do is to be gazelle intense. Try to pay off all your debt in under two years. Is that gonna happen not always. You gotta remember that $1000 is more than most people had previously. The only thing they did was charging on a credit card. I feel your pain as far as sinking fund. Made an error on our taxes in 2022 and that hurt. Second year in a row the escrow on our home was way short. Between taxes and insurance going up. Had quite a few maintenance issues with the house. What I find now is my emergency and sinking funds is something I really hate to spend. But sometimes you have to. Great videos, Katie. Keep up the good work.
Thank you!! You are right that most people couldn’t come up with $1000, so it is a great start! I don’t know if we could pay off all of our debt in two years..maybe if we changed a lot, but I’m thinking 3 would be really good, too!
Hope all is ok and missed your Transfer Tuesday video. In part because we transfered money pur selves on an actual Tuesday! We have gotten warm for ourselves and are switching things to be home where its cooler by ideally 11AM. Did our fill-in grocery shopping at 6:30Am, appt at 8AM, bank (diffetent branch) at 9AM, three more stops, and home by about 11AM. The credit card is at zero balance once agaib for posted, pending, and pending refund.
@@KatieoftheHouse It certainly feels less painful to zero that balance out more often! We are on a tighter watch this month and having the spending accounts go down during the month makes it feel both more real but also has us considering purchases/ amounts spent even if it is a good idea, aligned with our lesser goals, etc....
Hi Katie. Curveballs, we so dislike them but it’s life. So true - $1000 is better than nothing but it is definitely not enough. Also with everything these days so expensive it will not go far. Car maintenance always bug me - as soon as I use the money something else could happen- I try to always add something. A little staycation will be nice for your anniversary 😊❤ Great video
Use the HSA, yes, it is a good investment, however, its whole purpose is to help people set aside money for uncovered medical expenses. You are saving so much already for retirement, future Katie and Marc will be fine, right now, present Katie and Marc need some financial attention.
@@KatieoftheHouseif you can pay out of pocket now without putting it on a credit card but if not then I can understand using the HSA. My financial advisor doesn’t want me to touch mine and save that for long term care during retirement.
Before you pay the medical bills be sure to ask if there is a discount for paying in full. I routinely get at least 10% off the top when I ask. Also they’re happy to do free payment plans if you decide to go that route and split it over a few months. Braces I’ve always felt is fine to do the pay,ent plan because they haven’t done the work yet. The work will take a couple of years so I don’t mind paying as we go instead of all up front. Although, there will probably be a large down payment to get them started.
Oh thanks! I’ll make sure to do that with the medical bills. It can hurt to try, right? For the braces, I’ve always heard that they’ll give a discount if you pay them all up front but we haven’t made it to that stage yet, so we’ll see. If we can’t pay for them up front, I’ll try to think of it how you do. If they haven’t finished the work, I shouldn’t be upset if I can’t pay for it ahead of time. ☺️
@@KatieoftheHouse We did get a discount for both of my boys for paying it all up front. It saved us several hundred dollars. Of course it will be dependent on which Orthodontist you use. My youngest actually just got his off, so now we are braces free, but living the retainer life!
Look into how much a big job like tires is...the prices are up and 500 definitely seems low....I run a garage with my husband parts prices are a lot higher than several years ago.
I don’t know why that doesn’t surprise me! Everything is up so much now. I hate to see how much we need, but I’m sure you’re right that it will be more than $500 😭
Hi Katie, I guess July is your month for heavy expenses. I am glad you have the money even though you don't want to pull it from other sinking funds. And your Emergency Fund is doing its job and helping out when needed. It looks like surprise expenses will always be a thing for all of us. 🎉🎉😄
I was thinking you might want to consider separating health and dental into 2 items. Perhaps even breaking down dental into 2 lines like deductible dental and another for braces. Just a thought I had for you. Enjoy vacation with the boys!
Life be lifing lol, seriously no matter how much we plan financially something always comes up. Leveraging the emergency fund for the roof makes more sense than going into credit card debt for it.
Life has a way of lifing just when you think you’ve got things figured out 😂 I’m definitely glad we had the EF to use! I don’t want to add any more debt if we can avoid it!
Check out Marks deductible and then your out of pocket max … I had to pay 3300 for my outpatient 3 hour stay .. I had not met my out of pocket stay 🎉… but now everything is free to me 😂… I think that’s why the money guys focus on your insurance deductible savings … glenda
My new (last Dec) refrigerator broke (ice maker and interior back keeps freezing up & icing), my dishwasher broke and overflowed onto my hardwood case it to buckle which cause a homeowners claim, my hot water heater sprung a leak and required a ceiling patch, and my hardware floor needs repairing. When it rains it pours.
Oh wow! I’d definitely classify that as pouring. I’m so sorry you’ve had so much to deal with at once! I hope your fridge was at least covered under warranty. That’s terrible 😫
@@KatieoftheHouse sorry for all my typos above.🫣 Yes, the refrigerator is under warranty and I have homeowners ins. so at least its capped at the 2k deductible. I also have two car ins claims this year. One was a deer collision and the other was someone ran into my car in a parking lot when I was in the store. They didn't leave a note or anything.
@@rhoadestraveled I’m the queen of typos, girl, no worries! 😂 That’s the worst kind of human to hit a car and not say amounting 🙄 I’m glad you were able to at least cover some with your insurance. Deductibles are still expensive though!
Ugh I'm sorry. That is tough. I've struggled with feeling defeated as life happens along the journey. You could credit card hack if you wanted. Like sign up for 0% and a cash back bonus offer. Pay the medical on that and dump money onto it if you prefer to get rid of the balance. Honestly I did that for my surgery stuff after insurance
@@KatieoftheHouse yea it was really nice! I had a sign on bonus of $250 or $350 that I got for the large purchase and then the normal rewards you get on top of that. I just took that money and paid the balance. Just another option I figured wouldn't hurt to mention
I feel like that’s essentially what we’re doing, but I’m temporarily using the money from savings, so really August will be the month that the debt payments are less instead of July. I don’t know though, July isn’t over yet, so I might change my mind and put less to debt this month to immediately replace the savings. You know I change my mind a lot 😂
Yeah this is what I would do too. Just pause on the extra to debt rather than moving money in and out of savings over a few months. I think the biggest thing I've learned with budgeting is at the end of the day money is fungible. I can have it ear marked for this or that but it's all mental gymnastics. I totally understand that sometimes the gymnastics are necessary to keep oneself on track but I will say that I'm glad I've moved past the need for that because it's all a lot simpler when money is just money, spend it where it needs to be spent. You'll figure it out either way!
Aww. Curveballs stink! Hate paying for unfun, boring things. But, you’ve got it covered and it really is just a temporary slowdown. You’ll pay, replenish and move on! But I completely get it…. It’s no fun when it happens. But 5 years from now, will you even remember that it happened? Probably not, because you’ve done such a great job preparing. You’ve got a health fund, a vet bill fund, an emergency fund, etc. You planned for life’s buggers. It’s annoying, but fine.
Thank you for this perspective! This definitely won’t be something I’ll lose sleep over in 5 years. It’s a set back, but I’m hoping to replace the savings quickly and then get right back on track with debt payoff! 🙌🏼
I’m just going to say it-sinking funds suck. It’s like an adult tax because life has so many lemons. I don’t break my monthly/quarterly down as fine as you do. I just figure a yearly amount for insurances, tax, heating, and misc and put a set amount every month for-it depresses me less somehow.
Great video Katie!! Curveballs suck but thankfully you guys have savings❤When my husband had a minor procedure last year we opted to keep our cash for real emergencies and put the medical debt into our snowball. They gave us 6 months interest free to pay it but we were able to pay it in 3. Sometimes I just like having cash for things that I wouldn’t be able to put on a payment plan, like house repairs. Just curious, so with following the “Money Guys” approach how did the curveball compare to the “Dave Ramsey “ approach? I follow both channels but my approach resembles Dave more but with balance 😂 $1,000 would Never work for me!!
That totally makes sense if you can do the zero interest debt thing. Cash definitely makes me feel less stressed and “safer.” So for the money guys, they recommend having your deductibles saved for an emergency fund, so that includes health, house, and car insurance deductibles. So we kind of followed that guideline, which gave us well over $1000, which was really nice! I like that method better because having a little more on hand just makes me feel less stressed. Now we’ll just have to replace what we use as soon as we can 😄
Katie, What type of health insurance does Marc's emloyer offer, and you have? Is it a PPO, HMO? Did he get the surgery out of network? The amount you stated seems high. Usually you would only have to pay a deductable and the insurance covers the rest. Especially if you are using an "in network" hospital. Dont be too concerned with a hospital bill yet. Focus on what the insurance company is saying they cover and what you will owe afterwards. This may be without the insurance payment. You do need to look at the details on this. Also frequently doctors do offer "professional discounts" to other health professionals..
Braces in a way are like college. You usually do NOT have to pay the money all at once, and you can spread the charges, (and payments) across the entire time of the treatment. For example if the braces are on for 2 years. Frequently you can find Orthodontists that will allow you to pay some up front, and then pay the remainder on a monthly basis. (which you would add to your budget) Also of course, most health insurance policies will cover a portion of this expense. But most not all. Again research what YOUR insurance does. BTW, MANY public colleges offer similar payment programs, where you pay the semesters costs throughout the semester. THis is how I paid my kids. As I had paid off the mortgage prior to them entering college, I used the money I had been using to pay off the mortgage to pay the monthly for their University. (And of course they ended up graduating with no student loans. And as I mentioned to you earlier. They actually received a "reverse student loan: Oh all of these plans should and were for me, interest free.
And now the HOA comment. I DO seem to really dislike HOA's. And if Marc wasn't so busy I might suggest he do some of this himself. But with his schedule, and surgery, I doubt that is practical. Yeah use the emergency fund. THis is what it is for. (something you have to pay for that was not planned.) However, for others who are considering purchasing a home in an HOA community, make sure you read those documents prior to purchase. Very difficult to deal with them, and the people involved.
And one final comment on Dave Ramsey. He is very good on getting people out of debt. His investment advice and other things is just terrible. He recently publically stated that people could spend 10% annually of their portfolio in retirement, as in the long term equities will generate 12%. Boy did he get a lot of negative opinions on this as he didnt apply "sequence of return" risk. But his "debt snowball" while not mathematically the best , does make sense as it likely will keep people motivated. (Which is a major part of getting people to change their ways) Boy you got 4 comments from me today. Maybe I just stop now.
Thank you, Jon! We do have a high deductible health insurance plan! He was in network, but I’m not sure if that bill is the final or what we’ll owe yet. I definitely won’t pay until I get final word from the insurance ☺️
Just wondered if you could have underpaid a couple of your sinking funds for a month or two in order to build up the more urgent ones eg home repairs as some of them appear to have good balances already.
Yeah, that probably would have been a smarter plan! I tend to never want to out nothing in a fund, but I would absolutely take from a less important fund if I absolutely had to ☺️ Thank you for watching!
We like to call life a journey. OK. Suppose you have a plan to drive your car from New York to California. Every now and then you will have to stop and fill up the tank. You might have to buy a new tire or headlamp. But you keep going. Out on the road if your headlamp needs to be replaced you only replace the headlamp you don't overhaul the motor. As far as the 7 Baby Steps go as an adult if we want to have $2000 in our BS 1 emergency fund then we do that. As to when we get to BS 2 I personally cannot under the threat of death agree more with Dave. Even The Money Guy Brian Preston has hidden somewhere in his website a formula where he puts consumer debt on an interest rate/age scale. Basically, the older we are the lower the APR has to be to qualify as "high interest" debt. I don't have this in front of me but it is something like if you have student loan debt in your 50s that is going to be high interest debt. You two are doing great though what you are doing is hard and I commend you! 👍👍
Thank you, Thomas! Yes, the Money Guy has high interest debt by age, and I believe that you are right that anything in your 50s is considered high interest. I believe in your 30s they count everything over 5%, so technically all of our debt would be high interest by those rules. We just need to get it knocked out!
The Ramsey plan is/was designed to get people out of debt in 18 to 36 months. His statistical numbers over all, with all the people, and all the debt profiles, still support this. Ramsey is pretty much anti credit of any type. I am noticing however, that he does appear to be softening around the edges on a number of things and in particular with respect to mortgages; this could simply be what im noticing, im not a die hard fan. Among other things, Ramsey definitely doesnt want people to feel comfortable with debt payments as a way of life; it leads to low minimums and a 30 to 49 year payoff plan for some eating iut, groceries, hair do-dads, etc.... Ramsey wants people to have the patience, foresight, amd discipline to cash flow everything while growing thier personal wealth and retirement funds. This is not always possible and it is around this that Ramsey is seeming to be softening.
Sue and I started the Baby Steps in earnest in March 2018. We dabbled with it a bit beforehand and had a prior small emergency savings account and really to be honest we were Dave-ish for the first 30 months but once we locked in we were off to the races. Paid off 136K debt (mortgage, car loans, kids student loans and misc crap) in 56 months. 3 months later on the 5th year anniversary we achieved Baby Step 7. I don't say this very often actually this is the first time but when we started this in 2018 we had a net worth of about $230K. Today, we are worse case 17 months from becoming Baby Step millionaires. Some of it was pure luck, most of it was hard work. When I think back at the day which was March 14, 2018 when life events dictated that Tom & Sue must get their finances in order, just getting out of debt seemed impossible. Having a 7 figure net worth was no where even in our wildest imaginations. But here we are and probably because our case seemed so hopeless that is why I'm so passionate about all of this. On the day we paid off our last debt, when I hit the "pay this amount" to Toyota Financial, I cried like a baby. I think that is why I'm not offended as some are over Dave calling it The Baby Steps.
Do take some time to actually write (or type, this is the 21st century) down exactly what you want the Emergency Fund to cover. At the same time, look at what "emergency"/ "unplanned" things you want each of your sinking funds to cover. Decide if you physically want to keep these funds seperated or have them all gathered in the same place(s). If gathered together in the same or a few accounts, i would recommend a seperate little spread sheet graph so you know how much of each puddle is intended to be allocated to what; in a true emergency of larger proportion, you can choose then how to reallocate. Once and/ or as you get your system down its time to go over those descriptions, cost them, and establish funding for each, funding phase amounts if desired, amd funding caps for each.
That’s a great idea! I probably do need to do this because right now I just plan for it to cover pretty much anything, but it would be good to have some “rules” for what it can be used for.
@@KatieoftheHouse From what I can tell, the Dave Ramsey plan does have a single puddle for all the things labeled Emergency Fund. He also keeps that Emergency Fund low so that folks feel the wolves at thier heels while they move with gazelle speed. Ramsey has the numbers and the stats which shows this works with the largest percentage of folks across all the different debt profiles. On a debt journey, one of the big over riding goals is to keep from incurring additional debt; Ramsey actually says that this is the primary purpose of the $1000 Emergency Fund so your use of the EF for trim painting checks off a number of the Ramsey boxes. At the same time, you do have a house, a couple of cars, and more. Your likelyhood of having a house maintenance or repair, car maintenance or repair, medical need equalling more than $1000 is pretty high. You folks are on board enough to not dip into the Emergency Fund to pay for the upcoming finger nail appointment because you didn't stuff enough in your envelope ahead of time. At the same time you're not stopping all extra debt payment to fully fund a 3 to 6 month ahead fund while the 29.9% interest racks up. Having pre-planned expectations, realstic goals, and the willingness to re-allocate with what I call budgetary honesty will get ypu further, sooner.
👏🏼👏🏼 love it! If the insurance rates every go back down, we’ll seriously consider moving, and if we do no HOA will be a non-negotiable for us! It’s so annoying to deal with 🙄
Great decision! I had HOA once and they made me put trash bins INSIDE my garage since both the front and back of my townhouse are FACING streets and the rule says trash bins cannot be seen except on trash days. That's the exact moment I realized I'll never want anyone to tell me where I can and cannot put anything on MY own damn property.
The Ramsey plan is/was designed to get people out of debt in 18 to 36 months. His statistical numbers over all, with all the people, and all the debt profiles, still support this. Ramsey is pretty much anti credit of any type. I am noticing however, that he does appear to be softening around the edges on a number of things and in particular with respect to mortgages; this could simply be what im noticing, im not a die hard fan. Among other things, Ramsey definitely doesnt want people to feel comfortable with debt payments as a way of life; it leads to low minimums and a 30 to 49 year payoff plan for some eating iut, groceries, hair do-dads, etc.... Ramsey wants people to have the patience, foresight, amd discipline to cash flow everything while growing thier personal wealth and retirement funds. This is not always possible and it is around this that Ramsey is seeming to be softening.
The Ramsey plan is/was designed to get people out of debt in 18 to 36 months. His statistical numbers over all, with all the people, and all the debt profiles, still support this. Ramsey is pretty much anti credit of any type. I am noticing however, that he does appear to be softening around the edges on a number of things and in particular with respect to mortgages; this could simply be what im noticing, im not a die hard fan. Among other things, Ramsey definitely doesnt want people to feel comfortable with debt payments as a way of life; it leads to low minimums and a 30 to 49 year payoff plan for some eating iut, groceries, hair do-dads, etc.... Ramsey wants people to have the patience, foresight, amd discipline to cash flow everything while growing thier personal wealth and retirement funds. This is not always possible and it is around this that Ramsey is seeming to be softening.
Oh yes, he definitely recommends quick debt payoff, and I think for most people that is possible. With our numbers, I’m not sure we could beat 3-4 years, but if I’m super honest with myself, we aren’t being as intense as we can, but I think I’m ok with that for right now. I don’t dislike Dave Ramsey at all. I know he’s helped a lot of people. I just feel like his started emergency fund should be a bit higher, especially now that everything is so expensive.
So sorry about all the unexpected stuff, you did great getting them all started back on the right track
Thank you, Heather! It will all turn out fine 🥰 it’s always frustrating when you have to touch that savings though.
I agree with using the EF to go ahead and fix the house. HOA fees are no joke. It will save you guys in the end. 😊
You’ll have it built back in no time. You’re doing such a great job on debt. A small break sometimes is needed for various reasons, like you said. You got this Katie!
Thank you, Cheryl! In the grand scheme of things, it shouldn’t set us back too much, but we definitely will be cutting back on debt for a little bit to beef up the savings.
Money guys call this the messy middle and it’s definitely messy but it’s building resilience and look how far you’ve come that you can roll with these punches! Keep it up
Yes, that’s the perfect name for it!
Thank you so much! I’m thankful we are able to handle it, even if it is a bit frustrating.
Hi Katie, owning a home can be expensive. It’s ok to cash flow an unexpected expense or pause the extra payments for 1 month. You are doing great!! 😊😊
Thank you, Tracey! I always feel guilt when we have to go off of plan, but I need to get used to it because that’s life 😅
I know it’s not the plan to shift the focus from debt payoff to increasing savings but what a blessing that you are able to do so. I think that’s the accurate reflection of the financial journey. While we would like to think it’s an upward trajectory the entire time, there are peaks and valleys where we have to shift our focus in the season. We recently had to shift our savings from all of our funds to focus on one particular fund as well and beefing it up. It pained me to not contribute to my kids 529s or putting extra on our mortgage. But I reminded myself that it was just for a few months and then we would get back to our normal contributions. So I say all that to say that you are doing amazing and it shows how intentional you are with your financial journey!
Thank you so much!! It’s so true that we want everything to keep going in an upward trajectory, but the reality is that we rarely get a straight line. There are always going to be ups and downs. I was a little bummed at first to know that our debt payoff wouldn’t be as much for the next couple of months, but I do feel that replacing the savings is important. Like you said, it’s only temporary, and then we’ll jump back on track!
Hey Katie! Yes house expenses are so high. Glad that u have the money to pay what u need.
So thankful! It could be worse! Thanks, Izzy 🥰🥰
Listening while cleaning ❤️🔥
Thank you!
Definitely check with the health insurance company! Things to find out from them are: how many more claims are in the system; if there are claims in the system which have cleared insurrance but havent been billed to you from the providers and what the patient responsibility has been assigned by the insurrance company; and also if the providers may bill you for more than what the insurrance company assigns as patient responsibility. Depending on the timing and process of the insurrance company's determination, insurrance company's money transfer to the provider, the provider's processing, and the provider's paper/ electronic customer billing- It can take between 5 and 20 days from the time a claim's determination is done until you the customer is notified via the regular process flow.
Thank you, Terry! We haven’t had many situations like this, so I appreciate the tips!
Hey, Katie!❤ Sorry to hear about the unplanned expenses. I'm sure you're having the right plan for these and you'll make everything work just fine!😊
Thank you, Rox! I’m thankful we had some savings! It will all be ok 💜
Noooo not the hoa! Soooo sorry! Why is the summer always like this? So sorry, friend! So agree about the debt! Termite 🤣🤣 thank you for walking us through this! 💚💚
Dang, HOA!
Haha, thankfully my dog has never had termites 😂😂
You’re doing great, Katie. We had a lot of unexpected expenses, too, and it never feels fun to pay them, but we’re thankful for our different sinking funds 😊 hopefully Marc is recovering well, too!
I’m sorry that you’ve had a lot come up, too! There’s always something…
I am so thankful for savings though!
About that Chrsitmas list and those gifts: When we had a much larger gift list, i gave out a mix of symbolic and more substantical gifts; each had a maximum dollar amount. We also gave a lot of family gifts. And we shopped both clearance and the used markets while seeking things we hoped our recipients would use and/ or like. For example, we were at a yard sale and came across a muddy but not rusty rototiller that fired right up for $25 and it became a Cnristmas present sans mud and grass entwined tines; at $25 it was less than our maximum budget but far more dollar and usage value than what we would have otherwise purchased. For one person one year, i scoured the 75% and 90% off holiday kitchen towel sales all year long and gave a some what sizable collection in terms of number of towels for year 'round holidays; at Halloween the year before that person lamented paying darned near full price for a towel and that being the reason they didnt have towels for the assorted holidays even if they could afford them. Often functional gifts are the same or less than non-functional gifts and i must confess ive only given one hat and glove set which was also at the request of the recipient. End of year lawn, garden, patio furniture, camping gear, and sporting goods sales/ clearance is another great gift opportunity. One Mother's Day years ago i loaded a truck load of barn cleanings from one mother in the country and unloaded it atop the garden of another mother in the city; both were estatic but it did extend to a few more load the next week-end. More than once when i was working the assorted Secretary's Day and Christmas gift giving was a social hierarchy experience more than anything else. For these events i came up with a symbolic gift and gave everybody the same things. For a while there it was a garden center color spot (annual) wrapped in tin foil for each secretary and clerk typist. I have done an apple each person with simple hand made card, a tangerine each person with hand made card, a candy cane with hand made card, a hand made book mark each person, and a couple of other hand made gifts each person with a cost cap each.
Thank you for the ideas, Terry! I really need to set a max per person and stick to it! I’m the type of person who goes in with a plan, and then I always feel like I’m not doing enough, so overspend and get more. I think it’s a great idea
To give more meaningful and practical gifts though. Maybe I’ll do a little better this year!
@@KatieoftheHouse yes ... I can empathize
I'm happy to hear there is a plan! Budgeting is fun when everything is going great, but making the tough choices are where you succeed or fail - I'm sure many would have to put this on credit and slowly pay it off.
That’s so true! I love budgeting when everything is working out my way 😂 although, I will say, budgeting allowed us to be in the position where we can handle things like that that come up. Before we started budgeting, we definitely would have been those people to add it to a credit card 😫
About that room for Marc: Take the time to write/ type out (or begin) a detailed list of all the things of all the things you want for this room from the paint to the air freshners; optionally let this list be open ended for the things you forgot to the things you hadnt thought of.
Then like outlining a term paper: begin grouping like items with like items, related tasks, and a whole project outline or list of major task by major task. Group the sub tasks and "things" needed for each unless very clear to you what is needed. For an assortment of reasons, i like indented paragraph form. Within each major task, number (and eventually reorder) put a number beside each item to not only prioritize each sub task but also indicate the contingent tasks. In the case of painting prep, you must have enough tape and drop cloth to prepare for painting. If spot spackling for wall holes is needed/ wanted painting is contingent upon this task being done first. Once the sub tasks are ordered, its time to order the major tasks. - And then you are in the world of contingentcy plans, project planning, systems, and they even have software for this.
Use Marc's room as a learning curve exercise in "project planning" and "contingency charts". Dont expect any one list, plan, or chart to be anything but messy; making these things clear and complete is the subject of more than one Master's thesis. The entire term term "milestone" comes out of this world. My suggestiin however is that you have a final goal in mind but also develop phases which once complete can stand alone never to be touched again; just in case they arent, or you come up with an alternative along the way.
For example, you are in tne process of painting the room and i would call painting a major task and a phase. Even if you dont end up turning this room into a gaming room, a freshly painted room stands on its own. I would also allow some major/ sub tasks to be temporary solutions allowed or expected to be re-addressed before complete. For example, you want a TV/ TV monitor in there; im guessing the two of you have size, capability, and maybe even technological minimum criteria as well as ideals. If you were to come across a free item through Buy Nothing or another gifting site/ group which meets your minimum criteria which you could akso get rid of for free or an acceptable, nominal cost, is there room within your plans to stair step through "all the things" with intentions to cash flow an upgrade down the line? Another factor to consider which many dont think of amd that is cash flowing the materials and supplies phase by phase as determined by the available labor. A contractor and diy store with 0% loans thinks in terms of buying the entire job's worth of materials at once. When acting as your own contractor and laborer, reality is it will take a certain amount of work and time before you can get to each grouping of materials and supplies. This said, supply issues are such that I would have mixed and purchase all of the paint at once, all of the door handles and cabinet hardware at once depending upon how inportant matching is, all of the trim and base at once to get both consistent materials and profile, etc..
Hi thanks for being transparent with the house fees. I can’t believe paint is that much! I guess I read financial experts recommend saving per year 1-3% of your house value for home maintenance.
I agree with you 100% and it’s almost like you can’t have too much savings lol. Rachel Cruze kinda talks about starter emergency that if you need more than the $1000 you can easily regroup and put the debt on pause. But not all of us can regroup that easily
I think we need to start using that rule because I have not been saving nearly enough!
I feel nervous to put the debt payoff on pause, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that replacing the savings that we used is the most important thing right now, so July may be a very slow debt payoff month. It’s ok though, we’ll get back on track 😄
Good afternoon❤ awesome job. Hope you had a wonderful Holiday
Thank you so much!
Great that you have money to pull. Because we just never know what's next.
So true! It could be so much worse if we didn’t have savings!
Life is “lifing” … the silver lining is that you have option…budgeting works!! I know it sucks, but I’m happy you can maneuver the budget to cover a lot of these pop-ups!! excellent example for the community to see!!!
Budgeting does work! I’m always thankful when things like this happen that we did start budgeting. I remember a time when we had $0 in savings, and this would be so much worse if we were still in that place. Great perspective!
Hi Katie, oh no. How frustrating. But I'm glad you got it figured out. 💚💚
Thank you, Bobbi! 🥰
New subs here! Medical bills have hit us hard this year and paying them off monthly. It has impacted our savings rate monthly.
Oh no I’m so sorry! You really can never predict things like that.
Thank you for being here though. I really appreciate it ☺️
Life is life-ing right now! 😭 seems like when we try to get a head a little, life comes with a curve ball and says “NO” lol
You got this Katie! 💪🏼 happy to hear mark’s surgery went well
Exactly! Every time you feel like you are doing well…BAM, life! 😂it could be so much worse though! I’m glad we had the savings to begin with ☺️
Hello Katie! Yes, it’s great that you have the money to cover the expense. Defintely agree that 1k is not enough for an emergency. 💜🌻🌷
Thank you, Imani! I’m always so thankful that we have money in savings. It just makes me feel so much more at peace with our finances. Thanks for watching!
If you use a higher quality paint, it will not peel as much and should last a longer time period between paintings. Yes, the paint will cost more, but the cost of labor is much higher.
Yes! We are hoping it will help this time. We bought our house as a new build, and of course the builders use the cheapest materials possible, so we’re hoping it will last longer this time since we’ll use better quality paint.
When it rains it pours ☔️. So glad y’all have sinking funds for repairs. I think Asheville is a great idea you are so right much cheaper than Vegas (speaking from experience)😂
For sure, Cat! Bad things come in threes, right? 😱
I definitely think Asheville will be a MUCH cheaper option! But still just as good!
Hi Katie you’ve got this. Just remember it is a living budget if you need to move money around for one type of “ 😝 surprise” that’s ok. You can always refill sinking funds or emergency funds or even HSA accounts. I’ve had 3 home/ car repairs that were all over $2k.
Thank you, Debra! That’s so true. I’m going to not stress about it and just refill the savings as soon as possible. Debt payments might be slow for a couple of months, but that’s ok. ☺️
Im slowing down on debt repayment to do home repairs as well.
Ahhh so frustrating, but it happens!
GM Katie, thank you for sharing. Im feeling the same way, it is always something. Were working on saving up an e fund and i thought id stop once we got to 1k but it is not enough. Im glad you are able to cover what you need with the money you do have. Great allocation for your SF!
Thanks, Stephanie!
There’s always something for sure! I’m so glad we had the savings, and I definitely want to replace it as soon as we can. I know I’ll be sad to not pay off as much debt, but it will be ok!
Hi Katie! Stick with it. You will come out of this jam.
Thank you! 🩵🩵
Oooff what a month it always seems to come around at the same time I swear! I know you guys will get it figured out though 💕💕
It’s always one thing after another, unfortunately and always when you finally feel like you are doing well 😫
FYI- I live pretty close to you in GA… I pay my car insurance monthly, and our car insurance just went up 30% this month. 😢 You may want to add a little extra just incase. We’re going to shop around.
You’re doing SO great! I know that you’re thankful you have this system already set up to cover extra expenses instead of going in debt for them! My husband and I say all the time how thankful we are that we started seriously budgeting before inflation hit.
Ugh, I feel like car insurance goes up every time we pay. I can’t believe you had such a big increase in a month! We pay every 6 months, but last time it didn’t increase much, but I’ll try to save more in case it does for November. So frustrating!
Oh Katie, I relate so much. We just got evacuated (Thomson fire); hotel rooms for two adults and two dogs, plus restaurants every day, and then coming home to have to dispose of all the refrigerated food has been super expensive. I don’t have the final numbers yet (we just got home last night), but just the lodging and meals is probably $700-$800 and god only knows what we’re looking at to replace all the food, of course just days after we did our Costco run. What can you do? We’ll have to make some adjustments for sure, but I just remind myself the house is still standing and we’re all safe. Life happens, and sometimes it just really sucks. Sending you hugs, this too shall pass.
Oh, Laura! I’m so so sorry! First of all, that must have been so scary to have to evacuate and leave your home behind, not knowing what would happen. And then all of the expenses on top of it…so frustrating! I’m so glad you all are safe and that your home was untouched. I hope it doesn’t set you back too far 😫
@@KatieoftheHouse it’s always a nightmare (third time for us); I don’t know how many more of these we can take…But for now we’re safe and the house is fine. Every time is terror producing! I keep thinking I’ll get used to it but it doesn’t happen. We’re talking about moving again, but after an incident like this you can’t sell or even get insurance so you’re pretty much stuck. The second hotel didn’t charge the $70 nightly for the dogs for two nights so that was nice, and we only paid for three nights (we only stayed two) instead of the five we reserved, and Amazon sent the order that wasn’t delivered due to roadblocks at no charge, so those are all small blessings. We’re packed up and ready to go for the next time, fingers crossed we get a break for a while because frankly my nerves are shot! Emergency fund to the rescue, we won’t be investing as expected but we have a home to come home to so it’s all gravy after that.
@@wunderwriter1 wow, I didn’t even think of how hard it would be for you to sell if you wanted to 😩 that’s so frustrating!
Sorry to hear of the curve ball you’ve been hit with! The reason we have a HELOC is because a storm took out the siding on a portion of our house. The age of the siding was such that we couldn’t match the color and size to just patch the damaged siding. Insurance wouldn’t cover a whole house re-side. We decided that to keep the value of our biggest asset up was to do a whole house re-side. This was not planned, and we need a new roof as well. We certainly didn’t plan to have an added payment to make and our budget has to be overhauled and some of our goals are being re-assessed.
Thank you, Roberta ☺️
Wow, I bet that was such a huge expense. I’m sorry you had to reside everything PLUS the roof…owning a home is not at all cheap!
Adulting sucks sometimes. Yuck! these are not fun things to spend money on. I totally agree with you about the $1000 emergency fund just being a starter. I have all of my babes up that to $1200 or $1500. I also aim to get a separate Home Owners emergency fund with 10K. Our basement flooded and we had to replace everything it was closer to 20K all said and done but it made me realize the same things you just verbalized. Home Owners need a separate and LARGE emergency fund. Hang in there! You're handling those curve balls beautifully!
That’s such a smart idea to have a larger one for home owners. I guess if you were renting, you could get away with $1000-$2000, but owning a home definitely comes with major costs. I think I’ll strive for that 10K fund!
@@KatieoftheHouse Yes! I was so sorry to hear about your bathroom pipes and subsequent bathroom remodel. I feel that pain so much!
Thank God you have the money in savings/sinking funds. Geez I wasn't expecting to hear 2k for the painting but I guess that would be what it is 😩. Home ownership is so expensive! Trust me, I know cuz we've had things come it in the past and things will never stop coming up. It is very hard to use the savings even if it is there for the things that pop up. It takes so long to save it and it's like BAM! it's gone in an instant when issues arise. Great job organizing and relocating things, Katie! ❤❤❤
Ugh, it’s so frustrating how it takes us so long to save, but then it disappears so quickly!
I know y’all have put so much money into your home, but it’s so beautiful and so worth it 😍 home ownership is so expensive though, for sure!
The HSA is a beneficial investment for setting aside money for uncovered medical expenses, ensuring financial stability for the present while saving for retirement. So beautiful sharing thank you✨💖
So true! It’s such a great account. Thank you ☺️💚
Oh dental costs… I just hit debt free and now my eldest needs a bunch of dental work due to an enamel defect. 🤦🏻♀️ Life be life-ing!!!! 💜
Ugh that’s so frustrating right after you pay off everything 😫 you seriously just never know what will come up!
@@KatieoftheHouse no joke! And it’s in the tens of thousands… I totally understand your frustration!!! But Gods got this. 🙌🏼🙏🏼
Katie, every month I am truly amazed at just how much you are able to whittle down that debt and put extra into retirement. I admire how laser focused you are. But life happens. I had a friend a loooonnng time ago that had just bought his first house, and I was envious because we weren’t there yet. His comment though has always stuck with me, “It’s like living in a giant Visa Card” the debt with home ownership is never ending, and it’s not just the payments. I have found that to be true in any house I’ve ever lived in and owned. It’s always something. HSA’s must be different than when I used to have one 35 years ago. At the time, you contributed money all year, but if you didn’t use it, you would loose it at the end of the end of the year! I didn’t know, that now, you can keep that money for retirement! What a concept! But that money is there to be used, use it for the boy’s braces. You and Marc are still very young and retirement is a long way away. I am retired, and have seen too many of my coworkers who have saved and saved and saved , and then die a year or two after they retired. They never got to benefit from all those saving’s. (or even SSA that they contributed to their whole working lives) 😫 Use the money, that’s what it’s there for. You won’t miss it in 20 years, or worse yet, never get to use it. And lastly, Asheville and the Biltmore are wonderful, much better than Vegas. Also, visit the Omni Park Grove Inn, that’s a nice place to see too. Sit in a rocking chair by the giant fireplace , have a drink and relax! The terrace is a nice place to sit and enjoy looking at the Blue Ridge. Good food too! Treat yourselves for your anniversary, you’re worth it! 😊
Hi, Vickie! Thank you so much!
I agree with your friend that owning a home is kind of like living in a giant credit card. There is always something!
I love your perspective on using the HSA money. You really never know how long you have, and you are so right that we should use it now if we need it, and I’m pretty sure that what we’ll end up doing!
I think Biltmore is the best choice right now as well. I’ve always wanted to go, and it seems like the best financial decision as well ☺️
Hi there, very interesting topic . Must say I am new here
Thank you so much for being here! 🥰
Hi Katie, as far as the thousand dollars for Dave Ramsey, his is more of a quick emergency fix not a roof blew off the house fix. The biggest thing Dave Ramsey wants you to do is to be gazelle intense. Try to pay off all your debt in under two years. Is that gonna happen not always. You gotta remember that $1000 is more than most people had previously. The only thing they did was charging on a credit card. I feel your pain as far as sinking fund. Made an error on our taxes in 2022 and that hurt. Second year in a row the escrow on our home was way short. Between taxes and insurance going up. Had quite a few maintenance issues with the house. What I find now is my emergency and sinking funds is something I really hate to spend. But sometimes you have to. Great videos, Katie. Keep up the good work.
Thank you!! You are right that most people couldn’t come up with $1000, so it is a great start! I don’t know if we could pay off all of our debt in two years..maybe if we changed a lot, but I’m thinking 3 would be really good, too!
Hope all is ok and missed your Transfer Tuesday video. In part because we transfered money pur selves on an actual Tuesday! We have gotten warm for ourselves and are switching things to be home where its cooler by ideally 11AM. Did our fill-in grocery shopping at 6:30Am, appt at 8AM, bank (diffetent branch) at 9AM, three more stops, and home by about 11AM. The credit card is at zero balance once agaib for posted, pending, and pending refund.
Yay, I’m glad you got the balance back down to zero, Terry. I knew you would!
Thanks for checking on me! I’ll have a video up tomorrow (Thursday) 🥰
@@KatieoftheHouse It certainly feels less painful to zero that balance out more often! We are on a tighter watch this month and having the spending accounts go down during the month makes it feel both more real but also has us considering purchases/ amounts spent even if it is a good idea, aligned with our lesser goals, etc....
Hi Katie. Curveballs, we so dislike them but it’s life. So true - $1000 is better than nothing but it is definitely not enough. Also with everything these days so expensive it will not go far. Car maintenance always bug me - as soon as I use the money something else could happen- I try to always add something. A little staycation will be nice for your anniversary 😊❤ Great video
Thank you so much! Car maintenance is definitely one that we need to work on. As soon as you feel safe with it, that’s when something happens 😅
Use the HSA, yes, it is a good investment, however, its whole purpose is to help people set aside money for uncovered medical expenses. You are saving so much already for retirement, future Katie and Marc will be fine, right now, present Katie and Marc need some financial attention.
So true! Current Marc and Katie may need that more than future Marc and Katie. I’ll definitely use it over going into debt if we need to.
@@KatieoftheHouseif you can pay out of pocket now without putting it on a credit card but if not then I can understand using the HSA. My financial advisor doesn’t want me to touch mine and save that for long term care during retirement.
Before you pay the medical bills be sure to ask if there is a discount for paying in full. I routinely get at least 10% off the top when I ask. Also they’re happy to do free payment plans if you decide to go that route and split it over a few months. Braces I’ve always felt is fine to do the pay,ent plan because they haven’t done the work yet. The work will take a couple of years so I don’t mind paying as we go instead of all up front. Although, there will probably be a large down payment to get them started.
Oh thanks! I’ll make sure to do that with the medical bills. It can hurt to try, right?
For the braces, I’ve always heard that they’ll give a discount if you pay them all up front but we haven’t made it to that stage yet, so we’ll see. If we can’t pay for them up front, I’ll try to think of it how you do. If they haven’t finished the work, I shouldn’t be upset if I can’t pay for it ahead of time. ☺️
@@KatieoftheHouse We did get a discount for both of my boys for paying it all up front. It saved us several hundred dollars. Of course it will be dependent on which Orthodontist you use. My youngest actually just got his off, so now we are braces free, but living the retainer life!
Great video Katie❤
Thank you, Brittney! 💜
Look into how much a big job like tires is...the prices are up and 500 definitely seems low....I run a garage with my husband parts prices are a lot higher than several years ago.
I don’t know why that doesn’t surprise me! Everything is up so much now. I hate to see how much we need, but I’m sure you’re right that it will be more than $500 😭
Life happens. I was debt free for a hot minute. Future vacation plans put me back in debt. I hope to be out of debt again by next week.
Life happens! It’s so frustrating that something came up right when you became debt free, but you did it once, so I know you can do it again!
@@KatieoftheHouse yesss. You are so motivating 🙂
Hi Katie, I guess July is your month for heavy expenses. I am glad you have the money even though you don't want to pull it from other sinking funds. And your Emergency Fund is doing its job and helping out when needed. It looks like surprise expenses will always be a thing for all of us. 🎉🎉😄
Oh yes, I don’t think we’ll ever escape from these little surprises 😂I’m so thankful for savings though!
I am sorry to hear about the curve ball those are always soooo discouraging but you will rebound ❤
Thank you! It will definitely all be ok 🧡 it’s just frustrating in the moment.
Life definitely throws us curveballs.
Oh yes! We have to stay on our toes 😅
All the hugs friend ❤ 1,000 is definitely not enough for an emergency fund
Thank you for watching! ☺️
I was thinking you might want to consider separating health and dental into 2 items. Perhaps even breaking down dental into 2 lines like deductible dental and another for braces. Just a thought I had for you. Enjoy vacation with the boys!
That might be better! Then I don’t have to stress if I need to use one or the other and still have some left. Thank you 😊
Life be lifing lol, seriously no matter how much we plan financially something always comes up. Leveraging the emergency fund for the roof makes more sense than going into credit card debt for it.
Life has a way of lifing just when you think you’ve got things figured out 😂 I’m definitely glad we had the EF to use! I don’t want to add any more debt if we can avoid it!
just replaced an hvac for $5500 - gotta love surprises
Oh no! That’s a BIG surprise. I’m sorry 😩
Check out Marks deductible and then your out of pocket max … I had to pay 3300 for my outpatient 3 hour stay .. I had not met my out of pocket stay 🎉… but now everything is free to me 😂… I think that’s why the money guys focus on your insurance deductible savings … glenda
I do need to double check that! Maybe he can get a lot more done now if it’s free 😂
My new (last Dec) refrigerator broke (ice maker and interior back keeps freezing up & icing), my dishwasher broke and overflowed onto my hardwood case it to buckle which cause a homeowners claim, my hot water heater sprung a leak and required a ceiling patch, and my hardware floor needs repairing. When it rains it pours.
Oh wow! I’d definitely classify that as pouring. I’m so sorry you’ve had so much to deal with at once! I hope your fridge was at least covered under warranty. That’s terrible 😫
@@KatieoftheHouse sorry for all my typos above.🫣 Yes, the refrigerator is under warranty and I have homeowners ins. so at least its capped at the 2k deductible. I also have two car ins claims this year. One was a deer collision and the other was someone ran into my car in a parking lot when I was in the store. They didn't leave a note or anything.
@@rhoadestraveled I’m the queen of typos, girl, no worries! 😂
That’s the worst kind of human to hit a car and not say amounting 🙄
I’m glad you were able to at least cover some with your insurance. Deductibles are still expensive though!
Savings/sinking funds/emergency fund can all be used as debt prevention. So remember you are preventing more debt ☺️
Yes, yes, yes! So true ☺️
Ugh I'm sorry. That is tough. I've struggled with feeling defeated as life happens along the journey. You could credit card hack if you wanted. Like sign up for 0% and a cash back bonus offer. Pay the medical on that and dump money onto it if you prefer to get rid of the balance. Honestly I did that for my surgery stuff after insurance
That’s not a bad idea, Allison! Those credit card points are always nice if you can do 0% interest.
@@KatieoftheHouse yea it was really nice! I had a sign on bonus of $250 or $350 that I got for the large purchase and then the normal rewards you get on top of that. I just took that money and paid the balance. Just another option I figured wouldn't hurt to mention
Why not cash flow it? Instead of putting extras to debt, pay for the painting. Then next month, pick back up on extra debt payments
I feel like that’s essentially what we’re doing, but I’m temporarily using the money from savings, so really August will be the month that the debt payments are less instead of July. I don’t know though, July isn’t over yet, so I might change my mind and put less to debt this month to immediately replace the savings. You know I change my mind a lot 😂
I agree with the original comment. Just pause the massive debt payments for a month, or do less. Then pick it back up.
@@KatieoftheHousefor sure, it all ends up in the same place in the end. Just a matter of psyche and what doesn’t piss you off the most 😂
@@UghUgh1234 haha, right?! It will all work out though. Thank you for watching!
Yeah this is what I would do too. Just pause on the extra to debt rather than moving money in and out of savings over a few months. I think the biggest thing I've learned with budgeting is at the end of the day money is fungible. I can have it ear marked for this or that but it's all mental gymnastics. I totally understand that sometimes the gymnastics are necessary to keep oneself on track but I will say that I'm glad I've moved past the need for that because it's all a lot simpler when money is just money, spend it where it needs to be spent. You'll figure it out either way!
Aww. Curveballs stink! Hate paying for unfun, boring things. But, you’ve got it covered and it really is just a temporary slowdown. You’ll pay, replenish and move on! But I completely get it…. It’s no fun when it happens. But 5 years from now, will you even remember that it happened? Probably not, because you’ve done such a great job preparing. You’ve got a health fund, a vet bill fund, an emergency fund, etc. You planned for life’s buggers. It’s annoying, but fine.
Thank you for this perspective! This definitely won’t be something I’ll lose sleep over in 5 years. It’s a set back, but I’m hoping to replace the savings quickly and then get right back on track with debt payoff! 🙌🏼
I’m just going to say it-sinking funds suck. It’s like an adult tax because life has so many lemons. I don’t break my monthly/quarterly down as fine as you do. I just figure a yearly amount for insurances, tax, heating, and misc and put a set amount every month for-it depresses me less somehow.
I get that! It is so depressing to have to use that money that you’ve been saving. I just try to remember that I saved it for a reason 😫
Great video Katie!! Curveballs suck but thankfully you guys have savings❤When my husband had a minor procedure last year we opted to keep our cash for real emergencies and put the medical debt into our snowball. They gave us 6 months interest free to pay it but we were able to pay it in 3. Sometimes I just like having cash for things that I wouldn’t be able to put on a payment plan, like house repairs. Just curious, so with following the “Money Guys” approach how did the curveball compare to the “Dave Ramsey “ approach? I follow both channels but my approach resembles Dave more but with balance 😂 $1,000 would Never work for me!!
That totally makes sense if you can do the zero interest debt thing. Cash definitely makes me feel less stressed and “safer.”
So for the money guys, they recommend having your deductibles saved for an emergency fund, so that includes health, house, and car insurance deductibles. So we kind of followed that guideline, which gave us well over $1000, which was really nice! I like that method better because having a little more on hand just makes me feel less stressed. Now we’ll just have to replace what we use as soon as we can 😄
Katie, What type of health insurance does Marc's emloyer offer, and you have? Is it a PPO, HMO? Did he get the surgery out of network? The amount you stated seems high. Usually you would only have to pay a deductable and the insurance covers the rest. Especially if you are using an "in network" hospital. Dont be too concerned with a hospital bill yet. Focus on what the insurance company is saying they cover and what you will owe afterwards. This may be without the insurance payment. You do need to look at the details on this. Also frequently doctors do offer "professional discounts" to other health professionals..
Braces in a way are like college. You usually do NOT have to pay the money all at once, and you can spread the charges, (and payments) across the entire time of the treatment. For example if the braces are on for 2 years. Frequently you can find Orthodontists that will allow you to pay some up front, and then pay the remainder on a monthly basis. (which you would add to your budget) Also of course, most health insurance policies will cover a portion of this expense. But most not all. Again research what YOUR insurance does.
BTW, MANY public colleges offer similar payment programs, where you pay the semesters costs throughout the semester. THis is how I paid my kids. As I had paid off the mortgage prior to them entering college, I used the money I had been using to pay off the mortgage to pay the monthly for their University. (And of course they ended up graduating with no student loans. And as I mentioned to you earlier. They actually received a "reverse student loan:
Oh all of these plans should and were for me, interest free.
And now the HOA comment. I DO seem to really dislike HOA's. And if Marc wasn't so busy I might suggest he do some of this himself. But with his schedule, and surgery, I doubt that is practical. Yeah use the emergency fund. THis is what it is for. (something you have to pay for that was not planned.) However, for others who are considering purchasing a home in an HOA community, make sure you read those documents prior to purchase. Very difficult to deal with them, and the people involved.
And one final comment on Dave Ramsey. He is very good on getting people out of debt. His investment advice and other things is just terrible. He recently publically stated that people could spend 10% annually of their portfolio in retirement, as in the long term equities will generate 12%. Boy did he get a lot of negative opinions on this as he didnt apply "sequence of return" risk. But his "debt snowball" while not mathematically the best , does make sense as it likely will keep people motivated. (Which is a major part of getting people to change their ways)
Boy you got 4 comments from me today. Maybe I just stop now.
Thank you, Jon!
We do have a high deductible health insurance plan! He was in network, but I’m not sure if that bill is the final or what we’ll owe yet. I definitely won’t pay until I get final word from the insurance ☺️
Just wondered if you could have underpaid a couple of your sinking funds for a month or two in order to build up the more urgent ones eg home repairs as some of them appear to have good balances already.
Yeah, that probably would have been a smarter plan! I tend to never want to out nothing in a fund, but I would absolutely take from a less important fund if I absolutely had to ☺️
Thank you for watching!
We like to call life a journey. OK. Suppose you have a plan to drive your car from New York to California. Every now and then you will have to stop and fill up the tank. You might have to buy a new tire or headlamp. But you keep going. Out on the road if your headlamp needs to be replaced you only replace the headlamp you don't overhaul the motor.
As far as the 7 Baby Steps go as an adult if we want to have $2000 in our BS 1 emergency fund then we do that. As to when we get to BS 2 I personally cannot under the threat of death agree more with Dave. Even The Money Guy Brian Preston has hidden somewhere in his website a formula where he puts consumer debt on an interest rate/age scale. Basically, the older we are the lower the APR has to be to qualify as "high interest" debt. I don't have this in front of me but it is something like if you have student loan debt in your 50s that is going to be high interest debt.
You two are doing great though what you are doing is hard and I commend you! 👍👍
Thank you, Thomas! Yes, the Money Guy has high interest debt by age, and I believe that you are right that anything in your 50s is considered high interest. I believe in your 30s they count everything over 5%, so technically all of our debt would be high interest by those rules. We just need to get it knocked out!
The Ramsey plan is/was designed to get people out of debt in 18 to 36 months. His statistical numbers over all, with all the people, and all the debt profiles, still support this. Ramsey is pretty much anti credit of any type. I am noticing however, that he does appear to be softening around the edges on a number of things and in particular with respect to mortgages; this could simply be what im noticing, im not a die hard fan. Among other things, Ramsey definitely doesnt want people to feel comfortable with debt payments as a way of life; it leads to low minimums and a 30 to 49 year payoff plan for some eating iut, groceries, hair do-dads, etc.... Ramsey wants people to have the patience, foresight, amd discipline to cash flow everything while growing thier personal wealth and retirement funds. This is not always possible and it is around this that Ramsey is seeming to be softening.
Sue and I started the Baby Steps in earnest in March 2018. We dabbled with it a bit beforehand and had a prior small emergency savings account and really to be honest we were Dave-ish for the first 30 months but once we locked in we were off to the races. Paid off 136K debt (mortgage, car loans, kids student loans and misc crap) in 56 months. 3 months later on the 5th year anniversary we achieved Baby Step 7. I don't say this very often actually this is the first time but when we started this in 2018 we had a net worth of about $230K. Today, we are worse case 17 months from becoming Baby Step millionaires. Some of it was pure luck, most of it was hard work. When I think back at the day which was March 14, 2018 when life events dictated that Tom & Sue must get their finances in order, just getting out of debt seemed impossible. Having a 7 figure net worth was no where even in our wildest imaginations. But here we are and probably because our case seemed so hopeless that is why I'm so passionate about all of this. On the day we paid off our last debt, when I hit the "pay this amount" to Toyota Financial, I cried like a baby. I think that is why I'm not offended as some are over Dave calling it The Baby Steps.
Do take some time to actually write (or type, this is the 21st century) down exactly what you want the Emergency Fund to cover. At the same time, look at what "emergency"/ "unplanned" things you want each of your sinking funds to cover. Decide if you physically want to keep these funds seperated or have them all gathered in the same place(s). If gathered together in the same or a few accounts, i would recommend a seperate little spread sheet graph so you know how much of each puddle is intended to be allocated to what; in a true emergency of larger proportion, you can choose then how to reallocate. Once and/ or as you get your system down its time to go over those descriptions, cost them, and establish funding for each, funding phase amounts if desired, amd funding caps for each.
That’s a great idea! I probably do need to do this because right now I just plan for it to cover pretty much anything, but it would be good to have some “rules” for what it can be used for.
@@KatieoftheHouse From what I can tell, the Dave Ramsey plan does have a single puddle for all the things labeled Emergency Fund. He also keeps that Emergency Fund low so that folks feel the wolves at thier heels while they move with gazelle speed. Ramsey has the numbers and the stats which shows this works with the largest percentage of folks across all the different debt profiles. On a debt journey, one of the big over riding goals is to keep from incurring additional debt; Ramsey actually says that this is the primary purpose of the $1000 Emergency Fund so your use of the EF for trim painting checks off a number of the Ramsey boxes. At the same time, you do have a house, a couple of cars, and more. Your likelyhood of having a house maintenance or repair, car maintenance or repair, medical need equalling more than $1000 is pretty high. You folks are on board enough to not dip into the Emergency Fund to pay for the upcoming finger nail appointment because you didn't stuff enough in your envelope ahead of time. At the same time you're not stopping all extra debt payment to fully fund a 3 to 6 month ahead fund while the 29.9% interest racks up. Having pre-planned expectations, realstic goals, and the willingness to re-allocate with what I call budgetary honesty will get ypu further, sooner.
Ugh this happens!
I know, life, right?! There’s always something 😂
After my parents pay there cc last month but then just drain there EF the air condition broke 2 days ago .5k down
Oh no! That’s terrible. It’s so frustrating to finally feel like you are making progress and then BAM…life 😫
God I hate HOA!!!!!!
Me too, Amy, me too. 😫
Thank fuck I'm not in a HOA and never will be.
Btw, Dave Ramsey sucks.
👏🏼👏🏼 love it! If the insurance rates every go back down, we’ll seriously consider moving, and if we do no HOA will be a non-negotiable for us! It’s so annoying to deal with 🙄
Great decision!
I had HOA once and they made me put trash bins INSIDE my garage since both the front and back of my townhouse are FACING streets and the rule says trash bins cannot be seen except on trash days.
That's the exact moment I realized I'll never want anyone to tell me where I can and cannot put anything on MY own damn property.
The Ramsey plan is/was designed to get people out of debt in 18 to 36 months. His statistical numbers over all, with all the people, and all the debt profiles, still support this. Ramsey is pretty much anti credit of any type. I am noticing however, that he does appear to be softening around the edges on a number of things and in particular with respect to mortgages; this could simply be what im noticing, im not a die hard fan. Among other things, Ramsey definitely doesnt want people to feel comfortable with debt payments as a way of life; it leads to low minimums and a 30 to 49 year payoff plan for some eating iut, groceries, hair do-dads, etc.... Ramsey wants people to have the patience, foresight, amd discipline to cash flow everything while growing thier personal wealth and retirement funds. This is not always possible and it is around this that Ramsey is seeming to be softening.
The Ramsey plan is/was designed to get people out of debt in 18 to 36 months. His statistical numbers over all, with all the people, and all the debt profiles, still support this. Ramsey is pretty much anti credit of any type. I am noticing however, that he does appear to be softening around the edges on a number of things and in particular with respect to mortgages; this could simply be what im noticing, im not a die hard fan. Among other things, Ramsey definitely doesnt want people to feel comfortable with debt payments as a way of life; it leads to low minimums and a 30 to 49 year payoff plan for some eating iut, groceries, hair do-dads, etc.... Ramsey wants people to have the patience, foresight, amd discipline to cash flow everything while growing thier personal wealth and retirement funds. This is not always possible and it is around this that Ramsey is seeming to be softening.
Oh yes, he definitely recommends quick debt payoff, and I think for most people that is possible. With our numbers, I’m not sure we could beat 3-4 years, but if I’m super honest with myself, we aren’t being as intense as we can, but I think I’m ok with that for right now. I don’t dislike Dave Ramsey at all. I know he’s helped a lot of people. I just feel like his started emergency fund should be a bit higher, especially now that everything is so expensive.