debt – little money bee

Teach me how to budget (teach me, teach me how to budget) Part One

July 10, 2019 No Comments

(If you didn’t sing the title, you can leave now.) ;P I thought I wrote a post about this at some point, but it turns out I have not. I have touched on a few things that I’ll mention here as well in other posts, such as fun money, emergency funds, and annual/infrequent expenses. However, writing a budget (and sticking to it) is so much more than that. I’ve given a lot of presentations and taught a lot of classes about budgeting before, and I’ve helped probably 100 servicemembers and their families write budgets. I have learned a few big […]

budget recap, debt, goals, military life, our budget, our life, relationship

September Recap & a lot of honesty

September 30, 2017 No Comments

So I skipped my August Recap. I guess I’d say I had a lot going on and, but that’s an excuse. I mentioned briefly on Facebook that a lot of it was shame, and that’s true too. September was not much better for us though, which is a hard realization. While we had some major home expenses that derailed some of our retirement savings goals, our day-to-day expenses were still too high compared to what we want to be spending on those expenses. Sometimes I have a habit of saying, “we had visitors this month,” or “we traveled somewhere this […]

credit, debt, frugal, military life, our budget, our life

how using cash back cards for expenses gave us $300 in 6 months

April 21, 2017 No Comments

extra money monthly with credit card cash back

Well, it seems obvious, but I know so many people who haven’t learned this yet. I add about $50 a month to our budget by using a cash back credit card for our bills and expenses. I still track my budget as normal as if I had paid with a debit card. When the due date comes, I pay the statement balance in full. (I always pay around the due date, never really early, because I’d prefer to leave the cash in my checking account to earn a few extra days of interest.) By paying the statement balance in full, […]

debt, finance quotes, military life, our budget, our life

spending money you don’t have yet (seriously, don’t do it)

April 19, 2017 No Comments

Before I start this post, I know you’re reading the title and saying, “okay, duh,” but I feel like it is so much more than that, and I need to write about it to have somewhere to go back to as a reinforcement next time the temptation comes. In the military life, there is a lot of income that is reasonably expected without a timeline. There are a lot of things you can expect to get reimbursed for, bonuses you may receive, special pays that will kick in at the next duty station, and allowances that may increase due to […]

debt, goals

getting out of debt: the first step to financial freedom

February 27, 2017 No Comments

When considering the path to financial independence, one of the first steps is addressing any debts your family may have. Many debts have high interest rates, much higher than average market returns, so paying off debts is a great use of allocating funds before investing for retirement. As a general rule, the recommendation is usually to pay off any debts bearing an interest rate higher than 4%. Your risk tolerance may be higher or lower, but I usually stick to this rule. As it stands, we currently have a loan for my vehicle at 1.74%; anything higher than 3%, I […]