little money bee

what is financial independence?

March 9, 2017 No Comments

The description of my blog is generally listed as “a financial independence blog for military families,” so I thought I would take some time to clarify what financial independence means to me. In some cases, people mean financial independence to mean to not depend on anyone, like parents or friends, for financial aspects of their lives. Many may consider themselves financially independent when they move out of their home and pay rent and all their own utilities. This is a logical definition, but it is not the way I think of financial independence. Financial independence is the financial freedom to […]

goals, meal plan, our budget, our life, recipes I love

weekly goals + meal plan

March 6, 2017 No Comments

Good morning & happy Monday! In the future, I plan to write this post on Sundays, as I always meal plan on Sundays and grocery shop right after, but I had family in town this weekend, so here’s a Monday post for you. This week’s financial goals are: Eat the food on the meal plan. Seriously. You bought it, don’t be lazy and order Domino’s. Reconcile the budget daily. This is an easy habit to get into, and an equally easy habit to get out of. Stick with it. Sell the highchair on Facebook; Eric has wanted it out of […]

goals, our budget, our life, retirement accounts, taxes

February Recap / March Goals

March 1, 2017 No Comments

Oh man, I know February is the shortest month, but it flew by! Since this is my first month sharing budget categories, I am going to share my goals for March and go over some things we struggled with in February. At the end of March, I will post our spending in every category and highlight places we can work on. What happened in February? One of the reasons I’m hesitant to outlay all of our spending in February is because it was a very unusual month in terms of budgeting for us. In December, I had an ileostomy for […]

off topic

a quick post

February 27, 2017 No Comments

Oh my goodness! I just had to write a quick post. I just updated the Facebook page for the blog and opened the website, and it feels so vulnerable! I’ve been writing stories and blogs for years, but to really put yourself out there and share things publicly is a scary moment. I encourage any of you reading this to go out there and do something that scares you today. If it’s trying something new at work, wearing something you wouldn’t normally wear, cooking something you’ve never made before, or jumping into an idea you’ve been hesitant on, do it! […]

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 […]