Hellobee Boards

@.twist.: tell him good luck! I've done a couple of the fitness videos he made and he kicked my ass in a big way. Lol

We are thankfully debt free now but we're hoping to do some work on our woefully neglected house this year. So we're saving up for some fairly hefty renovations.

our big goal is buying a house in a new city. we are getting preapproved and hoping to meet with a realtor within the month to get serious about looking (been cruising MLS, redfin, realtor.com for the last 4 months). we are moving into an apartment to save on rent and have some big goals to save for the downpayment and also get used to living on less since our mortgage will be a lot more than we're paying now for rent!

2015 was a crazy year for us... we remodeled our house so almost doubled our home loan + taxes, and had to purchase a new furnace/ac unit in addition to that. DS started daycare and DH took a new job that was a big paycut for the first 6 months.
This year I want to get back on track financially and pay off our recently accrued CC debt and get a budget in place that allows us to have baby #2 (and afford that 2nd daycare bill).

@Anagram: Did you switch to local care instead of care near your job? I hope it cuts down on your crazy routine! The early years are expensive, but I try to remember that it's for a finite amount of time until elementary school starts.

2015 was a great year for us. We paid off my husbands pickup, my SUV, our camper, and bought a boat with cash. We paid down about $13,000 on our mortgage and about $30,000 on my students loans. We put 4% of my income into a matching 401K and 10% of my husbands income into a matching 401K and contributed 1% of our income to our son's 529.

Goals for 2016:
1. We WILL pay off the remaining $33,000 of my student loans by October.
2. Continue current contributions to 401K and then increase my husbands to 15% and mine to 10% once student loans are paid off.
3. Continue to round payments on mortgage to a $500 principle payment each month (which ends up being about $80 extra each month- its not much, but I like seeing the nice round numbers and every little bit helps)
4. After student loans are paid off, save the payment that was going toward student loans ($3,500 each month) for November and December as an emergency fund.
5. Continue to contribute 1% of income to the 529 and then in July after baby arrives another 1% into the new baby's 529.

We have a few larger expenses coming up in 2016- new bedroom set for our son (so baby can have the crib set), a new desk for our very first desktop computer (we are no longer laptop people!), neutering our 4 year old hunting dog (finally), finishing the rest of the basement (1 room and 2 small storage spaces- my husband will do all the work so we just have to pay for materials), and the worst of all- NEW WINDOWS throughout the house (OMG it is going to be so expensive- I cry thinking about it). Oh yeah- I guess we could consider the birth of our son as a large expense (the last one was $5,800 but that involved a NICU stay and me being really sick in the hospital for a long time too, so I hope it is less this time. And 4 weeks of my leave will be unpaid. So, I guess goal 6 could be to make sure we pay cash for all of that.

At the end of 2016 we will have zero debt other than our mortgage. At that point we will begin to attack the mortgage. The goal is to pay it off by the end of 2020! We are really excited and motivated to be completely debt free.

@ElbieKay: We got a nanny for the baby and are keeping LO1 in school/daycare 3 full days a week. LO1 will also stay home with the nanny T,Th....but if she seems bored, we'll put her in her school full time 5 days a week. We're saving a little money having her just go 3 days, but it's still super expensive.

I was hoping to find a nanny share for the baby to really save $$, but I couldn't find another share family. Blah

It's all super new--the nanny just started Monday and LO 1 just started going back to her old daycare close to my job on Monday so we are definitely in the adjustment phase. Daycare drop of has been rough with lots of tears, and the baby isn't napping or eating well for the nanny yet.

@Dr. Pepper: I just have to say, damn! Go you!!! That's amazing how much you paid off last year and will pay off this year!!!

Goals for 2016:

- Pay back in laws money we borrowed for down payment
- Get our savings back up to cover 6 months of our living expenses

We have been living bare bones for the past 2 years. I went PT, and DH started a new job that gives low pay for the first year. But he gets his new pay starting next month and hoping all these goals are very attainable and that we can ease up on our budget this year!

Another big thing we need to happen is our old home to sell. We've had some nibbles but no offers, and we are eating into our savings paying for it, ugh. We plan to give it until March and if no offers, put it up for rent and let it be.

@yoursilverlining: Thanks! We were sick and tired of making a lot of money and then it all going towards bills. I was able to refinance my student loans to 1.5% interest and that made a tons of extra money available that I was no longer paying on interest (my payments went from $1,000/month to $300/month). So that go us motivated and from there we went a little crazy and kept cutting things and re-prioritizing things and now are super excited about where we are heading!

We have a ton of student loans, and I would love to focus on paying those down! We have one that's down to $2,400. That doesn't sound like a lot to most of you, but my goal this year is to pay that one off!! Right around $200/month. To us that's a LOT of money!! but that's our goal!

Probably going to buy hubs a new car. Need to set up LO2's 529. Other than that just keep on saving and investing as much as possible each month. We try to cash flow everything, even big things like vacations, down payment on the new car, etc so money only ever goes IN to savings for the distant future and never comes OUT.

@.twist.: sure! I shared it think the very first one you posted with some friends and they liked it too!

@loveisstrange: awesome! he was pretty stoked.

@Silva: Hey! Sorry for the late response! My laptop died and I just got a new computer yesterday!!!

I refinanced through the Bank of North Dakota Deal One loan program. It is available only to residents of ND or persons who attended a ND university (I think). I went with the variable interest rate, which I know is risky, but for me it was worth the risk. Fixed was at about 5.25%. Variable was at 1.75% when I refinanced. The max rate on the variable was 10% and the annual increase was capped at 1%. My plan was to repay in 4-5 years, so the max increase of 5% would have increased my interest to a 6.75% rate which was still less than the 6.8% I was paying prior to refinancing. I refinanced about 1 year ago and the rate has not increased at all yet (in fact it has gone down) and I have cut my estimated repayment time from 4-5 years down to a year and a half! In the end, it was a totally awesome deal for me.