Follow along to see their progress.
Month 1 | April 2024
Focus: Budgeting, Settings Goals & All In Financial Tools
During our first month in the competition, we learned that you need to shop around every so often for your insurance! Our coaches talked to us about All In Services, so we reached out to them, and they were able to save us so much money on our ATV. Then, we reached out to other insurance companies about our vehicles, and again, we were able to save a significant amount of money. Just changing our insurance is now saving us around $200 on our monthly bills!
In April, we stopped taking money out of our "extras" budget to go on trips in our camper. We decided to work extra side jobs to cover the extra expenses, so we were still able to go on our trips; the money just never came out of our budget.
Monthly improvements:
- Our debt is decreasing! We stayed determined since the start of April to reduce our debt significantly and it has been so encouraging to see the side by side difference on our financial tracking sheet.
Month 2 | May 2024
Focus: Using Credit Wisely; Platinum Rewards Credit Cards
During our second month in the competition, we learned that every minor thing affects your credit! We used to keep an eye on it but not super closely until we would borrow money. Since we are seeing it more regularly and seeing the drop in our scores for various reasons, it has made us very aware.
We used to jump at the opportunity to borrow money whenever we wanted something. Since starting this challenge, we have really thought through our decisions before making large purchases and have realized that a lot of times we can either save for it over a couple of months instead of taking out a loan or it can just wait.
Monthly improvements:
- We have seen a big improvement in our debt overall. It's nice to see the hard work paying off!
Month 3 | June 2024
Focus: Auto/Home Buying/Health Education
Over the last three months in this competition we have learned that we can live and enjoy life while also working toward (and meeting) our financial goals! We have made a lot of changes to our financial habits and we have been reaping the benefits of things we have learned along the way.
Monthly improvements:
- We hit our first major goal this month of paying off our credit card!!!!
Month 4 | July 2024
Focus: Saving for Children/College
Last month, we sat down with our coaches and talked about home buying. That is one of our biggest goals and main reasons for doing this
challenge. We never want to put ourselves in an uncomfortable position just to be considered "home-owners". We learned that just a couple
points in interest makes a huge difference on your monthly payment. When we really went over the numbers with our coaches, it really put it
into perspective for us and made us realize that we should be content with what we have currently and to keep pushing forward to work towards
our other financial goals. It is not the right time for us to buy a home yet and that is okay. We are learning lots of things along the way and how
to better manage putting off "wants" and taking care of the "needs" first!
We have dealt with lots of loss these past several months. As these unexpected things have happened, we have been able to roll with the punches
and adjust our budget as needed. Our first reaction used to be to swipe the credit card to pay for a tank of gas or a meal out that we hadn't planned
for. If it's something that is not urgent, we hold off and wait until a better time. If it has to be done right then (like grab dinner if we do not see being
home for an extended amount of time), we pick somewhere that is a little easier on the wallet and only get what we need. No extras just because
we "want" them.
Monthly improvements:
- Overall, we have seen improvements in our debt reduction, we met our goal of paying off our only credit card, our savings accounts are starting
to improve more and our credit scores did a big jump from last month to this month!
Month 5 | August 2024
Focus: Retirement Planning & Insurance
In July, we had our Credit Score Management Webinar. Not only did we learn more about what affects our credit score, but so did other members of our family! We were shocked at how much affects our credit scores, even the things that you think are good like closing credit cards. But, we learned that it is actually better to keep them open rather than closing them. Especially if it is your "oldest" account on your credit. It is really helpful on your credit to find that perfect balance of not maxing out your cards and credit lines and maintaining a manageable balance. We learned in our August Modules about investing in stocks, 401K plans and Cryptocurrency! Although Cryptocurrency is not something we are familiar with and don't see ourselves getting involved in, it is really interesting to learn about and see the amount of risk that is involved and sometimes, leads to a big reward for those that invest in it!
We have changed a lot of habits along the way, but our biggest one yet is that we will not jump into debt over an unexpected expense. This challenge has strenghtened our ability to critically think about our decision-making process. It seems like we have had more unexpected things come up since this challenge has started than any other time. In July, we had an unexpected expense of almost $1,000. We were able to pay that and put money in savings as well! We sold things to be able to cover most of the expense without dipping into our savings.
Monthly improvements:
- We are seeing a big improvement in our savings!
