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The Importance of Keeping Track of Your Finances

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The Importance of Keeping Track of Your Finances

Over the weekend, I was checking my Personal Capital dashboard to see how bad the down market has hurt our net worth.  As you would imagine, our net worth took a hit, just like everyone else. This does not mean that I am running to the hills and selling everything.  We have to remember that retirement investing is an investment for the long haul and we can't get scared by a dip in the market.  It is always important to remember this fact whenever the nightly news scares you into thinking that this is the crash to end all mankind.  Don't worry, the market will recover and we will be better off than we were before.

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The Benefits of Extra Mortgage Payments

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The Benefits of Extra Mortgage Payments

We took out a mortgage in August of 2015 and our first payment was due on October 1, 2015.  Although, we have payed all of our mortgage payments around the 15th of the previous month, because that was when we would put money in our savings accounts prior to purchasing the house. This means in 2015, we payed 4 minimum mortgage payments and we also payed 4 extra principal payments.

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The 2015 Summit of Coin Spending Rate

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The 2015 Summit of Coin Spending Rate

How much you spend on recurring basis will continue to affect how fast you can invest and the more you invest, then the faster you will reach financial independence.  Our 2015 goal was a 50% savings rate and we were on track to hit that goal until we purchased a house.  Therefore, we did not meet our goal, but we are happy at where our finances are heading with a plan of paying off the mortgage early and investing a minimum in 15% in retirement accounts each year.

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Did Christmas Break your Budget?

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Did Christmas Break your Budget?

Christmas is one of the most expensive holidays.  Traveling to see family, buying gifts, decorations and christmas dinner.  All of these items can run up the expense of Christmas.  There is nothing wrong with spending money for this holiday, but the danger zone is when you spend money that you don't have.  Lot's of people around the country buy gifts on a credit card or on store credit and they are paying for it months after the holiday season.