Financial Freedom - 3

Well, we are nearing Christmas and New Years. This is a time of year when most people really go into debt, but Cathy and I made teh decision tihs year that we weren't going to do that, and we really stuck with it. We had a set amount we were going to spend, and we spent it. So that was a plus on our part for helping with our bills.

Another plus that I found is a slightly quicker way of paying things off. I've ran our bills through the various dept reduction calculators online, and although they sped it up a little bit, none of them really got it paid off too much faster. So I sat down and started figuring some things out on my own. I found a way to pay our bills off a few months faster then what any of the calculators could give us.

One thing none of the bill calculators take into consideration is the fact that most people get a few "extra" pays through out the year. If you budget like most on two pays a month, then there is twice a year that you get three pays. So that means Cathy and I get a total of four extra pays.

So then if you use those "extra" pays to make extra payments to bills, they will get paid off that much faster. So if we use the four "extra" pays each year to pay a bill a month ahead, nad stay ahead, then we will get things paid off about 3 months faster then any of the online calculators could do. So this is a plus for us.

Here are our updated graphs:

Bill Goal:

10.92%

Savings Goal:

5.03%

And again, if anyone wants to help is out, you can read my previous posts on ways to help me. I am willing to do odd jobs, but if you just want to send us money to help we would take that too. Feel free to email us @ mikesmeandering@gmail.com for more information.