Journey to Financial Independence

3/31/2013
2009 Hosp Bill......... -
Building Supply........ -
Farm Supply............ 680.15
Truck.................. -
Unsec Bank 1........... -
MIL Nursing Home....... -
2012 Hosp Bill......... 190.52
Anesthesiologist....... 334.85
Tire Store............. 433.36
Loan from Work......... 314.61
Unsec Bank 2........... 531.36
Property Taxes.........2,755.22
GE Credit..............4,218.21
R Cap One..............4,960.94
Annual Tractor.........5,880.00
Student Loan...........6,089.25
10 Acre Farm...........7,434.24
BOA....................7,518.20
K Cap One..............7,974.40
Citi...................8,249.17
Jeep..................14,125.02
Tractor-Monthly.......15,701.40
Home Loan.............18,238.61
Rental/Farm...........79,914.54
72 Acre Farm.........219,202.44

Total.................404,746.49
Pd in March.............3,170.82
Pd since Nov 1 2012....21,634.31

Seems like the plan changes a little every month. We are making tremendous progress by just being more aware.
We pay property taxes in two counties. One is a little more lenient than the other and will let you carry a balance for years...not good. The other one turns their delinquents over to collection on June 1. We still owe close to 1k to that county for last year's land taxes. So the goal for April and May is to get that paid off before the June 1 deadline. If it gets turned to collections, there will be additional fees added on and we want to avoid that if at all possible.
I hate to see that farm supply bill going back up, but since the cold weather has been slow to go away, we have had to purchase feed. Hopefully the warm days and not so cold nights will bring on the grass and this won't have to get much bigger.
Hope you are all having a great April...til next time...Karen

2/28/2013
2009 Hosp Bill----------paid off-
Building Supply---------paid off-
Farm Supply-------------paid off-
Truck-------------------paid off-
Unsec Bank 1---------------84.43
MIL Nursing Home----------263.00
2012 Hosp Bill------------382.75
Anesthesiologist----------442.50
Tire Store----------------518.96
Loan from Work------------559.85
Unsec Bank 2--------------605.76
Property Taxes----------2,901.83
GE Credit---------------4,287.44
R Cap One---------------5,075.98
Annual Tractor----------5,880.00
Student Loan------------6,213.95
10 Acre Farm------------7,434.24
BOA---------------------7,560.33
K Cap One---------------8,020.07
Citi--------------------8,448.90
Jeep-------------------14,525.48
Tractor-Monthly--------16,211.08
Home Loan--------------18,546.42
Rental/Farm------------80,751.90
72 Acre Farm----------219,202.44

New Balance:-----------407,917.31
Paid in Feb:-------------4,556.61
Paid since Nov 1:-------18,463.49

I am accountant by trade

I often wonder how in the world I let us get in this mess. I just have to laugh to keep from crying sometimes. I worked in public accounting for many years and all was good...but after a couple years with no raise and no chance of moving up, I was getting very burned out. My health and mental well being began to take a hit from all the stress. After a complete hysterectomy (with a cancer scare) in 09, taking care of my ill mother in law, an incisional hernia surgery in 2010, I changed jobs. It was still in a financial capacity, but it was for just one company instead of 20 different ones. I was so tired of all that...and I let our own personal finances get out of control in the meantime. We let our DS put us in some very tough situations when we should have said no....many times, we should have said no! But we didn't. It didn't help him at all and it certainly hurt us. I could go through that list of debts and put a star next to several of them that are attributable to him and our not being able to tell him NO. Thankfully, he is much more settled now, but we are still paying for the mistakes we made with him by not saying NO. How I wish I had found Dave earlier....

February...sold 11 calves, filed the taxes the last week of the month. Actually got the state refund by the end of the month. Paid the payment on the 10 acre property, finished paying off the farm supply and the truck...whoooo hoooo!. Hubby has some money put back for farm operations. Paid off the building supply which was part farm and part expense for rental property. Paid the 2 months interest on our home loan for the modification...next payment due March 13th.

Had to have a repairman come out to the rental trailer and repair a cracked tub ($450 repair). Shew, it's always something. I am going to try again to persuade hubby to put that property on the market. I know it would help us in more ways than one.

Will have quite a bit of extra snowflake income the next month and half with the small tax prep client base I have. The Federal refund will be coming, too. We are two months behind on the Farm/Rental loan so first thing is to get that caught up, then the baby emergency fund and start a savings account for irregular bills that are due quarterly or annually (insurance, taxes, tires & maintenance, annual vet visit, Christmas and Meds and Medical co-pays) and the biggie....no more charges to the credit cards!!! As Phil Robertson would say..."now we're cooking with peanut oil"....getting some major traction.

This has been quite lengthy...sorry about that, but I think my blog is now up to date and I will come back and update again, at least by the first of April with figures for March.

Thanks for joining me so far on our Journey.

1/31/2013
GE Credit----------4,362.43
Tire Store-----------610.55
R Cap One----------4,976.62
BOA----------------7,480.12
Citi---------------8,637.62
Student Loan-------6,295.48
Home Loan---------18,546.42
Rental/Farm-------80,751.90
Jeep--------------14,799.16
K Cap One----------8,022.13
2009 Hosp Bill----paid off-
MIL Nursing Home-----315.60
2012 Hosp Bill-------459.30
Building Supply------142.97
Unsec Bank 1---------179.94
Unsec Bank 2---------717.05
Anesthesiologist-----509.00
Truck----------------459.11
Tractor-Monthly---16,500.56
Loan from Work-------207.07
Farm Supply--------1,170.93
10 Acre Farm-------9,349.68
72 Acre Farm-----219,202.44
Annual Tractor-----5,880.00
Property Taxes-----2,897.84

Balance-----------412,473.92
paid in Jan---------2,984.69
Paid since Nov 1---13,906.88

The weather in January was awful. It kept us from getting the cattle sold because the markets were closed and we couldn't get the cattle up anyway because the roads on the farm were dangerous to have a cattle trailer on. Hubby missed quite a few days of work because of the weather too. He is a carpenter and they didn't have a lot of inside work. IRS not accepting tax returns with depreciation until the end of February..so that has to wait. We did start the process of doing a 2 month modification on our home loan that will get us current. We have to pay the interest and a $21 recording fee by end of February. On a bright note, the truck will pay off in February!

12/31/2012
GE Credit------------4,426.73
Tire Store-------------700.79
R Cap One------------5,073.92
BOA------------------7,550.48
Citi-----------------8,834.09
Student Loan---------6,383.76
Home Loan-----------18,850.44
Rental/Farm---------80,970.00
Jeep----------------15,068.46
K Cap One------------8,020.65
2009 Hosp Bill-------paid off
MIL Nursing Home-------368.20
2012 Hosp Bill---------535.85
Building Supply--------274.68
Unsec Bank 1-----------309.69
Unsec Bank 2-----------950.10
Anesthesiologist-------575.50
Truck------------------918.22
Tractor-Monthly-----16,789.84
Loan from Work---------355.18
Farm Supply----------1,170.93
10 Acre Farm---------9,349.68
72 Acre Farm-------219,202.44
Annual Tractor-------5,880.00
Property Taxes-------2,898.98

Total: $415,458.61
Paid in Dec: 8,159.62
Total down: 10,922.19

Not too shabby....The crops were sold. Was a little short of paying all of the Farm Supply bill. The 31.75 from the paid off Hospital bill was rolled into the Building Supply payment. No new debt for Christmas. Still put part of TV and Phone bills on credit. Won't have to do this but another month or two when the truck will be paid off.
Goals for January...file taxes, sell calves for the 10 Acre farm loan due Jan 18.

11/30/2012
GE Credit 4,494.75
Tire Store 764.30
R Cap One 4,999.66
BOA 7,499.69
Citi 9,026.72
Student Loan 6,471.47
Home Loan 19,055.89
Rental/Farm 80,970.00
Jeep 15,335.66
K Cap One 7,997.01
2009 Hospital Bill -
MIL Nursing Home 368.20
2012 Hosp Bill 535.85
Building Supply 374.68
Unsec Bank 1 413.40
Unsec Bank 2 1,126.45
Anesthesiologist 642.00
Truck 1,377.33
Tractor-Monthly 17,079.32
Loan from Work 592.31
Farm Supply 7,162.44
10 Acre Farm 9,349.68
72 Acre Farm 219,202.44
Annual Tractor 5,880.00
Property Taxes 2,898.98

423,618.23
2,762.57 Down

We decided that we have to get all the small stuff out of the way regardless of interest rate for the sheer simplicity of the whole thing and after running the snowball figures in a spreadsheet I found on vertex42.com that there really wouldn't be much difference. I really needed to free up some breathing room in our budget just in case Murphy shows up. I knew I would need to file our taxes asap to be able to fund our baby emergency fund and get a couple of loans caught up to be current on everything, thus avoiding Late Charges. So the goal for December was to get the crops to market and get taxes ready for filing...and not go into debt for Christmas....

The previous entry was my beginning numbers at the end of October, after I stumbled onto Dave Ramsey and ordered his "Total Money Makeover" and FPU on CD...I wanted to use this blog to update my progress over the past 4 months because I think it is encouraging to read other's stories and I always go to their first entries to see where they started.

-So the truth is-
-well, it's not quite half a million, but it's pretty darn close.
-I have been charging my TV and phone bill on CC's because there is just not enough money left at the end of the month.
-I have been making the banks a ton on late charges and overdraft fees.
-the Rental/Farm loan was a CONsodilation that paid CC debt off once before...ugh
-The 72 Acre Farm loan was also a CONsolidation of the original farm loan and an unsecured LOC with the purpose of buying cattle that was often used for "emergencies"...double ugh

The farm debt of Farm Supply, 10 Acre Farm and 72 Acre Farm and Tractor with 5880 balance are all Annual Payment loans. The Farm Supply bill will be paid in early Jan 2013 with proceeds from crop sales. The 10 Acre Farm note has an approximate payment of $2500 due Jan 18. The Tractor payment is due in June with close to a $3k pmt so two pmts to go there. The stickler is the big loan...It has to go through renewal every two years in October. This year was our renewal year. The pmt is a little over 16k, which if you do the math, you would find it would take eons to pay it off...lol. This was a mistake by the bank when they originally consolidated it. They saw the mistake this year when we made our payment and only around 1400 went to principal. They wanted to double our payment. There was no possible way with our debt load that we could do that so luckily, they left it as it was. So the 2 year goal for farm debt is to get the two smaller loans paid off before the October 2014 renewal and hopefully be in a position to refinance this loan with USDA-FSA with a much smaller interest rate.

My hubby's dream is to be able to retire to farming full time when he is 50...he is 46. If everything goes as planned, we are looking at paying everything off except the 72 acre farm by sometime late in 2018, so he might have to wait until 51, but that's pretty close. I just want to be debt free and have something to leave to my kids and grandkids.

So in November, we began our journey.
I started making a snowball...a very small one; but a snowball nonetheless. The first month, of course, I would pay off the Hospital bill that I have been paying on since 2009. Would have paid it off anyway in November, but that would be my first snowball amount...31.75 to pay on the next "highest interest" loan in December. I just couldn't make myself do it smallest balance to largest. I still paid part of the phone and tv bills on credit realizing that the truck will be paid off soon and that is going to free up a little over 500 a month that will not go into the snowball because the budget is just way too tight right now. Also because I started watching my bank account every day and really paying attention to auto debits so that we get out of LC and OD land...We have paid more than enough overdraft fees and late charges the last 18 months to cover the TV and phone bills...I have been LAZY when it came to our finances and there is absolutely no excuse...

10/31/2012
GE Credit--------------- 4,573.50 19.99%
Tire Store---------------- 914.30 0.00%
R Cap One--------------- 4,931.30 17.90%
BOA--------------------- 7,482.13 9.90%
Citi-------------------- 9,212.79 9.90%
Student Loan------------ 6,563.10 8.50%
Home Loan-------------- 19,479.61 7.50%
Rental/Farm Loan------- 80,970.00 6.50%
Jeep------------------- 15,601.85 4.50%
K Cap One--------------- 8,004.00 3.25%
2009 Hospital Bill--------- 31.75 0.00%
MIL Nursing Home---------- 473.40 0.00%
2012 Hospital Bill-------- 688.95 0.00%
Building Supply----------- 474.68 0.00%
Unsec Bank Loan 1--------- 516.75 10.00%
Unsec Bank Loan 2------- 1,213.10 10.00%
Anesthesiologist Bill ---- 708.50 0.00%
Truck------------------- 1,836.44 7.25%
Tractor-Monthly Pmt---- 17,368.80 0.00%
Loan from Work------------ 842.31 0.00%
Farm Supply------------- 7,162.44 8.50%
10 Acre Farm Loan------- 9,349.68 8.75%
72 Acre Farm Loan----- 219,202.44 7.00%
Tractor Annual Pmt------ 5,880.00 8.00%
Property Taxes---------- 2,898.98 10.00%

TOTAL:----------------$426,380.80

Not quite sure what happened...I had much more written and clicked to publish, but it didn't publish and it didn't save it either...but it's too late to try to rewrite it tonight, so I will come back and try again tomorrow. Good night all!

YES! I have to. I have had no wiggle room in our budget for a very long time. You would think that since the kids are now out on their own, that things would be better financially, but I am still paying the bills for spoiling them when they were home....buying things we couldn't afford with money we didn't have.

Back in October of last year, I was looking for a radio station to listen to Rush on when it was getting down to the last weeks of the Presidential campaign and I happened across this guy named Dave Ramsey...his show came on before Rush's on the particular station I found and since I was at work, and things were busy, I didn't really pay a lot of attention those first few days. Eventually, hearing someone scream on the radio that they were "debt free" finally did get my attention. Wow...could it really be possible? In this day and time, can people actually be debt free??

I want this very badly. I want for my DH to be able to farm full time, which is his dream. I dream of being able to leave something for my children and grandchildren someday. So, these are our long-term goals.

As I have heard it said before, a dream without a plan is just a fantasy. For the past few months, I have been on a planning frenzy...doing research on the net(how I ended up here), writing everything down, going through it all with a fine tooth comb...some of it has been almost sickening, but it has most definitely been a huge eye-opener. When all the numbers were added up, the total debt was over 400k...OMG...how did we let this happen??? A big chunk of that is farm debt, but debt nonetheless.

In the coming days, I will bring my blog up to date with where we are now and the accomplishments we have had so far.