Just Keep Swimming

Posted on our fridge is our Family Financial Goals which is a fairly constant reminder of our plans for our financial future.

Our short term goals are all about getting out of credit card debt, our medium term goals include paying off a car loan and a personal loan from the in-laws for IVF, and our long term goals include saving for things. It’s a list of needs versus wants. We need to pay off our credit cards, but we want to finish our basement.

It works for us. Which I think is the most important piece of all. If it doesn’t work for us we don’t do it.

The best part of the paper affixed to the fridge is that we get to cross things off. We can see our progress from across the room. In big black sharpie we have each had the opportunity to strikethrough a debt… twice each! I cannot tell you how good that feels and how anxious I am to do it again.

The ever evolving list of needs and wants now looks like this:

I’ve added items like Lasik eye surgery for me (someday – when we can pay in cash!) and put more emphasis on others (like Baby Boy’s college fund). The copy on the fridge will probably (hopefully) become tattered and a marked through mess but that means we are making progress!