We made some good headway on the children’s educational savings this month. As I mentioned two months ago, we completed our goal for Kathrynne’s savings account and were making progress on Kaitlynn’s. This gave us both the momentum to just get it done. So we sat down and figured out some various savings we could re-allocate in order to free up more money for the educational savings accounts.
Ever since we replaced Jesse’s car last year, we have been setting aside money to replace the mini van I drive. It’s still running great and looks like it’s got lots of life left in it, so I convinced Jesse to dump that savings into the educational savings instead.
(We have a good emergency fund and Jesse has a very reliable car that our whole family can fit it in, so we have a back-up plan if the mini van up and dies tomorrow. I really don’t mind going back to being a one-car family for awhile if we have to and would rather have the children’s educational savings funded and drive our mini van for a few more years before replacing it.)
So reallocating the vehicle money plus some other savings added with the money we were able to put in savings this past month gave us just enough to finish out our goal for Kaitlynn’s educational savings account.
We got both of their savings accounts set up this past month (they came with us to set them up and it was a great opportunity for us to explain what we were doing, why we were doing it and how compound interest works!) and now we’re working on funding Silas’ account. Since he’s younger, we’re putting less in his account, so I’m hopeful we can possibly have his funded by the end of August. I’m not sure on that, but we’ll see!
Here’s our current goals list:
Our Family’s Financial Goals for the Summer of 2010 through December 2011
1. Significantly increase our giving to needs in our community and around the world. This is an ongoing goal, so we’re keeping it uncrossed off from the list.
2. Pay cash for a replacement washer and dryer for our very used set.
3. Pay cash for a replacement for Old Blue Van.
4. Pay cash for a couch for our basement family room.
5. Pay cash for bunk beds for the girls.
6. Fully fund our IRAs.
7. Bump up our retirement savings to 10% of our income.8. Fund our children’s educational savings. Kathrynne and Kaitlynn’s are done, now we’re working on Silas’.
9. Double our Emergency Fund Savings (Instead of having around six month’s worth of expenses set aside, we’re planning to set aside a year’s worth of expenses.)
10. Save for our next BHAG.
We’d love to hear about your recent financial goals and successes! You can post about it on your blog and leave your link in the comments. Or, just share about your progress/goals in the comments. Let’s all keep each other accountable to be better stewards of our resources!
— So many people think it’s almost impossible to go to college without incurring debt. Zac Bissonette debunks this myth and shows you how it’s possible to pay cash for college without having to take twenty years or make six figures (or without parents having to cash in their 401Ks to pull it off).
— I really enjoyed this book. As some of you know, I’m not a huge fan of fiction for a variety of reasons (mostly because I like real-life stuff and just can’t seem to get into fiction knowing that it’s been made up — especially when I have lots of other books I really, really want to read!). However, this book challenged some of my long held opinions on fiction and helped me think of it in a new light. I didn’t agree with all of the authors conclusions on books we should read to our children, but I was inspired to continue to make reading a big part of our lives and to encourage my children to love good books. I also loved the book lists at the back of the book and added dozens of them to our long to-read list!
Do you have a fun and frugal DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it 