Stumbling to Financial Freedom

Retirement Funding and Debt Relief

2005-03-30T08:33:54-08:00

I think that conventional wisdom says that you should stop paying into your retirement accounts until you pay down large amounts of debt...or at least credit card and consumer debt. One thing I need to figure out is what happens if we stop paying our minimum 5% into my wife's ...

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Happy Easter!

2005-03-26T22:05:41-08:00

For those of you that share the faith, I pray that this Easter is a blessing to you and your families. Kstew

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Down With Debt

2005-03-25T18:17:41-08:00

I think one of the reasons that people have a hard time paying down debt is because they don't know exactly how much they owe. I think that we subscribe to the theory that most debt is bad...no such thing as "good" debt. I've been listening to Dave Ramsey quite ...

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Tracking Expenses to Build Wealth

2005-03-25T11:41:03-08:00

One thing that I love reading is how different people are building personal wealth. It is really encouraging for me to read CNN Money's "Millionaire in the Making. As if I don't need the extra motivation, I notice that most everyone that is building wealth is tracking their expenses very ...

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Increasing Cash Flow

2005-03-24T07:37:38-08:00

I've come to the conclusion that we need to increase our cash flow if we are going to pay down debt faster. Since we just had a baby 5 months ago, it probably is not going to happen with increase workload for either of us. I guess that means we're ...

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My Investment Dollars

2005-03-23T12:02:52-08:00

Right now we have very little money in our savings/retirement/investment accounts. Currently there is about $14,000 in our combined investment accounts. A very small amount, but as we reduce our debt, we will max our our contributions and look for other ways to save for the long-term. As I mentioned ...

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Gas is Killing Me

2005-03-23T10:14:21-08:00

FrugalGirl has a great post about gas prices. In our area, we are now paying close to $2.50 per gallon...yes, that is regular gas that I pump myself. Most of my gas (at least for work) is reimbursed at the federal rate of 40.5 cents per mile. When the feds ...

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Finding a working budget

2005-03-22T14:55:28-08:00

I'm really struggling to find a way to budget effectively. We do use Quicken to balance our checkbook...for the most part it is pretty accurate. I haven't reconciled for about 5-6 months, so it could be a little off. I'm really motiviated right now to move our finances from RED ...

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Schiavo and Living Wills

2005-03-22T12:53:25-08:00

I'm taking an ethics class right now that discusses lots of moral issues and how to make ethical decisions. This Terry Schiavo issue is really creating lots of food for thought. I have heard lots of "legal" opinions on why Terry should be allowed to live and die. It seems ...

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Retirement

2005-03-21T16:32:58-08:00

I just got a 60 second retirement challenge quiz in the mail from Fidelity Investments. I was blown away that I could save $83,000 over the course of my life by 'brown-bagging' verses eating out once a month. Of course this uses a tax-defered account at 9%, but it is ...

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Opening Day

2005-03-21T16:20:35-08:00

What a perfect time to start a new blog. Spring is springing, baseball bats are cracking, kstew wants to make a change. As I write this, I really wonder what my motivations are for starting a blog that shares a little bit of my personal journey towards financial freedom. I ...

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