Financial Freedom Update - July

Several interesting things happened in our finances in July. First, we paid off about $715 in debt this month. Net worth increase was $900. Less than most months, for a few reasons. We had a lot of expenses in July we didn't think of ahead of time, and also I'm doing a better job of keeping track of the interest accumulating in our student loans that are unsubsidized. Even though the payments are deferred, those puppies are accumulating interest that we'll have to pay when we get to them in our debt list.

I also added retirement accounts to the balance sheet. We are not contributing to retirement now until we get out of debt, but I've added them and will keep track of those balances going forward.

Also, there's been a short-term switch in goals. Tamara, Mazaryk, and Draven are going to go to California in January to see Tamara's family for a few weeks. So, we are putting our debt reduction on hold for awhile until we've saved up enough for that trip. It is going to be a few months until we have enough saved, so until then we are going to open a separate savings account and use the money we'd normally be paying extra on debt for that.

Even if things are going to be going slower the next few months, we're still moving in the right direction. And even lots of little steps will climb a mountain given consistency and time.

It looks like our last credit card will now be paid off in February 2008 and the Jimmy will be paid off in May 2008 or so. Still not too shabby considering a few thousand dollars in medical and auto repair plus putting debt reduction on hold to save for this trip.

I'm going to request an audit of our escrow account through Wells Fargo for our mortgage payments, because according to my calculations we're paying in about $40 too much a month right now. We'll see how that goes, but if I'm right we should have that much extra to put towards saving and debt reduction going forward.

Until next month, take care!