Finance Basics Day 5: Sinking Funds or Gazelle Intense?

Sinking funds are great, however it will take longer to pay off debt.  For me, I was “gazelle instense” (a Dave Ramsey term) because I was getting repeated promptings from the Lord to get out of debt ASAP.  Sinking funds waited until I was debt free.  That didn’t mean I didn’t plan for the bills that don’t come monthly (like vehicle registration), I just knew that was something that was going to need to be added to the budget for the month it came up.  It was a calendar item, not a sinking fund.

Finance Basics: Avalanche or Snowball?

Which do you prefer, Avalanche or Snowball?

While I paid off my debt, I actually didn’t use either.  My first priority was to pay off any debts where someone could garnish my wages.  I had an unpaid tax with the IRS. That got paid off first.

Second to get paid off was the car loan. Not because it had the highest interest rate (it actually had the lowest) and not because the balance was the smallest (it actually had the largest balance of my debts).  The reason for paying it off next?  Because my car was the means of not only getting me to work, but also enabling me to handle caregiving for my Mother.  Caregiving is a lot more difficult if you don’t have a vehicle to drive the person being cared for around for appointments.

Once those two were done, I used the Avalanche and tackled the debt with the highest interest rate.

Finance Basics: How To Budget with Resources

This is an area that I struggle with, even to this day.  Mostly because when I was paying off debt, I used what is known as the “scorched earth” approach, meaning I had the emergency savings and what wasn’t used for basic necessities (you know, gas for the car, electricity, food) wen towards the debt.  I didn’t use this sheet, either, I used a basic spreadsheet with each column for a debt and each row for a month to track how much had been paid off and what my balances were.  That was it.  Scorched earth.

Now that we’ve covered ways to pay off debt, let’s actually put the numbers on a monthly budget to get started.

Finance Basics: Reducing The Bills & The Emergency Fund

Everyone’s situation is different, however everyone should have some ways of cutting back on the spending.  Not only to pay debt, but to start the first goal:  An Emergency Fund.  In the Dave Ramsey plan, it’s recommended $1,000.

Finance Basics: Day 1

Finances have been an area where there have been challenges off and on my entire adult life, however there is help.

For those of you who are trying to get a handle on finances, particularly after the passing of a spouse, the first thing I will tell you is to take some deep breaths.

One of the most difficult things about my husband’s passing was the realization that there were areas of our lives where we have no control over the situation.  God is in charge when someone dies.

One of the areas, however, where we do have some control over the situation, is how those of us still living in mortality LIVE.  How do you want to live the remaining time you have before you are reunited with your loved ones on the other side?  

Sadly, I hear from widows who had left the financial affairs of the family up to their husbands, were not involved in that part of their family life and have found themselves in a deep fog, shock, grief and now trying to figure out how to pay the bills with the money that is there, and what is expected to come in.

This is especially hard when the breadwinner is the person who has passed away, as that can present it’s own share of challenges.

Hopefully what I post here can shed some light on the subject.

First, you need a filing system.  My recommendation is to get two office filing boxes and a bunch of letter sized file folders.

One box will be used for all of the paperwork from the death, burial and any probate or trust account records as the wishes of the deceased are carried out.

The other box will be to go through the paperwork that comes in for the monthly bills.  Each file folder in the box should cover a month of bills.  Try to gather as much as you can from the current year that has passed already.  Print out monthly statements from the bank accounts and request all financial institutions to give you the previous 6 months of statements sent printed out on paper.  As the surviving spouse, this is your right to get these.

Then sit down, take some deep breaths, make sure you have plenty to snack and drink while you sort everything out and put everything within their corresponding boxes.

One of the resources can be found within your Stake with the Self Reliance classes that are quarterly, with one class handling finance.  If the time available for the start of the classes is too far off or not available in your stake, here are a few resources from Salt Lake and each provide free downloads:

Family Finances Workbook

One For The Money Booklet

The videos I will be using for this is from the YouTube Channel, “Our Life On A Budget”, which is based out of Canada and is one of the best series I’ve seen in using the Dave Ramsey method of getting out of debt and getting a handle on your money to allow for life to be a little easier.

Her first area is, Why Do You Want To Get Out of Debt?  This can also be interpreted as, Why Do You Want To Get Your Financial Affairs In Order?

And now to find out where you stand financially right now:

For The Widows-To-Be

This may sound strange to many of you, but it really isn't.

Given my situation in life (widowed, sole caregiver for my widowed mother, sole breadwinner in my household), I feel it is well past time for me to share a little wisdom to my sisters out there whose husbands are still alive.  Namely about money.

You see, I have a good friend whose husband recently passed away from cancer.  The kids are now grown (thankfully), however there are some other traps you can end up in financially.

This dear sister didn't handle all of the money in her home.

As a result, she is finding out that her husband took out a credit card she knew nothing about and maxed it out, told her he had paid his taxes (state and federal) when he actually had not paid either one, and a host of other things to get them further in the hole.

The even more interesting part of this is, now that her husband is gone and she is getting faced with a mountain of debt, she is also still spending money.  I'm not talking grocery money here, she just bought a new car.

Those grown kids?  They are still borrowing money from the bank of Mom.

I have no idea how this is going to work out, I'm concerned, but outside of prayers and being a sounding board, there isn't much else I can do to help the situation, particularly if she doesn't want the help.

What I can do, for you widows-to-be, is to try to impart a little hard earned wisdom.

1.  Teamwork

For most couples, the day you get married is the day you become a team.  For Decker and I, we were engaged when we started talking about money.

I had read The Millionaire Next Door and made Decker read it before I would agree to marry him.  Why?  Because that was the philosophy I wanted to live my marriage by, and I wanted to make sure my husband was going to be on the same page.  Among the advice in the book is that both husband and wife are to work as a team.  No one handles the finances without the spouse knowing what is going on.

The reason this is so important is the reason my friend is finding out now.  When the spouse dies, there is already an element of feeling like you've had the rug pulled out from under you, you don't need that compounded by surprises that will leave you bankrupt as well.  Work together on the finances so that when situations arise, you will know what needs to be paid when and how much.  No surprises.

2.  Educate Yourself

This can go two ways:  make sure you have an education to be able to find a decent paying job if you have to provide for yourself, as well as educating yourself (and your spouse) on finance to learn about the process of handling money as well as other items of the estate that will come later during married life.

There are many avenues you can take for this, some use Dave Ramsey's classes, others use the Family Finances classes provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for free, others take a more formal approach and take classes, such as this one from BYU:



3.  Set your goals, your plan of attack, but also be sure to set goals of your own, not just your goals as a couple.

This will help provide you with ideas of things you can do after your spouse has passed away.  Take time to re-evaluate the goals to see if they are things you still want to do by the time this occurs (which will hopefully be a very long time after your marriage).

Get Priesthood Blessings and pray to Heavenly Father for guidance in this.

Okay, so this is about all I can think of right now, I may add an addendum later if there is anything else pressing that should be added.  :-)

Given this information, the goal is for you to be able to get into a position of being able to take care of yourself and enjoy the journey that this mortal probation provides, much like Rebecca:

Depression, Anxiety And Other Mental Illnesses

In the past, I've written about Suicide and Grieving. Now The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has come out with not only a video, but an entire sub-section of their web site to help those who are faced with depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses.


I have been diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety attacks.

I have a tendency to shut myself off from the rest of the world, and I'm definitely not big on crowds.  I've gotten worse over the years, so you don't see me out socially like I probably should be.

This is a great start, particularly if you are experiencing the signs and symptoms addressed.  It most definitely needs to be followed up with a trained professional to make sure others are aware who know about this best and know different methods to counter attack the negative thoughts and feelings.

If this is you, please know you are loved.  Your needs are known.

Link:  https://www.lds.org/mentalhealth