Some Good Fortune in San Diego

We recently returned from a 6 day trip to San Diego, and it was much needed and wonderful!

My best friend from high school lives there and we wanted to visit.  It also helped her out because she is a teacher too and her oldest son is on a different schedule than her. He was out of school but she wasn't so she needed someone to watch him for her last couple days of classes.  We drove down on a Tuesday and came home on a Sunday.

While we were there we went to some fun tourist destinations. We went to the USS Midway, which was A. MAZ. ING. It was actually a little pricey and cost my family of 4, plus my friend's son, $62 to get in and that was after taking off the AAA discount.  Having said that, it was worth every penny. The kids were able to climb into real military airplanes and sit in the cockpits. We were able to explore almost the entire ship, including the bridge, and so much more! As a teacher, I feel like it was definitely good value for the money.

We also spent one day at a city water park.  We had to buy a wristband for each of the kids. The wristbands were only $2 and we stayed for over 3 hours so again,  I really feel like we got value for the money spent. Another day of our trip was spent at the beach which was free (yay!) and beautiful.  It was a picture perfect day and the kids got to spend all day in the sand and the surf and the adults got to visit. We couldn't have asked for anything better.

On our last full day, we had decided to take the kids to the San Diego Zoo. They had been before, 7 years earlier, when we were in town for the same friends wedding. For those of you that don't know, the zoo is crazy expensive: $50 for adults and $40 for kids! Kids are only 3-11 so one of our kids was going to be the price of an adult to get in. If you are keeping track, that comes to a grand total of $190 just to get through the gate!

As we didn't go on a big vacation this year, we were going to pay the exorbitant price and take our kids, but luck was on our side.  Randomly, the day before we had planned to go to the zoo, my friend got a private message through Facebook from someone she knew. It had been sent out to my friend and 25 other people. The message said that she had free tickets to the zoo for the following day if any one was interested.  We didn't get the message until several hours after it was sent and thought for sure the tickets would be gone... but they weren't!

We were able to meet this friend of a friend in front of the San Diego Zoo to get the free tickets! When she gave them to us, she let us know that they came with a free lunch. Then, when we came through the gates, the ticket-taker let us know that the tickets also got us onto the bus tour and the sky tram. It was so awesome and saved us so much money!

We packed lunch and snacks for the day so what could have been a very pricey day turned out to be almost free.  Because we didn't have to pay for tickets or food we decided to buy the kids an ice cream treat in the afternoon. It was definitely some good fortune!

I'm always so quick to see when "lucky" things happen to other people and I think a lot of times, I overlook when "lucky" things happen to me! This would absolutely qualify as one of those times and I want to remember it and be thankful for the blessing I received!

Overall, the entire trip was done on the cheap. We drove instead of flew. We stayed with a friend, not in a hotel. We ate many meals at home and packed lunches for a few of the trips, Most importantly, we spent time as a family and with friends, and that was PRICELESS!

Summer Spending Hiatus

The constant battle I am waging in my life is one of debt vs. life. We are trying to claw our way out of debt without sacrificing our quality of life and it is a tight to rope to walk.

Debt sucks, but we decided any debt payoff has to work with our lifestyle, that goes for the credit card, the car payment, and the mortgage. Due to this, we take a vacation every year, often times we take more than one. This year, however, we decided not to take a vacation, and the reason is not to throw extra money towards our debt, but because we are remodeling our kitchen this summer instead.

Man, kitchen's are expensive!

Even though we didn't go on a huge vacation like we normally do, the kids and I took lots of day trips. We went to a zoo, a national park, a water park, an aquarium, several movies, camping and to San Diego, just to name a few of the things we did.  When I got my credit card bill I realized we really didn't save very much money. Because of this, I set my kids down and had a talk with them. I told them once we came back from San Diego we weren't spending any more money.  I told them all the activities we did would have to be free. These included things like going hiking, family walks, going to the park or library, and playing board games.  None of these activities cost any money but they are all fun and good family time.

We only have two weeks of summer left before we go back to school, but we are going to try to be very frugal during this time and not spend much money on recreational activities.  I want to spend the time with my kids and show them all the ways we can have fun without costing us a fortune. Essentially, for the next two weeks, we are on a "summer spending hiatus". I don't know how well we are going to do, only that we are going to try.

We need to pad our bank account with all the money we are going to save so we can cash flow our kitchen remodel!

Today Was a Great Day for Me but a Bad Day for My Debt!

Today was a great day for me but a bad day for my debt!

Today I was able to make a big payment towards my debt. The largest I have been able to send to this credit card in 4 years! Yep! That's right! The largest payment in 4 years! That's the exciting part. The depressing part is that I feel like it barely made a dent! :(

That's not true... it actually did make a dent, and a pretty good dent at that. Today I paid just over 10% of the total balance of the credit card. Pretty good. Unfortunately, with some planned spending coming up, I don't think I'll be able to do anything like that for a long time. The extra money came from various sources. First, we had some copper wire laying around our backyard from some previous home improvements; we took that to be recycled and received $66. We also had some "extra money" at the end of our pay period in some budget categories and anytime that happens, we send the extra to debt. Lastly my husband worked a few hours of overtime so we were able to take all that extra money and throw it towards our debt.

I'm actually a little scared of where my credit card balance is sitting right now. I know that sounds funny, but hear me out. Over the last four years, my credit card balance has fluctuated a lot up and down, but it has never even come close to being paid off. My goal is to become credit card debt free... like for reals! We haven't charged anything on this card since December 2015 but where the balance on the card is hovering right now is where we always get into trouble. Every time the card is about half way paid off, we somehow find a way to charge on it and max it out again. This has happened several times for various reasons: vacation, Christmas, home improvement projects. I just don't know what's going to keep me from charging on it and maxing it out again?

I guess this is where the rubber meets the road and I have to truly make the conscious effort to get out of debt. 10% of the balance is a great start, but when you're in debt, it's never enough. Being in debt sucks! I am paying for yesterday's stuff with tomorrow's income. If I continue this cycle I will never break free and I want so badly to be free!

Why We Save for Retirement Even Though We are Still in Debt

In my last post, I told you I'd get into retirement later... well, it's later.

I've said before that both my husband and I make good salaries and we both contribute towards our company's retirement plans, well above the employer match. Including employer matches we contribute 22% of our pretax income to our retirement.

I am a teacher and my district automatically takes 10.2% of my paycheck and deposits it into my CalSTRS account.  I also contribute to a 403b; I allocate an additional 12% per month to my retirement. Each month, out of my paycheck, I am putting 22% of pretax dollars towards my retirement. My district also contributes towards my CalSTRS account at the rate of 10% of my paycheck per month. Including my districts contributions, I am saving 32% of my salary per month towards retirement. Not too shabby.

My husband also contributes to his work's 401K and his company gives up to a 3% match.  They also give 6% profit sharing at the beginning of each calendar year. Including employer contributions, the husband is putting away 22% of his pretax dollars towards retirement.

I think we doing very well contributing to our retirement and I hope that we can continue to do so going forward. Our goal is to max out the husband's contributions sometime during 2017 and then to eventually max out my contributions as well. My 403b won't probably be maxed out until 2019 or even 2020. Once it is finally maxed out we will reevaluate our retirement and decide what to do next: invest, Roth IRA, IRA, etc. Those are our long term goals for saving for retirement. Hopefully we will be comfortable in our retirement and live a life that we can enjoy.

I know that actually contributing to our retirement now is one thing that is keeping us in debt longer. Those percentages translate into around $1200 in after tax dollars. That is money that could help us to quickly pay down our debts, build our emergency fund, and help us to get a month ahead with our finances (3 of my major financial goals!). However, both the husband and I feel we waited too long to start saving for our retirement and so we are having to play catch up as it is.  

As far as retirement goes we have two very different examples to follow. My parents are very comfortable in retirement. Their house is paid off, they buy whatever they want (within reason), vacation a couple times a year, and generally really enjoy their retirement. This is the example we want to follow.  However, on the flip side, the husband's parents are a different story.  Although in their 60's they just bought a brand new luxury home they can't afford long term. His mother retired last month and is already looking for "part-time" work so they can afford all the "extras" they want, and because of this, the husband and I are constantly worried about their financial health and how it will affect us in years to come. We determined early on that we don't want to be a burden or a worry to our kids and we don't want to have to work to afford retirement.

For us, it's worth it to be in debt a few months or years longer in order to be secure in retirement. I get that it's maybe not the most financially sound plan, but the peace of mind is worth it.

WE. ARE. THE. JONES'.

I'm new to this blogging thing and I'm really doing it mostly for me, but on the off chance someone stops by here I guess I should let you know how we are tackling our debt. First of all, I am married but I handle almost all of our family's finances. This has proved to be a double-edged sword. I am very ashamed of our debt and in many ways feel like it is completely my fault (because I handle the finances). That's not the reality, the credit card debt we have was obtained by both of us in the exact same way most people find themselves in debt: spending and living beyond our means.

Because of the shame I feel about our debt, no one really knows about it. All of our friends and family think we are well off financially and very secure; and in a lot of ways we are, sort of. Both my husband and I make good salaries, contribute to our 401Ks, take lavish, long vacations, and drive nice cars. But we still have debt. Apparently, WE. ARE. THE. JONES'.

The worst part about our whole situation is that I basically hide it from my husband. He knows about the car payment but he doesn't know about the credit card debt. You see, we have 2 cards: one we pay off monthly and one that has had a balance on it for 4 years!!! We went on a trip to Hawaii using credit card number 2, and have had a balance on it ever since.

Several years ago, my husband and I took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. It's such a simple, effective plan but somehow in the last few years, we've I've wandered away from that. Our My goal is to get back to it, but in a modified version that works for our family and our lifestyle. We've already completed Baby Step Number 1: create a $1000 emergency fund. We I am currently working Baby Step Number 2: pay off debts from least to greatest. We had two small family loans that have already been paid back. Now I'm working the snowball on the credit card balance we have.

The main way that we modify Dave's plan is that we continue to contribute, above and beyond any employer match, to our retirement. Both my husband and I are very afraid of not being able to retire comfortably or being a burden on our children, but I'll go into more detail on this later. This is by the far the biggest way we disagree with Dave. I am also not "gazelle intense". I attribute this mostly to the fact that I hide our debt so I don't want to compromise our lifestyle because then "someone might know". Seeing those words in writing is very painful... Hopefully the pain will create change!

A Little Backstory

Both my husband and I work full-time. We live in Northern California and bought a house at the peak of the market, before the bubble burst in 2007-2008. We are able to afford our house because we bought what we could afford, but we haven't been able to move up like we had planned. We live in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house with our two children and dog. Besides our mortgage, we have one car loan and a credit card to pay off. We graduated college debt free. I know we are in a lot better place than a lot of people, financially, but we are nowhere close to where we want to be. That's where this blog is going to come in. I'm hoping it will help to keep me accountable with our debt payoff! As I become bolder, I plan to eventually share real numbers on this blog, but I'm not there yet. Right now I'm just trying to share our story.

Hello!

Hello Personal Finance World, I've been thinking about writing and keeping up with a financial blog for a while, in fact I've been keeping my own financial journal for the last three years. It will just be random thoughts and jotted down notes about what I think about finances, or where we are with our finances. This will be completely personal and a record for me to detail our getting out of debt journey. Thanks for stopping by.