Comments on: Financial Peace University: Week 1 reaction

By: Kristin

Kristin — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:15:39 +0000

It’s amazing how much better you feel just having $1,000 set aside for emergencies. I’m so glad you are doing well with the plan!

By: Divine Bird Jenny

Divine Bird Jenny — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:09:56 +0000

For us, the step was easy. We put aside a large chunk of my husband’s yearly bonus, which has since remained untouched. If we hadn’t had that, though, we are discovering that it’s really easy for us to immediately put aside a couple of bucks every paycheck. By doing that, we quickly saved another $1500 within the next few weeks–totally surprising us. It was like found money. We ended up spending that $1500 on tickets for the big trip to California (since my brother’s wedding is this summer), so we are back down to $1000 saved, but WOW it didn’t hurt us when we bought those tickets because we’d saved that money already!

Our next step (now that we have our $1000 Emergency Fund) is to either put it into an Electric Orange account like you or to just take it out as cash and hide it. I LOVED the idea one of the people in TMMO had–she framed it in a picture frame, labeled it “break glass in case of emergency” and hid it at the back of a closet. I really, really love this idea. It’s accessible, but not out in the open, and the message is a reminder that this isn’t blow money. It’s for the truly big emergencies.

At this point–and you know our finances intimately, being our CPA and all–we are already feeling better and freer about our money than ever. Part of this is due to the fact that, despite having my student loan, we are in a drastically better place than many of the people we read about in TMMO. If a couple making $40k on one salary can pay off a dozen credit cards and two cars in a few years, AND save for kids’ colleges, AND pay off mortgages, etc. etc. etc., how easy is it going to be for my husband and me? We have no mortgage, no car payments, one tiny credit card, a few small medical bills, and a relatively small student loan. We are SO on this.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:07:08 +0000

Hi, I am the Jeff in Jeff and I. I just wanted to take a few words to tell you what I got out of the first class.
First, I am glad that it is in a church. Due to the current economy I have very little faith in the either economic, educational, or the main stream media to honestly evaluate this topic.

Second, I thought for where we are with our plans it is a very good place to start. However, if it was a year ago I would have preferred more up front before we talked about savings. I would have liked to get the basic budget in place. I think it is important to know where all you expenses are before you get any kind of savings plan in place.

I would have liked the small group to talked ask the question if everyone knows how to balance a checking account. I know it seems odd. However, I think some people do not know how.

have a great day