Our Financial Goal

Several years ago I ran across Dave Ramsey and some other Christian finance experts who were talking about why we shouldn't be using debt from a Biblical perspective and it really made me think about the bondage I had put myself and my family in.  At that point every day half of what I was earning was going toward paying for things I thought that I "had to have" or wanted before we had the money to pay for them.

That has changed.  We are on a budget and working with gazelle intensity to pay off all of our debt.

On August 27th, 2012 we paid off my final student loan which made our mortgage the only debt weighing us down from financial freedom.  Once that happened we strengthen our emergency fund then increased the amount we were putting away for retirement and college.  We then started plowing all remaining resources at our huge mortgage.

In order to push ourselves to pay off our mortgage as quickly as possible we have set a goal to pay off at least 60% of our remaining debt by the end of 2014 which would move our debt free date even sooner than our current projected debt free date of October 1st, 2015.  This is a goal that I have not achieved on paper yet, but we are going to work and pray hard to accomplish our goal.  What are some of our action steps?

1. We will look at our budget for places that we could lower spending to put extra toward our mortgage each month. 
2. We will look for opportunities that will increase our income, putting everything other than our tithe toward our mortgage. 
3. Any line item that we don't spend the total balance of during a month will be applied toward the principal of our mortgage instead of spending extra in other categories or rolling the money over to the next month. 

I believe taking these three steps, working hard and trusting God will allow us to pay off at least 60% of our remaining debt in 2014.  

What financial goals do you have in place this year?  What are your action steps to make sure you accomplish them?