My personal plan for financial planning.

Financial responsibility is a mindset before it is an action. Therefore, if you can change a mindset, the actions follow almost naturally.

Brandon Turner: How to Invest in Real Estate

Hey fathers and followers, I chose the quote above as it is so well known, but often overlooked and underworked. I work in an industry that was born on focusing on the Mindset, Agile Development, and I bought in quickly after seeing its power, but like with everything, if the mindset isn’t onboard it is doomed.

The world is on its ears, the financial stability is threatened of the world and many people are out of work and hoping to feed their families. This new reality has me more focused than ever to be fiscally responsible while looking to grow a much larger safety nest. So I have a clear goal but one I need to work on making more specific.

With that said, my wife and I discussed and have started to draft a plan based on research. Yes, I work for a bank Ally, but I am in no way shape or form a financial planner or an expert. However, I read a lot and stayed at a Holiday Inn last night (okay maybe a lie), but I have at least learned a bit on the subject from experts as well as my wife through her dad. Our plan is simple and time tested, the snowball effect made famous by Dave Ramsey.

As most college educated Americans, I have student loan debt, as well as our credit card debt, vehicles, and home loan. We have a lot of debt which in total equaled out to $413,400. I make a good living, but with a single income we were struggling and wanted to make a change. So here is what we are currently and plan on doing:

• Look at credit cards first, we had one at 19.7% interest, with over 2k on it. we attacked that, 6 months later after paying an additional 200 a month, it hurt a little, but now $97 a month is gone. We only use for gas and groceries then pay off.
• We then set out to destroy our next monster card, the Amazon card… it was at $1935 and we then poured the additional $97 plus the $200 and knocked that off in 7 months. Saving total now at $164.
• The next victim, the American Express, which also had a little over 2k, but a better rate. We are now taking what we saved and putting $364 a month against it and should be paid off in 2 more months.
• After the American Express it will be the Lowes card with $430 a month additional. With the additional payment it will be down to $0.
• Our next plan is my student loans, very fortunate her father was able to fund college without any debt, smart man! This is $37k and currently I pay $357 a month and projected to be paid in 10 years. My goal is to double the monthly payment. This will allow me to have this fully paid in 5 years.
• In addition to these methods I match my company’s 6% match with up to 10% with additional kicker with 10% of my pay and bonuses. I also send 2% to my company stock plan.
• I receive bonuses, and with those, home improvements, savings, and investments which I keep diverse.
• I also send $250 a paycheck to my Ally savings account which is still at .80 for interest savings.

To summarize, look at what your current bottom line is, how much is coming in and how much is going out. Look at expenses and identify the biggest interest offenders, and formalize a plan to knock them out based on rate. Once you have knocked that off, take the additional savings and apply to the next biggest interest rate, continue this until you are debt free. It will be bumpy, not fun and you will want to quit, but please fight on!

Thanks fathers, I hope this was helpful, as with anything the first step is to decide to change and take action, the next is research and devising a plan. Please consult with a financial advisor if you are not comfortable with finance and money management. I hope this inspired or gave some insight and an idea for how to implement a plan to financial security.