Where is everyone at with DR right now?

[peanut]

DH and I are working step four, five and seven simultaneously. We're in this position because we started late...with two girls already in university. We've cut financial strings to them though as of the end of this term. We found they weren't being careful with money as long as we were supporting them.

We also have money going to RRSPs, but not the full amount (15%) with the market the way it is. We figured out our return over the last 15 - 20 years and it's only been 2.5 - 3.0%. And that was before March 2008. We've decided to look at safer investments.

Which leads us to "so much for building wealth!" DH is five years from early retirement, which he'll be taking. Too late for us to build wealth. But we will be going into retirement debt free...with a home completely paid for and a fully funded EF. He will have a government pension, which helps tremendously, as well as a work pension. So we won't be starving in retirement. But we also won't be living high off the hog, as they say here, either.

[MommyTrap]

Baby step 2

[mateosbaby]

I'm on Baby Step 2, although had to postpone it (again!) due to a leaky roof. Can't put that off, as the house is for sale. :-/ Blah... But we will use cash to pay that this month. Then next month, it's back to that icky credit card.

[Denvergirlie]

BS3 and will be here for a while as we hope to not be renters forever, thus will have a BS3.5 of saving for at least 20% downpayment if not more.

No kids yet, so don't feel behind the ball on this one.

[Greebo]

BS2 which is still on hold with the renovations.

[Cricketlegs]

Step 2 here. A long hard step as ever ther was a step!

But with one dd in college things are kinda wonky for us being as I already took out student loans for dd to the tune of just under $8200.00 and will be paying for those as the snowball hits them.

I have about $6,600 in debt between the CC, the car and the kirby. All 3 will be paid off in 2009. I make payments of $768 a month between the three of them but but the CC and the Car get well over minimums, so I did tweak Dave's system to suit our needs.

If everything goes right with taxes, the CC will be paid off BUT and isn't there always a but..we have $3600 coming up for dds hearing aides and only $1000 to hit it with so even at 0% financing I will be adding debt to my budget--but only for a year and I HATE IT but dd must hear....so, My goals are also to get aids and student loan paid off by 2010 before the interest comes in on the student loan.

Okay now I am stressing~on the up side it helps that we owe $50,000 on the house and have a tiny payment of $553 with all insurances so the snowball will be a great asset there.

[BlessedMomof2]

We are on BS1. Everytime I get a good amount added to it or going to be added to it, MURPHY SHOWS UP!!!! I'm so tired of being on BS1 and ready to tackle our debt. Hopefully we should get our tax return this week or next (given the IRS) and then we'll be onto BS2.That will be a long road for us but I'm ready!!!

[kite2281]

We're on baby step 2. We're anticipating a large tax refund, which should wipe out several of our debts (unless Murphy eats it) but snowballing the rest is going to be a slog.

DH and I both drive paid-off 2001 cars; we just replaced tires, brakes and did a few other repairs on both. We bought our house in July, and put more than 20% down, so we don't have PMI. Our mortgage is 22% of our net monthly income. So we have a little bit of a start on step 3. But we bought a fixer-upper house that needed way more fixing up than the home inspector gave us any idea about!

We're working on selling our stuff, putting items on Craigslist and planning a big yard sale for the spring. I've been planning menus, baking from scratch, packing snacks and lunches everywhere we go to avoid eating out, policing our utility use, and learning to coupon and stockpile. We've rediscovered the library, too, which has been really fun.

However, Murphy seems determined to eat our emergency fund and bust us back to step 1. As of this week, DS2 probably needs his adenoids out, which means $600-$1000 out of pocket that we need to put aside. DH got stuck in a snowstorm on his way home one night, so we had an unexpected motel bill. DH's four year old laptop just died. I need new glasses. DH needs a pricey dental procedure - and we're still paying off his medical procedure from November. DH also has two very sick grandmas who we need to go visit soon; they live two states away, in different cities. We can stay with family when we go see them, but it still costs money to travel. The compressor for our heat pump has been acting up, and we were quoted an astronomical $5500.00 to fix it. I can't believe it's that much just for the compressor part! And I can't believe new things are still going wrong with our house after all the repairs we've done.

The thing that makes me crazy is that all of this is just normal life. People need medical procedures, things break and need to be fixed or replaced. I can't wait until the day when we have money set aside for this sort of thing! Hopefully that will come in step 3.

That reminds me, where does your sinking fund go in the baby steps? Seems like it should be part of step 1 or 2? Most of the bills we are putting aside sinking fund money for, like auto insurance or trash service, are pretty basic bills, they're just collected on non-monthly schedules. If I put that money into the snowball, then I won't be able to pay the bill when it comes!

[peanut]

That reminds me, where does your sinking fund go in the baby steps? Seems like it should be part of step 1 or 2? Most of the bills we are putting aside sinking fund money for, like auto insurance or trash service, are pretty basic bills, they're just collected on non-monthly schedules. If I put that money into the snowball, then I won't be able to pay the bill when it comes!

Kite2281: We set up sinking funds right away...long before DR. Because without them, you're sunk. We have a separate account for those longer than monthly expenditures and sinking funds at the moment. DH keeps track on Excel exactly what each dollar is going towards, and how much should be in the account at certain points to cover certain expenses.

We figured we needed a certain amount to cover standard yearly expenses. We divided it by 12 and put that amount each month in our sinking fund.

DH likes to have a $1000 cushion in the sinking fund. So we put aside that.

Then we use any excess (did I say that?) money in that account as well, with a note as to what it's for (new car, renovations, trips, etc.). So every dollar in that sinking fund has a name...or purpose attached to it. Keeps us from spending willy nilly.

The first year, while you're getting caught up, the sinking fund may not seem to be working well. You always seem to be robbing Peter to pay Paul. But after the first year you should have the right amount in your account at the right time, providing you're doing the sinking fund correctly.

[missmanny]

Currently on BS3

Having said that though through employer contributions and a little bit of salary sacrifice I am contributing 12.5 of my salary to Retirement (government mandated in Australia (well governemnt mandated at 9%) My employer contributes more then that but I have to kick in 2% myself as well.

Baby Step 3 has been much more of a struggle for me then I originally anticipated because I was very gung ho with BS1 and 2 (having said that it appears that all of my murphy's arrived as soon as those two steps were finished with) and then I have struggled to get the same deication with BS3.

I am slowly getting there and I know that I will be thankful when the time comes to retire that I started earlier with the retirment accounts. but as soon as this tep if finished then an extra 3% will go to that cause immediately.

Next after that is to get together a house deposit as much as we can possibly master and then working very hard to pay the mortgage off, I would love to put 100% down but realise that given the cost of housing that will probably never happen. (I can dream though)

Good luck to everyone on their own person baby step adventure. for those on steps one or two - hang in there, with tenacity and dedication you will get there, it does feel amazing!

[kmonokwe]

On BS2. Just married, no kids, good job with room for climbing the ladder. We're not making a ton of money, but we're still making good progress getting out of debt!

[redeme]

Well, I'm currently unemployed. So, I'm living on FFEM for now.

My youngest is starting college in fall, but knows I'm not going to be able to help her much and is saving money. She's got a little scholarship money and has almost 2 years completed via running start. So, the university will only be for about 2 maybe 3 years.

I'm planning on selling my current house and will aim for a 100% down payment on any future house purchase.

So, depending on how soon I can get back to work and how much I need to put back in the EF, I'll be on BS 3 or BS 4 & 6.

[frugalbabe]

BS2 here. We are slated to graduate from this step January 2010. Feels like forever waiting for those paychecks to start making the dents. Good luck to all of us!

[ConnieD]

We're doing our babysteps a little out of order and a couple at the same time because of DH's job situation. He just had hernia surgery, so he has 1 more week off on disability and then he's back to work........... for how long we're not sure. Had to use some of the EF, which I'm soooo thankful that we had.

BS1 - DONE

BS2 - DONE

BS3 - currently we have funded at 4 months, but still working at it. Would like it at least 6 months or more because of upcoming possible layoff

BS6 - currently have 4 years left and it's paid off, but we're trying to snowball the mortgage for the same reason. If a job loss happens, it'll sure be nice not to have a mortgage

BS5 - DONE DD is in her 3rd year and we'd agreed to pay ½ of her undergrad. I just finished paying up our share to the end of her 4th year. She's also almost done paying to the end of her 4th year (training her right, LOL!). She knows she's on her own for Grad school. DS still has a few years before college. By then our house will be paid off, so we'll do the same for him then

BS4 - once the house is paid off then we'll go back to working on this. With rates the way they are right now, I shudder each time I look at our RRSP's. We're down at least $30,000 from what they were a year ago. We still have 20 years to recover before DH retires, so we're sitting still.

[larabelle]

Baby Step #2 for me with a goal of completion by April 2010.