Why the FFEF is ESSENTIAL!

I've gotten a HUGE reminder over the last few weeks about just why the Fully Funded Emergency Fund is SOOOO important!  My Dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic Melanoma, it is throughout his entire body, but fortunately has not metastasized into any organs at this point.  This was totally unexpected, he will be 54 in a couple weeks.

One of the worst things about having to deal with a disease like cancer is having to think about all the financial complications as if the stress of cancer wasn't enough!  I've learned over the last week that in order to receive a disability check you have to be disabled and unable to work for 6 months first.  So for that 6 months you don't have an income to pay your bills, while you're piling up huge amounts of medical bills and have possibly lost your insurance if insured through your employer.

I've always hated the saying, "You never think it could happen to you."  Honestly though I never thought it would happen to my Dad.  It's so hard to believe this is all happening and happening quickly with treatment scheduled to start on the 13th.    

Vacation Update

It turns out that after paying all that debt off, I really don't like having any!  The vacation charges on my credit card were really bothering me, so I paid it off this week :)  I still have nearly 5 months expenses in my Emergency fund, so I've just got a little bit of building back up to do there.  It's definitely way more money than I had last summer, when we went on vacation AND put all our hotel rooms on a credit card.  I don't plan to EVER do that again!

Debt Free Vacation, almost

I've been wanting to take the kids on a Disney Cruise for awhile now.  I was planning to save up the cash first before booking the cruise, BUT to get a Disney Cruise you need to book in advance! Yesterday I booked our January 2013 cruise.  The cost of the cruise plus insurance was a little of $2400.  We opted for an inside stateroom to save money and figuring we wouldn't spend much time in there.  I did use a Disney Visa card to book it, which means I'll get $50 on board credit and I have 6 months of no interest.  I plan to get it paid off within just a few months and if we don't get it paid off before the interest starts on it, then we'll take the money from the emergency fund.  I know it's not an emergency, BUT we have a little more than 6 months expenses in their now.  Baby Step 2.1, part of the expanded TMMO steps is take a vacation, if you can pay for it in cash.  This step actually comes before the fully funded emergency fund, so we're still doing pretty good if we do have to take money from the FFEF.

Payday!

Today was my first paycheck after increasing my pre-tax retirement contribution from 5 to 15%, which isn't near as scary as I thought it was gonna be.  It's also the first month I don't have to pay Verizon or Blue Cross.  The insurance company gave us some credit back on the car when we canceled the insurance, so that made a big difference in the bill this month!      

Baby Step #4

I just spoke with my Retirement financial adviser and upped my Contributions to my pension to 15%!  I also got information on college savings plans, which I will probably start putting money in next month when he returns.  College savings is one thing I have NO idea what amount to invest in.  It's also something my husband and I have very different views on.  He doesn't think we should save for college and make the kids pay their own way.  Can you guess which one of us actually went to college???  I do want them to work hard and help pay for their own college, but I also don't want them to graduate with a HUGE amount of debt when they're just starting out in the real world.  

Baby Step #3

We are now officially at Baby step #3 of the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover!!!  My car left over the weekend and we made a big deposit into the Emergency Fund.  6 months of expenses for us is approx. $10,000 and we're about 800 away from being there!  My husband already has some paintless dent repair jobs lined up, so by the end of the month our Emergency fund WILL be full funded AND our vacation account will be looking pretty good too :)

Gift Cards Redeemed!

I've posted before about using swagbucks to earn amazon gift cards, but I also use Bing Rewards!  Bing is probably easier but a little more limited in the amount you can earn per day.  The results aren't random like swagbucks.  You automatically earn 1 bing reward for every 2 searches up to a certain number.  My number has been 44 lately.  I make sure to do this every day and it adds up pretty quick.

Today I used my combination of gift cards from BING and Swagbucks and bought my son's 3rd bday gift.  It was 69.99 and I didn't pay a dime for it!  I even got free 2 day shipping!  He's getting a little tykes work bench that has a motor to work on attached to it.