Elevate Your Finances in 2011 - March update

Welcome to Elevate Your Finances in 2011!

Time to update my financial goals, which I posted at the beginning of the year.

My main financial goal is to pay off 50% of the balance (as of 12/31/10) of our home equity line this year. This month, besides the interest due, we were also able to make a small principal payment.  So far in 2011, we have paid off a big 2% of the balance.

Why?

We have been in savings mode for almost two years now.  Two years ago in May, my husband found out that he would be losing his job later that year.   So we stopped buying things except for what we absolutely needed and started saving, saving, saving.

His end date was put off until Feburary of 2010, and we continued to save, save, save, and put off buying things.

Then, his job ended.  We continued to put off buying things as much as possible.

He had been looking for a new job pretty much since he found out his job would be ending.  Through a combination of hard work and luck, he was able to secure and start a new position about a month later.  We breathed a sigh of relief.

But then... our daughter's bat mitzvah was on the horizon.  We put all the savings toward that, and lots more over the next several months.  We saved, saved, saved, and put off buying things.

The bat mitzvah was in October, and it was lovely.  And we breathed a sigh of relief.  Could we start spending again?

Nope!  Tax and insurance bills were due, and we hadn't saved for them, due to saving for unemployment and the bat mitzvah.  So we saved, saved, saved, and put off buying things.

So finally... we have paid all those bills, and we breathed a sigh of relief.

So to sum up, we've put off buying a lot of needed items, and many wanted items, for almost two years now.  And we can decide now, do we use the extra money we had been saving to pay off the home equity line?  Or do we now buy those things we want?

It is hard to put off purchases for so long.  We've always been able to buy the essentials, but some things have been put off for years now.  For instance, our dishwasher is getting old; the door latch is broken and it sometimes leaks.  Does it have to be replaced this very second?  No.  But it is a daily hassle, and it is 16 years old; thankfully it has held out this long!

What I think we will be doing, over the next few months, is replacing some of these things that have been waiting for so, so long, while still making some payments toward the debt.  Once those big things are taken care of, it'll be time to put the pedal to the metal and get that home equity line out of our lives, once and for all!

How are you doing on your financial goals this year? Leave a comment below!