To inspire you to kick off a new financial you for 2016, I want to share two exchanges I had recently during my weekly online discussion.
First, there was a testimony: “In 2009, knowing we were (getting married) the following year, I told my fiancé that we had to leave the wedding day with no debt, and I told him about your idea of various ‘pots’ of money,” a reader wrote. “So we started the ‘First of the Month Club,’ in which we each put $100 in an envelope every month. At first he thought it was silly, but boy did he stop laughing when, on our wedding day, 12 months later, we had $2,400 in cash that was used for tips and other last-minute purchases, and we left our wedding reception with zero debt.”
I was really impressed by what she wrote next: “We also waited 15 months to have a honeymoon, which I called the ‘first anniversary-moon’ because I heard you in my mind, saying we shouldn’t have debt for that. So we saved up and paid off the credit card in full when the bill came. But why am I so grateful for your consistent hammering about savings? Just last month, we started a special savings account to save a little each month in preparation for when we will need a new car in two years to replace my husband’s 2006 Accord.”
She said her parents, both born during the Great Depression, instilled in her a useful financial mantra: “Save for retirement because no one else will do it for you.”
