Personal Finanace

1. The family earned $120,000 a year and had a debt of $109,000.
2. They had five credit cards and got in debt by using it whenever they needed and would overspend, living paycheck to paycheck.
3. He came up with a new money plan by looing things up on the internet and came across a book called 'The Total Money Makeover'.
4. 5 things they did were: Cut up 4 of their credit cards and called the remaining company and had the credit limit dropped to $1,000, wrote down all expenses in a spreadsheet, cut out luxuries, stopped going out to eat, he called their local credit union and had them consolidate their debt and lowered their interest.
5. Their children helped by allowing the father to cancel video game subscriptions and by not getting ice cream from the ice cream truck but instead buying it from the grocery store. The wife helped by returning to work in retail. Together they were bringing in $160,000 a year.
6. Credit union helped by: Consolidating their debt and reduced the interest rate. One card had 18.5% interest and they had it reduced to 1.5%
7. The name of his blog is Debt Discipline.
8. His emergency fund had $1,000 in it and was used for emergencies. They put the money straight into the emergency fund from the accident lawsuit.
9. It took the family 50 months, a little over 4 years to repay their debt. The family discusses budgeting and money during dinner.
10. Their reward for getting out of debt is going out to a nice dinner.
11. Now he is focusing on building a retirement savings and the kid's college fund.
12. The best advice I learned from this article is always put money aside for emergencies and never spend more than you have or as much as you have. Living paycheck to paycheck and get you in a pickle.
13.  Three things I learned from the blog: Reevaluating your budget is important, when trying to save the whole family must play a part, always put money aside whether you're investing it in something or is just for emergencies.