Save, Pay and Invest

As I greeted 2014, I knew that I needed to up my ante on myself and give myself a challenge...three goals popped in my mind immediately: save, pay and invest.

SAVE. It's the one word that I've always eluded all the this time. It's easier said than done and everyone knows that. I've never been the best at saving and I knew that it was going to bite me in the ass sooner or later. And when D came into the picture, I knew that I needed to shift priorities. Well, I basically changed the way that I thought and really focused on family. So this time around, I'm putting my money where my mouth is...opening a trust for Damien and putting a portion of our earnings in savings.

PAY. Paying off all the "external" debts that we have. When I say external, I mean the credit card and loan. We still have "internal" debts towards my parents for taking us in and taking care of us all these years. But my ultimate goal is to pay off the external debts so that we can focus more on helping out with the household utilities and more savings as well.

INVEST. Not so sure yet as to where we'll be putting in our money but my view of this is taking over the payment of the life policies and pre-need policies that my parents got for L and I while we were still younger. We might be getting a policy for D as well.

I keep on reminiscing when I was still young and would play house while Mum and Dad were away on their trips and I would pretend to be the one in charge of the house and all...then I snap back to reality and realize that I am an adult and I will be in charge of the house soon after Mum and Dad have moved out and moved to their home on the foot of Mt. Apo...

As much as I would love to challenge myself more, these three goals will push me to be a smarter individual in the world of money. It will help us in making decisions for the family and it will also help us prepare for the future. Hey, D will start school in 2 years so we need to prepare for that as well, whether we decide to homeschool him or not...and the most usual question I'm being asked these days is, "When will you give D a sibling?" My answer so far, "We'll try late next year..." It's not cheap giving birth these days...let alone raise a child.

Fingers crossed as I start my journey to achieve these three goals...

julie