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Five for Friday – May 21st

Happy Friday everyone! Hope your week has been a good one!

Today’s ‘Five for Friday’ is shared with us by one of our incredible board members, Dr. Lynette Stanko. Today, Lynette shares with us her favorite five tips for financial freedom!

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I am a huge fan of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University! I really believe financial freedom is the first step you can take in order to have the ability to demonstrate radical generosity. That type of generosity can change the world, and it has allowed me to donate to Forget Me Not Ministries throughout the last decade. I graduated from graduate school with a TON of student debt, and I honestly don’t know many students these days that graduate without it. Now, there are “the Seven Baby Steps” that Dave follows in order to get out of debt and give generously. I am going to choose my top five, as well as provide some extra information and apps that helped me along the way!

1. Save $1000

This is your “Rainy Day fund” and honestly was a game changer for me. You kind of think to yourself, “why should I save money, I need to be paying off my debt!” But the first step in financial freedom is being prepared for that unexpected expense that is outside of our control. My car needs a new battery, I got a flat tire, my basement flooded in a recent storm, etc. If you have this “Rainy Day fund” completely funded, you will be MUCH less likely to reach for a credit card (using credit card interest rates! Woof!) in times of desperation.

2. Make a budget

Seriously….. make a budget! There is no way I could overcome my student loans unless I took control of my money and directed EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR. Every dollar during every month had a place, a job.There are super easy budgeting apps that literally almost do the work for you. A few favorites of mine are YNAB and EveryDollar, which help you do something called “zero-based budgeting.” You want to literally assign every single dollar, so that your budget comes to zero at the end of the month! This helps you to track your spending, and to keep a good amount of tunnel vision in terms of what to spend, when to spend it, and how to avoid last minute splurges.

3. The snowball method

I cannot stress this enough; this. step. works. If I looked at my debt amount, I would get easily overwhelmed and I would want to bury my head in the sand and pretend like it wasn’t happening. By splitting up my debt amounts into smaller amounts, smallest to largest, I would look at just a tiny piece of my debt at a time, and TACKLE it. There’s no way I could pay it all off at once- but man, I could tackle that smallest loan amount of a few hundred dollars! Once you get rid of the first, you move onto the second! You gain momentum, you get positive feedback (it’s working!) and by the time you tackle the largest amount, you have a TON of confidence.

4. Share your goals

This is for my folks who are dating, married, or are considering getting into a relationship! My husband and I were very honest about our debts when we first started dating, we are honest about our budget now, and we share the same financial goals. We celebrate our financial milestones together, and there is definitely a “no shame” policy in our relationship! If you and your partner aren’t on the same page about finances, it is very hard to move forward with your financial goals and it is almost impossible to pay off your debt and achieve financial peace.

5. Celebrate your milestones!

I would let myself have small rewards for each snowball debt amount I paid off! It might have been something small, like a pedicure, or maybe it was something larger for those bigger debt snowballs, like a vacation. Either way, you need positive reinforcement to keep slugging through those loans- so share your success with your family, your friends, your Instagram page- anyone! We are all so willing to cheer each other on, and celebrate together. So don’t be afraid to brag on yourself a bit.

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Those are 5 great tips to follow for our path to financial freedom! If you have some tips, we’d love to hear them!

Have a blessed Friday everyone and a great weekend!