Join our participants as they reduce debt and increase savings with the help of Summit financial coaches.
Evan and Robin's Journey:
Across the Line
As the year comes to a close, so does Season 14 of Project Money. In preparation for writing our final blog post we reflected over what has occurred over the last 6 months and the strides our family has made.
Below, in no particular order, are a few of the highlights from our journey:
- Consolidating the overall number of financial accounts that we held, to increase visibility/transparency, and allow us greater leverage on our funds.
- Paid off our vehicle loan early, allowing us to leverage those funds elsewhere.
- Identified a tax strategy which will allow us to maximize our workplace sponsored retirement accounts while minimizing our tax liability.
- Rebalancing of our workplace retirement accounts, college savings accounts and taking advantage of an employer stock purchase plan.
- Further researching options of company structure for the rental property we are partnered with.
In addition to these highlights, Project Money has also made a lasting impact on our family’s financial situation from a more routine aspect. We have gained more perspective our on financial situation, and a greater understanding of the various impacts our saving and spending actions have on a more wholistic basis. The experience has not only broadened our financial knowledgebase and awareness of the various resources available to us, but it also served as the catalyst for the strides we’ve made. Without the extra “push” as part of the program I am not sure our we would have taken all the initial steps needed.
We wanted to give a special thank you to our coach James, who has been a sounding board and a resource throughout our journey, and to Mark, the Summit Financial Advisor who worked with us to fine-tune some of our strategies. And we also wanted to thank all of you for sticking with us over the course of the season, and we hope that the experiences we’ve shared have been helpful or insightful to you in some way.
Our parting nugget of advice: If you are considering applying for next season of Project Money – jump at the chance, and if not, we would urge you to reconsider. Even if you feel comfortable with your current financial situation, there is always room for improvement and having access to the knowledge and resources available within the program is a benefit in and of itself – the $10,000 prize is icing on the cake.