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How Time Flies

September 21, 2022 Robin and I are about halfway through our journey on Season 14 of Project Money. We just finished our second WKOW interview (keep an eye out for us in a future Summit Credit Union TV commercial), which got us thinking about what we’ve achieved thus far, and a few of our goals we are still aiming to accomplish.Over the last few months, we have been able to better understand what our families daily/weekly expenses are and develop a budget that works for us – as this was something of a “black hole” for us prior to Project Money. This has allowed us to look more critically at certain expenses and helped us prioritize certain purchases based upon how they could fit into our budget. We also eliminated some of our redundant accounts, which helps us from a simplicity standpoint when budgeting – but also from an efficiency standpoint. And our most impactful achievement was paying off our car loan, which will allow us to leverage those funds elsewhere moving forward.Some of the goals we are still working towards are:  estate planning – we have a simple will right now but there are some gaps that we need to fill in, tax planning – we have had some difficulty getting our federal withholding amount correct and would like to dial that in so we don’t have to pay in annually, and looking further into a couple different savings/investment opportunities – a ROTH IRA for Robin and an employee stock purchase plan through Robin’s employer.Our coach, James, got us connected with a Summit Financial Advisor who we have a meeting with next month – and are excited to continue to work towards our family’s goals. You might also be interested in 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... In the last week we had to take Robin’s car, a 2019 VW Atlas, in for a couple of recall notices we had received. Nothing completely out of the ordinary... One of the topics we had mentioned in our posts from earlier this year was an employee stock purchase plan offered by Robin’s employer. We have never participated... Being part of Project Money has pushed our family to take a more active role in managing our finances, necessitating weekly conversations that have spurred... With Thanksgiving behind us, the countdown to Christmas has “officially” begin. This year, as part of our Project Money journey, we have been planning... I had been putting this off for a few weeks/months now, optimistic that Fall might stretch on a little bit longer – but this past week’s winter weather... Over the last few weeks, we have been working to refocus, and get back to some of the basics as we start to head into the end of year holiday season... Over the past few weeks and months, I had seen several news reports about I Bonds, usually with a corresponding endorsement of their attractiveness as... We have reached the point of the year where we have one foot firmly planted into heating season and thought we would reflect on what energy saving tips...