Thank you so much for the helpful information in your books. I’ve read “Smart Couples Finish Rich,” “Smart Women Finish Rich” and “The Automatic Millionaire Workbook”. I want to thank you for helping me and my husband get on the right track financially!
We figured out our Latte Factor and reduced our eating out to one meal per week instead of multiple restaurant meals every week. We no longer waste money renting movies; we borrow them from friends, family, or the library. We don’t buy drinks, coffees, or lunches out — we carry water bottles with us, use thermoses to bring coffee from home, and we brown-bag our lunches every day. This has been tough to implement some days (especially when we’re tired or short on time), but it gets easier with every passing week, especially when it means we have money left at the end of each month. We also have started saving the money we get from expense report reimbursements, gifts, etc. Some weeks we put just $5 or $10 away, and others we put $100 away; all these little amounts have added up — over the past 18 months, we’ve been able to save 4 months of living expenses in our emergency fund! Plus, we invested our emergency fund in a money market account so it earns interest. At the same time, we’ve used your worksheets to help us figure out our finances and how much we owe — we don’t have credit card debt, but we did have three student loans and a hefty car payment. I’ve used the “DOLP” method for these debts, and have been paying more than the minimum on one debt at a time and then when it’s paid off, sending that amount plus the minimum to the next debt. So far we’ve paid off one of our three student loans, and at this rate, we’ll be able to pay off our car loan in 7 months. What’s more, I’ve moved my expensive brokerage IRA to a no-load mutual fund and made my contributions automatic.
We still have a long way to go, but we’re thrilled with the results of our actions so far. Thank you for helping educate us financially. Progress is about patience, perserverance, and discipline, but these daily things add up to freedom! Thank you for all your good work, and keep it up!!
