Thank you, THANK YOU…THANK YOU!! My husband and I just listened to your telecoaching call and you encouraged us to email you our success story…here it is: On New Years Day, 2003, I watched you on the Today Show while you discussed your new book, The Finish Rich Workbook. I went to Amazon and ordered it and ordered Smart Couples Finish Rich as well.
My husband and I both flew thru the book and immediately started implementing your suggestions: We pay ourselves first!! Before we began reading your book my husband’s 401(k) contribution was at 5%. During the book we upped it to 10% then 20%, and after the book really went for it with a 30% contribution. His account was fully funded by October!! My company is phenomenal and part of our benefits package is a SEP-IRA. As part of our year-end bonus, they told us they were going to fully fund it at the 25% rate, which they are continuing this year as well. We have 10 years to make up for, so we decided to fund Roth IRAs for both of us. We started a security savings of $400 per month and increased that to $500 as of Dec 03′. We did it automatically because I didn’t want to have to trust ourselves to do it on a regular basis.
We began thinking latte factor every where we went…I was a Starbucks junkie and my husband was eating out on a very regular basis. We both cut back and I very rarely even buy a latte…in fact I discovered I like my own coffee better. We figured out what our mortgage would be if it were a 15 yr mortgage, and as of Aug 03 began paying that much extra every month. We also began reading our statements to ensure the funds are going toward additional principle. Shisters…we did catch a couple of instances. We’ve been trying to pay down our debt for years but like most would usually add more. Tonight while on the phone with you, how appropriate, we just made the final payment on our credit card. Finally no more credit card debt. We’ve also made a renewed vow to keep debt to auto and home loans only and to work very hard at paying those down.
Ronnie and I can’t thank you enough. I once told him in 2002 that I wanted to start trying for a baby but I wanted a savings, a retirement account, and an investment account, and I want us to retire early…is that too much to ask? I laughed. Well thanks to your Finish Rich series I can honestly say…No it’s not. We are living and we will finish rich.
