mismikado down the sidewalk: Financial Goals

So today we are going to talk about finances again. It has been almost 1 year since Luke quit his full-time job and we both began working as freelancers. In that time we survived strictly because of reliance on Jehovah.

But I do not regret it at all. If only for the fact that we saw Jehovah's hand directly in our lives. But we also learned some pretty cool things along the way and made decisions that really will help us now and in the future.

We learned to survive on very little money. Our current monthly budget is under $1600 and this and last month (being the most expensive in electricity) were actually way under.
We made big decisions to simplify to make that possible like moving to the Valley so we would be rent/mortgage free.
And the aforementioned reliance. I still get stressed from time to time but my financial anxieties are no where near what they used to be because I know it will all work out. We are doing and living in the way we are suppose to, so Jehovah will make sure we are ok.

So now that Luke is about to head back to a stable job on the 27th, I have decided to re-evaluate our budget according to his new salary. He will literally be making $1000 more than we need each month. While that could look like we can up our budget, we have decided to take the more practical route of using the money to save for the future. Now this is all preliminary because we aren't 100% sure on our insurance situation and Luke's aunt would like us to contribute to an IRA but those aren't huge priorities to us.

So instead I worked out the below financial plan for the next 12-months. The most exciting part of it to me is that it is based on Luke's income only. So anything I make will be "extra" money that we can use to pad our budget one month, splurge on our anniversary next year, and/or use to meet a savings goal sooner.

Here's what we have planned:

Current Monthly Expense Budget: $1594

Current Debt: $4600

W: $2100

B: $2000 (0% APR)

H: $500

Anticipated Income: $2600/mo

Financial Plan:

Set aside $1600 every month for monthly expenses

Setup SmartyPig savings accounts

Annual Vacation: Goal $1000

Europe: Goal $3000

New Car: Goal $6000

6-Month Expense Nest Egg: Goal $9600

Baby: Goal $10,000 - $6,000 for delivery, $4,000 for 1st year

Home Repair: Goal $20,000 - $5000 for new roof, $800 for new living room floor, $5,000-$10,000 for 2 bedroom addition, $4000 for 36000 BTU Mini-Split AC Installation, $500 for new ceilings

Oct:

Pay off H-Card ($500) and $230 down on W and $20 towards B