Trial and Error : Planning for Success

          My family has a really hard time deciding what we're going to have for dinner..EVERY

NIGHT. Part of the issue that causes the inevitable fights that come every night is that everyone in

my family likes different types of foods. My dad loves Chinese, I enjoy eating Mexican, and my

mom likes to eat healthy foods. We would greatly benefit from planning out our meals for the week,

then stick to that "meal schedule" all week long. Planning for something is the best way to achieve it,

and the same is absolutely true for getting a handle on your finances. That is why Dave Ramsey puts

such a strong emphasis on creating and sticking to a written budget.

          For my first two monthly budgets, I first looked at when my paycheck would be hitting my

bank account so I would have an idea of how much income I would have to budget. Because I get

paid every other week, with a quarterly bonus when I hit my sales quota, I only counted on receiving

my base pay, and am allocating 100% of my bonus checks towards paying down my debt. After

totaling up all of my debt (a $25k car loan I took out right before I started my Total Money

Makeover (TMM), of which I have already paid off $7k, and $46k in student loan debt from my

undergrad and grad school education). Dave would probably recommend selling my car in favor of

a Hoopty, but I did the math, and if I am super aggressive in paying it down (it's the lowest amount

in my snowball, it will only take me 13-15 months (13 if I bonus every quarter, 15 if I don't make my

quotas). Since it will just take me about a year, and I am in the process of applying for a second job

(just scheduled a phone interview for this coming with the recruiter!) to up my income and

accellerate my payoff rate by several months, I'm keeping the car, and limiting myself to $100/week

in living expenses.

          By planning where I want my money to go, and being gazelle intense about paying off my

debt, I feel confident I will be debt free in 2-3 years, barring a lay-off. The good news is, the second

job I will be interviewing for next week is for a customer-facing retail mobile phones sales position,

for which I have 12 years of direct, relevant experience, so in the event that I get laid off from my

full-time inside sales gig, I shouldn't have a problem transitioning into a full-time retail sales position

there, and know that I will succeed at it until I can find another job similar to what I'm doing now

(telesales). I hope it won't come to that, but in the unlikely event that it does, at least it won't set my

debt-free journey back too far (Plus, I've got my $1000 EF, should Murphy come back around).