Edwards Family Empowerment

  Check out our website at:   https://sites.google.com/view/edwardsempowerment/                                            https://edwardsfamilyempowerment.blogspot.com Special thanks to Cameron Edwards, Armster Edwards, Kiara Barnes, and Brittany Barnes for participating in our discussion.

Check out our website at:   https://sites.google.com/view/edwardsempowerment/                                            https://edwardsfamilyempowerment.blogspot.com Special thanks to Cameron Edwards, Armster Edwards, Kiara Barnes, and Brittany Barnes for participating in our discussion.

Check out our website at:   https://sites.google.com/view/edwardsempowerment/                                           https://edwardsfamilyempowerment.blogspot.com Special thanks to Cameron Edwards, Armster Edwards, Kiara Barnes, and Brittany Barnes for participating in our discussion.

             Living below your means seems simple, but it can be challenging if you're just starting out.                I encourage you to still take the first step. It is a powerful tool towards wealth building.

  This step has a prominent place on my own personal vision board.  This step, once completed, will launch you into wealth building. Once you have completed this step, you'll be able to save money faster.  This step involves paying off your mortgage. You can complete this step at the same time that you complete steps 4, 5, and 6.  In short, you can invest, fund your kids college fund, and also work towards paying off your home loan all at the same time. Here are some handy tips towards paying your mortgage off early.  Check with your mortgage company to see if they allow you to make bi weekly payments. If you pay half of your mortgage every two weeks you will make 13 payments instead of 12 payments in a year. This saves you thousands of dollars on the principal on your loan. You want to check with your mortgage company to ensure you don't incur any prepayment penalties. You also want to follow up to ensure that your mortgage company is posting your extra payment...

Congratulations on completing your debt snowball! Now it's time to move to Baby Step 3. Baby Step 3  is where you put 3-6 months of expenses into savings or a money market account as a fully funded emergency fund. Rachel Cruze, Dave Ramsey’s daughter, says that a good rule of thumb is: “ The more stable your income and household are, the less you need in your emergency fund.” The three-month guideline is mostly for those in salaried positions who have a secure or steady income. So, if you are in a two-income home and or have been at your job for more than three years, then a three-month emergency fund is ideal for you.   If your income is not stable, i.e. if you have an one income home, you’re self-employed, you earn straight commission, if you have an irregular income, or you fear that there is a possibility you could lose your job in the future, you should consider trying to save six months’ worth of expenses. If someone in your home has a chronic medical condition that re...

 4. Your spouse isn’t on board 5. You aren’t consistent 6. You aren’t tracking your progress Your spouse is not onboard. Finances are one of the biggest causes of divorce or even simply arguments in a relationship. Doing the debt snowball is a lifestyle change, a very big one. Your spouse might not be a huge, Dave Ramsey fan. The debt snowball may not seem like the perfect idea to solve your debt issues to them. This was the case with me. Renardo, is not a Dave Ramsey fan. Sometimes it takes patience and a lot of frank discussions in order to get your spouse onboard. One thing that worked for me in swaying him is walking him slowly through the process. I did the legwork in getting all of our bills, student loans, car notes, mortgages, and credit cards with their respective annual percentage rates (aprs), monthly payments, and remaining balances using the Dave Ramsey snapshot tool or the Debt Snowball Calculator. I approached him with this and after a few attempts was able to sway h...

 You’re not budgeting You’re not 100% focused on your lowest balance Your income and expenses are remaining the same Your spouse isn’t on board You aren’t consistent You aren’t tracking your progress This is the step that I struggle with. The Debt Snowball. It would be easier to pretend like I didn’t have issues with this, but I am not. Most wounds don’t heal unless exposed. After Renardo and I remarried, we began budgeting, saving, and hustling for our dream…owning a home. We managed to obtain our dream only to slide back into old habits. After obtaining our home, we generated more debt. We recently bought a new house, a new car, among other things. We were sensible in our purchases, and can afford everything we bought, but we did not go in the direction that was most beneficial to us. Debt reduction. A lot of the pointers that Dave Ramsey espouses, we did not follow. So, I know the struggle is real. Step 2 is the step that I struggle with. One of my goals is to one day overcome o...

  So, this is the part of the Dave Ramsey plan where people fall out. They give up. They claim they can’t go on. The debt snow-ball. I am saying this because it is true for me. Dave Ramsey says that I am not alone. Many others struggle with this step. I have been on this step for quite awhile now. I haven’t given up, and I haven’t fallen out, but I seriously understand. My goal is to complete this step and move to step 3. Why is this part so hard? It requires a lot of self-awareness and self-sacrifice. Dave Ramsey says, “Personal Finance is 80 percent behavior and 20 percent head knowledge.” So, what is this monster that I am asking you to tame? What does it require of you? It’s simple to explain but requires a lot of change in spending habits to put into effect. This is doable though, with a lot of determination and elbow grease, you can live the life of your dreams later, by making changes to your bill paying now. First, you make sure that you have your budget and your emergency ...

It’s no secret, I am a big Dave Ramsey fan. I’ve decided to talk about his game plan to become debt free.  Dave has seven steps to financial freedom. It’s a journey that I am currently on that I believe will benefit my family and I encourage you to look into it for yours. Dave calls the steps baby steps toward financial freedom. Before a baby learns to walk fully, there are small tentative steps they take before they begin walking. These are the steps you take before gaining financial freedom. THE 7 BABY STEPS Step 1: Save $1,000 for your starter emergency fund. Step 2: Pay off all debt (except for the house) using the debt snowball. Step 3: Save 3-6 months of expenses in a fully funded emergency fund. Step 4: Invest 15% of your household income in retirement. Step 5: Save for your children’s college fund. Step 6: Pay off your home early. Step 7: Build wealth and give. In the upcoming months I will talk about each step. This month, I will talk about the importance of having an emer...

When we were in college, we applied for credit cards and thought we hit the jackpot when we got approved. They started off as small approval amounts, $300 here or $500 there. We would make small purchases here and there, pay our minimum payment on our bill on time, and slowly the amount we owed grew. What eventually happened after making so many on time credit card payments, the credit card companies would increase our credit limit and the cycle would start again. We would celebrate with spending more. We were facing one of the biggest issues that most Americans face and that is credit card debt. As of mid-2019, Americans have 1.08 trillion in credit card debt. Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover are the most popular cards to have. We used to be proud of the credit cards we had. Now the goal is to pay off our credit cards and to have a healthy savings account.  I’ve talked about the snow ball-effect, which Ramsey is known for. You know, arranging your credit cards by t...