My Personal Mission Statement

Hello everyone! My name is Jes. I am 22, married and have a 1 1/2 year old son. I will go further into detail about us in a later post, but for now on to the real purpose of this thing!

At this point in time, the very first post on this new blog, my mission statement is:

To set a realistic financial goal and use precise tracking of our family's spending as well as alternative means of income and strict budgeting to reach those goals, all while providing a written commentary so that readers can learn and share ideas on the best way to accomplish their own financial goals. 

There are a lot of reasons that I want to write this blog.

1) I am tired of seeing article after article on Yahoo about how so-and-so paid off an exorbitant amount of debt in a very small amount of time, only to find out that person had thousands of dollars in savings just sitting around and they used that to pay off their debt, or that the person earns a salary that is 3 times the norm. Now, currently Jason does make enough money that right now I consider us "thriving" as compared to our situation 2 years ago. However, I feel like our budget is much more on track with the average family than the people that Yahoo continually chooses to feature. Plus, we have been in situations where we were both  making just above minimum wage and still had to pay the bills, so I do have a bit of experience in that boat too.

2) I am tired of seeing debt solutions that don't account for the cost of raising a child, dealing with a car that continually breaks down, getting laid off, or instances where you graduate college and wind up making minimum wage instead of a college-educated worthy salary. (Those people exist. I am one of them, and my solutions to paying off debt don't include selling my 3rd car or my yacht or my timeshare in some exotic country.)

3) I believe that writing this blog will force me to write down specific financial goals and give me the motivation to really stick to them. Furthermore, it will force me to examine every single dime and dollar that is spent, probably allowing us to save even more money and reach our goals in a more timely manner. You're in on this too! You get to see how we're spending our money and chastise us for breaking our budget! Sounds fun, huh? However I will also note here that our financial goals are not solely related to paying off student loans. We also plan on purchasing a house in the next 12 months, and will be saving money for that venture as well, which will require more creative saving, and less paying off of debts in the immediate future, but will serve a long term purpose.

4) I know a lot of people that are in the same boat as us. Lots of student loans and not a lot of income. I think some of them may benefit from setting goals with me and following our story, as well as brain-storming and sharing ideas through comments that will potentially help all of us.

So it begins.