It’s been a while since I last checked in, so I thought I would write about the contest overall. It’s been fun interacting with so many people that really care about helping you. We’ve learned to live without some things and how to indulge responsibly in others. It’s kind of how experts say don’t diet, change your lifestyle. I feel like we’ve been on a financial diet that's turned into a lifestyle and are beginning to really see progress. As Kia mentioned last week, we recently transferred our last credit card balance to a much lower interest rate card offered through CommunityAmerica Credit Union. That’s huge for us! We have two more goals to meet before the contest is over; 1) pay off that last credit card; and 2) make some real progress toward paying off Kia’s car. I can’t believe how much progress we’ve been able to make over the past six months and how much progress we’ll have made by the end of the year.

Through the contest we’ve focused so much on positioning ourselves for the future with little debt that we really haven’t concentrated on what or how to save for the future. At our last meeting, we discussed how to begin to do this. We set up a Roth IRA and will begin to put a little in it each month. Discussing our options and strategies with Dana and Rance really opened my eyes to all the complexity involved. Thank you guys for helping and encouraging us take action. I would encourage everyone to discuss options with your CommunityAmerica financial specialist before you begin as well. Before we know it we’ll be working through Charlie’s laddering techniques and really be putting our money to work.

We’ve learned so much through the contest and are blessed to have such a wonderful team at CommunityAmerica.