financial zen

I read once on Lifehacker about using the snowball calculator to pay off debts. (Or was it at Get Rich Slowly? I don’t know - they both reviewed the same method)

Yup, the Dave Ramsey method.

This works by gathering all your information, and I suggest using this calculator.

Select your number of debts (mine was 5, currently)
Setup a minimum amount per month you are willing to devote to this (I chose $1000 - a conservative estimate, really)
And which way would you prefer to snowball? Interest or balance? - the great thing about this calculator is you can compare them both and see which way you would benefit the most.

Instead of doing it by the “emotional” method of paying the lowest off, I’m doing it by interest rate - I stand to save more money that way (~$200 in the long run). Of course, this is assuming I’m not going to have any purchases made, any increase of debt, or any changes in income - no doubt with a baby on the way the changes will be coming - and when my wife and I get a house purchase in order - the mortgage actually shouldn’t affect this plan - I’m establishing this as if we are all ready paying on the mortgage.

Has anyone else used this method? What are your experiences with it?

Dawn at Frugal for Life has written an excellent article about ways to save a dollar a day.

I can’t agree with all of them more than I all ready do!

• Cancel cable/satellite - or at least downgrade. Do you really need to have 100+ channels?
• Do you need a cell phone and a home phone? My wife and I have cell phones - no land line. It’s worked great for two years.
• Quit smoking! This one, other than saving money, will let you lead a healthier life. Stick around so you can see your kids growing up.

She’s got a lot more listed, and it’s definitely worth a run through.

Golbguru at Money, Matter, and More Musings has a link to Financial Fundamentals for 2k7.

This list may be common sense to people, but as a rule I never rule out that *somebody* hasn’t thought about some of these. I’ll sum it up for you:
Personal Finance Bloggers have been touting these since the first day I started following them.
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