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I want to talk about money and our debt.

When we started our Financial Peace journey, I was too embarrassed to share our numbers on the blog, but a year of listening to Dave Ramsey podcasts has helped me to get over that.

So I want to share more detail about where we’re at because we have a big goal for 2017.

We’re knocking out the rest of our debt snowball this year.

To do that, we’ll need support from our entire community…including my awesome blogging friends. And I think we’ll have better support if we share more about where our debt is and what we need to do to accomplish our goal.

The 2016 goal

After graduating from Financial Peace University just before Christmas, one of our household goals for 2016 was to pay down half of our debt snowball.

Here is where we started the year:

4 credit cards: $16,836
1 bank loan: $3,106
1 auto loan: $10,925
Total snowball: $30,867

Here is where we’re ended the year:

2 credit cards: $11,084
2 bank loans: $10,162
Total snowball:  $21,246

Even though we didn’t hit our number, I’m calling last year a success. Here’s why. We overcame the following obstacles last year:

• A $7000+ tax bill that exceeded our savings for taxes; thus the bank loan because we determined we’d rather owe a bank than the IRS.
• Our hot water heater died in July; we had money in the emergency fund to replace it without money drama.
• The Mister lost his job in August; we stayed on budget until he found a new one and didn’t have to touch our emergency fund.
• The Mister’s car was totaled in an accident in November, and we purchased a replacement with cash from the settlement without going into our emergency fund.
• Both our cars needed major repairs in November and December, and we were able to cash flow the repairs without touching the emergency fund.

In spite of all the challenges life threw at us in 2016, we reduced our debt snowball by 30 percent. We also celebrated the following wins in last year:

• I sold my car, which means we’ll never have a car payment again.
• The Mister has proven some serious hustle with his side work and now has enough weekend gigs lined up to easily take us into the spring.
• Having money goals gave me the push to open my Etsy shop Chasing Blue Jays.

We had no money drama, no money stress, no money fights because we had a written plan to tackle the challenges. We controlled the money; it didn’t control us.

Money Goal 2017

And this year is going to be our year; we’re coming after that remaining $21,000 with a vengeance. We have a plan:

• Tighten the budget to squeeze even more dollars to throw at the debt
• Create more income via side hustles
• Grow my full-time business, my blog income, and my Etsy shop
• Have faith that more opportunities and blessings will come our way

And I’m asking for your help. Please send prayer and/or positive energy our way. Cheer us on and help us stay accountable.

Do you have financial goals for 2017? What can you do to take control of your finances?