End of Year Finances

It has been awhile since I have blogged.  It seems like the entire month of December flew by in a flash.  I have hardly spent a moment writing.  So, my kids are away at my mom's for a few days, and I am catching up and doing a lot of planning for 2011.  One of our big items that we have been working on since May of 2010 is #27 on my 13x40 list:

27.                  Get our finances in order with a set budget.

I am feeling so fortunate as I write this, because John and I have made some very good decisions over the years and therefore the work we've had to do has helped support that.  I am so grateful for a husband who loves his job and works very hard! 

Last year while doing taxes, which we both loathe, we just decided we had to come up with a new system for our spending and saving.  While a lot of things had been working, other things hadn't.  So, we have taken almost a whole year to get our house in order.  It seems to take forever, and the tasks on our lists could easily cure even my worse case of insomnia (and I really have insomnia, so that is saying something!).  We've opened this and closed that, refinanced this and investigated that, and basically looked into all things financial. 

Finally - we are almost to our end of the year deadline, and I feel we have some great steps in place to help us make future decisions that are smart ones.  It hasn't been fun, but I hope the outcomes we see this year WILL be fun, and make the work worthwhile.

May I also say how shocked I am at how few of my friends have wills or health plans in place?  Please, please, please - take the time to do this in 2011 if you haven't already!  I know it is a huge pain - we just updated ours as part of this process - and it is never fun to have to discuss the sad and dreary topics of a will or health plan.  But there is one thing sadder and more dreary than working on these items - NOT having these things in place. 

So, as we look forward to ringing in a new year, take some time to look at that boring thing called your finances.  Hopefully we can stay on track with the goals we have set and will see a big difference this time next year.