I have always thought that the acronym SMART was a pretty good way to set goals. To me, it makes sense that goals are Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. However, one thing I always questioned about this acronym were the Achievable and Realistic parts of SMART. First, Achievable and Realistic basically mean the exact same thing. For something to be Achievable, it also needs to be Realistic. But even more important, sometimes it makes sense to set a goal that is, at first glance, unachievable and unrealistic. Sometimes, just the simple act of setting and thinking about this goal will cause us to achieve it.
-
-
Should You Pay Off Your Mortgage Early?
Many things in personal finance are pretty easy to figure out. However, some topics are a bit more difficult to figure out. For instance, I love reward credit cards because I have saved over $30,000 in travel by using them. I've received a free trip to New York City with my wife, saved a lot of money on a Disney World trip with my family, and went on many other free or almost free vacations. But many reasonable people disagree with me. They may not like credit cards because they may enable us to go into debt and spend beyond our means.
-
Saying Goodbye to $383,530 in Debt
Just 7 years ago, my family and I had a HUGE amount of debt! Although we had modest salaries, we made decisions that led to us to accrue $442,500 worth of debt! As debt guru, Dave Ramsey, says, we were "up to our eyeballs in debt!" Being in this much debt was very difficult. Although most of it was low-interest and "good" debt, we certainly didn't feel very good about it. After all, we were paying around $40 per day in interest payments. Since my wife and I were making under $40 per hour at our jobs, the first 1-2 hours of each day went to paying interest. Whether the…
