Category Archives: Goals

How Jenni got her groove back

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I have been back in town for over a week now, but I am still struggling getting back into a routine.  Things are getting done, but I am not yet back in the groove.

This is the perfect time for me to evaluate my “groove” and determine what should be included and what shouldn’t.

This process is a good one and a necessary one, but at the same time an uncomfortable one.  The unknown is uncomfortable.  I am not rushing it or forcing things, but allowing myself to sit with the process I am going through.

Initially I was frustrated because everything didn’t fall right back into place upon my return, but now I realize that if things had fallen right back into place I would not have been gifted with this opportunity to grow.

I will be different at the other end of this.  I am different already.  My new “groove” will be different from the one I left a month ago, but I know that I will be closer to the woman God wants me to be than I was a month ago.  That is exciting!

What does your “groove” look like?  Are there things that are necessities to being in your “groove”?  Are there things that shouldn’t be included?

You’ve got big dreams?

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Growing up one of my favorite tv shows was Fame.  My parents let me stay up late to watch each week because back then ballet was my life.

Every week I heard Lydia Grant say,  “You’ve got big dreams? You want fame? Well, fame costs. And right here is where you start paying … in sweat,” in the middle of the theme song.

At the time I dreamed of going to a performing arts high school and eventually dancing professionally.  I wanted to be a professional ballerina.  I wanted to be on Broadway.  I wanted to be a Rockette.

I did get into our local performing arts high school, but decided to go to the local high school instead because I didn’t want to spend an hour on a bus getting there and back.  Looking back that was a turning point – no pun intended.

Had I decided to go to the performing arts high school my life might have taken a different trajectory.  Am I disappointed that my dreams of living and dancing in New York were never realized?  No, not really.

There are many different dreams that I have had throughout my life that haven’t been realized, but, because only hindsight is 20/20, I realize that there were two major pieces to these dreams that were missing.

  1. The dreams I had are not the dreams that God had in mind for me.  I was doing what I wanted to do and following my own lead without talking to God about my dreams at all.  Had I taken the time to listen to Him I would have quickly realized that He had other things in mind for me.
  2. I was not willing to do my part – the hard, the real, the work – to make these dreams a reality.  Dreams take work, even dreams that God places in our hearts.

As I continue to grow as a person and my relationship with God continues to develop and deepen, I realize that He has great things in mind for me.  I am now in consultation with God in a way that I have never been before and different dreams are now in my heart.  These are dreams I know that He placed there and I am beginning to dig in and do the work required to make these dreams a reality.

What lessons have you learned from dreams that were not realized?

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To see more thoughts on God-sized dreams, head over to Faith Barista.

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Bringing it all together

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Up to this point I have been keeping several different blogs, each having a different focus.  There have been many occasions when I couldn’t decide which blog I wanted to post on because the topic I wanted to write about did not fit neatly into one particular area.  I decided it was time to bring it all together at Simple Moments.  Here you will find posts on:

  • faith
  • simple living
  • children
  • single motherhood
  • relationships with friends and family
  • money
  • goals
  • education
  • work
  • our home
  • love
  • exercise
  • self care
and a myriad of other things, I am sure.
I will be transferring some posts from my other blogs over the next several weeks, which should help give you some insight and some background.  I can’t promise that everything you read here will be pretty, but I can promise you that it will be real.
Welcome to Simple Moments.  Thanks for stopping by.

More Money Towards Principle

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In this post I talked about how I save every penny that is gifted to me and plan to put it toward my mortgage.

What I didn’t mention is that any time I get cash for anything at all – be it a refund from a returned purchase, a gift, someone paying me back for something – that money will be going toward paying off my mortgage as well.

I have been squirreling away the cash.  At the end of last week I deposited the cash I have been saving into my bank account and had the money sent to my mortgage company.  I am proud to say that I am $530 closer to paying off my mortgage.  It is a huge chunk of change, no, but it will make a difference.

According to the Dave Ramsey Mortgage Calculator, making this one payment of $530 will only have me paying off my mortgage one month early, but will save me $1,936.06 in interest.  Now that is a chunk of change.

I started squirreling away money again beginning with $20 that my aunt gave me to help pay for the food I brought to the family gathering for Easter.  Hopefully I will be back over $500 again in no time.

Mortgage Pay Off Fund

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Now that I have committed to saving the money as I receive as gifts and earmarking it for the house, I have to make it a reality.

I have opened another ING account and called it Mortgage Pay Off Fund.  Appropriate I think.  I opened it by taking $50 out of my emergency fund.  Don’t worry, I had the cushion to do so.

All gift money – checks and cash – will be deposited into my non-primary checking account and then transfered into my ING account.

How often will I move the money back into my checking account to make an additional principle payment?  I don’t know yet.  I realize that I am making less interest in my savings account than I am paying on the interest rate on my house.  Therefore, it makes more sense to do it more often than not.  Every little bit helps, right?  But as for actually frequency, I am not committing myself quite yet.

Gift Money

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I do have people give me money as a gift from time to time.  A few years ago, when I was saving up for a watch, I did a great job of putting all of the money I was given in a savings account earmarked especially as my watch fund.

I finally got my watch.  It was sort of a combination 35th birthday present to myself and a present to myself for successfully serving as acting principal for six months.  It was 100% worth the wait and I loved being able to purchase it with cash.
Since then I haven’t done as good a job of squirreling away money that I receive as gifts.  I have gotten into the bad habit of depositing checks in my checking account and moving forward or, if it is cash, spending it on things along the way.
I know in my head that every little bit counts, but when looking at paying off a $228,000 mortgage seems so overwhelming.  It has seemed to be that a little bit here or there isn’t going to make a difference, so I haven’t made it a priority.
It is time to get back to savings.  The $20 here or there really does add up over time and I know it.  So what if $20 is less than ten-thousandth of what I ultimately owe.  Paying that toward the mortgage not only moves up the date that I will have the mortgage paid off, but it will reduce my total cost as well.

Back on the Wagon

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I have been gone quite a long time. Life circumstances have changed, but financial goals have mostly stayed the same.

I am now living in a new house and just signed on for another, larger, 30 year mortgage. I set up my first mortgage payment tonight. I know that a little bit put toward my principal each month can make a big difference over time. Before I just paid the amount that the mortgage company requires me to pay, I did a little research.

Dave Ramsey has a great mortgage calculator tool on his website. You put in all the basics about your mortgage. Then put in how much extra you are going to pay each month and what month you will start putting the extra money toward your principal.

By putting less than $100 a month toward my principal every month, I will slice four years and six months off my mortgage. This is huge. I almost didn’t worry about it, but now I am glad I took the time to look into it. I won’t miss the money a bit and 25 years from now, I will be feeling great.