From our original financial simplification post:

Of course, there are certain “purchases” we strongly feel were necessary and must pay for:  home/mortgage ($128,152.60), cars and RV ($16,653.62), college education for our children ($93,628.93).

Grand total: $238,435.15 as of April 1, 2015.  Our goal is to be debt free in 5 years.  Each of these 3 categories were “necessary” in our mind to give our children a stable environment and educational/professional opportunities.  We wouldn’t do anything different in these areas.

Another year has passed since we started this blog and we have some financial updates!  Barb didn’t work overtime during this time period so our income dropped about $9,000.  We didn’t have to dip into savings for anything major this year but we also didn’t save anything.  We did take a seven week vacation last summer, a week-long trip to Hawaii, and 2 trips to visit the kiddo on the opposite coast via plane.  We made a concerted effort to avoid using any credit cards this last year for any reason.  We were hoping for $50,000 debt reduction but didn’t quite make it.

We are pretty sure we can pay off the cars, 2 student loans, and the furnace/AC system during the next year.  Next year debt reduction goal is $50,000 and have our savings account at $20,000.  Guess we will need a few more lean spending months!!

• Cars and RV $3419.36 (decreased balance by $6152.53)

• Mortgage $106252.74 (decreased balance by $10,193.11)

• Student loans $44692.39 (decreased balance by $25.582.75)

• Savings $15,553.95 (not as much as we would like but better than 2 years ago!)

  Total Debt Reduction in the last year = $41,928.39

  Total Debt Reduction in the last 2 years = $84,070.66