Financial Goals: June/July Update

I've not posted a financial update in a couple of months. Since my husband's job loss in July, we haven't been able to save anything. He started his new job Monday and we're going to try to save as much as possible between now and when the girls and I join him. We don't know how long it's going to take our house to sell and we know that the possibility of carrying a mortgage and rent is out there. We also had to come to the painful conclusion that with the sell of this house, we are likely to lose all or most of our equity. It's a bitter pill to swallow but again, we're looking forward to a fresh start and a wonderful opportunity ahead. We can rebuild it over time and in the end, we believe that the benefits of living where we want to live outweigh the temporary pain. I touched on this in a recent post. Here are the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year and where things stand for now.

1) Pay off my husband's car.
Completed in January. Yay!

2)Make monthly "car payments" into a car savings account each month.
None in July, partial payment in June.

3)Build our emergency fund up to six months of living expenses.
Increased from 39.4% to 42.5%.

4) Continue our normal contributions to retirement savings.
Just letting it do it's thing right now.

5) Paying extra on our mortgage.
No longer doing this since we'll be moving.

6)Save $1000 to cover all expenses for next Christmas.
This is 71% funded. With all that has happened this year, I've decided to lower the budget and stop at 75% funded.

7)Finally, by the end of the year, we plan to evaluate our savings plan and find a way to begin saving for college expenses.
We have so many other things to deal with right now.

Ultimately, these next several months are likely to be financially challenging. However, God has always provided what we need and we believe He will continue to do so. We truly believe we are following His path for our lives with this new opportunity and are willing to make the necessary sacrifices for it all to happen.