WOD and Personal Finance Rules

Another WOD under my belt--- "Tyler" calls for 3 rounds of 7 muscle ups and 21 reps sumo deadlift to a high pull.

The sub for muscle ups is 3/1 pull-ups and dips--- so for everyone 1 muscle up, do 3 pull-ups and 3 dips

OR

2/1 modified muscle-ups.

I chose the latter-- feet on the floor, knees bent, 14 modified muscle-ups per round.

I was really shooting for under 10 minutes but my time was 10:03. BUMMER! So close!

Oh well...it's Friday, that's my excuse. :P

On the finance front, nothing new to report right now and there won't be until next week when we both get paid. But we're dropping a huge amount to our emergency fund next week so I'm really excited!

Two different blogs I read about personal finance (MoneyFunk and Man vs Debt) did something that I thought was really cool and I wanted to follow their lead. They each made their own set up financial "rules" or "values" to live by. Everyone's lives are so different, it's important to create your own set of values to live by.

Just so you can see what I'm talking about, here's MVD's:
1. Never do anything that requires the use of NEW debt.
2. Never let our emergency fund dip below $5000.
3. Always at least pay the minimums. None of that ‘deferring’ student loan crap.
4. Travel and experience the world as frugally as possible.
5. Build a mobile income of at least $3000/month.
6. Have at least one of us staying home with Milligan.
7. Pay extra on student loans.

And here's MoneyFunk's:
1.Never do anything that requires the use of NEW debt.
2.Never let our emergency fund dip below $1000.
3.Always at least pay the minimums. None of that ‘deferring’ student loan stuff.
4.Build a mobile income of at least $1000/month.
5.Pay extra on car loan

It got me thinking...what financial values do we want to live by? What have we learned through all of this that makes total sense now and I don't ever want to forget it?

Here's what I came up with for our financial rules:
1. No new debt (unless it's for a house.)
2. Always live on 60% of our income or less (monthly expenses/bills).
3. Always contribute 15% to retirement (leaves 25% for savings to pay for things we want)
4. Only purchase a home with 20% down.
5. Never let our emergency fund dip below $5,000 (it will be there next week! wahoo!)

It may not be anything new but they're in writing now! I'm most excited about the 60% rule. Currently our monthly expenses are less than 50% of our income (and the rest is being used to fund our emergency fund), but I know things could change. If we kept our expenses at 60% or less, put 15% toward retirement, that leaves 25% of our income each month to save for all of the things most people put on credit- a car, vacation, etc. I think it's very do-able and will be a good way to watch that our spending doesn't creep up now that we're debt free.

After becoming debt free, and in looking at the numbers, for the first time in my life, I actually think it's possible to save for a down payment of 20% on our next home (I always heard people say this but thought it was impossible).

Here's an example, if we wanted a $200K house, that means we'd need $40K down. If we put $1,600/month into savings for 25 months (2 years + 1 month), we'd have 20% down or the $40K needed. It's amazing to think about!

What financial rules do you want to live by?