The Forum's Financial Fix-up: Changes help give families new hope

One month ago, we introduced readers to three families who had made a public resolution to fix up their finances.

Each family met with a financial counselor from The Village Family Service Center on Dec. 13 or 14 and received a customized action plan to put them on a sound financial path.

Today, we check back to see how they’ve implemented the financial counselors’ suggestions and what progress they’ve made on their money makeovers.

As an incentive for taking part in the series, State Bank and Trust is giving each family $500 to put toward their financial goals.

The Graveses

John and Annette Graves of Moorhead found themselves juggling bills each month, trying to stretch their inconsistent income.

Soon after meeting with financial counselor Joshua Huffman, John was hired for a full-time maintenance position, providing a steady paycheck for the family. Annette said this has meant the family doesn’t need to keep pushing off bills.

“Now I know when that check is going to be there,” she said.

Child support payments from Annette’s ex-husband have also been steady, she said.

Annette has been tracking the family’s expenses on a detailed spreadsheet – a tool a friend recently asked to copy for her own household. Annette said it’s shown them areas where they can cut back. For example, the family was spending more on eating out than they realized, she said.

“It was really interesting to finally see where all the money went instead of saying, ‘Oh, the money’s gone’,” Annette said.

While they’re still behind on a couple bills, they haven’t charged anything to a credit card. “I think we’re really moving forward,” she said.

The couple is also communicating more about money. John sits down with Annette to help pay the bills.

Huffman suggested the Graveses use their $500 to get totally caught up on bills, and if current, put some in savings to create a buffer. That was exactly what Annette had planned.

“There’s light at the end of the tunnel. We can see it,” she said.

The Dockters

Steve and Meghan Dockter racked up $40,000-plus in credit card debt during a medical crisis, and stopped communicating about their money.

Since meeting with Village counselor Tracy McFarlane, Steve said the couple has paid off more than $5,000 on their cards. The money came from cutting back their expenses like eating out, a check that Steve got for coaching basketball and the fact they each got three paychecks in January.

One of their four cards (the one with the smallest balance) should be paid off in a couple weeks, he said. The couple plans to snowball their payments to pay off the debt quicker.

They decided to not take part in The Village’s Debt Management Program, which McFarlane suggested. They are still using one of the four cards.

Meghan has started graduate school, and together they’ve started Financial Peace University through their church. The Dave Ramsey class spurred them to set aside $500 in an emergency fund, money that gave them great peace of mind when Steve got into a minor car accident.

McFarlane had also suggested the West Fargo couple set aside money each month for periodic expenses, like car repairs. They hadn’t agreed with her at the time.

“It’s the same message, but I think the way it was worded, we came away with a different message. It made more sense to us,” Meghan said.

McFarlane suggested the couple use their $500 to pay down a higher- interest credit card.

The Richmans

Nathan and Brenda Richman started looking at their finances last summer, feeling off track after a career change by Nathan four years ago.

They said the Financial Fix-Up gave them the motivation to continue work toward their goals: get out of debt, save an emergency fund and save 15 percent in retirement.

They now have about $1,000 left on their car loan, having paid off about $6,500 in six months. They plan to put their $500 incentive toward that loan.

On Monday, they received an action plan from Paul Jarvis and Tyler Stegman of State Bank and Trust in Fargo to work toward their savings goals.

Their current saving plan would leave the Moorhead couple short in their retirement, Jarvis said. But by putting the $655 surplus in their budget (once the car loan is paid off) into a money market account and Nathan’s 401(k), they should be able to retire comfortably at ages 67 and 62, a little more than 20 years from now.

“The critical point here is not to waste cash,” Jarvis said.

That $655 per month would also help them achieve a stated goal, bringing their savings percentage to 17 percent of their gross income. Jarvis also suggested increasing their retirement contributions by 1 percent each time they received a raise, and rolling over old retirement accounts into an IRA.

“I feel a lot of hope,” Brenda said.

“This is encouraging. I think we’re more comfortable than we were before,” Nathan said.

Coming Saturday

In Saturday’s Forum, read about how you can take on your own financial fix-up, with a four-step action plan.

Online

Read about the experience from the participants’ point-of-view at the Financial Fix-Up blog: http://financialfixup.areavoices.com.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Sherri Richards at (701) 241-5556

Tags: forum financial fix-up, financial fix-up, the village, north dakota, finances, money, family, village, fargo, news