{"id":1763,"date":"2018-03-23T03:00:45","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T08:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kerryaclark.com\/?p=1763"},"modified":"2018-06-15T06:41:22","modified_gmt":"2018-06-15T11:41:22","slug":"why-baby-step-didnt-work-for-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/why-baby-step-didnt-work-for-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Baby Step 3 Didn\u2019t Work for Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>The Way Bills Were Meant to Be Paid &#8211; Part 3<\/h2>\n<p><b>How Can You Improve After Failing At a Well Known Financial Plan?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pamela and I decided to take a lesson from Dave Ramsey to get ourselves out of the financial troubles we faced. \u00a0So, we studied his <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.daveramsey.com\/baby-steps\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">7 Baby Steps to Financial Peace<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u00a0What we didn\u2019t know at the time was that the steps were in order. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Step 1 &#8211; Save $1000 Emergency Fund<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Step 2 &#8211; Pay off debts using snowball method<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Step 3 &#8211; Fund 3-6 Months Expenses Emergency fund<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.daveramsey.com\/baby-steps\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And so on<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8230;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The Mistake of Acting Out of Order<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We made the mistake (and now glad we did) of working the steps out of order. \u00a0We started with saving for retirement. We chose to do the one that seemed easiest for us to implement first. \u00a0At any rate, as we progressed through the steps we finally got to the \u201c3-6 Months of Expenses Emergency Fund\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1771\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/20180323-TIF-SM-Way-Bills-Were-Meant-to-Be-Paid-Part-3-400x400.png?resize=400%2C400\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/20180323-TIF-SM-Way-Bills-Were-Meant-to-Be-Paid-Part-3.png?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/20180323-TIF-SM-Way-Bills-Were-Meant-to-Be-Paid-Part-3.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/20180323-TIF-SM-Way-Bills-Were-Meant-to-Be-Paid-Part-3.png?resize=100%2C100&amp;ssl=1 100w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/20180323-TIF-SM-Way-Bills-Were-Meant-to-Be-Paid-Part-3.png?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/20180323-TIF-SM-Way-Bills-Were-Meant-to-Be-Paid-Part-3.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/20180323-TIF-SM-Way-Bills-Were-Meant-to-Be-Paid-Part-3.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/20180323-TIF-SM-Way-Bills-Were-Meant-to-Be-Paid-Part-3.png?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you know how hard it is to save 3-6 months of your expenses?<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0Sure you do and so do we, it was darn near impossible. \u00a0But we didn\u2019t give up, it led us to creating a process that may be the solution for you. \u00a0\u00a0We ended up abandoning Dave\u2019s method [baby step 3] and created our own.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Just 1 Month Expenses for Now<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After reviewing our finances, we noticed that our mandatory expenses weren\u2019t the largest expenses we incur. \u00a0In fact, if you <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/kerryaclark.com\/blog\/on-paper-we-dont-have-enough\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">take note of your mandatory expenses, you\u2019ll find they are very manageable<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u00a0It\u2019s all the extra stuff that makes a mess of your money. \u00a0So we concluded that we\u2019d save 3-6 months of our mandatory expenses, like Dave recommends. \u00a0The exception is this; we didn\u2019t try to be too aggressive, but instead our goal was to be intentional. \u00a0We weren\u2019t going to save the money, but pay the expenses in advance. There&#8217;s no way we\u2019d be able to keep our hands off the extra funds sitting in an account somewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before you check out, here\u2019s what we mean. \u00a0We decided to pay service providers one month in advance. \u00a0Instead of us owing them when we receive the statement, they\u2019d owe us. \u00a0We figured if we could get our bills a month ahead, we win financially and we accomplish our goal of \u201cowing no man anything\u201d. \u00a0If you recall the problem with bills is <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/kerryaclark.com\/blog\/chasing-bills\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">they are always behind when you get them<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and we decided to turn this around. \u00a0We decided to get just one month ahead of our service providers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I bet you\u2019re wondering how we do it. \u00a0How we got those bills ahead by even one month without having any extra money. \u00a0That\u2019s a good question. But before I give you that answer&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today is Friday!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s more we will share about this process, but you\u2019ll have to join us in the next installment to find out how we got 1 month ahead of our service providers without having any extra money.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\"  style=\"border-color:#c7ced4;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#E1E8EE;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note\"  style=\"border-color:#e5e5e5;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;border-color:#ffffff;color:#000000;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/familyplan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Family Plan Binder<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/familyplan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1025\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Family-Plan-Cover-e1493399146525.png?resize=115%2C149\" alt=\"\" width=\"115\" height=\"149\" \/><\/a> is available now! <p><\/p>\nOur team has worked very hard putting it together. We designed it to help you and your family move the needle forward in making your life your business. \nFind out more about the Family plan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/familyplan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here.<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Way Bills Were Meant to Be Paid &#8211; Part 3 How Can You Improve After Failing At a Well Known Financial Plan? Pamela and I decided to take a lesson from Dave Ramsey to get ourselves out of the financial troubles we faced. \u00a0So, we studied his 7 Baby Steps to Financial Peace. \u00a0What [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,55,54],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-accounting","8":"category-pay-ahead","9":"category-the-way-bills-were-meant-to-be-paid","10":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/20180323-TIF-Blog-Way-Bills-Were-Meant-to-Be-Paid-Part-3.png?fit=760%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4jb7V-sr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1763"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1985,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763\/revisions\/1985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}