Nomorespending at The Diary of a Reformed Spendaholic tagged me for Moolanomy's My One Money Advice (MOMA) Meme.
My advice is what has put us on a better path- Forget about paying yourself first- PAY YOUR DEBT FIRST. This really is a variation on David Bach's theme of Paying Yourself First, I realize that, but it is important to put the money on those bills (debts etc.) that MUST be paid off every time you get paid.
The key is to have a good budget and know how much you can afford to pay on your debt. Hopefully you can make at least the minimum payments on all your debts, and can also afford to put extra money on one debt to pay it down faster.
As soon as we get paid (twice a month) I pay off all debts and bills immediately. I know this seems simple but it made the difference for us because otherwise it was all too easy to spend the money and not put it towards debt reduction.
I have notice a lot of PF bloggers do this, and it does come back to what David Bach is suggesting. We should pay ourselves (or our debt) first, and I am looking forward to the day when we are paying ourselves first in savings! It should be easier now we have made such an adjustment in the way we handle our money.
Speaking of savings the meeting with the Financial Planner went well but we have another meeting on Thursday to get our new investments set up, so I will update then.
I am going to tag Angie at Dude Where's My Money?, Miriam at Money Relations, Mr Cheap at Financial Security Quest, Ann at Domestic Deficit and Matthew at Discursive Monologue.
Sorry if anyone got tagged twice :)
Thank you for you debt paying tip and good luck with your goals.