Looking ahead to financial security

Posted by: Sherry Ficklin

When I first joined the church I met a family who took the edict "Don't spend money you don't have" very literally. As a young married couple they'd lived with his family until they'd saved enough cash to purchase a small plot of land and shortly after began construction on their first home. Years passed and (since they did all the work themselves as they had the cash to do so) they slowly chipped away at finishing that home. Children came and more years passed. When their youngest (of five) was born they added a small addition and still had many rooms with unfinished walls, plywood floors, and bare bulb lights. But recently I spoke to the wife, and she was so happy to tell me that on their twentieth wedding anniversary, they finished the last room in their now two story, six bedroom home. All with never having any debt, at all. No mortgage. No loans. No Home Dept credit cards.

That, while wonderful, is completely out of my depth, and probably yours too.

We try to be financially responsible and to live within our means. But most of us have car loans, mortgages, and even student loans that we pay on every month.

This year, I've decided to take some small steps to help move my family closer to true fiscal solvency. That is, zero debt. Will it happen this year?
No.
No way on earth.
But I'm going to make the effort to take steps in the right direction at very least. After lots of research and consideration, I've come up with a plan. And I wanted to share it with any of you looking to do the same thing.

1) The first plan for the new year is to add to my savings.
You may or may not have any savings at all. Every situation is different. And most of us can't afford to drop large chunks of cash each month. So I'm going to try this.

It's called the 52 week savings plan and if followed, will boost your savings by over $1300.00.

2) I'm going to focus on building a junk silver stockpile.
Many people are intimidated by the thought of collecting gold and silver, but there is a very easy way to do it. The best way I've found is 'junk' silver. For example, quarters and nickles minted before 1965 are 0.9 ounces of pure silver. At the current value, that brings the value of 40 1964 or older quarters to well over $300. So before you cash in your change, look through your money and see what you have.
Also, I keep all my scraps of copper pipe, old pennies, and various bits of metals. I recently cleaned up after a friend's bathroom remodel and took the scrap pipe to the junk yard. I turned it in for over fifty dollars! Not too shabby, right?
If it's gold you want to stockpile I highly recommend hitting those yard sales and estate sales in the warmer months. Anything stamped (and be sure it is stamped) can be valuable. Just be sure you are getting it for a good deal. An example of this is last year when an estate sale sold my friend a stack of what they considered 'costume jewelry" for $20. Many of the pieces inside were 14k gold and worth far more than what she paid.

In the event of inflation, where paper money becomes less and less valuable, things like jewelry and coins are easily verifiable money storage.

3) Last but not least, I'm going to devote myself more to couponing and bartering for goods. There are many local barter sites online and places like freecycle.com where you can pick up or trade for things you might need.
As for clipping coupons, there are shows that might lead you to believe you can get three hundred dollars worth of soda for a nickle. I've never had that kind of success(?). But I can say, I save about fifty dollars a week on groceries when I'm taking the time to clip those coupons and use them wisely. It's time consuming, but it's worth it.
For example, I haven't paid a penny for shampoo, toothpaste, soap, or shaving cream in over a year, and I still have a LOT of it on my stockpile.


So what are you doing to help move your family toward financial freedom? I'd love to hear other thoughts and ideas!