Oh I noticed on some other people's blogs that they periodically post their net worth and how they are doing compared to last month's net worth. I think that's awesome! So few people in the "real world" (the land outside of computers) will tell even their friends what their net worth is, and here on personal finance blogs folks offer up their progress and goals to anyone who wants to read! How cool is that?

Well, I think I shall make this a monthly column and update it on the 1st of each month. I wish I could be like some of the people on here (like Ima Saver who is my blogging idol!) and post daily, but I guess once every few days isn't too bad...

Well I've decided to open up a roth ira with the extra money we had in our checking account thanks to our tax refund. As tempting as it was to add to our savings account, it seemed like the roth would benefit us most over the long term. Thanks for all your input in my previous entry when I asked what you guys thought about opening the roth ira!

We opened the account with Vangaurd. I've heard good things about them, so we'll see.

For the past couple of months I've been thinking about opening up a Roth IRA. I'm trying to decide by April 15th because the tax laws say that you have until then to have your contributions count as last year's.

So we have $4,000 sitting in checking (in part due to Uncle Sam - thanks for the refund!) and don't know what to do. It's tempting just to put it into savings with the rest of the money we've saved, but I don't know if that's the wisest thing to do. Also we do have credit card debt in the same amount, interestingly enough, so maybe we should pay that off now. But because of the miracle of compund interest I am tempted to start the Roth IRA as soon as possible. What do you guys think?...

I thought this would be a good entry to further explain why and how we do what we do with our money. One of the main reasons that we are able to save so much (in relation to how little we make) is that we have no car loans. Granted, they may not be new or nice, but they are paid off and they get us from point A to point B...which is to say that they get the job done.

Another reason we are able to save 15% of our pre-tax income towards retirement and 25% of our after-tax income towards our dreams is that we are not big spenders. Saving money is a big priority for both my husband and I. The little things you buy can (and do) add up over time. So I'm not willing to sell my dreams for a lot of little things.

Hello everyone! I was surfing the web looking for blogs on how other military spouses and servicemembers save, and to be honest with you I couldn't find much in terms of PFB! I said to myself, "I want to read what other people are doing, but maybe other people would like to read what I'm doing as well."

So, we are currently saving 15% of our pre-tax income in the Thrift Savings Plan (the government's version of a 401k only no matching funds) and on top of that saving $1,000 a month for our dream of owning a home. We have about $10,000 saved thus far in that "home fund".

Now onto the bad...we have $4,000 in credit card debt. 3/4 of that is at 0% and the rest at 7.99%. Not horrible, but our logic might be a little odd in how we are going about all this. I'm not sure I understand why I do anything sometimes!