The number 1 thing to do in any investment or savings plan is to " pay yourself first", in other words put you savings aside before any expenses like entertainment.

The number 1 thing to do in any investment or savings plan is to " pay yourself first", in other words put you savings aside before any expenses like entertainment.

Great principle from "The Richest Man in Babylon". There have been a lot of folks get rich off of the 10/90 plan. My parents taught me the 10/10/80 plan (10% to God, 10% to savings/investments, live on 80%). It's worked for my wife and I to the point where we've been blessed to be able to increase the first two, and decrease our living expences. Great point Snook!

Again guys thanks for all the advice and I thought I'd give an update. My wife and I sat down and had a talk about our finances and I told her we need to start being proactive and set a plan in motion so we could actually be serious about ever owning a home. We figured our average monthly income and expenses. We found we have 4 debts, either credit cards or loans that are under $1000. Paying those off should take less than a year and then we will be down to just both car payments and her 2 student loans. She made a board like a they use at some fundraiser with old fashioned thermometers so she could fill in a little bit each time we make a payment so she could actually see that we were making up ground and to help us keep track of how we were doing. It feels good to finally feel like we are on the same page with our finances

That's a great start , keep up the good work.