Tomorrow my family is going to Disneyland – known as “The Happiest Place on Earth” – translates to “The Most Expensive Place on Earth” @ $70+ a ticket! Southern California Residents offer a plan – fund an annual Disneyland pass by making monthly payments (the Disneyland terms are really reasonable, too). I was actually seriously considering this option!
Fortunately for me three things happened to me within the last couple days that deterred me from this offer:
- A good coworker friend of mine said, “if you have to pay a monthly amount to fund a Disneyland pass then you don’t deserve to go anyway”. Straight forward, no games. If you have to pay a monthly balance then you don’t have the money in the first place to buy an annual pass.
- I decided to regroup my finance spreadsheet, check the balances, rediscover the atrocious bad-debt-to-income-ratio (ouch), and see how gosh fricken much I owe on my student loans. Financial tip: don’t take out a student loan unless you absolutely need it! Trust me, it will save some un-necessary pain later.
- I read Adam Baker’s current post at Man vs. Debt. Him and his wife, Courtney, have their rules/values in place.
- 1.Never do anything that requires the use of NEW debt.
2.Never let our emergency fund dip below $5000.
3.Always at least pay the minimums. None of that ‘deferring’ student loan crap.
4.Travel and experience the world as frugally as possible.
5.Build a mobile income of at least $3000/month. (It’s no secret I plan for MvD to be a big part of this)
6.Have at least one of us staying home with Milligan.
7.Pay extra on student loans.
And I thought to myself, “Mr. SeaDog & I need our own rules!”. And so I copy and revised Adam’s rules to fit my our needs. This is a rough draft, but here it is:
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1.Never do anything that requires the use of NEW debt.
2.Never let our emergency fund dip below $1000.
3.Always at least pay the minimums. None of that ‘deferring’ student loan stuff.
4.Build a mobile income of at least $1000/month.
5.Pay extra on car loan (car loan upside down $2,800 and I want out of my $400 monthly payment ASAP)
- 1.Never do anything that requires the use of NEW debt.
End Result
Monthly payments for an annual Disneyland pass clearly violate #3’s event, priority #1 – Never do anything that requires the use of NEW debt. *saved*
So with that… what financial priorities define your list?