What Keeps You Up at Night?

Last week we had a financial check-up. Between buying the house, some family things that have popped up, and other stuff going on, we knew it would be good to get a third pair of eyes to look over some things.

As with most financial reviews, we went over our numbers – our savings, investments, liabilities, the whole bag.

We then started talking about our goals and what we want to do over the next year, decade, and beyond.

While we had answers for quite a few there were some that stumped us or got us thinking about setting up another money date.

There was one, that stood out to me –

What keeps you up at night? 

Huh.

Didn't see that one coming.

How Simplifying Finances Has Helped

I know the reason behind the question – figuring out what our biggest financial concerns are and coming up with a plan.

But thinking about it with my husband, the question became something else – an opportunity to reflect.

I started this blog last December with an idea of how this year would go and let's just say it's been different than what I expected, both better and worse.

• My mom was diagnosed with a chronic lung disease and had to start a round of therapy.
• Buying the house was definitely the right move – we love the place, the location. We have friends over more often.
• My sister also had some health problems that have come up and her work is not accommodating to say the least.
• We had a sick tree in the middle of the yard. A falling limb smashed out patio, but the real concern was if it fell on somebody. We had to rearrange things to get that cut down along with another tree that was dying.

On paper, things didn't look so well -our savings are drained and cash flow has been tight.

However, we're not behind on our bills and when we had to, I stepped away from some projects to be there for family and house projects.

So even though there were plenty of things going on, when we heard that question, we felt that we weren't losing sleep over money.

I believe a large part of that contentment was because we simplified our finances.

Paying off debts has been a huge help. Yeah, it's not exciting when you're in the middle of your debt snowball process, but the rewards have been worth it.

Having our financial system automated also made sure things went smoothly.

Simplifying Our Routine

As you may have guessed, because we had so much to deal with, I stepped back on a few projects and that included Simplify and Enjoy.

The good news is that things have settled down a bit so I'm getting back to writing here regularly.

Even though I haven't published much, I have been keeping notes and writing that I can't wait to share!

Thank you so much for taking the time to keep up with Simplify and Enjoy. If you have any questions or ideas, please send them to me.