March Goal

Since that last two months have been spiritual and emotional goals I'm going to change things up a bit and do more concrete physical and financial preparedness goals.
I'm going to make a short list and you need to pick four that apply to your family. One per week is what I want you do to. Since we are all in different situations I'm giving more options than four so you can pick the ones that apply most to your families. (Although all are good and should be done at some time!)

Physical (not the exercise type, sorry Steve!):
1. Change out the food/snacks and clothing (everyone should have at least one change of clothes) that are in your 72 hour backpacks. I've heard that a great time to do these are around every gen. conference time. Put summer clothes in your 72 backpacks in the April conf. and warmer winter clothes during the Oct. conf. Plus your kids outgrow things all the time, so this will help to always have clothes that fit. Also, change the snack foods: granola bars, fruit snacks, water bottles, soup cans, etc. that might be in there. We always want fresh stuff, right? You can make a family home evening event of changing everything. That way the kids also know what is in them!
2. Fill or change out water in your water storage barrels. You'd better have some already! Also great to do every gen. conf. time. Ideally you'd have a 55 gal. drum for each person in your family. They can line the walls in your garage. Just make sure they are not directly on the cement. Blue is the recommended color to prevent algae growth in the water. Smaller barrels are fine, you just need more of them.
3. Create an emergency preparedness car kit for each of your cars. I've got some lists if anyone needs them. We have a backpack for each car. Others use a paint can. Whatever floats your boat.
4. Buy some additional food storage items. Also cook at least one meal during the week that uses ONLY items from your food storage. This will help you to know if your family even likes the food you have stored!

Financial
1. Put together your financial packet and place it in your 72 hour backpack. This should include things you don't want burned or otherwise destroyed like: insurance papers, social security cards, birth certificates, passports, car titles, home titles, savings bonds, wills, etc. I also have lists for this.
2. Create an online savings acct. or retirement acct. I just recently opened a Roth IRA for myself with Sharebuilder.com. Many other options are out there. I know some of you have one that Dad started for you, but nothing is continuously being added to them. I also just opened an online savings acct. with Ally Bank. It had the highest interest rate for a regular savings acct. This a great acct. for that 6 month emergency savings acct. that we are all supposed to have. If your hubby gets laid off for a year you'll be glad you had it!! It gets your money out of sight from your checking acct., is easy to transfer and access, and gets a better interest rate than any savings acct. you currently have at your regular bank. You can do a little research or I can advise. I also have an online savings acct. with FNBO and ING Banks. You also need to plan on setting aside a certain amount of money on a monthly basis to contribute to your acct. you create. The younger you start the better off you will be. If you open the retirement acct. don't plan to get that money back until you are 60 years old, FYI. The market is low right now and for someone who has 30 years left to invest it's an excellent time to get into it. But everyone should have this - and don't just depend on your husbands 401K for you retirement purposes!! The sooner you start something like this the more things will grow by the time you need it.
3. Read a financial book. Ones by Suze Orman (like, The 9 steps to Financial Freedom) and Dave Ramsey (Financial Peace and Financial Peace Revisited). They are easy read books, not full of financial jargon that no one understands. Most likely they will be in your closest library too.
4. Create a budget plan on the computer IF YOU DON"T ALREADY HAVE ONE. That are lots of programs that you can use or you can create one on a spreadsheet. Right now we use one called HomeBank. I think Dan got it online somewhere for free. This will help you see how much you can save too.

I've given 4 options in each category. Try to complete one a week, your choice. If you're ambitious and want to do more, great. Ones like creating the online savings acct will take you all of 5 minutes!
I suggest doing all of them sometime anyway.
Feel free to call with any questions, I love to talk about these subjects!!
Happy March!!