I HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE when people claim to eat a "healthy" diet, and then fail to define health. What is a healthy diet?

I've spent the better part of six months reading about nutrition, and even many RD/MD/NTP authors fail to define what they mean by health. They tell compelling stories, but they don't actually explain what metrics an average Jane like me (or an average Joe like you) should look for in a nutritious diet.

From my reading, I've found that a healthy diet ought to hit three categories:
1. Nutrient sufficiency: Obviously, you need to eat enough calories, or you'll die. There's robust literature about this. You also need a certain level of macronutrients (fat, protein, carbs), and micronutrients (vitamins/minerals), fiber, and pre/pro-biotics in your diet to thrive. In general, all nutrients (both macro and micro) feature two laws that I will explain using economic terms.

The first will be Liebig's law of the minimum. Since most nutrients work in conjunction with all the other nutrients, the scarcest nutrient may limit your health. These days, it's really popular to supplement your diet with Vitamin D. Vitamin D is found nutritionally through egg yolks, beef liver and some fish. You can also get it through sunlight exposure (which is kind of neat). Anyways, if you want strong bones  you need vitamin D in addition to Calcium. The moral of the story? You need to get at least the recommended daily value of all nutrients, every day. 

The second law is the law of diminishing returns. The law of diminishing returns states that the first "dose" of something (in this case a nutrient) offers the most benefit. Subsequent doses offer less benefit, and at some point more could be worse. My example for this will be protein. Protein is incredibly important for being alive. Your body cannot produce nine of the essential amino acids to generate protein, so you have to eat them. The first bit of these amino acids you eat will keep you alive and functioning. The next bit will help you maintain muscle mass. The next bit will help you grow stronger (if you provide a muscle stimulus), and the next bit is pretty much unnecessary, and on for a bit until the next bit will actually kill you (protein toxicity is a thing).

A more obvious example is calories. You need enough calories to function, but too many calories will make you fat (which isn't so bad), but then the fat could lead to insulin resistance and morbidity (death) which is pretty bad.

To summarize, your diet must hit all the nutrients. To get all the nutrients you need without eating too many calories, you need to choose a lot of nutrient dense foods like meat, fish, olive oil, vegetables, tubers, and fruits. You'll also need to choose fewer nutrient weak foods like white and corn flour and highly processed oils (especially peanut and soybean). (As a side note, this is the best possible argument for being an omnivore. You cannot eat a plant-based diet and get all the required nutrients for maximizing health. You will need to supplement Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, Calcium, Iron, Zinc, Selenium, and possibly Vitamin A (depending on your ability to synethesize Beta Carotene). 

2. Personal Reactivity: Now that I've dispensed the second-most controversial part of my health discussion, I'll talk about the most controversial part. That is personal reactivity. I'll start with the least controversial part of the discussion. If you're allergic to something, you shouldn't eat it. My cousin has a peanut allergy that could kill him. He should not eat peanuts. If you have celiac disease, you should go out of your way to not eat gluten. Like, ask about the fryer at the restaurant out of your way.

Of course, you don't have to be allergic to something to for it to cause you to react negatively. For example, about 23% of patients in this trial showed that they had persistent, non-celiac, gluten-sensitivity even a year after going on a gluten-free diet. I've found that it's pretty common for people to need to eliminate one or two of the following foods to improve their health (dairy, wheat, eggs, potatoes, tomatoes, nuts, peanuts, chicken, soy, or fish). However, just because some people have health problems associated with these foods, doesn't mean everyone should eliminate them.

Another dimension related to personal reactivity is pro-inflammatory vs. anti-inflammatory. The study linked is a meta-analysis of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory foods. Basically, some foods cause a stress in your body, and this chronic stress leads to insulin resistance (type 2 diabetes, possibly alzheimers) and heart disease (maybe various types of cancer too).

The most inflammatory foods are all the most delicious foods like white flour, processed oils (that's soy, peanut, or corn oil), sugar, high fructose corn syrup, processed meats, alcohol, artificial sweeteners (maybe not Stevia or Xylitol, but I'm not sure). So we shouldn't eat tons of those foods. But interestingly, certain people have inflammatory responses to healthy foods like spinach, tomatoes, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and to be completely honest everything but red meat and water (seriously). 

In the event that you're body is really struggling, you may want to consider therapeutic diets. For MS, the "Carb-specific" diet shows promise, A Ketogenic (high fat, low carb) diet shows some good signs with certain people with certain cancers (although it's bad for other people). A low FODMAP diet makes sense for those with irritable bowel syndrome. Weirdly, these diets have gained followings among people who don't want to use them for medical therapy.

To summarize, some foods won't agree with you under any circumstances. Don't eat those. You should also limit the number of pro-inflammatory foods you eat, and aim to heal underlying disease states that can help you tolerate normally healthy foods that are pro-inflammatory to you.

3. Spontaneous caloric sufficiency: For most of human history, and indeed, in some parts of the world today, people struggle to eat enough calories (much less other nutrients). The human body is indeed pretty marvelous at dealing with states of deficiency. Per point one, it's not optimal for health, and somewhere along the line, you'll pay the consequences with your health, but it's a marvel.

Contrary to popular belief, the body is also pretty good at dealing with surplus calories too. Your body tends to burn at least a little more energy when you eat more than you would normally expend. Plus, your body will use the extra calories to store fat which is just fine for health (even quite good in many cases). You have to pack on quite a lot of extra weight for the weight (or fat) itself to impair your health. 

But in our society of food abundance, that also prizes "hyper-palatable" foods, it's easy to eat too much food and put on too much weight. Even foods that aren't particularly pro-inflammatory (think potatoes with butter and salt or steak) could be eaten to excess. Now start pairing those with even moderate amounts of junk foods (like a few servings of ice cream per week, or a couple of sodas), and you can see why many people eat too much food every day.

On the start of my health journey, I played with tracking my food. I just wanted to get an idea of how many calories I ate, and how much protein, carbs, etc. I ate. This habit was enlightening on two dimensions. First, I naturally ate around my caloric needs except when I ate multiple servings of junk food (then I overate). Second, trying to restrict carbohydrate intake made me feel like crap, and led to unsustainable caloric deficit (For some, this is okay though). 

I found a moderate protein, fat, and carb diet yields spontaneous caloric sufficiency for me. Other people will need high carbs/low fat. Other people need high protein (up to 35% for safety), high fat and low protein. When it comes to spontaneous caloric sufficiency, eating less junk is one key. Figuring out your personal macro ideals is the other key.

Okay, that's about all I have to say about health generally (for now). For me in particular, I would note that I'm not peculiarly sensitive to any foods, but the pro-inflammatory foods throw me off my game more than they used to. I can eat a piece of cake, but not two. I can eat some ice cream, but not a shake. A few fries are fine, but a burger and fries make me feel a little gurgly.

Lately, our average spending is around $100-$125 per week. I'm finding a few shortcuts that are helping me reign in the cost. However, the extra savings is likely to go towards better meat products. Nonetheless, here are my basic tips for working towards a healthier diet without spending too much money.

Starchy foods are super-cheap, but they can either promote health or destroy it. Yes, white bread costs $.89 per loaf. No, eating white bread won't promote health.

Unfortunately, for many people upgrading to wheat bread isn't really that healthy either. Compared to other starch sources, wheat, corn, and rice don't offer much nutrient value. 

Instead of focusing on those inexpensive calorie sources, I recommend focusing on nutrient powerhouses that are equally cheap. Lentils, black beans, and chickpeas are inexpensive. As long as you soak these babies for 18+ hours before cooking them, you'll get rid of any anti-nutrients (things that prevent nutrient absorption), and you'll get loads of vitamins and minerals along with a healthy dose of carbs (and a little protein).

​I've been making Mujadara (lentils, rice and onions), and keeping it for my lunch starches. It's filling and inexpensive (PS I don't use pine nuts as the linked recipe recommends. It's quite delish without them).

Potatoes and sweet potatoes (yams) are also a cheap and nutritionally packed source of calories. I roast these at the beginning of the week, and eat them with eggs for breakfast.

I'm not sure why, but bananas are crazy cheap. We pay around $.39 per pound, which comes out to about $.15 per banana. Bananas are cheap, easy, and appropriate for deserts or snacks. (I freeze them, blend with a bit of chocolate and enjoy banana ice cream).

I'm rounding out my personal starch choices with rice, oats, bulgar (which costs $.99 per pound making it nearly as cheap as flour), corn tortillas, popcorn, and some wheat bread. I eat a ton of calories (around 2500+ per day), so I use inexpensive starches and fat to fill in calorie gaps when I don't need as much nutrient density.

I should say, my family is a little slower to adopt the alternative starch solutions. They eat a lot of oats and potatoes, and Rob will eat legumes, but the kids like bread. At least we save a little money by eating very little breakfast cereal, crackers, pizzas, muffins, cakes, etc. (Also, I admit that I've consumed a few too many rice noodles to be considered frugal. Now, I plan to reserve these for special events).

Fat makes food delicious, but it's also needed to fuel your brain's activity. Right now, low fat isn't as popular as it was growing up, but I see the pendulum starting to swing towards low fat again. Aggggh! Eat fat for fun and profit!

Okay, so when it comes to fat, my number one source of fat is animal products. If you're eating them anyways, you can get a ton of nutrition from the fattier bits. Fatty fish have proven health benefits, so it's great to eat them from a nutrition standpoint. Unfortunately, they cost an arm and a leg (around $7 per pound, so we eat them rarely).

Eggs (with the yolks) provide a ton of nutrients along with healthy saturated fats, and a standard carton costs less than $.60. Cage-free eggs have mild animal welfare benefits, but no nutritional benefits. Pasture-raised eggs are the gold standard, but these cost nearly ten times as much as conventionally raised eggs, but with a more limited additional benefit (nutritionally speaking). Because eggs are chicken embryos (unfertilized), they are more protected from environmental problems compared to the actual chickens. When it comes to upgrading for food quality, eggs are last on my list.

Beef also yields a nice dose of fat along with deliciousness, and we can find conventional beef for about $2-$3 per pound on sale. Personally, I've had no symptoms that make me think I need to upgrade to grass-fed/grass finished beef. If you've had hormonal issues, you may need to upgrade which makes beef quite a bit more expensive (around here it's about $6-$12 per pound for grass-fed/finished based on the cut).

In terms of added fats, canola oil, olive oil, and cod liver oil have proven benefits (I only eat the first two). Avocados and grass-fed butter are also rising stars. In terms of cost, Canola is the least expensive, and olive oil comes next. We consume a lot of both oils, with somewhat less butter. Avocados are pretty expensive, so we reserve them for times when they are on sale (am I bad millennial to say I don't love avocados?).

When it comes to nutrients, vegetables and meat (which I'll address later) are the superstars. Fruit has a lot of nutrients too, but on a calorie per nutrient basis, it's pretty expensive. Vegetables are especially easy to turn into frugal, nutrition stars because you can cover them with inexpensive, but nutritious fats.

Ideally, I like to eat 6-8 servings of vegetables per day, and maybe 1-2 servings of fruit (because it's delicious, and I can afford it). Rob and the kids eat closer to 2 servings of vegetables and 2-3 servings of fruit (although, yesterday my kids consumed an entire pound of peppers, so you really can't predict what they will eat).

Even in-season, conventionally grown fruits seem to be fairly expensive, but vegetables can be extremely frugal. We eat a lot of canned tomatoes (I cook with these), cabbage, onions, carrots, and peppers which are cheap year round at Aldi. I'll also buy a lot of whatever vegetable is on sale, and usually some leafy vegetable like spinach or lettuce.  Even with a huge haul, I usually spend less than $40 on vegetables per week (this includes what I spend on herbs, tubers, etc.). Then I add another $10-$15 worth of fruit. I usually buy whatever is on sale plus apples.

Now the real question with fruits and veg is to buy organic or not. First, it's important to note that conventional and organic fruits and veg are equally nutrient dense. Second, both are covered in herbicides and pesticides- organic pesticides are just less bad for the environment (in most cases). 

That's not to say these are pesticides are healthy to consume, they definitely aren't, but buying organic doesn't necessarily enhance the quality. Some people report that eating organic seems to aid their digestion, so it could be worth consideration if you have bad digestion (or hormonal issues). Personally, I think if you want to increase your food quality, I would consider starting a garden. It's costly in terms of time, but it's the best way to make sure that you're eating real quality.

I often hear frugal people say that you don't need to eat meat to get protein. That's true. You can get some protein through soy, legumes, and other plant sources. 

However, animal-based proteins offer superior nutrient density. Women only need about 50-75 grams of protein per day, and men need just 75-100 grams which is just about two decent servings of meat. To me, it seems worthwhile to eat a few servings of meat since we can afford it. I would even go so far as to say if you're only eating starch (say rice or potatoes), I would say that a dollar's worth of eggs or beef would be better than a dollar's worth of vegetables. Of course, nobody in the US eats only starch. So, I have to be careful with my recommendations. Nonetheless, one or two servings of meat, and a serving of eggs is a great way to get a ton of nutrient density at a frugal price point.

Beef in particular has Vitamin B, D, Iron, Zinc, Magnesium etc. Beef is unlikely to cause cancer, and it's generally safe to eat conventionally raised beef (which I can buy for $2-$3 per pound). I will happily make the argument that grass-fed beef is nutritionally superior based on Omega-3/Omega-6 ratios, but broadly speaking I'm happy with my conventional cows. I should mention, that beef is one place where I upgrade to grass-fed more often than I used to. It's only about twice as expensive ($6-$9 per pound).

Chicken is an extremely cheap source of protein, but it's not quite as loaded with vitamins and minerals as beef is. Still, at $.69 per pound it seems like a good frugal choice. The one thing that worries me about conventionally raised chickens is that they are filled with antibiotics that could spell gut disaster. I've switched to mostly antibiotic free chicken which is still quite cheap (less than $2 per pound), and at least a bit better (but not the best). My next food quality dollar will actually go towards pasture-raised chicken. These are chickens without growth hormones and without antibiotics. Interestingly, I've seen a lot of turkeys advertised as hormone/antibiotic free without being certified organic. 

When it comes to meat, the key is understanding how much you really need. 50 grams is just 200 calories of protein. 2 eggs, a quarter pound of ground beef, and some lentils get you where you need to be. Add a bit of chicken stir-fry, and you've hit 75 grams easily.

Even though I'm eating a lot more healthfully, we haven't killed our budget. Honestly, we're about 20% higher than we were, but I could healthfully bring us back to our baseline. It would just be a bit more work.

The key to keeping costs in line is cooking EVERYTHING yourself. You can save time by buying pre-cut veg or butcher box, or whatever, but that convenience comes at a steep price. 

If you focus on health, avoid dogmatism, and cook yourself, you may be surprised by how little you have to spend to eat healthfully. Now, I will say, my diet has room for improvement. I've explained the places (especially animal products) where I would like to increase my spending. The key for me is to make space in the budget for those upgrades. If my health were in a dire place, I would make the space. Given the luxury of currently good health, I'm waiting for an income bump first.

I should mention, Cary used to be a child advocacy lawyer, and now she teaches preschool. She's up to date on all the things related to children, education, and how to not screw up your kids.

​Anyways she gives each of her boys $15 per month. I think they get the money in one dollar bills. They give $2 to church. They get to save or spend $3, and they spend the remaining $10 on books. They get to pick any books they want.

Cary started this method to teach her boys about money and to encourage a love of reading. Basically, Cary and her husband wanted their boys to develop a habit of giving, so they built the $2 giving budget into the allowance. They wanted their boys to learn to save, so they kept the "pocket money" part of the budget small. The boys might blow it on stupid toys, but they may learn how to save. But most of all, she wants her boys to love reading, so she gave them a lot of money to put towards books. 

She cited a study about how kids who build their own library love to read more than kids who don't get to choose their books. I didn't actually fact check her on this, but Cary is an expert.

Part of the reason that I respect the INVEST allowance so much, is that Cary is guiding her boys towards age-appropriate self-investment. They don't need to buy gear to run home-businesses. They don't need computers or trucks or college degrees. They are in early elementary school. They need to learn to love reading to set themselves up for a lifetime of success. 

I think giving $10 for book-buying each month is a perfect idea. Personally, I plan to make three slight tweaks to this part of the allowance.

First, I'll adjust the amount downwards to $8 to start. Essentially, I'll encourage my kids to put half their money towards their personal development.

Second, this part of the allowance won't always be strictly for books. If my kids start to express interest in a "creative" endeavor (as in one where they create something), I'll allow them to direct their allowance toward other resources. For example, if they want to do Lego Animation, I'll allow them to buy animating software, a camera (maybe), and some lego heads. If they want to make soap, I'll allow them to purchase the raw materials. They get to choose (hence independently navigated), but Rob and I will confirm the value of the purchase first. 

Third, I expect that later on (maybe in the early teenage years), the amount of money that my kids will want is grow. I reserve the right to change the amount of money (or maybe go halvsies on big purchases).

Cary did a great job building basic money management into her allowance design. In particular I like that she emphasized the $2 monthly gift to church. Growing up, my parents always encouraged us to give generously, and I think this was important. If you can't give $2 out of $15 as a child, how can you give $20,000 out of $150,000 as an adult?

​I plan to retain that basic structure. Perhaps, when my kids are old enough to have a full conversation about money, I'll give them options about where to give, and the amount to give. Kids often want to give more, and I would love to encourage that.

I've taken one further liberty with the INVEST allowance. I'm splitting spending and saving into two groups. My kids will get $2 to save (a bit over 10%), and $3 to spend (20%). Kenny is already a spendy-McSpends-a-lot, so he needs practice saving for things he really wants. For example, he wants a drone. With dropping prices, he could have bought one, but he's spent every dollar he's ever earned/been given.

I think the idea of specifically separating the spending and saving accounts will help him develop some level of long-term perspective.

Kenny is just now able to count beyond 10, and has started to identify less than and more than. Those were the milestones I wanted in place before we started an allowance. So we start the allowance as soon as I get my butt to the bank.

In the first few months, I plan to use one dollar bills to teach Kenny about money management. I think cash is king early on. But as soon as seems reasonable, I would like to switch Kenny's allowance over to a prepaid debit card tool called FamZoo. I've heard tons of parents give the product great ratings. Plus it makes this "bucket" approach to allowances easy to implement.

One of the most common and least interesting debates in personal finance is whether you should use the debt snowball or the debt avalanche to get out of debt.

Here's a summary of the debate:

Team debt snowball tells you that you should pay off your debts smallest balance to largest balance. The psychological boost that you receive from paying off the small debts will motivate you to stick to the debt payoff plan.

Team debt avalanche says, "You fools." Math indicates that you should payoff the highest interest rate first. That way you'll pay less over time.

Why do we waste so much time on this debate? The reason is that we can see that some plan is better than no plan.

It's much better to focus on debt payoff than to pay a little bit off here, and a little off there.

However, isn't even better to make a tailored plan that will work?

One size fits all debt payoff plans don't work. Instead of assuming that your favorite type of frozen water will work for everyone, let's get a little bit smarter. This is a guide to making your own debt payoff plan that will work for you.

Before you make a debt payoff plan, you need to face the music. Ask, "Why am I in debt?"

Be gentle with yourself, but be truthful. Here are some common answers.

​Many people are in debt because of sudden and traumatic life events. An accident or illness can force a person out of the workforce and cause their medical bills to pile up sky high for a few months or even years.

Perhaps your business failed (or even succeeded), but you financed the entire startup on 18% personal credit cards.

It's now common for people to start their career with five figures or more of student loan debt that may or may not tie to their employability.

Some people get whacked with frequent minor emergencies that land them in credit card debt. Other people look like they have frequent minor emergencies, but they've just failed to plan ahead.

Some people fritter money away and wind up in various types of debts.

Still others think they can live like a fancy person on an unfancy income.

Maybe an employee embezzled funds, or maybe the market for your company suddenly evaporated due to disruptive technology or legislation.

​Should all these people with different stories all approach their debt payoff the same way? I think not. If your story involves a behavior that you should change, that needs to be a big part of your payoff plan.  But you need to know first.

 Th​Hindsight is 20/20, so use the benefit of perfect vision to say what you would have done differently. Would have spent less, perhaps implementing a budgeting system. You may wish you hadn't gone to college or to get that second degree.

Perhaps you would set aside a little money each month so that you don't have to deal with little emergencies every month. Maybe you would have purchased disability insurance, or maybe you wouldn't have listened to your heart when you hired that fraudster.

I'm not saying that you should regret your debt. I don't recommend shaming yourself for your past decisions. I'm simply asking, what would you have done differently? Was the debt worth it? Sometimes the answer to this question will be an enthusiastic "YES!"

Maybe debt allowed you or a loved one to go on living, or at least spend some time together before your loved one died. Perhaps your business debt has returned itself 100 times over. It's possible that you plan to go into debt again.

What you would have done differently may be instructive in helping you devise a debt payoff plan. Not only that, it instructs you on how to stay out of debt in the future. This is almost as important as paying off the debt to begin with. In a future guide on staying out of debt, I'll tackle this again. For now, its only important to know what behavior you could have changed.

Now that you understand how past behavior contributed to current debts, let's help you make a real debt payoff plan. The framework for the next two steps comes almost directly from an old episode of Joshua Sheats podcast, Radical Personal Finance. Listen to the podcast if you want extensive details, but I've done my best to summarize and explain how I've helped others in the past.

Whether your a few hundred in debt or a few hundred million in debt, it pays to know how much debt you're dealing with.

Now, organizing this information can be complicated. I recommend creating physical representations of your debts. Write out the total amount owed, to whom it is owed, the interest rate of the loan. If you're dealing with multiple millions of dollars of debts, and you owe more than 10 parties, this system isn't going to be sophisticated enough for making a plan. Still, it can be instructive.

At the very least, enter the recommended information into a spreadsheet (or have your bookkeeper do it).

​Using a calculator or your spreadsheet, I recommend that you total the amount due.

Let the number sink in for a bit. A lot of people feel shocked when they see how much debt they've accumulated. I think it's good to give yourself some time for emotion.

If I could suggest a step three part b, it might be let the numbers sit for a day or two. You've done some emotionally exhausting work, and you might need a break.

You know how much debt you're in, but do you really understand the debt. Making a great payoff plan requires that you understand how your debt is structured.

The terms of your debt has several components, but these are the most important to consider:

• What is the interest rate?
• Is the debt secured or unsecured?
• Is the interest on this debt deductible?
• Can this debt be refinanced?
• Is this debt bankruptible?
• Will the interest rate change (balloon) in the future?
• If my interest rate will change in the future, will I owe "back interest" on the debt? This is common with X months interest free financing deals.
• Am I making progress in paying down principal?
• How long will it take to pay off the debt if I pay minimum payments.

Why do these questions matter?
Well, everything held equal (including your behavior):

• Higher interest rates hurt your net worth more than lower interest rates.
• Defaulting on secured debt will hurt you more than unsecured debt.
• You would want to pay off non-deductible interest debt before deductible
• You may want to refinance the loans to a better term.
• You would prioritize non-bankruptible debt over bankruptible debt.
• Ballooning debt represents future risk. We're in a low interest rate environment now, but the future can change. If your interest rate goes up, your minimum monthly payment will increase. Can you handle that?
• Owing back interest stinks. It's nice to avoid that if possible.
• If you're not making progress towards principal, you will literally never be debt free unless you pay more than the minimum payments.
• From a cash flow perspective, it's easier to make minimum payments for a short time than a longer time.

​The terms of your debt matter! As you make your personalized debt payoff plan, consider the amounts of your debt and the terms.

Now that you have a good understanding of your debt, you need to understand what behavior you can change that will lead you to pay off your debt the quickest. These are the best options (that I can see).

• Big Wins: Sell the house, sell the car, sell everything in sight. When you do your taxes, take your entire refund and put it towards your debt and set reset on your life. If you've got a net worth above zero, this might be a good option for you. Imagine, life without debt is within reach. With even moderate planning, you can avoid taking on consumer debt again.  Big wins are how most of my debt free friends became debt free. This process cuts the debt payoff time to just a few months.
• Focus: If you don't have significant assets, you can cut expenses and raise your income in a focused manner. Harness the power of focus by choosing a debt snowball or a debt avalanche. This method works best if your debt to income ratio is less than 2. Even with a great plan, you can't easily sustain focus for more than a few years, so this is for average people, with average consumer debts who need to make an above average change. You can do it!
• Income: If you've gotten into a huge debt load, and you have "deal-making" ability, you need to use those abilities to generate huge income gains. This is for the Donald Trump, Dave Ramsey, and other crazy business folks who end up in 7+ Figures of debt from stupid deal making. Yes, you need to cut back on lifestyle, but you really, really, really need to make a lot of money.
• Bankruptcy protection: I advocate being a person of your word, but sometimes a combination of bad luck and bad decisions coalesce into an unsolvable problem. We don't have debtors prison. If you can't pay back your debt (maybe you had brain cancer but no health insurance), the United States has laws to protect you. Bankruptcy isn't some walk in the park, but if it's your best option, go for it.

A huge proportion of the population will pay off their debt through Big Wins or Focus, but those might not work for you. What will? Make a decision, so that you can take the final step.

Once you're equipped with the knowledge and insights from the previous steps, a debt payoff plan will practically write itself. Maybe you do need to follow the snowball or avalanche plan. But maybe you don't.

Every person has different risks. People who itemize deductions should view debt differently than those who don't. People who will have their student loans forgiven should behave differently than those who won't. People who have assets can view debt differently than those who don't. 

It's always smart to understand the terms of your debt, and what debt poses the most risk to you. It's also smart to understand what plan will help you get the most traction.

It's your debt payoff plan. Do what makes sense to you.

These are a few tips as you make your plan.

• If you need to harness focus, choose the debt snowball or the debt avalanche. If you want to do the math about which is  better for you, use this calculator on Magnify Money.
• Back interest is horrible. If you don't plan to pay that off before it's due, make a plan to refinance.
• If you should refinance, get your credit to good or excellent first. Then, Refinance debts as quickly as possible. Consolidating to a low interest credit card, a personal loan, or a balance transfer card makes sense in some situations.
• Move quickly and decisively on your plan. Harness your emotion against debt and the powerful behavior you previously identified to put your plan into action.
• If you fall off the bandwagon, get back on sooner than later. 

Get organized, understand your incentives, and harness the power of the one behavior that will make the biggest difference in your life. You can do it!

Let me know in the comments if I've missed anything.

Total spending for the quarter was: $11,453 or an average of $3809 per month. 

Our reported spending does not include any charitable giving, income/payroll taxes, expenses associated with our rental property, or work related expenses (I did include expenses related to upcoming FinCon since that is an unusual expense for my business which normally operates with just a few software related expenses).

Since it's been a while since I've recapped our spending, you might have a few questions:
First, you'll notice that we don't have a rent or mortgage payment. We own our house outright, and actually could get paid to live here. Unfortunately we have a home remodeling addiction, so we spend at least a few hundred dollars fixing our house every month. You'll see these costs under home maintenance. Home maintenance also includes property taxes on our primary residence which we paid this quarter.The good news on this front is that we're almost done remodeling. The bad news? We'll probably be moving in less than a year. 

Second, You'll notice that our largest expense is childcare even though neither Rob nor I works full time. Why is this? It's because we pay a babysitter 3 afternoons a week to watch the kids while I work. We also have Kenny in a preschool, and we count that expense as childcare. He goes 3 days a week, and had quite a bit of trouble adjusting to the rigorous preschool schedule. It seems like he's doing much better now, so I'm thankful we stuck through those first few weeks. Kenny loves being with other kids, so it's a big relief to me that he can handle preschool from an academic perspective. Next year, Kenny will be kindergarten aged, and we're planning to homeschool. I think that play based education is the best way for kids to learn, but it's not common teaching method in public schools. Some private and charter schools offer this method, but we will move around the start of the new school year, so we won't have enough time to research in advance, so homeschool it is.

Insurance includes life, disability, and health insurance for the whole family. We get a killer deal for Rob and the Kids through his school, and I use a health sharing plan rather than health insurance. I'm also underinsured with disability, so that's bad. But in good news, our insurance costs are super low!

Finally, you may see that groceries carry a pretty heavy weight in our family. These costs are only going up as our two littlest eaters become two medium sized eaters. I've also stopped eating sugar and started eating more vegetables and protein. This nudges our grocery bill a bit higher since vegetables have very few calories and make up a bigger part of my diet. Bread and peanut butter are also really cheap foods, but I'm eating less bread than I used to in an effort to overhaul my diet. I expect our grocery costs to hit somewhere around $600 per month rather than the $450 a month that we've become accustomed to. The good news on this front- I feel awesome! If you ever want to feel great, try a two week sugar fast. You'll feel like crap for several days and then... BREAKTHROUGH awesome. Just be sure you eat enough calories. If you don't eat very many fatty foods you'll waste away to nothing in a hurry (or maybe I just ate an unusual quantity of sugar everyday).

Thanks to my rock solid investing strategy (maybe), Great market performance, and decent earnings, and a cash transfer that I will not ever discuss in detail, we've seen another gangbusters quarter for the Rounds Family.

Our Net Worth is Now up to $646,000 up $47K from our last quarter's update. This includes the value of our home and rental property at the price we bought them. We expect that our rental property is worth perhaps $4-$5k more than our buying price, but we'll have to upgrade the bathroom prior to selling, so call it a wash. Our personal home is in an area going gangbusters. Thanks to all of Rob's hard work and a red hot market, we expect to earn around $100k over our buy price on the property.

Assets are broken down as follows:
Cash- $85K
Invested Assets- $415K
Real Estate- $130K

Let me know if you have questions!