I am often intrigued by articles that say things like, “How I paid $80,000 off in 6 months,” and “I slayed my student loans in under a year!” But once I read these articles, I find out that these individuals make over $200,000 annually, live in a low-cost area, and have roommates.

The first half of the year I did really well meeting my financial goals. I was able to pay down my consumer debt and increase my savings as well as my investment accounts.

I’m smoking my quarterly goals this year so far. Part of my success has been that my goals were realistic and attainable, the other part has been that this year has been good to me so far. A few things that have worked to my advantage:

Only nine states in the United States are considered Community Property States with Alaska having an option for couples to select community property. If you live in the any of the other 40 or 41 states, this doesn’t apply to you. A quick definition of community property: property acquired during a marriage is joint property or owned by both spouses regardless if only one spouse’s name is on the item, deed, bill, etc.

News about the health of the economy seems to be contradictory; on one hand, auto sales and the housing market are on an uptick, yet on the other job creation is flat. Too many articles are mentioning how few are benefiting from the stock market growth by either suggesting the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer or flat out stating this as a fact.