Living Like No One Else

I figured that I didn't have enough to do in the week or maybe I have just rationalized that I'd rather be doing this than some of the other items that I could be doing. I thought this might be a fun way to share some of my personal stories without having to share everything in class. Like I mentioned in the beginning that I didn't sign up to be a coordinator because I have all the right answers or that I'm a shining example of financial success. In fact I think just the opposite I would say that my examples thus far in my life has been ones of stupidity. Dave Ramsey likes to call mistakes made with money "Stupid Tax" and I'm going to be paying for my stupid tax for awhile.

My wife Nicole and I started Financial Peace University last Feb 08. We started with 49K in debt, that included a few credit cards and two car loans. Over the last year we have paid that down to 18K as of yesterday after we finally lowered the price and sold our car having tried to sell it for 6 months at a price that was too high. We are happy that we have sold it, but also realize the pain of only having one car. I think this is what Dave means by "Living Like No One Else, So That You Can Live Like No One Else." My kids remind me daily of how much Dave Ramsey has ruined their lives.

It's hard to change habits and tell each other no when it's dinner time and you want to go out to eat at a restaurant instead of hearing the kids complain about something Nicole has fixed them to eat. The kids adapt and they are learning that even though we want to go eat out we're sacrificing something we want now for something that's better later and for the first time in our lives were showing some responsibility for our spending habits. I was in the habit of always trying to out earn my stupidity. Eventually it catches up to you and our life started to sound like a country song. We were using credit cards to pay our bills when we had more month than money with the idea that I would work a little extra on freelance jobs to pay it all back.

Nicole and I just got tired of it all. We were fighting about money and who spent what, and why?! Now that we have a budget and we know where every dollar is being spent for the month. We have grown closer together because we communicate. We talk through our financial hurdles instead of pretending the problem will go away. I love my wife for really sacrificing to make this work. Now we just get pumped up about paying something off. Little wars that we win against debt one step at a time. We lose some battles when Murphy shows up, but we both have goals in sight and we're on the same page. My advice is to really take these next few lessons serious and try to implement a budget and stick to it. I know when you do you will see changes for the better immediately.

I told Nicole tonight that I was setting a goal to be completely out of debt except for my home by the end of this year. That means I have 18K that I still owe, but I also have to replace the car that we sold eventually so I'll have to save up an additional 10k making the total for the year 28K to pay off. It has now been written and now I have to lay the plan of How.