Financial Peace

I am a free spirit.

umm...well, I'm a flexible spirit.

ok, ok... I'M A LAZY SPIRIT!!

Shew. I said it.

Up until last February, my money management skills were nonexistent. They left a lot to be desired and we suffered because of it.  My husband and I were given a chance to sit in the comfort of our home and watch the 13 disc Financial Peace University series from Dave Ramsey. I know a lot of people have heard of him, read his books, maybe even taken a course in FPU. I am so grateful we took the time out, 1 hour every evening, to watch these DVD's. And, we didn't even have to find a sitter. BONUS!

We both decided we NEEDED to get our finances in order and stop being such "Free Spirits" about money.

I now have PEACE about money.

I know where every dollar goes every paycheck and we have an emergency fund in place for...emergencies.

I cannot fully express the joy, contentment, and gratitude that comes with not worrying about money.

We don't have a lot of money. Turns out, we don't NEED a lot of money.

WHAT?! Shut the front door.

We do not NEED a lot of money.

We live a lifestyle that doesn't require much from us financially. We have no mortgage, no car payments, no credit card debt, no internet at the house. after all of those are factored out of the equation are aren't left with too much. Insurances costs quite a bit. We have animals and children to feed. Property taxes on our land, etc, etc. But once we changed the way we lived life, our finances balanced out. We seperate necessity from luxury and try for the simple life.

How did we do it?

D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E.

yuck.

gag.

quit it.

We made a concious effort and dug our heels in and did the deed. (not that deed)

I wish I could tell you it was soooo easy and all you had to do was follow these three steps:

1. make a cup of coffee

2. open up your wallet

3. watch in amazement as your finances take car of themselves.

It ain't gonna happen. I tried that. The only I got from that was a caffeine buzz.

These were the main things that helped us out:

1. Zero balance budget: you know where EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR in your account goes and you TAKE IT OUT IN CASH! Leave only in your account what you need for automatic withdraws. We stopped using our card altogether. That plastic has a mind of its own. You go into walmart for toilet paper and walk out with candles, a jacket, gadget #1, gizmo #2 and your card takes itself out of your wallet and shimmies through the card reader like a snake in the grass. Scold your card all you want (I did) but, deep down, you know it's your own fault. Cash. Envelopes. Lifesaver. I have two sets: one stays with me (daily expenses) and one stays at home (monthly expenses). Every dollar has a home. you determine the home, but those precious bucks go to their homes and STAY THERE. Short a $1 in the "groceries" envelope? wanna take it from "vehicles"? NO! Don't do it. That's just not where that dollar lives. How would you like it if you were just uprooted from your home and forced to live in a place like "Vehicles"? (If you take too much out of the house fund you just might end up there.)

2. Emergency Fund: $1000 is the goal. But start off with what you can and build build build. Having an emergency fund is AMAZING. Relaxing. Peaceful.

3. Debt Snowball: You have 7 credit cards. In turn, you have 7 credit card payments. Pay off your smallest debt first. Forget interest rates. Forget principal. Pay off the smallest debt and then put that payment toward the next smallest debt. Example: Lowe's card payment- $50/month. Visa payment- $60/month. Pay off the Lowe's card and use the $50 for your Visa payment and now you are paying $110/month on your Visa. THAT'S ALMOST DOUBLE! you pay off the Visa DOUBLE TIME! HAMMER TIME! Pay off the Visa and add $110 to your Student Loan payment of $70 and you are now paying $180/month on your student loan. But it doesn't stop there... OH NO. you get that student loan paid off and add the $180 to your next debt and it just keeps snowballing. And you become a baller. Genius, Dave Ramsey. Genius. Here's a link to explain more: http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/how-the-debt-snowball-method-works

4. This should be obvious after #3- Stop the debt. No more credit cards. Not even for emergencies (thus the emergency fund). Just stop it. Quit. No. Don't do it. I don't wanna hear it.

All that being said, we still struggled for a few months to make ends meet because our ends were scattered everywhere like spaghetti. But we are starting to feel the peace that comes with not worrying about money.

I have a few friends who have benefited just from a brief discussion about how we do finances and I hope you benefit too. We should not worry about money. We should all have financial peace. I'm not a financial guru (so far from it), but I am very grateful for the small steps we have taken and want to pass those steps along.

Wishing everyone out there financial peace and...HAIR PEACE!