I picked up Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover in February and read it. I loved it so much I read the book he co-authored with his daughter, Rachel Cruze, right after that: Smart Money, Smart Kids. This book referenced a book called Confessions of a Scholarship Winner, which I am reading. Then I read Rachel's book, Love Your Life, Not Theirs. One of these books mentioned The Richest Man in Babylon, which I also read. That book said to consult with people who were success with money for help. During my reading of that book, I went to our community fitness center's grand reopening and heard two men talking about a finance class. One had been the T.A. for the other. I told him I was very interested in learning about finance, and he referred me to a web site, and then, almost as an afterthought, recommended I read the book, Think and Grow Rich, which I am currently reading.
Since beginning to read all of these books, I have seen some amazing results. My husband and I have set a goal to pay off our mortgage in the next two years. In our first month of working toward this goal, we were able to pay three times more down on the mortgage than we had budgeted for. We took $2900 we received as a stimulus check, over $3000 of refunded money from our children's homeschool, and the money we had budgeted and made a year's worth of mortgage payments in less than one month. I woke in the night, wondering if I could sell sky miles and learned that we could sell our miles for around $2000. My husband found a forgotten gift card for $200. He remembered the gold coin his work had given him. We have looked up the van that has been sitting unused in our driveway, and it may sell for $3000. As we have set this goal, we are seeing potential for reaching it even before our deadline.
My husband is the developer behind the finance app, Nanci I have had a hard time getting behind his business idea, but the afterthought of the book Think and Grow Rich has shown me the error in my negative thinking. I have started using the app and am encouraging his effort to create his own company. He has been working on this for a few years, and I wonder if part of the reason it is has not gone anywhere has been because of my negativity.
I feel a great desire to encourage people to look into their finances and make them successful rather than stressful. There is so much material out there to help people learn what to do to be solvent and smart. Good finances don't just happen. They are created by thought, learning, habits, and decision-making. My husband and I have lived within our income for years, though we have carried a mortgage. What we haven't done well is create a budget, identify our values, adhere to our budget, and set goals. Budgeting has been something we just never kept up on. We started a budget in February, and we have found it so helpful! It is helpful to be able to sit down and think about the needs and wants we have in a month and then to be purposeful in our purchases. It is so helpful to be saving for something we want or need. It is wonderful to be able to say to the children, "That is not in the budget."
My in-laws gave us a copy of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace book after we had been married for just a couple of years. (We are approaching seventeen years of marriage.) We learned and used those baby steps, and those have been a helpful guide to focus our efforts. We did first gather $1000 for an emergency fund. Then we paid off our debt. Ten months after we graduated from college, we were able to pay off our student loans. It was a miracle. We paid off our last debt the day we found out our baby we were expecting was a girl. We always saw financial miracles around the births of our babies. We graduated from college with a combined $15,000 of debt, some student loans and some car loans. We received a large tax return that spring, over $5000, which we had never received before. Then Russell was given a retroactive STEM scholarship for $5000. For ten months, we just lived like poor college students and paid $500 on our loans until the last $5000 was paid. $5000 must be our lucky number.
Next, we started accumulating a larger emergency fund, including food storage. We spend our first $1200 of excess money on food that could go on our shelves. Then we worked to accumulate a three to six month supply of cash. I don't remember how quickly that came together. I feel like it was a slower process. Within a couple of years of graduation, we were able to start saving 15% of our income in a 401k with Russell's work. Not until two years ago did we start to save for our children's college funds, but those accounts are each nearing $4000. Looking at The Millionaire Next Door, we have assessed that, for our ages, we are right where we should be saving toward retirement. We are not Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth, nor are we Under-Accumulators of Wealth. We are right where the author would suggest we be. We have done a few expensive projects as we have been saving toward retirement. We put about $50,000 into our home remodel, trying to make it a more comfortable space. We bought an eight seat van last fall, and then found out in March that that was a need--I learned I was pregnant with our sixth child. We also redid our shower, which we hadn't been able to use for a year. We probably could have been out of debt by now, mortgage paid for, but we were not focusing hard on a next goal.
Now we are. We have $112,000 to pay off.
Dave Ramsey recommends reading something about finances every year to keep you sharp. I see the importance of that too. I was not as motivated two months ago before reading some of these books. But things are changing in our home, and I am excited to reach our goal of becoming debt free! I am also excited about the who process. It is astonishing to see things working out and coming together.
Last week, a friend of mine texted and offered me some baby items. I had given all of mine away, thinking I was finished having children. I am 43 years-old. She was cleaning out her crawl space and offered me her crib, pack-n-play, and bouncy seat. She had no idea we had a tightened up budget without room for expensive baby items. I felt blessed by her. I also have no maternity clothes. My plan is to go to yard sales as the weather is warming up and find some inexpensive, used clothes. But this morning, I also pulled out a pair of pants I hadn't worn in a while and found they go just under the belly and will be helpful for the next month or two while my belly isn't very big. And I am sure we will see other things work out as we stay the course as well as we can over the next while.
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