Who Put Wings on My Money?!!

"Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle." Proverbs 23:5

Our budgeting lesson last night was really good!  We are on lesson 4 of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University course, and TJ and I are finding it very helpful.  TJ's already familiar with Dave Ramsey and his principles of saving money, reducing debt, and "living like no one else so that later we can live, like no one else!"  I wish with all my heart that I had known this stuff when I was a young adult just earning money!  If I had started saving and investing as a teen, our little family would have never had to go into debt at all, and we would already have some nice savings started.  I am thankful that I never went into debt (until I bought my second car, that is!), but I had almost no savings when I got married to show for working full time for seven years.  That is just sooooo sad!!!  I didn't know any better though, and I didn't have a plan for my finances.  

TJ has a much better excuse than I do for being broke ass poor.  His parents never paid him anything for all his years and years of working for them, and so he literally had no money until he got his first job delivering pizza and moved out.  And then we got married a year later.   He still would have been fine except that he totaled his car and went through three cars and three months....then he met a girl, and that is expensive (wink wink!)  (I am not an expensive girlfriend, per se.  Most of our dates were taking long walks all over town, or driving to see people.  But it still adds up!)

My spending habits are still in the process of being curbed and retrained, and it can be painful at times!  I'm not the kind of person who goes out and buys tons of useless stuff and maxes out credit cards with new shoes and things like that.  I'm the kind of person who maxes out credit cards with "bargains" and "sales...."  "It's only $5!  We will need it at some point!  It's only $10 and would be sooo useful for the house!  Ooooh look at that adorable outfit for the girls!!!  It's only $20!"  And I twenty dollared us into a bit of credit card debt--not much compared to most people, but enough to be very uncomfortable and expensive (credit cards charge ridiculously high interest!!!)

I believe with all my heart that financial training, advice, and counseling should be an absolutely essential part of every child's schooling from a young age--no matter if they're public schooled or home schooled or any other kind of schooled.  How else are they going to get a good start in life?  This is why 49% of young men under 30 still live with their parents these days!

Financial counseling is far more important for young couples than "marriage counseling" in my opinion.  If finances are the number ONE cause of divorce these days--and they are!--logically shouldn't financial counseling be essential?!  It would very quickly show whether a young couple was compatible and had the same goals in life or not!

Money is slippery stuff with a mind of it's own, and has to be taught and beaten into submission.  We are currently in the beating process, and I am enjoying it.  I like telling my money what to do!  Sometimes it gets away from me again, but the accountability I have with my husband and our friends the Geersens is incredibly helpful.  God bless you, you wonderful people!