"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender." ~Proverbs 22:6-7 (NKJV)
Did you even know those two rather famous Bible verses go together? That "training up a child" involves giving them the knowledge that the borrower is servant to the lender? This is wisdom far more ancient than the current "American Way" of credit, debt and consequently, fear. We don't even have to look very far back to find this wisdom practiced. My grandparents, children of the Great Depression, took this wisdom to heart and as far as I know, never borrowed for anything but instead paid cash or did without. They lived a good life and my grandma, who's still alive at 93, was able to live on savings and a modest pension until age 90 or so when she had to go to a nursing home.
George and I want to practice being more wise.
Yesterday I asked him, "why do you want to have financial peace?" He started talking in his usual kinda flowery way about seeing a light at the end of a tunnel, and some other stuff I pretty much tuned out. (I wanted to hear him give the same "answer" I was thinking of, don't you know.) I asked him to be more specific and concrete, and he said something that made some sense. "I want to save up for things that are going to happen, rather than be paying for things that already happened."
Good point. Dave Ramsey asks: "How many of you have had a vacation follow you home?" In the form of bills. Ah, yep, we raised our hands (figuratively, we were watching him on video in our class). We're still paying off last year's trip to Virginia and Pennsylvania to see family. Oh, it was a great trip and we thoroughly enjoyed it but we've been in debt slavery to our credit card ever since. And this happens every time, in spite of the fact that we know we will visit his family every 1-2 years. We have thought of these trips as necessities as in "we have to go whether we have the money or not" instead of thinking "we have to budget some savings for this trip every month because it's a necessity to visit family".
And wow, if you look at our bills to income ratio, you'll know why we haven't been saving much. The expenses nearly equal the income, and that's one reason we have to get rid of our debts. We'll never get "ahead" as long as there's a car payment.
But here's the crux of it for me, and George is happy to agree: I want to finally practice the wisdom of living below our means. Living below! Have you even heard of it? Back when I was a student, a pastor preached a sermon about living below our means. This just about knocked me over because all I had ever known (leaving my grandparents aside) was living ABOVE our means. Being in debt. Owing payments. I didn't even know it was possible to live.below.your.means.
Here's why living below your means is so great: you get to do whatever you want with the "extra". For me the goal is to GIVE 10% of our income, and to SAVE 10% of our income. That means we have to be able to live on 80% of our income, or less. It means our bills have to be in alignment with that goal. It means getting ourselves out of debt.
There are some other reasons we want to get out of debt. On the negative side are those great motivators--fear and terror about this economy, potential rights being stripped from teachers, and pay cuts or layoffs especially when you're a music teacher. I actually kinda like fear and terror because I find them terribly pushy and good for me at times.
But then there's also the positives: hopes and dreams. I really, really like those two because they also motivate. They give us something to look forward to and work for. We want to take our kids to Europe, and Out West. We want to keep Rose in the private school where she is finally happy. We want to give ourselves good things and things we can feel good about because we planned for them and made them happen.
So that's it. The main reasons why all this matters. Stay tuned for some of the agony tomorrow as I take you along for some of the heart-wrenching questions. How the heck do we accomplish this debt-free-ness, and do we have to sell our wonderful car to do it?!
Did you even know those two rather famous Bible verses go together? That "training up a child" involves giving them the knowledge that the borrower is servant to the lender? This is wisdom far more ancient than the current "American Way" of credit, debt and consequently, fear. We don't even have to look very far back to find this wisdom practiced. My grandparents, children of the Great Depression, took this wisdom to heart and as far as I know, never borrowed for anything but instead paid cash or did without. They lived a good life and my grandma, who's still alive at 93, was able to live on savings and a modest pension until age 90 or so when she had to go to a nursing home.
George and I want to practice being more wise.
Yesterday I asked him, "why do you want to have financial peace?" He started talking in his usual kinda flowery way about seeing a light at the end of a tunnel, and some other stuff I pretty much tuned out. (I wanted to hear him give the same "answer" I was thinking of, don't you know.) I asked him to be more specific and concrete, and he said something that made some sense. "I want to save up for things that are going to happen, rather than be paying for things that already happened."
Good point. Dave Ramsey asks: "How many of you have had a vacation follow you home?" In the form of bills. Ah, yep, we raised our hands (figuratively, we were watching him on video in our class). We're still paying off last year's trip to Virginia and Pennsylvania to see family. Oh, it was a great trip and we thoroughly enjoyed it but we've been in debt slavery to our credit card ever since. And this happens every time, in spite of the fact that we know we will visit his family every 1-2 years. We have thought of these trips as necessities as in "we have to go whether we have the money or not" instead of thinking "we have to budget some savings for this trip every month because it's a necessity to visit family".
And wow, if you look at our bills to income ratio, you'll know why we haven't been saving much. The expenses nearly equal the income, and that's one reason we have to get rid of our debts. We'll never get "ahead" as long as there's a car payment.
But here's the crux of it for me, and George is happy to agree: I want to finally practice the wisdom of living below our means. Living below! Have you even heard of it? Back when I was a student, a pastor preached a sermon about living below our means. This just about knocked me over because all I had ever known (leaving my grandparents aside) was living ABOVE our means. Being in debt. Owing payments. I didn't even know it was possible to live.below.your.means.
Here's why living below your means is so great: you get to do whatever you want with the "extra". For me the goal is to GIVE 10% of our income, and to SAVE 10% of our income. That means we have to be able to live on 80% of our income, or less. It means our bills have to be in alignment with that goal. It means getting ourselves out of debt.
There are some other reasons we want to get out of debt. On the negative side are those great motivators--fear and terror about this economy, potential rights being stripped from teachers, and pay cuts or layoffs especially when you're a music teacher. I actually kinda like fear and terror because I find them terribly pushy and good for me at times.
But then there's also the positives: hopes and dreams. I really, really like those two because they also motivate. They give us something to look forward to and work for. We want to take our kids to Europe, and Out West. We want to keep Rose in the private school where she is finally happy. We want to give ourselves good things and things we can feel good about because we planned for them and made them happen.
So that's it. The main reasons why all this matters. Stay tuned for some of the agony tomorrow as I take you along for some of the heart-wrenching questions. How the heck do we accomplish this debt-free-ness, and do we have to sell our wonderful car to do it?!
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