That night, Steve and I went to church and I saw a poster on the give away table. It had written on it:
Aspire not to have more, but to be more.
I picked it up and brought it home to put up in our kitchen. I stuck it on our white board with some sticky tape so that everyone can see it everyday.
Since starting Dave's book, I have sat down and started looking at our budget. I have been running a budget on my computer for 18 months now and thought I had pretty good control over our money. When I read Dave's book though, I realized we waste a lot of money on things that really are not necessary.
Tonight I sat down and worked out our incoming and outgoing. I was astounded when I realized how much money we actually spend each fortnight on things that really are not necessary at all.
Dave's financial freedom plan comes from wanting less and saying no to ourselves rather than buying something before we can afford it.
Steve and I have had some pretty lean times in our marriage and fortunately we have never run up a huge credit card bill. We also have waited till we have money for anything non essential. We haven't ever bought anything on interest free terms or without having the cash to pay for it.
So with Dave's plan we are starting off ahead of most people that start this. Dave's book is aimed at people that have a huge debt with college loans, car loans and credit card debt.
Dave goes through 5 baby steps to become debt free.
1st step is save $1000 for emergencies.
2nd step is pay off any debt (besides your home loan).
3rd step is save 3 - 6 months of living expenses.
4th step is pay of your home loan.
5th step is investing for your future and retirement.
Dave encourages people in his book to live more simply and not try and keep up with the Jones. I was thinking about it this weekend. We have so many wants and even though Steve and I can afford them right now without going into a huge debt, we really are not looking after our future and paying off our debt first.
I worked out a new budget tonight that increases our payments off our home loan and has us spending less on things that are not necessary. With our new budget, we are cutting many years off our home loan repayments. I was astounded how going without a little, will save us a whole heap over time and how much quicker the loan will be gone.
We can also aspire to be more rather than aspire to have more. Every time I walk past the poster each day I am going to remind myself that things are not necessary to be happy.
Therese.
11 comments:
Great post Therese, I enjoyed reading this. Sounds like a very interesting book.
I am proud to say that we have most of those steps under control and have even doubled our house payments for the moment, so we are learning to go without other things too.
Tania
that's a great book therese, enjoy!
A great post! I should follow your example. To me it's also a matter of good stewardship, of looking after that which god has given me not wasting it and using it to bless myself family and others. I do it poorly but aspire to do better :) I'd love to be able to give a percentage of our income to others more needy. We live in a country of such plenty and I feel so fortunate that we live in a society that helps those who are too ill to support themselves. I got so excited when I started work again because I paid tax, I was finally contributing again. It was a real good feeling for me after years of being home with the kids and just taking to finally be giving back to the country I am so blessed to live in.
We read the book 2 years ago...we are still learning...baby steps,, but he is very inspiring!!!
I am going to check out that book. Thanks for the recommendation. We've been re-evaluating our budget, too, so this comes at a good time.
I am a HUGE Dave Ramsey fan. Wish he had been around when we were your age...
I've only read or read of a few things Ramsey teaches and mostly I think it's great. We follow nearly the same priorities he suggests (figured out on our own.)
Even though I've not read much from Dave Ramsey, I do have a favorite Dave Ramsey quote:
"Act your wage!"
Excellent post!!
Thanks for joining us at Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival.
Well said! We are big Dave Ramsey fans here--we pay cash for everything. No credit. I listen to (part of) his radio show every afternoon. The man is selling common sense. I know that so many Americans could use a little more common sense and a little less greed. ;) Good luck!
Hi Therese,
This post is excellent!
When we owned our first home in 1990, we paid $5 extra off our home loan each week, and this cut about 10 years off our loan repayments - amazing, isn't it?
Owning our own home is something that we have had to work hard for, and being on a tight budget along the way, sometimes it wasn't easy. Frugal has been the word for the last 19 years, but praise God, we are now debt free.
We don't book anything up on credit card - if we don't have the money, we go without until we do have it.
My dad gave me a sound understanding of economics, and although he passed away at 54, I shall remember him always for his gift that I use every day.
His words were simple:
Don't buy on credit - you can't live with champagne tastes on a beer budget - OK, I don't drink, but the analogy makes sense.
Always pay the bills before everything else, and then fill the car up with petrol.
Shop with what you have left, and then if there's anything left over, bank it.
Have a wonderful week.
Blessings,
Jillian
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