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  • Budgeting Works!

    To gain financial freedom you must take control of your money, plan for the future and Stop Borrowing Money!
    Two families striving to gain financial freedom share their experiences.
    Blog Author Mona Weathers (monawea)


    Co-author, Manda C.

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Put down your rock. It’s you that matters in Financial Peace.

put-down-your-rock-its-you-that-matters-in-financial-peace

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Admittedly, I’ve been a media hermit the last few months.  I was vaguely aware that a mother had given birth to eight children last week.  Information has trickled down and people are shocked that this single woman living on disability, and already with six children can afford IVF- and apparently shows up for television interviews with perfectly manicured nails.  Perhaps I have a more realistic view of the world and that’s why I don’t share the same amount of shock.  People living in million dollar homes, driving fully loaded luxury cars, talking on iPhones, watching Plasma screen TVs are now being tossed out in the cold because they can’t pay their bills.  We live in a society of excess, and I’m shocked that we point fingers at her, question her financial situation- when we’re no better off financially.  Babies and families are involved in each of the situations.  Looking at the situation from strictly a finacial one, (and I’ll admit there are many more layers to this onion), we’re standing at her stoneing- rock in hand. 

As a nation- we have a skewed view of what one can afford.  I’ve done it when I’ve taken on car loans.  Our financial planning used to be something like this: take the house note and utilities subtract it from our monthly income, and everything left over was what we could “afford”.   We weren’t holding tight to our dollars.  We were buying with money we expected- and as the unemployment rate continues to soar- what we hope we’d have at the end of the month.  We could afford it if the finance company said we could.  There’s talk of a credit crisis in the US, and the need to fix it because our government has the same thought.  We’re counthing chickens before their hatched- cooking the books and lying to ourselves and calling it a financial truth.

J and I are pretty close to dumping our debt- and it will be done when we get our tax return back.  It’ll start all over when I have to start paying off my student loans(I found Dave in my last semester), but now that we’ve admitted to ourselves that we can’t afford something if we can’t pay for it in cash, suddenly we find a positive balance in our checking account.  I’ll admit we’ve been a little lax in paying extra to what we do owe, and in saving.  We’ve got to get back on the ball!  We’re lightyears ahead of where we once were.  I wouldn’t even be brave enough to boast that we’re ahead of where most Americans are in that we no longer lie to ourselves- but I’m fortunate to have found Dave and his Financial Peace program.  I wish I could force people to quit borrowing.  I wish I could force our country to let the “Can’t Fails”… Fail.  It would absolutely hurt- and probably for a little while, but if a building doesn’t have a good foundation- you’re better off knocking it down and getting on with the project. 

J and I are lucky that our proverbial hole isn’t getting any deeper, and we can almost get out.  We’ve still got some matureing to do, and some growing to go before we see Financial Peace.

February 13, 2009 | Filed Under Just Whatever 

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