Having to deal with managing money in today's culture is a difficult task. Trying to figure and follow a budget is something that I know in my head is vital to living a life of financial peace. In practice, however, it is so difficult to follow through on. Life just seems to get in the way.
My wife and I were snagged by the thinking that getting student loans for college is essentially a mandatory situation. Both of us went to a private Christian school (expensive) and both of us paid for most of it with student loans. I want desperately to pay off these loans. The biggest problem with that is the fact that she is a public school teacher and I work for a church.
Now we feel so strapped to these loans (along with some relatively minor, but still annoyingly pesky credit card bills). Dave Ramsey, a nationally syndicated financial radio guy always talks about being in debt in Biblical terms of the borrower being slave to the lender. This sort of enslavement is very subtle and wears you down gradually, but wears you down nonetheless.
My church is starting a new Financial Peace University course -- written by Dave Ramsey, the Christian financial guy I mentioned before -- and Heidi and I are thinking of going. We took the course a number of years ago, but the fire to get out of debt that we had after taking it the first time has fizzled.
I very much want to take better control of my financial situation. I fear for the many people in America today who are living a borrowed life -- a life owned by their bank and leased to them at 24% interest. This system of spending money we don't have is not one to benefit the consumer in the long run, it is designed to benefit the banks, and the banks are winning.
I want out of this hamster wheel. I want to live a debt-free financial life that keeps me free from being enslaved to anyone else. I want to call Dave's show and scream, "I'm debt freeeeeeee!" What a day of true freedom that will be. Accomplishing this will be a tremendous feat because the biggest battle will be against my most formidable enemy: me.
I look forward to the day that I can blog about how I was able to get out of debt. I'm ready for a change.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Wanted: Financial Peace
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2 comments:
Bub, I'm proud of you for wanting to deep-six your debt and connect with your cash. Dave's plan makes a lot of sense. Doing a budget and living small-time is hard at first but gets easier as you go. Walk hand-in-hand with your little lady and give debt the beatdown. Good luck, jack! www.debtective.com
Umm, I'd echo the sentiments of the other commentator, but I have no idea what he/she said.
Anyway, I'm living it up in debt land. While I sometimes feel overwhelmed by it, I also take comfort in it. I'll tell you why.
My mother has got upset with me on more than one occasion because of "bills" I had or "things" I bought without having the hard cash to properly do so.
One such example was airline tickets. I was in college...much like the expensive kind you went to. =) Mother's Day was approaching, and being as my family had moved several states away from me, I missed my mother terribly. (Insert wuss comment here). I decided to surprise my mother for Mother's Day and fly to Texas. The truth is, I couldn't afford to go on that trip.
But to this day, that trip was more important to me than any credit card bill.
I wouldn't have been able to have that experience if I didn't charge the airline tickets.
If I die tomorrow, which is an increasing probability (seeing as how I live in a dangerous "hood" called Santa Ana), I'll still regret the million other "frugal" choices I made in life.
While you know I'm not one to squander and blow all my funds on stupid stuff, I regret holding on too tightly to everything I have. I don't want to live like that.
God has put me in the financial situation He wants me in; and I'm comfortable charging here and there, or writing an enormous credit card check just so I can make it through the summer.
Last time I read through the Gospels, nothing was mentioned about being debt free or about making lots of money by writing books about how to be debt free and how Christians are supposed to be debt free or they're not really Christians.
I didn't mean that to sound as cruel as it came out. But I think you get my point.
But like you, I look forward to the day that I can blog about how I was able to get out of debt.
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