I have an unusual way of looking at the world. My wife, Sharon, says I'm weird and truthfully—I am weird. But there's a reason. Starting from nothing, by the time I was 26 I had a net worth of a little over a million dollars. I was making $250,000 a year—that's more than $20,000 a month net taxable income. I was really having fun. But 98% truth is a lie, and that 2% can cause big problems, especially with $4 million in real estate. I had a lot of debt—a lot of short-term debt—and I'm the idiot who signed up for the trip.
The short version of the story is that debt caused us, over the course of two and a half years of fighting it, to lose everything. We didn't tell anyone what was going on, but if we had to do it again, we would learn from the wisdom of others who have been through it. We soon learned that we were not the only ones at the bottom. Barbie and Ken (you know, the couple who appear to be perfect—perfect clothes, perfect car, perfect house) are broke, and I don't take financial advice from broke people anymore.
After losing everything, I went on a quest to find out how money really works, how I could get control of it and how I could have confidence in handling it. I read everything I could get my hands on. I interviewed older rich people, people who made money and kept it. That quest led me to a really, really uncomfortable place: my mirror. I came to realize that my money problems, worries and shortages largely began and ended with the person in my mirror. I also realized that if I could learn to manage the character I shaved with every morning, I would win with money.
My husband and I bought his book in May and decided it was time to stop being stupid with our money. We don't have a lot, but we've always had enough. We don't have insurance, which is something that I haven't really worried about until now. My children are getting older and are involved in more activities so the chances of them having an accident is getting higher with each year. Not to mention the fact that me and my husband are aging. Our bodies aren't getting younger, and truth is, we should probably get something to cover us. We don't have any investments or retirement, so basically we are screwed if anything were to happen to my husband. We both want to be financially free, and we would love to have the things we want without all the debt. Dave Ramsay often says in his book, "now is the time to live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else", which basically means you're going to have to choose to give up a lot so that later you won't have too. He's brilliant, really, absolutely brilliant.
We started the program in May with about $20,000 worth of debt. Most of that debt was credit cards-- what the what? It was kind of shocking to add it all up because I thought we were doing better than that. We had some money in savings that we took out and paid down a huge chunk of the debt. Over the last 4 months we have worked really hard to stay on a budget. Groceries, clothing, eating out, all of those things, and I am happy to say that as of today we are credit card debt free. WOOOOOPIE! Such a good feeling.
I will be happier once we finish paying off our 4-wheeler. We bought it in trade, so once the trade work is done we own everything but our house. My next step is to get our savings account filled back up, find a good insurance plan and start investing (I think the investing part). I am so happy. It is amazing what you can do with money you have.
I linked to Dave's website above and here so if you are interested you can head on over and buy the book. It's fantastic!
