Financial Literacy

For a little over a year, my husband and I have been more diligent than ever before by sticking to our budget. In the past, we never really put a lot of thought into making extra payments towards our debt. If it was a small amount, I would pay off the whole charge when it was due, especially with credit cards. But when it came to our student loans or car notes, I just paid the minimum amount and that was it. Once I was introduced to the Dave Ramsey program, my life and financial situation changed drastically.

The importance of being financially literate.

My accountant was the one who introduced the idea to me.

Thank god for accountants, amiright??

She was explaining what financial responsibility was and how she practices it; a concept I was aware of but never really pursued. My interest was peaked.

There’s a quicker path to being debt free? Sign me up!

I’ll never forget the phrase she quoted from the book (which I guess is also in the bible?) “Borrower is slave to the lender.”

I had never thought of it that way but it’s absolutely true! If you have an insane amount outstanding debt and never make payments, you can and will most likely be sued. They can take you to court over it, and can even garnish your wages. YIKES!

Financial freedom will change your life for the better.

From the moment I opened the book I was hooked. Why had I not thought of this before? It was never on my radar, despite the constant overwhelming urge to thrive with our finances. I read over half the book in one day.

I don’t think there is a soul in the world that regrets paying off their debts FASTER than they intended – myself included. Of course, there are many steps to take before you get to that point, but the journey is well worth it.

Prior to reading the book, I had been tracking our personal expenses just to get an idea of where our money was going every month, and how much we were spending in certain areas. I referred to it as our budget, but I quickly learned that was not accurate. I was on the right path, but it needed a few alterations to actually make it a budget.

Make a plan and STICK TO IT.

I went head over heels to start implementing what I had learned. I made a list of all of our debts and began making extra payments towards our car loan. The plan was in motion.

The hardest part was the waiting. The only income we have at the moment is our jobs, which makes it hard to pay things off faster when you have to exchange your time for money.

Still, we stayed the course and continued to make strides. With the help of my accountant (she’s a literal saint), we were able to figure out alternative ways to reduce our income tax through certain qualifying programs.

Now that tax season is here, we are reaping the benefits. Our return is going directly towards our other loans. Another loan is officially paid off with the next soon to follow.

Then vs. Now

Around this time last year, we had roughly $20,000 in debt (excluding our house). We had a decent nest egg built up that we were just sitting on for security. We moved a portion of that into our savings as our emergency fund, and started throwing more money at our debts.

Very shortly after we made our emergency fund, our car broke down and we had to use all of it to repair the vehicle. We went back to step one and kept pushing forward. It’s all we could do.

Since then, we’ve cut our debts down over HALF of what it was last year. We definitely had our ups and downs but like the book says, we’ve kept our “gazelle” type focus to keep making large strides. My goal is to have everything paid off by the end of this year.

Looking forward to being debt free!!

Are you ready to walk the path to financial freedom?

Use my Amazon Affiliate link: The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey.