Dave Ramsey has alot of sayings that you will hear often if you listen to him or read his books. Some of my favorites are "Beans and Rice, Rice and Beans" "Don't try to keep up with the Jones's, the Jones's are broke" "Managing your finances just like Grandma used to" and my all time favorite, "Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else."
It is a cornerstone to the life Jon and I have made for ourselves. In paying off debt and all that stuff, we learned to make decisions completely differently than we had been and we changed our way of thinking as well. The other way wasn't working and now we have a way of thinking that some people think is CRAZY and more recently, we were asked if we were "struggling." I wanted to laugh out loud! 3 years ago when we had 15 or so bills a month, car payments and credit cards as well as student loans and 2 children to clothe, house and feed, we were struggling, BIG TIME. At that time we appeared to not be having a financial hard time I guess because we had 2 new cars and OK jobs and a house etc...We were "keeping up with the Jones's" and we were broke and then some.
We changed our way of thinking, planning and spending. Recently we purchased a car, with cash. It is a 2004 Subaru Outback and it is in great shape. Well, all except for the engine. We had to purchase and engine as well as get some new updated parts. While you have the engine out you might as well replace some of those things. When all is said and done we will have a car that KBB's at 11k (with the condition and mileage) and we will have put just shy of 4k into it. I realize this isn't for everyone and I can honestly say that if my husband weren't a motor head who sold auto parts and received a discount as well as having a good friend that is an incredible mechanic, we would NOT go about this type of adventure. This may sound like struggling to you but it is the second time we have done this with a vehicle and I am sure we will do it with many more in the years to come. Although my Subaru is gonna run forever baby!
Struggling. I will let you be the judge. We have a home that we have never missed a payment on, 3 paid for cars, just flew our family out to VA for vacation and were able to stay in a swank hotel on the beach with the kiddos, we have upgraded several things in our home, our kids are wearing Nike's OK! We put in all new landscaping, have bought and paid for a trip to Florida in September, I am able to stay home with our kids full time and work VERY part time, we have benefits for the family, food in the refrigerator, all our bills are paid by the 7th of each month and there is money to spare. We don't pay for student loans and we don't have a credit card but we have about 10k in the bank right now. We sent Henry to a private preschool, which we paid for in full, in cash at the beginning of each semester. We write 4-5 checks a month to pay ALL of our bills and we no longer have to worry about creative financing at the end of the month.
This is hardly struggling. We learned to live not only WITHIN our means but BELOW our means in order to have the things we wanted in our lives. We wanted a stay at home parent...BINGO. We wanted paid for vehicles and no payments...BINGO. We wanted to take vacations and spend our money the way we want to...BINGO. We wanted to sell our home and move to a better school district and are in the process of doing this as well. It is a completely different mind frame and not everyone understands it still. People look at us and must think that Jon is getting paid way more than he actually does or that we have some inherited money or something. Our neighbors have made comments as we are putting the house on the market, "well if I had as much money as you..." When in reality, they probably have MORE money than we do but CHOOSE to go further into debt to "keep up."
We aren't rolling in the dough, but we have everything we want. We don't impulse buy things anymore, but we do plan and ignore the wants of things immediately. We research, we budget, we make our money work for us. I have never felt more at ease with our financial situation and more at peace with it as well and it isn't a worry at all, AT ALL, anymore. You may feel like this is "struggling" but I am here to tell you, it is most certainly not. Don't worry bout us, we are living like no one else and it is the best kind of living there is!
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