Okay, I’m trying this blog thing again. I admit I haven’t been great at it in the past, but I have a new concept … something that is very dear to me … being debt free. I need a place that I can write and process my thoughts during this journey to get out of debt, and if what we go through can help and encourage others, then that’s awesome! I’m not saying I’ll post daily, and I’m not saying that I’ll publish everything I type. Who knows, this may become a diary just for me. Maybe I’ll publish it all when our journey is over. I’m not sure yet. Maybe publishing as I go is more open than I am willing to be right now. Maybe it is not. We’ll see.
But I will tell you how this started. We bought an investment property a few years ago. A month after we bought it, the economy started tanking. Real estate sales in this area of our property were some of the first to drop off like crazy. So we held onto that property for a long time. Too long. So now we are still recovering from that. We are now at a point where we have two stable incomes, so we have a baseline that we have not had for awhile. That is awesome. We can get started and really know what we’re spending and really budget well to make this happen.
At the same time as we were getting our incomes stabilized, I was also asked to do some research for work on two different financial studies. I jumped at the chance to help with the evaluation. The more financial studies I can put in front of me the better, right? Immerse myself with the truth about what God says about money, you know?
One of the studies I am looking at is Crown Financial Studies. Before you can even start the study you read a book called, “Your Money Counts.” I know debt freedom will not happen overnight, but I am trying to apply something practical that will help us every day or week. Based on the first part of this book, here are my first few applications:
1. I will not be using my credit cards anymore. Honestly, I don’t use them much, but it;s the fact that I have known that they were there if I “needed” them. I am giving up my reliance on these plastic cards for emergency car repairs, doctor’s visits, etc. and putting my trust in God to take care of us.
2. I am throwing away all catalogs currently in my house, all catalogs that come in the mail, and canceling all magazine subscriptions. One thing the book said is that people who read catalogs and magazines end up spending more than those who don’t. Makes sense, so all of it’s got to go. Plus, I am saving money immediately since magazine subscriptions cost money anyway. And hey, if I really need a recipe from Cooking Light, there is this little thing called the Internet where I can get it for free. Novel idea, eh?
Those are my two turns on the road to debt freedom this week. I wonder what turns, stops, or detours I will make next week? I don’t know, but I’m excited to be traveling down this road.
